History Is Written by the Powerful | The Truth About Billy the Kid

➡ Filmmaker Dugan Bridges is creating a film about Billy the Kid, challenging the traditional narrative of his story. The film suggests that Billy the Kid was not as much of an outlaw as history portrays him, but was instead fighting against corruption. The film also highlights how art can provide a unique perspective on stories, allowing viewers to see things from different angles and reduce their own biases. Lastly, the film emphasizes the importance of hearing both sides of a story to uncover the truth, a concept that is still relevant today.
➡ The story revolves around a conflict between two groups in New Mexico, one led by James Dolan and the other by John Tunstall. Dolan, who had a monopoly in the beef industry, had Tunstall killed when he set up a competing ranch. This led to Tunstall’s group, including Billy the Kid, becoming outlaws and deciding to fight back against Dolan’s group. The conflict ended when the U.S. government sided with Dolan, but the story highlights the struggle against corruption and the fight for justice.
➡ The text discusses the mixed public perception of a figure who started as a hero but turned controversial after killing a sheriff, sparking a war, and causing U.S. troops to intervene. Despite this, many locals and descendants in Lincoln still view him as a hero who fought for the underprivileged. His charisma and ability to evade capture added to his appeal. His actions also led to the passing of Posse Comitatus, a law preventing the federal military from acting as police within the country without Congress’ approval.
➡ The text discusses the theory that Billy the Kid’s death was faked by his friend, Pat Garrett, drawing parallels to modern times where corruption is rampant and people are frustrated. It highlights how the middle ground is often overlooked, with extremes dominating the narrative. The text also emphasizes the need for transparency and unity against common issues like human trafficking and fraud, and warns against the dangers of extremism fueled by social media algorithms.
➡ The speaker discusses the struggle of feeling powerless in the face of current events and the desire to make a difference for the future of their children. They express that while they can’t always participate in protests due to their life circumstances, they use their skills as an artist and filmmaker to process and address these issues. They’ve worked on a project that has gained significant attention and believe that art is a powerful tool for conveying important messages and helping people understand complex concepts.

Sa. Sam. I believe most of us are somewhere in the middle or moderate. If you are right or left. Most are moderate, left or right, you know, and would be. I mean, I personally just like hate how I feel like. Well, I mean, it’s not even. It’s a truth. The Republicans and the Democrats have totally kept any other party from having a voice and giving another option because they are able to keep them out of the debates. And so what you find. Yeah. Is that you’ll have that great moderate person, you know, pop up in the left and the right, you know, and there’s like one of them, you know, out of the 10.

Welcome to business. Game changers. I’m Sarah Westall. I have Dugan Bridges coming to the program to talk to me about his latest film. He’s a filmmaker and he did a film about Billy the Kid and he’s talking about how Billy the Kid story is not accurate. When he went and did research on the documentation of what happened at the time and, and talk to locals, you know, because generations, the story is still there. From generations, you’re going to see a clear different picture of who Billy the Kid was. And it’s kind of interesting how much it matches to today’s world and how the outlaws maybe weren’t as much of an outlaw as people thought they were and they were fighting corruption and there was a bigger story there and why history was rewritten or written from the perspective of the people with power.

And just an interesting story that matches a lot of what we’re dealing with today. But we also talk about how art has a way of telling stories that real life just has a hard time doing. Right. We get into these political camps and then we have a hard time being able to get past these tribal zones that we’re in and not be able to look at things from an unbiased or maybe an objective. We all have our biases, but art gives you a way to have personal stories where you can relate to people and have a little bit less of your own bias involved or maybe see it from someone else’s perspective with the nuance.

And so I really appreciate what he’s doing and how he’s doing it. So before I get into this conversation, I want to remind you that my substack go to Sarah Wessel, substack.com Sign up for that and you can see webinars that I’ve been posting. I just have one with Marjorie Wildcraft where she’s teaching you how to grow food. She has been the leader in the field of learning how to grow food and sharing with people how to garden and how to use tools and do it. Whether you’re out of shape and you’re old and you’re clueless like me, I don’t know if I’m old and out of shape, but I’m kind of clueless when it comes to doing food.

