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Why Gen Z is Rejecting Rainbow Capitalism (Ep.215) · V

0:00
Speaker 1: Happy Monday. Welcome to Bongino Report Early Edition. Gen Z
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Speaker 1: is rejecting rainbow capitalism. Hollywood considers casting a trans-identifying man
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Speaker 1: to play in the live-action Legend of Zelda as Princess Zelda.
0:15
Speaker 1: Tomi Lahren blames men for tanking birth rates. Tinder moves
0:19
Speaker 1: to let women filter for men's heights. The toxic train
0:23
Speaker 1: disaster in East Palestine is way worse than any of
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Speaker 1: us actually thought. A disturbing video of a Russian soldier
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Speaker 1: dying by drone highlights the horrific reality of modern warfare.
0:33
Speaker 1: And scientists say that modern humans are pansies compared to
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Speaker 1: early Pleistocene-era humans living in modern-day Yellowstone. All this on
0:42
Speaker 1: Bongina Report, early edition.
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Speaker 2: No, but like rainbow capitalism has taken this too far.
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Speaker 3: Like what is this?
1:00
Speaker 4: Target, who's gonna wear that?
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Speaker 2: It's giving me very like dance studio with low budget vibes.
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Speaker 1: Not long ago, America believed that Pride Month was about equality.
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Speaker 1: Gay people, they just wanted the right to love who
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Speaker 1: they choose, to marry, to live without any fear of discrimination.
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Speaker 1: It felt like a noble cause, basic human dignity, the
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Speaker 1: right to exist as they are. The public reception has
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Speaker 1: shifted dramatically in just a few short years since then. Brands, Target, Disney,
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Speaker 1: every major sports team for some reason yesterday on June
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Speaker 1: 1st plastered rainbows on all of our feeds, on all
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Speaker 1: of their paraphernalia, on everything that they were selling and doing.
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Speaker 1: Tuck-friendly swimsuits for kids at Target. Pride marches down mainstream
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Speaker 1: streets featuring nudity and kink in broad daylight. like the
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Speaker 1: New York drag march where queer activists chanted, we're coming
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Speaker 1: for your children. Schools aren't safe either. Elementary kids are
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Speaker 1: taught about bizarre fetishes and gender ideologies and dare to
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Speaker 1: question the explicit content and you'll be slammed as anti-inclusion.
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Speaker 1: Kids who aren't even old enough to have a crush
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Speaker 1: identifying as a different gender and their parents allowing them
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Speaker 1: to chemically castrate and even eventually mutilate themselves all before
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Speaker 1: they could buy a scratch-off ticket. In some places like California,
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Speaker 1: they can be emotionally transitioned by their teacher without parental consent.
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Speaker 1: Women's spaces totally erased. Men claiming trans identities, taking awards
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Speaker 1: from women, scholarships for women, sports spots on sports teams,
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Speaker 1: winning Women of the Year awards. A lot of people
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Speaker 1: assume that the degeneracy is fueled by the youngest generation.
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Speaker 1: It's those damn kids, right? That's all the comments are
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Speaker 1: going to be saying. It's those kids, those Gen Zers.
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Speaker 1: Most Gen Z militant LGBTQ activists, however, I would say,
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Speaker 1: are victims. They were sucked in as children. Did you
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Speaker 1: know that transgender and non-binary people are up to six
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Speaker 1: times more likely to also have autism? What does that
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Speaker 1: tell you? Vulnerable people who may not fit in are
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Speaker 1: sold an easy lie that explains their social discomfort. I
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Speaker 1: think far from being the fuelers of LGBTQIA plus insanity,
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Speaker 1: Gen Z is going to be our saviors. Between 2021
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Speaker 1: and 2023, Gen Z support for gay marriage has gone
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Speaker 1: down over 10 points to the point where millennials now
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Speaker 1: support gay marriage more than Gen Z. So what is happening?
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Speaker 1: What's happening is something we've been talking about on this
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Speaker 1: show for a very long time, the vibe shift. Gen
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Speaker 1: Z has seen this ideology to its final form, up
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Speaker 1: close and personal. Gen Z has actually been the generation
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Speaker 1: to lose awards to trans athletes, had friends transition and
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Speaker 1: regret it, seen friends go from lesbian to pansexual to
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Speaker 1: queer to trans to back to hetero in a matter
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Speaker 1: of months, years. They cringe. Even leftist Gen Zers cringe
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Speaker 1: at the way that brands now fall over themselves to
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Speaker 1: virtue their gay pride. Here is one example. I don't know, Michael,
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Speaker 1: do we have that video cut, the second one? This
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Speaker 1: is one example of a Gen Zer complaining about all
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Speaker 1: of the rainbow capitalism that begins on June 1st. And
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Speaker 1: this individual is actually a leftist who identifies as queer herself.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen.
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Speaker 2: My favorite part about rainbow capitalism is the way companies
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Speaker 2: just give up on it halfway through pride month. Like
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Speaker 2: June 15th rolls around and they're like, I reckon that's
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Speaker 2: enough pride for this year.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, pack it up, boys.
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Speaker 2: And then they take all their ugly shower curtain textured
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Speaker 2: jumpers and their 2012 Tumblr vomit inspired graphic tees and
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Speaker 2: they cram it all into the corner by the bathroom.
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Speaker 2: Like granted, no one was going to buy it anyway,
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Speaker 2: but you should at least keep the gay shrine around
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Speaker 2: for the whole month if you want to give the illusion.
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Speaker 5: That you care about us.
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Speaker 1: What's happening is we're recognizing the cringe. No one is
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Speaker 1: buying this from major brands and major sports teams. It
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Speaker 1: looks bad. It looks performative and fake and obnoxious. So
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Speaker 1: it's very off-putting to literally everyone, including leftists, including gay
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Speaker 1: and queer folks themselves. But at a deeper level, what
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Speaker 1: I think is really incredible is that this is a
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Speaker 1: generation raised on constant messaging of tolerance and fluid identity.
