This F@#king Country
conversations about the United States and the current state of affairs from politics to pop culture to men's issues
This F@#king Country
Humanity's Crossroads
Have we become numb to human suffering? This deeply personal and passionate exploration of our collective humanity confronts the disturbing patterns that have plagued our species throughout history. Starting from a place of humility rather than superiority, we examine how regular people continue to enable global atrocities through indifference and inaction.
The Israel-Gaza conflict serves as a powerful case study in our discussion. Coming from a position of limited prior knowledge about the region, we share the jarring experience of witnessing civilian suffering while observing the callous reactions from politicians and fellow citizens. When confronted with footage of starving children and targeted killings, how can any person with conscience turn away? More troublingly, how can our tax dollars continue funding such violence while our elected officials—both Republicans and Democrats—stand proudly alongside those responsible?
This reflection goes beyond specific conflicts to question fundamental aspects of our humanity. Despite having billionaires approaching trillionaire status and possessing the technological capability to solve world hunger and end needless suffering, we collectively choose not to. We continue electing politicians who serve powerful interests rather than the common good. We rationalize cruelty toward immigrants and "others" while claiming moral superiority. What does this say about us as a species? Can we evolve beyond these destructive patterns, or are we doomed to repeat them endlessly?
Before dismissing these concerns as overly pessimistic, take time to examine the evidence around you. Seek out resources like Lyle Fass's "Why America is Like This" to understand the historical context of our current situation. Consider what small actions you might take to resist complicity in systems of oppression. The path forward requires each of us to confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our society, then choose whether we'll continue enabling suffering or stand for something better.
Welcome back to this fucking country. My name is Greg. I'm your host today. Thank you for joining in.
Speaker 1:So today I am going to continue my exploration of our humanity and before I do that I want to explain that I am not what I would call an exceptional human being. I am not super intelligent. I have not done anything amazing for this world and I just feel like I'm a very average person. I've raised three kids. I now own a few businesses with my wife. We're not by any means super wealthy at all. We are very middle class. So there's really nothing exceptional about me and I want to make that clear because I'm voicing my opinions about humanity in general and I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea that I think I'm better than anybody else or that I've got a grasp on anything. But there are so many fucked up things going on in our world and have for so long, and the older I get, the more open I am, the more receptive I've become to learning about these things, not necessarily because I wanted to, but because they've been thrown in my face. With Donald Trump becoming our president and exposing every weakness and flaw in our government and in our country, it's hard not to notice. I just want to say that first, because I am so sickened by our humanity. We could talk about the small parts, the bits that make up our world and our reality and our government and our politics and our lives and our religions, but what it all boils down to is our humanity toward each other, and that's where we have failed since we appeared on this planet. Whatever you believe, whether you believe it was some creator, if you believe we kind of crawled out of the water and we evolved whatever you believe, the fact is we've shit all over each other since we began. As I get older and I learn more and I just am discovering just the atrocities that we've done to each other and still do. I am struggling to make sense of it all. I have three kids that I just absolutely adore and love and I am so afraid for them and for their future because I don't see anything changing. In fact, I think it's getting worse because we are becoming more educated. The knowledge is out there, we can all see the history, we can all learn what has happened, what's come before us, and we continuously repeat the same horrible behavior toward each other for a very small number of people's personal gain and I don't understand that. I don't understand how the hell people think what they're doing it for. I don't know if they do. I'd like to think that they don't have any idea that they're doing it, because if they are aware of it, then Jesus, that makes them even worse people than I think they already are.
Speaker 1:Part of the reason I'm kind of back into this is that I've been following the whole Israel Gaza conflict and let me say right away, before this conflict, before October 7th, I knew nothing about Israel, really nothing about Gaza. I've known, I think, three or four Jewish people my entire life. I still don't really understand the religion and I don't care, because I don't believe in religion, in any aspect in anybody's religion. So to me it was a moot point. It's like you're Jewish Great. I don't know what that means and I don't care. If you're a good person, I like you. So it was that simple.