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And I think it’s the best way to get this information out to people is to do webinars on some of these edge topics, because interviews just don’t do them justice. We get to the surface of it. We talk about, we just touch on things. And then a webinar, they can really dive deeper into the subject. And, and so I love doing those, and I’m going to keep doing them. If you want to watch them again, go to Sarah Wessel, substack.com Sign up for my substack and I’ll have links below to each one of those webinars as well.

Okay, let’s get into this conversation with filmmaker Dugan Bridges. Hi, Dugan. Welcome to the program. Thanks for having me on, Sarah. I appreciate it. Well, you’re a filmmaker and you are embarking on something really interesting and actually timely on what people are figuring out is that what has been documented through history isn’t always accurate. It’s the lens of whoever decided they were going to write that history. And you have a story about Billy the Kid that may throw people through a loop because it’s. It’s essentially that the history was written based on what somebody wanted to you to perceive Billy the Kid to be.

Is that accurate? Yeah, that. That is accurate. You know, what’s interesting about our take on Billy the Kid and this film, even that I haven’t really seen done before, is that we actually see it through the eyes of a reporter who’s on the scene kind of in the middle of this war. You know, that’s dangerous. And he’s trying to interview both sides of the conflict to. To get the truth, because, you know, each side kind of tells the version that is, you know, puts them in a better light. And so, you know, kind of a message of the film is that you kind of need both sides to find out the truth, which is somewhere in the gray or.

I mean, sometimes the truth is a little bit more reflected in the loser sometimes. Right. Because if you get a tyrant or somebody who’s just kind of lost sight of reality through power, sometimes the truth is closer to the losers, but it never comes out. Yeah, absolutely. So, like, in. In this story, you know, a lot of people talk about, you know, meet the different media sources now and mainstream media, you know, versus YouTube and podcasters and stuff like that, in the fight between, say, being able to. To post your own stuff on X or whatnot.

But this fight, what was interesting about the story is that this fight’s been going on for a long time, so even back into the 1800s where this story takes place. And so you have, you know, Billy the Kid and the Regulators were fighting the Dolan faction, which was the Santa Fe Ring. And so it was kind of this cartel, I would say, of finance out of Santa Fe that owned a newspaper, the biggest newspaper, but then investments in Dolan’s industry and cattle ranching, and then also had some politicians in their pocket, including the governor at that time.

And so they crafted a story around Billy the Kid, the regulators, that was, you know, very negative. And, and that they’re bloodthirsty outlaws. And so this independent. I mean, who was Billy the Kid? As a person? Yeah, I mean, what was he? A regulator. I mean, what was he? Yeah, he. I mean, he. He was a regulator and became an outlaw. But what was really interesting about, like, this point in his storyline, this Blackwater Draw murder, is that. Yes, it was. It was painted as definitely, like cold blooded murder of these two guys. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that Billy and the gang, you know, they were cowboys for John Tunstall, who was murdered by the Dolan Cartel.

And instead of just turning around and, and killing those people out of retaliation, right off the bat, they actually tried to go by the letter of the law. They got deputized by Squire Wilson, who was a justice of the peace. Now, I. I don’t know the difference between a justice of the peace and, say, the sheriff of the same county. It. It is a little confusing, but they were separate entities, though, both law enforcement, and so they got deputized by the justice of the peace. So. So they Were batched when they went, wasn’t justice of the peace.

Not to interrupt, but wasn’t justice in of the peace more of a. A court system thing versus law enforcement? Yeah, that. That would not surprise me. I don’t actually know. So you’d be teaching me something. Yeah, I think it’s. It’s maybe the blind leaving the blind, but I think justice of the peace is part of the court system, the legal system. That. That would. That would make a lot of sense on the story that I did, because there were people arresting each other on both sides from that kind of like justice of the peace versus the sheriff in town throughout this.

But at the time of Blackwater Draw, they were badged up, they were deputized, and they captured a couple of the posse that was there that murdered John Tunstall. Right. Their boss. And so they were supposed to bring them back into Lincoln. And on that journey, about halfway through, one of the regulators died and as well as the two guys they captured were killed. And so this is all kind of about that because it was like they. The. The regulators and Billy, they claimed that the. The two guys tried to escape and killed one of their men, and therefore they retaliated and killed the guys.

