I have long said that this podcast is about Bridging The Divide Between Personal and Social Change, but I feel it is important to explain why exactly self-help and personal growth ideas matter for progressive and leftist movements. Narratives from finance to fitness to personal relationships can all subtly influence politics in ways that campaigns alone just cannot do and cannot mitigate.
Episode Notes:
Slate Article on presidential candidates, showing off their fitness accomplishments: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/francis-suarez-miami-running-5k-rfk-jr-push-ups-presidential-campaign.html
Totalizing conservative media and business ecosystem with talk radio advertisers and influencers
Conservative Finance - Dave Ramsey
Growth in Conservative Fitness Influencers - Andrew Tate, More Plates More Dates, etc.
Why should progressives be involved in self help, finance, fitness, etc.? 5 reasons:
It’s Personal, Practical, Positive, Pre-political, and conservatives already have a Presence
Trump has allowed Democrats to campaign strictly on the preservation of democracy, but that won’t last forever.
A lot of people just don’t understand how political happenings relate to their own lives
But people are looking for help with problems in their lives, that they may not know have systemic influences
Mutual aid is powerful because it’s practical
My article on pro wrestling and mutual aid: https://www.prowrestlingmusings.com/post/rediscovering-the-dark-order-s-purpose-through-mutual-aid
False health claims to make you not care as much about systems and play on your fear of getting sick and the financial consequences
Conservative ideology and self-reliance
Avoidance of the system instead of trying to fix it
Progressive ideas are seen negative, whining, as things for weak people, and not aspirational
TikToker claimed people who say housing is a human right are whining and need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dhGjPX/
We need positivity in the progressive narrative
We need both personal changes strategies and to address systemic factors like healthcare, food deserts, and inequality
The ability to fall and get up with support is positive!
Democrats allocate all of their energy to campaign season only. They should have more efforts outside of that. Conservatives already do.
Folks like Ramsey lead you to think that all of your economic hardship situations can be fixed by just working harder
Self-reliance advice can be bad advice.
Imagine how much better your retirement would be with a union and a pension rather than working 18 hours a day to contribute to a 401k.
There is always some truth to these ideas though.
Even fitness experts, like Andy Frisella, have been getting into politics
His 75 Hard program and its issues are a whole different topic
Going from self-help, fitness, finance, etc. to politics is just like a sales funnel
Not everyone can comply with these programs, maybe 30% succeed and then are sold
Influencers will show results and then use those results to make you believe that anybody and everybody can solve all of their own problems on their own, without regard for systemic factors, and without public assistance
Countering the claim that “if only poor people did the hard things in life, they would not be poor.”
Homelessness episode:
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/06/04/use-respect-and-hospitality-not-force-to-get-homeless-into-hotel-rooms/
Political opinions are often formed before you even notice them.
Presence: Conservatives talk about intellectual diversity, but they are overwhelmingly the only voice in these spaces around personal growth, so progressives should aim to have a presence too.
Focusing on environments and political systems is essential to ensuring you can reach your potential and also help others. Both are possible at the same time. Don’t let them fool you into believing they are a contradiction.
(Episode notes are always rough, may contain errors, also apologies for any audio issues.)
www.Fi
Episode Notes:
Slate Article on presidential candidates, showing off their fitness accomplishments: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/francis-suarez-miami-running-5k-rfk-jr-push-ups-presidential-campaign.html
Totalizing conservative media and business ecosystem with talk radio advertisers and influencers
Conservative Finance - Dave Ramsey
Growth in Conservative Fitness Influencers - Andrew Tate, More Plates More Dates, etc.
Why should progressives be involved in self help, finance, fitness, etc.? 5 reasons:
It’s Personal, Practical, Positive, Pre-political, and conservatives already have a Presence
Trump has allowed Democrats to campaign strictly on the preservation of democracy, but that won’t last forever.
A lot of people just don’t understand how political happenings relate to their own lives
But people are looking for help with problems in their lives, that they may not know have systemic influences
Mutual aid is powerful because it’s practical
My article on pro wrestling and mutual aid: https://www.prowrestlingmusings.com/post/rediscovering-the-dark-order-s-purpose-through-mutual-aid
False health claims to make you not care as much about systems and play on your fear of getting sick and the financial consequences
Conservative ideology and self-reliance
Avoidance of the system instead of trying to fix it
Progressive ideas are seen negative, whining, as things for weak people, and not aspirational
TikToker claimed people who say housing is a human right are whining and need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dhGjPX/
We need positivity in the progressive narrative
We need both personal changes strategies and to address systemic factors like healthcare, food deserts, and inequality
The ability to fall and get up with support is positive!
Democrats allocate all of their energy to campaign season only. They should have more efforts outside of that. Conservatives already do.
Folks like Ramsey lead you to think that all of your economic hardship situations can be fixed by just working harder
Self-reliance advice can be bad advice.
Imagine how much better your retirement would be with a union and a pension rather than working 18 hours a day to contribute to a 401k.
There is always some truth to these ideas though.
Even fitness experts, like Andy Frisella, have been getting into politics
His 75 Hard program and its issues are a whole different topic
Going from self-help, fitness, finance, etc. to politics is just like a sales funnel
Not everyone can comply with these programs, maybe 30% succeed and then are sold
Influencers will show results and then use those results to make you believe that anybody and everybody can solve all of their own problems on their own, without regard for systemic factors, and without public assistance
Countering the claim that “if only poor people did the hard things in life, they would not be poor.”
