Shakira vs. Barbie, The Fight Against AI (Thursday Trends)

Dramos deep dives into trending stories including Shakira's take on the Barbie movie emasculating men, a new abortion ban in Florida, AI and the music industry, a celeb helping prisoners and more!

https://fiercebymitu.com/entertainment/shakira-barbie-emasculation-social-media/

https://fiercebymitu.com/news/florida-ban-on-abortion-latinas/

https://www.instagram.com/theneighborhoodtalk/p/C5SD8kdsXpS/

https://www.instagram.com/thegrio/p/C5PaEuyxboG/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Let me talk about talk.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here we go, he said he live in life as
a Gringo, where you question where you fit in.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Every time you mingle, they say you do this.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
With not that.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
This life ingo.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, hello, and welcome to another episode of Life as
a Gringo. I am dramas, of course, and it's Thursday,
so it mean it's time for our Thursday Trends episode.
I am flying solo on today's show. I feel like
I sound crazy right now. I apologize in advance. I
got sick again. I feel like I'm always getting sick.
I got super sick yesterday. It was in bed all day.

(00:43):
Thankfully I was able to pull it together today to
record this. I know we are a little bit late,
but I was dead to the world yesterday. So my apologies.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
But we hear, we hear. I sound a little bit crazy.
Don't mind me. Let's get into these these stories though,
right there's a lot going on.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'm gonna gonna cut out the the nonsense, trim the
fat a little bit, and we'll just start talking about
these stories. Because today Shakira told Jennifer Lopez to hold
her beer. She has a ridiculous take that she wanted
to get out there into the world so she can
get dragged on the internet as well.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
So we'll talk about that.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
We will talk about Florida's ban on abortion and how
it's putting the lives of Latina's at risk. We will
also talk about artists calling for AI protection. This is
a really interesting conversation that I feel like I haven't
touched on yet.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
That is important, So we'll touch on it. And then, man, somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Who is just doing some incredible work that I would
love to see replicated, will honor them in army hint.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
This segment also in our Aska Gonna Go segment.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Y'all know, I gotta get your take on this whole
Shakira thing and feminism in general, So we'll touch on
that lots to get into today's show.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
So let's just get into it, man.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
We'll dive into the bs, the nonsense in a segment
we call for the people in the back say a
lot for.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
The people in the say a lot of the people
in the say a lot of the people of the.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
All right, so let's start with Shakira And this is
from we are metwo dot com. But I've been seeing
this go around on various blogs and things like that.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
On the social media platforms.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Shakira's views on Barbie and emasculation causes a stir on
social media right now. For we are metwo dot com,
they said. The Columbian star said in a recent interview
with a Lore that her sons quote absolutely hated Barbie.
They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree to
a certain extent. I'm raising two boys. I wanted to

(02:49):
feel powerful too while respecting women, she added. For a
woman who became famous for her rebound songs and who
turned her ex husband's infidelity into a feminist an these
kinds of states, it's our contradictory to say the least. Again,
accord to RV two dot com, and I didn't put
a proper pause in there between the quote and then
the opinion that followed it.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I apologize, but just to clarify.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Her quote ended when she said I'm raising two boys,
I wanted to feel powerful too while respecting women. Now
this quote here is from from Shakida. Okay, so this
isn't the opinion part of it anymore. And I sound
so grossery and I'm so sorry if like you're hearing

(03:34):
me sniffle around I'm trying my best from fighting through
Unnecticut through this. Talking doesn't doesn't help. I can't really
talk when my nose is all crazy like this. Anyway,
here says I like pop culture when it attempts to
empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be
men to also protect and provide, she said, adding she
believes in giving women all the tools and the trust

(03:56):
that we can do it all without losing our essence
with that losing our femininity. I think that men have
a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well.
We compliment each other, and that compliment should not be lost.
According to the singer, just because a woman can do
it all.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Doesn't mean she should.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Now, this is a pretty extensive article. I'm gonna leave
a link to it, as I always do in the
show notes because they do go on to sort of
talk about, you know, feminism and Latinas and sort of
some of the norms and responsibilities that Latinas have have
had to bear and take on. Right, So it's a
pretty in depth article beyond just this Shakira commentary. And

(04:40):
I'm gonna i'm i'm a little bit. I just had
like a meltdown there because these are touchy topics, by
the way, So when I talk about it, when I
touch on these things, I first films just want to
want to say something, right, I want to I want
to touch on a couple of things here. I think

(05:00):
most of us have a don't actually know what the
hell feminism is. And I mean that men and women.
I mean that as people who are claiming to be feminists, right.
And I'm gonna be bouncing around between when we do
this here and ask and the ask you're gonna go sayment.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
But I do think.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
We live in this world where it's like you're not
allowed to have your opinion or else or else you
take on the sort of worst version of whatever the
opposite side is. Right, So it's like, Okay, if you

(05:43):
have a critique of I don't know, let's just say, Shakira,
you're a misogynist, right, even if your critique has nothing
to do with her being a woman.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
And I'm getting into I'm getting into the sticks out
here with a lot of different things. So just just
run with me here, I think you know.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
And I'm gonna save that actually for the ask A
good ego segment because I feel like that fits a
little bit more in line with the question that I
posed in there. But for the case of Shakira, I
think it's it's what's what's sort of missing here is nuance.
I think people are failing to recognize nuance.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
They're failing to recognize artistry.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
They are taking things personally and applying it to themselves
rather than just sort of observing what the message is.
And I think that's part of the problem with feminism
and all these different things. And again I'll dive into
I think a bit deeper of kind of my thoughts
on on on all this, but I think in general

(06:49):
we are are a bit self centered and also not
educated enough on a lot of topics of conversation.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So Barbie, for example, this is a movie that was
obviously meant to empower women, right, And I've seen the movie.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I personally enjoyed the movie.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I thought it's powerful and I received the message, right,
But a lot of people are going to sort of
just look at it on the surface and spoiler alert
frame who hasn't seen it yet, Barbie leaves the Barbie world,
and when she leaves it, it's in you know, great health. Right,

