Unfiltered Thoughts: Politics, Manhood, and Personal Growth

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
all these years, all these episodes in.
By now you would think that itwouldn't take forever for me to
just press record.
But I've been sitting here forlike an hour just wanting to
press record, and so I'm doingthis show today and I think I'm
going to start doing a show justto kind of provide a show, just

(00:25):
Just to kind of Provide amoment of clarity, because
Between the two shows that I doevery week, because I'm talking
to people Instead of justtalking to To whoever decides to
listen, I usually don't get toGet my points across All the way
In the way that I want to,because then it would just be me

(00:49):
talking, and if it's just goingto be me talking, then I should
do a show by myself.
So I'm doing a show by myself.
You know the way I kind ofreally got into podcasting,
because I like talking into amicrophone, because the
microphone doesn't talk back,but then I stopped doing it.

(01:12):
Yo, that's insane.
But hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, it
is ac lee and you're here withme.
I just freestyled that.
But nah, man, I just wanted todo a show by myself so I could

(01:36):
kind of talk about some stuffthat I want to talk about and
that I talk about on the showwith people.
On the show with people, buttalk to it without people so
that I can talk as long as Iwant to about the topics and not
be cut off and not getdistracted or not have to
counter a point or reframe theargument or do any of those
things that you have to do whenyou talk to people.

(01:58):
Because, believe it or not, Ireally like talking, but I don't
like having conversations.
I really like talking, but Idon't like having conversations.
I'm a big monologue guy, youknow.
I like to talk at people.
I don't really be wanting totalk to people and it doesn't

(02:19):
play well for me socially, butit does play well for someone
who has a microphone and a fewpeople in the world who, kind of
halfway, want to hear what hehas to say.
And, honestly, I don't reallyknow where to start because I
got some topics and I've gotsome clarity topics.

(02:42):
Excuse me one second, I have toburp.
That was a deep one too.
That was deep, deep, deep pause, yeah, but hey, I'm going to
start with this.
I do two shows now, right,village Vets and AC Lee and

(03:03):
Parley Pete and I love both ofthe shows.
They're really cool because, Imean, on both shows I'm talking
to my friends.
One show, multiple friends.
Another show, one friend butnonetheless I'm talking to my
friends.
But, dog, sometimes you forgetthat it's work and yeah, you're

(03:28):
talking to your friends, butyou're also talking to your
coworkers and I don't know, man,it's.
It's just interesting trying tobuild stuff with people, because
I'm an only child who likes todo things by myself and do what
I want to do when I want to doit, how I want to do it.
And then when you startbuilding something with people,

(03:49):
you go, oh shit, man, you got tovalue what other people say and
how they feel and theirschedules and their time and
stuff, believe it or not.
That's a struggle for meBecause I can become obsessive
with these, with these projects,and you have to remember that
everybody is not you and theirprocess isn't yours, but that

(04:13):
doesn't mean that their resultisn't what you want from it.
So I say all of that to say ifyou, if you have control issues,
let go and let god, becausewhat's gonna happen is gonna
happen and you can only cancontrol what you can't control.
But anyways, you know, I thinkI talked enough about steve and

(04:33):
braun.
Uh, with parley pete and itworked out that I had the
opportunity to do that topic bymyself, so I'm not gonna do do
too much about him anymore.
I do want to go back to theNelly topic.
Right, you know Nelly talkingabout his son being a man and he
can sleep on a couch and he hasto go.

(04:55):
So I think because there weremultiple opinions going around
and my friends wouldn't shut upand let me deliver my overall
point, then give theircounterpoints, and then shut up
and let me give my counterpointto their counterpoints.
I couldn't say what I wanted tosay and I don't expect them to

(05:17):
just shut up and let me talk.
Right, I don't, I promise you Idon't.
But that's why I'm here havingthis show, so I can just talk
and not be interrupted and haveto have a conversation.
I'm telling you, when you'retrying to present an argument
and you have to actually listento other people, it really

(05:37):
throws off you having anargument.
I digress.
I agree with Nelly saying man,you have to be on the couch, and
not in the sense that I don'tthink that men should be able to
come home, because I've movedback home.
Yeah, I've moved back in withmom, kind of doing that right
now.
I have a plan, so it's okay,right, but moving back in with