Homelessness episode:
https://podcast.greysonpeltier.com/wp/2023/06/04/use-respect-and-hospitality-not-force-to-get-homeless-into-hotel-rooms/
Political opinions are often formed before you even notice them.
Presence: Conservatives talk about intellectual diversity, but they are overwhelmingly the only voice in these spaces around personal growth, so progressives should aim to have a presence too.
Focusing on environments and political systems is essential to ensuring you can reach your potential and also help others. Both are possible at the same time. Don’t let them fool you into believing they are a contradiction.
(Episode notes are always rough, may contain errors, also apologies for any audio issues.)
www.Fi
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is the Fixture Punk podcast,the podcast that is training for a five
k just so we can show offour results when we run for president.
I'm Grayson Peltier, So I wantedto kind of go back to the basics
here and sort of discuss, likethe model of this podcast is supposed to
be bridging the divide between personal andsocial change, and I've talked a lot
(00:25):
about the personal being political, butI think I kind of need to go
back a few steps and explain whythat is. Because I was talking with
someone the other night and they didn'treally seem to understand what the connection was
between these personal growth subjects, thingslike fitness and politics, and I think
it does deserve some explaining, especiallyfor those on the progressive side that aren't
(00:49):
as exposed to narratives where personal growth, fitness, all these types of like
individualistic things are tied and with politics. I feel like, because my background
is coming from the conservative side,I have been around that a lot.
A lot of like conservative talk radioand conservative media is almost like a totalizing
(01:11):
lifestyle environment where you listen to theconservative talk radio station, they have all
these businesses that are advertising there,all these things there for your health these
financial programs financial services. On thefinancial side, Dave Ramsey is by far
the most influential one on a lotof conservative talk radio stations as a whole
(01:34):
program with all of its issues.I've talked about Dave Ramsey and some prior
episodes, and then you have onthe fitness side, you know the fitness
influencers like the liver Kings, theandrew Tates of the world, even more
plates more Dates who has ties toMike Cernovich, who is a pretty well
known right wing, far right mediaguy. But a lot of people who
(02:00):
are more I guess normal, ormore or more progressive generally just don't necessarily
see that connection. So I kindof want to take a few steps back
and explain why this stuff matters andwhy it can have an influence in politics.
Now, if you ever have aquestion, concern, you feel lost
about something I'm talking about, orif there is a specific problem or challenge
(02:23):
involving politics, the workplace, orany other problem with a systemic and personal
element in your life that you wantme to comment on on the show,
feel free to give us a call. The number is eight four four four
seven seven Punk. That's eight fourfour four seven seven seven, eight six
(02:45):
five. You can leave a messageanytime, day or night, and I
may play it on the show againeight four four four seven seven seven eight
six five. So the first thing, the first reason why progressives should be
involved in personal growth teche narratives isbecause they are personal and a lot of
(03:09):
times we talk about political issues andwe talk about things like and we've seen,
thankfully, we've seen some pretty goodpolling numbers on issues related to democracy
and normalization of the political state becauseof the sort of shock that Trump created
and that helped Democrats to get winsin the past two elections. But that's
(03:30):
not going to last forever. Whatis going to last over the long term
is what people find to be personallyinfluential to them, because a lot of
people will not really pay attention topolitics because they don't think it affects them
their life. And it's hard toexplain what some abstract political happening, what's
some debate between two people in DC, or what's the maschinations of some committee
(03:57):
and their hearings and their rules processesand censures and stuff like that, what
that has to do with somebody's life. But there are things that are very
personal that are affected by politics,like your finances, your health, your
everyday interactions with other people, andhow those are affected by issues of race,
(04:17):
class, and gender. So itallows us to think if we think
about individual problems that people are seekinghelpful in their everyday lives. It allows
us to think of what matters topeople, not necessarily what matters just people
who constantly follow the never ending twentyfour hour political news cycle, but what
(04:38):
matters to people in their everyday lives. And I think that is a frame
of mind that needs to be abigger part of messaging. I've been a
communications consultant, and I can tellthat on the conservative side we would always
do that. I haven't seen itas much on the progressive side, but
I think that veering into this sortof self help space helps you to get
(05:00):
that framework of making things very personalto people. Secondly, because it's practical,
a lot of people are looking forpractical help or advice through a situation.
This is kind of why mutual aidgroups are so powerful. Why a
lot of like very radical ideologies haveused mutual aid and individual support as a
(05:25):
way of showing the value of theirgroup. I actually did kind of an
interesting article on the topic of mutualaid. That was basically it was an
analogy to professional wrestling. So it'sdefinitely not it's not necessarily the most like
political think tank, white paper typething, but it is kind of a
(05:47):
fun analogy to a professional wrestling factionthat is sort of a sort of acting
like a leaderless collective, and youcan find that on Pro Wrestling Musings dot
com. But to the topic thatI was going to explain, practical solutions.
So practical solutions is something that alot of people are looking for.