(07:29):
there's a female president, the world is operating amazingly. When
she comes back, Ken has taken over and the men
are basically destroying all of Barbie World. Basically, right, this
idea that they left the men in charge, they've now
destroyed it.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
It's a fucking movie. It's meant to give you the
most extreme version of things to send the message. That's it.
It's not for you to take it personally. It's not.
I feel like, I don't want to call people stupid.
I don't. I don't, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
But it's it's it's nuanced, man, it's entertainment if the
message is far more effective when we give you the
extreme version of the consequences, right, because if I give
you the mild version of it, it's not going to
hit home as hard, Right, You're not really going to
receive the message that is at play there. But in
a movie like Barbie, where it's meant to be entertaining,

(08:30):
there has to be a villain or there has to
be conflict.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
That's what it is, right, That's what movies and storylines are.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
So for you to to not be able to explain
that and I don't understand, I don't get get I
don't expect kids to necessarily get nuanced or get that.
This is literally just storytelling to give you an example, right,
to drive home the very important point that they're trying
to make. But as a parent, that's what you would

(09:00):
explain to them, like, hey, this is the most extreme
version of it. It's entertainment and it's fantasy, meant to
give you a bit of a story, right as to
why it is important for people's voice to be heard,
or what it maybe felt like for women in the
past when they didn't have rights, when they couldn't vote,

(09:21):
when they were just meant to be Susie homemaker, when
they have been held back from, you know, gaining career advances,
you know, when they haven't been paid equally in comparison
to their male counterparts.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Right, this is what it feels like. It feels like the.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
World is absolutely against them, and in certain cases it is.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Right.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's all you have to explain to them. It's just
an intellectual conversation. And unfortunately, I feel like in today's
world we don't have many of those. People want to
have a rash, strong opinion based upon reading a headline, right,
and that is I think part of the problem here
we lack the patients to actually dig deep and create

(10:12):
an intelligent conversation or dialogue or opinion based upon collecting
information and actually really processing it.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
And again I'm not shooting on Shakira's kids, but her
as an adult. That's what she could have explained to them,
the nuance of it all right, that this is what
it has felt like for women. Now to her point,
I think we do go to extremes oftentimes of women
feeling like and I'm generalizing here, don't shoot the messenger.

(10:45):
I'm generalizing, but often the narrative on social media is like,
man are trash, We don't need them for anything except
for whatever sex or something like that or and that
narrative has been you know.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I'm not gonna be in trouble here, but like I'm
just thinking of like I'm thinking of of like random
TikTok videos I see. And obviously I don't think that
that's a great gauge of like, you know, the world,
but it kind of is.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
It kind of is like the.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Cool normal thing you know in the name of like
of of feminism that we're gonna shit on.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Men and and.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Uh and talk about how worth this or useless or
trash they are, and there's a lot of trash men
out there. I have guy friends as well that I'm
just like, man, get your shit together, bro. But anyway,
that's the top of fronto the conversation. And I understand
that that is not actually feminism. I believe in feminism.

(11:45):
I love the movement. I think all these things are important.
But what happens is these are intellectual concepts, and when
you present them to people who lack intellect or just
lack the desires to actually think about something in an
intelligent manner and really think think it through, they then
run with it with a superficial sort of understanding of

(12:07):
it and cloud the entire conversation as a whole. And
I think that is sort of what we're seeing here,
where it's like, no, the Barbie movie doesn't emasculate men.
If you think it emasculates men, you are you have
a fifth grade probably understanding of society and feminism at

(12:28):
all these different things. Right, It's literally just again you're
giving the most extreme version of something as it means
to teach a lesson.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Right, So.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, when I and I'm not here to talk about
anybody's IQ or anything like that, you know, But I
think this is also this is also what the part
of the problem is when you sort of live by
what celebrities do or don't say.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Celebrities are just like you and I.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Some of them incredibly intelligent and intellectual, others not so much.
They're just talented at what they do. So the problem
becomes we listen to people because they have fame, money,
or power who aren't necessarily what you would call intellectual,
but have an opinion just like anybody else does, except

(13:17):
they have a platform to get it out to millions
of people because of who they are. That doesn't mean
that their opinion is a valid one, nor one that
we should run with and have. You know, I don't know,
an overabundance of weight put on, but that's sort of
like the world that we live in. That's kind of

(13:38):
what we're seeing sort of here, you know, I don't.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
I think.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
You have to look at things from an intelligent perspective
at times and not just what's going on in the surface.
And I think something like Barbie is meant to sort
of give you surface level comedy and nostalgia because of
the brand Barbie itself, and it's supposed to be entertaining
because it is entertainment, so they of course have to

(14:05):
create these dramatic and extreme situations. But to really get
the message, you have to intellectually look at what's being
presented to you and be able to look beyond just
the surface level entertainment part of it. And I think
that's what someone like Shakira failed to do. And then

(14:28):
because she's Shakira, she goes and speaks to a national
magazine about it, and the internet runs crazy with it.
And now we've clouded this entire conversation about feminism and
the masculinization of men, which we will dive into a
bit deeper and ask if you go And again, this
is my opinion, by the way, Like I also want

(14:50):
to want to like drive home the idea that you
don't have to agree with me on everything that I say.
You just have to know that when I say something,
it's coming from a good place, like I have good intentions, right.
I think we oftentimes don't give the benefit of the
doubt to people. We're so quick to choose sides that

(15:15):
we're like, oh, I disagree with you, now you're a
terrible person.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
You're this or that you're that. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I've seen it on social media when I post something,
and it's like people are quick to call you the
worst thing in the world because they don't agree with
your opinion, but they ignore everything else that you've done
or everything else that you obviously stand for, and just
because they don't agree with one take, you're now written
off as a god awful person. And I just think
that that's a horrendous way for us to like get

(15:43):
to have intelligent conversations and to really kind of get
to the bottom of this thing called life. So just
also throwing that out there. Now, let's move on to
something it's a bit heavier. We're gonna talk about Florida's
ban on abortion.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
In thirty days, there will be a near total ban
on abortion in Florida. On Monday night, the States Supreme
Court upheld a fifteen week existing prohibition and allowed a
strict new six week band to take effect in a month.
According to reports, the court has quote cut off nearly
all abortion access across the South.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
This will affect.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
More women seeking abortions in the first trimester than any
other single abortion ban to date. While voters will eventually
decide in November if the right to abortion is constitutional
or not. Millions of women will bear the brunt of
this decision until then. So there's a lot going on here.
I'm gonna just kind of read through a few things.

