Hey everybody, and welcome to Everything's Political. I'm your host, Taya Shoemake. You can also find us online at Everything's Political dot substack dot com. Shout out to Magicman Joe Strecker, the Bruce Willis of podcast producers.
Nobody likes you.
Everybody hates you.
You gonna lose smile cough men.
I love his movies. Bruce Willis was born on this day in nineteen fifty five. He is seventy years old. A fellow Pisces.
Could I love him anymore?
And when I think of Bruce Willis, you know, I think of others like Tom Selleck or Sam Elliott and just men that evoke awesome traits. Right, we're gonna talk a little bit about this today. Masculine traits are not like those men I just mentioned. It's nothing that they do in their movies, the action or the guns or the fighting or any of that. It's a quiet strength, the quiet comfortableness in one's own skin.
That's what they evoke.
Masculine traits are not toxic naturally now the way some men use them. Sure, you could slap that label on it, I guess, but I could say the same thing about women.
Aren't we all about equity here, Joe.
Or is that really just a ruse, a political ruse. That's a rhetorical question. So let's do this little tit for tat no pun intended. We could say the same thing about this toxic femininity, way too much of it running this country. And because of the imbalance we have a situation here. Western civilization is in peril on many fronts our female trade. It's toxic generally in nature.
No, of course not.
We need them.
Society cannot survive without them. It's the way they're used that is absolutely toxic. So keep that in mind when someone says toxic masculinity bull crap, that's just feminism's ruse to keep men down and edify women. And look, that's the lie. There are several lies women bought into. And the lie is that we have to tear down our men in order to edify women. That's a lie, and we're going to get into that today with our guest.
I can't wait to talk to him about it, and hopefully he'll help us assess the imbalance of male versus female energy. Why we're not working together and supplementing we don't have to replace men with women. We can't do it. Society cannot survive without that either. So let's talk to him and Bruce take us out into this interview.
Will you be.
Same with us?
Today is Edward Bartlett.
He is the president of DAVIA, Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance, and ed thank you so much for being here this morning.
Well, it is my pleasure to you, and yeah, I've been looking forward to our discussion.
Tell us about the mission of DAVIA first.
So the first piece of information here is that there have been hundreds, literally hundreds and hundreds of studies on domestic violence and who is the perpetrator, who's the victim? If I told you that those studies consistently around the world show that this is an equal opportunity problem. Men are just as likely as women to be victims of domestic violence. So our mission, the mission of the Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance is that I'll just be
very candid with you. This has become a point in the culture wars because feminists used this issue consistently to stereotype and i'll say, vilify men as abusers. Not just in this country, this is a global problem. So the domestic use of violence International Alliance. We have one hundred and eighty members member organizations and sixty sixty eight countries around the world, so we are very active. I'm sorry, I meant to say thirty eight countries around the world,
so we're very active internationally. We also do connect with the Unitedations as well. Well.
We certainly need it.
This has been such a long time and just FYI, I escaped feminism by the hair of my chinny chin chin, by the grace of God. I should say, I've never understood this manic pendulum shift, and I don't know when it started. Maybe a good a question. A better question to you is when did Davia form and when did you all notice that the pendulum was shifting to the dysfunctional side.
Well, we have been noticing this misrepresentation of the truth literally going back since nineteen ninety four. That's the year that the US Violence Against Women Act was enacted at the behest of our good friend Joe Biden, who was at that time was a Senator and he was the champion on the Violence Against Women Act. So obviously, just by the name itself, that tells you something about the bias, and it's created a narrative it's become a very powerful narrative.
The narrative plays on people's emotions very powerfully. So Davia was established three years ago to address this problem on a global basis.
So what we said in the beginning, as I intro the interview, you know, I believe there are no toxic traits from men or women, rather how we use them, and it is inequitable.
I love the way you put that, because.
For every time I hear, oh, that's toxic masculinity, I can say the same thing for femininity. I can say there are toxic feminine traits that are being used in that manner. And so I agree that the narrative has shaped our bias when we see a news story to put the blame on the men. And what shocks me is that there is this feminist death wish complex. Can you enlighten us a little bit about that?
