1 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:07,360 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Emily and this is Bridge and you're 2 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: listening to stufh Mom, never told you so, Bridget how 3 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: you doing today? I'm doing good, full disclosure. I'm fighting 4 00:00:24,960 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: off a bit of a cold weekend full of shouting 5 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: and throat clearing. So off my voice party. So my 6 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:38,559 Speaker 1: voice sounds a little bit um raspy, sounds like Kathleen 7 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: Turner kind of smoking. That's why sounds cigarettes this time exactly. Yeah, 8 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: that's good. So this is the authentic way party. Your 9 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: face off is what we're saying right now. Whatever that 10 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: means to you. Dancing on tables encouraged. So we've got 11 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,720 Speaker 1: a topic today. We've got a hell of a topic. 12 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 1: It's got a hell of a topic. Um, I don't 13 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: even know if I should really say why. This is 14 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:02,800 Speaker 1: a topic that's sort of near and dear to me. 15 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 1: But I have a close friend, a close friend of 16 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: many many years. Um, we have kind of drifted apart. 17 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:11,680 Speaker 1: He is someone who I'm pretty solidly on the left 18 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:13,760 Speaker 1: when it comes to politics, and he is really I 19 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:19,320 Speaker 1: don't know if you've noticed, I'm a pretty liberal. He's 20 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:22,320 Speaker 1: a little bit just sort of I don't even know 21 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: what you would call him. A little bit like Libertarian 22 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: off the Grid and he you were talking to me 23 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: about this article that I read and Reason about how 24 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: young men in their twenties and thirties more and more 25 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: of them are not working and just sort of playing 26 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,959 Speaker 1: video games all day, and which to me sounded, yeah, 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,280 Speaker 1: like you think that's I thought you were like over 28 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: emphasizing the video game thing like this sounded like a 29 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: stereotype that correct. I was immediately defensive over when we 30 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: first started talking about this, right, It's like, this isn't real. 31 00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: That's exactly what I thought. I thought, you know, this 32 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: is some anecdotal like like they're saying like, oh, well, 33 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: maybe young men are just in their basements playing video 34 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,160 Speaker 1: games mom's basement, and which sounds it sounds absurd, or 35 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: it just sounds made up. It sounds like a very 36 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: easy trope. But actually the research according to this this 37 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: article and Reason really bears that out that more and 38 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: more men are are dropping out of the workforce, more 39 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 1: and more of them are living at home or with 40 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: a family member, and more and more of them are 41 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,919 Speaker 1: spending their time on what they call leisure activities, which 42 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,239 Speaker 1: includes video games. Um, and what I thought was fascinating 43 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: is that these guys. You might think like, oh, if 44 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: that was your situation, you'd be really sad and broken 45 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: up about it. But actually these guys are self reporting 46 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: higher levels of happiness and you know, satisfaction in their 47 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: situations than previously unemployed men. So basically, young men are 48 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: a certain section of young men are staying home, living 49 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,360 Speaker 1: with mom and dad more and playing more video games 50 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: and sort of in a kind of way, dropping out 51 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,359 Speaker 1: of society. But they're cool with it. And there's a 52 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: very political and gender component to this. Correct, And this 53 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: is this is known but as their acronym, right, men 54 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: going their own way? How do you how? That's how 55 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 1: YouTubers are talking about it. That's how I would have 56 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: thought it was men going their own way, Which sounds great, right, 57 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: do your thing, you but when you when you dive 58 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: into the weeds about it, it has it's it's very 59 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: much tied to a feminist backlash. Right, These are men 60 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:28,360 Speaker 1: who see society as no longer really welcoming to them. Correct. 61 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: And so whereas these guys who aren't working and like 62 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: playing video games and mom, mom and Dad's basement, they're 63 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: the guys who are going their own way, are sort 64 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: of taking that idea a step further, saying we are 65 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: turning our backs on society. Feminists have made society a 66 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,040 Speaker 1: living nightmare for you know, your average red blooded American male. Therefore, 67 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: we are turning our backs on it. We don't they're 68 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 1: not engaging in any relationships, right, I don't jump on 69 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: you there no. Part of part of their their ethos 70 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: is explicitly do not have relationships with women. And it's 71 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: interesting because you know, as people, as humans, we have 72 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:07,720 Speaker 1: a lot of us have sex drives, and so they 73 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: have found all these ways to get around that where 74 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 1: they will have one night stands or use sex workers, 75 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: or they talk a lot on the forums about masturbating 76 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: and sort of how they have used different ways of 77 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:24,160 Speaker 1: getting around not of not having to have a relationship 78 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: with a woman, but still be sexually satisfied. Right as 79 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:31,039 Speaker 1: I was reading up on this, I found myself so speechless. 80 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 1: I really didn't know how I was going to have 81 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: a conversation about it, because it is this is a philosophy. 82 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: This is a strident philosophy that's like sort of an 83 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: extreme part of the men's rights movement. Correct. What's interesting 84 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 1: is that so it's very similar to the men's rights 85 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: movement and that it came from this this um visceral 86 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,400 Speaker 1: disdain for feminism. But it's different in that, you know, 87 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:56,120 Speaker 1: whereas men's rights followers they might think of themselves as 88 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: pushing back against feminism and what they see as unfair 89 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 1: gender norms or what have you, via activism and things 90 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,280 Speaker 1: like that, people who follow men going their own way, 91 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:08,040 Speaker 1: they're reacting to that by just dropping off of society 92 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:13,120 Speaker 1: saying no thanks, done to engage with the female population, 93 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,160 Speaker 1: explain and simple. And what I find interesting is this, 94 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,479 Speaker 1: and I have to I have to first say, having 95 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,120 Speaker 1: fallen down the rabbit hole that is YouTube videos from 96 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,039 Speaker 1: the Bigtow community and the reddit threads on the tail, 97 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: oh my gosh. So I have to acknowledge that this 98 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: is a philosophy of which there's a broad spectrum of subscribers. Right, 99 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 1: so there are people who I think women are. You know, 100 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:39,239 Speaker 1: there's more of the benevolent sexist involved in Bigtow that thinks, 101 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: you know, this society needs to somehow cherish women, but 102 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: that's not their role, right that that women have gone 103 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,240 Speaker 1: in a different have become that society has become mainstream 104 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: feminized right, and they want they want to return to 105 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,160 Speaker 1: men are masculine, women are feminine, and that's what here's 106 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,359 Speaker 1: what that means, what's right. And then there's also the 107 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: more extreme, very violent sounding wing of subscribers of this 108 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: philosophy who think women are evil. They are sucky buses 109 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,720 Speaker 1: that want to drain you of your resources, and that 110 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:15,679 Speaker 1: is their only purpose in life, is to ruin your lives. 