(16:43):
I want to make sure I get some of the
facts in here, aside from just like the opinion part right.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
So you had.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Florida Supreme Court decision on Monday sets the stage for
a Drrconian new reality in reproductive rights. According to New
York Times, the decision quote overturned decades of legal precedent.
The court ruled that the statesitution privacy protections do not
extend to abortion. This effectively allows Florida to ban the
procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
While the court ruled fourth to three.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
That a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right
to abortion quote before viability usually around twenty four weeks,
could go on the November ballot. Activists are calling it
a politically motivated decision. You think, and then they also say, quote,
this ruling puts politics over the health and wellbeing of
people who need care, their families, and their communities, said

(17:31):
Lupe M. Rodriguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute
for Reproductive Justice. So obviously a lot of scary, politically
motivated stuff. I mean, this topic of abortion unfortunately is
not going anywhere. It seems like we're just getting more
and more extreme. And I like this article because they
talk about who's actually really going to be affected when

(17:53):
these things happen, right, So they say in the end,
Latina's and women of color are again the most impacted,
along with Chado Valero, Florida State manager of the Institute,
Rodriguez warrens of this decision's impact on Latinas, saying, quote,
abortion bands do nothing to protect anyone's health or safety,
and we know that the impact will fall hardest on

(18:14):
Latinas and other communities of color, they added in a statement. Furthermore,
the most recent data support this assertion. According to a
report by the National Partnership for Women and Families, nearly
six point seven million Latinas, forty three percent of all
Latina's ages fifteen to forty nine, live in.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
These twenty six states.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
So you're saying that nearly six point seven billion Latinas,
forty three percent of all Latina's ages fifteen to forty
nine are living in just these twenty six states. And
these twenty six states have banned or are likely to
ban abortion. We represent the largest group of women of
color impacted by current state bans, and obviously by we

(18:55):
they mean Latinas. Again, this is an extensive article. I'll
leave a link in in.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
The show notes. It's just more of the same.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Like I don't really know, you know, I don't have
like a take on this one, because it's like, it's
it's just scary. And again, those who have the money,
those who have the means, to those who have the access,
this doesn't mean shit to them. They can go fly
to states that are you know, not imposing abortion bands

(19:25):
and they can go ahead and do what they want.
It's going to affect those who don't have the money
or stature. It's going to affect particularly communities of color
who are already marginalized, you know. And it's just a
scary sort of time. And I think I say this constantly,
but you know, there really is no line anymore as

(19:45):
far as how far a politician is.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
Willing to go to win a vote.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
They literally will do whatever it takes, regardless of whose
life life they're putting in danger just to secure a
vote from their radical fan base. And that I think
is what's scarier than anything else. You know, It's like
there really is no line anymore, right, there's no moral
compass anymore.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
It's just what.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Next crazy fucking thing can we do to secure more
votes from our base? And yeah, I don't That is
an insane way to be living, a scary place to
be as a country. And I just bring it up.

(20:35):
I talk about it because I don't want it to
get swept under the rug or anything like that, or
for us to normalize these crazy actions from these people.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
But I don't have a solution.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think the only good thing here is that if
this ends up on the ballot in November.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
People can use their their voices and.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Decide against it, right, I believe in I Oh, that
was one of the things as well, that it was
on the ballot and those who are in favor of
pro choice won that. Uh, that that battle, So you know,
that's that's all we can do. Again, like they said,
you know, until November, this could recavoc on a lot
of people's lives and and change the course of a
lot of people's lives unfortunately. But you know, we have

(21:20):
to keep having these conversations, keep being aware of it,
and those of you who are in Florida, if you
disagree with this, you will have your chance to devoice
your opinion in November.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
It sounds like, so that's it. That's all we could
could really say.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
It's I hate like, I understand the importance of these
stories and obviously I want to talk about them because
they're important, but.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
I also get.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
It's hard to not get a little bit obvio seause
I'm like a person who wants like a beginning, middle
and end. I need closure, and with these stories, you
never get closure because it's just a reminder of how
fucking up the world is right now. So I always
get a little down when I when I read this stuff,
and I feel like I don't have an actionable step
for people. But you know, that's unfortunately the the world
that we live in, and and you know, when we

(22:07):
have a chance to devote and haven't always heard, we
do that where we just have a conversation about it
and make sure people are aware of what is going on.
Right That's that's all we could do unfortunately right now.
So with that said, we're gonna take a little break.
We're gonna decompress a little bit, and then we'll have
have more on.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
The other side of that. All right, we are back,
and let's start.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
I want to get into here from the nonsense the BS,
let's talk about AI and the fears that a lot
of people have as far as artists go. Right with music,
we're talking about specifically here, and this is a really
interesting conversation. I want to I want to dive into

(22:50):
it a bit because obviously I mean, I mean, I
love music. It affects someone like myself. I work where
I have worked in the music industry and I dabble
in it still. But AI is really interesting. It's something
that obviously has the ability to help out so much
and already is in a creative aspect, I think, especially

(23:12):
for people who are like small entrepreneurs, small creatives like myself,
where we can automate certain things and give it to AI,
and you know, because we don't have a huge budget,
it allows us to save money there, you know, like
certain things like graphic design and Canva and all these
different things or copywriting and stuff.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
I see the benefit there.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
But as with any sort of technology, like Spider Man says,
great power comes with great responsibility, right like social media.
Social media is incredible with its ability to connect all
of us and to give us all the platform to
be heard, but when taken too far or not used
for good, it can be incredibly scary.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
And actually I was gonna do this other article, but
I don't have time to really dive into it.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
But there was another article talking about how Meta or
Facebook was actually selling or did sell private messages from
users to Netflix as it means to sort of get
a better gauge of like what.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
People are interested in.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
And it's all kind of you know, there's a lawsuit
pending about that.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
I want to dive into it.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Maybe we'll touch on it next episode when I've had
some more time to research it. But again, like that
kind of begins to show you these tools that we
have that are incredible end up oftentimes getting put in
the wrong hands and cause chaos to our society essentially, right,
like our private messages, our private messages you know that