(06:06):
mom isn't my permanent solutionand can't be.
My permanent solution and Ithink that's what Nelly was
getting at Is that, as a man,your permanent solution can't be
staying at home with mommy anddaddy or daddy or whichever
parent right, staying at homewith mommy and daddy or daddy or

(06:30):
whichever parent right.
As a man, your permanentsolution has to be rooted in you
taking care of yourself and youfiguring out how to accomplish
your goals.
And todd didn't really get intoit, but his pushback and
calling and saying that hey, bro, you got to get out.
Stupid is that there are so manyyoung black people who miss out

(06:52):
on home ownership earlierbecause they are forced to move
out of their parents house, eventhough they have a plan,
they're responsible, they'remature, uh, and they were going
to respect the house.
They have to pay rent all theseyears.
So they keep paying rent, keeppaying rent, keep paying rent,
which disables them fromstacking bread.
So that conversation, yeah, Iget that, but again, that's

(07:17):
someone with a plan at.
What's your plan?
And guess what?
I have to be complicit withyour plan in order for it to
work that way.
Right?
What if I'm not complicit?
So how do you figure it out?
It's on you grown man, because,guess what, when I'm not here,
you can't fall back on me.
When your mom's not here, youcan't fall back on her.

(07:42):
It's you have to figure it out.
And that was the point, right?
Sometimes we want to make it soeasy For the next generation so
that they can do more than whatwe did, right?
But the hard times Sometimescreate better people.
Oftentimes create better people.
And I truly and honestlybelieved I couldn't move back

(08:08):
home long-term.
Right, and because I truly andhonestly believe that I've tried
to set myself up and put myselfin situations where I would
never have to move back home.
Now, do I think my mom wouldallow me to be homeless?
No, do I think.
If I told my mom hey, mom,here's what I want to do and

(08:30):
here's my long-term goal, can Iexecute that from here?
Would the answer be yes, morethan likely.
But do I get the freedoms that Iwant in my home?
What's more important to me?
Right, so that's where it getsfunny, right, it becomes.

(08:51):
What's more important to you?
Is it stacking money and livingunder circumstances you don't
like?
Yeah, yes, maybe.
Or is it living in a way thatyou would like but you can't
stack as much money?
I don't know.
But the crazy thing about it isgrown man.

(09:14):
That's for you to figure out.
And that's why I love Nellysaying hey, son, you have to
sleep on the couch.
And that's why I love Nellysaying, hey, son, you have to
sleep on the couch because youcan only be here temporarily
while you're figuring it out.
But at the end of the day, youhave to figure it out.
I can't figure it out for you,because how can you provide a

(09:35):
protect for someone else, bringa woman into your life, bring
new life into this world, if I'mstill providing and protecting
for you?
So now I'm providing andprotecting for them.
And this comes from traditionalgender roles.
Right For his daughter, I willprovide and protect for you

(10:01):
until someone else who you deemworthy can provide and protect
for you.
You, and that's okay.
But see, because the daughterdoes not necessarily have the
requirement to provide andprotect.
Now, do I think women should beable to provide and protect?
Yes, but do I think womenshould have to provide and
protect.
No, and the reason why we havethese conversations, we have

(10:23):
these gender wars, is because wehave a lot of men who come from
a generation of women who wereproviders and protectors and
they're looking for that inwomen.
And then women are deciding tobecome providers and protectors,
but then they encounter men whoare providers and protectors
and want a woman to be a woman,not a provider and a protector.
No, no, no, no, no.

(10:44):
I want you to support me.
Okay, I want to be atraditional man.
You know once they may callmisogynist all of the patriarchy
, all of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now those two meet and it's aclash of the titans, right?
It's an unstoppable forcemeeting an immovable object.

(11:05):
And then what happens?
We have gender wars.
I'm telling you we do.
I used to say the worst thing wedid was give women a college
education.
Joke, right, and the joke beingis that it changed gender roles
in a way that men and womenwere more equal.

