Ep. 4 | Shots Fired, Free Speech Limits, and the Socialism Debate

Episode 4 was recorded April 30, 2025 and published May 27, 2025.What we cover:The White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting (April 25, 2025) at the Washington Hilton. Suspect Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was apprehended at the scene and charged in federal court with attempting to assassinate the president. A Secret Service officer was struck but protected by a bulletproof vest. No one was killed. This was Trump's first Correspondents' Dinner as a sitting president, having skipped all four years of his first term and the first dinner of his second.The Butler, Pennsylvania shooting from 2024 and ongoing questions about what the government has and has not disclosed, including the cremation of shooter Thomas Crooks approximately 10 days after the shooting, the FBI closing the investigation in November 2025 with no determined motive, and Tucker Carlson's November 2025 investigation claiming Crooks had a larger online footprint than initially reported.The Charlie Kirk shooting: a defense court filing from March 27 cited an ATF report stating the bureau was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy as having been fired from the rifle tied to defendant Tyler Robinson. The preliminary hearing was pushed from May 18 to July 6 through 10.Minocqua Brewing Company owner Kirk Bangstad and his "Free Beer Day" posts. Bangstad was arrested in October 2024 on criminal defamation charges (dismissed), arrested again in June 2025 for harassment, disorderly conduct, and bail jumping (harassment and bail jumping dropped, convicted on disorderly conduct on a no contest plea), and interviewed by the FBI and Secret Service over posts about Trump. He announced a run for Wisconsin governor in the Democratic primary in early May 2026, two days after the FBI visit.The connection between Bangstad and Rebecca Cook, who is running against Republican Congressman Derek Van Orden in Wisconsin's 3rd District: Cook previously worked as a campaign operative and fundraiser for Bangstad.The debate over European free speech laws, including Germany's Basic Law Article 5 and the European Convention on Human Rights Article 10. European countries do have free expression protections, with broader carve-outs around hate speech, Holocaust denial, and incitement than the US has.The UK Tobacco and Vapes Act, which received Royal assent on April 29, 2025, one day before this episode was recorded. The generational ban applies to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 and penalizes retailers, not buyers.Drug legalization, harm reduction, and the argument for safe consumption spaces. The case of Wisconsin's lack of medical or recreational marijuana access.Marijuana rescheduling: a DEA final order moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products and state medical licensed marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3, effective April 28, 2025. The hemp loophole was closed by the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2026.The Nazi economy debate: whether the Third Reich was socialist in any meaningful sense. The mainstream historical view is that the "socialist" label was a populist recruitment tool, the regime crushed actual socialists and trade unions, and historians generally describe the Nazi economy as a war economy or authoritarian capitalism rather than socialism. The Nazis also privatized a number of state-owned firms in the mid-1930s.Fiat currency versus the gold standard. The US closed the gold window in August 1971.The 2022 Paria diving disaster at the Paria Fuel Trading Company facility in Trinidad and Tobago, in which five divers were pulled into a 30-inch pipeline and four died. Survivor Christopher Budrum crawled through the pipeline for nearly three hours.The Comey "8647" Instagram post, and Watts v. United States (1969), in which the Supreme Court ruled that political hyperbole is not a true threat. The case involved a man at an anti-war rally saying he wanted President Lyndon B. Johnson in his rifle sights.Joseph McCarthy, Republican US Senator from Wisconsin, and the origins of the term McCarthyism.The Master Plan podcast.Next episode: A deep dive on rights, including why Tyler does not believe housing or healthcare qualify as rights under his framework.