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
Raising Children in a Broken Democracy: Two Fathers Speak Out
The political landscape has shifted from theoretical concerns to frightening reality. Two fathers sit down to discuss what many American parents are thinking but few are saying aloud: How do we raise children when democracy itself seems to be crumbling around us?
Greg and his neighbor John, each with three children, engage in a raw, unfiltered conversation about parental fears in a nation sliding toward authoritarianism. They articulate the paralyzing dilemma facing politically-aware parents today – the desire to take meaningful action against democratic backsliding versus the responsibility to maintain stability for their families. "I'm willing to lose it," one father admits about the comfortable life he's built, "but I don't want to make the lives of my children and my wife worse."
The conversation explores how political tensions have affected their children's worldview, revealing that their young adult children have already decided against having their own kids due to the state of the world. This generational response to political uncertainty highlights the long-term psychological impact of our current climate. Meanwhile, the fathers discuss their frustration with ineffective protests, media complicity in normalizing extremism, and the failure of traditional political responses to counter authoritarian tendencies.
Beyond mere venting, this episode captures the genuine anguish of parents watching their children's future possibilities narrow while feeling powerless to stop it. It's a conversation happening in kitchens and living rooms across America as parents ask themselves: What are we willing to risk for democracy? What example should we set for our children? And how do we prepare them for a world we never imagined they would inherit?
Listen in as two concerned fathers speak candidly about the choices facing American parents today. Their conversation may reflect your own unspoken fears – and perhaps offer solidarity in knowing you're not alone in having them.
Welcome to this fucking country. I'm your host, greg, and today I have a friend and neighbor with me, john, who I've known for many years now. We both have children. Actually, we both have three children. We both have done our best to raise them. I think we've both done a pretty damn good job. I think we have great kids, but we both have very serious doubts and fears about raising children in this political environment. So we thought we'd sit down and motherfuck a few things and just get some shit off of our chest. So, john, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:What would you say? Your biggest fear, your biggest concern or however you'd want to phrase it, what's digging at you at night?
Speaker 2:You know, it's not a granular thing. It's this overarching dread I have about where we are as a country and what's in store for us, because we've moved from the idea stage like this could happen or this is likely to happen, or, you know, trump has already shown that he's capable of these things. This is the second go round and all of those things we talked about are coming true. Yeah, he's doing exactly what he said you know, it was a dystopian nightmare we had, you know, eight years or so ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and didn't you doubt it was going to happen? Because I was thinking there's no fucking way.
Speaker 2:It just couldn't right. Right right, there's no freaking way.
Speaker 1:I didn't think there was any fucking way he'd get elected, get elected.
Speaker 2:and then, when he did, I thought, okay, how bad is it going to be? And and now we know right, well, the guard. You know this is a phrase that, uh, you know you'll hear from time to time now, but you know the guardrails are off. You know, during his first administration he did have some people that you know, legacy people that understood government, they understood how departments work, they understand how funding works for programs and they were there to you know, essentially they stuck around to guide him, thinking we know this guy is a lunatic, right, but if I stay here and I help steer some of this, we could potentially get through this in one piece and by and large, we did yeah, more or less.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of like you get rid of anyone with a brain or a moral compass. So yeah, this whole second term reminds me of the John Mulaney skit when he's talking about there's a horse in the hospital, what's a horse going to do? I?
Speaker 2:know it well.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, there's no guardrails now, so there's nobody who knows how to handle the horse, so it's just kicking and fucking shit up.
Speaker 2:And there's nobody there with any experience. So it truly is a horse. It so it truly is a horse. It's an animal. No one knows what the next move is going to be. It's completely arbitrary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but now it's like numerous horses are in the hospital because each one of these idiots like Kennedy is doing his shit. Everyone's like fucking up their own department, like that moron in charge of education.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, and it's uncanny how he really seemed to choose the worst of the worst, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he's really good at that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's amazing. You know he doesn't have like a 50% hit ratio. He basically gutted Fox News.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's, you know, give me all of your, you know, throwaway characters.
Speaker 1:We'll take those.
Speaker 2:Go to wrestling. Anybody in wrestling can help us out with education. Maybe, oh, maybe, oh yeah. The lady that kind of hid molestation charges against wrestlers, let's have her on to lead the Department of Education.
Speaker 1:The best of the best. Who doesn't?
Speaker 2:understand the Department of Education.
Speaker 1:The A1 lady.
Speaker 2:The A1 lady, right yeah, doesn't know what AI is, and granted, you know it's a new technology, yeah, but you know we have a pretty good idea what's going on with that, yeah, the horrifying thing about this what the fuck is the future hold and how is it going to affect our kids?
Speaker 1:because it doesn't seem like the younger generation has any idea how bad it's going to get. You know, I mean it's. I don't think they're like my kids. When I talk to them about it, a couple of them are kind of like on ah, you're overreacting, one's kind of how are your kids dealing with it?