(11:26):
So the home, the attitude andbehavior of men had to change in
the home in order to maintainthe home with the women, because
the women had more options andmore stability outside of the
men, right?
Not really a bad thing, a joke,but if we want to piggyback off
of that joke and it's notreally a joke, it's just reality

(11:51):
the worst thing that happenedto the black household was the
removal of the black man,because once the black man was
removed, the next generation ofblack men were raised
differently.
They didn't have the role modelthey learned how to become a

(12:12):
man from what resources theirmother had.
Maybe, maybe it's a grandfather, maybe it's uncles, maybe it's
access to the father, maybe it'sa grandfather, maybe it's
uncles, maybe it's access to thefather, maybe it's just stories
.
It's a lot, but it's notnecessarily a man.
No, no, no, it's not a fatherraising his son to become a man,

(12:39):
it's something a tad bitdifferent.
His son to become a man, it'ssomething a tad bit different.
But also, those daughters wereraised Under that same Premise
and those daughters were raisedto be a woman Without a man,
watching a man and a womaninteract in a house, watching a
woman assume roles that shewould not have to assume If

(13:00):
there was a man in the house,but her taking that in as
natural and normal becausethat's what she sees in her
house, that's what she sees inher friends houses, you know,
and bada bing, you have men andwomen being raised to take care

(13:25):
of themselves and theirhousehold without taking care of
a partner.
I'm a product of that.
I can speak to it.
I know how to run a house.
Like you, I don't worry aboutrunning a house.
Be a great partner.

(13:48):
I don't know if that's my bestattribute, I didn't see it.
So a lot of these things thatyou go through this generation
goes through right.
They go through it for thefirst time when the implications

(14:12):
are on their back, as opposedto experiencing it and being
able to contextualize it Becauseyou watched your parents go
through it.
But then I say all of that tosay, hey, young man, you can,

(14:32):
you should always be able to goback home.
But understand, young man, youshould never want to be back
home.
You always want to be the kingof your castle, to build your
home.
I kind of tie that into theAnthony Mackie comments.
I believe they're on the pivot.
I'm not going to play them.

(14:53):
But long story short, anthonyMackie was talking about the
things he does to make his son aman and, more importantly, how
the view of a straight excuse me, heterosexual black man doesn't
really exist anymore in popularculture and it's unfortunate,

(15:15):
because there's nothing wrongwith being a man and being a
man's man and we get back toFathers not raising Sons for
whatever reasons.
Right, these sons were raisedby their mother, so they have an
edge to them, a side to themthat may be a bit more feminine,

(15:36):
because Mom was doing the bestthat she could.
I'm telling you, I lived it, Iknow it's, I live it, I know
it's okay.
And in that the standard of theman becomes less masculine
because of the heavy feminineinfluence Not saying it's right,
wrong or indifferent, justmaking an observation.

(15:58):
And with that the image of whata man becomes again becomes
more feminine.
But when you have men who areraised by men, who are raised by
men who are raised by men andwant to set the standard of a
man, and they see this and theygo, oh well, this is not what a
man looks like.
But because there are so manymen or there are so many women

(16:24):
who are making decisions aboutwhat we show and what we see and
saying this is the type of manthat I like, this is the type of
man that I know, and again, asa man, saying, hey, this is what
I know to be a man Right, andthe man's men are saying that
we're not really displaying menproperly.
But they're going to getpushback from people who don't

(16:52):
truly know and understandmanhood enough to provide that
pushback.
And then those will be thepeople who define what manhood
is, and that's why we findourselves in a situation where
Thought of the earth, black men,don't see themselves in popular
culture.

(17:12):
But I've got something for you.
I've got some good news.
Popular culture is not culture.
The Internet is just theInternet.
It's not real.
You've got to go outside,you've got to go touch Earth and

(17:35):
what I'll tell you is, once yougo outside and you touch Earth,
you find out what you'relooking for is absolutely there.
What you find out in society isnot as fractured and as filled
with hate as the internet isright, because see, when you're
in the world, when your feet onthe ground, when you're touching

(17:56):
earth, when you're groundingright, when you're grounding,
you got to put a name on it, yougot to put a face on it.
So all that hate that you thinkyou might have inside, it stays
inside.
It don't come out, because yougot to see somebody and you got

(18:18):
to see consequences, to seeconsequences.
And what scares me about theworld we live in is I feel like
we're trying to take awayimmediate consequences to
actions, right or from actions.
Every action has an equal andopposite reaction.
That's accepted, but sociallywe want to act like no, I can do

(18:44):
whatever I want and you have toaccept it for what.
I want you to accept it as noEqual and opposite reaction.
So if you do some wild shit,you should expect some wild shit
in return.
Right, because it's equal andopposite.