Well, absolutely yes, And that's actually the title of the press release we put out earlier this week. It's the full title is kill All Men, Revealing the Feminist death wish Complex. So, of course feminists present themselves as being peaceful. You know, we're promoting you know, good, only good things, you know, on and on and on. But when you begin to scratch the surface, you begin to realize it's not just that feminism is promoting an abortion on demand
around the world. The problems and the concerned with feminism go much much deeper, and this is just one example of those. So the press release was designed to educate and alert people around the world that the feminist ideology for years has been saying we need to kill all men. And they don't say that in a joking or a euphemistic way. Unfortunately, they really mean it. I'll just I'll just give one example. In the United States, the former
deputy editor of huff Posts, Emily McCombs. This was one of her tweets for New Year's Day resolutions. Quote cultivate female friendships number two, band together to kill all men. End quote. So you see these were exact words cropping up over and over again. And if I may, I'll give you just one more example. This is from a law professor. Her name is Mary Ann Franks. She teaches at George Washington University in Washington, d c. Quote. Get
ready for this quote. Society would be better off as a whole if more women were willing to engage in justified violence against men. To that end, women's justified violence against men should be encouraged and publicized. End quote.
So they would like to legalize violence.
I mean, it's so turned around. It's difficult to wrap my head around the proclivity. And it's really indicative of the leftist political ideology. If you don't agree with me, I have the right to violence, where we see that everywhere. I'm a classical liberal in nature, right, I go back to the founding values and principles. But this just seems to be mental illness, and I'm trying to find the
origin of the narrative. Certainly the nineteen ninety four the Act that you mentioned from Joe Biden, that had a lot to do with it, but I think it starts earlier than that. So what are some of the things that we can do?
Sure, first of all, I'll share with you I have that same sense of is this really happening? Is this really possible to be happening in the United States of America or elsewhere in the globe. I shared that sense of disbelief. But yes, you know, everything in this press release has been referenced to links and so forth. I think the key point to emphasize here feminism is based on neo Marxist ideology. Anybody who's read about Marxism, you know that this has been a disastrous ideology anywhere it's
been implemented. It's been said that one hundred million people died at the hands of Marxist communist socialist ideology. We're talking about unparalleled social calamities, human rights disasters. Again, it's totally mind boggling. So when we realize that feminism is based on neo Marxist ideology, and I can explain why if you want to go down that road, but bottom line is, when you look at the history of Marxism in the past, you know, one hundred plus years, and
you see how disastrous and harmful it's been. In a way, it is no surprise to now hear that feminists are sort of talking the same destruct using the same destructive language, devisive strategies to polarize male and female, to break up the nuclear family, on and on a ghost.
I think we just answered part of the question is part of what we can do is a better education system. And boy, that's a whole other you know, topic, a big umbrella. But people don't recognize the Marxism and they don't recognize it because we're not taught Marxism in school.
I was taught.
I wasn't taught Marxism until college. And I think we need to start a lot earlier than that. So part of the solution is, in my opinion, could be, Hey, we need to set examples, whether it's I mean, you can start with animal Farm, that's an eighth grade book. Let's start there, and you know, and then it just keeps getting better. But so toward that end, could you inform us please on the Marxist origins of feminism.
Well, certainly so. Karl Marx himself said, and these are almost exact words. The nuclear family is oppressive to women. Think about that. And so is it any surprise that feminists have been pushing, for example, the transgender agenda, have been pushing for no fault divorce, have been you know put, I mean in so many different ways almost you know, it's just an amazing way array the strategies to make marriage and the family a less and less appealing lifestyle
options to too many Americans. So it's no surprise that marriage rates have fallen in the US and globally, it's no surprise that fertility rates in particular have plummeted in the last twenty thirty years in the US and internationally. I mean, you probably know the replacement rate, which is the number of children per mother or per woman you need to have to just maintain a stable population, is
two point one, right, which makes sense, of course. So the United States, last I looked, we are at one point six, so we're already caught in a downward spiral. But who's talking about this fact that our civilization is kind of disappearing before our very eyes. Who's say, I mean, nobody's talking about this like it's a crisis. I think it's a crisis that you know, our numbers are disappearing
before us. So this is just one outgrowth of this ideology that you know, the family is an oppressive institution to women. So I hope I haven't gone off too much on a tangent here because there's so much this is such a rich topic of discussion, But yes, this is clearly rooted in Marxist ideology. There's a book titled Read Feminism, Read Feminism, which I've read, written by a feminist.
