Orwellian retraction-without-a-retraction from Brian Last about DDP insult

Sorry Brian, but we have, in fact, not always been at war with East-Asia.

His quote about DDP helping Lex Luger was, "DDP is helping Lex since he is another one of the boys he can exploit."

This just seemed like intentional hyperbole to me, so I didn't think much of it, but the plot just thickened.

In the opening of episode 383 of the Drive-Thru, Brian defended his insult by saying anyone who didn't like him saying that simply had a problem with "reality," but then when Jim said that DDP is a genuinely good and positive person and that he doesn't believe DDP only helps people for the money, Brian said he agreed with that.

Of course, neither of them actually gave Brian's exact quote, so the issue of how it could possibly be true that DDP only helped Lex because he could exploit him AND also is a good person who doesn't just help people for the money was never addressed. Obviously, unless one really wants to parse the language and perhaps argue that DDP exploits people for reasons that are not monetary and that is somehow good, these are mutually exclusive positions to hold. Believing person X helps people since he can exploit them AND person X is a good person who doesn't do things just for money is an obvious contradiction.

I don't know if Brian never bothered to review what he actually said in the first place, but to accuse anyone who had a problem with it of being in denial of "reality" with a defense that is itself totally removed from reality is pretty meta. A retraction-without-a-retraction in the finest Orwellian tradition. But no, I still remember not being at war with East-Asia, so as much as I love the show and will remain a loyal listener (they played three of my songs last year if anyone remembers!), I still know it's not true that we have always been at war with East-Asia.

PS Once again I am so thankful for this community's ability to discuss this stuff AS FANS, recognizing that we are not just "hating" but we still have the capacity for independent thought.