(19:08):
Oh god, I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know Newton was going.
Isaac Newton was going to showup today.
I didn't talk to him before Idid this pod.
But lord, have mercy, he's here.
But no, no, no see, we want todo what we want to do how we
want to do it in the way that wethink it should be done, and

(19:30):
not deal with any of thepushback.
Let me circle back to where westarted the show, how I talk
about wanting to just get myshit off and have people who do
shows with me and respond towhat I say and then shut up and
let me cook, right?
No, I don't have that.
Why?
Because I'm dealing with people.

(19:51):
I'm dealing with people that Irespect, because if I didn't
respect the people, I wouldn'tsit across and talk to them.
Well, because I respect them, Iwouldn't treat them in that way
while I'm talking to them.
You're picking up what I'mputting down, right?
So because of that, I understandthe equal and opposite reaction
is that I can't always get mypoints off, get my points across

(20:15):
, because I have to respectfullyengage in conversation with
people who I love and respect,but instead you say, hey, I'm
going to do something outlandishand wild and I don't want that
equal, opposite reaction.

(20:35):
I want that equal and the samereaction, whatever the opposite
of opposite is.
Yeah, you want the equal butopposite, opposite reaction.
So you want to be thrusted.
No, no, no, no, no.
You're supposed to get pushedback and we're supposed to meet
somewhere in the middle.

(20:56):
And when you live in a realworld versus living outside,
that actually happens, right,because I may think something
crazy, but I don't say anythingcrazy, because that equal but
opposite reaction is right therein my face.
That's why you should touchearth.
That's why, if you're somebodywho listens to podcasts, you

(21:17):
should listen to podcasters orcontent creators who touch earth
, because if you keep listeningto these people who live off the
internet talk about theinternet and profit off the
internet.
You're going to be in a worldfull of hurt when you're off the
internet and you're touchingearth.
World full of hurt when you'reoff the internet and you're

(21:38):
touching earth.
But it's crazy.
All of this takes me to where Ireally want to go today, and
it's talk about politics.
I don't talk about politics onmy other shows because I don't
do those shows with people whoare deeply into politics.
They follow politics as much asthey affect their lives, but

(21:59):
they don't actually study thesweet science.
I, for one, study the sweetscience.
I'm a political scientist,right, that's what I got my
undergrad in and I continue tofollow it and keep up with it
because I care about it, itinterests me, and not even
because I want to be apolitician, because I don't, but

(22:22):
I just want to talk about thisa tad bit, right?
So we have a lot going on inthe United States.
We have the tariffs, we haveall these executive orders
coming out and we see our worldchanging right before our hands,
some good, some bad.
I'm not going to speak to whichis which.

(22:43):
I'm just going to speak tosomething to be mindful of.
We talk about it, for everyaction is equal and opposite
reaction.
And how people want toeliminate that from their lives.
They don't want the equal butopposite reaction.
And how people want toeliminate that from their lives.
They don't want the equal butopposite reaction.
They want the opposite butopposite reaction, which is a
positive reaction to what theydo.
That propels them up, right, itpropels them up into a silo.

(23:08):
And then they're now in an echochamber, because that's what we
want.
We just want to build our echochamber so large that the
majority of the people will justsay the things we want to say
here.
They want to say the thingsthat we want to hear, and
they'll hear, and we'll say thethings that they want to hear.
Right, that's that's what we doand that's what's happening

(23:32):
today in politics.
Right, because president Trumpis putting out sweeping
legislature.
And that's what's happeningtoday in politics.
Right, because President Trumpis putting out sweeping
legislature.
And that's crazy.
I should not be saying apresident is putting out
legislature.
I should say a president issigning legislature.
And we've seen presidentsutilize executive orders in

