Good morning, peepsend. Welcome to wok F Daily with Meet your Girl.
Daniel Moody pre recording on the Road.
I am away traveling for work, making the last push for the end of the year.
And you know, I tell you that.
I have been taking a break from watching cable news, and anytime that I do dip my toe in, I'm like, instantly shut it off.
Instantly shut it off. Folks.
I will tell you, you know, as you were trying to make sense of the senseless, as you were trying to piece together this massive, global, disastrous puzzle, make sure that you are seeking out sources that have a wide aperture, that are bringing in multiple angles and multiple scenes so that you are not being fed one line of bullshit.
And what I find is that I'm having more so now to hop around in order to get real information and not just sanitized bullshit that is meant to make us feel good about our tax dollars going to kill thousands of children, because that's what's happening, and I'm not going to mince words about it. You know, what I continue to say is that violence begets more violence. Right. Violence is not the answer, and yet we have always been fed that war is a necessity, that there is,
you know, some evils are necessary. And I am thinking now in my you know, older years, that that is just a bag of bullshit. That if you were to take money off the table, if you were to take power off the table, if you were to take toxic masculinity off of the table, if you to take ego off of the table, I absolutely believe that we could get to better solutions than carpet bombing. I think that
we could get to better solutions than kidnapping. I think that we could get to better solutions right than trying to defend the indefensible.
And so where we find.
Ourselves right now is in a global conundrum where you know, it's not being covered on the news, but there are massive protests that are taking place all over the globe against the war that is unfolding in Israel and the fact that Netanyaku refuses to even consider a cease fire, and that the comparisons that he uses is like, well, you know, the Americans drop the atomic bomb on Japan right after Pearl Harbor. You know, the Americans right waded into war in Iraq, So like, who are they to tell us?
And I'm like, where the motherfucker's paying the bill?
You know, America's foreign diplomacy has always been do as I say, not as I do. And right now that truth is coming home to roosts and Americans are waking up to the fact that while their schools may not be funded, while community centers may not be funded, hospitals may not be funded. Right that billions and billions of dollars have been going overseas to do things in quote unquote the name of democracy that don't sit well with us.
US.
Let's be real, Americans don't really give a shit about what happens outside of its borders. Ever, we're not really taught to be invested, you know that because like everywhere else in the world learns English on top of two and three other languages, we don't do that. It is not mandated because we have always been at the center
of the global universe, for better or for worse. And I think that what we are seeing as we're watching these new axes form is that America's standing is shaky at best, and that this country is dealing with its own rise in authoritarianism and thinking that the alternative that we have is biden. But as We're watching Biden's side with another authoritarian, We're thinking to ourselves, how that work?
How does that make sense? And so, folks, we are at a critical moment and juncture in this country and globally. And if you are feeling unsteady, if you are feeling uneasy,
know that you are not alone. Know that every single one of us is going through a wave of emotions and feelings every single day, right and you know, and what we need to continue doing is continue being in conversation, continue being in community and not just going dark, going silent, right and deciding that the other is not worth engaging with,
because that is how they win. Coming up next is my pre recorded conversation with our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, getting a sense of how he is doing, what's happening on his college campus, as well as where he sees our future. Right now, folks, you know that whenever I have the opportunity to speak with our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metsel, I am always thrilled.
However our conversations are depressing, they still do provide some guidance and light to at least make us feel like we are not alone in our feelings. Jonathan, I will start off by just asking how you are doing, How are you doing? How are you managing right now?
I mean for everybody, it's been a it's just been a horrible month, honestly. I mean it's just been a horrible month. It's like just the violence on all fronts, violence, so much violence right now, and then it just feels like people are being consciously or unconsciously or or strategically set against each other. So very long held alliances are fracturing right now, and and I think everybody is feeling it, or anybody who's thinking about the world right now is
feeling it. And we're feeling it in the spaces where you know, we don't we were usually feel safe, right So we've had a lot of incidents here on campus at at where I teach, and and it's set people apart and alliances of people who alliances of people who thought they were allies and then it's like, how could you post that on social media or something like that, and so it's just it's a it's it's a moment and the question is like are we ever going to put this back together? And what's happening?
Really?
I mean I think there's just a need for perspective right now in terms of what's what's happening. So I would say, my my, my, my mood. I mean, it's funny, but I actually feel and I don't know if you feel this way. I'm curious, like maybe ten days ago things felt totally out of control, like totally out of control, and now I don't know, I feel like I'm back on regular ground. I don't know. I'll give you an example.
I'm giving the keynote address next week at the DEI Summit in a big DEI summit of college presidents at the end toward the end of next week, and I don't know, I was freaking out because I'm like, oh my god, there's so much racism in the world and anti semitism and are we still allies and blah blah blah. And now I'm like writing my talk and I'm like, fuck, yeah, we're still allies. You know, like let's see where we're at right now. Let's just take a deep breath and
figure out like how to move forward. And so, I don't know, I guess I just feel a little bit more grounded, like it just it doesn't feel like the spinning, crazy ass sensation that it felt like before. I don't know, how do you feel about that?