(06:08):
And that's why you'll have shows likeDave Ramsey while you always have like financial
talk shows on conservative talk radio stations, is because people are seeing something in
their lives, are seeing the effectsof inequality, They're seeing problems they're happening
to them, and they want apractical solution for it. They don't necessarily
want to listen to people playing theblame game Democrats or Republicans. They want
(06:30):
somebody who's going to help them.And sometimes these kind of paternalistic figures on
the conservative side will come in andthey'll say, well, look, if
you do this, this, andthat, you follow my seven steps,
you follow this program, your healthis an issue right now, you can
avoid the entire medical infrastructure in Americaby doing all these things, because we
know you're scared of going to thedoctor because you're going to have five thousand
(06:53):
dollars deductible. But if you spendfifty ninety five on the supplement, then
you don't have to deal with thatmost likely, or that's what they'll claim.
That is the kind of stuff you'llhere advertised in certain cases with these
kinds of false grandios claims. Andthere was an article going back to the
(07:14):
little teaser at the beginning of theepisode about about presidential candidates. Some of
that stuff was actually referenced in agood article in Slate about the presidential candidates.
They're touting their fitness accomplishments, mostnotably RFK junior in Francis Suirez Francis
Suarez who posted his five K timewhich was pretty good for his age group,
(07:36):
but not like extremely impressive. Iused to be a fast runner.
I was actually am I was actuallya track runner through middle school and I
held a school record. But Ihaven't haven't really gotten more into lifting and
that kind of like more bodybuilding styletraining. So like all my cardio stuff
(07:57):
isn't as good as it used tobe. But that's beside the point.
When so this Slate article actually didgo into how these conservative ideologies do we
get entangled with a lot of selfreliance and these sort of solutions to health
to health that are sort of anavoidance strategy of the systems that are failing
(08:22):
around you instead of trying to fixthose systems. The article is called Weird
Flex by Ben Mathis Lily on Julyfifth in Slate. I'll put a link
to it in the episode description pregood article. Go and read that I
did a video on it on theTikTok too at fixer Punk. But yeah,
(08:43):
it's these practical solutions and it's meantto give people a positive impression that
they can fix things on their own. So positivity is another thing. A
lot of people will hear progressive andespecially leftist ideas and they'll think that they're
just whining. This is one ofthe biggest complaints I hear, even like
somebody sent me a video that Iwas talking about the housing is a human
(09:09):
right argument and somebody arguing against it, saying that it's just basically saying in
so many words that it's just whiningpeople who haven't made how haven't done well
in their life and need to pickthemselves up by their bootstraps, who are
making this argument that housing is ahuman right. So progressive ideas are not
really seen as aspirational. They're seenas a negative thing that you only believe
(09:35):
in because you have failed in life. And there needs to be a level
of positivity to the progressive narrative.And by showing solutions and showing how you
can help yourself in your own lifewhile also advocating for social change, because
you won't hear a lot of selfhelp people saying yes, go and try
(09:58):
and try to lift weights and trainand all that, but we also need
to advocate for a better healthcare system. Make sure to go on to go
and track your macros, but wealso need to address food deserts. You
won't hear. You certainly won't heara Dave Ramsey saying yes, you should
try to budget and save for emergencies, but we also need to strengthen the
(10:18):
welfare system so that if you loseyour job by no fault of your own,
you can get the assistance you needto get by. And those two
things can be true at the sametime, and that is a very positive
narrative because we are giving people theability to fall and be able to get
back up, and that is somethingthat is valuable and it is positive to
(10:41):
personal growth. But you certainly won'thear that from any of these conservative influencers
out there. And then you havethe people online or are like, Okay,
you're only asking for this because you'rewhiny and you're lazy and you didn't
get aware in life, so youwon't have Necessarily, you have to have
good down flowers. And I've talkedabout this a lot in my discussions about
(11:01):
positive masculinity. You have to havegood example oars of people that are very
strong, accomplished, successful, whetherthat be in the athletic sense or in
the economic sense, to show apositive narrative of this is a good thing.
This is a good thing. Thisis not something that just means that
you're crying out for help and you'reweak and you can't do anything. This
(11:22):
is in fact actually empowerment. Andthen the next thing is is that it's
pre political. When you get intothese self help ideas, they go past
the filters. We have a filterin our mind of cognitive dissonance, and
you will filter out information that opposesyou as soon as you know that it
(11:43):
opposes you, as soon as youknow that it is saying about voting elections,
things like that. People will filterit out at some point, especially
during election season where we're constantly bombardingpeople with advertising, which honestly, I
feel like, especially Democratic conservatives area little bit, actually a lot better
at this, but Democrats just pushso much into just the election season and
(12:07):
then do absolutely nothing outside of it, so they're just cramming you with information
by the point where you're sick ofit. I do know that one of
my campaign strategy professors said that ifwhen you, the politically informed person or
the strategist is sick of it,that's when the general public is first understanding
the message. But I do thinkthat in some cases we have gone past
turning up the volume to eleven.We've turned the volume up to fifteen,
(12:31):
when you could just reallocate that alittle bit so that the volume is at
least at three during the rest ofthe year instead of at zero when it
comes to your messages. So whenyou're so this, basically it goes around
that filter. You won't necessarily likepeople may not even unless you listen to
(12:52):
him for a while. Think ofDave Ramsey as a conservative political talk show
host. If people will see asYouTube is think, oh yeah, this
is a practical thing. I justneed to stay away from all debt,
keep all debt out of my life. And if I take on four jobs
and I'm delivering pizzas at night andI'm driving for Uber, and I am
(13:13):
just going into whatever job, takingany job, whatsoever, I will be
fine economically. If only, ifonly I can work eighteen hours a day
for the next ten years, thenI will be able to retire. When
in fact those things are probably notgonna happen. You're gonna burn out,
you're going to destroy yourself, andit's bad advice. That's gonna make things
(13:37):
worse for you. But it's justthat self reliant notion, when in fact,
you could make your life a wholelot better if you unionize your workplace,
and maybe you won't have to workeighteen hours a day to be able
to afford retirement. Maybe you'll geta pension and that'll help you a lot
(14:01):
more than what they are telling youto do. But once you start hearing
things like union politics, elections,voting, your brain filters it out if
you're not in that space and you'renot okay with those ideas. So these
(14:22):
self helping wants are start out bygiving practical advice, some of which makes
sense. Some of what Dave Ramseysays makes sense. There's always got to
be some truth to it. Andthen on the fitness side you have people
like an Andy Frisella, the guybehind that seventy five hard thing, which
I think is just its own messof misconceptions and problems and stepping into areas
(14:48):
of behavioral health that he probably shouldn'tbe stepping into. And I'd have to
do a whole episode discussing that,and I feel like I'd probably have to
get somebody who's more qualified than myselfin the fitness space to even go into
the technicalities of that. But hewill go into the political stuff as well.