Um, but what’s interesting is that these. The bodies still to this day haven’t been found and exhumed or whatnot. So when they came back to town, to Lincoln, of course that was very suspicious. And the story didn’t exactly line up. And hence, you know, we have this reporter come in and asking questions about what really happened, you know, in that matter. But the result of it was ultimately that they lost their badges because Dolan wrote to the governor and the governor stripped them. Illegally. Illegally stripped their badges. I mean, at that point, they became outlaws, and they knew that, like, the law was against them and that they were all going to be hanged.

And ultimately they had to make a choice at that point, which was do we flee maybe into Mexico or something like that, or do we stick around and fight back? Which, you know, strangely, was the decision that they made. So they stuck around and fought back against the cartel, who was. Who are criminals, too? Exactly, Exactly. And it’s a question on who was more really the better. Justice. Right. I mean, were they better at taking. Who was more of the criminals? That’s the question. They both kind of were. Right? Exactly. Yeah, they both kind of were.

It’s just one was in power and the other one wasn’t. Yeah, that. That. The. And the one that was in power really struck first. Right. And. And it was a deafening blow because you killed your direct competitor. And to. When they took their boss out, when they took their. Was this afterwards that they struck back before they. They started the conflict. So they. And they took all their cattle for. And was that the point was to steal their resources? Yeah, that was the point. So James Dolan with the Santa Fe Cartel, had at the time pretty much a monopoly in the beef industry in that area of New Mexico.

And it was a territory at the time. And so John Tunstall came in with money from his family to set up a competing ranch to be able to feed this, like the nearby federal military bases and stuff like that. It was a lot of money at the time, people. And so he. He was not there very long when basically James Dolan paid off the sheriff to send a posse to arrest John Tonstool, but they ended up killing him in the arrest and claimed that he had fought back and stuff like that. Right. So it was like, clearly a corrupt hit job.

So then you leave the regulators with, like, nowhere to go, kind of no money because. Because Dolan took all the cattle. Well, when you look back at his story, you think of Billy the Kid as being this outlaw, murderous gang of thieves. I mean, that’s the way that they presented them. And in reality, none of that is really true. Or did they become kind of that. It’s. It’s a. I would say that they became kind of that, you know, part of. So part of Billy the Kid’s story is that, you know, he was a vagabond. I mean, his.

His. He became orphaned at like 14, 15, and moved out west or when that happened, and was kind of raised in. In the cowboys, you know, realm at that point, and took to it some by Americans, some by Mexican American cowboys. He picked up Spanish and, And learned it really quickly. And. And that’s even kind of how evade the law for as long as he did was that he would hang out with, you know, various Mexican cowboys that were in New Mexico. But, you know, he would, like, steal, do some small, like thieving and that vagabond stage where you might steal a horse and then sell it over here kind of thing.

Right? So it’s like he. He was coming from that area to begin with, but it seemed like when he got this job with John Tunstall, that Tunstall kind of took him under his wing, saw this was a young kid. He was charismatic and gave him a good, you know, good job and something he enjoyed to do. And. And it seemed like Billy the Kid was really loyal to him for that, you know, so when, when his friend and boss was killed and that was taken away from him, to me it seems like it really was out of just kind of like, I, I, we’re not going to get justice and so we’re good in the court system, so we’re going to bring justice to the streets.

And once that happened, you know, like Dolan and that cartel doubled down in terms of taking them out, and they quickly killed a lot of the regulators and in the end got the, like. What actually ended the conflict was the US Government up to the president actually, you know, got into this conflict and sent U. S. Troops to Lincoln on the side of Dolan and killed off the regulators, like for the most part. And, and Billy the Kid even still escaped all of that, and it’s probably why he became such a legend. Well, okay, so the government realized that they had least, they had to maintain the, the structure of the law and they decided that’s who they’re, because that’s who the power players were.

But do you see a parallel to what’s going on in today’s world in the, you know, people fighting back against cartels and corruption and the corruption being in power? And I mean, how do you. Because this is an interesting story that personally, I think can have parallels. It probably has parallels all through history. I mean, this is since the beginning of time, right? No, a hundred percent that, that’s something that I didn’t really expect to get out of this project when I was doing it. I, I just thought, hey, this is a figure I’ve heard of before.