I will say that I feel very unsteady is the word to say. I feel very unsteady in terms of how this war in Israel is continuing to progress, how violence or threats in this country are escalating. I was, you know, reading about how the FBI and other intelligence agencies say that the continuation of this war is going to escalate threats of terrorism in this country, and you know, I had been feeling like that before, right Like I'd
been feeling like that. As we listen to every single Republican you know, speak and continue to escalate the a violent rhetoric that comes out of their mouths, we seem to be inside of a tinderbox. Though in a way
that even twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, it felt different. And I think that it's because now we're on this global stage and scale where I think, for the first time, for some voters, they feel a real divergence from where this administration is placing itself and where they believe that their empathy and their compassion and where they frankly their tax dollars where they want that to go. Seems to be different, right, and it seems to not just be a couple of people, you know, it seems to be
hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. I'm watching as the president posts on his social media platforms and I go there to see what the comments are saying, and the comments are not good.
You know, the comments are not good. And you know this.
Earlier today as we're taping, there was a Cornell student that was arrested for threats against the Jewish community. We're seeing that all over the place, right, and so I just I feel very unsteady about the direction outside of the geopolitical you know, I can go down a rabbit hole about that, but it's really the emotions that I'm I feel very This country feels very very unsteady right now.
Yeah, I mean it's I mean, there's the thing, right The thing is horrible, and I'm happy to talk about the thing. I mean, the thing is horrible right now. And also, I mean the two complicating parts beyond that, Uh Number one is how do you know what's real right now? I Mean, there's so much manipulated information right now. We did an incredible thing here in Nashville last week. I'm part of this group millions of conversations, and we brought together it's run I'm on the board of it.
It's run by a woman, Samar Ali, who's a Palestinian Christian her you know, from Lebanon, and we brought together a real, a real cross section of people from Nashville, Muslim and Jewish leaders, and we had I thought, I thought, like a really honest and just honestly the best thing that I've been part of right here, right because like you know, like I don't know, I'm Jewish, and I've been I've been, as you know, protesting the NITA Yahoo
government for a year and supported a twoesday solution for a year and all these kind of things, like I don't think I'm I don't think I have some stereotype of people because of their religion. And I certainly think that if we start doing the protocols of the Elders of Zion against all Jews right now, it's also not very helpful. So we had this incredible, incredible conversation here. It was actually in the news. The Tennesseean was there
and it was so positive. And then they started trying to promote it on social media, like, here's a moment where we can actually talk about our anger and our fear and our uncertainty and not break the historic connections we've built here. The mayor was there and I put it up on social media as other people did, and it got I think three retweets on tweeter Twitter three retweets, and nobody could get more than five engageds on it, I mean, like total engagements, even though it was this
like house thing we did. But then if you look at some shit Judith Butler said twenty years ago, it gets nine million hits or some crazy thing about zionis controlling blah blah blah or whatever. So again, I'm not trying to deny the thing itself, but I guess part of the anxiety is also there's just some kind of high level algorithmic disinformation campaign that's also setting us against each other. Right now that I really do feel that.
I mean, you're not feeling it out of nowhere. It's actually true and happening. And we know what Elon Musk has done in terms of all of the departments that were in place to make sure that there was some type of equity that there were some type of guardrails and barriers for hate speech and all of the he
did away with all of those things. So if you're promoting positivity, if you're promoting connection and community, that is not the desired uh algth, that's not the desired content of his new white supremacist platform, reinvented platform, Like, that's not the goal.
It's like this toxic mix of it feels like three things are happening at the same time. One is the guardrails are off on this. Two is that Americans just haven't paid attention to foreign policy ever, I mean ever, right, So all of a sudden it's like, oh wait, there is a world out there, So it's like this engagement with so there's a total kind of lack of knowledge in a certain way for a lot of people. And then all of a sudden, there's this whole new domain.
And it really does feel like the forces that are setting us against each other didn't didn't just happen two weeks ago, Like there's been a It feels like this is kind of pre metad some of this stuff from a disinformation standpoint, I have no evidence for that, just how it feels to me. You know, like I have students quoting from the protocols of the Elders of Zion who like honestly haven't done their homework all semester, and all of a sudden they're reading a text from you
know whatever. I'm like, come on, man, and so and so it's partially that, and then of course it's on top of this horrible thing where there's like death and destruction and things that seem like absolute human catastrophes of you know, state and terrorist sanctioned murder and all these things, and so it's just this toxic mix, and I just I guess I just feel like we're very easily like it's a horrible thing and we're very easily manipulated right
now because we're scared and we're ill informed, and it just feels like all those things are together, and so I don't know, it's just a question of like, how are we going to fix this right now? Of course, there's fixing the actual thing, And I'm not trying to be vague about the thing. I mean, I'm happy to talk about what's happening in the Middle East. Also. I mean, as you know, I've been working in the Middle East for a decade. I have very strong feelings, but it's
also like waking up to all these things. And to be honest, I don't think it's just waking up to US foreign policy. I think personally American Jews have been way too silent about the settler movement and about you know, right wing Israeli government people walking through Islamic holie sites. I think that I think that there's a collapsing of support for Palestinian people and some horrible stuff right now, Like all these things are happening at one time, and
so I don't know. The question is like, how do we how do I mean, maybe we've had our moment of shock. Maybe maybe we've had our moment of shock, and now we're going to step back and figure out a way to reconnect. I mean, that's that's my hope. But I'm just kind of blabbing on right now because.