(24:38):
we might have had with friends, family, loved ones. Are
they being sold to some corporation as it means to
like mind information.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
That's a scary thought.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
And again, we're all signing up for it when we,
you know, sign the terms and conditions and we sign
up for a new social media platform. But it just
sounds crazy when you really think about it. So AI
is another one of those things. We got to kind
of be careful of it and people are trying to
guess to get ahead of it now, which is good
social media.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
We definitely didn't do that.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
So you have more than two hundred well known musicians
including Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, among others, signing
an open letter requesting safeguards against the use of artificial
intelligence for predatory purposes that imitate sounds, voices, and appearances
of human artists and what I feel anybody that's not

(25:26):
familiar a lot of like you can basically in AI.
There was like an AI Drake song I think that
came out, or AI Weekend song that was like, you know,
doing crazy numbers. Basically, somebody can write lyrics put it
into AI like an AI program. The AI program would

(25:47):
then spit out what sounds like Drake or the Weekend
singing those lyrics and to the average listener, they're not
going to know if this is actually Drake or if
it's AI, right, And that's the scare part. So they say,
quote in the letter, they say, quote, this is soul
on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against

(26:08):
the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists voices
and likeness.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
And again, I think on the surface, if you're not
very passionate about music, you could say, well, this is
a bunch of rich people complaining about things. This is
technology changing. They're gonna come for all of us, right,
Like they're gonna be able to replicate what all of
us do essentially, and we're gonna all be out of

(26:39):
work potentially, or the arts you know, will be so
diluted and not valuable anymore whatsoever. I mean ship music
has basically become that because of technology, because of streaming services,
music has no real value anymore in the monetary sense, right.

(26:59):
The stream services have taken that away and normalized the
idea that artists will create this body of work and
not directly be able to get real profit or compensation
for it, right.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
And I know that that sounds again it's like, oh.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Well, these are these people already millionaires. They're making money
in so many other ways.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Sure, but.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Like any one of us, you are are going to
want to be compensated for the work that you do. Right,
that's just a fact. And I think again, it might

(27:46):
start here with the music, but where does it end
at that point?

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Right? That's what we sort of have to understand.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
This is just the very beginning, and if we don't
begin to put guardrails in place, there's no telling where
this of ai thing, you know, ends up going. Because
the people behind it don't give a fuck about the
human beings that are going to be sort of, you know,
thrown for a loop and whose lives are going to
be upended.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
They care about their product.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Being used and being valuable, and for them, if they
can automate everything, that means, you know, these big corporations
no longer have to pay salaries and benefits all those things.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
So of course they're going to be all about this.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
And that's why we the everyday person have to be
paying attention to what's going on now closing out this article,
they say. In March, Tennessee became the first US state
to enact legislation directly intended to protect musicians from having
their vocal likeness generated by AI for commercial purposes.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
The Ensuring Likeness, Voice and.

Speaker 2 (28:43):
Image Security Act, or ELVIS Act, goes into effect on
July first, makes it illegal to replicate an artist's voice
without their consent.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
This according to The Guardian.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
The Artist Rights Alliance is a nonprofit organization run by
music industry veterans such as board member Roseanne Cash, order
of Johnny Cash. It's unclear how the organization of recruited
the artists who signed the letter, which includes country stars
such as Casey Musgraves, rappers such as Q Tip, and
younger indie pop artists including Chappelle Ron. The letter does
not call for an outright ban of the use of

(29:15):
AI in music or production, saying that responsible use of
the technology could have benefits in the industry. However, a
number of contract discussions and strikes by entertainment industry unions
in twenty twenty three were centered on concerns about artificial
intelligence AI being used to make songs and scripts or
create pictures and videos of performers and entertainers. So yeah,
this was also a big gripe in the big writer

(29:37):
strike that we had, the TV and film strike we
had last year. It's scary, man, people's livelihoods are at risk,
and yeah, that happens whenever you bring in new technology.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I get that argument.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
But at the same time, if we can protect people
as well, we can keep the human in things that
we want to be human.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
The art that is created we have, you know, we
have to And for anybody who's not an artist, I
guess it's probably easy to write this off as like
not that important, But I don't know, man. I love art,
I love music, I love creating, and it's scary to
think that we could live in the world where it's

(30:24):
just so devalue that we've taken the human part out
of it, right, because that's what makes it so beautiful
is the imperfection, is the human aspect of it. The
way your mind work, you know, uniquely works and then
produces something out of its head. I don't know, it's
just scary shit. And obviously it doesn't end with is art.
This is going to be like you know, jobs are
going to be automated to AI and things like that and.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
More.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Industries I think need to try and put the guardrails
in place before it's too late. And this has become
a normal part of life, just like social media, so
interesting conversations. I'm curious to kind of see where all
this begins to develop.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
I sh should actually have.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Somebody from the Artist Rights Alliance talking about this stuff.
That'd be a good episode personally, selfishly, I'm gonna look
into that.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Making a metal note here.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Now, with that said, that's the nonsense that's to be
as So let's talk about some positivity. Somebody who's doing
some amazing work right now and will do that in
our Mahente segment. All right, So I wanted to highlight
this story here that I found to be just somebody

(31:32):
doing amazing stuff, right because I'm all about my whole
thing is this.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yes, I believe we should hold the government accountable.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yes, I believe we should be fighting for the powers
that be to do their part, to do their jobs,
to you know, be human at the end of the day,
treat us like human beings. But also, there are a
lot of people who are incredibly powerful, be it their wealth,
their fame, their status, their connections, that could be doing more.