111 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 1: Like a lot of it sounds like the projection of 112 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: past pain through heartache or breakups or watching, you know, 113 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,279 Speaker 1: family dynamics in their own home. I've heard a lot 114 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: of MiG Tao YouTubers talk about their their upbringing being 115 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: um having reflected this role of woman as the woman 116 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 1: who has taken freedom, money, and love away from the 117 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: father figure in the life these people and I do not. 118 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: I don't feel like we have a very We don't 119 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: have a lot of overlaps in our political ideology, I 120 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:49,400 Speaker 1: would imagine. But I found myself sort of feeling sorry 121 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: for some of them. When you look at the posts 122 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: that are on the Reddit community, for instance, a lot 123 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:55,640 Speaker 1: of them are angry and violent, but a lot of 124 00:06:55,720 --> 00:06:58,479 Speaker 1: them are just really sad. It's a lot of men hurt. 125 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: It's a lot of men describing, you know, relationships gone 126 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: bad where women have mistreated them in a relationships, cheated 127 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:08,599 Speaker 1: on them, they're paying alimony, you know, they're paying for 128 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: a kid, they're not sure, it's there's it's these really 129 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 1: these stories that really just really sounds sad um, you know. 130 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:17,200 Speaker 1: And one of the things I found very interesting is 131 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: that it's so easy, Like I can easily imagine having 132 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: a person or a gender or something to blame all 133 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: my problems on, and you know, my relationship that fell apart, 134 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,280 Speaker 1: or my my partner who treated me badly, or you know, 135 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:35,280 Speaker 1: all of that. If I could blame it on you know, women, 136 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,080 Speaker 1: I could see that being very seductive. I could do 137 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: that being a ideology that would be easy to fall into. Yeah, 138 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: And what I found surprising is when I was doing 139 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: the research around this podcast, it's not just the sexual 140 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: politics here of like women as being these alluring, evil 141 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: seductresses who wanna, you know, just get you to put 142 00:07:57,960 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: a ring on it and then drain you of all 143 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: your resource is. And so men should resist the sexual 144 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: sort of attraction that women are putting out there because 145 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: it's all a trick. It's all of guys, but also 146 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: what you opened the episode with is that undercurrent of 147 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: real economics that do not definitely, especially working class men 148 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: very well nowadays. Absolutely so, I have to say one 149 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: of the articles that I read when I was doing 150 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:24,320 Speaker 1: this research for this show was from a source that 151 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 1: I I honestly cannot bad mouthful enough. They're awful and 152 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:30,600 Speaker 1: don't read them, but they're terrible Bright Bart such trash, 153 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:34,440 Speaker 1: which is now in the White House. Correct that is 154 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:38,079 Speaker 1: that is a Steve Bannon, former head of bright bart 155 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,240 Speaker 1: Man who championed in UM the harassment of folks like 156 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: Leslie Jones on Saturday Night Live by that awful guy 157 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: Milo things like that. So so really a terrible, terrible outlet, 158 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,760 Speaker 1: but they were one of the first outlets to really 159 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: talk about UM this trend with men, and they called 160 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: it the sextus. In this article on bright bart one 161 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 1: of the things that I actually, as awful as they are, 162 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:02,720 Speaker 1: one thing that I have to say I kind of 163 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:05,320 Speaker 1: identified with or that resonated with me is this idea 164 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: that we're not we're not dealing with boys in a 165 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,199 Speaker 1: way that is helping them grow into successful, well rounded, 166 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: healthy adult men and economically viable and competitive men, writ 167 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: large exactly and it starts, and you know what's crazy 168 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: is that that bright Bart article reminded me of the 169 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 1: Atlantic magazines Hannah Rosen The End of Men, the End 170 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,199 Speaker 1: of Men. So she writes this book, The End of Men, 171 00:09:30,240 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: which comes from and I want you to talk more 172 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:34,480 Speaker 1: about that bright Bart article, but I have to just 173 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: plug here that this same argument is being made with 174 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: very but drawing very different conclusions. That our society, from 175 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:47,200 Speaker 1: grade school on up, is in some ways economically transitioning 176 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:50,800 Speaker 1: from an economy that used to reward strong, burly men 177 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,480 Speaker 1: who could make a middle class living through things like 178 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,600 Speaker 1: trucking and manufacturing and all the things that don't run 179 00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:00,719 Speaker 1: wants to bring back from the past. They used to 180 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:04,080 Speaker 1: enable blue collar men to bring home the bacon and 181 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 1: fill that traditional gender role. We have now shifted slowly 182 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:13,079 Speaker 1: but towards a service based economy that rewards empathic leadership, 183 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:18,479 Speaker 1: that rewards collaboration and communication. And our education system has adjusted, 184 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: you know, respectively, which tends to reward the kinds of 185 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,160 Speaker 1: little kids that can sit quietly and be nice to 186 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:27,640 Speaker 1: each other and be kind and be empathic. And that 187 00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:31,680 Speaker 1: just turns out tends to be at large a female 188 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: or or you know, woman like, girl like human being totally. 189 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: Those are definitely qualities that we associate with women and 190 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: little girls. And so what I was thinking that I thought, well, gee, 191 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,440 Speaker 1: our women really sort of better at these things? Or 192 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:46,439 Speaker 1: is that just what we say because you know gender roles. 193 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: But actually they've done studies and so there was one 194 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: study pretty recently by the Hay Group division of corn Ferry, 195 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: and they indicated that women are eight percent more likely 196 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,440 Speaker 1: than men to be seen as consistently emotionally competent. Eighteen 197 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: point four percent of women dead and strate the competency 198 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:05,000 Speaker 1: consistently compared to just nine point nine percent of men. Uh, 199 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: and so, and women are forty five percent more likely 200 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: than men to be seen as demonstrating empathy consistently. And so, really, 201 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 1: what it is is that women and girls are being 202 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,280 Speaker 1: taught the value of what they call soft skills communicating, 203 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: working in a team, having a positive attitude, listening skills. 204 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:24,359 Speaker 1: These are not skills that, for whatever reason, men are 205 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: are are for internalizing the way that women are. Women 206 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:29,960 Speaker 1: are ahead of ahead of men in this in this regard. 207 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: And so if we are switching to an economic system 208 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: that really, you know, prizes these things, and we in 209 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 1: fact are because if you look at the statistics, employers say, 210 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 1: you know, sought skills are just as important, if not 211 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: more than having hard skills like knowing how to you know, 212 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: do this or do that. And so these men, I 213 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: think can be I don't think that we're preparing men 214 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,319 Speaker 1: to thrive in our society, and I think that they 215 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:57,280 Speaker 1: this is gonna be thought of as a reaction to 216 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: that and feeling really marginalized and so isolated. Yeah, and 217 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,600 Speaker 1: this is straight out of Hannah Rosen's original article The 218 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,160 Speaker 1: End of Men in The Atlantic Magazine. She says, man 219 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,720 Speaker 1: has been the dominant sex since well the dawn of mankind, 220 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,359 Speaker 1: but for the first time in human history, that is changing, 221 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:19,200 Speaker 1: and with shocking speed. Cultural and economic changes always reinforce 222 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:22,280 Speaker 1: each other, and the global economy is evolving in a 223 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: way that is eroding the historical preference for male children worldwide. 224 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: So people used to somehow politically unabashedly say that they 225 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,160 Speaker 1: prefer men or little boys, and that has become like 226 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,920 Speaker 1: that is the retroactive sort of pendulum swing has gone 227 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 1: in the opposite direction. And so all of these alt 228 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 1: writers and men's rights activists and MiG Tao folks are screaming, 229 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: you know, the PC police have turned our society upside down, 230 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: and feminism is aggressive and angry towards men, and extreme 231 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: radical feminists have ruined our ability as men to be 232 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,199 Speaker 1: spected and treated right. And this is this is like 233 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:09,560 Speaker 1: a fascinating underground look at how the Migtao community sees 234 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: their role as opting out, you know, in this society. 