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Speaker 1: They've watched the pride activism evolve from a call for
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Speaker 1: equal rights into something much more chaotic, commercial, and to many,
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Speaker 1: spiritually hollow. They've seen the endgame of hyper-visibility and endless self-expression,
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Speaker 1: and it doesn't satisfy. And at the same time, something
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Speaker 1: truly unexpected is stirring. A reverence for tradition, a hunger
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Speaker 1: for faith, for embody discipline for silence in a loud world.
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Speaker 1: Among 18 to 24 year olds, monthly church attendance has
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Speaker 1: quadrupled in six years from 4% in 2018 to 16%
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Speaker 1: in 2024. And that may seem small, that may seem small,
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Speaker 1: but it is significant because what I'm trying to show
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Speaker 1: you guys is there is a shift happening in a
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Speaker 1: growing minority of Gen Zers who I think are going
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Speaker 1: to really turn this around. if they continue to grow
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Speaker 1: in numbers. When you look at that chart, if you
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Speaker 1: could throw that up there again, Michael, of Gen Z
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Speaker 1: and marriage, their approval of gay marriage, obviously Gen Z
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Speaker 1: is more supportive of gay marriage than boomers and the
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Speaker 1: silent generation. However, what you'll notice is there is a
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Speaker 1: shift happening, that it is increasingly getting a smaller and
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Speaker 1: smaller percentage who support it. Young men in particular are
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Speaker 1: leading this shift that I'm talking about. 21% of young
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Speaker 1: men now attend church regularly, up from just 4%. 21%
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Speaker 1: compared to 4%. That's huge. What's increasingly radical and cool
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Speaker 1: is committing to something higher and seeking spiritual clarity in
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Speaker 1: a culture that's completely lost the plot. And yet our
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Speaker 1: institutions are still hell-bent on performatively pushing woke identity politics
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Speaker 1: onto this generation. So what's even more incredible about this
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Speaker 1: is you're seeing a vibe shift while every institution surrounding
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Speaker 1: young people is telling them the opposite. I think what
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Speaker 1: this June has so far proven is that Trump's in office, yes,
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Speaker 1: and we have no more rainbow pride agenda being pushed
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Speaker 1: on us by the leaders in our country. It's not
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Speaker 1: coming from the Department of Transportation or DHS or, I
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Speaker 1: don't know, any of these government agencies or even the
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Speaker 1: White House itself. But the power behind the pride agenda
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Speaker 1: is still massively powerful. There may be no rainbow flags
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Speaker 1: flying from the White House, but every corporation and public
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Speaker 1: school and elite university is pushing the queer agenda on
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Speaker 1: young people. How many of you have heard of the
8:34
Speaker 1: Legend of Zelda? Apparently, I've never played it before, but
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Speaker 1: Michael did growing up. It's this long running action-adventure video
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Speaker 1: game series by Nintendo. And it follows this hero, Link,
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Speaker 1: on a quest to rescue Princess Zelda. This is the
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Speaker 1: narrative that the video game takes. And it's got a
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Speaker 1: lot of exploring and puzzle-solving and epic battles, all in
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Speaker 1: this fantasy world. According to entertainment industry insider Daniel Richman,
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Speaker 1: he says, made some waves last week because the creators
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Speaker 1: of this upcoming live-action movie adaptation for The Legend of
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Speaker 1: Zelda is eyeing Hunter Schafer to play Princess Zelda. Hunter
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Speaker 1: Schafer is a transgender-identifying man who became famous for his
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Speaker 1: role in Euphoria. So basically, Link, the male protagonist, will
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Speaker 1: be gay in this new adaptation. Although they probably won't
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Speaker 1: say that, but I mean, to all of us, he
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Speaker 1: will be gay because he's going to be with a
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Speaker 1: trans guy. And you may be older. You never played
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Speaker 1: Legend of Zelda. You hadn't heard of it. But to
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Speaker 1: a lot of young men who did, this is very obnoxious. Frankly,
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Speaker 1: it's infuriating because it seems like every traditionally masculine hero
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Speaker 1: beloved by this generation is deliberately subverted in some way.
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Speaker 1: They do this with every male. franchise ever. The best
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Speaker 1: example would be even Star Wars, where we have all
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Speaker 1: of these LGBTQ characters inserted into the storylines, and everything's
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Speaker 1: being run by women suddenly. And also, they've completely lost
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Speaker 1: the plot with how absurd the force has gotten and
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Speaker 1: nothing seems grounded in any kind of basic standards. But
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Speaker 1: I digress. What felt grounded and aspirational and heteronormative in
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Speaker 1: all of these traditional masculine entertainment fields is now gay,
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Speaker 1: and it's lame, and people are sick of it, especially
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Speaker 1: young men. And if you say that, a lot of
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Speaker 1: times you'll be labeled regressive, and you'll be shamed, and
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Speaker 1: the culture will really put you down for... trying to
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Speaker 1: protect the integrity of things you once loved culturally. And
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Speaker 1: that's also deeply frustrating for a lot of young men.
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Speaker 1: I think what happened yesterday when I prepared for this
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Speaker 1: show is a good example. I was scrolling through my
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Speaker 1: X feed and I saw all of these pride statements
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Speaker 1: and they weren't just from companies. Most of them were
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Speaker 1: from sports teams like gay Packers, gay Raptors, gay Capitals,
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Speaker 1: gay NHL, Gay Broncos, gay, like any team that you like,
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Speaker 1: they're gay now. Go look them up on Twitter. They're
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Speaker 1: all gay. Like, I don't know what's happened in the last,
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Speaker 1: you know, few hours, 48 hours, but all of these
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Speaker 1: sports teams are gay. I can just keep going. Like
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Speaker 1: any team that you love, any sport, anywhere, they're all gay.