I don't know.
If I don't think that the moment of shock is done, I don't I think that when you have a country like the United States that has been able to exist fairly much inside of a vacuum, not having to pay attention to or be concerned with any of the happenings outside of our own borders, right, I think that there is a great learning and need to understand what is happening.
I also have been hearing reports, you know, that it's actually the older generations, the boomers, that are more susceptible to believing misinformation than younger millennials gen Z, gen X folks are like, they know what they're you know, they know what they're looking for, and they know where to
source information from. And so I guess one of the places that I am readily concerned, and it is a self centered concern about our own democracy, which is the fact that you know, here we are where this month, a year out from the twenty twenty four presidential election, the most consequential election of our lifetime. It is honestly an election between you know, democracy and authoritarianism. I won't even say good and evil, because I'm not feeling quite
good this moment about this current administration. But what I will say is that when you are witnessing in the comments in social media, in regular one on one conversations with people about their grief and their distrust over what this government is doing. I was watching, you know recently earlier this earlier in the week a committee hearing at the Senate with Secretary of State Blincoln, and it's being interrupted every every every other sentence that he is saying.
There are protests that were breaking out inside of the Senate hearing hearing, and people are pissed, they are angry, they are outraged, and so I worry about the effects of that outrage on an election that is a year away. And sure, we like to say that people don't have long attention spans, because they don't. It's particularly Americans. But I honestly, Jonathan, I feel like this time, this moment
is different. And if this administration does not get a hold of not only their narrative but their actions, then I think that they will erode any support that they have been able to gain. And people and people, what I think is that people will stay home.
I mean, let me ask you this. I mean again, people are pissed. People are pissed for a reason, right, A lot of people on different You know, our foreign policy has been misguided. We haven't done enough to stand up to the Nittanyao government. I've felt that for a very long time. I think we've pursued peace treaties under the Abraham Accords that made agreements with governments and businesses and not with everyday people on the ground. We've too
easily avoided the catastrophe that is happening in Gaza. Like all these things led up to this moment, and and there are really important questions about like how how did Nittanyahu get elected? How did he get so much power? It's not just about Israeli politics, it's also about US politics,
and so all these things are true. And at the same time, I don't know, yep, we've got who's the Grand Inquisitor Tokyomata or whatever from the Spanish Inquisition, Like that guy just became Speaker of the House of Representatives, and it's like it's just kind of passed right through. So who is dividing the opposition? Who benefits from that?
Right?
It just seems to me that all these things are happening in a way that are incredibly convenient if you want to take over the United States ultimately. So I find this a terrifying moment because again, all these things are true. And even though like a lot of this stuff for many people I know, happened yesterday, it's been a slow moving train wreck for a really long time. But right now, who is benefiting from a totally fractured US opposition, you know, the same people who put Trump
in office in the first place. And so it's a scary moment, not just because we're I just it's a terrifying moment because I think we have a very short time to figure out how to come back together on this.
I believe that the pieces were put in play in probably I don't know, the mid twenty the mid two thousands. To divide and conquer, right like that has always been the goal of those that have been in opposition of the United States and so and democracy. And it's working because we have a very malleable right wing, white supremaist political party that is more than happy to throw out democratic norms in order to uphold their power. And that's what that's for me, That's why I feel so unsteady.
Yeah, And in a global context, right if all this leads to Russia having much more influence Yep, and Iran having much more influence the current Iranian government, you know, if Russia takes over Ukraine and Iran has much more influence in the Middle East, that's not a great thing for I'll just say liberal protest movements in the United States right, if we lose democratic footholds for better or worse, and oppressive states that are more aligned with our right
become more globally powerful. It also has implications for the United States, and so how we move right now is really perilous and it's really important. And I'm sorry, I know I'm talking at like fifty thousand feet right now, but I'm just trying to I'm trying to just think strategically about like what you do at a moment like this, and it's not easy.
No, it is not.
And so we will leave it there today, my friend, and pick it up again next week. Always appreciate you, Jonathan, your insight, your analysis, and all we can be sometimes is at fifty thousand feet because that's where we can see clearer than when things are up close. So always appreciate you, my friend. That is it for me today, Dear friends, on wokef as always power to the people and to all the people.
Power, get woke and stay woke as fun