Wait... What?
Wait... What?
Howard Siegel
Wait... What!? is an often humorous, sometimes ferocious, but always entertaining romp through the bizarre memes that inspire mass lunacy, religious fanaticism, and ideological intransigency where basic reasoning is overwhelmed by willful ignorance. Why do people believe and refuse to ask simple questions about the nonsense they are fed by corrupt politicians, unscrupulous religious predators, and ordinary scam artists? What is the psychological mechanism that makes masses of people behave in ways that would make lemmings point and chortle? When X-files hero Fox Mulder said, "I want to believe" he was unknowingly speaking for religious fundamentalists, conspiracy theorists, UFO true believers, nut-case truthers, and ideologues who run the gamut from skin heads to Antifa -- people for whom there can be no other side of a complicated issue. What causes these people to willingly embrace nonsense -- ideas and claims that make little or no sense -- and shut out facts and reason as if they repositories of the Corona virus? What strange predisposition keeps them from putting both hands in the stop gesture and saying, Wait... What? Howard Siegel takes us on a voyage to a world where objective, reasoned thinking has been replaced with the powerful appeal of irrationally simple answers. Howard Siegel is an attorney, author, former MSNBC legal analyst, and hapless, sysphysian golfer. He has appeared on 60 Minuets, Larry King Live, The Today Show, NPR, and PBS. He lives in South Carolina where he is a practicing heathen, heretic, and herbivore.
Episode 42: The great lemming slaughter, I vs. we, and red covid
My ongoing preoccupation with what makes a moron a moron has led me to explore the great lemming fraud perpetrated by Walt Disney, the Catholic preoccupation with personal pronouns and why the wrong one will land you in hell, the idea of clean coal, and how to get Trumpers to demand vaccinations en mass. 
Feb 19, 2022
20 min
Episode 41: Paragliding with Bigfoot
You are just going to have to listen if you want to know "what's in that" (podcast) which happens to be the unanswered question going through every MAGA antivaxxer's mind when they reach the conclusion that they are part of an elite "in the know" group of Facebook and YouTube warriors who know "what's in that" and conclude that it ain't good. These people are definitely not sheeple. They are morons. 
Sep 21, 2021
15 min
Episode 40: It's just a mask, you morons.
Welcome to part 2 of a journey into the minds of the dumbest people in America. The anti-vaxxers (ANTIVA) and the anti-maskers (ANTIMA). In this episode, I will attempt to abandon my immature use of the ad hominem "stupid" and show you that I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion. "They got rights." I will fail miserably. 
Aug 21, 2021
13 min
Episode 39: Kayfabe - professional wrestling is real and the election was fake
Welcome to the world of hardcore Trumpers where mysterious disappearing bamboo fiber remnants are the accepted explanation for why Trump-supporting investigators cannot find any Chinese bamboo in the Maricopa County Biden ballots. If you want to understand how any thinking human could believe the utter nonsense put out there by Trump regarding a stolen election and his legions who claim that we have nothing to fear from COVID 19 and that the vaccines are part of a plot by the government to insert chips into us for mind control... all you have to do is go to a professional wrestling match, ignore the wrestlers and watch the crowd. Once you grasp the attraction and success of the wrestling concept of "kayfabe" you understand exactly what makes masses of idiots believe in imaginary bad guys, conspiracies, and satanic pedophile cannibals.
Jul 21, 2021
22 min
Episode 38: Reasoning. A primer for morons and the 70% of Republicans who think Trump won.
A person who claims that something happened has the burden of proving that it actually happened. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The absence of any evidence is as far from extraordinary as one can get. People who believe claims that are unsupported by evidence should not be allowed near power tools or carving knives. The statement that "everybody knows it" is not evidence. It is what idiots say when they have no evidence. Donald Trump is an idiot. And so are you if you nod in agreement when he says it.