I'll add that detailed description of the history from feminism and showing how this is again based on Marxist ideology.
Again I don't understand.
I grew up in a fairly large Italian family, and I remember being in second or third grade. The teacher went around the room and asked what everybody wanted to be? Okay and astronaut, doctor, so lots of great answers.
Right.
She got to me and I said I want to be a mother, and the words weren't out of my mouth, and she said, well, I think we can do better than that.
Now.
I didn't articulate at this at the time because I was very, very young, But in hindsight, what I was thinking is not in my family. I don't know where you came from, sweetie, but in my family, the moms are edified, and we don't have to tear down our men in order to edify women. That's the lie that is given.
I'm going to show you a book. I don't know if you can see it on the camera. Yes, this is titled End to the End of Women, How smashing the patriarchy has destroyed us. This is written by a woman named Carrie Gress g r. E. S s. It's a very powerful book because she basically making the point that you just said is that feminism has driven women away from their biological and from their call it their biological and social identity to fulfill this Marxist you know,
this Marxist stereotype or Marxist dream. And I think you mentioned just a couple of minutes ago about mental you know, is this mental illness? And the answer is yes, And we know that scientifically. There is actually a study done by the Pew Research Group and asked people, have you been told by a healthcare provider that you have a mental condition? All right? And ask to all ages and races and so forth. Well, guess which group had fifty six percent answered yes to that question? It was young
white females. Young white females, fifty six percent answered yes to that question. Whereas if you look at all the other demographic groups, whether by conservative, by age, by sex, all the other groups were substance substantially lower than that fifty six percent. So we really need to start scratching our heads about what does it say when fifty six percent of our young female population, of course they identify as feminists. What does that say about, you know, colleges?
What does that say about our society, and you know why why people seek some people have a lot of trouble, you know, having a having a thoughtful logical discussion like we're having right now.
Well, that would mean you would you would have to have some level of comfort within yourself, right.
I mean feminism to me, and I've.
I've been on this crusade to change the definition of that term because that's what the left does so their terms are acceptable.
I'm going to change the definition.
Feminism to me is when a woman is fully comfortable in their own skin for everything they are and everything they're not. Right in biblical terms, and men we would call it meek, that quiet strength, that quiet confidence, and yet can step outside to defend if they need to defend, provide when they need to provide, et cetera. Right, those are those are the roles that built Western civilization. It's and guess what that's okay, And I'm sure it's in
the minority. And you might know this the percentages. Some people will say, but what about all the male abusers that do use their traits in a negative way, And your numbers are saying that's really not the minority.
Would that be accurate?
Actually, the Centers for Disease Control, which does very good surveys on this issue. They find that actually each year there's slightly more male victims of physical domestic violence each year than female victims. So yeah, I mean scientifically, this is not an arguable point. It's just known and again not just the US, other countries as well. So we do have a mental health crisis. We do have a crisis of identity. And I ascribe a lot of this
to the Marxist vision. Again, so when you and I say equality or gender equality, our thinking is equal rights, right, that's what the Fourteenth Amendment is about, equal rights. No, the Marxist thinking is uniform outcomes. When they say gender equality, the uniform outcome meaning you would have the same proportion
of male and female lawmakers. Now, they never talk about male and female truck drivers, or male and female electricians, or male and female deep deep minors where you know, which are very different, a very you know, like these are often life threatening occupations. So they don't think they're not thinking of that. But again that that's the Marxist mindset. When you change the basic concept of gender equality into uniform.
Outcomes, and we do that with everything because you know Marx is pervasive now, but again no one recognizes it. Interesting, so let me ask you this, and in this equation of solutions, what is your suggestion to men.