He'll give out this advice about gettingtougher, stronger, leaner, fitter,
(15:11):
all this stuff about making yourself great, and then he'll give yourself,
give you like business advice as well, and like how his toughness and all
of that will make you successful andmake you a mf CEO, make you
all these successful things, and thenhe will send out emails saying you want
(15:33):
to start learning about the real issuesin society and then talking about how your
next vote has the power to determineAmerica's freedom. So it's a funnel.
It's just like a sales funnel.So it goes from you, the person
who's vaguely interested in lifting weights andgetting in shape, getting lean or getting
jacked there there and he's like,oh, yeah, you gotta get tougher,
(15:56):
you gotta get stronger, you gottaget disciplined and do all this stuff
every single day for seventy five dayswithout failure. Everything needs to be perfect,
and you're getting that discipline mindset andyou're like, oh my god,
I can do this, or atleast some percentage of people will be able
to do it. They don't expecteverybody to be able to finish this,
because most people can't. But thetwenty thirty percent of people who will get
through one of these programs, thenthey're kind of sold on it, and
(16:19):
they're like, oh yeah, thisguy's right, This andy for selling knows
what he's talking about. Look atme. I'm so lean, I'm so
buff, I'm so jacked and I'mso successful in life, and then this
guy must be trustworthy. And thenyou hear I'm talking about politics and Biden
and how the left is wrong,and how look, look, look you
just got tougher, you got better, you got meaner, you got stronger,
(16:41):
and look, your life is nowbetter now. So why would anybody
need welfare? Why would anybody needa union when you could just become a
more successful entrepreneur on your own,If you could just pick yourself out up
by your bootstraps. Why would anybodyneed universe healthcare? If you keep yourself
(17:03):
fit, then you'll never have madeyour health problems as ridiculous salty things sound.
These are the kinds of implications theseideas come with. And you can
look down on all those people,because if all those people just did the
hard things in life, they wouldnot be poor. If the person on
skid row just went through and stayeddisciplined in life, then all of their
(17:30):
problems would be gone. They wouldnot be homeless right now. And all
they need to do is do morehard things in life and they will no
longer be on the street. Meanwhile, even if they tried to get a
job of any kind, they wouldneed a street address. They need ID
and they need clothes that are presentable, and they probably need a good deal
of medical treatment that they're just notgetting in the medical treatment they're getting is
(17:52):
horrible. And all the other stuffthat I discussed on the Inside Safe and
Homeless episode. You can go backto that episode if you want. But
that is the power of pre politicalthinking that gets around your cognitive dissonance and
it forms those opinions before you evennotice them. And then lastly is presence.
(18:22):
We want to make sure that alot of people, especially conservatives,
are like, we need intellectual diversity, We need for all ideas to be
represented. You need to hear bothsides, even when it's completely clear,
like on climate change, there's basicallyno denying that human activity is causing warming
to the planet, is causing climatechange to occur, the ways to fix
(18:47):
it, and the degree to it. Maybe there's maybe there's some legitimate scientific
debate to that, but the factthat it's that it exists is indisputable.
But still they'll say, well,we need to hear both sides, and
news is not fair if we don'thear both sides. But you go into
these self health narratives go into thefitness, finance world, personal growth.
(19:07):
Whatever all you hear is the conservativenarrative. So it is important that we
have a presence as progressives and leftistsin these space so that a broader view
of ideas can be out there.And conservatives are clearly pushing their way into
these spaces and ensuring that they havea presence. And I can tell you
(19:32):
from my experience working on the conservativeside politically that these things are very well
oiled machines that they are. Thatconservative organizations are generally very well run and
managed by very smart and talented people, albeit misguided people, but they do
(19:52):
put the resources in there, andthere is a reason why resources go to
these things. One of the reasonsbecause is because it's profitable. Dave Ramsey
makes a ton of ton of moneyoff of all of his books, his
sponsors and his referral networks and allof that. It's profitable, and of
(20:14):
course conservatives love profit, but it'salso politically impactful. So if you follow
the money, you'll see that thereis a need to have a presence there
and it is a viable place andan important place to have a presence.