Jul 15, 2021
14 min
Episode 37: The Normalization of Evil in America
It could never happen here? Think again. It already has. Today the Republican Party formally blocked the investigation into the mob violence that Donald Trump inspired on January 6, 2021. But there was a reason for their opposition. You see, the mob violence and treason were perpetrated by white people. It is that simple and if you doubt it for a moment, ask yourself how Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan would have voted if the mob had been Black Lives Matter supporters, Mexicans, Asians, or Muslims. But for most of us, this reprehensible vote will be quickly forgotten. It is what the party of Donald Trump does. It embraces any kind of evil sanctioned by Donald Trump no matter how unthinkable. It is now the party of Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Gaetz called for a Second Amendment response to the people in  Silicon Valley who are interfering with Trump's spreading of the stolen election delusion. Greene has called for the murder of Nancy Pelosi and the execution of Democrats. Trump called her, “somebody that I just think is fantastic.” Public pronouncements by members of congress advocating "Second Amendment solutions" were unthinkable five years ago. Today they seem to be Republican mainstream political positions. We started down this path when Trump's people began to tolerate, shrug their shoulders, and nod when he suggested that his followers might want to "take care" of Hillary Clinton by exercising their (sic) Second Amendment rights. It all began when he correctly calculated that he could gain a foothold with racists and closet racists by fostering the rumor that a black American president was really a Kenyan Muslim. We became numb to indecency when people began to excuse Trump-style cruelty by saying, "Oh... that's just Trump being Trump." Years before he ran for president, he showed us exactly what he was. The problem wasn't that he hid the evidence or that he fooled us. The problem was that Donald Trump-style unapologetic cruelty was exactly what almost half of America wanted. 
May 31, 2021
25 min
Episode 36: The Circle of Life? Rethinking the Lion King
Do you remember the cute little lion cubs in The Lion King? Well, the male lion -- The King -- practices infanticide every chance he gets so the females will be receptive to mating. He kills the cubs for the pleasure of ten seconds of mating. So, occasionally, do crystal meth dealers.  Are these the parts of life you would rather not explain to your children? You aren't alone. Everyone avoids explaining them and most of us even avoid thinking about them. Would you rescue the lion cubs and interrupt the natural circle of life if you could do it without getting killed? Of course, you would. But why would you? It is simply mother nature operating at her most elemental level. Would you rescue the adorable lamb who had been separated from her mother and is being stalked by wolves? Yes, you would. You would hold her in your lap on the way back to the farm and stroke her. But you wouldn't think twice about ordering lamb shishkabob at that trendy new Lebanese restaurant in The Village.  Same lamb, different carnivore. Can you explain that one to your children? I don't think you can. If you really believe that there is nothing wrong with eating animals can you articulate why you would never have the courage to kill one yourself and you would never even think about letting your child go on a field trip to a Tyson's slaughterhouse? If you really believe that there is nothing morally wrong going on, why are you repulsed by the thought of participating in or viewing the slaughter?  In this podcast, I examine the moral precept that I have come to accept as a cornerstone of humane living: The infliction or support and participation in the infliction of unnecessary suffering on innocent sentient living things is wrong.  I invite you to listen and tell me where I may have gone wrong. 
May 12, 2021
33 min
Episode 35: The fault, dear Brutus, lies with the 87%
Marjorie Taylor Greene gave a thumbs up to a bullet in the head for Nancy Pelosi and wrote about hanging President Obama and Hillary Clinton. She embraced murder as a political tool. Republican leaders appointed her to the Education Committee. Donald Trump called her a future star of the Republican party. He welcomed, endorsed, and applauded a person who approves of murder to the ranks of the Republican leadership. And 87% of Republicans still embrace Donald Trump as their hero. Explain that one to your children. 
Feb 4, 2021
19 min
Episode 34: Armyworms, chiggers, O.J. Simpson and the Trumpers in the woodpile.
The answer to the rhetorical question, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" is that sometimes none of us know. We no longer need to fear Donald Trump. But we always needed to fear the people we never imagined would admire and support him.
Jan 18, 2021
13 min
Episode 33: The First Amendment lecture for morons. Donald, Rudy, and Sean. Listen up.
You are not allowed to yell, "Rudy!" in a courtroom because it will cause a panic about the impossibly low level of legal discourse that is about to take place... and no Donald, your rights have not been violated. 
Jan 12, 2021
13 min
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