235 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:17,240 Speaker 1: I'm out and it actually, when I was starting to 236 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: read our notes though this, I was reminded of the 237 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,200 Speaker 1: moment that I decided I was going to break up 238 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,120 Speaker 1: with an old boyfriend of mine, a college age boyfriend 239 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:29,840 Speaker 1: of mine, and I wonder what he would think of 240 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:31,840 Speaker 1: MiG tao. I wish I could talk to him about it, 241 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,280 Speaker 1: but then again maybe, But we were on a cross 242 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: country road trip with a girlfriend of mine from college, 243 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 1: my boyfriend at the time, and another guy friend of ours, 244 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 1: so it was four of us, and so as him 245 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: and his fraternity brother in the front seat, and it 246 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:49,480 Speaker 1: was me and this other girl who was a college 247 00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:52,000 Speaker 1: age girl who was my classmate at the time and 248 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:54,680 Speaker 1: my teammate at the time, And I remember us looking 249 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:56,319 Speaker 1: at each other in the back seat as the guys 250 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,600 Speaker 1: were talking about their love of video games and listen, 251 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 1: there's no the wrong with a good video game, right. 252 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,840 Speaker 1: I played D sixty four like any true blooded millennial 253 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:11,600 Speaker 1: American myself. But they talked about this fantasy that they 254 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: were talking about, like, I wish we could go back 255 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: to the good old days of I think they were 256 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: putting this in the reference of summer vacation because we 257 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:20,200 Speaker 1: were on a road trip in the summer pre college 258 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:23,200 Speaker 1: year three or four. Ah, and they said, I just 259 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,840 Speaker 1: wish that I could like play video games all day 260 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: and then someone could just like spoon feed me as 261 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:31,920 Speaker 1: I continue to play video games. So not only is 262 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: that hard, like so disturbing on so many levels, but 263 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 1: it really it underscores the recent article that we opened 264 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: the show with, because that's exactly what like in my mind, 265 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 1: that sounds horrible and pathetic and sad. Yes, these guys, 266 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:48,040 Speaker 1: it's for them. They are reporting that that is the 267 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: dream that they are the society. And what's interesting about 268 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: this article, I mean, I don't know. I I shared 269 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: it with a friend who was an avid gamer, the 270 00:14:56,320 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: friend I described earlier, um and he had issues with it, 271 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:02,480 Speaker 1: and so know I'm no gaming expert. Do not write 272 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:05,160 Speaker 1: in if you're what I'm about to say is not correct, 273 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: because oh god, I meant to I'm about to get 274 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: like but no, I mean they they interview these um, 275 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: these well known video game developers in the article, and 276 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,800 Speaker 1: they talk about the ways that video games have gotten 277 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: to be very, very complex, and that they do they 278 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: do take more time to complete, and like some of 279 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: them are expansive. We're part of the game is just 280 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,680 Speaker 1: exploring this vast universe, and that's part of the game. 281 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: So you know, when I was younger, you think of 282 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: a video game, is you know, you Mario, can't you 283 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,120 Speaker 1: save the Princess? Maybe you know my brother could beat 284 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: Mario when we were growing up, like very quickly, like 285 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: in an afternoon. Some of these games take seventy hours 286 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: to even complete. And it's like things like that where 287 00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 1: it's not surprising to me that that feels like a 288 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: decent way to list. It's an alternate reality in the 289 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,160 Speaker 1: literal sense, and they're really brilliant people whose jobs are 290 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:02,440 Speaker 1: to make this alternate reality as amazing and as cool 291 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 1: as possible, even cooler, one might say, than the real world. 292 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: If you're coming from this perspective. And I remember that 293 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:10,960 Speaker 1: moment when I was listening to these two guys talk, 294 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: one of whom I was dating at the time, and 295 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:13,880 Speaker 1: I just looked at them. I was like, are you 296 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: talking about a mom? Is that what you're talking about? 297 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,640 Speaker 1: You want a mom to spoon feed you? Well, I 298 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,720 Speaker 1: think he was talking about it this like future ideal 299 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:25,120 Speaker 1: girlfriend of it's not me, This was not this was 300 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:27,720 Speaker 1: the friend. But I was just like, is that really 301 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:29,880 Speaker 1: appealing to you? And we had just come from his 302 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,600 Speaker 1: parents house and his mom had prepared this amazing spread 303 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 1: of delicious cuisine from their country of origin. We had 304 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:40,280 Speaker 1: this amazing, delicious meal. But and and and then we 305 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: left the house and they were fantasizing about being able 306 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:44,800 Speaker 1: to play video games and just have a mother like 307 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 1: figure spoon feed them. And I was like, I turned 308 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: to my girlfriend in the back and I had tears 309 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: streaming down my face. And I've got like six more 310 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:53,880 Speaker 1: days in the car with these two, and I am 311 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:57,960 Speaker 1: breaking up with my boyfriend. I just decided not bear 312 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: witness to that agreement that that would be a cool 313 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:03,640 Speaker 1: way to go on with your life, because I viscerally 314 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,640 Speaker 1: reacted totally. And I think that's so that that might 315 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: be something that is like rooted in our experiences as 316 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:14,360 Speaker 1: man and women, right, because this article really drives home 317 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,399 Speaker 1: the fact that these guys are happy about this is 318 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,159 Speaker 1: what they're doing with their lives. And you know, if 319 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,840 Speaker 1: you're not work anger, if you're under employee, video games 320 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:26,040 Speaker 1: can offer a kind of mimicry of work life where 321 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,920 Speaker 1: you have to complete task road activity exactly and then exactly. 322 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,360 Speaker 1: And so it's part of me when you said that 323 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:35,680 Speaker 1: it's that sounds awful, but also I can kind of 324 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:39,360 Speaker 1: understand it. Well, it makes you, God, we're gonna get 325 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 1: so much game or hate on this, but it makes 326 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:46,200 Speaker 1: you realize why the public streaming of video gameplay and 327 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: why people would watch other people playing video games because 328 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:51,879 Speaker 1: it is excelling in that own in that domain. And 329 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,880 Speaker 1: to someone who's not into gaming, I might think like, wow, 330 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:57,159 Speaker 1: that feels like a waste of time. But I know 331 00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:59,400 Speaker 1: that that's just my judgment and my values that are 332 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:01,199 Speaker 1: being that I'm sort of bringing to bear on that. 333 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: So I think it's it's really kind of a stretch. 334 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 1: It's been a stretch at least for me ver to 335 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:10,120 Speaker 1: try to wrap my head around this and hopefully come 336 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:14,000 Speaker 1: at this topic with some empathy because it's concerning. I 337 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: find it really concerning that I want these young men 338 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:19,879 Speaker 1: just as much as I want young women to be 339 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: able to thrive in our total real society and to 340 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:25,960 Speaker 1: have a sense of belonging in love, which I think 341 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,480 Speaker 1: all people really should have. And yeah, I mean I 342 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,840 Speaker 1: I completely agree. Part of me in reading up about this, 343 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,879 Speaker 1: it just made me very very sad, and so I 344 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:36,480 Speaker 1: think one of the things that we should really dive 345 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 1: into is the sort of organizing principles of this lifestyle, 346 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,639 Speaker 1: which I think that we should do. After a quick break, 347 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: so we were just talking about men going their own 348 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,320 Speaker 1: way and the ways that men are sort of finding 349 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:56,840 Speaker 1: various ways to drop out of society, whether it's via 350 00:18:57,320 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: not working and playing video games all day, or it's 351 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: apprestly you know, shutting women. Uh So, men going their 352 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:05,880 Speaker 1: own way they have this, it's it's a loose sort 353 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,320 Speaker 1: of term, but they do have a guiding set of 354 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: principles that they call levels. And so if you want 355 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,560 Speaker 1: to be a very successful follower of men going their 356 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,919 Speaker 1: own way, here's what you got. Sorry, can we just 357 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:24,440 Speaker 1: identify the irony here of this duality between going your 358 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,920 Speaker 1: own way and they're being prescribed rules how to do. 359 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,399 Speaker 1: If you're really going your own way, shouldn't you be 360 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: shouldn't you be making that way on your own without bizarre? 