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Speaker 1: And again, this comes to my point about making things
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Speaker 1: that are beloved by men a tool for subversion constantly.
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Speaker 1: I joked with Michael yesterday, I'm like, well, maybe putting
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Speaker 1: another man's name on your back and cheering for a
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Speaker 1: multi-billion dollar enterprise really is kind of gay. But I'm
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Speaker 1: just a sports hater. If you love sports, and a
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Speaker 1: lot of men do, this is very frustrating. My point is,
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Speaker 1: who can blame young men for having such a visceral
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Speaker 1: negative reaction to wokeism and turning to the political right
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Speaker 1: when this is what you're bombarded with constantly? It's suffocating
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Speaker 1: to watch the cultural spaces that you once found identity
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Speaker 1: in and meeting in videos, video games, sports, action films,
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Speaker 1: completely reshaped to reflect the church of woke constantly. Everything
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Speaker 1: they love is wrong, outdated, or in need of correction.
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Speaker 1: And hence the nearly 30% shift of Gen Z males
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Speaker 1: speaking to the political right in a matter of just
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Speaker 1: four years. I have a lot more to say on this,
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Speaker 1: but first I want to get to our wonderful sponsors
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Speaker 1: who thankfully are not putting out pride statements because these
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Speaker 1: are companies that actually share in our values. All right,
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Speaker 1: the vibe shift among young men is fueled by a
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Speaker 1: lot more than just the woke agenda and being mad
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Speaker 1: that Star Wars is now gay and lame, although that's
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Speaker 1: definitely part of it. A lot of times we hear
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Speaker 1: from older people that young people, they just don't know
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Speaker 1: how to work. They just don't know how to work.
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Speaker 1: They spend all their money on Starbucks and Netflix. And
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Speaker 1: that's why they can't afford a house. And that's why
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Speaker 1: they've saved no money. And I want you guys, many,
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Speaker 1: some of you, maybe you think that way. Maybe that's
13:17
Speaker 1: the perception that you have. I want you to take
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Speaker 1: a look at this chart. In just four decades, the
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Speaker 1: cost of a home has skyrocketed from 3.5 times the
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Speaker 1: median income to nearly six times, making home ownership in
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Speaker 1: America almost twice as out of reach as it once was.
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Speaker 1: This is massive. The price of homes are not keeping
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Speaker 1: up with wages in the slightest. And there's also this
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Speaker 1: narrative that America's young people are somehow undeserving of good jobs.
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Speaker 1: So at the same time, we have this narrative that
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Speaker 1: young people aren't working hard enough. They can't save. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: home prices are skyrocketing. And we also have this narrative that, well,
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Speaker 1: the young people just they can't get good paying jobs
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Speaker 1: because they're too lazy. They're too lazy. They don't want
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Speaker 1: to work hard. I want you to listen carefully. to
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Speaker 1: this fascinating exchange. This is Eliza Schaefer and mostly Sarah
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Speaker 1: Stock debating Tim Pool on Timcast. Sarah Stock is a
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Speaker 1: young Gen Z commentator. She works with Eliza Schaefer. Here
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Speaker 1: she is debating Tim Pool on this issue. Is Gen
14:24
Speaker 1: Z just lazy? And for those of you listening, you
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Speaker 1: can't tell. Sarah is, of course, a Gen Z-er herself.
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Speaker 1: This was a fascinating exchange. Take a listen.
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Speaker 4: I think we had talked about this before. Elon Musk
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Speaker 4: complained that Americans are bad workers, that these young men suck,
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Speaker 4: they're lazy, they're entitled. And I think we were talking
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Speaker 4: about this. That was Vivek Banley who said that we
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Speaker 4: were like the generation of TV binging, pep rally going losers.
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Speaker 4: And he's right. And my point was, so what?
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Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 3: Hold on.
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Speaker 5: I got to finish the point.
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Speaker 4: He is correct. Millennials are lazy, entitled losers. Not every
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Speaker 4: single one. The point is, so what? If you don't
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Speaker 4: hire them and start forcing them into this system, we
15:07
Speaker 4: will never recover. When you break your leg, you don't go,
15:11
Speaker 4: I'm not going to walk because my leg's broken. We
15:13
Speaker 4: have the worst legs. Someone should carry me. No, you
15:15
Speaker 4: go to physical therapy and start struggling to walk and
15:18
Speaker 4: you get a cane and you get a cast or
15:20
Speaker 4: you get a wheelchair and then you start to rebuild
15:22
Speaker 4: your strength so you can walk again. We have a
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Speaker 4: crummy generation. That's a fact. Gen Z and millennials are
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Speaker 4: largely entitled and lazy. But if we don't force them
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Speaker 4: and start doing that physical therapy, that labor therapy to
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Speaker 4: get them back into the mentality of meritocracy, we just collapse.
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Speaker 1: No, but it's just based on this lie, though.
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Speaker 2: Corporations aren't not hiring Gen Z men because they're lazy.
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Speaker 1: They're not hiring them because they can pay Indians less
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Speaker 1: and treat them worse.
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Speaker 4: That coincides with laziness. What? It coincides.
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Speaker 1: But I think it's like this. No, it's not. It's
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Speaker 1: because Americans actually have standards. Yeah, okay. So fascinating debate.
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Speaker 1: Claiming that Gen Z is lazy or entitled is a
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Speaker 1: very simplistic argument that I think fails to address what's
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Speaker 1: really happening. America has largely outsourced its economy to cheap
16:12
Speaker 1: imported foreign labor. And the jobs that used to sustain
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Speaker 1: families and provide for homeownership have all but disappeared. Working
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Speaker 1: a full-time job rarely can support the American dream. And
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Speaker 1: by American dream, I mean owning a home, raising a family,
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Speaker 1: achieving financial stability. We live in a debtor's economy. Most
16:31
Speaker 1: of us rent or carry mortgages. We may never fully
16:35
Speaker 1: pay off, while student loans hang over us for decades,
16:38
Speaker 1: potentially the rest of your life. Healthcare costs are so
16:41
Speaker 1: outrageous that even with insurance, a medical emergency can lead
16:44
Speaker 1: to financial ruin. Unlike previous generations, we aren't building wealth.
