What Freedom Looks Like

thirty more are wounded. There are still reports coming in. Folks. The reason don't matter, the fucking weapon of choice does, and the easy access to it, and a society that chooses to allow the number one cause of death to not be diseased, to not be poisoned, to not be accident, but instead to be intentional carnage that happens at the

hand of a gun. I don't understand this country. I don't understand people who elect Republican officials into office that remove their flag pin and put on an AR fifteen the way that Republicans in the House of Representatives have done. I don't understand a nation of people that would vote for a man that told families after shooting in Iowa

to quote, get over it. I don't understand a country where elected officials who have the power of the pen to write legislation that would keep Americans safe, that instead use those very same pens to make it easier and easier for people to have guns to carry them wherever they want. There are other countries in the world where after one shooting they change their gun laws, after one act of heinous violence, they change their laws. Why is

America like this? Why is this okay? It is the first day of school for millions of children, and there are some of them that are not coming home, and we have just shrugged our shoulders and said, well, that's the price of freedom. I guess is this free? Is this what freedom looks like? Honestly, I am just I'm outdone. I did a whole video on this that is up

on my YouTube channel. Go to YouTube Google Daniel Moody channel at Daniel Moody Underscore because right when it happened, I needed to post something because I was near tears. I don't have kids, and you shouldn't need to have kids to realize that school should be a place of safety, of innovation, of inspiration, of joy and instead too often in this country they are a fucking crime scene. And

again we're okay with that. We have power come November, friends, We have power, come November to rid ourselves of Donald Trump, to rid ourselves of these Republican representatives, to rid ourselves of their nonsensical, grift driven policies where they care so little about our fucking children out of uter row that instead of putting on a beanie on them in the hospital, they want to check their trigger finger. I am just

fucking sick and outdone. It needs to end. The only time that we have not had a shooting at schools in this country was during COVID, and that's because the kids were home. I don't know how people send their kids to school, I really don't. I know they don't have a choice, but I just can't imagine the fear because one day, that text message and that phone call that too many families have received across this country will

end up on your phone, changing lives forever. Coming up next, friends, my conversation, an important conversation with our friend or in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel on why Generation Z men under the a age of thirty are deciding to vote with Trump, and sadly it's not just young white men. Oh God, more on that conversation is coming up next, folks. As always, you know that when we have the opportunity to speak with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzl,

we are always pleased. Jonathan. Happy September. It is not actually officially the end of summer because the equinox has not happened, which is man, but it is the end of summer for those that teach, for those that are students.

So I will say classes back in session. Because you sent me some reading work ahead of our conversation today, and friends, this article in the New York Times, which you know is my least favorite publication right now, entitled many gen z Men feel left behind, Some see Trump as an answer. Men under thirty are more likely to support Donald Trump than women their age. It's a far

bigger gender gap than in older generations. So, Jonathan, you sent this to me, and I want to get you kick us off in terms of why you feel like this is something that we need to be paying attention to, or why you think that maybe we haven't been paying attention to gen z men.

so there's always kind of a tradeoff. I would say that they're not a ton of sympathy for those arguments, but I do think that there was some really interesting and powerful stuff in this article, in particular because it wasn't like Trump is playing the whole macho testosterone field card and that's what Elon Musk is doing and all

these people, Andrew Tait and all this crazy stuff. But what was interesting in this article is that they were interviewing and there was citing research about men who actually supported reproductive rights and were a fine working for a woman boss. They weren't like out there doing the drum

circle with Trump. But they were also saying that they were feeling ignored and left behind, and that in a way, all the initiatives, all the politics of the Democrats really weren't speaking to them, and there was you know, there was another article I read about how like the Democratic platform had all of the groups who were to be lifted up and white men were not one of the groups and stuff like that. So there's an assumption that

white men are like this toxic, crazy thing. But what I thought was interesting in the article was it was not that it was men who are kind of okay with some gender norms, but also feel like they're worried about the economy. They can't attract a mate because they can't make enough money to support a family, They worry about the fall of traditional gender roles, or things like that. So these are the article was much more about what you might call like centrist gen Z white men, not

extreme white men. And so the question for me always is could the Democrats be doing more to speak to those audiences, because certainly what the article suggested is Trump is the only one who is acknowledging those audiences. And I do worry sometimes that we've fallen into a trap that white men don't need to be acknowledged because they already have all the benefits or things like that. So I think, you know, in a way, it complicates that thinking a little bit if people are willing to go there.