You know, love the old west and would love to dive in. But then the more that I learned about it, the more I was like, wow, this, this story isn’t just history. Like, it’s completely relevant to today because it shows that, it shows that when people feel like they, the corruption is so bad that they are being taken advantage of and they can’t find justice for grievances and whatnot, it is a matter of time before it turns into violence that spills into the street, you know, as that anger boils. And that’s exactly what this was. And even though the powers that be and those in control tried to paint, right, these rebellious figures as just like totally in a negative light, I mean, ultimately, one of the great accomplishments of Billy is that I feel like he was able to kind, kind of still rewrite his narrative to where, you know, his truth kind of came out in the end.

But I, I look at figures like Luigi Mangione. And, and I’m like, oh, why is he becoming, you know, this like social media star and this hero, right, to a lot of like, working class people who are like, I can’t afford health care, you know, and to me that’s like the exact same reason. Well, you push people to the end and they don’t feel like there’s this. Court systems are corrupt. The. Everything in the system that should help and be fair and good is corrupt and flipped on its head. And then people are seeing people they care about being killed or not taken advantage.

I mean, it really affects, affects you at not being able to get food, your children, people dying around you, and then they don’t feel like there’s any recourse other than to do this. Yes, exactly. And there really isn’t. Right? I mean, if they first, which is in this story, if they first try to use the legal system and do everything, you know, the government and the legal system and lobby their congress and do everything they can, and they could just hit dead ends. And, and ultimately I, I think that’s why, you know, the, the spirit of the outlaw is like one that is seen as a hero in the United States, you know, of, of somebody who’s willing to fight back against corruption.

Because it’s like if you were in his, Billy the Kid’s shoes at that point, like, most of us would have just said, like, run away, run to another state. You know, like, start over. There’s no reason to put your life at risk. But when, when he engaged and decided to fight back, which began with killing the sheriff of the town of Lincoln, you know, that like, they, they basically took that as a proactive measure because they believed that because of the Blackwater Draw incident and then they were stripped of their badges that they were going to be taken to court and hanged by the sheriff.

No choice. Yep. So instead of waiting around or running from the law and then, you know, U.S. marshals are sent after you, they decided, well, you know what, we’re just going to fight back. And they, they shot him in the middle of the street of Lincoln, like, and he didn’t see it coming kind of thing. What did the people of the day think of? Did they see him as a hero or did they see him as an outlaw? Or was it mixed? Yeah, it was mixed. They, they, it started with having a lot of people on their side until they killed the sheriff in the middle of the town and that, which was kind of an ambush.

And they saw that as, you know, not letting the court System process, you know, take, you know, happen. And that also sparked the Lincoln county war, which like a bunch of people died and the US troops are later sent in and all that stuff. So they really, you know, even though it was instigated by, by Dolan, they poured gas on the fire. Right. And so I’d say people resented them for that, you know, at first for actually fighting back. So it’s just, it is kind of funny to see that. Then the overall narrative though, when I went out there, because it’s crazy.

So I’ll go to Lincoln to film and there’s still like descendants of the story, the people there who are third generation, fourth generation kind of thing. And there’s still kind of like a clash for whose side are you on? But I’d say a majority of it is we are pro Billy the Kid and the state of New Mexico is we are pro Billy the Kid because they felt like, you know, he was fighting back and willing to give his life for the small person, you know. Yeah. Who didn’t have as much power and he was able to, you know, evade them for so long and escape, you know, several times and didn’t just, you know, let the other team win.

And, and even like we know in history that he, even past his death he had some wins with what happened because the president at that time sent a special investigator which, which you can buy his report on Amazon. It’s like 350 pages. And he came in and like documented everything and seemed to be pretty neutral. And from that documentation got the governor of New Mexico removed for being a part of this cartel and replaced with a different governor also from the U.S. you know, sending in troops to put this stuff down that, you know, ultimately Billy was killed soon after.

It actually was the catalyst for getting Posse Comitatus passed. Soon after Billy was kid killed. Explain what that is so people listeners understand. Yeah. Which my understanding of it is that, you know, from that point on, the federal military was not allowed to be sent into any city with, you know, in town, within the country to be used as a police force. Unless there was a declaration of Congress. Just a short break from the program to share with you an amazing peptide to help you lose weight. It’s stronger than Ozempic. And why it’s because it not only reduces your appetite, but it also burns fat.

