August 6, 2023 • 43 mins
Recent polls have shown Democrats’ support has significantly declined among young men, specifically 12th grade high schoolers, lower income, less educated, and even Black and Latino voters. This should come as no surprise, given how Democrats have failed in all areas of long-term cultural engagement, focus on issues that do not resonate with these groups, currently lack a positive vision, as opposed to simply defending against threats from the right, and especially have not engaged adequately in narratives of positive masculinity to counter the right’s claims to vulnerable men. I explain how the Democrats’ current focus on 3 main points: Republicans/Trump are a threat to democracy, Republicans/Trump are a threat to minority identity groups, and “everything is fine now, keep it that way,” have helped in the short-term with more educated voters but ignore or even repel these key groups.
Somewhat paradoxically to conventional political wisdom, I feel that further left and more progressive ideas and groups can achieve far better success in these demographic groups that typical liberal/Democratic politics have left behind. These ideas can address the long-standing issues with material conditions that conservatives and the far-right have pushed false narratives about the cause of and fake solutions in a way liberals simply cannot. And they can create long-term engagement and narratives that combine strength with inclusion to help those who feel abandoned create community and seek true solutions to the systemic causes of their tribulation. There are very real issues that they face which Democrats exclude for short-term political reasons, but need to be addressed by someone. Right now that someone is the right, but it doesn’t have to be. Even if Democrats cannot address them, left-wing groups outside the mainstream of Democratic politics can act in a similar fashion to conservative groups, such as the Tea Party and Trump’s early supporters. that were not initially embraced by the GOP but later became a major part of its support and changed its policy direction.
My videos on the high school boys poll:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Lx9hEF/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8LxkqC1/
The Hill article on the high school boys poll:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-school-boys-trending-conservative-093000721.html
New York Times poll article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/upshot/biden-trump-poll-2024.html
Nate Cohn’s graph of the NYT poll results regarding demographic groups:
https://twitter.com/nate_cohn/status/1686336922061303808?s=46&t=x3E-r-OT2KgX3LK5oJokcA
Some of my work on pro wrestling as an example for positively engaging with masculinity:
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/01/12/adam-page-for-president/
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/01/14/fighting-toxic-masculinity-with-pro-wrestling-adam-page-for-president/
The MJF and Adam Cole segment I mentioned:
https://youtu.be/USUx4Z31WAc
www.Fixerpunk.com
Got questions or comments about this episode? Have you faced oppression, have a story about bad bosses, a corrupt company, or another injustice you want to vent or spread the word about? I’d love to hear from you!
Call in and leave a voicemail any time, day or night, toll-free at 844-477-PUNK (7865)
Or submit your question by email:
greyson@offspeedsolutions.com
Off Speed Solutions provides strategy and consulting for advocacy communications, digital marketing, websites, community engagement, day-to-day operational support, and media ecosystems. Proudly serving nonprofits, political organizations, individual advocates, media and content creators, entrepreneurs, and socially responsible enterprises. Learn more at http://www.offspeedsolutions.com
Follow on TikTok: https://www.TikTok.com/@fixerpunk
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixerpunk
Follow on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/greysonnation
This podcast is not professional advice of any sort. This content is for entertainment and general informational purposes only. We do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of the information herein. The viewer should not rely solely upon such and consult a competent professional before deciding to follow any course of action.
Somewhat paradoxically to conventional political wisdom, I feel that further left and more progressive ideas and groups can achieve far better success in these demographic groups that typical liberal/Democratic politics have left behind. These ideas can address the long-standing issues with material conditions that conservatives and the far-right have pushed false narratives about the cause of and fake solutions in a way liberals simply cannot. And they can create long-term engagement and narratives that combine strength with inclusion to help those who feel abandoned create community and seek true solutions to the systemic causes of their tribulation. There are very real issues that they face which Democrats exclude for short-term political reasons, but need to be addressed by someone. Right now that someone is the right, but it doesn’t have to be. Even if Democrats cannot address them, left-wing groups outside the mainstream of Democratic politics can act in a similar fashion to conservative groups, such as the Tea Party and Trump’s early supporters. that were not initially embraced by the GOP but later became a major part of its support and changed its policy direction.
My videos on the high school boys poll:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Lx9hEF/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8LxkqC1/
The Hill article on the high school boys poll:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-school-boys-trending-conservative-093000721.html
New York Times poll article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/upshot/biden-trump-poll-2024.html
Nate Cohn’s graph of the NYT poll results regarding demographic groups:
https://twitter.com/nate_cohn/status/1686336922061303808?s=46&t=x3E-r-OT2KgX3LK5oJokcA
Some of my work on pro wrestling as an example for positively engaging with masculinity:
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/01/12/adam-page-for-president/
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/01/14/fighting-toxic-masculinity-with-pro-wrestling-adam-page-for-president/
The MJF and Adam Cole segment I mentioned:
https://youtu.be/USUx4Z31WAc
www.Fixerpunk.com
Got questions or comments about this episode? Have you faced oppression, have a story about bad bosses, a corrupt company, or another injustice you want to vent or spread the word about? I’d love to hear from you!
Call in and leave a voicemail any time, day or night, toll-free at 844-477-PUNK (7865)
Or submit your question by email:
greyson@offspeedsolutions.com
Off Speed Solutions provides strategy and consulting for advocacy communications, digital marketing, websites, community engagement, day-to-day operational support, and media ecosystems. Proudly serving nonprofits, political organizations, individual advocates, media and content creators, entrepreneurs, and socially responsible enterprises. Learn more at http://www.offspeedsolutions.com
Follow on TikTok: https://www.TikTok.com/@fixerpunk
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixerpunk
Follow on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/greysonnation
This podcast is not professional advice of any sort. This content is for entertainment and general informational purposes only. We do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of the information herein. The viewer should not rely solely upon such and consult a competent professional before deciding to follow any course of action.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Fixer Punk podcast.The podcast the questions whether you can really
call your muscles a symbol of ancientSpartan traditional masculinity if you achieve them through
steroids, which the Spartans obviously didn'thave. I'm Grays and Peltier. So
today I wanted to talk about thesomewhat troubling new polling numbers that we are
(00:27):
seeing on young high school age twelfthgrade boys, who are the group of
students next in line to be ableto start voting, and also on a
few groups of existing voters, men, even men of color. We're seeing
(00:48):
some interesting trends going on. Sofirst off, starting with young men twelfth
grade boys. I discussed this creda bit on the TikTok at Fixer Punk,
at f I XCRPU and KAY,and what's going on is that nearly
double the number of young men whoidentify as liberal identify as conservative. So
(01:14):
it is a very large margin ofyoung men who are choosing the conservative side
over the liberal side. There's agood number they're undecided, but still it's
a very troubling statistic right there.And I could see this coming from a
mile away. I have been talkingon this podcast for a long time,
(01:37):
and even outside of this podcast aboutmasculinity, positive masculinity, the left's challenges
in that sphere and some of theways that we could solve it, and
a lot of what's going on.I did get some comments on that video
that we're saying that I shouldn't beconfusing the left and liberals because the survey
(02:01):
did ask them if they identified asliberals, and I think that is a
good point. But keep in mindthat I tend to use in all my
content, I tend to not usethe most pedantic academic definition. Now I
have the academic training in political science. I'm a graduate of USC in political
(02:22):
science. I've worked in the field, but I tend to speak in the
terms that people normally speak about thingsin and that is intentional so that the
audience can understand what I'm trying toexplain. But there is definitely a bit
of a difference in how liberals andlet's say the conventional mainstream Democratic party has
(02:44):
been addressing certain things and has beenand their platform and their positioning versus other
aspects of the left that have notgotten as much time and as much attention
as I believe they should have,and their approach may actually wind up being
superior. A further left leftist approachmay actually wind up being superior in a
(03:07):
lot of these groups that Democrats andconventional liberals are just not getting. So
in terms of young boys, youngmen, obviously a lot of this is
being driven by the men's influencers,the andrew Tates of the world, those
types of people that I've spoken aboutquite a bit. We're seeing a lot
(03:30):
of these young men hearing these messageslike you can become strong, you can
be tough, You're not being vilified. They feel like a lot of times
liberals and especially a lot of theidentity politics focused side of liberalism, is
vilifying them as men. And thisapplies both to young men, and it
also applies to less college educated,rural men and also even men who are
(03:54):
Latino or black who have been kindof been taken for granted by the Democratic
Party, the mainstream of the DemocraticParty. So we are seeing a good
number of even though we still haveabout we have two fifths of the in
(04:15):
the survey of twelfth graders, wehave two fits identifying as um as undecided,
another one fifth that are identifying asmoderate. So we have a good
amount of undecided people in there,but still for a much smaller group of
(04:35):
people to identify as liberal or beingor being on the left as opposed to
conservative is a sign, even evenif it's only among those who identify,
and even if those who identify arethe minority, which those who identify as
either liberal or conservative is the minorityin this survey, but still it's showing
(04:59):
it. That is showing a significantissue and the big issue. And this
is one of the things I explainedon the TikTok was that the conventional Democratic
Party and really all of the lefttogether really does not engage in long term
cultural engagement. This has been anissue I've talked about for a long time.