Well, that's a great question, and I think I have a good answer for you. So I would have two points of advice, especially to your male listeners. First of all, be proud of your masculinity. That's God given, and you know that's just inherently that's something good. The second point I would I would say, is more specific to the point you're raising, is speak the truth and always speak
the truth. Don't be afraid to speak the truth. So when I, for example, when we go to the United Nations and meet with missions from different countries, we always talk about the research shows domestic violence is an equal opportunity problem, and if you want, I'll show you all the studies. Okay, so we're right up front about that. We don't don't hide that. But let me if I
can go beyond that. And this is just very timely because just last week we were in New York City, we released a what we believe is a historic document called the Declaration for Men in book, the New York Declaration for Men and Boys, let's call it. This is the fulfillment of the Beijing Declaration. Do you remember that Beijing Declaration that came out thirty years ago as a cornerstone of women's rights, And I've read through it and
over and over again. It talks about gender equality. Right, so we know that in fact, men are lagging in twelve different areas like education, lifespan partire treatment by the legal system, homelessness, and the list goes on and on. But those issues are simply for boting. They're simply it's like they don't even exist. When you go to the United Nations or you go to a lot of different
in the US, the issues are just don't exist. So we put together this is called the New York Declaration for Men and Boys, which is designed as a fulfillment of the Beijing Declaration that again talked repeatedly about gender equality. So this is the other side of gender equality that's been ignored for the past thirty years. So to answer your question a little bit more directly, we have this this declaration. It's posted on the internet again, it's called
the New York Declaration for Men and Boys. It just came out last week. We're publicizing it because we think this is historic. We think is this will change the narrative. I'm sure you've heard, you know the phrase the men have all the power oppressive patriarchy. Well, we have just shown by facts and figures, by speaking the truth, there is no sense thing as the patriarchy. I mean, if there really was a patriarchy, how is it they would allow men to be dying five years earlier than women.
I mean, on and on and on. It's just nonsensical. So this is sort of our latest development to address this conundrum that we're facing.
That is fantastic New York Declaration of Men and Boys.
Yes, and that's on. Is that on? You all have a website.
We actually have a partner organization called the International Council for Men and Boys, and it's on the website of the International Council for Men and Boys.
Okay, thank you for that.
I will absolutely print that out and I'm sure I'll have occasion to read it often. Let me ask you this, how receptive is the UN to your efforts.
Well, we have had face meetings to this point with I think twelve or fourteen missions, including countries in Africa and Europe. And I'll tell you. The most interesting was our meetings with the US Mission and the Russian mission, and we met with them, of course separate meetings, but by coincidence on the same day. They were both very
receptive and really interested in what I'm telling you. Now, we told to those staffers, both the US staffers and the Russian staffers, and we were just we were I'll be honest, we were blown away by the very positive response, but from other missions as well. So you know, we've
been asked to come back. And just last week we were in New York again, I told you, and we had meetings with the director of gender for a Caribbean island called Antigua and Barbuda, and they were extremely interested in what we were saying and saying, yes, we've been We've needed to have this kind of versations for a good long time.
Wow, that's fantastic. I'm so grateful for you all. Well, look, society's kind of like China's policy about no girls, right we have to abort all the baby. Well they've seen consequences for that right now. This maybe has taken a little longer, but I feel like we're finally seeing the consequences of the fact that we're not just not letting men be men, right, that's bad enough. That's denying them
the same rights that the feminists want. That's what's so ironic about it is that the women are doing the very thing of which they're accusing the men.
Right.
That's Sawlensky on one. Whether they know that or not is a different question.
Did you hear about the this is just the news yesterday the hospital in New Jersey that after an infant is delivered literally within hours, they go to the parents saying, is your infant transgender? Is? I mean, this defies credibility or believability, but this is actually happening in the New Jersey hospital. But I mentioned that now because this is the transgender agenda is designed to separate children from their
own parents. And that's that's just a perfect example of trying to basically condition the parents that think, oh, well, maybe my five hour child is lesbian. Right, Really, that is the thinking.
