OK, welcome to UK column. I'm Ben Rubin, and I am delighted today to be speaking to Braden Sorbo, who is an actor and author and cultural commentator. And he's just released a new book, his second book, I believe, called Embrace Masculinity, Lifting men up in a world that pushes them down. Braden, welcome to UK column. Hey, thanks so much for having me. And there it is right there. I got it ready to go. Very well prepared. Fantastic.
And I should also just say you might possibly be, and I need to check this, the youngest person that we've ever interviewed on UK column. We're not normally speaking to people who were born in this Millennium versus the last Millennium. So congratulations on that front. Well thank you very much. I was a 2001 baby so I I barely make that cut off but I'm glad to be here. Fantastic. So your new book is called Embrace Masculinity, Lifting men up in a world that pushes them down.
How are men being pushed down? Well, it's essentially A worldly thing and it kind of breaks down into the societies. But as we know, the culture is downstream of the media and the media currently and has been for a long time, portraying men as weak, useless, pathetic, bumbling idiots who are basically just good for background noise and not much
else. And so we've seen this slow progression throughout the past century or two of this degradation of morals and this degradation of the family as a whole. And what it's LED us to is the world that we live in today. You know, I don't know the exact statistics for the UK, but in America, 10% of women in my generation, Generation Z are on only Fans, for example, which is crazy. 18 to 25 year olds were polled and 45% of them, these
are all men. So 45% of men between the ages of 18 and 25 have never approached a woman in real life. Like there's consequences to the things that had started, you know, 50-60 years ago with the whole free love sexual revolution is having its consequences played out in real time in front of us. And so the book came about because I saw a need for something, right?
You have you have a lot of those, those guys like Jordan Peterson or Nick Freitas or those guys who are married and they're religious and they have like, oh, you guys can pick yourself up by your bootstraps and you've got this and just be be men and people in my generation to go. And that's great. You have no idea what it's like though. And so I'd always wished that somebody my age had something for guys my age. And that's where the inspiration for the book came from.
It is a handbook. It is a guide for what I like to call godly masculinity, which is the only masculinity. Because without a set moral compass, masculinity devolves into the red pill movement of sleep with as many people as you can and dominate as many women as you can. And without a set moral standard, who is to criticize that? And so the book essentially puts
that standard in place. It acts as, like I said, a guide for young men, but also a checklist for young women with the goal of aiding and discernment. Say a girl is talking to a guy. This is something that she should be using as a tool to see. Does this man meet the criteria? Fascinating. So you talked a lot there about the the kind of attack coming downstream of culture, downstream of the media.
So we're thinking, you know, advertising, cinema, television, the Internet, newspapers, that kind of thing. Like what do you think is driving that? Is it this is the deliberate and coordinated for you? Yes, it is. It is a coordinated attack. So the second chapter of the book is called the War between the Patriarchies. And I say it's not a matter of if a man is going to be ruling, but whether or not he will be
good or bad. And so I, I liken it back to the time of the Exodus during that period in the Bible where the Israelites were, you know, slaves to the Pharaoh. And so the Pharaoh tried to do what all bad patriarchs will do and take advantage. And so there are three ways primarily that we will see this destruction play out in society against the the culture at large, but specifically men in particular. And it will be first a use
because men have strength. So use that strength, build things like the pyramids or today, build skyscrapers, make the men useful. Then if the men become rowdy, do the next thing and that is subjugate them, like with Rome, bread and circuses. If people are happy, they're not going to revolt. Then we have the Super Bowl, we have the NBA, we have the all of these different things to keep
us happy. We have celebrities doing, you know, all these crazy things and wow, this is what we should be paying attention to. And so people aren't necessarily paying attention to the things that inherently matter. And lastly, if the first two don't work, the bad rulers will resort to eliminating it, will resort to killing the men. Now we're seeing that third stage take place in today, 2025, and a lot of people are probably hearing that going what? Right. No one's getting killed.