(05:20):
They are very focused and almost exclusivelyfocused on the election cycle. Meanwhile,
you see conservative media being invested inyear round, the Andrew taits,
those people, the Praguer You influencers, the Ben Shapiros, all the daily
wire people. They don't just magicallydisappear and appear at election time, as
(05:44):
is the pattern it seems with alot of left wing and progressive media,
especially those that are tied to themore establishment Democrats. And even when the
Republican Party did not fully incorporate someof these further right ideas, they were
still getting funded, like the furtherright I was part of the Tea Party.
Tea Party was definitely getting funded evenwhen the GOP didn't fully accept us.
(06:10):
When I was working for the TeaParty, there was definitely money going
around. But you really don't seethat in the further left groups. They're
doing long term, year round engagement, and that is a major problem.
And I think that funders were actuallyserious about a progressive movement in America need
to look at a longer range strategy. But again, I've talked about that
ad nauseum on this podcast, andI've explained how to do it. And
(06:34):
if you happen to be in leadershipof a progressive organization and you're looking to
find a way to create the futureinstead of just reacting, which is the
current way that Democrats are doing things, Instead of just reacting to what happens
at election time and just waiting forthat time, you want to make sure
(06:55):
that things are in place ahead oftime, that we are not just talking
about the twenty twenty four election.We're talking about twenty two, twenty thirty
six. We're planning ahead of timeand creating that movement, which clearly conservatives
are doing. They are planning tenfifteen years ahead with this new base of
voters, and there is a reason. There is a reason in the messaging
(07:16):
of the conventional democratic establishment and evenmany progressives as compared to conservatives, that
is making their ideas way more appealingthan progressive ideas. And I think it's
something we have to look at interms of the way they're approaching it.
But if you are in that position, and you're in that position to make
(07:38):
a change, and you want todo something different with your organization's resources,
maybe with the resources you're bringing inright now at election time, you'll bring
it into a more of a yearround approach and a more culturally engaged approach.
That is something that I help with. You can go to my website
for my consulting practice off Speed Solutionsdot com f Speed Solutions dot com and
(08:03):
I'd be happy to discuss with youyour organization how we can get your message
out there to people before it becomesan urgent thing where you have to spend
a ton on ads to maybe shiftopinion by like one or two percent.
And that is what I did whenI was in the conservative movement. I
was on the board of Tea PartyYouth. We were going all the way
(08:26):
through younger demographics, all the waydown to like there are partner groups that
we're trying to do like constitution educationfor like young kids, like elementary school
and yes into teenagers and memes andall that, and those things don't have
(08:46):
immediate electoral payoff. And that's thething is again, all the money and
all the people that are working onthe democratic side are strictly focused on immediate
electoral returns. And in a waythey're right to be doing that. You
have to keep things going, youhave to protect democracy, you have to
get the current agenda going. Butthere is a lack of an overall positive
(09:13):
vision. And that's where I thinkthat further left ideas can serve the future
of progressive movements because you have alonger term, more universal vision. So
when we're talking about conservatives, inthe message they're giving right now, especially
to young men, they're talking abouta vision of traditional masculinity and of success,
a vision of being a jacked guywho is rich and doing very well
(09:39):
and having a good family life.Right now, when you think about the
conservative side, that's the vision theseyoung marigang when they think of the left
right now, what they're thinking ofis people who hate me, which is
what a lot of people in thecomments on the TikTok we're saying, is
people it's like people who hate mebeing a man, which that's just totally
(10:01):
false. It's it is pretty mucha caricature and a strong man argument that
the right is made up. Butthat's what they're thinking. But where is
the positive vision? We could say, we can go around, we could
say as much as we want thatthat's not the case. But where is
the positive vision? Where is thatin the platform? Where is that in
the messaging? It's not there rightnow. The things that you that we're
(10:26):
hearing and and and what I dowant to say before I continue is that
this is affecting electoral reality. Nowwe're not just talking about the future.
And well, to make clear thatthis is actually affecting the electoral situation even
twenty twenty four. And that isbecause these issues of masculinity are actually they're
(10:56):
skewing men. Because you're talking aboutyou're saying, you're seeing actually there was
a New York Times Siena poll whichhas been going around quite a bit on
Twitter from a gentleman by name ofNate cone Um who's showing that men's support
UM has it's gone down from fortyseven percent in twenty twenty two forty two
percent in this poll. Now,there's some interesting methodological issues with this poll
(11:20):
um, but supposedly, supposedly therewas an oversample of Republicans, but the
way the poll was done was supposedlyor the way that the data is being
interpreted is it's reinterpreting so that sothat the samples are adjusted. But I
haven't gotten into the methodology. It'sbehind a paywall, so I can only
look at this chart, but itlines up with what I expect to be
(11:43):
happening. We're seeing even reduced supportfrom nine two Democratic support in twenty twenty
a seven percent in black people.That's a that's five percent difference in a
in a group that Democrats kind oftook take for granted, and from say
same five percent, five percent downin Hispanics from sixty three percent to fifty
(12:05):
eight percent. And in in nonwhite people without a bachelor's degree or higher,
you see a very see a sizeabledifference. You see seven percent difference
seventy two percent down to sixty fivepercent. Similar seven percent difference in those
making under fifty thousand dollars a year. And that is because the positioning.
(12:30):
The commonality between this and the situationwe're seeing with high school boys is that
the positioning of conventional democratic politics doesnot appeal to them. The positioning because
we're seeing gains that you're seeing alittle bit. You're seeing increase in those
making over one hundred thousand by onepercent, small difference fifty to one hundred
(12:50):
k by about three percent. Againsmall difference, but in the positive direction.
But it's because the issues that arebeing brought up are not issues that
appeal to more to people who arenot in the more intelligencia highly educated group.
So right now, when you listento any sort of democratic media,
(13:13):
any sort of progressive media, evena good deal of progressive media, the
three messages that you are hearing rightnow, and this is standard, it's
stuff in politics. You narrow itdown to three issues. And if I
had to guess what those three issuesare, it is, first and foremost
Republicans are a threat to democracy.That's point number one that they make is
(13:39):
Republicans and specifically Trump are a threatto democracy. You turn on MSNBC and
all they're talking about is Trump indictment, Trump indictment. There's a Trump January
six This Trump classified documents that threatto democracy overturn the election, which that's
an important issue. Democracy is important. We've talked about that a lot.
(14:01):
It's super important, and there's agood amount of people who care about that.
And it's good that we're seeing engagementof higher income groups toward Democrats because
you need the money, and rightnow with campaign funds being short, we
need some of those people. Weneed them to give some support. But
(14:24):
it's not going to engage these groupsthat are falling away, and perhaps it's
not even best for regular democratic groupsto try to engage these groups start falling
away. And that's where the furtherleft, the actual leftist ideas can really
win over these groups. Because ifyou're talking about somebody who is like a
(14:46):
high school boy, unless they're likesuper educated or very like precocious like I
was, but even then, Iwas still conservative when I was when I
was a team, but that groupisn't going to think as much about threat
to democracy. Donald Trump and Januarysixth, the person who's gonna think about
that kind of stuff and understand whatall those things mean. It's not going
(15:07):
to be the Latino man who isworking really hard for his family and trying
to put food on the table.He's not necessarily going to be the first
thing he's thinking about in today.Isn't necessarily going to be Trump classified documents.