So hopefully that clarifies a bit aboutwhy I care so much about self development,
(20:40):
personal growth, and those narratives inthose areas and those practical ways of
helping other people to become the bestperson that they could be, because unless
we change our systems, unless wehave an environment where people can become the
best version of themselves and we're notstomping out the best ideas our society,
and where we're not discarding people asnuisances just because they're a little bit different,
(21:06):
and where we're not throwing people intolow wage jobs to be ground up,
chewed up and spit out with nochance of being able to show the
world what they have to offer,then we're not going to see things be
in a positive way for the wholeof society and for individuals. They're both
(21:30):
connected. If we have a societywhere people have the room to fail,
and where people are given what theyneed to perform at the best of their
ability, and people are given theadvice of the information and the knowledge to
be able to make the right decisionsto perform well. So that combination of
knowledge and ability and capacities in society, when that is online, then we
(21:55):
can really start to make a difference, and we can start to live our
best lives while still helping our neighbors, and those two things are not in
contradiction with each other, despite whatthe conservative thinkers and influencers would want you
to believe. So again, hopefullythat helps you understand these ideas a little
(22:17):
bit more. If you have anyfeedback, please feel free to give me
a call eight four four four sevenseven seven eight six five eight four four
four seven seven punk. If youhave any conservative far right influencers out there,
if you want me to review theirstuff, If you have even a
kind of scammy or sketchy self help, fitness, finance, whatever, something
(22:44):
that looks like a scam, evenI'm happy to take a look at it,
maybe clown on them a little bit. You can give me a call,
or you can email Grayson grysn atOffspeed Solutions dot com. Or you
can reach out to me on socialmedia at fixer Punk on Instagram and TikTok
at Grace and Nation greyso n natioand on Twitter. And if you are
(23:11):
a progressive organizer, somebody in anonprofit or advocacy effort and you are looking
for unique ways to get your messageacross, maybe bridging the divide between the
personal and the political, making surethat your messaging reaches people and goes around
their cognitive dissonance and can really syncin and get your ideas through and across.
(23:36):
Or if you just need help inthe practical implementation of making sure that
your program is both optimally communicating andperforming, Or if you're socially responsible entrepreneur
that maybe wants to go into oneof these spaces and wants to set an
example for being a great entrepreneur andrunning a good business, and you need
(23:59):
to get your message out there,and you need to market yourself, whether
that be digitally traditionally, I canhelp. Please reach out to my consulting
practice, off Speed Solutions at offspeed solutions dot com. That's off speed
slutio ns dot com. I willput a link in the description as always,
(24:22):
and I would love to speak withyou about your advocacy project, nonprofit
campaign, or business and determine theright mix of marketing, communications, consulting
and business support solutions that can helpyour organization or business achieve your goals in
a responsible manner. Thank you forchoosing to spend some time with me today.
(24:48):
I do really appreciate you, andI hope you'll join me again for
the next episode.
This is the Fixture Punk podcast,the podcast that is training for a five
k just so we can show offour results when we run for president.
I'm Grayson Peltier, So I wantedto kind of go back to the basics
here and sort of discuss, likethe model of this podcast is supposed to
be bridging the divide between personal andsocial change, and I've talked a lot
(00:25):
about the personal being political, butI think I kind of need to go
back a few steps and explain whythat is. Because I was talking with
someone the other night and they didn'treally seem to understand what the connection was
between these personal growth subjects, thingslike fitness and politics, and I think
it does deserve some explaining, especiallyfor those on the progressive side that aren't
(00:49):
as exposed to narratives where personal growth, fitness, all these types of like
individualistic things are tied and with politics. I feel like, because my background
is coming from the conservative side,I have been around that a lot.
A lot of like conservative talk radioand conservative media is almost like a totalizing
(01:11):
lifestyle environment where you listen to theconservative talk radio station, they have all
these businesses that are advertising there,all these things there for your health these
financial programs financial services. On thefinancial side, Dave Ramsey is by far
the most influential one on a lotof conservative talk radio stations as a whole
(01:34):
program with all of its issues.I've talked about Dave Ramsey and some prior
episodes, and then you have onthe fitness side, you know the fitness
influencers like the liver Kings, theandrew Tates of the world, even more
plates more Dates who has ties toMike Cernovich, who is a pretty well
known right wing, far right mediaguy. But a lot of people who
(02:00):
are more I guess normal, ormore or more progressive generally just don't necessarily
see that connection. So I kindof want to take a few steps back
and explain why this stuff matters andwhy it can have an influence in politics.