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Speaker 1: We're just trying to stay afloat. And what I'm saying
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Speaker 1: is that Gen Z is not lazy. They are living
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Speaker 1: through a reality where the economic system has been rigged
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Speaker 1: against them. And it's becoming increasingly impossible to follow the
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Speaker 1: same path of success that was available to previous generations.
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Speaker 1: There's no dignity for an entire generation. I think I've
17:10
Speaker 1: talked about this in the show before, but in the
17:14
Speaker 1: 90s and early 2000s, there was the lost decade in Japan.
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Speaker 1: And a lot of young people in Japan started turning
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Speaker 1: to kawaii and Hello Kitty and anime and things that
17:25
Speaker 1: the older generations perceived as very frivolous and youthful and
17:31
Speaker 1: not very mature. And they called this generation the lost generation.
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Speaker 1: They were turning back to a time that they could understand.
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Speaker 1: They were embracing things that made them feel better, kind
17:42
Speaker 1: of numbed the pain of having no future. And this
17:45
Speaker 1: was called the lost generation along with the lost decade.
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Speaker 1: So there's something to be said for the America that
17:53
Speaker 1: we've inherited, that has created this generation, not the other
17:57
Speaker 1: way around, which is what Tim Pool is saying. Well,
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Speaker 1: we have to get them into these good jobs because
18:02
Speaker 1: that'll make them better. That'll rehabilitate them. The reason that
18:05
Speaker 1: they're acting the way they're acting, Gen Z is spending
18:08
Speaker 1: money on Starbucks and Netflix instead of buying a home
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Speaker 1: is because the home is completely out of reach. So
18:15
Speaker 1: my money can afford Starbucks and Netflix. just not homeownership
18:20
Speaker 1: these days. So something to consider, that this is a
18:23
Speaker 1: very different economy from what our parents and our grandparents
18:26
Speaker 1: grew up in. And it's frankly disgusting. Our elites sold
18:29
Speaker 1: us out. They took American industry and sold it to,
18:33
Speaker 1: they sent it abroad. Or if there's good jobs here,
18:36
Speaker 1: we're being undercut by foreign labor who will work for less.
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Speaker 1: That's what Sarah said. And we also have a devalued
18:44
Speaker 1: labor in general due to mass legal and illegal immigration.
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Speaker 1: These are all contributing factors. So I think that's something
18:52
Speaker 1: to consider when you get a little frustrated with Gen Z.
18:55
Speaker 1: Understand this is a very different America than the one
18:58
Speaker 1: that you grew up in. And I think you all
18:59
Speaker 1: can notice that. Look at what we're dealing with. All right,
19:01
Speaker 1: something else to address is feminism. It is no secret
19:06
Speaker 1: that across generations, men tend to be more conservative than women.
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Speaker 1: But the partisan gender gap in Gen Z is about
19:14
Speaker 1: two to three times wider than in older generations. Gen
19:19
Speaker 1: X has about a seven point gender gap between conservative
19:23
Speaker 1: and liberals. Boomers have a 10 point gender gap. Gen
19:27
Speaker 1: Z has a 22 point gender gap. So I'm saying
19:32
Speaker 1: seven point, 10 point, suddenly Gen Z, it's 22 points
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Speaker 1: between men and women on where they stand politically. And yet,
19:40
Speaker 1: for some reason, this is kind of bizarre, a lot
19:43
Speaker 1: of people, even conservatives, are blaming men for declining birth
19:49
Speaker 1: rates and declining marriage rates. Here is none other than
19:53
Speaker 1: Tomi Lahren.
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Speaker 3: But Laura, I got to tell you, this is also
19:57
Speaker 3: a big problem when it comes to, I think, declining
19:59
Speaker 3: birth rates, people not getting married and having children. You know,
20:02
Speaker 3: that's a big problem. They blame it on women. Well,
20:05
Speaker 3: look at what young women have to choose from. The
20:07
Speaker 3: pickings are slim. Yes, we might have a feminism problem
20:11
Speaker 3: in America, but it's the feminization of men. There are
20:14
Speaker 3: a lot of young women out there that want to
20:16
Speaker 3: get married. They want to have kids.
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Speaker 1: They want to have stable families.
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Speaker 3: But there are a lot of young men out there
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Speaker 3: who want to live in mama's basement and order DoorDash.
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Speaker 3: And therein lies a big part of the problem.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so feminization of young men is a problem. We've
20:32
Speaker 1: talked about it on the show. And testosterone rates are declining.
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Speaker 1: And women just have no one to choose from is
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Speaker 1: the argument being made. I want to give you some
20:45
Speaker 1: stats to maybe... bring some nuance to this discussion because
20:50
Speaker 1: I think what Tommy Lahren is saying is a little bit, again,
20:53
Speaker 1: simplistic and I think very unfair toward modern young men.
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Speaker 1: Women now make up nearly 60% of U.S. college students.
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Speaker 1: Unmarried women under 30 out-earn their male peers in most
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Speaker 1: urban areas. Marriage rates have dropped by 60% since 1970
21:15
Speaker 1: and surveys show a growing share of women say they
21:17
Speaker 1: would rather be single than settle. Only 41% of Gen
21:22
Speaker 1: Z women say marriage is important to them, compared to
21:25
Speaker 1: 58% of Gen Z men. 41% of women say marriage
21:29
Speaker 1: is important. 58% of young men say marriage is important.