They're thinking about other issues and allgets what those issues are next.
But the next up on our typicaldemocratic agenda is Republicans are a threat to
(15:35):
identity groups. And when we seeidentity groups, we're talking about we're talking
about people of color, we're talkingabout LGBTQ, plus, we're talking about
women, especially in the reproductive area. That's a message that they have been
really, really going hard on,and that can be a winner in some
of these groups. But I alsodo recognize that in some ways even people
(16:00):
of color aren't not responding as wellto those things anymore. I think it's
partially because of second generation. Ican speak specifically to the Latino experience because
I'm myself and Latino, but thereis sort of more of an assimilation.
There's racism in the Latino community thatpeople just don't talk enough about. That's
(16:22):
a whole different story. They wouldtake a whole episode to explain that.
But there's some with it racism withinthe Latino community, but they're not necessarily
thinking specifically about like this identity grouptype narrative as much. And especially there's
been a lot of controversy around LGBTQrights, which I don't believe there should
(16:45):
be controversy over that. It shouldbe it should be uncontroversial. It should
be considered just part of the freedomsthat we have as Americans, that these
groups be accepted and be able todo what they want to freely associate with
whom they want to associate with,and enjoy the same freedoms and rights as
any other citizen. I don't thinkthat should be really politically controversial, but
(17:07):
alas the right has played it tothe point where they're making it more salient
than it should be in people's everydaylives and convince people who maybe have some
traditional strains of thought, which isdefinitely even in like some especially in ethnic
minority groups, there there's a lotof traditionalist thought. I know that the
(17:30):
Latino community there are a lot ofChristians Catholics, So then the salience of
that issue has gone a bit up, especially when it comes to LGBTQ and
trans rights, which it's all meantto be divisive and to get you out
of thinking about the true war that'sgoing on, which is not a culture
(17:52):
war, but rather a class warthat's being waged economically. And that brings
me to the third point that Democratsare really bringing up a lot about,
which is everything is fine, let'skeep it that way. So Bidenenomics,
which I think that it's a goodidea for Joe Biden to town does economic
accomplishments. That is absolutely essential,But a lot of what they're saying as
(18:15):
well, Look, everything in theworld is stable right now. Politically,
everything's stable right now. We've gotteneverything good enough. Democracy is not an
immediate threat because we're keeping things undercontrol. Joe Biden, Democrats are keeping
things under control. Economically, We'rekeeping things under control. Things are good,
Things are doing really well economically becauseof what we're doing. Yes,
(18:36):
there's some excellent work going on.The bipart is an infrastructure law, the
American Rescue Plan Act, those fundsare still going around. All of these
policies that President Biden and Democrats havebeen instrumental in creating and a lot of
things that the Republicans have tried totear down, but a lot of people
just feel like there needs to bemore changed. People are striking. You
(18:59):
have after you have the writers strike, you almost had a ups strike.
I'm hearing about a possible auto workersstrike too. People are concerned about inflation,
prices rising, banks failing. Soeverything is fine, just may not
resonate. But on a deeper level, none of these issues really has that
kind of universal human interest that alot of the conservative ideas do. When
(19:29):
there were like more progressive movements aroundyoung people, they had more of like
a universal appeal to them, Likethere were things like anti war of the
stuff that was going wrong with likepunk voter in the two thousands, which
I think Jello Biafro was the onethat argued that that was what created the
Obama voting block in two thousand andeight, the punk voter generation. But
(19:53):
none of those things have that sortof universalism like and of it, unfortunately,
because the right has staged it asbeing a zero sum game of if
LGBTQ and trance people are accepted,then that makes you less of a man.
(20:14):
If people are getting help, thatmakes you less successful when that zero
sum game is not reality and nobodyhas really rebutted that. So you have
in these like male demographics in particularwith men. They're like, all they're
talking about, all the Democrats aretalking about, is this stuff that really
doesn't matter to me, that doesn'thave an immediate impact on my life.
(20:37):
Trump's classified documents not an immediate impacton my life. They're saying that the
economy is fine, but I'm strugglingbecause I'm only getting paid seven to twenty
five an hour at a hard laborjob. How can they say the economy
is fine. Meanwhile, this isappealing to the person who's making one hundred
(21:00):
k a year in some sort ofcorporate job there. Maybe they have a
master's sort of advanced education. They'relike, these are all things like protecting
democracy, protecting the institutions of it, these are all things that really matter
to me. But there needs tobe another narrative, a left narrative that
appeals to people that feel disenfranchised.And there also needs to be community that
(21:23):
addresses things that have an overall humaninterest to them, not just like an
institutional or a systemic interest to them. Things that have like a very human
fields with like the anti war movements, those types of things that were going
on with with youth. I thinkclimate change could be one of those issues
(21:44):
with certain highly politically engaged young people. But I also think we need to
have an answer to this masculinity,traditional lifestyle type influencer. And we have
this group of people who feel verylost and alone in their lives. You're
(22:06):
seeing a lot of increases in loneliness, lack of community and the community and
the people that are out there reachingout to, especially men, especially men
that maybe aren't as educated, menwho are younger, are these types of
groups and influencers. They're saying,well, look, you can either back
(22:27):
down, lay down and let womenand trans people run you over. You
can lay down, you can letwomen and trans people take everything that you've
ever earned in your life, whereyou can join me and you can become
the toughest and strongest man that you'veever been in your whole life. Then
grabs a beer and chugs it downstone cold, Steve Austin style, and
(22:52):
then our answer to that is cricketsor just you're wrong for feeling like you're
like you're having a hard time inlife because all these other groups are having
a worse time than you. Whichtwo things can be true. There is
no intersectionality battle Royale. This isnot a competition for who is the most
(23:15):
oppressed. That's not how intersectionality works. It never was how intersectionality worked.
So what we have to do iswe have to find a way and find
out what matters in these communities,finding finding out and engaging people, not
just on the stuff that matters inan election cycle. And this is where
(23:40):
this is where the further left ideas. At this point, I think that
maybe we should just let democrats beconventional democrats, let them do what they
do and do what they do bestin terms of bringing the pro democracy message,
the protecting protecting rights and protecting thestatus quo message to the people who
are responding well to that message.But the further left, the more leftist
(24:03):
and progressive type movements need to bringa positive message create community, which a
big part of leftism and socialism andthese types of progress super more progressive further
left ideas is stuff like mutual aid, and we need to have that sort
of involvement and show that look weare in terms of like emotional support and
(24:30):
show that regardless of who you areas an individual, regardless of whether you
are from an underprivileged group, whetheryou're from an oppressed minority group or not,
that we're creating community around you thatwe do care about you. And
that is something that the further leftcan definitely do a bit better than the
(24:52):
election focused Democrats. So in termsof the positive vision, of course,
we want to have for specifically forthis male group, which seems to be
a big trend across both the olderthe older groups and the younger school age
one is men falling away is thepositive masculinity. I've spoken a lot about
(25:12):
that, and a lot of thesepeople like Andrew Tate are telling young men
that they basically need to embrace avery evil sense of living. Andrew Tate,
of course, has been accused avariety of sexual related crimes, things
that are very grotesque and horrible thatI won't go into. In relation to
(25:34):
sexual offenses. You have a lotof them promoting this very domineering view of
how men should relate to women,and you have them promoting this very domineering
form of economics of like, wellyou can be the alpha and get all
(25:55):
the money by doing all this stuffyby doing this entrepreneurship whatever program that is
probably a scam, that that's probablyjust going to take a ton of your
money. You see a young kidsaying I'm not going to go to college,
I'll just do this influencer pro programand make myself rich, and meanwhile
they get scammed out of every lasttime that they didn't have. And we
(26:22):
can come into that and instead oftelling them, well, look you should
you're the oppressor. The narrative thatthe right wants these kids to believe and
even wants men in general to believe, which is that the left hates them
and views them as the oppressor.We can come in and say, look,
there are solutions to these problems.There are ways for you to gain
(26:48):
acceptance and inclusion in the society.You can be the person, the strong
person that you want to be anddo so by treating people well. You
can you can have a good relationshipand personal life. By treating women and
treating people who are different from youbetter. You will have a better time
(27:11):
socializing and engaging with people, includingpeople of the opposite sex, if you
were actually kind and considerate and careabout them, and just because you do
that, that doesn't make you aweak person, and we need to have
the examples of that, and I'vetalked a lot about pro wrestling being a
really good place for those examples.I have some on the fixerpunk dot com
(27:34):
website. I have some articles thatI've written about Adam Page in particular from
aw John Moxley, just to namea few. But this past week on
Aid of Dynamite, there was areally amazing segment between Adam Cole and MJFMJF
(27:56):
is the current AID of World champion. MJF. I've written an article on
him about what I've termed heal populism. He's very bloviating, almost Donald Trump
type person on the microphone, buthe's built this friendship with Adam Cole,
who's like a good guy, reallynice guy. And what MJF is going
(28:22):
to figure out is he doesn't haveto, is that he has a lot
of vulnerabilities, a lot of Hewas speaking about his mental health and I
suffered with ADHD and rejection sensitive dysphoria, that he was feeling all these things
and he felt like he had tojust become a tougher, meaner person in
order to cover up for his owninsecurities, they needed to just keep getting
(28:45):
meaner and more vicious and becoming basicallya devil in order to feel like he
could succeed in society. But creatingthat relationship, in that bond with Adam
Cole and having the friendship with AdamCole and having somebody who truly genuinely cared
from him, he said that thatchanged him quite a bit. And those
(29:06):
are the kinds of relationships, positiverelationships, that that we should be promoting,
and that are going to be theway to help young men through these
difficult times, rather than hearing likethe Andrew Tade of like saying, the
only way you're ever going to feelbetter about yourself is because is if you
get really, really tough, youbecome dominating over whomen, you dominating your
physique, and you dominate in business. And you do that by being mean
(29:29):
and by hurting other people. Wedon't we need another path forward, and
Adam Cole himself explained pretty well whatthat path forward look like looks like So
what he said in that promo was, for years, I was a jerk,
not only because I thought that's whatI had to do to succeed.