And of course the other part is there are a lot of men like that in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and North Carolina, and so the fact that the Democratic messages not speaking to them beyond just like you know, I saw this with the Affordable Care Act, like, of course our policies are going to help you. Of course, our policy is going to help you. That kind of stuff, but not really acknowledging them is I think the question the article raises.

traditional gender norms are and the role that I am seeing and many are seeing Governor Tim Walls present as a different version of what masculinity can and many are saying should look like. Talk to me about gender roles in modern time what is the role, what is the positioning, what is the reasoning behind gender roles? And is there in the twenty first century, in this time where so

much has shifted. And I disagree to some extent with some in the article saying that you know, things have shifted so quickly, and I'm like, I guess fifty or sixty years as quick. But talk to me about the positioning and the reasoning behind gender roles in the first place.

do not exist in a vacuum. First, of course, there's a lot of false nostalgia about gender and like, oh, it used to be so great in the old days, and now we want to bring that back. But really, if you go back to the old days, there were a lot of problems. So partially there's a lot of nostalgia about the way things used to be. But it does feel like there's a lot of vacillation between liberation

and conservatism, I guess you might say. And so in the sixties and seventies there was Gloria Steinem saying a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. We were going to overthrow the male female role system. And then people got really nervous, saying, gosh, gender rules structure society, it's how I understand the world, it's how

I understand religion. And so then there's a kind of blowback against that to say, you know, there's a return to the head of the household male and stuff like that. But it also responds to events. I mean, think about nine to eleven, for example, people got nervous, and all of a sudden we saw the valorization of the white

male firefighter or policeman or something like that. So there are all these ways in which it's not just a linear, a kind of ascended progress narrative, and I think we're seeing that now too, which is we can be very critical of it if we want but I think that stories like trans women in women's sports or the bathroom thing, which seemed kind of comical if you're like a liberal person in a blue city or something like that, but it does speak to an anxiety that I think people

feel palpably here in a place like Tennessee that the world is changing away from my value system. And so you see a kind of backlash against that, where people say, it's just confusing for me. If we're doing away with these categories, what are you going to replace it with? And that's where I think there's resonance. Not that I agree with it, but there's resonance about critiques of pronouns and bathrooms and things like that. And so it's always

going to be a kind of back and forth. And I think that Trump has put his face on that by picking these picking the He's just very good at like picking those issues and saying, the world's going to spin away from you, and I'm the only guy who can defend it. And I do think the Democrats have had a hard time navigating that, and it's got real consequences.

I mean, if you look at the battleover abortion rights in New York, for example, the language of the abortion bill in New York that talked about pregnant people, not women's right to abortion, is now being used by the right to undermine I mean, the Democrats are really at risk in New York of some real surprises. So there's a kind of back and forth between anxiety and I let.

women have gained over the last several decades. And so now I don't know what box I'm in, And my question is why do we need boxes? Because who do they benefit?

ever lived, except Missouri, where I grew up. And so I think it's about values, like, oh, my values about family or tradition are being threatened, and so that when I say anxiety, that's what I mean. That there's a question of values or being devalued. Now, maybe I think anxiety is the wrong word, but I do think that that kind of concern that my way of life is being threatened leads to either a backlash or it's easily manipulated into a backlash. I think that there's both of

those things. And so if you're going to say there's no categories, I just think it leads to those kind of concerns, like people saying, I.

I can easily dismiss you. But if I'm saying that actually humanity is a much more fluid than that, and I don't want to go off into a philosophical tangent, but if I'm saying that our and our sexual orientation is much more fluid than the rigidity that has been placed on us since the beginning of time, then how do we adapt to what is that actual real science, which is that human beings are actually much more fluid.