361 00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:36,320 Speaker 1: I mean, I get what they're actually doing is they're 362 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:39,880 Speaker 1: organizing a community because people need connection. You hear that 363 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:43,320 Speaker 1: Mick Tow's you need connection, And it's obvious because people 364 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:45,719 Speaker 1: are doing it, they're connecting online. But I find it 365 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:50,080 Speaker 1: really ironic that this this idea of like shunning society's 366 00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:52,119 Speaker 1: expectations of what it means to be a man, and 367 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:54,919 Speaker 1: like opting out means let's all opt out together in 368 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:59,119 Speaker 1: the same exact way. Yeah, yeah, that is a cultural irony. 369 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,840 Speaker 1: But I just head point yeah, no, good flag. So 370 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: let's talk about these levels. So level on level zero 371 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:11,399 Speaker 1: is just basic situational awareness around gender. You've taken quote 372 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,119 Speaker 1: the red pill, and if you don't know what that means, 373 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 1: we'll get into it in a second. You've embraced the 374 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: idea that gender equality it's just propaganda and a lie. Um. 375 00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:21,200 Speaker 1: Then you move up to level one, and that is 376 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,320 Speaker 1: rejection of long term relationships, and so that means, you know, 377 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,000 Speaker 1: you might have a short term relationship, Um, but you're 378 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,879 Speaker 1: not going to have, you know, a long term girlfriend 379 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,320 Speaker 1: or or female partner. And I was listening to some 380 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:38,239 Speaker 1: MiG Tau's the mayor of MiG Taos on YouTube, and 381 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:42,160 Speaker 1: he was discussing the sweet spot for short term relationships, 382 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,360 Speaker 1: which is dump them after about three months when they 383 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 1: stop like putting out. That's that's what he was saying, 384 00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:51,400 Speaker 1: us saying, women put out as much as they'll ever 385 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:53,120 Speaker 1: put out in the first three months of dating because 386 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: they're trying to woo you. They're trying to make you 387 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: fall in love with them, like the evil sucubus women 388 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,320 Speaker 1: that they are. So after three or four months, that's 389 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:03,679 Speaker 1: when you should always break up with all women. That 390 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 1: was his philosophy on that first I have so many questions, 391 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: like how did they crunch the numbers on that, like three? 392 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: Where is that three? Like what is that three month 393 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:14,359 Speaker 1: figure coming from? I'm very curious. Nothing. Yeah, it's it's 394 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:17,119 Speaker 1: based on nothing, I'm sure. So that's good to know 395 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: what you called it, like the honeymoon face. What do 396 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:23,959 Speaker 1: you know you've you've got honeymoon face. But isn't it 397 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:28,920 Speaker 1: mildly sociopathic to be like, have a relationship but not 398 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 1: more than three months. Like take these women who have 399 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:35,640 Speaker 1: invested some time in you, and you've like, you've got 400 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:39,399 Speaker 1: to have some emotional investment, maybe not to hang out 401 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,400 Speaker 1: with someone for three months and not and then an 402 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:46,440 Speaker 1: emotional attachment. Then there's really nasty rhyming words around blank 403 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,239 Speaker 1: and dump women Like this is this philosophy of like 404 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:53,200 Speaker 1: shunning long term relationships, But it doesn't mean you can't 405 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: have you know, sex with them and then drop it 406 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:01,800 Speaker 1: like it's hot ghosting cultures. So then once you've, once 407 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,359 Speaker 1: you've mastered the art of you know, dating women for 408 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: three months and then dumping them, then you move on 409 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: to level three and that's economic disengagement. And so I 410 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: think what's interesting about that is it really plays into 411 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 1: just what we were talking about before, sort of recognizing 412 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:17,600 Speaker 1: the ways that this this movement is grounded in a 413 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,400 Speaker 1: kind of economic politics and not just gender politics. So 414 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:24,359 Speaker 1: the economic disengagement level means that a member at this 415 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,199 Speaker 1: stage refuses to earn more money that is necessary for 416 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: sustaining life, He views government as tyrannical and is actively 417 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:34,200 Speaker 1: trying to drain money from bureaucrats, and so another hallmark 418 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,440 Speaker 1: of this lifestyle is this sort of limited government libertarian 419 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,880 Speaker 1: um bent that it has, where you know, I make 420 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:45,320 Speaker 1: money to sustain myself and then none of that money 421 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: can be taken by anybody, whether it's a you know, scheming, 422 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:52,440 Speaker 1: a scheming succubus female or the government. It's kind of 423 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,679 Speaker 1: aligned with this idea that affirmative action is anti men 424 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: and anti white, sort of seeing any government program are 425 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:06,840 Speaker 1: wealth redistribution and that you are the agent of your 426 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: own life. It's an extreme libertarian view which says I'm 427 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:11,960 Speaker 1: going to earn enough money for me, but not for 428 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,320 Speaker 1: anyone else, and I'm not gonna even if someone does 429 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,480 Speaker 1: earn their own money or stand on their own feet 430 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:19,359 Speaker 1: like some of the big taus I was listening to 431 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,240 Speaker 1: UH and reading up on on YouTube and read it. 432 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,320 Speaker 1: You know, they say I'm not going to pay for 433 00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: anything for anyone else. It's like this lack of um dependency, 434 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,800 Speaker 1: Like it's almost not just a fear of it's like 435 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:36,919 Speaker 1: not just a phobia of, but like a refusal to 436 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,480 Speaker 1: be involved in any dependent relationship, right, and like a 437 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:44,440 Speaker 1: hostility toward relationships that are that are that way, right, Yeah, 438 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,760 Speaker 1: which were curious really relationships period, which some of the 439 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: debate online was around, and I'm curious to hear from 440 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: men who are listening who like, there's this underlying assumption 441 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:57,719 Speaker 1: in all of the big Tau philosophy that I've been 442 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 1: reading up on that says anyone who wants to be 443 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,120 Speaker 1: in a relationship or wants to have a child must 444 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 1: be female. Underlying assumption that men are never voluntarily engaging 445 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: in child rearing or procreation or relationships. And that is 446 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,480 Speaker 1: my mind. It's mind boggling. And it also to me, 447 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,440 Speaker 1: goes against one of the sort of arguments or or 448 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: or chief complaints that a lot of men's rights folks 449 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:28,560 Speaker 1: make that like in in custody situations, perhaps that our 450 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,119 Speaker 1: court systems are biased towards women, and so a lot 451 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,159 Speaker 1: of men's rights activists probably rightly like I had, I 452 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,160 Speaker 1: did some preliminary research on this and found a lot 453 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:41,120 Speaker 1: of studies that say, like, conflicting things, but it does 454 00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:43,680 Speaker 1: seem like our court system, just anecdotally, I can confirm, 455 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,280 Speaker 1: seems to be biased towards the woman, and a lot 456 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,320 Speaker 1: of men are pushing back against that and saying no, 457 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: like I want to have my kids, I want to 458 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 1: raise my kids. I want to be around my kids, 459 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: and so that does seem to be a strange. Yeah, 460 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:59,119 Speaker 1: there's an understandable reaction here from the world that you 461 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,120 Speaker 1: know on the whole. Obviously, every pretty much every other 462 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: episode talks about how, uh, the fight for women's equality 463 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:07,640 Speaker 1: still has a long way to go. But that doesn't 464 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,119 Speaker 1: mean there aren't ways in which men are wrongfully discriminated 465 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:14,400 Speaker 1: against totally parts of our society. I think paternity law 466 00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:17,200 