(29:53):
And then um, this is thenext part of it. I'm skipped over
some parts for clarity. It's becauseI was afraid. And then next part
over, I skipped another part forclarity again because I didn't understand what being
a man really was. And Max, you are becoming the man you are
(30:14):
meant to be. So that iswhat we want to think about, is
we want to think about that peopleare these young men and men in general
are being told they need to becomejerks because that's what they need to do
to succeed. But they're being putinto the situation because they're afraid and they
(30:36):
need to find another way of beingknowing what being a man is and there
are some excellent examples. Adam Coleis showing that, and then more specifically
in terms of progressive politics, Hangman, Adam Page has really been on top
of that. Brian Danielson, prettyfar left guy Zach Saber Jr. For
talking across the pond the UK.Those types of example ours are going to
(31:02):
help us through and we need tohighlight that those types of examples as well.
And I think that's something that furtherleft ideas can do a bit better
because just like maybe conventional GOP wisdomwasn't to reach out to those reach out
(31:23):
to groups that were kind of longloss that aren't going to be big donors.
The further right groups that did getfunded. We're reaching out. We're
doing all these things around younger,younger kids that were you had Trump who
bucked the GOP establishment and was goinginto rural communities that were getting ignored,
(31:45):
and that type of deep community engagementand on the issues that people are having
a material impact on. Because I'vetouched on sort of this emotional impact,
but there's also a very material impactthat is affecting people, and especially when
we're talking about these lower income demographics, so people making less than fifty thousand
(32:05):
dollars a year, those are thepeople who need progressive and leftist ideas the
most, and yet they're starting toreject them. And that's because again the
three issues, the three big thingsthat Democrats are talking them about. Our
Republicans are a threat to democracy,Republicans are a threat to identity groups.
(32:30):
And everything is fine. That doesn'tconnect to somebody who is struggling. But
if we bring in a further leftmessage, a message that may be downright
democratic socialist, we can tell them, well, Look, the solution to
your problem is not is not tohope for lower taxes and trickle down economics.
(32:53):
That's already failed you. Your bossis already screwing you over. The
solution is in solidarity, is throughstriking. The solution is through labor reforms,
increased minimum wages, laws that makeit easier to form a union,
various workers' rights. If you're ifyou're a construction worker working on the job
(33:15):
all day long, you should getyour breaks. You should get your water
breaks. You should get if you'rein a driving a truck all day long,
you should be in an air conditionedenvironment. You should have adequate time
off, health insurance, paid familyleave, all those kinds of things that
(33:37):
the person making not as much moneyas other people really needs. And Republicans
are appealing to them because they're thinking, well, look all what they're telling
me. The Democrats are telling methat everything's fine, everything's fine in the
world. But that's not what's happeningto me, So they must be lying
(33:58):
to me. By dynamics isn't helpingme. I'm going to the gas station
and gas is five dollars a gallon. Look at all these prices that have
gone up because of the Biden inflation. Joe Biden hit the gas up button,
and that is why I'm struggling inlife. If I get the Republicans
in office, they are going tokick all those welfare queens to the curb.
(34:19):
They are going to reduce the inflation, and the prices of everything will
come back down. Gas will betwo three dollars a gallon, Eggs will
be a dollar a dozen. Again, when we all know that isn't how
this works. This isn't due towelfare queens, this isn't due to environmental
regulations. They're telling me I haveto get an electric car. Electric car
(34:44):
is only something that those rich peoplein cities can get. I have to
drive my F one fifty every dayto the job site to do plumbing.
Yeah, it's probably true, youneed a truck to do that kind of
stuff. Doesn't mean that we can'tbring it to Betric at some point in
the future. But if you're beingtold that that's going to go away and
(35:05):
that's then then of course you're goingto feel threatened. So because the Democrats
are failing and leaving a vacuum interms of personal, long term community engagement
and providing and doing things like mutualaid and longer range community engagement, as
well as in real kitchen table economicissues and issues that people are feeling the
(35:34):
personal impact of every day. Inlower income groups, these these people who
aren't making as much money and don'tthink as much about the more aristocratic aspects
of politics. They just want tohave their families be fed. They just
want to be able to pay theirmortgages, just want to be able to
buy food, have some money leftover to save, and they feel like
(35:58):
if Republicans are going to come inand low their taxes and lower their prices,
that it's going to come back in. But really, in reality,
what's going on is this is corporateread that needs to be broken up and
dealt with the antitrust laws, allof those kind of things, price gouging,
those types of things need to beaddressed if Democrats aren't going to address
(36:19):
them. Further, left, progressivegroups progressive ideas can be promoted. Just
like the Tea Party was outside ofthe Republican mainstream in two thousand and nine,
progressive groups, leftist groups can dothat and they can engage these populations,
(36:39):
just like Trump went to the ruralcommunities and got their votes. Progressive
ideas can come in and say,well, look we're different. We care
about your economic situation. We knowthat you're having trouble every month making your
rent, we know that you're havingtrouble paying for your food. And the
(37:01):
problem is that corporate greed is stealingfrom you in all directions, and we
are going to help you to solvethat. And you are strong. You
are a great hard worker. You'rea person who is deserving and has earned
the right to a living. Andyou can be as strong and as tough
(37:21):
as you want to be. Getup, do whatever, do what you
want to do, what makes youfeel fulfilled in life, and become your
best self by acting in solidarity andby getting what you need to do that
fight back against the people who arecausing you the problems that you're experiencing in
(37:45):
reality, not some made up fantasyabout how trans people and groomers or threatening
your children, but the people whoare actually threatening to take food off of
your children's tape able through their economicpolicies. You can become strong, and
you can rise up and be tough, but you have to do so against
(38:08):
the right thing or for the rightthing. You have to find that we
can show we can show them theway, We can show them the look
Passing progressive policies, passing a higherminimum wage, passing union rights, passing
(38:30):
universal healthcare, those things are goingto help with those problems that you're seeing
your everyday life way more than anysupposed drill baby drill policy to lower gas
prices, which it won't because allthat's going on is that even if you
lower costs on corporations, they're notpassing that savings onto you anytime soon.
