In the first few minutes of the KGB interview he asks for an explanation of the Stasi. It was clear he didn’t know what the Stasi was. He didn’t just come across as unprepared he came across as someone who isn’t even interested.
>In the first few minutes of the KGB interview he asks for an explanation of the Stasi. It was clear he didn’t know what the Stasi was.
I think your perceptions of Lex will mislead you to assume he's asking out of personal ignorance instead of asking simple questions he already knows the answer to for the sake of the audience.
As a result, you happened to pick a bad example as Lex already knew what the German Stasi was before that interview because he discussed it over a year ago with Michael Malice back in December 2020 (deep link to "Stasi" conversation):
https://youtu.be/uykM3NhJbso?t=56m39s
Lex does not tire out listeners with constant disclaimers in every interview by saying, "I already know about <X> but for the sake of my audience, what does <X> mean?"
Thankfully, he just shortens all that to : "What does <X> mean?"
... but then that makes him look unprepared. But if he puts in that disclaimer every time, we'd complain he tries too hard to let us know he's smart about the topic. Either way, it seems you can't please everybody.
He clearly asks these 'entry-level' questions for the audience when he thinks it's helpful. I've been thankful of that a few times when a guest, speaking about a field that is far from my own, is asked to clarify something briefly. So I'll disagree with you here that it 'is clear he didn't know what the Stasi was'.