Speaker 1: is definitely a part of that, or or alimony and 467 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: looking closer at child custody battles, definitely there's some arguments 468 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,199 Speaker 1: to be made there. Yeah, And I think when you 469 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 1: think about things like how domestic violence when when men 470 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,959 Speaker 1: are victims, or rape when when men are victims, I mean, 471 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:31,840 Speaker 1: it's still a trope in our popular culture where men 472 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: being raped is supposed to be funny, and it's it's 473 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,080 Speaker 1: not funny like that, that's not a joke. And I 474 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:41,400 Speaker 1: think we ask why we have this stigma against rape 475 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,240 Speaker 1: victims in general, but particularly male rape victims. And you know, 476 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,240 Speaker 1: when their stories about you know, an older female teachers 477 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,680 Speaker 1: sleeping with like a young man, there's always someone who's like, oh, 478 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: she must be having a great time, and it's like, no, 479 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,640 Speaker 1: those kinds of attitudes are really making it hard for 480 00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,159 Speaker 1: male rape victims to speak up. And so I think 481 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,280 Speaker 1: that there are ways that men are treated unfairly in society, 482 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:03,119 Speaker 1: and I think we should be talking about those. But 483 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,600 Speaker 1: in my mind, I think that there's no reason why. 484 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 1: I mean, if if as a feminist, if I want 485 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:11,000 Speaker 1: to smash the patriarchy, that, in my mind that fits 486 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,840 Speaker 1: under it's a big tent, right, And if I want 487 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,800 Speaker 1: to smash the patriarchy, that will help men get free 488 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,879 Speaker 1: to And so the patriarchy makes victims of us, all right, 489 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,200 Speaker 1: like women aren't. It's not great for women, it's not 490 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,440 Speaker 1: great for a man. Nobody is winning under the patriarchy. 491 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:27,080 Speaker 1: And so if our if our goal is to get 492 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,000 Speaker 1: rid of it and have more flexibility around gender roles 493 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,639 Speaker 1: and who can do what and and how genders are treated, 494 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: then surely men will be better off. Isn't it funny 495 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,480 Speaker 1: that to borrow a term like what we're really trying 496 00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:42,119 Speaker 1: to do by getting rid of patriarchy and patriarchal structures 497 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,200 Speaker 1: that limit gender roles is enabled both men and women 498 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,080 Speaker 1: to go their own way. Really what it's all about? 499 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: So I think it's I mean, I would love to 500 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:56,600 Speaker 1: see a live debate between like MiG tail men's rights feminists, 501 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,919 Speaker 1: like on stage, like that should be a thing that happened, 502 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:04,280 Speaker 1: because I would too. I think some extreme empathy here 503 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: can go a really long way, and that there are 504 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,360 Speaker 1: ways in which men and women are both prejudiced against 505 00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 1: in our society. And I'm thinking of an Audrey Lord 506 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,760 Speaker 1: quote here. I think, who says, let's see, I am 507 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,600 Speaker 1: not free while any woman is unfree. That's what it is, 508 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,959 Speaker 1: even when her shackles are very different from him. And 509 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: so you can take that take you know, she slash 510 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,679 Speaker 1: he there, you know, take the gender frame out of it. 511 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,119 Speaker 1: But really, gender roles are constraining for both men and women, 512 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:36,240 Speaker 1: and going your own way makes sense in a society 513 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: that prescribes very stringent gender roles. But it shouldn't require 514 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:44,840 Speaker 1: demonizing the entire of the of the world that is 515 00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 1: female or identifies as female. Right, And I think that there, 516 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:52,240 Speaker 1: I mean to quote Bell Hooks, feminism is for everybody, right, 517 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 1: Like feminism, I think I see feminism as helping men. Yeah, 518 00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:58,800 Speaker 1: I think it helps everybody. Right. There's I feel like 519 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: there's no one who is who is not well served 520 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,280 Speaker 1: when we have a wider understanding of gender roles and 521 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:07,000 Speaker 1: we are sort of more free to be ourselves. I 522 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: can't agree more. I'm just cracking up thinking about a 523 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,359 Speaker 1: Make Tow subscribing person. Listen to us quote Bell Hooks 524 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:16,680 Speaker 1: and Audrey Lord. We all agree we're at that page. Well, 525 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,280 Speaker 1: something that I found fascinating about that. I mean, it's 526 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:21,840 Speaker 1: it's funny, but it's also kind of true. There's a 527 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,560 Speaker 1: really great article on the New Statesman a few years 528 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: ago by Laurie Penny that I completely personally identified with 529 00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:32,480 Speaker 1: about whether or not women, younger women would be better 530 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,960 Speaker 1: served by kind of purposeful single hood. The article is 531 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,120 Speaker 1: called maybe you Should Just be single, and basically she 532 00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:42,440 Speaker 1: argues that in heterosexual relationships, women are sort of groom 533 00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: to do most of the emotional labor in relationships, and 534 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,480 Speaker 1: so if you're if you're in a heterosexual relationship as 535 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,560 Speaker 1: the woman, you're the one who is you know, doing, 536 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 1: if you're not doing most of the child the stuff 537 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,160 Speaker 1: around the house, you are the one who was sort 538 00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: of project managing it. So even if your partners helping, 539 00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,479 Speaker 1: they're helping because you're saying do this, do that? Do that, 540 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,640 Speaker 1: and that still takes work. You're the one who's clicking 541 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:06,040 Speaker 1: the meals, You're the one who's remembering the birthday card, 542 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,400 Speaker 1: remembering you know, like at the flowers, what have you. 543 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: And that if you think about all of the time 544 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:14,600 Speaker 1: that women spend kind of like putting into into into 545 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,560 Speaker 1: relationships in this way that you are a young person 546 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: or a creative person, you actually might be better served 547 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: putting that energy into yourself and saying I'm gonna be 548 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,360 Speaker 1: a writer, I'm gonna be a painter, I'm gonna be 549 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: an activist, I'm gonna be a singer like or I'm 550 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 1: gonna just work on myself and and and take care 551 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,760 Speaker 1: of myself and so part of me. Maybe this is 552 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: why two sides of the same coin totally. I think 553 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: there's a milder, like less extreme MiG Tao subscriber who says, 554 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,160 Speaker 1: that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm opting out of relationships 555 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: just like you said, level four, opting out of long 556 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,320 Speaker 1: term relationships because I want to focus on myself. And 557 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: I think that's when things get up to level what 558 00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,480 Speaker 1: is it, level three economic disengagement and then level four 559 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: to go back to that level when that's when I 560 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,040 Speaker 1: think we go away from the main stream young male 561 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 1: or female who's like, Yo, let's have casual sex because 562 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,600 Speaker 1: I'm working on my writing career. You know what I mean. 563 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,920 Speaker 1: Isn't that just called being a young emerging adult that 564 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:13,360 Speaker 1: there's nothing that radical about that? So I think it's 565 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: definitely a spectrum, and it gets weirder. So level four 566 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: is pretty much the most extreme. So when you get 567 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 1: to level four, they call it societal disengagement. This is 568 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: as far as a mainstream man going his own way 569 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,920 Speaker 1: can go. Here the man refuses to interact with society. 