Because industries are consolidated, they're settingprices in unison. Sometimes they're just going
(38:55):
to all keep prices high and keepthat money as that's put it back into
stock buybacks. But taking action andseeking collective action to change the economic system
in this country to support the peoplewho are working to keep our country going
(39:17):
is an effective strategy. And tothe men who are experiencing loneliness and feeling
like they have become weaker and lesspowerful in society, yes you have,
but you are also becoming weaker atthe same time as the minority groups that
you are blaming for your problems arealso likewise becoming weaker, and perhaps by
(39:38):
double fold. So they are notyour enemy. They are people who are
dealing with the same issues that youare dealing with, and we need to
get that message out there. AndI think that this is where we can
really see if we see a lotof progressive ideas going out into these communities
(40:00):
in a package, not in awoke scolding package, not in a very
whiny package of constantly complaining, butin a manner of strength, of saying
that this is the solution. Theseare the policy ideas that we need to
fight for that will get you backwhere you want to be in life and
(40:20):
help you be the person you wantto be. Then we can see victory
and creating that community around people thatfeel left behind in life, for the
young men who feel like they're lonely, creating community, building that around them,
(40:42):
even if there's no political gain toit whatsoever, and actively engaging in
a language that makes them feel acceptedand makes them feel like we're talking to
them and we're not talking at themor against them. And that's what I
seek to do here on podcast.If you are in the political organizing space,
nonprofit space, if you are organizingany sort of activism and you are
(41:07):
looking for advice to get that messagethrough in a way that appeals too specific
communities that have been left behind orthat is seeking to bridge divides instead of
creating more divides and seeking to reallycreate long term sustainability in terms of your
communications in terms of attitudinal and culturalchange. Please reach out to me.
(41:30):
You can contact me through my consultingpractices website off Speed Solutions Offspeed solutions dot
com. Link will be in thedescription. Please subscribe to the podcast for
more episodes like this, and pleasefollow on social media. I keep though,
I keep the TikTok the most ofto date with current news and insights
(41:54):
from the news that is at Fixerpunkfcrpunk on TikTok also on Instagram, the
Twitter or x or whatever it's called. Is at Grace and Nation GRUISN and
a t I O N. Ifyou have any feedback of anis personal stories,
to share, any input at all, any issues you want me to
(42:15):
cover. If you're seeing something inyour own community, if you're seeing examples
of your own family getting sucked intothe far right, if you're seeing problems
that are being solved by progressive andmore leftist groups, if you have good
examples of good activism. If youhave a strike going on and you want
(42:37):
to talk about that strike, leaveme a message. I will try to
get you onto the show and getyour ideas and your narratives and things you
want to share to help make thingsbetter, or the things you want to
rant about, so I can maybeanalyze and maybe help you a little bit
by discussing issues that needs to bebrought to light. Let me know.
(42:59):
Give me a call. I wantto hear from you. Eight four four
four seven seven Punk eight four fourfour seven seven seven eight six five.
Leave a message twenty four seven threesixty five. I will listen to it
and you might be on a futureepisode again. Eight four four four seven
seven Punk eight four four four sevenseven seven eight six five. Thank you
(43:20):
so much for spending some of yourtime with me today, and I hope
you will join me again for thenext episode.
This is the Fixer Punk podcast.The podcast the questions whether you can really
call your muscles a symbol of ancientSpartan traditional masculinity if you achieve them through
steroids, which the Spartans obviously didn'thave. I'm Grays and Peltier. So
today I wanted to talk about thesomewhat troubling new polling numbers that we are
(00:27):
seeing on young high school age twelfthgrade boys, who are the group of
students next in line to be ableto start voting, and also on a
few groups of existing voters, men, even men of color. We're seeing
(00:48):
some interesting trends going on. Sofirst off, starting with young men twelfth
grade boys. I discussed this creda bit on the TikTok at Fixer Punk,
at f I XCRPU and KAY,and what's going on is that nearly
double the number of young men whoidentify as liberal identify as conservative. So
(01:14):
it is a very large margin ofyoung men who are choosing the conservative side
over the liberal side. There's agood number they're undecided, but still it's
a very troubling statistic right there.And I could see this coming from a
mile away. I have been talkingon this podcast for a long time,
(01:37):
and even outside of this podcast aboutmasculinity, positive masculinity, the left's challenges
in that sphere and some of theways that we could solve it, and
a lot of what's going on.I did get some comments on that video
that we're saying that I shouldn't beconfusing the left and liberals because the survey
(02:01):
did ask them if they identified asliberals, and I think that is a
good point. But keep in mindthat I tend to use in all my
content, I tend to not usethe most pedantic academic definition. Now I
have the academic training in political science. I'm a graduate of USC in political
(02:22):
science. I've worked in the field, but I tend to speak in the
terms that people normally speak about thingsin and that is intentional so that the
audience can understand what I'm trying toexplain. But there is definitely a bit
of a difference in how liberals andlet's say the conventional mainstream Democratic party has
(02:44):
been addressing certain things and has beenand their platform and their positioning versus other
aspects of the left that have notgotten as much time and as much attention
as I believe they should have,and their approach may actually wind up being
superior. A further left leftist approachmay actually wind up being superior in a
(03:07):
lot of these groups that Democrats andconventional liberals are just not getting. So
in terms of young boys, youngmen, obviously a lot of this is
being driven by the men's influencers,the andrew Tates of the world, those
types of people that I've spoken aboutquite a bit. We're seeing a lot
(03:30):
of these young men hearing these messageslike you can become strong, you can
be tough, You're not being vilified. They feel like a lot of times
liberals and especially a lot of theidentity politics focused side of liberalism, is
vilifying them as men. And thisapplies both to young men, and it
also applies to less college educated,rural men and also even men who are
(03:54):
Latino or black who have been kindof been taken for granted by the Democratic
Party, the mainstream of the DemocraticParty. So we are seeing a good
number of even though we still haveabout we have two fifths of the in
(04:15):
the survey of twelfth graders, wehave two fits identifying as um as undecided,
another one fifth that are identifying asmoderate. So we have a good
amount of undecided people in there,but still for a much smaller group of
(04:35):
people to identify as liberal or beingor being on the left as opposed to
conservative is a sign, even evenif it's only among those who identify,
and even if those who identify arethe minority, which those who identify as
either liberal or conservative is the minorityin this survey, but still it's showing
(04:59):
it. That is showing a significantissue and the big issue. And this
is one of the things I explainedon the TikTok was that the conventional Democratic
Party and really all of the lefttogether really does not engage in long term
cultural engagement. This has been anissue I've talked about for a long time.
(05:20):
They are very focused and almost exclusivelyfocused on the election cycle. Meanwhile,
you see conservative media being invested inyear round, the Andrew taits,
those people, the Praguer You influencers, the Ben Shapiros, all the daily
wire people. They don't just magicallydisappear and appear at election time, as
(05:44):
is the pattern it seems with alot of left wing and progressive media,
especially those that are tied to themore establishment Democrats. And even when the
Republican Party did not fully incorporate someof these further right ideas, they were
still getting funded, like the furtherright I was part of the Tea Party.
Tea Party was definitely getting funded evenwhen the GOP didn't fully accept us.
(06:10):
When I was working for the TeaParty, there was definitely money going
around. But you really don't seethat in the further left groups. They're
doing long term, year round engagement, and that is a major problem.
And I think that funders were actuallyserious about a progressive movement in America need
to look at a longer range strategy. But again, I've talked about that
ad nauseum on this podcast, andI've explained how to do it. And
(06:34):
if you happen to be in leadershipof a progressive organization and you're looking to
find a way to create the futureinstead of just reacting, which is the
current way that Democrats are doing things, Instead of just reacting to what happens
at election time and just waiting forthat time, you want to make sure
(06:55):
that things are in place ahead oftime, that we are not just talking
about the twenty twenty four election.We're talking about twenty two, twenty thirty
six. We're planning ahead of timeand creating that movement, which clearly conservatives
are doing. They are planning tenfifteen years ahead with this new base of
voters, and there is a reason. There is a reason in the messaging
(07:16):
of the conventional democratic establishment and evenmany progressives as compared to conservatives, that
is making their ideas way more appealingthan progressive ideas. And I think it's
something we have to look at interms of the way they're approaching it.
But if you are in that position, and you're in that position to make
(07:38):
a change, and you want todo something different with your organization's resources,
maybe with the resources you're bringing inright now at election time, you'll bring
it into a more of a yearround approach and a more culturally engaged approach.