21:33
Speaker 1: So while culture and economic factors affect both sexes, girl
21:37
Speaker 1: bossing is undoubtedly driving the decline in marriage and birth rates.
21:43
Speaker 1: Look at how young men vote. They clearly are desiring
21:47
Speaker 1: traditional relationships, as well as a traditional America. They want
21:50
Speaker 1: to go back, but women don't want that. Plus the
21:55
Speaker 1: feminized corporate America, the long house, shipping traditionally masculine jobs overseas,
22:00
Speaker 1: outsourcing to imported foreign labor. It's making it impossible for
22:04
Speaker 1: young men to make that American family dream a reality,
22:08
Speaker 1: even if they found a woman who was willing to
22:10
Speaker 1: do it with them. This video went viral on social
22:14
Speaker 1: media last week, It's pretty bleak. This is a young woman.
22:17
Speaker 1: Looks like she's in her early to mid-20s, and she's
22:20
Speaker 1: sharing what her evening is like working at an investment bank.
22:25
Speaker 1: Take a listen. Sorry, I probably should be annotating this
23:06
Speaker 1: because you guys are, some of you are listening. But
23:09
Speaker 1: she's working on more materials. It's 12.30 a.m. the whole time.
23:14
Speaker 1: I mean, she's made herself tea. She's relaxed like slightly,
23:18
Speaker 1: but she's just working, working, working. And that's not even
23:22
Speaker 1: the work day. That was just a video of her evening.
23:26
Speaker 1: She doesn't stop. And an entry-level job in an investment
23:29
Speaker 1: bank is notoriously grueling. We're talking 80 to 100-hour work weeks.
23:35
Speaker 1: Little sleep, relentless pressure. And here's the thing, and a
23:38
Speaker 1: lot of people don't want to hear this, but women
23:41
Speaker 1: value balance. There is no balance in a job like that.
23:45
Speaker 1: It is hyper, hyper competitive. Constant stress, no sleep, performative hustle.
23:52
Speaker 1: It's really unsustainable for anyone, but there are some men
23:55
Speaker 1: who are highly motivated and they're going to do that
23:57
Speaker 1: and that's good for them. I don't think that there's
24:00
Speaker 1: any woman who is going to thrive in that kind
24:02
Speaker 1: of environment. with that kind of pressure. I just don't
24:05
Speaker 1: think it's true. It's a soulless grind that offers little
24:10
Speaker 1: genuine fulfillment. It's not for women. I'm sorry, it's just not.
24:15
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a tiny, tiny minority of women who will
24:18
Speaker 1: love that job and think it's wonderful. Somebody said, I
24:21
Speaker 1: feel sorry for her. I do too. There are a
24:23
Speaker 1: lot of young women who are living this reality because
24:25
Speaker 1: they've been told to have value, to have meaning in
24:27
Speaker 1: their life. They have to pursue a path like this.
24:31
Speaker 1: Most of these roles that women girl boss themselves into, yes,
24:35
Speaker 1: they can do it, but are they happy? This is
24:38
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. And studies show that 40-something
24:42
Speaker 1: single female professionals are the least happy people in America.
24:47
Speaker 1: Least happy.
24:49
Speaker 5: G.K.
24:49
Speaker 1: Chesterton once said that feminism is a muddled idea that
24:53
Speaker 1: women are free when they serve their employers, but slaves
24:56
Speaker 1: when they help their husbands. And I think this is
24:59
Speaker 1: the lie that so many are being sold. And the
25:03
Speaker 1: problem with marriage and birth rates, I think, has a
25:06
Speaker 1: lot to do with the economy, has a lot to
25:08
Speaker 1: do with culture and values changing in general. But as
25:10
Speaker 1: a whole, it's mostly women who are hostile to starting
25:15
Speaker 1: homes and families as opposed to young men. And it's
25:19
Speaker 1: disheartening to see young men being blamed for this by
25:22
Speaker 1: conservative commentators of all people. People are still going over
25:26
Speaker 1: about how Gen Z is. Michael, have you been reading
25:28
Speaker 1: these comments? Gen Z is so lazy. Gen Z doesn't
25:31
Speaker 1: know how to save up money. I'm going to bring
25:33
Speaker 1: this to you guys tomorrow. I want to do this
25:35
Speaker 1: right because I don't have the stats in front of
25:37
Speaker 1: me right now. But there was a really interesting article
25:40
Speaker 1: that I read about the breakdown of what things cost today.
25:44
Speaker 1: And essentially what's happened over the last few decades is
25:48
Speaker 1: Things that were considered to be luxuries, like a nice
25:53
Speaker 1: TV or a vacation or just regular things that were
25:58
Speaker 1: considered frivolous and luxurious back in the 1980s have declined
26:04
Speaker 1: in price dramatically. And things that are considered the staples,
26:08
Speaker 1: health care, education, housing, rent even, I'm just talking about housing,
26:13
Speaker 1: but I'm talking about the cost of rent too, have
26:15
Speaker 1: all increased dramatically. You might have money in your pocket
26:20
Speaker 1: to buy the Starbucks and get Netflix and have a TV.
26:23
Speaker 1: But when it comes to these basic things in life,
26:27
Speaker 1: it's very unaffordable compared to what it was in the past.
26:30
Speaker 1: So I'm going to bring those stats to you guys
26:32
Speaker 1: because I can't really go into it without it in
26:35
Speaker 1: front of me. But there is something that I think
26:38
Speaker 1: a lot of you are missing. I think it's a
26:40
Speaker 1: generational thing. So I would love to have this conversation
26:42
Speaker 1: with you because there seems to be a real disconnect
26:46
Speaker 1: in the comments. And that's fine. but we're going to
26:49
Speaker 1: address it tomorrow.
26:49
Speaker 5: All right.
26:50
Speaker 1: Something else I want to get into is.