To your point, it defies logic and belief, absolutely nuts. The you know you mentioned the LGBTQ. Ironically, an ancillary effect of that is well to that book The End of Women, you know, because now all of a sudden, anybody can be a woman, And I've said that about political things. But in the past, where if everybody's a Nazi, nobody's a Nazi. If everyone's a racist, nobody's right. I mean, it's just it does It doesn't make any sense. And so if anybody can be a woman, how degrading to
a woman is that? I mean, I take such offense at that, because again we're equally different. But I wanted to bring up there was a book by Nora Vincent, who was a lesbian who ended up going into spaces with men, right bars, conventions, et cetera. She wrote a book I can't remember the name of it, but at the end of the day she came up with the
conclusion that, you know what, men aren't so bad. But she went into it totally snowed and totally against men, and she's going to prove that men are just scoundrels and they're out there on the prow and all of this other stuff. And she came out at the end, Hey, men aren't so bad, but women.
Yeah, So it's always.
Crazy any suggestions that as far as you know, I talk about the political penna, even the cultural pendulum, it shifts. Unfortunately, it never shifts to the middle or never. You know, it always seems to be one or the other extreme.
What is your outlook for this?
So I follow these issues not just in the US, but internationally, and I'll just mention in Britain, in the United Kingdom, I'm seeing a growing polarization of the sexes. More and more words like misogynists are being used, not just sort of in private conversations, but are being used by government officials to say, we have an epidemic of misogyny. But you read the so called report, No there's you know, there may be a couple anecdotal examples, but of course
there's no widespread epidemic of misogyny. Some would say, but there isn't an epic epidemic of mass which of course is the opposite. And since this press release we were talking about a few minutes ago about kill all men, kind of suggest well, is that pretty hateful for a group of women to be advocating to kill all men? So anyway, but the point I'm trying to make is in the short term, at least in some countries, I am worried about a growing polarization and vilification of men.
And I see these very hurtful, really and unfair, you know, just not scientifically based words being thrown out there as if they're the the you know, the utter truth. So I don't know about the US. I'm far more optimistic for the US, just because, as you know, DEI, diversity equity inclusion programs have been banned in the federal government. Of course, those programs are overtly discriminatory against white men, and so I think we are seeing movement in the
right direction overall in the US. You may have heard jd Vance at the recent SEAPAC conference here at Washingfield and Washington, d C. He spoke us specifically two men saying, you know, young men, you know, don't be troubled by these these negative stereotypes that are being floated out there. They're not fair. And he actually said, we're looking at
policy approaches to erectify this. So to answer your question, I think it depends very much on the specific country, and that's partly why we do these press releases to sort of put out the other side of the story that you know is not as widely publicized. But again, everything we say we document with citations and links URL links.
Well, I mean, at some point and I do, because we have freedom of expression here, freedom.
Of speech, well you know all of that.
The backlash I think can be more immediate between you and I.
My listeners know this. I've been accused of being a misogynist.
Oh congratulations, even as a woman, right.
And it's just it's simply as a counteract to the ridiculous nature of things going on. It's just like hard to comprehend. But at some point there has to be a backlash of not just men kind of defending themselves speaking truth to your point, but women. I'm going to defend the men in my life who I love, and I think that's a great thing, and I think that can happen in this country. But I think the fact that the most malign creatures nowadays, and I think this
is worldwide, is are the white males. I would contend, although I don't have figures to back this up, that second only to them would our stay at home moms.
I would say, if I could put this an international perspective, I think if we were to go to Israel, we would clearly see that there is this overt hostility of between Hamas and Israelis, and and I would say it's more than hostility, it's a vert hatred. And why is that? Well, once again the Israel has been portrayed as the quote oppressors. Does that sound like a familiar Marxist term, and the and the people in hamas sort of pigeonholed as the oppressed.
So once again we see this Marxist duality being uh uh promoted there in some countries, Christians are under a great deal of attack as well. But again Christians are seen as the you know, as the oppressor ideology or oppress or religion. Yeah, I know. So, so we're we're facing a global Marxist ideology around the world, and it's you know, it's all about divide and conquer.
Yeah, yes, I mean the fact that Christians go into other countries and try to help, and yet they're the oppressors.