Like no one's doing that today is. Well, yes, but it's more of a spiritual killing in the sense of we have a rampant problem of degradation of morals in society. And when that problem reaches the levels that it has, people are dead in their spirit. And if they are not willing to take a stand regardless, then you have essentially killed them. So pornography is is rampant in the United States and the rest
of the world for that matter. And what it does from a scientific standpoint, not even from a moralistic or religious standpoint, but what it does from a scientific standpoint is it releases endorphins into your brain. So you receive these feel good chemicals such as dopamine that need this, this heightened response more and more and more. The more you receive it, the more you crave it, but the more you need to receive that same level of satisfaction.
It is why we live in a society where everyone needs instant satisfaction. They need success immediately or they think that what they have done is a failure. It's why 20 years ago when you asked a kid what do you want to be when you grow up, they had an answer for you. I want to be a policeman, a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a politician, A firefighter, an astronaut, whatever, a you know. And so today, you ask a kid what they want to be and they go, I
want to be famous. But they don't even know what famous is. They just know that social media has portrayed this idea of vanity but success at the same time. They see these celebrities posting highlight reels online and they go, this is what I want, but they don't truly know what this is. And So what we have essentially done is we have killed in spirit the drive that pushed the world to succeed, right?
Young men used to be told if you graduate, whether it be in Europe or America or Australia or any country, continent, you name it, young men were essentially told if you get a degree, if you work hard, if you fight right, you will be rewarded. What will that look like? It could be financial compensation. It could be you find a wife and kids.
I would like to think I speak for most men when I say the pinnacle of success is having a wife and a kid that love you, you know, or multiple kids that love you like that is, that is all that most men want in real life. CS Lewis wrote that the job of the homemaker is the most important job in the world because every other job is created just to supplement the homemaker, right? That every other job is made to serve that job of the homemaker.
And so for a man, your success was not measured by your financial status or how big your muscles were or how you know how many cars you had or the size of the house you lived in. It was measured by your family. Is your legacy the thing that's going to outlive you? Because at the end of the day, the money's not going into the grave with me. You know, my name comes with me. And if I did a good job as a husband and a father, my name lives on through my family.
So men are no longer assured that guarantee, which to be fair, it was never a guarantee to begin with, but it was at least it was more serious, right? Young guys had an assurance that something would come from their hard work, whereas today that assurance is no longer exists. And So what we're seeing is young men are refusing to grow up. I call them the Peter Pan, Neverland, Lost boys. Like they just would rather remain teenagers, you know, perpetually because why would
you grow up? It's a hard life out there. The world is cruel. And if you don't have even a basic guarantee of, well, you know, you work hard, you can make enough money to support yourself and potentially a family, What are you going to work for? And so I like to say that my generation has the worst battle that any generation has had ever, because we don't have any assurance. The only assurance that we would have is that potentially the generations that come after us
might get it back. And that's unfortunately that's going to have to be enough. I love that CS Lewis quote that you just rolled out there. I'm not going to get it exactly right, but this idea that civilization was essentially created to support the nuclear family, I think people completely forget that, right? It's a really important point. I need to go and go and read into that, and I do.
I'm a big fan of CS Lewis. Let me just wind you back right to the start of what you were saying there. There's a whole bunch of things that you pulled up. The first one is you're actually LED off with the idea that essentially what we're looking at is a war between the patriarchies, that there is going to be a patriarchy. The question is whether it's a good or a bad one.
Now, that is an interesting point to land on because actually it runs completely counter to the current dominant cultural and intellectual narrative that's being pushed, which is that the patriarchy itself, however you might want to define that, needs to be torn down and replaced essentially. But you're saying that you don't think that that's even possible to achieve. Is that is that correct? Yeah, it's it's blatantly impossible. There's always going to be a man in charge.
I I know that people are going to be mad at that. That's unfortunately how the universe was created. That does not mean that men are better than women. I I hate that I have to clarify that, unfortunately, but I have gotten so many vicious attacks from people going, you must just hate everybody. I go dude, it's just ridiculous.