(32:01):
Now I'm talking about celebrities, and again, this conversation all
the time right about when you have this this blessing
of a platform of access, Right, why not use it
for good beyond just your own personal gain?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Right, There's so much a beautiful change that could happen
as a result.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
And I love highlighting people who are actually doing something
like that.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
So you have La La Anthony, who is my teenage
crush from the TRL days, and I still hold out hope.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
That maybe one day me and La La can connect.
You know, I think, I think, I think we you know,
we we we'd work well together. Just throwing that out there.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
If anybody listening to this is a you know, in
some way connected to La Lah Anthony, I'd love to so,
you know, maybe grab a byke one time, you know,
we'll go get some sushi or something in the city.
It'd be nice, just relaxed, chill out, you know, have
some conversation. Anyway, Yeah, big La La fan anyway. So
she is an amazing human being. Aside from being beautiful

(33:00):
and incredibly talented, she's actually working to get young black
men who are.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Incarcerated real rehabilitation. And this is beautiful. Right.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
So she has a program called the three sixty Program
at the Robert ND. Davren Complex at Rikers Island, which
Rikers Island is a infamous prison in New York that
is known for just being god awful. Basically circumstances for
these men to be living in and I'm not sure
if they have a women's war, but the people that
are you know, housed there, the inmates, it's just god

(33:33):
awful circumstances. So in this program that she has La
LA provides mentorship, life coaching, legal services, and re entry
tools to incarcerat men aged eighteen to twenty one. One
of the many elements that make the program unique is
the team's effort to foster one on one connections with
each of the young men. And this is amazing. This

(33:56):
is like another another side passion of mine. And one day,
when I have maybe more mental capacity, I would love
to do more things with the prison system.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Because it's such a sort of.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Hypocritical thing, right, the modern prison system.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
These are people who are in prison for their crimes, right,
and then they're sent to prison to rehabilitate them, right,
or to pay their debt to society, and you create
these conditions of prison that are oftentimes worse than the real.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
World outside which I get it to a degree.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
It's punishment. It's not supposed to be club med. But
you're actually oftentimes the stories that you hear, you're making
these people into worse individuals than they were going in
because of all these shit that they go through while
being imprisoned. Right, So, most people are not going being

(35:01):
sent to prison for life. They are going to be
let out at a particular time, and you're not providing them.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
With tools to actually.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
A be adjusted into the real world properly, right, or
to be be able to be you know, functioning citizens
and obviously know the different programs and things like that,
but the shit they've gone through, the trauma they go
through in prison, you know, it's ridiculous when you hear
these stories, but also the things that got them into prison, right, Like,

(35:38):
prison should be more about rehabilitation than anything else, right,
Because if you're somebody who committed a crime, whatever it
might be, obviously you are lacking something in your life
and that's why you committed it. Right. We're oftentimes treating

(35:59):
the symptom rather than the disease, is what I'm trying
to get at here.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Right.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
So it's like it's easy to just be like, yep,
this person stabbed somebody. Now they're going to prison and
you're gonna you're gonna pay for what you did.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Okay, I agree with that to a degree.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
But also, if we really want to make substantial change
and ensure that these people are not going to re
enter the prison system, we have to address what got
them there in the first place. So, yeah, the stabbing
in this hypothetical situation is the symptom, But what's the
actual disease? What is going on in this person's life

(36:38):
that normalized the idea of them stabbing somebody? Right, that's
what should be treated. Because you treat that, you're then
giving that person a far better opportunity to live a
normal and fulfilling life and be a productive member of
society because you have actually treated the very thing that
was holding them back from being a normal, functioning, for

(37:00):
active member of society.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
And I think that is what.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Is is sort of missing in today's prison system. It's like,
the idea is, we don't want to just throw people
away and then you know, cruelly punish them and make
them even more traumatized than they were going in. It's like,
the reality is most of these people are going to

(37:24):
have to function back in normal society, so why not
do everything we can to give them the best tools
possible to lead happy and healthy lives because it's only
going to make our society that much better.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
And that's why.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Programs like this one, like what Laala's doing is amazing
because this is actual rehabilitation, right life coaching, mentorship, legal services,
re entry tools.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
That is real rehabilitation. Because just because.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Someone made a mistake in their life at one point
doesn't mean that they are doomed. But unfortunately, the way
the system is set up now for most of them, yeah,
you're just gonna keep getting reinforced the worst parts of
yourself and retraumatize and your most people. A lot of
times this statistics show will end up back in prison,

(38:19):
But we could be doing our part to actually help
people and give them the tools to be functioning, healthy
members of society. I think that's what's missing it in
the prison system in general. Like when you think about
there's people sitting in prison for nonviolent weed defenses right now,
which is while meanwhile I'm driving, you know, around my area,

(38:41):
and I'm passing by multiple fucking weed dispensaries. Like it's
just crazy, crazy shit, man. Like I've tried to say,
crazy world, be living because like I said, it too much,
but it just doesn't add up. And then the you know,
private prisons and how they actually end up profiting, so
like there's more of a incentive to keep them you know,
full of people, and it's.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Just you dive into this ship. Man.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
It's a really fucked up system and we need more
people doing their part. And I love when somebody understands
that they have a platform, they have access, they have
the ability to do something and they take it upon themselves.
They don't just wait for the powers that be to
do it, you know. So Shatala La and this work,
I think it's it's amazing. I would love to see
more things like that. Now, with that said, I want

(39:23):
to get y'all's take on, of course, the well based
on the Shakir story. I want to get y'all's take
for I ask a Gringo segment. But first we'll take
a quick break and then we'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Ask question.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
All Right, So this one, I got so many fucking
responses and so many conflicting responses.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
I'm gonna try and get to as many.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
I'm gonna try to do a little bit more extra
than I normally would, but people really heeded about this conversation, right,
And based on the Barbie conversation, based on sequire, right,
I asked, is modern feminism emasculating men?

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Can men not be men anymore? Right? That's not my opinion.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
That is like the conversation that happens that is being
derived from ones like Shakira saying that Barbie felt emasculating
for men and then talking about the idea of like
the conversation of how you know there are certain things
how women can do everything but they don't want but
just because a women can do it all doesn't mean
she should and whatever? At least is this topic of

(40:35):
modern feminism, right? And let's define feminism first and foremost,
because I think this.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Is where it starts.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Feminism the definition is the advocacy of women's rights on
the basis of equality of the sexes. So based on
that definition, this isn't about trashing the other sex or
one being better than the other. Feminism just means equal rights.