Then we've been situated to believe that we are. Women actually have much more power and agency and have just been robbed of that since the beginning of time until they were able to have economic power and able to have a voice with a vote. And so when we look at the structures of how society was built in the boxes that they were built on, it was to

preserve and enhance patriarchy. So when I hear you say, well, if we do away with categories, then all of a sudden, there is this anxiety and I'm just using that term because I don't know what else to call it. There

is this supple anxiety. But then you're saying that we should be talking to the people that are anxious and holding their hand along the way, as opposed to, in my humble opinion, what are the tools and skills that these people need actually to adapt to a different way of thinking and being.

haven't changed. But as we spoke about last week, I do think there are ways to talk about entrepreneurialism, economy, better ment, health, crime, all the things we talked about last week that I do think Democrats can signal in a ways that are better kind of linked to what

you're saying right now, you know, I worry. I mean, we can talk next week about what's happening with the reaper active choice legislation in New York, which I think is a pretty serious issue right now, which is about doing away with categories and the political implications of that.

And I'm not saying we should all become like the man is the head of the household or something like that, but I do think that there have to be ways of saying what you're saying right, which is a rising tide lifts all boats and all those kind of things, Like,

I think there has to be a better way. But I think with the way this plays out, because we're in a zero sum political system, is that these fights come out in very stereotypical, polarizing ways, and they have huge implications and so well, of course, theoretically I totally agree with what you're saying, of course, like that's the basis of a lot of my work about gender and race. But I would just say, because I'm also an ethnographer,

I interview people. I try to understand their point of view, and so I would say that in the interviews that I do, I also think that people's concern is not just I don't want to give up my privilege. It's like, where do I fit into the worldview that you're presenting?

to administration. But if I still have values that are aligned with democracy, that are aligned with equity and justice, right, then you have to understand that my character has not changed. How I perceive and decide to create different policies. That's a tactic in order to move society forward. And so it wasn't of a I haven't changed. I haven't changed

as in like I am a statf. It's that you can rely on my character because my values have not changed, as opposed to the other guy who has no character and has no values, and they change with whoever puts a check in front of his face.

the answer I wish would have been given. But again, also again, we're in a very you know, there's always a push and pull in history, and we're in one of those moments where winning this election has profound consequences, and so you want to be open and strategic. And I think the caveat I just apologize for keep giving caveats is that I mean, I think that the Tim

Walls version of masculinity is speaking to a lot of people. Well, there are a lot of men in Red States who want their partners, spouses, wives to have the right to get an abortion if they have a non viable fetus or something like that. Like, I think that in a way, it's not like these categories are so clear cut. But the danger I think for Democrats is, I mean, I'm seeing this with guns that people think people like Timwolves

represent What did they represent? He certainly doesn't represent the majority of gun owners who are down here, like NRA members who buy the NRA line or something like that. So the issue is it's a you know, a metonym, a piece of a whole. What is the hole that's being represented? Is there a movement toward a new definition of masculinity that he represents, or are we highlighting, as we talked about last week, the converts who are not a valid sample size except for people who are willing

to come over to our side. And so I think, you know, you want to talk to the most numbers of people you can.

That is really the question that I think that we need to be asking, and we need to be asking in a very specific manner other than to your point, where we have these new representations, whether it is Doug Emhoff the second Gentleman, or if it is Tim Walls and the other men that we saw on the stage at the DNC, there is a very different type of man that is inside of the Democratic Party that they're putting forth, but they're not articulating and asserting it in

a way to say men don't have to be one way. And I think that that articulation is something that is missing from the Democrats' agenda. Last word to you before we close for today.

gender norms. I'm seeing this a lot, and so it's tapping This is a question about the election, but it's tapping into something bigger, which is that the world feels like it's spinning away to a lot of people, and what do you fall back on, because even if we go towards the future, there's also a lot of we'll say, anxiety about that, like where do we land if we don't have this thing we've been falling back on and

tradition brings comfort, but change is concerning sometimes. So this is happening out in the world right now.