Jesus Christ is still God and he submitted to the will of the Father not because he was less than God, but because there was a divine order instituted at the beginning of the universe and no matter how hard you want to fight it, it's going to exist. So whether or not you like it, it will happen. I like to say there's a great quote that Eve was not taken from Adam's foot so that he would trample over her or from his head so that she would Lord it over him.
She was taken from his rib so that she would be equal with him, from next to his heart to be loved by him, and from under his arm to be protected by him. So it is not a matter of supremacy or being better than. There is a matter of recognizing that we as humans have certain traits that are ingrained in US genetically that we cannot change, and if we want society to thrive, we have to acknowledge them, right?
I think everyone can look around today and say that the world is pretty messed up in 2025, and there's a good reason for that. It is because we have destroyed the nuclear family. I completely agree. And, and actually it's interesting that we're talking about embracing masculinity and the fact that the the world pushes men down.
But actually you've spent half the time talking about the attack on women actually, and the families as as as as as essentially being at the same time an attack on men. Yeah, with without a doubt, there's a trend. It said that the more quote, UN quote educated people became, the more miserable they became. And ironically, there's a little bit of truth to that because ignorance actually is bliss.
And so I like to say if ignorance is bliss and I'm pretty miserable, but I go through all of the data backing all of this up, and what we're noticing is that the world tells men you're useless, pathetic. Sit down, shut up. I don't say anything. And then it tells women, go be a girl boss, go go get a big corporate office job and go do your whatever. And then the women get depressed. And so we have more women on antidepressants or some sort of medication than ever before.
It's over 50% and 40% of men are on a medication as well. So clearly all we're doing is medicating ourselves because we're not happy. And all we need to do to reverse that is realize that the true source of happiness is to acknowledge the roles that we were created for and to live through them in a glorifying way. I mean, I have countless friends my age who are going man, what are we thinking? Like IA girl that I know I was just talking to last week at church.
She said she goes Brayden when I went to school, I am now $30,000 in debt and I have to go sit for 8 hours in a cubicle. I don't want to do that. I just want to have a little baby that I can take to target with me and I'm going. I know that sounds fantastic and I as a husband would be working 3 jobs to supplement my wife to be able to do that. But not many guys are and not many women are.
And unfortunately, it's going to take something drastic for people to wake up. And I think that drastic measure is coming because all signs are pointing to it. So who does this benefit then, this attack on masculinity? Because it doesn't sound like it's benefiting anyone. It's certainly not benefiting women. You've said, and I agree with this, a lot of them appeared to be quite miserable with the way things are going, and it's certainly not benefiting men. So who is actually benefiting
from this whole situation? The people in charge, that's it. It's, it's the rulers in charge who want to have their subjects be destroyed so that they can sit there and reap the rewards of other people's labor. And the problem that I have with that is they are taking advantage and they have taken advantage of the good nature of many people, right?
So the government decided, you know what, we need everyone working so that we can have the kids in schools, so that we can control the narrative, so that we can brainwash and tell the people what to think and how to think it. The school system was overwhelmed by this idea of becoming a wage slave essentially, I believe if I'm not mistaken, it was either Rockefeller or a Rothschild who had created essentially the modern day school system which
creates workers. And so people go and they they learn how to work but not think for themselves. And so they go and sit in an office for 6 to 8 hours, 10 hours a day and they become sick. They're not outside, they're not eating healthy, they're not living. They're sitting in a chair under fluorescent lighting for eons, for 4050, sixty hours a week. And so they become unhealthy, and then they need medication to
supplement, to fix themselves. And So what we realize is that people aren't inherently broken, but they become broken by the system that we're living in. And the reason why they're being destroyed is because it is easier to maintain control when society doesn't have a reason or doesn't have the power to get rid of you. Yeah, completely agree. I mean, the only people who benefit in this situation is an overbearing state and international capital investors.