Speaker 1:Since this whole conflict has been going on and it's been in the news and it's been all over my feed and TikTok and Instagram, I just keep seeing footage of Gaza being bombed, people being shot, children being starved, and I'm learning something about the conflict. But again, I doubt everything, because I'm not really sure if what I'm hearing is the truth. But you can't, you know, fake what you're seeing. And I'm seeing over and over children starving. I'm seeing reports of children being shot. The doctors are talking about patterns of these children being shot. One day they're all shot in the heart. Next day they're all shot in the heart. Next day they're all shot in the leg. Next time they're shot in the genitals. I mean, people are doing target practice on them and then I'm seeing footage of Israeli people talking about how they don't care about that.
Speaker 1:I don't understand that. I don't believe in any religion, so whatever philosophy I'm assuming that's a religious belief that would lead somebody to be that callous and fucking uncaring and horrific. I don't know, but it is absolutely fucking disgusting. It horrified me to think that this was happening. It made it even worse when I realized that our country has been a part of this from the very beginning. I started to learn how America has this relationship with Israel, how we give them so much money every year and for some reason I think it appears that a lot of our politicians are in bed with the Israeli state. They are getting contributions.
Speaker 1:What really tripped me up is the last time Netanyahu was in Congress. The photo that they took Republicans and Democrats and Congress, the photo that they took Republicans and Democrats all standing side by side with this fucking war criminal who is murdering, fucking innocent people and it blew my mind. It's just another level of depravity that makes me sick. October 7th was fucked up. There is no doubt about that. That was fucked up. That was sick, and the people who did it should definitely pay and you can be as creative as you want for how they should pay but the thousands and thousands and thousands of children who are being starved to death and murdered, there's no justification for that.
Speaker 1:I cannot, I just can't deal with that shit. It is just, it's too much for, I think, a rational person who cares for their fellow human being to deal with. And we are being inundated with this shit. We've got Russia and Ukraine still going on. We've got all this shit happening for the whim of some fucking madmen. Why do we continue to let this shit happen? Every generation, every civilization, this shit continues to happen and our humanity allows it to happen.
Speaker 1:For a while I was thinking that, oh well, you know I've been a Democrat. Well, I should say I've been a liberal my whole life and I always thought my party, my Democratic Party, the liberals, were always kind of doing the right thing Never, never perfect by any means and, sickeningly now, horrible. But at least. I always figured they're at least looking out for the common man. But now I'm realizing that they are not Again. I think there's a couple decent ones, but I think overall I think our system is fucked. I think our politicians are bought and paid for and they don't give a rat's ass about anything but keeping their job and keeping their power, and we continue to vote these people in over and over and over.
Speaker 1:There's an excellent piece that's floating around social media right now I think I saw it on TikTok called why America is Like this, by Lyle Fass. I would recommend everybody seek this out and listen to it. It's long but it's fantastic. It's painfully truthful. I guess I understand sometimes why our current administration doesn't want people to learn about our political past or our history, because there are so many horrific things in our past.
Speaker 1:We can change this. It's up to us, it's our humanity. Do we want to change this? Is it something as a species that is a goal? Do we want to take care of each other. Do we want to eliminate war and starvation, famine? We are capable of fixing all of it.
Speaker 1:We have billionaires who are close to being a trillionaire. With that kind of money, there is almost nothing we cannot fix in this world Absolutely nothing. But do we? No, we don't. In fact, we give those rich people tax breaks so they can get richer. They don't have to pay tax to help fix or change anything or make other people's lives any better. In fact, they are rewarded. They could pay their employees shit money. They will make more and that's okay, and we let that happen. Why? What is wrong with our humanity?
Speaker 1:I don't believe in religion and I don't believe in a soul, but for those that do believe there's a soul, how the fuck can you claim that you have a soul if you can allow this shit, if you can somehow turn a blind eye to all these horrible things and you can't say you don't know about it because it's so easy to learn. It's so easy to look this stuff up. I am seeing stuff on social media day after day, day after day. I'm learning stuff and all you've got to do is choose to learn. You can't just keep turning a blind eye. What does that say about you?