570 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: And I just find that, I mean that is so 571 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 1: telling that you are the highest level that a man 572 00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:36,760 Speaker 1: can get to. Who is a man going his own 573 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: way is disengaging with society? You you're not like you're 574 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:45,360 Speaker 1: And I think, yeah, like that being an ideal I 575 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:49,240 Speaker 1: find fascinating. And that's on their website. Levels. Yeah, so 576 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: this is like I want to know who the cult 577 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,960 Speaker 1: leader is behind this, because that's where idealogue and ideology 578 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: and philosophy turns into a cult. When you're actually actively 579 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,680 Speaker 1: encouraging people to self hard. Social isolation is harmful for 580 00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:05,960 Speaker 1: your mental health. We cover that our first top can 581 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,880 Speaker 1: we be friends? Right? You have to be engaged as 582 00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,840 Speaker 1: a human basic needs. So this idea of not just celibacy, 583 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 1: but disengagement financially, economically, socially from society is a really 584 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: dangerous thing in a world where we still have mostly 585 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:27,000 Speaker 1: young men getting crazy arming up, locking and loading and 586 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,040 Speaker 1: going out there and shooting a bunch of yeah and 587 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:32,760 Speaker 1: and something I found really fascinated to kind of build 588 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,320 Speaker 1: out that point again. In the Reason article, this economist 589 00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 1: at George Mason University, Tyler Cowan, makes this point that 590 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: if men, particularly men who are unemployed or underemployed or 591 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,080 Speaker 1: or you know, not educated, if they didn't have things 592 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: like video games or whatever to sort of occupy their time, 593 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: they could be out in the streets causing real chaos. 594 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,280 Speaker 1: And so he says, in terms of behavior and performance, 595 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,120 Speaker 1: variances for men are always higher. That is, men are 596 00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: more likely to exhibit extremes of character and behavior, both 597 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,040 Speaker 1: positive and negative. The whole generation of men obsessively playing 598 00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,719 Speaker 1: video games during the prime decades of life might not 599 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:08,719 Speaker 1: be ideal, but most would agree it is preferable to riots. 600 00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 1: And on the one hand, that's kind of scary But 601 00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,480 Speaker 1: on the other hand, I mean, is it the worst 602 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,160 Speaker 1: thing in the world. Like, I can sort of understand 603 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: why it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world 604 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: to have men feel the need to drop out of 605 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,520 Speaker 1: society in these various ways, whether it's video games or 606 00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,959 Speaker 1: through men going their own way. I still feel like 607 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 1: that's not great, Like we want to people. But if 608 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:36,600 Speaker 1: they're underlying life philosophy is that the whole society has 609 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:42,120 Speaker 1: become what is it, gin centric? Centric, idea centric, y'all. Yeah, 610 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:46,280 Speaker 1: the idea that like society is just women are ruling everything. 611 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,160 Speaker 1: We're in charge of everything, we make all the rules 612 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: for everything in the direction of that society. Yeah, wouldn't 613 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: I mean, how are we seeing the same world and 614 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,320 Speaker 1: coming to such different conclusions. I don't understand. You know, 615 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: we're running stuff now the world damn said it so 616 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,720 Speaker 1: must be true. So I mean, I think if that's 617 00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,160 Speaker 1: their underlying philosophy, then maybe it is better off that 618 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,760 Speaker 1: they're not engaging. Maybe maybe it's better that you're not 619 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,880 Speaker 1: in the dating pool with men who believe that. Yeah, 620 00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,680 Speaker 1: I mean, you know that the alternatives I think to 621 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: just sort of shunning society and saying I'm not going 622 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,880 Speaker 1: to be involved in it at all. Are men who 623 00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,160 Speaker 1: treat women really badly, men who use women for sex 624 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: under sort of looking forward guys, Yeah, under the guys 625 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 1: of something else. You know, people like pick up artists, 626 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: people who their whole point is they just wanna, you know, 627 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,560 Speaker 1: have sex with women. And I'm not saying that book 628 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,840 Speaker 1: the pickup artist book, Um do you remember that. It's like, um, 629 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,400 Speaker 1: it got really big when I was in college. Tucker Oh, 630 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,560 Speaker 1: Tucker Max, Tucker Max, And he was like one of 631 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: the loudest, most vocal pickup artists on the Internet in 632 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:53,560 Speaker 1: early two thousand's. So I think guys liked Tucker Max. 633 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: And the pickup artist sort of world is very active 634 00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,640 Speaker 1: part of the men's rights movement, but do they get 635 00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:02,960 Speaker 1: a long So there's actually a lot of drama between 636 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,160 Speaker 1: the pickup artist world and the men going their own 637 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,960 Speaker 1: way world. Pick Up artists feel that men should be 638 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:11,479 Speaker 1: sleeping with women, you know, they should not be having 639 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,440 Speaker 1: emotional attachments to them, but they do feel like they 640 00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,600 Speaker 1: should be having sex with women as many as they can. 641 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: And so pick up artists they see men who are 642 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,239 Speaker 1: men going their own ways as kind of losers who 643 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:26,160 Speaker 1: are pathetic who are saying. You know, basically, pickup artists 644 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,000 Speaker 1: believe that women having sex with women or getting women 645 00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: to have sex with you can be gamified, and that 646 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,959 Speaker 1: men going their own way are too lazy to sort 647 00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:38,319 Speaker 1: of learn learn the compete, to compete exactly. They're like 648 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:43,239 Speaker 1: losers basically, Yes, yeah, that's interesting how it's funny that 649 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,879 Speaker 1: they see women in the same light of being out 650 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,360 Speaker 1: to get yet exactly, but you know, one type of 651 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: male wants to compete and gamify it and objectify women 652 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,640 Speaker 1: in the process, and one says, no, thank you. This 653 00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,359 Speaker 1: whole world is stacked against me. It's a very depressing 654 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:02,840 Speaker 1: a way of viewing the world, which is is like 655 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,879 Speaker 1: passive not active, like you mentioned the very beginning, there's 656 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,799 Speaker 1: no activism here. It's the world is stacked against me. 657 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:11,279 Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a dude. All the cards are not 658 00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:14,399 Speaker 1: in my favor, and I'm opting out in this world 659 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,040 Speaker 1: that is oppressing men. And one of the things I 660 00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:20,120 Speaker 1: I that struck me when I was doing like scrolling 661 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: through the men going their way own way communities is 662 00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,960 Speaker 1: how many men seem to express this kind of almost 663 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:30,239 Speaker 1: terror around saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong 664 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:32,279 Speaker 1: thing around women and and sort of being like, oh, 665 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:35,040 Speaker 1: I'm going to get branded as a creep or a 666 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:39,160 Speaker 1: rapist or pedophile, pedophile, and and sort of this this 667 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,160 Speaker 1: real anxiety around how to have a healthy relationship with 668 00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: a woman and sort of being so scared and kind 669 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,040 Speaker 1: of flummuxed by this that they're like, it's not worth it. 670 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,440 Speaker 1: It's not worth being branded a creep, a pedophile, a rapist. 671 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: It's not worth you know, trying in a society that's 672 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:56,319 Speaker 1: not going to give you the benefit of the doubt. 673 00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,360 Speaker 1: I think that's where there's some legitimacy tonists that we 674 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,960 Speaker 1: should talk about when we come back. All right, let's 675 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,120 Speaker 1: take a quick break and we'll be right back with 676 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:16,440 Speaker 1: more bigtow fun for your listeners. And we're back, And 677 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,839 Speaker 1: this has been kind of a mind melter for me. 678 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,279 Speaker 1: This just sort of blew my mind to come to 679 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: find out, um, just how visceral to backlash to gender 680 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,319 Speaker 1: equality can be. And we are going to talk in 681 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:33,919 Speaker 1: a minute about how this is historical and how this 682 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,399 Speaker 1: isn't all that surprising, I suppose, but I think it's 683 00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 1: important that we acknowledge the very real financial crunch that 684 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,879 Speaker 1: young men in particular right now are facing in this 685 00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:51,719 Speaker 1: economy and our witnessing especially in the first five or 686 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:56,360 Speaker 1: so years of their careers, like women outpacing men totally. 687 00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,200 Speaker 1: That's especially true for younger women. And you know, when 688 00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: you're in your twenty these are the times when you're 689 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,360 Speaker 1: just starting out. This time studies always show this. This 690 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,920 Speaker 1: time is very foundational for for folks in their professional development. 