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It is easy and straightforward. Go to sarahwestel.com under shop or use the link below and remember to use coupon code Sarah. It’s interesting because that what happened is there was two wins. There was win for the state of getting there. Well which I. I’m more libertarian so I don’t want that to happen. But then there’s an example. There’s. It depends on who the good guy is in my opinion. Yeah. If the. If the governor is really corrupt, the state coming in and cleaning it up is positive. But if the state or if the. I’m sorry, if the federal government coming in and cleaning it up is positive.

But if the federal government is corrupt and the state isn’t, then you don’t want them coming in. Yeah. So yeah, I know, I know. It really depends on who’s good and who’s bad. Okay, so this is a story that is interesting because the local people still find him as a hero even though the propaganda is so incredibly strong against him and it. And he still people are still personally saying that he’s a hero. I think it would probably be that if you. Because that would happen today. If you were somebody that still believes in the system, you would be against him.

If you are somebody who has personal experience and witness the system being really, really corrupt, you would be for him. That’s right. Yeah, that’s exactly right. So yeah, that’s what just as a storyteller was so fascinating to find out because I knew that I Had my prejudices going in. Like, I’ve seen young guns, you know, a lot of us have. That’s kind of the most recent depiction of Billy the Kid. And, you know, and in that Estevez is wild and. And you don’t know what he’s going to do next and happy to pull the trigger and all that stuff, you know, so propaganda against him, right? It is.

So what. What did you. Going in. You had preconceived notions. And how did it change based on just learning and spending time going through this. I was first surprised that he was never the leader of the Regulators. I know, and I was. Yeah. And because, I mean, there’s so many names, you know, in this story. Like, the hardest part was trying to narrow this down so that people could digest it in a short form. And so we were like, we can only use these 10 people, but there was like 25 kind of thing. And in that was like Brewer.

Guy named Dick Brewer was actually the leader of the Regulators. I had never heard of him before. And then when he died in the conflict, another one was the leader of the Regulators. So Billy was like kind of the heartbeat, I would say. Was he the most charismatic? I mean. Cause you can be the leader without having the title. Yes, he was the youngest, you know, so that’s also probably why he never could have been the leader, you know, in that day and time. For sure, he was the youngest, but he was the most charismatic. And.

And he truly was charismatic. Like, there. There’s stories of him going to, like, local shindigs and dancing with girls and, you know, having a good time and stuff like that, you know, And. And even one of the guys he killed, who was sent to kill him, he convinced to take a look at his gun, you know, pulled out a bullet secretly. And then when the guy tried to shoot him, it didn’t fire. And then he shot the guy. Right. So he was. He was. He was a very charismatic guy. And part of him, like, way he did with the bowler cap and kind of the extra handkerchiefs around his neck, stuff like that was.

Was to kind of build a brand around him. So he. He was. Became very aware of that, was a very, very likable person, as well as this incredible shot, you know. How old was he? He it like 19, 20. And so. And they. They depict him as being kind of crazy and not charismatic. Kind of like somebody you’d be afraid. Kind of like a cartel. Yeah. Is where they just go and kill anybody. And you always. You have to be scared of being around him. Because at any point, he could turn on you. But that’s really not what he was like.

No. I would depict him more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You know, he was more like. Yeah, he was more like Butch Cassidy, you know, which to. Paul Newman played in. And he. He was, you know, the. The very charismatic figure who could talk to men and women alike and they would just like him and maybe talk his way out of a situation like Billy was. Was very much so like that. And at the same time, and that’s why he survived as long as he did, because locals and pockets around Lincoln county, like, that would take him.

Yeah, Would take him in because they liked him. You know, he. He died supposedly to Pat Garrett, you know, who was the, like, third sheriff that came along within the conflict. I don’t know what happened to the second one, but it’s like Billy killed the first one, then the second one moved on or something. Then Pat Garrett was like third, who ultimately killed Billy. But Pat Garrett was a friend of Billy the kids and liked the Billy. So why did he kill him? Well, that. I learned this when I was out there. One of, you know, if there was truly any kind of legend around the kid, it’s his death and that.