26:51
Speaker 5: So, Avita, it says here that the median income in
26:56
Speaker 5: the United States is about $ 40, 000. And the median house
27:01
Speaker 5: price is $ 422, 000. That means if you gave these people
27:06
Speaker 5: 10 years of tax-free salary immediately, they might be able
27:11
Speaker 5: to find a home.
27:13
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, Michael. Thank you. It's gotten out of control.
27:17
Speaker 1: And If you're somebody who's a little older, lucky you,
27:20
Speaker 1: you might own a home and you don't understand what
27:24
Speaker 1: it's like to be searching in this market. Kudos to you.
27:29
Speaker 1: But the America that we've inherited is very, very different.
27:33
Speaker 1: And so it doesn't necessarily mean that this generation is lazy.
27:36
Speaker 1: It means that we are living in a different country.
27:39
Speaker 1: We just are. So somebody says, sure, Mikey, you guys
27:43
Speaker 1: can deny the stats all you want. That's fine. I
27:45
Speaker 1: would love to see you bring your own. Show me
27:47
Speaker 1: your numbers to prove that Gen Z is just lazy.
27:49
Speaker 1: Let's see them. Let's see them. Let's see them older
27:52
Speaker 1: people in the chat. Okay. I also want to talk
27:56
Speaker 1: about dating apps and the way women and men are
27:59
Speaker 1: seeking out relationships is totally whack and I think set
28:03
Speaker 1: up for failure. And case in point, this came out
28:07
Speaker 1: just over the weekend that Tinder has announced it is
28:09
Speaker 1: currently testing a feature that allows paid users to set
28:13
Speaker 1: a specific preference for for height in their matches. So
28:19
Speaker 1: it's experimenting with this for gold and premium subscribers. And
28:23
Speaker 1: I guess the setting will express a preference rather than
28:26
Speaker 1: acting as like a hard filter. So you won't never
28:28
Speaker 1: see short guys. If as a woman, I want to
28:30
Speaker 1: filter them out, but you will see a lot less
28:34
Speaker 1: short guys in your Tinder results. So they say it
28:38
Speaker 1: will inform recommendations rather than block profiles. But still, how
28:43
Speaker 1: superficial is that? And there's a deeper and more troubling
28:47
Speaker 1: trend here, the normalization of superficial standards in modern dating
28:52
Speaker 1: when women, who now number men in higher education and
28:55
Speaker 1: are increasingly career-driven, prioritize physical attributes like height over character
29:00
Speaker 1: compatibility or shared values. It fuels a culture where relationships
29:04
Speaker 1: are treated like shopping and men are judged on these
29:09
Speaker 1: arbitrary metrics that they can't really control. Genuine connection is
29:13
Speaker 1: so much harder to find these days And everything about
29:16
Speaker 1: modernity is exacerbating the issues. I want to play for
29:20
Speaker 1: you guys. This is a video. It was done by
29:22
Speaker 1: content creator Kyle Nutt. And it got nearly 40 million
29:27
Speaker 1: views on Instagram. And this is showing the difference between
29:31
Speaker 1: dating then and dating now. Take a listen.
29:34
Speaker 3: Excuse me.
29:37
Speaker 1: But you are absolutely beautiful and I would love to
29:47
Speaker 1: take you on a date sometime. So he actually asked
29:51
Speaker 1: her out.
29:52
Speaker 2: Every step you take, I'll be watching you.
29:59
Speaker 1: And now he's just swiping. I think that in the past,
30:03
Speaker 1: dating really did require some vulnerability, some effort, some courage.
30:08
Speaker 1: How often, I think, do young women actually get asked
30:11
Speaker 1: out these days? Michael, I'm going to call you out
30:15
Speaker 1: a little bit. Michael didn't ask me out in person.
30:19
Speaker 1: Michael's rolling his eyes at me.
30:21
Speaker 5: That's not true.
30:22
Speaker 1: Okay. The point is that there are a lot of
30:28
Speaker 1: a lot of barriers that might seem like they're making
30:31
Speaker 1: dating easier these days. And actually it's getting so much worse.
30:35
Speaker 1: You have this endless swiping, all of these options. You
30:38
Speaker 1: think like the world is like an option for you
30:40
Speaker 1: to potentially be, be matched up with. And instead you
30:45
Speaker 1: have connection being reduced to these split second judgments, turning
30:50
Speaker 1: people into profiles and intimacy into a numbers game. Imagine
30:54
Speaker 1: how much worse things are going to get when people
30:56
Speaker 1: start having relationships with robots powered by AI. And that's coming.
31:00
Speaker 1: And it's bad now. And my hope is that the
31:03
Speaker 1: growing minority of Gen Zers rejecting all of this for
31:06
Speaker 1: tradition and some normalcy will turn into the majority. But
31:11
Speaker 1: for right now, it's pretty bleak. I mean, just the
31:13
Speaker 1: way that we are dating and matching up and attempting to,
31:16
Speaker 1: it's set up for failure because you're not viewing people
31:19
Speaker 1: as people. You're just swiping. Swiping left, swiping right. And
31:24
Speaker 1: it's very discouraging. And again, we're fueling this idea that
31:30
Speaker 1: you could just, I don't know, turn people into a
31:33
Speaker 1: profile that you could match up with by saying, oh,
31:36
Speaker 1: we'll filter you out by height. I mean, how many
31:39
Speaker 1: good guys are going to be lost on Tinder just because, oh, well,
31:43
Speaker 1: he's under six foot? I guess guys lie about your
31:46
Speaker 1: height on Tinder because you'll be filtered out by a
31:49
Speaker 1: lot of women. All right, I do want to talk
31:51
Speaker 1: about some serious news. This is about East Palestine. So,
31:54
Speaker 1: of course, on February 3rd, 2023, the Norfolk Southern Derailment
31:59
Speaker 1: unleashed this toxic brew. 115,000 gallons of carcinogenic vinyl chloride,
32:07
Speaker 1: which openly burned and blanketed just these horrific chemicals all
32:12
Speaker 1: over the East Palestine, Ohio area. It's just this haze
32:17
Speaker 1: of chemicals and people were displaced and animals died and
32:20
Speaker 1: first responders fell ill. You had this rainbow-colored sheen appear
32:25
Speaker 1: in the local water sources. We learned over the weekend
32:28
Speaker 1: that according to the Government Accountability Project, federal agencies didn't
32:32
Speaker 1: always test for the right chemicals. They missed key locations.