Ultimately, it's what we're looking at here. Who? I think it was the Rockefellers, actually. You said Rockefeller or Rothschild. I'm pretty sure it was the Rockefellers. And also, as I understand it, they were very heavily involved in establishing the whole feminist movement 100 years ago as well, right? So this thing's been coordinated and funded and progressed over a very long period of time. So we talked a bit about what's pushing men down, but the question then is how do we lift
them up? What do we need to do? Well I have a lot of keys and tools in the book that I use specifically to help with this and a few of them are one getting off of social media which is ironic to say because I have 2,000,000 followers and I post everyday like this. It is my job, but at the same time it's terrible and miserable and I don't recommend it for people 2 to find good community. A lot of people don't understand how valuable it is to have
friends. Like Proverbs 6-7 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens his brother, right? There is a great power that comes in unity and discussion and growth and fraternity and people don't realize that, right? And then next, a mentor. It's crucial to have someone who is a little bit older than you, who has gone through the experiences that you might be going through, who can offer advice.
You don't have to take every single thing they say at face value and 100% do it. But the benefits far outweigh the cons when it comes to having a mentor. So I also say one of the biggest things is being physically strong. What we notice is that people who are not physically strong enough to defend themselves become agreeable. And that's that is just an evolutionary tactic that people have discovered.
It is if you are not strong enough to protect yourself, should confrontation happen, you become the type of person to avoid confrontation at all costs. And so men cannot truly think for themselves unless they actually prove it by becoming physically powerful. This is not mean, you know, going around and punching people or, or, you know, but it means being able to, if someone were to confront you on a stance, being able to defend that
stance. And the benefit to that is when you become physically strong, science has also proven that your mental capacity increases as well. And so we have the stereotype of the big dumb jock because it's not true. The people who created that stereotype don't want you to be physically capable. It doesn't mean that you have to be lifting 500 lbs or squatting 600 LB, you know, benching 315. It doesn't mean that you have to
do that. But just being active in any sense will improve your brain function, right? When we sit like this in a chair for 10 hours a day, what happens is we start chest breathing. Our breaths become shallow and that is unhealthy compared to how we were naturally meant to breathe through our diaphragm, through our stomach. And so sitting forever, not moving, not getting exercise leads you down this path where you are more prone to regular illnesses, colds, flus, sickness of all kinds.
You are more prone to to critical thinking drops where you are less likely to use your rational thinking and your critical thing. Because if you're sitting hunched over all the time, what happens is eventually your brain gets less oxygen and you don't have as much power to it.
And So what people need to realize is it can be as simple as going for a walk, you know, that helps after dinner, help the food digest, rather than sit down and watch TV for hours and hours a day after sitting for hours in an office or working, it's not a matter of, you know, you have to go run marathons or deadlift. Like I said, £500. It's just a matter of being active.
And what will happen is you will see brain function increases and improves, as well as critical thinking and the ability to defend yourself. It it all falls in line. And that's what people have failed to see this entire time. It's about strength, isn't it? Yeah.
And actually one of the interesting things you used the term girl boss earlier and you see that a lot, that kind of that mentality and, and what I notice is the a lot of women who are putting themselves forward in the professional domain and wherever else it might be, they seem to think that they need to a behave more like men. But then their interpretation of what behaving like a man is, is actually being really aggressive. And actually men aren't
aggressive, right? It's about having power and potential, but having that under control, you know, when people become aggressive and, and, and lose control, that's not really a masculine trait. You know, that's actually a sign of weakness. Yeah, 100%. That is exactly correct. We see. It's so interesting that the feminist movement told women go be like men and then a lot of women, not all, but a lot of women who were part of the feminist movement interpreted it
as be rude and domineering. Like it's funny because the men who are rude and domineering are the least masculine out of any man that I've ever met. Right. The tenants of masculinity are responsibility, protection, provision. It doesn't mean I'm going to go out and protect everybody and provide for everybody. It means I need to find one wife to provide and protect for. But by and large, it's just a being a caring individual. And for men and for women, that looks differently.