Speaker 1:I've had many conversations with people who do not believe that it's going to be so bad. My wife is one of them. She thinks that, you know, america has been in shittier situations. We've been in horrible, dire situations before and we've survived. As a country, we've we've come out of it and we've grown. And while that's true, what I don't think she's taking into account is that the country and you know, the united states is meaningless. What our constitution, all that stuff is, is a wonderful concept, but it's meaningless because what our country is is it's citizens, it's the people.
Speaker 1:And what are we doing to our people? That's really the only question. What are we doing to our people? Are we taking care of our people? Are we making sure they're fed? No, are we making sure they're safe? No, we're not. We're making things worse Again. We've been through this and we keep repeating it over and over the centuries the millions of people that have suffered the misery, the pain, the death.
Speaker 1:Why, why do we continue to go to war for lunatics? Why do we allow that to happen? We as a people can simply decide not to go, but what is wrong with us as a species that we fall in line and we are willing to murder, starve, destroy our fellow man. We are supposedly a Christian nation, but look at what the hell we're allowing to happen. Our money, our tax dollars are being used to starve thousands of children. Our tax dollars are being used to build prisons, concentration camps, and we are sending American citizens, we are sending people who have fought to get here, legal or not. We are taking them in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, we are grabbing them with no due process and we are shipping them off. Is that who we are? Is that who we are? Is that what we want? If we do, what the fuck is wrong with us as a species?
Speaker 1:We have a long history of murdering our fellow man for personal gain, and today we have Russia attacking Ukraine, murdering people. We have Israel bombing this shit out of and starving the people in Gaza, and I believe we have a president who would very happily do whatever he could in the same vein as that. He's not there yet because he's testing the waters. But I believe this man is soulless. I don't believe he has a personality. I don't believe he's got a vision. I don't believe he's got a philosophy, a belief system. He's got nothing. He is a very shallow. He's the worst of humanity and he's in charge and I believe if his sycophants and all the people he's got with him trying to fuck up this country, allow it to happen, country allow it to happen, and if all of our citizenry turn their head thinking it's not going to be a big deal, we will be the next one murdering our own fucking people or somebody else.
Speaker 1:Now there have been protests, sure. There have been boycotts, sure, but that's not changing anything. They're moving forward with what they want to do. We may or may not have an election in 2026. We don't know. They're doing their very best to make sure we don't. And if we do, it will never be certified. So we don't know if we're going to be able to change anything through the normal system. I don't think so, because they're destroying the system.
Speaker 1:So what do we do as a species, as a human being? What do we do? How far do we allow this shit to go on? I, personally, have lost all my faith in humanity. The more I've learned, the more I've realized for how many centuries we have let this shit go on, how many civilizations have come and gone and have just wreaked havoc on their own people, on other people, just millions of people murdered in so many horrible ways. How do we keep letting this happen? How do we not evolve what is wrong with humanity? Evolve what is wrong with humanity. How do we save ourselves? Because countries will come and go, governments will come and go, but how do we stop the slaughter of innocent people? How do we stop eliminating so many of our fellow human beings? Nobody deserves to be murdered, but yet we let it happen. We rationalize it.
Speaker 1:What's it going to take? I don't expect any kind of an answer from anybody, because I've been bashing my brains and trying to figure this out and I have no answer. But at least I'm trying to figure it out, at least I am watching what I can watch, learning what I can learn. I'm trying to educate myself as to what we've done in the past, what we're doing now. It's all going to lead to the same horrible place If we as a species cannot come together and say that is fucking enough. Religion's not going to save us, government's not going to save us. So what's it going to be? It's going to have to be. Each and every one of us, somehow, is going to have to dig deep and decide that's it. There's no more of this shit. There's no more of this murder, there's no more of this starvation. We can stop it only if we choose to do it. But we've got to do it together. I have no doubt that we're capable of it, and I also have no doubt that we will never do it.
Speaker 1:Sorry for this depressing episode. Some days I just have to vent, otherwise I'll go crazy. I really hope you look up that piece by Lyle Fass online. Why America's Like this? Because I think it's brilliant and I hope you get something out of it. If anybody would like to come out and somehow explain to me that it's not as bad as I think it is, I would love that. Till next time.