Now, if you ever have aquestion, concern, you feel lost
about something I'm talking about, orif there is a specific problem or challenge
(02:23):
involving politics, the workplace, orany other problem with a systemic and personal
element in your life that you wantme to comment on on the show,
feel free to give us a call. The number is eight four four four
seven seven Punk. That's eight fourfour four seven seven seven, eight six
(02:45):
five. You can leave a messageanytime, day or night, and I
may play it on the show againeight four four four seven seven seven eight
six five. So the first thing, the first reason why progressives should be
involved in personal growth teche narratives isbecause they are personal and a lot of
(03:09):
times we talk about political issues andwe talk about things like and we've seen,
thankfully, we've seen some pretty goodpolling numbers on issues related to democracy
and normalization of the political state becauseof the sort of shock that Trump created
and that helped Democrats to get winsin the past two elections. But that's
(03:30):
not going to last forever. Whatis going to last over the long term
is what people find to be personallyinfluential to them, because a lot of
people will not really pay attention topolitics because they don't think it affects them
their life. And it's hard toexplain what some abstract political happening, what's
some debate between two people in DC, or what's the maschinations of some committee
(03:57):
and their hearings and their rules processesand censures and stuff like that, what
that has to do with somebody's life. But there are things that are very
personal that are affected by politics,like your finances, your health, your
everyday interactions with other people, andhow those are affected by issues of race,
(04:17):
class, and gender. So itallows us to think if we think
about individual problems that people are seekinghelpful in their everyday lives. It allows
us to think of what matters topeople, not necessarily what matters just people
who constantly follow the never ending twentyfour hour political news cycle, but what
(04:38):
matters to people in their everyday lives. And I think that is a frame
of mind that needs to be abigger part of messaging. I've been a
communications consultant, and I can tellthat on the conservative side we would always
do that. I haven't seen itas much on the progressive side, but
I think that veering into this sortof self help space helps you to get
(05:00):
that framework of making things very personalto people. Secondly, because it's practical,
a lot of people are looking forpractical help or advice through a situation.
This is kind of why mutual aidgroups are so powerful. Why a
lot of like very radical ideologies haveused mutual aid and individual support as a
(05:25):
way of showing the value of theirgroup. I actually did kind of an
interesting article on the topic of mutualaid. That was basically it was an
analogy to professional wrestling. So it'sdefinitely not it's not necessarily the most like
political think tank, white paper typething, but it is kind of a
(05:47):
fun analogy to a professional wrestling factionthat is sort of a sort of acting
like a leaderless collective, and youcan find that on Pro Wrestling Musings dot
com. But to the topic thatI was going to explain, practical solutions.
So practical solutions is something that alot of people are looking for.
(06:08):
And that's why you'll have shows likeDave Ramsey while you always have like financial
talk shows on conservative talk radio stations, is because people are seeing something in
their lives, are seeing the effectsof inequality, They're seeing problems they're happening
to them, and they want apractical solution for it. They don't necessarily
want to listen to people playing theblame game Democrats or Republicans. They want
(06:30):
somebody who's going to help them.And sometimes these kind of paternalistic figures on
the conservative side will come in andthey'll say, well, look, if
you do this, this, andthat, you follow my seven steps,
you follow this program, your healthis an issue right now, you can
avoid the entire medical infrastructure in Americaby doing all these things, because we
know you're scared of going to thedoctor because you're going to have five thousand
(06:53):
dollars deductible. But if you spendfifty ninety five on the supplement, then
you don't have to deal with thatmost likely, or that's what they'll claim.
That is the kind of stuff you'llhere advertised in certain cases with these
kinds of false grandios claims. Andthere was an article going back to the
(07:14):
little teaser at the beginning of theepisode about about presidential candidates. Some of
that stuff was actually referenced in agood article in Slate about the presidential candidates.
They're touting their fitness accomplishments, mostnotably RFK junior in Francis Suirez Francis
Suarez who posted his five K timewhich was pretty good for his age group,
(07:36):
but not like extremely impressive. Iused to be a fast runner.
I was actually am I was actuallya track runner through middle school and I
held a school record. But Ihaven't haven't really gotten more into lifting and
that kind of like more bodybuilding styletraining. So like all my cardio stuff
(07:57):
isn't as good as it used tobe. But that's beside the point.
When so this Slate article actually didgo into how these conservative ideologies do we
get entangled with a lot of selfreliance and these sort of solutions to health
to health that are sort of anavoidance strategy of the systems that are failing
(08:22):
around you instead of trying to fixthose systems. The article is called Weird
Flex by Ben Mathis Lily on Julyfifth in Slate. I'll put a link
to it in the episode description pregood article. Go and read that I
did a video on it on theTikTok too at fixer Punk. But yeah,
(08:43):
it's these practical solutions and it's meantto give people a positive impression that
they can fix things on their own. So positivity is another thing. A
lot of people will hear progressive andespecially leftist ideas and they'll think that they're
just whining. This is one ofthe biggest complaints I hear, even like
somebody sent me a video that Iwas talking about the housing is a human
(09:09):
right argument and somebody arguing against it, saying that it's just basically saying in
so many words that it's just whiningpeople who haven't made how haven't done well
in their life and need to pickthemselves up by their bootstraps, who are
making this argument that housing is ahuman right. So progressive ideas are not
really seen as aspirational. They're seenas a negative thing that you only believe
(09:35):
in because you have failed in life. And there needs to be a level
of positivity to the progressive narrative.And by showing solutions and showing how you
can help yourself in your own lifewhile also advocating for social change, because
you won't hear a lot of selfhelp people saying yes, go and try
(09:58):
and try to lift weights and trainand all that, but we also need
to advocate for a better healthcare system. Make sure to go on to go
and track your macros, but wealso need to address food deserts. You
won't hear. You certainly won't heara Dave Ramsey saying yes, you should
try to budget and save for emergencies, but we also need to strengthen the
(10:18):
welfare system so that if you loseyour job by no fault of your own,
you can get the assistance you needto get by. And those two
things can be true at the sametime, and that is a very positive
narrative because we are giving people theability to fall and be able to get
back up, and that is somethingthat is valuable and it is positive to
(10:41):
personal growth. But you certainly won'thear that from any of these conservative influencers
out there. And then you havethe people online or are like, Okay,
you're only asking for this because you'rewhiny and you're lazy and you didn't
get aware in life, so youwon't have Necessarily, you have to have
good down flowers. And I've talkedabout this a lot in my discussions about
(11:01):
positive masculinity. You have to havegood example oars of people that are very
strong, accomplished, successful, whetherthat be in the athletic sense or in
the economic sense, to show apositive narrative of this is a good thing.