That is something that I help with. You can go to my website
for my consulting practice off Speed Solutionsdot com f Speed Solutions dot com and
(08:03):
I'd be happy to discuss with youyour organization how we can get your message
out there to people before it becomesan urgent thing where you have to spend
a ton on ads to maybe shiftopinion by like one or two percent.
And that is what I did whenI was in the conservative movement. I
was on the board of Tea PartyYouth. We were going all the way
(08:26):
through younger demographics, all the waydown to like there are partner groups that
we're trying to do like constitution educationfor like young kids, like elementary school
and yes into teenagers and memes andall that, and those things don't have
(08:46):
immediate electoral payoff. And that's thething is again, all the money and
all the people that are working onthe democratic side are strictly focused on immediate
electoral returns. And in a waythey're right to be doing that. You
have to keep things going, youhave to protect democracy, you have to
get the current agenda going. Butthere is a lack of an overall positive
(09:13):
vision. And that's where I thinkthat further left ideas can serve the future
of progressive movements because you have alonger term, more universal vision. So
when we're talking about conservatives, inthe message they're giving right now, especially
to young men, they're talking abouta vision of traditional masculinity and of success,
a vision of being a jacked guywho is rich and doing very well
(09:39):
and having a good family life.Right now, when you think about the
conservative side, that's the vision theseyoung marigang when they think of the left
right now, what they're thinking ofis people who hate me, which is
what a lot of people in thecomments on the TikTok we're saying, is
people it's like people who hate mebeing a man, which that's just totally
(10:01):
false. It's it is pretty mucha caricature and a strong man argument that
the right is made up. Butthat's what they're thinking. But where is
the positive vision? We could say, we can go around, we could
say as much as we want thatthat's not the case. But where is
the positive vision? Where is thatin the platform? Where is that in
the messaging? It's not there rightnow. The things that you that we're
(10:26):
hearing and and and what I dowant to say before I continue is that
this is affecting electoral reality. Nowwe're not just talking about the future.
And well, to make clear thatthis is actually affecting the electoral situation even
twenty twenty four. And that isbecause these issues of masculinity are actually they're
(10:56):
skewing men. Because you're talking aboutyou're saying, you're seeing actually there was
a New York Times Siena poll whichhas been going around quite a bit on
Twitter from a gentleman by name ofNate cone Um who's showing that men's support
UM has it's gone down from fortyseven percent in twenty twenty two forty two
percent in this poll. Now,there's some interesting methodological issues with this poll
(11:20):
um, but supposedly, supposedly therewas an oversample of Republicans, but the
way the poll was done was supposedlyor the way that the data is being
interpreted is it's reinterpreting so that sothat the samples are adjusted. But I
haven't gotten into the methodology. It'sbehind a paywall, so I can only
look at this chart, but itlines up with what I expect to be
(11:43):
happening. We're seeing even reduced supportfrom nine two Democratic support in twenty twenty
a seven percent in black people.That's a that's five percent difference in a
in a group that Democrats kind oftook take for granted, and from say
same five percent, five percent downin Hispanics from sixty three percent to fifty
(12:05):
eight percent. And in in nonwhite people without a bachelor's degree or higher,
you see a very see a sizeabledifference. You see seven percent difference
seventy two percent down to sixty fivepercent. Similar seven percent difference in those
making under fifty thousand dollars a year. And that is because the positioning.
(12:30):
The commonality between this and the situationwe're seeing with high school boys is that
the positioning of conventional democratic politics doesnot appeal to them. The positioning because
we're seeing gains that you're seeing alittle bit. You're seeing increase in those
making over one hundred thousand by onepercent, small difference fifty to one hundred
(12:50):
k by about three percent. Againsmall difference, but in the positive direction.
But it's because the issues that arebeing brought up are not issues that
appeal to more to people who arenot in the more intelligencia highly educated group.
So right now, when you listento any sort of democratic media,
(13:13):
any sort of progressive media, evena good deal of progressive media, the
three messages that you are hearing rightnow, and this is standard, it's
stuff in politics. You narrow itdown to three issues. And if I
had to guess what those three issuesare, it is, first and foremost
Republicans are a threat to democracy.That's point number one that they make is
(13:39):
Republicans and specifically Trump are a threatto democracy. You turn on MSNBC and
all they're talking about is Trump indictment, Trump indictment. There's a Trump January
six This Trump classified documents that threatto democracy overturn the election, which that's
an important issue. Democracy is important. We've talked about that a lot.
(14:01):
It's super important, and there's agood amount of people who care about that.
And it's good that we're seeing engagementof higher income groups toward Democrats because
you need the money, and rightnow with campaign funds being short, we
need some of those people. Weneed them to give some support. But
(14:24):
it's not going to engage these groupsthat are falling away, and perhaps it's
not even best for regular democratic groupsto try to engage these groups start falling
away. And that's where the furtherleft, the actual leftist ideas can really
win over these groups. Because ifyou're talking about somebody who is like a
(14:46):
high school boy, unless they're likesuper educated or very like precocious like I
was, but even then, Iwas still conservative when I was when I
was a team, but that groupisn't going to think as much about threat
to democracy. Donald Trump and Januarysixth, the person who's gonna think about
that kind of stuff and understand whatall those things mean. It's not going
(15:07):
to be the Latino man who isworking really hard for his family and trying
to put food on the table.He's not necessarily going to be the first
thing he's thinking about in today.Isn't necessarily going to be Trump classified documents.
They're thinking about other issues and allgets what those issues are next.
But the next up on our typicaldemocratic agenda is Republicans are a threat to
(15:35):
identity groups. And when we seeidentity groups, we're talking about we're talking
about people of color, we're talkingabout LGBTQ, plus, we're talking about
women, especially in the reproductive area. That's a message that they have been
really, really going hard on,and that can be a winner in some
of these groups. But I alsodo recognize that in some ways even people
(16:00):
of color aren't not responding as wellto those things anymore. I think it's
partially because of second generation. Ican speak specifically to the Latino experience because
I'm myself and Latino, but thereis sort of more of an assimilation.
There's racism in the Latino community thatpeople just don't talk enough about. That's
(16:22):
a whole different story. They wouldtake a whole episode to explain that.
But there's some with it racism withinthe Latino community, but they're not necessarily
thinking specifically about like this identity grouptype narrative as much. And especially there's
been a lot of controversy around LGBTQrights, which I don't believe there should
(16:45):
be controversy over that. It shouldbe it should be uncontroversial. It should
be considered just part of the freedomsthat we have as Americans, that these
groups be accepted and be able todo what they want to freely associate with
whom they want to associate with,and enjoy the same freedoms and rights as
any other citizen. I don't thinkthat should be really politically controversial, but
(17:07):
alas the right has played it tothe point where they're making it more salient
than it should be in people's everydaylives and convince people who maybe have some
traditional strains of thought, which isdefinitely even in like some especially in ethnic
minority groups, there there's a lotof traditionalist thought. I know that the
(17:30):
Latino community there are a lot ofChristians Catholics, So then the salience of
that issue has gone a bit up, especially when it comes to LGBTQ and
trans rights, which it's all meantto be divisive and to get you out
of thinking about the true war that'sgoing on, which is not a culture
(17:52):
war, but rather a class warthat's being waged economically. And that brings
me to the third point that Democratsare really bringing up a lot about,
which is everything is fine, let'skeep it that way. So Bidenenomics,
which I think that it's a goodidea for Joe Biden to town does economic
accomplishments. That is absolutely essential,But a lot of what they're saying as
(18:15):
well, Look, everything in theworld is stable right now. Politically,
everything's stable right now. We've gotteneverything good enough. Democracy is not an
immediate threat because we're keeping things undercontrol. Joe Biden, Democrats are keeping
things under control. Economically, We'rekeeping things under control. Things are good,
Things are doing really well economically becauseof what we're doing. Yes,
(18:36):
there's some excellent work going on.The bipart is an infrastructure law, the
American Rescue Plan Act, those fundsare still going around. All of these
policies that President Biden and Democrats havebeen instrumental in creating and a lot of
things that the Republicans have tried totear down, but a lot of people
just feel like there needs to bemore changed. People are striking. You
(18:59):
have after you have the writers strike, you almost had a ups strike.