You know.
But because you know, history, the revisionist history tells us something different.
They seek out the right there sought out as the bad guys.
But if I can go back to this New York Declaration for Men and Boys that we released just last week, we have found that our strongest supporters are women. Okay, and well it's not just because women have you know, husbands, and brothers and sons, and so I think it goes beyond that. I think there's a sense of hey, we're all in this boat together, we sink or swim together, and we have to reach out. And actually, I'm going to read a quote for you know. We actually on
our website we have a couple of quotes. This is from a woman named Lynn Crabtree who lives in England, and i'll quote we hereby express our unequivocal support for the New York Declaration for Men and Boys and it's mission to promote fairness, equity and justice for all. So and there's been other very nice quotes like that. So the point I'm making is we see this New York Declaration for Men and Boys as a building block or a bridge between the sexes because women so much identify
with these principles. It is the it is the fulfillment of the Beijing Declaration, and it's and we're affirming the conceptive gender equality. We're just not going with the Marxist idea Marxist vision of what gender equality is supposed to mean.
I think that's instructive just for our listeners. When you see the the narrative go oppressor and victim, you know, dive into that. Don't just believe what you hear, you know, unearth the context behind it or under it, to make sure what validity remains and what doesn't. Ed I could talk to you for three days, and I I so appreciate what you guys are doing. And I think I think more women than we know would agree with miss Crabtree because it's consistent and that's okay.
In fact, that works.
Yeah, and I'd say it's not only okay, I'd say, you know, viva la difidants. I mean, this is wonderful. This is this is what brings spark to life and makes life. You know, it just enriches our experience as human means.
Edward Bartlett, I can't thank you enough for being with us today.
It's just been such a joy and pleasure. Davia.
In the the can you give us the name of the parent company again?
Sure? So that it's the Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance, DAVIA, and our partner organization is the International Council for Men and Boys. Web address www dot Menandboys dot net.
That is easy enough. We will refer to that. We'll put it on the website.
And we will drive as much traffic and promotion to your cause and Dobby's cause as we possibly can.
Greatly appreciate it, and I really enjoyed the conversation as well.
I'm so excited that this group exists, Joe, I can't tell you because this has been brewing for a long time.
I agree with him.
It's a crisis, you know, in this in this culture of logical fallacy speak, where we make these sweeping generalizations that because one guy did something bad one day, I'm you know, we all men suck. That's not true, and we have done such a disservice to not just young men. That's bad enough, because again we are I say women. We they whatever the feminists are doing to the men, what they think has been done to them. Now there are outliers that everywhere. But the sweeping generalization crap has
got to stop because it is a crisis. Western civilization will end when men end. You may not like it, you may wish it were different, but that's the truth. And you guys have heard me say we need to step in front of our men when they are attacked. Now I don't like that either, because I think men step up when any kind of attack occurs, but we need to help them do it, in my opinion, with the men you love, and maybe with the men that you don't, we've.
Got to stop this.
And it's pervasive, and to his point, it's just another step of the cultural Marxism that has fractured society, but it's ruined many a men. I mean, just look at the Daniel Penny incident, Joe. He was protecting people, which is a man's natural instinct against an aggressor. That's what a man does. Nothing wrong with that. You want to look at the circumstances, fine, but Daniel Penny was not the aggressor there. He was protecting others against an aggressor.
And every woman on that train was grateful. You know what woman wasn't grateful the woman on the Pennsylvania train who was raped while men flipped out their fricking cameras and videotaped it. Because guess what, that was the start of the slippery slope? Ladies, are you going to jump into that situation. I'd like to think I would have tried something that I would have likely gotten hurt.
But you know what, you.
Can't just sit there and watch that so very excited for DAVIA again Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance, and they're recently coined New York Declaration of Men and Boys.
I love it. Let's do that.
Let's allow men to be who they were created to be, just like we want to be who we were created to be.
Right, that's consistent. Okay, I'm going to stop there, because I would just go on forever.
I want to thank you all for listening. Thank you as always to magic Man Joe Strecker. Until next time, who will stand at either hand and keep the bridge with me?
Have a great day.