This is a good thing. Thisis not something that just means that
you're crying out for help and you'reweak and you can't do anything. This
(11:22):
is in fact actually empowerment. Andthen the next thing is is that it's
pre political. When you get intothese self help ideas, they go past
the filters. We have a filterin our mind of cognitive dissonance, and
you will filter out information that opposesyou as soon as you know that it
(11:43):
opposes you, as soon as youknow that it is saying about voting elections,
things like that. People will filterit out at some point, especially
during election season where we're constantly bombardingpeople with advertising, which honestly, I
feel like, especially Democratic conservatives area little bit, actually a lot better
at this, but Democrats just pushso much into just the election season and
(12:07):
then do absolutely nothing outside of it, so they're just cramming you with information
by the point where you're sick ofit. I do know that one of
my campaign strategy professors said that ifwhen you, the politically informed person or
the strategist is sick of it,that's when the general public is first understanding
the message. But I do thinkthat in some cases we have gone past
turning up the volume to eleven.We've turned the volume up to fifteen,
(12:31):
when you could just reallocate that alittle bit so that the volume is at
least at three during the rest ofthe year instead of at zero when it
comes to your messages. So whenyou're so this, basically it goes around
that filter. You won't necessarily likepeople may not even unless you listen to
(12:52):
him for a while. Think ofDave Ramsey as a conservative political talk show
host. If people will see asYouTube is think, oh yeah, this
is a practical thing. I justneed to stay away from all debt,
keep all debt out of my life. And if I take on four jobs
and I'm delivering pizzas at night andI'm driving for Uber, and I am
(13:13):
just going into whatever job, takingany job, whatsoever, I will be
fine economically. If only, ifonly I can work eighteen hours a day
for the next ten years, thenI will be able to retire. When
in fact those things are probably notgonna happen. You're gonna burn out,
you're going to destroy yourself, andit's bad advice. That's gonna make things
(13:37):
worse for you. But it's justthat self reliant notion, when in fact,
you could make your life a wholelot better if you unionize your workplace,
and maybe you won't have to workeighteen hours a day to be able
to afford retirement. Maybe you'll geta pension and that'll help you a lot
(14:01):
more than what they are telling youto do. But once you start hearing
things like union politics, elections,voting, your brain filters it out if
you're not in that space and you'renot okay with those ideas. So these
(14:22):
self helping wants are start out bygiving practical advice, some of which makes
sense. Some of what Dave Ramseysays makes sense. There's always got to
be some truth to it. Andthen on the fitness side you have people
like an Andy Frisella, the guybehind that seventy five hard thing, which
I think is just its own messof misconceptions and problems and stepping into areas
(14:48):
of behavioral health that he probably shouldn'tbe stepping into. And I'd have to
do a whole episode discussing that,and I feel like I'd probably have to
get somebody who's more qualified than myselfin the fitness space to even go into
the technicalities of that. But hewill go into the political stuff as well.
He'll give out this advice about gettingtougher, stronger, leaner, fitter,
(15:11):
all this stuff about making yourself great, and then he'll give yourself,
give you like business advice as well, and like how his toughness and all
of that will make you successful andmake you a mf CEO, make you
all these successful things, and thenhe will send out emails saying you want
(15:33):
to start learning about the real issuesin society and then talking about how your
next vote has the power to determineAmerica's freedom. So it's a funnel.
It's just like a sales funnel.So it goes from you, the person
who's vaguely interested in lifting weights andgetting in shape, getting lean or getting
jacked there there and he's like,oh, yeah, you gotta get tougher,
(15:56):
you gotta get stronger, you gottaget disciplined and do all this stuff
every single day for seventy five dayswithout failure. Everything needs to be perfect,
and you're getting that discipline mindset andyou're like, oh my god,
I can do this, or atleast some percentage of people will be able
to do it. They don't expecteverybody to be able to finish this,
because most people can't. But thetwenty thirty percent of people who will get
through one of these programs, thenthey're kind of sold on it, and
(16:19):
they're like, oh yeah, thisguy's right, This andy for selling knows
what he's talking about. Look atme. I'm so lean, I'm so
buff, I'm so jacked and I'mso successful in life, and then this
guy must be trustworthy. And thenyou hear I'm talking about politics and Biden
and how the left is wrong,and how look, look, look you
just got tougher, you got better, you got meaner, you got stronger,
(16:41):
and look, your life is nowbetter now. So why would anybody
need welfare? Why would anybody needa union when you could just become a
more successful entrepreneur on your own,If you could just pick yourself out up
by your bootstraps. Why would anybodyneed universe healthcare? If you keep yourself
(17:03):
fit, then you'll never have madeyour health problems as ridiculous salty things sound.