691 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: So if you have a rocky start, you're more likely 692 00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:13,480 Speaker 1: to sort of struggle for longer. But if you start 693 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 1: out with a college degree, making gains professionally when you're 694 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,000 Speaker 1: in your twenties, like that period is so foundational, and 695 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,200 Speaker 1: we really are seeing Dr Meg j has a great 696 00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,600 Speaker 1: ted talk on that how the twenties are not a 697 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: throwaway decade. In fact, it's a really important decade that's 698 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:32,839 Speaker 1: foundational to relationship building and economic viability, which is complicated 699 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:36,480 Speaker 1: by the fact that women have been earning more undergraduate 700 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:41,000 Speaker 1: and graduate degrees than young men for almost thirty years now. Yeah, 701 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:44,760 Speaker 1: women are really outpacing men when it comes to getting 702 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,240 Speaker 1: college degrees and a fetition college. And in this article 703 00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:52,480 Speaker 1: that uh here from Reason dot com, economist Eric Hurst 704 00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:56,799 Speaker 1: mentioned that when they started tracking this unemployment and a 705 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,840 Speaker 1: lack of sort of professional viability the first start of 706 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,160 Speaker 1: your career among men versus women back in two thousand. 707 00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: Between two thousand and twenty fifteen, they found the percentage 708 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,600 Speaker 1: of lower skilled men aged one to fifty five who 709 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,120 Speaker 1: had a job dropped from eighty four percent to to 710 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,400 Speaker 1: seventy seven percent, which he said was quote a massive 711 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:20,520 Speaker 1: change relative to historical levels. So really, just like we 712 00:38:20,560 --> 00:38:23,160 Speaker 1: go back to Hannah Rosen's argument in the End of Men, 713 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,160 Speaker 1: her book, her article in The Atlantic, and you've got 714 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,800 Speaker 1: to watch her ted talk. The economic downturn, the Great 715 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:34,680 Speaker 1: Recession was very hard on men, especially blue collar working classmen, 716 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,360 Speaker 1: and he noted that twenty two percent of men in 717 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 1: their twenties who did not have a college degree in 718 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:43,799 Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen had not worked a single day during 719 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:49,120 Speaker 1: the previous year. Wow, fifteen was a rough year for 720 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,759 Speaker 1: men in their twenties who left a college degree. And 721 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,600 Speaker 1: if more and more men are are not finishing college 722 00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:56,080 Speaker 1: and more and more women are, you can sort of 723 00:38:56,120 --> 00:39:00,319 Speaker 1: see how that sets into motion this a lie that 724 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:02,480 Speaker 1: can feel very unfair, where the debt, the death does 725 00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,279 Speaker 1: seem stacked against you. And then you couple that with 726 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:11,080 Speaker 1: the rising popularity and mainstream element of feminism right now, 727 00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,320 Speaker 1: it's a very vocal, general quality movement. That's great. I 728 00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,759 Speaker 1: think there's a great component to a lot of that. 729 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:18,960 Speaker 1: And I can also see how would be very threatening 730 00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:24,120 Speaker 1: to uh working class former coal miner who's been out 731 00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,640 Speaker 1: of work and who doesn't have the tools in this 732 00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:30,880 Speaker 1: economy to become a skilled uh laborer in the service 733 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,799 Speaker 1: economy that we now have, you know, thinking take me 734 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,319 Speaker 1: back to the to make your America grid again, right 735 00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:38,440 Speaker 1: could now the guards are stacked against me, and I 736 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:42,840 Speaker 1: don't identify as this being progress. So I just I 737 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:48,480 Speaker 1: can see the appeal of the Midtown movement um and apparently, 738 00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,960 Speaker 1: like you we were talking a little bit off air 739 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:55,759 Speaker 1: just now, there's a historical coupling between feminisms rise and 740 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,480 Speaker 1: the men's rights backlash. There definitely is. And so I'm 741 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:00,359 Speaker 1: sure that a lot of these men go their own 742 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,120 Speaker 1: way types probably think this is a brand new thing, 743 00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,120 Speaker 1: like they've come up with this exciting new way of 744 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:10,279 Speaker 1: sticking it to the feminists, But actually men making their 745 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 1: own counter movements as a response, as a direct response 746 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 1: to feminist gains, you know, women's rights, those kinds of 747 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,440 Speaker 1: things has a lot of grounding and historical precedent. This 748 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:22,760 Speaker 1: happens pretty regularly. According to Dr Tristan Bridges, Assistant professor 749 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 1: of sociology at the College of Brockport, who works on 750 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,919 Speaker 1: a journal called Men Masculinities and Methodologies. She says that 751 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:31,000 Speaker 1: when we look at the historical record, that that's what 752 00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,160 Speaker 1: it shows. Men start to get piste off and want 753 00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:36,160 Speaker 1: to talk about masculinity and change masculinity. Right after that 754 00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,359 Speaker 1: there's been some sort of transformation and femininity. When these 755 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:41,480 Speaker 1: kinds of things come up, I think historians would say 756 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,480 Speaker 1: something significant has happened with respect to gender inequality and 757 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:47,000 Speaker 1: that man are feeling their position of privilege as challenged, 758 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,759 Speaker 1: and this is a cultural reaction that takes place after 759 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:51,839 Speaker 1: that happens. And so one of the things they talked 760 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,359 Speaker 1: about is UM. In the during the Suffragette movement, they 761 00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:56,960 Speaker 1: had a lot of men's clubs that sprang up in 762 00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,359 Speaker 1: response to that UM in the eighties and nineties who 763 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: had the mytho poetic man's movement that started as a 764 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,520 Speaker 1: response to Second Way feminism and really championed men um. 765 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,359 Speaker 1: So this is not a totally new phenomena, right, And 766 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:13,000 Speaker 1: this idea that it has a very new life online. 767 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:15,080 Speaker 1: That's what I think is very unique about this. So 768 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,520 Speaker 1: the whole we mentioned earlier, this idea of red pill 769 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:19,680 Speaker 1: versus blue pill, that comes straight out of the Matrix, 770 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,480 Speaker 1: which if there's any movie that signals the new world 771 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,799 Speaker 1: of online reality, it's the Matrix in my opinion. And 772 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:29,200 Speaker 1: there's also a conspiracy component to that that I think 773 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,120 Speaker 1: is really entasing. So in the movie, right, Neo the 774 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:36,279 Speaker 1: the main character who has got kind of a god 775 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:40,560 Speaker 1: complex in this movie anyway, he's definitely the one has 776 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,560 Speaker 1: offered the red pill or the blue pill, and the 777 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,440 Speaker 1: red pill is the truth pill, right, the truth like 778 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,759 Speaker 1: you will be here, Yeah, the red pill. If you 779 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,799 Speaker 1: take the red pill, you have So here's here's like 780 00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,200 Speaker 1: the actual quote from the movie, you take the red Pill, 781 00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:57,800 Speaker 1: I gotta do it in a in a Laurence Fishburg 782 00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,279 Speaker 1: voice was like, I don't sound like you take the 783 00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:03,360 Speaker 1: red pill. You stay in Wonderland, and I show you 784 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:07,880 Speaker 1: how deep the rabbit hole goes the chosen One, And 785 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:12,840 Speaker 1: so in what they deem is a broken system, they 786 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:17,080 Speaker 1: the migtaut sort of subscriber is Neo, this person with 787 00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:21,120 Speaker 1: potentially a messiah complex, but in their mind, they're the 788 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,759 Speaker 1: only ones that see the world correctly. They see the light. 789 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,520 Speaker 1: So it does feel like a new movement, even though 790 00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:30,160 Speaker 1: historically men's rights movements have often cropped up as a 791 00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:34,440 Speaker 1: reaction to an emerging and changing definition of the female 792 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,439 Speaker 1: role model. But this one feels very different in its 793 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,200 Speaker 1: isolation and its life online. It's it's sort of like 794 00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:45,760 Speaker 1: a detachment from the truth that they see this guno 795 00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:49,759 Speaker 1: centric you know what is it, miss Andrey world that 796 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,239 Speaker 1: we're living in, and they're opting instead to live a 797 00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:56,880 Speaker 1: life of isolation, solitude, anti woman, or sort of just 798 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,720 Speaker 1: opting out of engaging with women for all the problems 799 00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,120 Speaker 1: that with that. And one thing I find really interesting 800 00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,200 Speaker 1: about that is that when you go to the like 801 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,080 Speaker 1: the reddit subreddit for Men going the Wrong Way, not 802 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:09,160 Speaker 1: only is it filled with these you know stories that 803 00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,920 Speaker 1: I described earlier of men with terrible problems with women, 804 00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:15,000 Speaker 1: but it's also talking about video games, talking about you know, 805 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:19,000 Speaker 1: like mountain biking. It's it's clearly these are people who 806 00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:24,839 Speaker 1: are using online communities too kind of tap it does 807 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:28,040 Speaker 1: everyone needs social interaction. They're sort of creating their own 808 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,680 Speaker 1: kind of men's only club on places like Reddit, but 809 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,040 Speaker 1: then infusing that with this aspect of like, oh, hey, 810 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,480 Speaker 1: did you guys see the big fight last weekend? Also 811 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,160 Speaker 1: I hate women right Like it's a weird combination of 812 00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:44,840 Speaker 1: both kind of normal community building and also anti feminism. 