That, you know, there’s a conspiracy theory that Pat Garrett didn’t kill him and helped him fake his death. Yeah, well, that kind of makes sense if there are friends and buddies. Yeah. And we just. You create a new Persona. I mean, they do that all the time with witnesses. Right. They give you a new name, they give you a new location, and you were safe. Then you could just go live out your life. You know, there’s the theory of Hitler. He knew, and he went to, you know, Argentina. There. There’s many figures in, you know, in our history that really did this, so.

But I think the parallel to what’s happening in today’s world should not go unnoticed to people. I mean, we really are living in a time where we have corruption that has gotten out of hand everywhere. And it’s why we’re in this situation. We’re in. You know, people are frustrated on all sides, and then we’re getting extreme. We’re getting extreme solutions from the fringes. And the middle. And the middle are a little afraid to step up. You are completely correct on that. You know, the people in the middle are afraid to step up. It feels like it.

And then that leaves you the only answer to be on the extremes. You know, and we talk about terrorism, too. And I mean, that’s where they would have called Billy the Kid a terrorist. Right. I mean, we’re maybe adapting language and terms and stuff like that, but the authorities would have considered the regulators terrorists. Right. And needed to be taken down. So when you even think of terrorists, I mean, like, a lot of them are coming from places where their homes have been completely bombed. Right. And their families wiped out by a bomb and stuff like that.

And so they feel like they have no other way to have power back in their lives and to gain that power back then, you know, to meet blood with blood. And so for. For locals to find them as heroes is no shock and no surprise. Right. To the people where they come from. Yeah. So it definitely was, you know, help give me an empathetic view that it’s. It’s just. It’s so important to be able to see where. Have empathy and see where both sides are coming from and not completely paint people with one brush. You know, I think that’s such a great story.

You know, we have. You know, I was covering a lot of corruption and human trafficking. I still do. But when you. When you cover that over the years and just stay with me for a second. You. You were paint. I was painted as a far right nut job. I’m like, well, I never really was a far. I’m just covering this stuff, and I’m diving into certain areas. I’m trying to learn. And now suddenly I’m this far right night job. But I think I represent the majority of the middle of the country because who wants human trafficking? Now what they’re doing is they’re trying to flip that on its head.

And I was listening to. Sometimes I’ll listen to NPR stations. I don’t. I. I can see that it’s filled with propaganda, just like I can see the other sides filled with propaganda. And they’re saying that the majority of the country is in the middle, and everything’s moved to the point where it’s far right and everybody else is in the middle. It’s the exact opposite of what I felt like I was living through. And now they’re trying to flip the narrative and say everybody’s on this far right Christian extreme and the rest of the country’s in the middle.

They’re flipping that. And I set. I just heard that yesterday. I’m like, wow, now they’re trying to create the other extreme, and there is an extreme on the other side. Right. And, yeah, that. That is kind of a sign of our time. And you’re. And it’s not a new phenomena. Yeah, you’re Right. It’s, it’s not a new phenomena. And I believe most of us are somewhere in the middle, are moderate. If you are right or left. Most are moderate, left or right, you know, and would be. I mean, I personally just like hate how I feel like.

Well, I mean, it’s not even, it’s a truth. The Republicans and the Democrats have totally kept any other party from having a voice and giving another option because they are able to keep them out of the debates. And so what you find. Yeah. Is that you’ll have that great moderate person, you know, pop up in the left and the right, you know, and there’s like one of them, you know, out of the 10 that are in the primaries and stuff. But then the, the, you know, the mass media, whether it’s CNN or Fox, will then come on and after the debate talk, not even talk about that person or say how bad they did.

Right. And it’s just like it’s, it’s like they dominate the extremes. Right. And then somebody. And then a moderate person has to pick one side or the other to be part of and then they have to play the game. And then they always say they go back to the middle. It’s like, why can’t you just start. 90% of the people are somewhere in the middle. Why don’t we just get somebody that’s kind of in the middle and everybody, you know, to be honest, that people go on one side or the other, but in general, everybody’s against human trafficking, everybody’s against fraud.

I shouldn’t say everybody. The people who are in it aren’t necessarily, but everybody is for the most part. Why aren’t we, we uniting against these common problems. Right. I agree. Anti corruption, transparency. Just give us transparent. Like if you could say those are my priorities. Just give me transparency, anti human trafficking, that kind of thing. And let’s not worry about all these like, polarizing things that they keep propped up right. In social media. Man, that would be amazing. Just a quick break from the program. I need to share with you an urgent manner that about scam gold IRAs and the important need to make sure that you’re working with a trusted company in the precious metals space.

