It’s Time To Say Goodbye

Welcome to America Uncovered. Maybe for the last time, I'm Chris Chappell. This year, America turns the big 250. Should be a time of celebration, but it feels like Americans are more divided than ever. When I started America Uncovered almost 9 years ago, I was hoping to bridge that divide with funny, non-partisan news. But people just want to stay in their bubbles. Maybe I should shut this show down and finally pursue my lifelong dream of writing the next great American sci-fi anime musical. No! Stop! You can't end the show! Who are you? I'm Chris Chappell, host of China Uncensored. You're me? No, you're Chris Chappell, host of America Uncovered. I'm Chris Chappell, host of China Uncensored. Sure, that makes sense. Don't think about it too hard. I'm just here to stop you from cancelling America Uncovered! I'm giving you one of these. It's a time travel device. Actually, it's a time and space travel device. Why do I need this? We'll see. President Washington? What is this peculiar place? Hello, Mr. President. This is New York City in the year 2026. 2026? Does the Constitution stand? Does the country survive? Yes, it... Well, let me show you. This is Washington, DC. The seat of our government is a beautiful city full of monuments dedicated to you and the other Founding Fathers. Ah, I helped design this city. It is everything I hoped. That is a wonderful building in the antique style, truly worthy of my name. That's actually the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Then where is my monument? What is that? Jefferson's monument is a masterpiece of classical architecture, and my monument is a colossal... This is a very odd town. This is a mall. People don't live here. It's just full of stores. An entire town of stores. America must truly be a prosperous nation. What is a hot topic? I couldn't explain it if I tried. There is so much more of America that I wish to see. Well, sounds like it's time for a montage. What a wondrous journey. In 250 years, America has become so much more than we could have ever dreamed of. Well, the truth is, Mr. President, I wanted to show you the best of America, but we have a lot of problems, too. Political partisanship is so bad we can barely talk to each other. Nah, I see. I have long attempted to warn my countrymen. Our countrymen. About the terrible effects of political partisanship. Partisanship breeds animosity and agitates the community with petty jealousies and false alarms. It leads to despotism on the ruins of public liberty. So you're saying it makes people angry and jealous and anxious and more and more extreme? It's like you predicted social media. What is social media? It's something that was built to bring people closer together, but instead it made it easier for them to totally misrepresent each other instead. I see. And do these misrepresentations lead to jealousies and heart burnings? Do they also enfeeble and distract the public discourse? Pretty much. Then in some ways, my time is not so different from yours. But Mr. President, even though partisanship makes everything worse, it's almost impossible to stop. It is indeed most difficult. The spirit of partisanship is inseparable from our nature. It has its roots in the strongest passions of the human mind. It takes wise people to discourage and restrain it in themselves. But I believe that is our duty. Have faith. If America has survived 250 years undivided, you'll find the way forward once more. Well, there was the Civil War. A civil war? What issue was so fraught to have caused it? Uh, slavery? Ah, I am planning to free my slaves upon my death. Good idea. Thank you for showing me my loved country. Thank you, Mr. President. You know, when I started America Uncovered back in 2017, the first episode I wrote was about illegal immigration. The second episode was about guns. Clearly we wanted to avoid controversial topics for as long as possible. Do you know what I'm really proud of? The top comment on the guns episode says, this video didn't feel like news. He didn't tell me what to think or who to hate. That's what I wanted to do with America Uncovered. I wanted viewers to feel like they knew what was going on without feeling lectured or manipulated. Or scared and enraged. Which is not a great business model, because scared and enraged means lots of views and engagement. And I tried to do this using nonpartisan analysis. Nonpartisan doesn't mean neutral or wishy-washy or fence-sitting. It just means I'm not going to try and spin the news so it looks better for one side or another. I don't always get it right, but I try my best to get to the truth. The thing is, no one else is even trying. The more partisan things get, the harder it is for anything nonpartisan to survive. If being more partisan gets more views, that's what everyone does. They go for the red meat. Or the blue beyond meat. Unfortunately, what gets views now are the very things that create division and weaken America. Mainstream media and social media algorithms are driving us to see the people we disagree with as our enemies, instead of as friends and neighbors. Meanwhile, our real enemies are laughing at how easy it is to watch us tear each other apart. A Chinese Communist Party leader literally wrote a book called America Against America. It's an instruction manual for how to tear us apart. Which is why we need to be America for America. But to do that, I need your support. I want you to become a member of my website AmericaUncovered.tv. Your membership helps us rise above social media's algorithm. It helps us keep giving it to you straight when everyone else is spinning. What do you get when you join America Uncovered? Well, you get all my episodes going back to 2017. And you'll be joining a community of people who care about this country. Plus you'll get all the episodes from my other shows, It's all in one place. The same site as ChinaUncensored.tv. And because this year we're celebrating America's 250th birthday, I will do something I've never done before. If you join using the special link below, I will record a personalized thank you video, customized just for you. Want to hear me sing you happy birthday? Want me to read you a Shakespearean sonnet? Or how about my best knock knock joke? I will, but it's only for the first 250 of you who join with an annual premium membership. And only through July 31st. So if you want to support news without the partisan spin, like George Washington would have wanted, and if you want your customized gift from me, then click here or the link below to visit AmericaUncovered.tv. Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time. So this is Netflix. Yeah. Hot.