But when we try to emulate how that looks for the other opposite sex, we do it wrong most of the time. If I were to try to act like a woman, I would fail because I'm not a woman. I have the chromosomes. What was it XXI think for men and XY for women. I don't. I always get them flipped. But right. So I have the I have the capacity to act like a man. My sister has the capacity to act like a woman. Nothing wrong with either of
those. We just have to understand that we have inherent unique strengths and faults, and if we play into our strengths rather than our faults, everything is better. Yeah, I completely agree. Now, you talked a bit earlier on about the degradation of morals and that kind of feeding into this assault on masculinity. And you've also made a number of of biblical references and spiritual references in the conversation.
In fact, I've lost count of the amount of times that you've made biblical references, which is great to hear. And also for someone coming from the UK, it's, it's a a bit less common for us actually, you know, we've lost touch with that side of our society a lot more than than our American brothers and sisters have. How important has that been for you in terms of combating this, this degradation of morals?
Like, do you see that as as a crucial route towards this defence and this uplifting of of masculinity? Yeah, without a immoral foundation to set the path to guide men, their natural instincts is to dominate, as in have as many women pregnant as possible, right. Because if I'm a man, my goal is to have my lifeline, my blood pass on. So I need to have as many children as possible. And the moral side of that is the Bible saying no, you get one wife and you have kids with her
and you love her forever, right? And so it is the cornerstone, it is the foundation to this entire concept of improving society. And thankfully, what we're seeing is young men are returning to it in droves. Catholic and Orthodox churches, the traditional churches from 2000 years ago have received the largest uptick in people joining primarily young men that they've ever had in the recent time in this Millennium, right.
Because the, you know, the non traditional Protestant denominations aren't doing it. We're seeing what's happening in the UK where I just covered the, the lady who was arrested for praying silently outside of an abortion clinic. There was a British UK army vet who was fined for doing the same thing. They just stood there with a sign that said, I'm here to talk if you want help or something. And they're getting arrested for it.
And so guys in America are seeing that going, OK, No, no, no, no, no, no, we're we can't let that happen over here. That's that's crazy. And so this kind of return to traditional Christianity almost is the fuel that is stocking the fire underneath these young men and it is the moral compass. I'll quote another visa scripture, Romans one Paul says that the law is written in our hearts. We all have an inherent idea of right and wrong.
But if we are left to decipher it for ourselves, we can see how that clearly doesn't work. I mean, everyone goes, well, I I know that because I'm guided by no, you're not. No, no, you're not. If you were, you wouldn't be so crazy, like you wouldn't be so off the rails that we have to correct you, you know? And so it's the world in which we live. I mean, my dad was raised Lutheran, I was raised evangelical, non denominational.
And I just got confirmed last Easter because I was so sick and tired of going to quote UN quote church, which I just consider an organization at this point, those non denominational churches, I mean, where they have a rock concert followed by a Ted talk that makes you feel good because it's vaguely about something that you could potentially relate to. There's no growth there. And a lot of guys are feeling the same. They don't want to have just a
feel good relationship. They want want a relationship and relationships have rules, buddy. And go punch him in the face when I feel like it. That's not a relationship, right? I am friends with him and he is friends with me because we respect each other. We want each other to succeed. We have what's best in mind for each other. You cannot set the terms of a relationship with God and go God. I want this, that, and the other
thing. And in return, I'm willing to go sing for you on Sunday. That's what I've did. That's what you'll get out of me. You're going to get laughed at. You don't get to just say, you know, I've decided this is how I want to have a relationship with you. Those rules have already been established. And so young men are realizing that the rules were established for our own benefit to build up.
And so whether or not someone is religious, they inherently have to realize that there is a power and a good that comes from this. And there are certainly people who will take advantage. I don't speak in generalizations like just everyone all the time. There are certainly people who will take advantage. However, by and large, when people are truly following, when people are truly understanding, they will have a deeper appreciation and a deeper love for the life and those around
them. Completely agree. With you and it's, it's fascinating to watch this resurgence of, of, of young men getting back into spiritual life and, and going back into the church in this country as well. Actually, I think I saw some numbers the other day that said that the, the attendance in, in certain congregations has gone up by a factor of four or something like that over the past 12-18 months. I mean, this is this is really quite phenomenal stuff. You just mentioned a minute ago
that you were homeschooled. Could you tell us a little bit about that? Actually, my colleague Charles spoke to your mother about this last week. So it'd be good to get your take on it. And is this something that you'd consider for your own children in the future? Oh, without a doubt. I have no other option for schooling. Homeschooling is the only way to go. Children are entrusted to their parents, not to the state.