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We can help you, and there’s no shame. Go to sarah wessel.com Miles Franklin, fill out that form and we will help you get your life savings back. Wouldn’t it be amazing? And that’s why this story is pretty cool, because it helps to highlight a very real problem that we are experiencing today. It’s a metaphor for our current times. Yeah, it absolutely is. And it’s a forewarning, you know, for our current times. Because it says the heroes are the people who are willing to fight back with violence like that, that’s who becomes the heroes. And that doesn’t end until one side or the other is wiped out.

And nobody wants that. Well, yeah, because if the people who are trying to fight fraud are the criminals and the people who are trying to take down human trafficking are the bad guys, then what the hell is going on? Right? Yeah, I know it’s scary. You know, and you, I mean, you couple that with our algorithms now. I mean, just. And talking about extremism and whatnot. They didn’t have that back then. We have that now, which is a catalyst, I feel like to the extremes come, you know, building and only hearing your echo chamber, only seeing one side of the story.

Story is, as we all know, what AI and algorithms are doing in our. Our social media feeds now. Well, yeah, and if you think about it, the people who are criminals, who have vast amounts of money from that criminal activity, they can manipulate the AIs and the social media pretty well, right? Oh, yeah. So we’re dealing with some pretty. We need the middle to step up. Right? We need that middle. You’re right. The same. The adults in the room will step up. Right. That’s why I love this. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, yeah. We do need the same in the middle to step up in some way.

And I mean, like, I have these, you know, I’m sure you do too. Like conversations with my wife at home and, you know, just like the struggle of feeling powerless. The powerlessness, helplessness that comes with what we see every day going on and, you know, in the news and, and we have young kids and we’re asking ourselves, it’s like, what future do we want to build, you know, for our kids in the next 10 to 20 years? And where can we be a part of that. And what can we do to make a difference that doesn’t look like Billy the Kid style.

Right? That’s right. Yeah. And so what do you do to help yourself and the people around you not feel powerlessness? I think that’s probably different for everyone I am. And depending also and like, what phase of life you’re in. So, like we, you know, we have a four and a six year old and other, you know, a couple other kids too. And it’s like we maybe have gotten out to a protest, but that’s not realistic for us. Yeah, we don’t have time with where we’re at. Right. And so we’re like, that’s for somebody who’s college age kind of thing.

But for me, I am an artist. I am a filmmaker. And so I process that. I can process that through my work and through the art that I’m working on. And so I felt kind of fortunate to get to work on this project and do interviews like this because I found a theme and a message that applies to our time. And I think that’s really important for art to do is to help us all process what we’re going through and through, you know, this historical story and a name that, you know, is a household name. I got the opportunity to do that and I’m grateful for it.

Well, where can people see this movie and where can they follow you and learn more? If you want to Google Real Clear Politics is where this is hosted. So Google that Blackwater draw and you’ll find it. It’ll pop up. I want to say it’s close to 300,000 views so far, and it just released a month or two ago, so I was kind of impressed with how many views it’s gotten. The. The reviews are pretty good. And if you want to follow me on Instagram, Dugan Bridges is where I’m at and you can find me, I’ll. I’ll be happy to follow back.

Excellent. Thank you so much, Dugan, for this and thank you for doing, you know, spending your life’s work at bringing stories that matter. Because like you said, I do think art has a way of teaching and bringing concepts to the public that you just can’t get in other venues. And it’s just so much harder. And art really plays. You know, the gesture in the court was always alike, always a way that the royal families and people got truths to people. Right. It’s always been that medium. So. It is, it is. And one, one little anecdote on that too, is I didn’t realize this, but Monet, Claude Monet, one of his favorite, like, famous paintings, Lilies and the Pond, was painted during World War I.

And he was going through that same internal conflict that he was not fighting in the war and felt guilty, you know, about that and was like, what? What am I doing? You know, like, what am I doing with my life? And. And so it was painting these tranquil, calm, you know, images to help bring peace, you know, into his world. And now it’s, you know, a timeless thing that we don’t really think about the context of when it was created. But I thought that was cool. That is cool. Well, thank you so much for joining the program.

I really appreciate it. Sa.
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