(41:05):
That's it, equal pay, equal opportunity, that's it. Right Now,
feminism in the modern sense, when you have people going
to the Taylor Swift School of feminism and this very
superficial understanding of it and the idea that in order
to be a feminist you have to shoot on men.
That's where we start getting very clouded, right, And I'm

(41:29):
not saying that that's what Barbie was. I think I
think Barbie Barbie used humor in that, right, But again,
there was a deeper message happening. And I think.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
I'd also like.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
To just say, because I feel like this is such
a hot butt topic, I have to preface.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
This because people be tripping.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
This is this is like, this is you know, I'm
gonna I'm gonna just give kind of my take on
it as well and hear your takes on it, and
we could all have a nuanced conversation about it. This
is what is supposed to happen in intellectual environments. We're
gonna have differences of opinion. I'm gonna agree with certain things,

(42:09):
I'm gonna disagree with other things. Doesn't mean both of
our ways of life can't coexist together. Doesn't mean one
of us is a bad person the other one is good.
There's not a winner, that's not a loser. We can
have similar opinions, differences of opinions. That's the beauty of
dialogue and having actual intellectual conversation. So I want to
preface that because just from what I sort of like

(42:30):
was quickly looking over some of the answers I got,
we're all over the spectrum here, so I don't want
to rush to judge anybody. So I'm gonna read a
few of the responses that a guy as many as
I can, because there's a lot of good ones here.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
So let's see here, all right, We're gonna read let.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Me see at Okayla podcast responded saying, thinking feminism is
emasculating is wild. That's literally the patriarchy talking. I feel
like people don't really know what feminism is. It's literally
advocating for women's rights, equality of the sexes. If women

(43:09):
having equal rights to men makes men feel less than, well,
that's only that. That only says something about those men.
I think you hit the nail on the head right there.
We gave the proper definition of what feminism is. Now,
now what I will say to that, and obviously you

(43:32):
have a grasp of what feminism is. What ends up happening, though,
is we go from women advocating for equal rights, which
again duh, absolutely on board with, but then the surface

(43:53):
level understanding of feminism leads to then a narrative of
sort of this conversation of male bashing or.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
Sort of.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
I'm trying to think of my wording here, right, And
by the way, this is oftentimes what and I'm not
shaming anything, right, It's like, it's if you guys want to,
if you want to have a real deep level conversation here,
it's the same way people of color make fun of
white people, right. We do that because it empowers us

(44:28):
to a degree, because we have felt so disempowered by
them for so long. So now we look for opportunities
to build ourself up. And that's human nature. I do
it as well, right, And that's what that if you
want of a real conversation where we get really deep
in the woods here, that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
But we make fun of white people and generalize.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
We're doing that as a sort of I don't know
if it's the trauma response, but it's a response to
what we feel like we've been dealing with for soul
from that marginalized group, right, I mean from that as
a marginalized group, I should say. And that's what is
happening oftentimes in like media, social media, posts where it

(45:13):
is men getting shit on by women now because for
so long men were the ones in charge degrading women
and not letting them.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Have a seat at the table. Right.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
So now the opposite response is when you get a
little bit of power, when you get a voice, you
sort of take on the role of almost like reverse bullying.
And again I do it when I talk about white
people a lot, or I say white people.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
It's normal.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
And as I'm saying that to a degree, I'm like, well, listen,
we have been degrading women as a society for so long.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
We could probably you know, put on.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Our our thicker skin and take some of these lashings
because we deserve it.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
We've done it for so long as men.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
And I'm generalizing here, right, So I am not gonna
fucking cry to the hills because a woman says all
metter trash or something like that, right, Because again, I
understand that if we're really having a deep, nuanced conversation,
this is the effects of a group of people being

(46:32):
held down for so long that now they're taking their
shots where they can. And I don't think it's like
it's I don't know if it's I don't think it's useful, right,
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
I don't think me making fun of white people is
useful necessarily, right.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
If I don't think it's actually doing anything, it makes
me feel a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
But I don't think.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
It's actually progressing much of anything, right, It's not really
moving the needle, just like I don't think bashing Ben
While I unders stand why it's happening, and I'm again
not gonna.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Cry about it, but.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
I don't think it's actually, you know, helping any sort
of real progression. But that's what's happening. And again, this
is us having deep conversation right now, This is what
intellectual conversation is really fucking sweeping under the under the
fucking couch and the sofa, right and not getting upset

(47:29):
with the other person because they're saying the quiet part
out loud. In order for us to really progress and
have these conversations, we have to be unafraid to say
the quiet part out loud, like that's like, you know,
so don't attack me for saying the quiet part out
loud when we have these conversations. We truly want to
really have these conversations, with which I hope we do
so that's uh. That was one of the response we
got here, and then we're gonna have, obviously, on the

(47:51):
the polar opposite over here, responses that were, there's a
lot of a lot, a lot of opinions of this,
the polar opposite of it. Here you have Ats Malibia says,
sure is sassy men apocalypse is what we call it.
Interesting Also add Ariel Griggs says, oh my god, one

(48:16):
to make a long story short, women aren't the same.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
So and these are both women by the way, saying this,
And I think this is where we begin to.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
I feel like we're conflating a lot of different things.
I think these are also the results of people not
understanding what feminism is.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
On both sides, by the.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Way, you have the people who don't understand the definition
and just and like you don't wanna wanna shit on
feminism because they want to just demean it essentially because
they don't really understand what it means. Then you have
the people who are claiming to be feminists that are
not actually understanding what feminist is and musing as it
means to shit on men essentially, right, and it just

(49:04):
begins to cloud the entire conversation.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
And convolute the entire conversation at hand.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Right, And then I think there really is an effect
of that, Right, there's an effect that happens. This is
why this is such a tough conversation because it's nuanced. Right,
it's not just about real feminism the definition of it.
What ends up happening is like the social media definition
of it. The superficial, surface level definition of it ends

(49:30):
up becoming popularized because of social media, and it becomes
the narrative that takes over people's minds. So now most
people don't think of feminism as the basis of equality
of the sexes. They think of it as, oh, it's
women's opportunity to shit on men essentially. Right, that's what
ends up happening because of things like social media, which
then leads to these narratives that create really interesting societal constructs.