It's not the state's responsibility to raise the kids, but we feel like it is because we've been told that. And so I was homeschooled from 7th grade all the way through graduation. And I was absolutely blessed to have that. I had, you know, been traveling a lot with my parents being who they were, living on movie sets and things like that. And so it just made sense to homeschool me. And at the same time, my mom unintentionally realized that it was the greatest blessing that
you can give to a kid. Because what kid doesn't want to be friends with their parents? What kid doesn't want to be around their parents? Especially when they're younger. Now, when they get older, everyone goes, Oh well, they just rebel. As teenagers, my siblings and I didn't necessarily rebel. We didn't hate our parents. You know, So it is a weird phenomenon that we're seeing where the school essentially teaches kids to not respect the
parents. Because subconsciously, if you're a 5678 year old and you're going to school for 8 hours a day and then seeing your parents, if they don't make you take the bus and then you hang out at dinner for a little bit, then you go to your room and play games. You're spending more time with teachers than you are with your parents. So of course you're going to reject their authority and pick the teachers authority over them. Of course you're going to rebel
when you're a teenager. It has been drilled into your little mind since you were a child. Obviously it's going to be self-destructive. We're reaping the fruits of it now. We are reaping what we sow Everyone goes well, where did it go wrong? It went wrong a century ago. That it's that simple. And if we want to fix it, we have to get out of schools, we have to go work out, we have to return to morals, right? These are all hard things because it requires sacrifice on our parts.
It's so much easier as a parent. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware the American Dream is dead and we have killed it, right? I can't on a single income of a teacher support a family of five. My dad was the 4th of five kids and his dad was a middle school teacher and they lived. They were fine, right? It wasn't like they were living in, you know, abject poverty or complete wealth. But they were successful enough to raise 5 kids that were healthy. When families got smaller,
houses got bigger, right? And we live in this world now where you need essentially 2 incomes to raise a family. And that was intentional so that the family unit would not be strong because the family unit is the strongest thing. If I have a reason to live, which is my family and kids, then I also have a reason to die. And if I have a reason to die, I'm willing to fight my family, my wife and kids, then I am a dangerous threat to any bad person who might try to come my way.
And so the bad people who wanted to come my way, we're like, let's just take apart the reason he has to live and then we can placate him, medicate him, you know, whatever. And so yes, homeschooling has been the greatest thing and I wish more people would do it. Thankfully, with the pandemic, we saw the homeschooling in America. I'm not sure how it was over in, in the UK, but the homeschooling numbers in America went from like 2 million families to 5
million families. That over doubled, which is fantastic. And it's continuing to grow. And because it's continuing to grow, more and more resources are available. It's not just in the 70s where it was sitting at home and your mom is sort of trying to teach you what she remembers of math. There's entire curriculums available. There are things put in place to aid families in this endeavour, so it's easier than it has ever been. Yeah, there was.
Certainly a trend towards home schooling and that's definitely going up in this country. And then as much as it's going up, the state is attempting to restrict it and to control it as as much as possible. And I'd actually be really interested in in your take on that. I saw that you were a CPAC a few months ago. Like, how do you see things developing politically around this issue in the US at the moment?