I'm hearing about a possible auto workersstrike too. People are concerned about inflation,
prices rising, banks failing. Soeverything is fine, just may not
resonate. But on a deeper level, none of these issues really has that
kind of universal human interest that alot of the conservative ideas do. When
(19:29):
there were like more progressive movements aroundyoung people, they had more of like
a universal appeal to them, Likethere were things like anti war of the
stuff that was going wrong with likepunk voter in the two thousands, which
I think Jello Biafro was the onethat argued that that was what created the
Obama voting block in two thousand andeight, the punk voter generation. But
(19:53):
none of those things have that sortof universalism like and of it, unfortunately,
because the right has staged it asbeing a zero sum game of if
LGBTQ and trance people are accepted,then that makes you less of a man.
(20:14):
If people are getting help, thatmakes you less successful when that zero
sum game is not reality and nobodyhas really rebutted that. So you have
in these like male demographics in particularwith men. They're like, all they're
talking about, all the Democrats aretalking about, is this stuff that really
doesn't matter to me, that doesn'thave an immediate impact on my life.
(20:37):
Trump's classified documents not an immediate impacton my life. They're saying that the
economy is fine, but I'm strugglingbecause I'm only getting paid seven to twenty
five an hour at a hard laborjob. How can they say the economy
is fine. Meanwhile, this isappealing to the person who's making one hundred
(21:00):
k a year in some sort ofcorporate job there. Maybe they have a
master's sort of advanced education. They'relike, these are all things like protecting
democracy, protecting the institutions of it, these are all things that really matter
to me. But there needs tobe another narrative, a left narrative that
appeals to people that feel disenfranchised.And there also needs to be community that
(21:23):
addresses things that have an overall humaninterest to them, not just like an
institutional or a systemic interest to them. Things that have like a very human
fields with like the anti war movements, those types of things that were going
on with with youth. I thinkclimate change could be one of those issues
(21:44):
with certain highly politically engaged young people. But I also think we need to
have an answer to this masculinity,traditional lifestyle type influencer. And we have
this group of people who feel verylost and alone in their lives. You're
(22:06):
seeing a lot of increases in loneliness, lack of community and the community and
the people that are out there reachingout to, especially men, especially men
that maybe aren't as educated, menwho are younger, are these types of
groups and influencers. They're saying,well, look, you can either back
(22:27):
down, lay down and let womenand trans people run you over. You
can lay down, you can letwomen and trans people take everything that you've
ever earned in your life, whereyou can join me and you can become
the toughest and strongest man that you'veever been in your whole life. Then
grabs a beer and chugs it downstone cold, Steve Austin style, and
(22:52):
then our answer to that is cricketsor just you're wrong for feeling like you're
like you're having a hard time inlife because all these other groups are having
a worse time than you. Whichtwo things can be true. There is
no intersectionality battle Royale. This isnot a competition for who is the most
(23:15):
oppressed. That's not how intersectionality works. It never was how intersectionality worked.
So what we have to do iswe have to find a way and find
out what matters in these communities,finding finding out and engaging people, not
just on the stuff that matters inan election cycle. And this is where
(23:40):
this is where the further left ideas. At this point, I think that
maybe we should just let democrats beconventional democrats, let them do what they
do and do what they do bestin terms of bringing the pro democracy message,
the protecting protecting rights and protecting thestatus quo message to the people who
are responding well to that message.But the further left, the more leftist
(24:03):
and progressive type movements need to bringa positive message create community, which a
big part of leftism and socialism andthese types of progress super more progressive further
left ideas is stuff like mutual aid, and we need to have that sort
of involvement and show that look weare in terms of like emotional support and
(24:30):
show that regardless of who you areas an individual, regardless of whether you
are from an underprivileged group, whetheryou're from an oppressed minority group or not,
that we're creating community around you thatwe do care about you. And
that is something that the further leftcan definitely do a bit better than the
(24:52):
election focused Democrats. So in termsof the positive vision, of course,
we want to have for specifically forthis male group, which seems to be
a big trend across both the olderthe older groups and the younger school age
one is men falling away is thepositive masculinity. I've spoken a lot about
(25:12):
that, and a lot of thesepeople like Andrew Tate are telling young men
that they basically need to embrace avery evil sense of living. Andrew Tate,
of course, has been accused avariety of sexual related crimes, things
that are very grotesque and horrible thatI won't go into. In relation to
(25:34):
sexual offenses. You have a lotof them promoting this very domineering view of
how men should relate to women,and you have them promoting this very domineering
form of economics of like, wellyou can be the alpha and get all
(25:55):
the money by doing all this stuffyby doing this entrepreneurship whatever program that is
probably a scam, that that's probablyjust going to take a ton of your
money. You see a young kidsaying I'm not going to go to college,
I'll just do this influencer pro programand make myself rich, and meanwhile
they get scammed out of every lasttime that they didn't have. And we
(26:22):
can come into that and instead oftelling them, well, look you should
you're the oppressor. The narrative thatthe right wants these kids to believe and
even wants men in general to believe, which is that the left hates them
and views them as the oppressor.We can come in and say, look,
there are solutions to these problems.There are ways for you to gain
(26:48):
acceptance and inclusion in the society.You can be the person, the strong
person that you want to be anddo so by treating people well. You
can you can have a good relationshipand personal life. By treating women and
treating people who are different from youbetter. You will have a better time
(27:11):
socializing and engaging with people, includingpeople of the opposite sex, if you
were actually kind and considerate and careabout them, and just because you do
that, that doesn't make you aweak person, and we need to have
the examples of that, and I'vetalked a lot about pro wrestling being a
really good place for those examples.I have some on the fixerpunk dot com
(27:34):
website. I have some articles thatI've written about Adam Page in particular from
aw John Moxley, just to namea few. But this past week on
Aid of Dynamite, there was areally amazing segment between Adam Cole and MJFMJF
(27:56):
is the current AID of World champion. MJF. I've written an article on
him about what I've termed heal populism. He's very bloviating, almost Donald Trump
type person on the microphone, buthe's built this friendship with Adam Cole,
who's like a good guy, reallynice guy. And what MJF is going
(28:22):
to figure out is he doesn't haveto, is that he has a lot
of vulnerabilities, a lot of Hewas speaking about his mental health and I
suffered with ADHD and rejection sensitive dysphoria, that he was feeling all these things
and he felt like he had tojust become a tougher, meaner person in
order to cover up for his owninsecurities, they needed to just keep getting
(28:45):
meaner and more vicious and becoming basicallya devil in order to feel like he
could succeed in society. But creatingthat relationship, in that bond with Adam
Cole and having the friendship with AdamCole and having somebody who truly genuinely cared
from him, he said that thatchanged him quite a bit. And those
(29:06):
are the kinds of relationships, positiverelationships, that that we should be promoting,
and that are going to be theway to help young men through these
difficult times, rather than hearing likethe Andrew Tade of like saying, the
only way you're ever going to feelbetter about yourself is because is if you
get really, really tough, youbecome dominating over whomen, you dominating your
physique, and you dominate in business. And you do that by being mean
(29:29):
and by hurting other people. Wedon't we need another path forward, and
Adam Cole himself explained pretty well whatthat path forward look like looks like So
what he said in that promo was, for years, I was a jerk,
not only because I thought that's whatI had to do to succeed.
(29:53):
And then um, this is thenext part of it. I'm skipped over
some parts for clarity. It's becauseI was afraid. And then next part
over, I skipped another part forclarity again because I didn't understand what being
a man really was. And Max, you are becoming the man you are
(30:14):
meant to be. So that iswhat we want to think about, is
we want to think about that peopleare these young men and men in general
are being told they need to becomejerks because that's what they need to do
to succeed. But they're being putinto the situation because they're afraid and they
(30:36):
need to find another way of beingknowing what being a man is and there
are some excellent examples. Adam Coleis showing that, and then more specifically
in terms of progressive politics, Hangman, Adam Page has really been on top
of that. Brian Danielson, prettyfar left guy Zach Saber Jr. For
talking across the pond the UK.Those types of example ours are going to
(31:02):
help us through and we need tohighlight that those types of examples as well.
And I think that's something that furtherleft ideas can do a bit better
because just like maybe conventional GOP wisdomwasn't to reach out to those reach out
(31:23):
to groups that were kind of longloss that aren't going to be big donors.