32:37
Speaker 1: They used improper detection limits and outsourced critical testing to
32:42
Speaker 1: Norfolk Southern's own contractors. who reportedly used substandard equipment. So
32:49
Speaker 1: the administration really dropped the ball on this issue in
32:54
Speaker 1: a lot more severe of a way than even we thought.
32:56
Speaker 1: Biden didn't show up to East Palestine. Pete Buttigieg did,
32:59
Speaker 1: but like a month later, they actually just completely fumbled
33:03
Speaker 1: addressing this crisis at all. The administration delayed testing for dioxins,
33:09
Speaker 1: highly toxic compounds leaked to cancer, birth defects, immune system damage.
33:14
Speaker 1: And again, like I said, to add insult to injury,
33:17
Speaker 1: President Biden didn't even visit. So essentially what seemed to
33:20
Speaker 1: have happened was public health was sacrificed for political optics
33:26
Speaker 1: and corporate convenience. Just all around a really enraging story.
33:32
Speaker 1: We don't even know what the long-term effects are going
33:34
Speaker 1: to be for this community. I have to imagine that
33:37
Speaker 1: it's going to be very tragic. These kind of chemicals
33:41
Speaker 1: being exposed to countless individuals, including children. Long-term, I think
33:46
Speaker 1: it's going to be very, very horrific. But this is
33:49
Speaker 1: really a pattern of disrespect that we see in early institutions.
33:54
Speaker 1: Hatred of the American people. A prioritization of everything and
33:59
Speaker 1: everyone other than us from our own leaders. You know,
34:03
Speaker 1: we're so far advanced as humans. Like we've evolved and
34:06
Speaker 1: we're democratic and we're high tech. And yet the people
34:10
Speaker 1: of this new era who are supposed to be uplifted
34:15
Speaker 1: constantly seem to be left behind. What I mean is
34:20
Speaker 1: we are supposed to benefit from things like, like Tinder
34:23
Speaker 1: or dating apps. And as it turns out, many people are, are,
34:26
Speaker 1: are single and very unhappy. We're supposed to benefit from
34:31
Speaker 1: leaders who are acting quickly with, with, uh, with, with
34:35
Speaker 1: all the technology that they have to get to a
34:38
Speaker 1: site like East Palestine, very, very, uh, very straightforward and
34:42
Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem to happen that way. And in fact,
34:44
Speaker 1: we seem to be ignored. I want to show you
34:47
Speaker 1: all a video that my mom shared yesterday. It's of
34:50
Speaker 1: a Russian soldier who sits motionless, resigned to his fate
34:55
Speaker 1: as a Ukrainian drone circles overhead and it's scanning for
34:59
Speaker 1: this perfect angle to strike him. This video, it's not bloody,
35:02
Speaker 1: it's not gory, but it shows the moments before this
35:05
Speaker 1: man is taken out by this drone and it is
35:08
Speaker 1: pretty terrifying to listen to, to look at. Take a look.
35:14
Speaker 1: So you're seeing he's just kind of sitting there crouched.
35:17
Speaker 1: He's not acting as a combatant. He doesn't have a weapon.
35:21
Speaker 1: He's not fighting back. He's just got his head down
35:25
Speaker 1: and he's resigned to what's about to happen. And what's
35:29
Speaker 1: terrifying is there are a lot of videos like this.
35:33
Speaker 1: This is not the only one. I wonder if he's
35:38
Speaker 1: praying or what he's doing, but he's just He's just
35:41
Speaker 1: resigned himself to it. There it goes. Yeah, I mean,
35:53
Speaker 1: it's just horrible. And like I said, there's been a
35:56
Speaker 1: lot of videos like this since the war in Ukraine
35:58
Speaker 1: broke out. There is truly a cold horror in the
36:02
Speaker 1: way the technology has just stripped even war of its
36:06
Speaker 1: raw human struggle. It's not courage or combat anymore. We're
36:11
Speaker 1: looking at algorithms and distance, the press of a button.
36:15
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure modern life is as easy as
36:18
Speaker 1: it's been advertised. It's sanitized, detached, I think soul-crushing. It's
36:25
Speaker 1: what Nietzsche warned, that modernity, for all its progress, hollows
36:30
Speaker 1: out the human spirit. Drone warfare is modernity at its
36:34
Speaker 1: most chilling, efficient, remote, and utterly dehumanizing form. It shows
36:38
Speaker 1: that we may no longer suffer in the old, brutal ways,
36:41
Speaker 1: but we suffer all the same, lost in a world
36:44
Speaker 1: where even life and death can feel meaningless. Over the weekend, Dr.
36:50
Speaker 1: Joan Lambert and Dr. Jeff Reed delivered a presentation titled
36:55
Speaker 1: Dire Wolves, Mammoths, and Humans, Yellowstone in the Pleistocene. And
36:59
Speaker 1: it was part of the Yellowstone Forever Summer Speaker Series
37:03
Speaker 1: in Montana. And this presentation has received some significant media traction,
37:09
Speaker 1: because of the interesting comparisons made between early humans during
37:13
Speaker 1: the Pleistocene and people today. Lambert describes early humans as
37:18
Speaker 1: constantly living under threat from enormous predators like dire wolves
37:22
Speaker 1: and short-faced bears, and yet they managed to survive in
37:26
Speaker 1: that harsh and icy world. Michael, you had something to
37:29
Speaker 1: say about short-faced bears? Something amazing about them? I don't know.
37:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're like the all-time most deadly creature to humans ever.
37:37
Speaker 1: What made them so deadly?
37:39
Speaker 5: They're just like twice the size of a grizzly and
37:41
Speaker 5: twice as fast.
37:43
Speaker 1: So we had these like really dangerous creatures obviously roaming
37:46
Speaker 1: the earth and we were living alongside them. And Lambert
37:49
Speaker 1: called modern people, again, pansies by comparison. And she highlighted
37:54
Speaker 1: how ancient humans had to navigate fear on a daily
37:58
Speaker 1: basis and possess this deep knowledge about their environment and
38:02
Speaker 1: the animals in it, knowledge that has largely been lost today. Reed,
38:07
Speaker 1: on the other hand, he focused on the ingenuity and
38:10
Speaker 1: adaptability of the Clovis people, who people say, the scientists say,
38:14
Speaker 1: are considered to be North America's earliest known human inhabitants.
38:18
Speaker 1: And he explained how they used advanced tools to hunt
38:21
Speaker 1: massive animals and may have learned strategies from observing predators
38:25
Speaker 1: like wolves. And he also suggested early humans likely partnered
38:30
Speaker 1: with domesticated wolves in hunting. And he concluded by warning
38:35
Speaker 1: that modern society has really lost a lot of this
38:39
Speaker 1: ancestral wisdom and connection to nature. And I thought this
38:43
Speaker 1: was pretty remarkable. I mean, I was just thinking, like,
38:46
Speaker 1: can you imagine living in a world where every day
38:50
Speaker 1: is a battle to survive? Not just the cold, but
38:52
Speaker 1: the constant threat of being hunted. Like, where stepping outside
38:56
Speaker 1: your shelter could mean crossing paths with a 2,000-pound short-faced
39:00
Speaker 1: bear or a pack of dire wolves. So this reality
39:04
Speaker 1: for people who lived in Yellowstone during the Pleistocene period
39:08
Speaker 1: was brutal. I mean, it was terrifying, but they didn't
39:12
Speaker 1: just camp in wilderness. They carved out an existence in
39:15
Speaker 1: one of the most dangerous ecosystems Earth has ever known.
39:18
Speaker 1: They had no modern comforts, no roads, no stores, no Starbucks,
39:23
Speaker 1: no second chances. They relied entirely on their knowledge of
39:27
Speaker 1: the land, their ability to make tools, and their instincts.
39:30
Speaker 1: And it sharpened over generations of watching and learning, but
39:34
Speaker 1: it was still, again, a brutal existence. And the argument
39:39
Speaker 1: from these scientists at the talk, which I thought was interesting, was, well,
39:43
Speaker 1: modern humans are pansies compared to these people. And I
39:48
Speaker 1: think that's probably true. I think it is true. But
39:51
Speaker 1: I'm not so convinced that we have it easier. I
39:54
Speaker 1: know that sounds crazy. I'm not convinced we have it easier.
39:57
Speaker 1: I understand why scientists say we have it easy compared
40:01
Speaker 1: to people in the Pleistocene. After all, we're not running
40:03
Speaker 1: from predators or hunting to eat. But in many ways,
40:06
Speaker 1: life today is harder in a different, more complicated sense.
40:10
Speaker 1: Because our survival may not be tied to the land
40:12
Speaker 1: or immediate danger, but we face a kind of existential
40:16
Speaker 1: crisis instead. We've lost the clarity of purpose that came
40:20
Speaker 1: from basic survival, traditional roles, the shared beliefs we once had.
40:25
Speaker 1: Religion doesn't anchor most people anymore, at least in the
40:29
Speaker 1: way it once did. Gender roles are totally gone. Everything's
40:31
Speaker 1: been flipped on its head. We're confused. We're often isolated.
40:34
Speaker 1: We're depressed. Prehistoric people didn't die by suicide because they
40:38
Speaker 1: were too busy trying to stay alive. But we're overfed,
40:42
Speaker 1: but undernourished, connected, but deeply lonely. This is why so
40:47
Speaker 1: many young men, I think, are searching for something radically different,
40:51
Speaker 1: something more real, more demanding, maybe even more dangerous. It's
40:55
Speaker 1: not that we want to go back to the Ice Age,
40:57
Speaker 1: but we crave purpose, challenge, clarity, the kind of things
41:01
Speaker 1: that came naturally in a world that didn't let you
41:03
Speaker 1: forget what you were made of. And I think that's
41:06
Speaker 1: something really interesting to consider in the modern world as
41:10
Speaker 1: we head into the month of June, which I think
41:14
Speaker 1: is the pinnacle of hope. majority and how far we
41:17
Speaker 1: have fallen. And with that, I appreciate all of you
41:20
Speaker 1: tuning into this show, listening to the early edition. If
41:23
Speaker 1: you want to follow me on X or Instagram, my
41:25
Speaker 1: user is avitaduffy underscore one, and I will see you
41:29
Speaker 1: all tomorrow. The U.S. Soccer Podcast.
41:33
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Megan Klingenberg, and I am super stoked
41:36
Speaker 3: to be joined by Daryl Dike. Arguably, your most impressive
41:39
Speaker 3: quality cannot be measured.
41:41
Speaker 1: You're a guy who is the definition of grit.
41:44
Speaker 3: Injuries have ended plenty of careers, but instead you decided
41:47
Speaker 3: yours would only be a chapter instead of the ending.
41:49
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show, Daryl.
41:50
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
41:51
Speaker 4: That's a good intro right there. That's good.
41:54
Speaker 1: The U.S. Soccer Podcast. Follow and listen on your favorite platforms.