813 00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:47,600 Speaker 1: Sorry you're you're absolutely I'm just so jazzed about this. 814 00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,960 Speaker 1: I want to jump in here. Because they would argue 815 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,759 Speaker 1: that they don't hate women. They would argue that it's 816 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:56,919 Speaker 1: dangerous to be near women and be involved with women 817 00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:58,520 Speaker 1: because you're going to be accused of rape when you 818 00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:01,640 Speaker 1: didn't do anything wrong, and you're gonna be you're gonna 819 00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:03,600 Speaker 1: end up having to pay child support for a child 820 00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,120 Speaker 1: you never consented to have with anybody. You're going to 821 00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:07,840 Speaker 1: be called a pedophile if you sit next to a 822 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,560 Speaker 1: kid on an airplane. Like that's the world that they 823 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:13,080 Speaker 1: see as being dangerous and stacked against them and out 824 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:15,680 Speaker 1: to get them. And so, you know, I think there's 825 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,120 Speaker 1: a wide spectrum of sexism that underlies all of that. 826 00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: Whatever you're basing you know, someone's character on their gender alone, 827 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:28,319 Speaker 1: that that's you know, that's gonna be prejudicial. But I 828 00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:30,400 Speaker 1: get it. I I don't know. I just I'm like, 829 00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:34,279 Speaker 1: I'm pretty speechless about this topic, even that we just 830 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:37,719 Speaker 1: talked a lot about it, because I'm left feeling conflicted, 831 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,680 Speaker 1: like do we reach out to the men in our 832 00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,719 Speaker 1: lives who we suspect your parts of Like, how have 833 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:44,960 Speaker 1: you dealt with this with your friend? Um? That's a 834 00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:49,239 Speaker 1: great question, Um, I think with my friend, and I 835 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:54,160 Speaker 1: hope he doesn't listen to this. You know, I love you, 836 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:59,480 Speaker 1: but Stopp's gotten weird. Uh, you know. I think for me, 837 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:03,440 Speaker 1: I just want to remind my friend and all of 838 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:09,000 Speaker 1: these men that society can be scary, society can be heavy. 839 00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,560 Speaker 1: I under I understand, even though I'm like a lefty feminist, 840 00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,799 Speaker 1: I understand what it feels like to feel like you 841 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,080 Speaker 1: don't know how to compete in this world. I understand 842 00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:19,120 Speaker 1: what it feels like to feel like if you say 843 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,480 Speaker 1: the wrong thing, everyone's gonna be calling you were racist 844 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,279 Speaker 1: and trying to get you fired. I understand. I understand that. 845 00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:27,800 Speaker 1: I understand that that is scary and big and vast, 846 00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,440 Speaker 1: and exploring that can feel like a mind field. I 847 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:32,360 Speaker 1: get that we have a lot of similarities there, and 848 00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,080 Speaker 1: that I think that as women and as people of color, 849 00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: we often feel that way about society. Society is heavy 850 00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:41,440 Speaker 1: and scary. But you can't just retreat from society like 851 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:43,520 Speaker 1: you like. We are all in this together. And I 852 00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,160 Speaker 1: think when you say, you know, I'm taking my ball 853 00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:48,680 Speaker 1: and going home, that it doesn't work like that. We're 854 00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:50,680 Speaker 1: all in this together. We all get scared, we all 855 00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:52,680 Speaker 1: it's it's it's scary for all of us to explore. 856 00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:55,839 Speaker 1: And so if you are listening, my friend out there, 857 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:59,440 Speaker 1: I want you to know that that you're not in 858 00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,920 Speaker 1: this alone, even though it feels that way, but that 859 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:05,640 Speaker 1: the answer is not retreating from society. The answer is 860 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,120 Speaker 1: figuring it out together. And to do that we have 861 00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:10,200 Speaker 1: to be we have to stay in society and in 862 00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,719 Speaker 1: communication with one another, right and we can't and we 863 00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:15,160 Speaker 1: can't assume the worst of each other because there are 864 00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:18,040 Speaker 1: plenty of bad people out there, men and women who 865 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:20,600 Speaker 1: would want to take you for all your worth. Definitely, 866 00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:22,960 Speaker 1: but to say that all women are or all men 867 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,480 Speaker 1: are is not fair either way exactly, or that you 868 00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:30,240 Speaker 1: have to, you know, have no contact with women because 869 00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:32,719 Speaker 1: of because of that, and I think that you know, 870 00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,000 Speaker 1: women listen, it's really here in these streets, women deal 871 00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:40,880 Speaker 1: with really scary stuff from men at insane levels every 872 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:44,160 Speaker 1: day and we're still out there, you know, trying to 873 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,080 Speaker 1: make it work for us. And so there's an element 874 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:50,160 Speaker 1: of being willing to be vulnerable that's essential to relationships 875 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:52,960 Speaker 1: at large. And I'd say that relationships are worth it. 876 00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,520 Speaker 1: At the on our deathbeds, what do we all talk about? 877 00:46:55,719 --> 00:46:57,960 Speaker 1: We talked about the people on our lives and spending 878 00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,880 Speaker 1: more time with them. Nobody wishes they spent more time 879 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:03,480 Speaker 1: at work. Nobody wishes I would argue that they spent 880 00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:05,879 Speaker 1: more time beating that next level in the video game. 881 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:08,759 Speaker 1: Although maybe you know, gamers proved me wrong. But I 882 00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:12,720 Speaker 1: think the relationships in our lives, good, bad, ugly, many 883 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:17,880 Speaker 1: or few are the foundation to a meaningful life. And 884 00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:19,879 Speaker 1: I think that what you just said, just like gave 885 00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,759 Speaker 1: me chills because when I think about my friend, that's 886 00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:24,719 Speaker 1: all I want, and all of these men like like 887 00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:28,160 Speaker 1: I hope, I'm I don't mean to look at these men. 888 00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:30,080 Speaker 1: I want to have empathy for them, and I really 889 00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:31,880 Speaker 1: am not trying to make fun of them and be like, oh, 890 00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:33,800 Speaker 1: you guys are such losers. And that's how I feel. 891 00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:37,960 Speaker 1: I genuinely it worries me that people are missing out 892 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:42,000 Speaker 1: and having a full, meaningful life. That includes healthy relationships 893 00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,800 Speaker 1: that are romantic, that are sexual, that are professional, that 894 00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:47,080 Speaker 1: are social, that are familial, all of them. And it 895 00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:49,319 Speaker 1: makes me sad to think of someone who is so 896 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:54,120 Speaker 1: afraid and anxious like taking that away from them, because 897 00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:56,840 Speaker 1: I think society is better when we're all happy and 898 00:47:56,880 --> 00:48:03,279 Speaker 1: fulfilled and loved. I love it. I think I think 899 00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,359 Speaker 1: it's real. I think it's it's scary what happens when 900 00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:08,600 Speaker 1: we turn away from each other. So like you're saying, 901 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:11,680 Speaker 1: let's turn towards one another, even when it's real and ugly, 902 00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:17,880 Speaker 1: I adore you. Bridget um. Okay, y'all, this was a 903 00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:20,319 Speaker 1: weird episode. I think we can all agree this was 904 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,400 Speaker 1: weird as hell, So please get weird with us. We 905 00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,759 Speaker 1: want to hear, we want to hear, we want to hear. 906 00:48:26,800 --> 00:48:28,839 Speaker 1: I'm sure our Twitter feeds about to get weird when 907 00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:31,800 Speaker 1: this one goes out. So what the hell do y'all 908 00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:35,240 Speaker 1: think about this? Send us a tweet at mom Stuff podcast, 909 00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,080 Speaker 1: shoot us a message or post on Instagram and stuff. 910 00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:41,440 Speaker 1: And I've never told you, And as always, you know 911 00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:43,839 Speaker 1: we love reading your emails. Hit us up in our 912 00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:58,440 Speaker 1: inbox at mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com