Well. Politically, we had the largest divide between the two genders that we've ever had. Women have typically voted blue because they're nurturing and compassionate and they want to care for people. And the left promotes this idea that they care, right? And so they get a lot of the female vote base. However, men have always voted traditionally a little bit darker red. This previous election, young men and young women voted the farthest apart that they've ever
voted. We have the largest divide in the history of my country, at least when it comes to politics. And I can't see that ending well because if the men want women, they're going to go to where the women are unless they're strong enough to stand, you know, stand like a pillar, steadfast and fight for the values that they believe in. During the polling that was taking place during the 2024 cycle, they asked young men my age, you know, say because I'm
23, so say 18 to 25 year olds. They asked, What's your biggest issues with the election? For a lot of people, it was the economy, right? I want to be able to raise a family and I can't if my dollar is worthless, keeping inflation down, you know, it is the the price of goods and commodities. Rent is expensive. I don't want to rent. I want to be able to buy a house, you know, I, I don't want to have to go and spend $12.00 on a dozen eggs at the grocery store. That's insane.
Gas. Those things were important to young men. The border, making sure that the immigration crisis was put under control, keeping people safe, right? So very altruistic ideas of wanting to be able to take care of their family. When polled, young women the same age 18 to 25 said abortion, which inherently is the most selfish thing that a human can do, is to take the life of another human being.
And So what we're noticing is this trend where young women have been manipulated into thinking that the most important matter in the world should be what they consider, quote UN quote, healthcare. Whereas young men are seeing past that and going hold on, no, no, no, no, no. Inflation, prices of goods and services border. Therefore, I want to be able to secure a better life. I'm going to vote this way. And the women are being unfortunately pushed in this negative direction, which is is
nothing but self-destructive. There are studies ranging from one in eight women to one in four women have had an abortion. And all of it is is so sad because the effects that it has on someone's brain from a scientific standpoint is nothing but detrimental. And we numb ourselves to this fact through other means, but it doesn't eliminate it. It doesn't fix the problem. All it does is provide a temporary solution and make us feel happy for a moment.
And so we have the largest divide that we've ever had before. And yet I still hold out hope. And I'm optimistic because the guys in my generation are the first ones to make that stand. And they have to continue to dig their heels in and fight back I completely. Agree and and to rebuild as well. I mean, you've talked about this assault on the American worker, and it's not just the American worker, it's the whole Western economic and cultural and sociological system, right?
But just relating to, to, to the business world and the fact that we need to be able to sustain jobs where people can work and take care of their families and to do that on a single income. And, you know, not have these situations where it's, it's basically almost impossible to live. Like what? What are you seeing on the ground in the US at the moment in terms of an economic revival?
Well. I remember I was having a conversation with a friend of mine on Easter and he's, he's an older gentleman and he was going with 70% of Americans own a home. And I said, but what, what percentage of those Americans are below the age of 40, right? You, you can list these quotes, but the fact of the matter is the majority of my generation is renting and that is not
sustainable, right? I can't sit there and pay $3000 a month for the rest of my life to rent a little one or two-bedroom apartment in Florida, for example. And expect to be able to at the same time save up enough money to buy a house. That's just not how it works. And so we live in this world now, unfortunately, where it's essentially called a renter's paradise, right? Where you can go rent all you want, but owning is a completely
different question. And we unfortunately, on one hand we do it to ourselves because we want the nicest car, we want the newest iPhone, we want all these things. And so the prices of things help deplete our bank account. So we don't have as much to buy a house. And at the same time, for example, a college graduate would make 10 thousand $11,000 every single year in 1959. That was the starting salary. If you take into account inflation, that $11,000 in 1959 is worth $120,000 today.
Today the college graduate on average is making 60 to $80,000 a year if they get a if they get a job with their degree, which a lot of companies don't even find half of the degrees worth anything anymore. And so if they pick a useful degree that they go into debt for, they can make maybe half to a little to to 3/4 of what a college graduate in 1959 was making. But that college graduate in 1959 didn't have to buy an iPhone.
The cars were not as expensive, the the clothes weren't as expensive, the food wasn't as expensive. And So what we've seen is this trend of the prices of everything increasing and the money is not keeping up.