(49:57):
And I think that's what we're seeing with some of
these responses right, or where they're blaming feminism for men
not being men anymore, men are sassy now, or on
the other side, women aren't women anymore? Right, And again,
you're not blaming actual feminism, you're blaming the superficial understanding

(50:17):
of it that social media and society has decided to
run with and I'm gonna dive more to that.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
I want to read the one of the other responsors
I thought led right into this as well.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
DJ mcreek says it caused an over correction resulting in
a masculating men to a point, and I love that word.
If you listen to the podcast I often talk about
over corrections. Things often start with the best intention in mind,
right like the feminist movement, women's empowerment, girl Boss, all

(50:50):
these things amazing done with great intentions in mind for
women to step into their power, to no longer be
made to feel less than, but to be rightfully so
be viewed as the equals that they are. But then
what oftentimes happens again, the message starts getting more and

(51:10):
more diluted via things like social media. We start connecting
things to it that actually were never originally meant to
be a part of it. Then that becomes the face
of this movement that once started as one thing, it
now becomes something else. And that's where the over correction happens.
And by the way, the over corrections happen regardless of

(51:34):
like your point of view, your political stance obviously on
the right, there's an overcorrection happening where Donald Trump is
the voice of these people and their extremist views. But
even on the left right, and I'm somebody who's traditionally
voted Democrat, on the left, you have people who are
overcorrecting when it comes to you know, the idea of

(51:55):
like this is why people hate the word woke, because
somebody people are over correcting when it comes to that.
They're offended by absolutely everything you say. You have an opinion,
I'm offended, right, And this is what I was alluding
to before, right where I was saying, if I have
an opinion on a woman, even if it's not about
her being a woman, I'm a misogynist. Right. I had
posted a thing about Jennifer Lopez and all that was

(52:16):
happening with her on my Instagram, and I gave sort
of my opinion about her not living in her authenticity,
and it's that's sort of where the backlash is coming from,
and people who are fans of hers or didn't agree
with my take rushed to not critique my take, but
rushed to call me a misogynist. Nothing I said in

(52:39):
there was mentioned of her being a woman, My take
or my critique if you can even call it, because
I don't feel like I really critiqued her had anything
to do with her being a woman. She just happens
to be a person in the news that I'm talking
about that just happens to be a woman. But the
weaponization of it now is, oh, you're a misogynist if

(53:02):
you have a critique to say anything about this person
as a woman. And that's an overcorrection right now, if
I said, I'm not even gonna somebody to clip this
and make it seem like, you know, because it's social
media set all about the headline. But if I critique
anything about her based upon being a woman, right then
that would make me a misogynist, right because then I'm

(53:22):
having a critique on her based upon the fact that
she's a woman. But again, that's an example of an
over correction, and I get where it's coming from. We
live in a misogynistic society traditionally, where men critique women
because they're women, woul give a whole nother reason, right,
So I understand where it's coming from. But at the

(53:44):
same time, just because I understand the cause of it
doesn't mean we then get to apply it as if
that's really what's happening, right, and that's this this sort
of deeper conversation where the over correction begins to happen,
whereas now there is a real conversation about statistics stating

(54:08):
that men are actually afraid to approach women out and
about now, right, and to a degree this is caused
by men, right, I'm not taking that away men cat calling,
men being incredibly inappropriate to women in the workplace or out,
and about not having respect that those have been very
real things, and the overcorrection, of course, is the fault

(54:33):
of those men who were very disrespectful. But now we
have a new set of problems where you have another
part of the population claiming that men are sassy, right,
I don't remember what the wording was, or men are
no longer men because they don't have the guts to
go up to a woman anymore, or there's like, you know,
you hear this all time on, like you know, there's

(54:53):
a dating crisis of people meeting in real life or
things like that because men do not feel confident or
comfort going up to women because of all the sort
of stigmas that are attached to it. Now again, yes, men,
you cause that, but it doesn't take away from the
fact that now we have a new issue we have
to address, right. And I think this whole idea of

(55:15):
feminine and masculine and all these different things, this is
like a whole other episode that I probably could have.
I'll probably get like an expert on it to really
dive into it. But again, we're no longer just talking
about feminism anymore. We're talking about all these sort of
derivatives of social media's version of feminism that now have
made their way into our world and our society and

(55:37):
all the topics of conversation.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Right. But the you know, this brings me to like
I can go.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Into so many different things, like even in psychology, men
have a feminine aspect to them and men have a
maskul aspect of the vice versa. Right, women have a
masculine men have femine. Like it's we have each of
each other inside of us, right.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
And there are.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Particular roles traditionally historically that men and women have played
that feel incredibly natural to us as men and women.
Not to say a woman can't do it, not to
say a man can't do it, but there are certain
ways where you ever hear people like, Oh, I feel
the man allowed this guy like allows me to be
comfortable in my feminine right, allows.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Me to feel sort of safety.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Doesn't mean you can't defend yourself, but being able to
let that guard down in a.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
Healthy, safe relationship, you know, is a positive right.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Just like for me in a healthy relationship, I don't
have to be masculine, macho, tough guy all the time.
I can embrace, you know, the softer side of myself.
And only a woman allows you to really do that, right,
you know, And I'm speaking as a heterosexual male in
my own experiences. Or it feels nice to be able

(56:52):
to feel like the protector or the provider, right, Not
that I don't think she could do that, but personally,
for myself, feels good to be the guy holding.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
The door open.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Right to be the one making sure that whatever it's
little stupid things you have gased in your car, blah
blah blah whatever. Right that makes me feel good as
a man. To fulfill that traditional role doesn't make me toxic,
just means that that feels good. And again, if she's
not comfortable with that, then yeah, I have to deviate
from fulfilling that role, and I think I'm I'm going

(57:23):
to pause sort to a degree on this conversation because
it's so this isn't this is an entire episode, but
I think to sort of surmise all we've been talking
about here, The problem is not feminism. The problem is
the misconstruing of it that is done by people who