The further right groups that did getfunded. We're reaching out. We're
doing all these things around younger,younger kids that were you had Trump who
bucked the GOP establishment and was goinginto rural communities that were getting ignored,
(31:45):
and that type of deep community engagementand on the issues that people are having
a material impact on. Because I'vetouched on sort of this emotional impact,
but there's also a very material impactthat is affecting people, and especially when
we're talking about these lower income demographics, so people making less than fifty thousand
(32:05):
dollars a year, those are thepeople who need progressive and leftist ideas the
most, and yet they're starting toreject them. And that's because again the
three issues, the three big thingsthat Democrats are talking them about. Our
Republicans are a threat to democracy,Republicans are a threat to identity groups.
(32:30):
And everything is fine. That doesn'tconnect to somebody who is struggling. But
if we bring in a further leftmessage, a message that may be downright
democratic socialist, we can tell them, well, Look, the solution to
your problem is not is not tohope for lower taxes and trickle down economics.
(32:53):
That's already failed you. Your bossis already screwing you over. The
solution is in solidarity, is throughstriking. The solution is through labor reforms,
increased minimum wages, laws that makeit easier to form a union,
various workers' rights. If you're ifyou're a construction worker working on the job
(33:15):
all day long, you should getyour breaks. You should get your water
breaks. You should get if you'rein a driving a truck all day long,
you should be in an air conditionedenvironment. You should have adequate time
off, health insurance, paid familyleave, all those kinds of things that
(33:37):
the person making not as much moneyas other people really needs. And Republicans
are appealing to them because they're thinking, well, look all what they're telling
me. The Democrats are telling methat everything's fine, everything's fine in the
world. But that's not what's happeningto me, So they must be lying
(33:58):
to me. By dynamics isn't helpingme. I'm going to the gas station
and gas is five dollars a gallon. Look at all these prices that have
gone up because of the Biden inflation. Joe Biden hit the gas up button,
and that is why I'm struggling inlife. If I get the Republicans
in office, they are going tokick all those welfare queens to the curb.
(34:19):
They are going to reduce the inflation, and the prices of everything will
come back down. Gas will betwo three dollars a gallon, Eggs will
be a dollar a dozen. Again, when we all know that isn't how
this works. This isn't due towelfare queens, this isn't due to environmental
regulations. They're telling me I haveto get an electric car. Electric car
(34:44):
is only something that those rich peoplein cities can get. I have to
drive my F one fifty every dayto the job site to do plumbing.
Yeah, it's probably true, youneed a truck to do that kind of
stuff. Doesn't mean that we can'tbring it to Betric at some point in
the future. But if you're beingtold that that's going to go away and
(35:05):
that's then then of course you're goingto feel threatened. So because the Democrats
are failing and leaving a vacuum interms of personal, long term community engagement
and providing and doing things like mutualaid and longer range community engagement, as
well as in real kitchen table economicissues and issues that people are feeling the
(35:34):
personal impact of every day. Inlower income groups, these these people who
aren't making as much money and don'tthink as much about the more aristocratic aspects
of politics. They just want tohave their families be fed. They just
want to be able to pay theirmortgages, just want to be able to
buy food, have some money leftover to save, and they feel like
(35:58):
if Republicans are going to come inand low their taxes and lower their prices,
that it's going to come back in. But really, in reality,
what's going on is this is corporateread that needs to be broken up and
dealt with the antitrust laws, allof those kind of things, price gouging,
those types of things need to beaddressed if Democrats aren't going to address
(36:19):
them. Further, left, progressivegroups progressive ideas can be promoted. Just
like the Tea Party was outside ofthe Republican mainstream in two thousand and nine,
progressive groups, leftist groups can dothat and they can engage these populations,
(36:39):
just like Trump went to the ruralcommunities and got their votes. Progressive
ideas can come in and say,well, look we're different. We care
about your economic situation. We knowthat you're having trouble every month making your
rent, we know that you're havingtrouble paying for your food. And the
(37:01):
problem is that corporate greed is stealingfrom you in all directions, and we
are going to help you to solvethat. And you are strong. You
are a great hard worker. You'rea person who is deserving and has earned
the right to a living. Andyou can be as strong and as tough
(37:21):
as you want to be. Getup, do whatever, do what you
want to do, what makes youfeel fulfilled in life, and become your
best self by acting in solidarity andby getting what you need to do that
fight back against the people who arecausing you the problems that you're experiencing in
(37:45):
reality, not some made up fantasyabout how trans people and groomers or threatening
your children, but the people whoare actually threatening to take food off of
your children's tape able through their economicpolicies. You can become strong, and
you can rise up and be tough, but you have to do so against
(38:08):
the right thing or for the rightthing. You have to find that we
can show we can show them theway, We can show them the look
Passing progressive policies, passing a higherminimum wage, passing union rights, passing
(38:30):
universal healthcare, those things are goingto help with those problems that you're seeing
your everyday life way more than anysupposed drill baby drill policy to lower gas
prices, which it won't because allthat's going on is that even if you
lower costs on corporations, they're notpassing that savings onto you anytime soon.
Because industries are consolidated, they're settingprices in unison. Sometimes they're just going
(38:55):
to all keep prices high and keepthat money as that's put it back into
stock buybacks. But taking action andseeking collective action to change the economic system
in this country to support the peoplewho are working to keep our country going
(39:17):
is an effective strategy. And tothe men who are experiencing loneliness and feeling
like they have become weaker and lesspowerful in society, yes you have,
but you are also becoming weaker atthe same time as the minority groups that
you are blaming for your problems arealso likewise becoming weaker, and perhaps by
(39:38):
double fold. So they are notyour enemy. They are people who are
dealing with the same issues that youare dealing with, and we need to
get that message out there. AndI think that this is where we can
really see if we see a lotof progressive ideas going out into these communities
(40:00):
in a package, not in awoke scolding package, not in a very
whiny package of constantly complaining, butin a manner of strength, of saying
that this is the solution. Theseare the policy ideas that we need to
fight for that will get you backwhere you want to be in life and
(40:20):
help you be the person you wantto be. Then we can see victory
and creating that community around people thatfeel left behind in life, for the
young men who feel like they're lonely, creating community, building that around them,
(40:42):
even if there's no political gain toit whatsoever, and actively engaging in
a language that makes them feel acceptedand makes them feel like we're talking to
them and we're not talking at themor against them. And that's what I
seek to do here on podcast.If you are in the political organizing space,
nonprofit space, if you are organizingany sort of activism and you are
(41:07):
looking for advice to get that messagethrough in a way that appeals too specific
communities that have been left behind orthat is seeking to bridge divides instead of
creating more divides and seeking to reallycreate long term sustainability in terms of your
communications in terms of attitudinal and culturalchange. Please reach out to me.
(41:30):
You can contact me through my consultingpractices website off Speed Solutions Offspeed solutions dot
com. Link will be in thedescription. Please subscribe to the podcast for
more episodes like this, and pleasefollow on social media. I keep though,
I keep the TikTok the most ofto date with current news and insights
(41:54):
from the news that is at Fixerpunkfcrpunk on TikTok also on Instagram, the
Twitter or x or whatever it's called. Is at Grace and Nation GRUISN and
a t I O N. Ifyou have any feedback of anis personal stories,
to share, any input at all, any issues you want me to
(42:15):
cover. If you're seeing something inyour own community, if you're seeing examples
of your own family getting sucked intothe far right, if you're seeing problems
that are being solved by progressive andmore leftist groups, if you have good
examples of good activism. If youhave a strike going on and you want
(42:37):
to talk about that strike, leaveme a message. I will try to
get you onto the show and getyour ideas and your narratives and things you
want to share to help make thingsbetter, or the things you want to
rant about, so I can maybeanalyze and maybe help you a little bit
by discussing issues that needs to bebrought to light. Let me know.
(42:59):
Give me a call. I wantto hear from you. Eight four four
four seven seven Punk eight four fourfour seven seven seven eight six five.
Leave a message twenty four seven threesixty five. I will listen to it
and you might be on a futureepisode again. Eight four four four seven
seven Punk eight four four four sevenseven seven eight six five. Thank you
(43:20):
so much for spending some of yourtime with me today, and I hope
you will join me again for thenext episode.
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