(23:55):
crisis, in times of war, to getimmediate action done, but we
did not ever see that as a basisfor pushing a policy.
We're seeing that today andwe're seeing Congress not step
in, and we're seeing a presidentwho is influencing things that

(24:18):
disrupt the balance of power andthat he actually doesn't even
have the authority to affect.
But we let it happen and by weI mean the American people, our
elected officials.
We allow it to happen and I'mnot complaining about this
because I care about thepolicies that are being affected

(24:39):
.
It's not about that, and thisis why I did not vote for Kamala
Harris.
It had nothing to do withpolitics.
It had everything to do withher not being chosen by the
American people, which is thesame reason why I did not vote
for Donald Trump.

(24:59):
He was a convicted felon.
High crimes and misdemeanorsgets you impeached, or is basis
for impeachment.
Now you have a felony, youcan't.
Even if you have a felony, youcan't join the military.
You can't work for thesegovernment agencies that you are
elected to lead.
So if you don't meet thequalifications to be one of the

(25:21):
persons being led right, howcould you be the leader?
It has nothing to do withpolicy.
Policy aside, could not supporteither side this year because I
understand, as a politicalscience what this democracy was
built on.
And uh, as much as we hate andcomplain about bureaucracy, that

(25:43):
is part of our democracy.
Why?
Because it makes change smoke,it creates.
There's processes that vetchange and sometimes it affects
good change negatively, but itkeeps the ship afloat during the

(26:09):
storm.
Now, when there's no storm, youmay not need it and it's
annoying because it happens.
But the idea of America beingAmerica is that we're never too
high, we're never too low andthat everyone matters.
But when you have a billionairepresident surrounding himself
with billionaires like Elon Muskand having them run the country

(26:29):
and slim the government andpush policy, but not only push
policy, but push policy usingalternative means that are
different from what we expect asAmericans, if this policy was
going through the House and theSenate, I'd be okay with it.
Right, because the system isthe system, but it's executive

(26:52):
orders which Congress doesn'thave much say over.
It's a Congress, a limp dickCongress, who won't stand up
against the president.
You understand what I'm saying.
So these are the things thatshould scare you about the
stability of America.
Damn inflation.
Damn the markets.
They'll correct themselves.

(27:12):
Damn the markets still correctthemselves.
But when you have the elite, theelite Not influencing policy,
but creating policy themselvesand pissing on you and telling
you that it's pissing.

(27:33):
You're like, oh damn, it'sraining.
That's what you need to beafraid of, that's what you
should be worried about andthat's what you should fight
against, right?
So, in your grassroots groupsor if you just go to the polls,
if you believe in what Americatruly is the land of the free

(27:53):
and home of the brave, the landof opportunity, a government
built on checks and balances youwill allow that ideology to
guide you at the polls.
But again, you have to askyourself what's most important
to you.
The foundation of thisgovernment is the most important

(28:16):
to you.
The foundation of thisgovernment is the most important
thing to me.
When I go to the polls, mypersonal interests are not why?
Because I'm going to be okayeither way.
I truly believe that.
But that's me.
I'm not asking you to be me,I'm just telling you about me.
So, under a man, bring civicsback to school.

(28:37):
We're obviously a country thatdoes not understand civics.
And you hear the Marjorie Taylorgreens of the world, elon Musk
and even the president Trump'stalking about organizations not
making money, not turning aprofit, yada, yada, yada yada.
Public service is not notturning a profit.

(28:59):
Yada, yada, yada, yada.
Public service is not aboutturning a profit.
It is about making the partsgreater than the sum right, the
sum of the parts being greaterthan the whole right.
That's what public service isabout.
But when you have those who arelooking at it from a business
point of view, a revenueproducing point of view, an
efficiency point of view, youlose what governments are set to

(29:22):
do, and hopefully this showprovided you some clarity on
some of the things that I wantedto talk about this week.
Village Vets will be back onMonday.
Monday 8 o'clock Eastern, youcan catch us, and then AC Lee
and Parley Pete will be back onMonday.
Monday, 8 o'clock Eastern, youcan catch us, and then AC Lee
and Parley P will be back onWednesday.
Love y'all.
Ac Lee out.