(57:44):
don't actually understand it on an intellectual level. Then it
becomes popularized on a superficial level through social media, and
then we begin reacting to the superficial version of it,
and that's I think the problem we're running into. That's
where the overcorrections begin to happen, and we begin to

(58:08):
just get into a weird place where nobody really knows
how to act right or nobody feels comfortable essentially right
in just being themselves. And I hope that that made
that made sense again, Like, this is a really deep conversation.
That's deeper, you know, the the all that we're talking
about is far deeper than the surface level shit that

(58:32):
I think people are sort of seeing.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
And yeah, I don't know, maybe I've canceled this conversation.
I don't know, y'all tell me, but.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
I just think we got to be open to hearing
different perspectives and being able to like understand what really
is or isn't the purpose of this movement, what has
been diluted. It's like, uh, A good example I'll leave
you with is like Machine Gun Kelly, the artist, he

(59:01):
transitioned from making rap music to making like pop punk,
right is the genre of rock music that he was
making for like.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
The last two albums.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
MGK successful popular doing those projects. But if you're a
purist of that genre of music of rock or pop punk,
you're not going to necessarily be like, this is the
greatest thing ever. You're gonna say, well, actually, there's been
bands that are way better at this genre doing this
music forever.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
That's who I'm a fan of. Right.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
But MGK is the watered down version of it, the
pop version of it that then becomes appealing to the masses.
Right where the traditional pop punk bands that are like
in that scene, their ceiling is a bit lower because
they're not making music that is going to transition into

(59:54):
everybody liking it it becoming popular music. Right because it
still has that you know, it's not watered down. Then
somebody like MGK comes along waters it down just enough
where it has references to the original style, to the
original inspiration, but is watered down enough and and sort
of brought down to the fifth grade reading level. Now

(01:00:16):
it becomes massively popular to everybody, to the mainstream. And
that's what happens with concepts like feminism. Right, the actual
concept of it is very clear, concise, but there's you know,
then going to be the social media version of it
that waters it down to become something else that is
a little bit more entertaining. Right, Shooting on men is

(01:00:38):
a little bit more entertaining, and you know, the dialogue
that happens by people that aren't intellectual reacted to it
is oftentimes going to be a bit more entertaining for
the masses. So then the popular definition of feminism.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Is not the real definition of it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
I think I'm fucking trying to get this concise that
I'm making even more complicated. But the version that becomes
popular is oftentimes the diluted version that is not intellectual
and is the fifth grade reading level version of it.
And I think that's what we're seeing, that's what's become normalized,
and that's what people are reacting to in their everyday lives.
And again, it's not actual feminism that we're talking about anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
That's what I think I could be way off base.
I'm gonna do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
I want to get like somebody who studies this for
a living, and I'll do this like a whole episode
with them and just have a conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
That's my thoughts. If I'm canceled, It's been a great run.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
I appreciate each of you who have been supporting me
prior to this, and don't hate me if my opinion
is different than yours.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
It's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
I'm still the same guy. I'm still the same guy
you've been supporting for three seasons.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
All right. I can have a difference of opinion than
you and we can still co exist together. I love you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
With that said, let's tie everything we talked about today
the neat little boat in a second.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
We call conclusion. STU time for conclusion. We got into
it today, y'all.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
I'm gonna quickly summize this Shakira's views on Barbie and
whatever toxic masculinity and massilization and feminism we got into
the woods here. I think, my listen, this is an
intellectual conversation. Most people are not willing to take the

(01:02:23):
time to actually look at something from an intellectual point
of view, and that's why we have weird opinions like
this one. That's why people are mad at the world.
That's why people hate men, and men hate themselves and
all the conversations that we're having, it's the lack of
people understanding nuance and wanting to actually have to have

(01:02:44):
a real intellectual conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
And instead we have the watered down, diluted version of it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Things get misconstrued and we end up in just a
weird place as a society where people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Just hate everything.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
I don't know, I don't know what else to say
about it, but I feel like I dove into that
pretty deep, so I don't think we need to get
any further into it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Abortion rights, man, like another exhausting topic.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
The only good thing is that this one is voters
will eventually be able to decide in November on this one.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
When it comes to Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
We just got to use the avenues that we have available,
use your vote, use your voice, if you have a platform,
talk about this stuff, and do what you can to
participate in these conversations in any way possible to bring.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
To light just this horrendous part of our history right now.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
It's happening with women's right being taken away, you know,
their right to choose just being taken away.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
It's horrendous.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
And furthermore, the lack of morality and the a line
that keeps being crossed just for the sake of gaining
votes is disgusting.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
That's really my takeaway when I see things like this,
AI scare shit man.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
And even if you're not an artist, eventually they're going
to be coming for all of our jobs, regardless of
what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
And these companies don't give a fuck. The big companies
love this shit.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
They cannot wait to not have to pay your salary
and your benefits. And we have to create guidelines and
put the guardrails in place early, right now while we
still can, before this whole thing gets out of hand
and the world is run by robots and we take
the human aspect out of every single thing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
And that's the reality.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I don't mean to be like doomsday issh, but that's
a real reality we potentially could be facing. And lastly,
Anthony doing this work to help men with real rehabilitation,
you know, incarcerated men.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Again, this speaks to what's in my heart so deeply.
Anybody who has a platform, access, financial means, connections, networks.
It's not technically your job, but if you want to
see this world be just a little bit better, which
I hope all of us do, yeah, you should make
it your job at the end of day. And I
love people like Laala doing this kind of work, really

(01:05:11):
pushing for rehabilitation for those who made a mistake in
their life and are are serving their time and serving
their debt to society, they should have the best opportunity to.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Get out and when.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Their time is up, get out and be a positive,
contributing member to society.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
And not only benefits them, but it benefits all.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Of us as well to have more people out there
who are, you know, living a positive life and not
one of you know, continuous crime and trauma eventually.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
So yeah, beautiful work. And that's it. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
I'm exhausted by this conversation. I was already fighting being sick,
but now I'm also just exhausted. But I feel like
I was just railing on. I don't even know anymore
at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
So that's it. Weekend is upon us. Enjoy your weekend,
be safe. I'll talk to you on Tuesday with a
brand new episode. Of course, until then, stay safe pace.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
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