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Unknown A
All right. I spoke to a couple of lawyers in D.C. who don't represent me. Okay. These are, these are just casual conversations I had with a couple of lawyers in D.C. and they are warning me. They believe based on what they are hearing, that the Trump administration will come after me. Now, it's not just me. This isn't about, oh, David Pakman. This is about independent creators on the political left. Now, from what I'm being told, it's not going to be, let's frame you for a violent crime or anything like that. The likely playbook, we've been wondering, will they come after us? What I'm told is the likely playbook are the following things. Tax audits and scrutiny, social media platforming pressure, lawsuits and legal harassment, doxing and harassment campaigns and investigations into our funding. These are the, these are sort of the five prongs that these lawyers said they believe if and when the Trump administration turns its attention to independent, progressive content creators, they would employ.
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Unknown A
Here's how these five things would work. First of all, you get hit with a tax audit. Doesn't matter if your books are clean as a whistle or as clean as Trump's. They will dig and dig until they either find something or until the process itself becomes the punishment. Audits are expensive. They are time consuming. They are extraordinarily stressful for the person being targeted. Even if I came out unscathed, the legal and accounting fees and the distractions would take a toll. That's one mechanism. These lawyers said this is what might be used. Secondly, they will lean on the social media platforms. It won't be directly. It won't be someone from the West Wing calling Twitter or whichever platform and saying, you've got to hurt David Pakman. It'll be, you get accused of spreading misinformation or inciting violence, and next thing you know, your accounts are suspended or they're limited or YouTube removes your monetization or Twitter throttles your reach.
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Unknown A
And these are platforms that are certainly plausibly going to cave to political pressure. As you know, since we are primarily audience funded, if I temporarily lose access to my audience, that could really hinder my ability to keep the show going and to spread the message. Number three, they will find someone to sue you. Maybe a Trump supporter says, I defamed them. Maybe a random troll files a frivolous lawsuit with the backing of some organization that is nebulously tied to the Trump White House. It doesn't matter if the lawsuit has no merit. It's about draining resources because defending against lawsuits Even baseless ones is expensive. It costs money. And with the courts increasingly stacked with Trump aligned judges, even a meritless lawsuit, you can't assume, you know, what the conclusion will be, what the outcome will be. Number four, they will weaponize their base to flood my inbox with threats, try to get me swatted, make me fear for my safety.
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Unknown A
And the online harassment would be relentless. Even if law enforcement isn't participating, their inaction under the guise of we've getting, we're getting a lot of reports and we can only deal with credible threats, is going to send the message that I would be on my own, the progressive independent creators would be on our own. And then finally investigations into funding. Will they go and start saying which advertisers are funding you? What about people who have, you know, subscriptions or whatever the case may be? It would be chilling. It would be chilling and a devastating blow because without the backing of the audience, we would quite literally struggle to keep the lights on. So the question becomes, what do I do? What should others in my position do? I think all we can do right now is we keep flawless records for audits and tax agencies.
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Unknown A
We diversify the platforms that we are on and the revenue sources so that if they do politically pressure YouTube into demonetizing us, we have nine other rather than four other revenue sources. We build coalitions with other creators, which we're doing, and we immediately all shine a light on anything they do if they start this stuff up. The bigger we are, in a way, the more protected we are. And I talked to the lawyers about this. I said, you know, wouldn't we better be better off small because we get less attention and are less likely to attract the interest of a Stephen Miller like vindictive figure. What the lawyer said is, no, you're already big enough that there's really no going back. And actually the bigger you are likely puts you in the best position to withstand or get support to withstand what happens. So help us get to the 3 million YouTube subscribers.
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Unknown A
It's free. Get a membership at join pacman.com if it's in the budget. Preorder my book at David pakman.com/book. Whatever we can do to diversify revenue sources, grow the audience is going to best prepare us for what might be coming. I have been talking to other creators about this. We are all aware of what might be coming. All we can do at this point is to be prepared, support our show.
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Unknown B
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Unknown A
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Unknown B
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Unknown A
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Unknown B
Brain FM is the only music app funded by the National Science Foundation. Because of their unique audio technology that changes the patterns in your brain, Brain FM has been an amazing tool when I just want to focus on work. In the past I've tried Spotify or YouTube. I end up distracted or can't find exactly what would be most useful for me. So at a certain point I figured silence must be the solution until I discovered this. Brain FM is personalized depending on your brain type. So if you want to improve your focus or relax, give Brain FM a try for 30 days totally free. Go to Brain FM pacman the link.
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Unknown A
Is in the description.