These are the kinds of implications theseideas come with. And you can
look down on all those people,because if all those people just did the
hard things in life, they wouldnot be poor. If the person on
skid row just went through and stayeddisciplined in life, then all of their
(17:30):
problems would be gone. They wouldnot be homeless right now. And all
they need to do is do morehard things in life and they will no
longer be on the street. Meanwhile, even if they tried to get a
job of any kind, they wouldneed a street address. They need ID
and they need clothes that are presentable, and they probably need a good deal
of medical treatment that they're just notgetting in the medical treatment they're getting is
(17:52):
horrible. And all the other stuffthat I discussed on the Inside Safe and
Homeless episode. You can go backto that episode if you want. But
that is the power of pre politicalthinking that gets around your cognitive dissonance and
it forms those opinions before you evennotice them. And then lastly is presence.
(18:22):
We want to make sure that alot of people, especially conservatives,
are like, we need intellectual diversity, We need for all ideas to be
represented. You need to hear bothsides, even when it's completely clear,
like on climate change, there's basicallyno denying that human activity is causing warming
to the planet, is causing climatechange to occur, the ways to fix
(18:47):
it, and the degree to it. Maybe there's maybe there's some legitimate scientific
debate to that, but the factthat it's that it exists is indisputable.
But still they'll say, well,we need to hear both sides, and
news is not fair if we don'thear both sides. But you go into
these self health narratives go into thefitness, finance world, personal growth.
(19:07):
Whatever all you hear is the conservativenarrative. So it is important that we
have a presence as progressives and leftistsin these space so that a broader view
of ideas can be out there.And conservatives are clearly pushing their way into
these spaces and ensuring that they havea presence. And I can tell you
(19:32):
from my experience working on the conservativeside politically that these things are very well
oiled machines that they are. Thatconservative organizations are generally very well run and
managed by very smart and talented people, albeit misguided people, but they do
(19:52):
put the resources in there, andthere is a reason why resources go to
these things. One of the reasonsbecause is because it's profitable. Dave Ramsey
makes a ton of ton of moneyoff of all of his books, his
sponsors and his referral networks and allof that. It's profitable, and of
(20:14):
course conservatives love profit, but it'salso politically impactful. So if you follow
the money, you'll see that thereis a need to have a presence there
and it is a viable place andan important place to have a presence.
So hopefully that clarifies a bit aboutwhy I care so much about self development,
(20:40):
personal growth, and those narratives inthose areas and those practical ways of
helping other people to become the bestperson that they could be, because unless
we change our systems, unless wehave an environment where people can become the
best version of themselves and we're notstomping out the best ideas our society,
and where we're not discarding people asnuisances just because they're a little bit different,
(21:06):
and where we're not throwing people intolow wage jobs to be ground up,
chewed up and spit out with nochance of being able to show the
world what they have to offer,then we're not going to see things be
in a positive way for the wholeof society and for individuals. They're both
(21:30):
connected. If we have a societywhere people have the room to fail,
and where people are given what theyneed to perform at the best of their
ability, and people are given theadvice of the information and the knowledge to
be able to make the right decisionsto perform well. So that combination of
knowledge and ability and capacities in society, when that is online, then we
(21:55):
can really start to make a difference, and we can start to live our
best lives while still helping our neighbors, and those two things are not in
contradiction with each other, despite whatthe conservative thinkers and influencers would want you
to believe. So again, hopefullythat helps you understand these ideas a little
(22:17):
bit more. If you have anyfeedback, please feel free to give me
a call eight four four four sevenseven seven eight six five eight four four
four seven seven punk. If youhave any conservative far right influencers out there,
if you want me to review theirstuff, If you have even a
kind of scammy or sketchy self help, fitness, finance, whatever, something
(22:44):
that looks like a scam, evenI'm happy to take a look at it,
maybe clown on them a little bit. You can give me a call,
or you can email Grayson grysn atOffspeed Solutions dot com. Or you
can reach out to me on socialmedia at fixer Punk on Instagram and TikTok
at Grace and Nation greyso n natioand on Twitter. And if you are
(23:11):
a progressive organizer, somebody in anonprofit or advocacy effort and you are looking
for unique ways to get your messageacross, maybe bridging the divide between the
personal and the political, making surethat your messaging reaches people and goes around
their cognitive dissonance and can really syncin and get your ideas through and across.
(23:36):
Or if you just need help inthe practical implementation of making sure that
your program is both optimally communicating andperforming, Or if you're socially responsible entrepreneur
that maybe wants to go into oneof these spaces and wants to set an
example for being a great entrepreneur andrunning a good business, and you need
(23:59):
to get your message out there,and you need to market yourself, whether
that be digitally traditionally, I canhelp. Please reach out to my consulting
practice, off Speed Solutions at offspeed solutions dot com. That's off speed
slutio ns dot com. I willput a link in the description as always,
(24:22):
and I would love to speak withyou about your advocacy project, nonprofit
campaign, or business and determine theright mix of marketing, communications, consulting
and business support solutions that can helpyour organization or business achieve your goals in
a responsible manner. Thank you forchoosing to spend some time with me today.
(24:48):
I do really appreciate you, andI hope you'll join me again for
the next episode.
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