We're not, it's not even. And so a lot of guys are looking at that and a lot of people in general, and they're kind of they're, they're very negative about it, which to be fair, it's really easy to do. I myself am negative about it very often in the sense that if we don't do something about it, we're at the tipping point that every great nation has ever had, where after 250 to 300 years, something happens and they never
recover. So if my generation doesn't fix the society that we're currently in, America will also fail. It won't recover. The great experiment will have flopped. Indeed, Yeah, the signs are certainly there. There are people talking about civilizational collapse right now and I and I can certainly understand what they're talking about. Just a couple of things to wrap up. Thanks. Really enjoying the conversation. The the first one is the risk of
sounding a little bit cliche. I would like to get your thoughts on on Andrew Tate, right, because he gets thrown around certainly in this country is this kind of this bogeyman that's used to terrorize people in society in the media constantly reach for him as an example of what masculinity is and how terrifying he is like. But what what's your view on him? Well. Technically they're not wrong, his is just a non godly
masculinity. So if we don't have a moralistic society then they can't say what he's doing is wrong. It's that simple. Doesn't mean that I support it right? Because I have a moral foundation. I have this little cross around my neck that means something. But if people don't have this,
then they can't say anything. And so that's what it boils down to. If there is no moral foundation for society, then you can't say what Andrew Tate does or did was wrong because he was just following his natural masculine instincts, which were to take domination and try to have as many kids with as many women as possible so that his name, his bloodline lives on, right? That is inherently the goal of unchecked, quote UN quote masculinity.
But if we have a moral foundation, we can say that that is inherently wrong because it is the antithesis of what true masculinity should look like. So I can sit here and go, yeah, that is inappropriate. That is not how men should be acting. But to the people that don't have any moral foundation, sorry, it doesn't really matter what you say. You don't have a set standard for anything. Your standard is what your personal belief is, which means as a flawed human being, because
we're all flawed, it's wrong. My standard is something that is greater than me, that's existed for since the dawn of time. My standard is unchanging and immovable. So I can look from my standard and go, that's wrong. You can't look from within yourself and go, that's wrong without any credibility. And so it really is a fun one because Tristan, the younger brother is coming to Christ, coming to Christ, which is really interesting.
Andrew is still Muslim. He does not want to submit to, to a higher authority than himself. So it, it'll be interesting to watch their story develop. I'm, I'm curious to see how everything unfolds with them. As far as I'm aware, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, they've been they've been accused, but there have not been formal charges filed. So it we still live in the world of innocent until proven guilty. So I'm waiting to see the guilty or innocent verdict officially come out.
But as far as I'm aware, they were held up in court for years and there wasn't enough evidence or something like that. And so to that point, what I will say is return to Christ and we have a moral foundation for society and things like this don't happen anymore. Good Also. Now just a quick question then, forgive my ignorance, but what's that flag you got on the wall behind you? Oh, this one. Let me see if I can turn and show it all. So this is the Betsy Ross 13
Colonies original flag. But this is an appeal to heaven. And in fact, you're the first person to ask about it on an interview, which makes me so happy. But an appeal to heaven was a flag flown during the Revolution 1775. It was put on and commissioned to be the flag of, I believe 5 or 6 of the Navy's ships. And essentially the idea behind it was you cannot make an appeal to a man. And so therefore, if you cannot make an appeal to man, you must make an appeal to heaven.
And I, I just love the flag itself. And so I got this custom made by a friend of mine who's a wood woodworker who did a fantastic job. Awesome. OK, very good. So we're right back at the very foundation of the nation. I like that. And it feels like a good place for us to wrap up, actually. So I'm Braden Sorbo. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time, author of Embrace Masculinity, Lifting men up in the world that pushes them down.
I'm assuming this is available now and everywhere and people should go and buy it. Yes, it is up on Amazon, but I would prefer if people want to go to sorbostudios.com which is my website. That is where they can get a signed copy from yours truly and check out all the other great stuff we have, like signing up for our newsletter. Fantastic. I'm sure that people will be flocking over there to sign up and no doubt purchasing the book. So Brandon Sorbo, thanks again.
It's been fantastic speaking to you. I've been Ben Rubin for UK column. Thanks for your time. Thank you.