Speaker 2:that's a great and similar. It sounds like we're in a similar landscape here. And one thing I struggle with and you may find yourself doing the same, because I am like fully immersed, as you are, in this whole situation. You know I spend every day consumed with rage.
Speaker 2:There isn't enough medication on this planet to get me to a level where I can interact with other humans in a calm manner without bringing us up. But seriously, I think we're in a similar situation and what I struggle with is I want them to be aware, and they are aware because we consume news together. News is consumed in the household. We are all of a similar mindset, so we raised our children to be empathetic and care for others and care for the future of others. So what I struggle with is okay, they are not struggling day to day, at least as far as I know, with rage or anxiety, things like that.
Speaker 2:Now they're very thankful for that. Is that a blessing? I'm not a religious person, but is that a blessing? Do I let that happen Because it's healthy? I don't want them to be consumed with anxiety and rage because it's it's healthy. I don't want them to be consumed with anxiety and rage because it's it's no way to spend your adult life but then I wonder do they really understand the gravity of what's happening right now?
Speaker 2:it's not. It's no longer something that's happening in the future, right, it's happening right now. Ten years of their life has has been spent under this cloud. More than half of their life has been spent dealing with this lunatic, and it's almost that it's all they know.
Speaker 1:In many ways, but with mainstream media kind of normalizing the whole fucking thing, they're just making it seem sane. So unless you're going down the rabbit hole like we are, you're not actually seeing the sources saying what the fuck is really going on. You know what? I haven't really followed politics up until Trump. Like, for some reason, that motherfucker made me get involved and start learning.
Speaker 1:I started listening to economists. I'm like worried about the future. What's going to happen with the dollar, everything and the kids. Thankfully, I think you're right. I don't think they're filled with rage and they shouldn't be. I think you're right. I don't think they're filled with rage and they shouldn't be, but eventually they're going to have to be because it's their future. But the fact is that, being parents, of course we're more concerned with them. I'm sure we're more worried for them than they are because they're kids. You're invincible when you're young. As long as this generation sees it and kind of understands it, I don't think we need to rage yet because I think that's up to us, because, honestly, it's our generation who's fucking it up and has been.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm a little bit older than you are, so it's really my generation who's really been fucking this. I feel very responsible for at least doing anything I can do, and I am also filled with rage and seriously, I am just really afraid if trump sends the fucking goons to chicago, yes, like you, I think we would probably hit a demonstration or two, and I don't know what happens with that rage if I start watching these fucking goons start attacking people.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, I mean I just don't know how that's going to go down, because it's not an if question, right, it's a when and to what degree, yeah, and, and you know. So that's an excellent sort of segue back into what we're talking about, like with our kids. So this is where I am. We've we've spoken, you know, offline, about this and what we're willing to do in these situations. And this is where I am right now and I'm I'm not happy about it. You know I struggle with this because I know what I'm willing to do, I know what I want to do and what I'm capable of doing.
Speaker 2:What causes me to pause is my beautiful wife and my beautiful three kids. I know they'll be okay Financially. You know we've we're a little bit older. You know we've achieved a certain point in our life where we have a little bit of comfort. Now, thank God Again, I'm not religious. You know we've achieved a certain point in our life where we have a little bit of comfort. Now, thank god again, I'm not religious, you know, strike that from the record. But, um, you know I'm thankful that we're a little bit more comfortable. Yeah, and we have a lot to lose.
Speaker 2:This isn't talk. I'm willing to lose it, but I don't want to make the lives of my children and my wife worse by acting the way I feel we need to act at the moment. Then what the juxtapose that is, if I don't or we don't, they won't really have a life to be as concerned about. And I'm not suggesting, you know they're going to wipe out the city, but the point is is that life will be dramatically different, in a worse way, if we don't do something. So I'm stuck. It's, you know, paralysis by analysis. I don't know what way to turn right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see that and I agree with that completely. I don't want to do something that's going to have a very lasting effect, you know, something that possibly could wind up me being dead. Unless I know the back end, the result is going to be monumental. But the whole thing is like you're in this heightened sense of reality and you're just waiting, like every day, I'm carrying every day and I'm just waiting to see something, and that's no way to live your life. You know what? I'm a very peaceful guy. I'm an artistic person.
Speaker 1:You really are, but I am so not that person right now, I mean, and for a while it's been that way and it's really fucking not fair that this piece of shit is making so many people live this way. I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2:And you're right. I feel like I'm at a heightened sense of awareness and readiness and it's like that impending doom. Again, nothing is happening. Chicago is it? I love chicago. If you don't live in chicago, I know it sounds scary and you go back with your al capone jokes, but the reality is it's a beautiful city and I've lived here my entire life, yeah, and I will never leave by choice. I love it here same here you know.
Speaker 2:But you're right, there are some decisions that have to be made. And I have this, you know, constant sense of needing to be ready for something, and it's terrible waking up that way in the morning. Honestly, you know, having dreams about it at night. What would I do in this situation? And again, you know I'm we're not here to talk big about these situations. We're here to talk about what we know has to be done and what we think should be done and what we hope, hope we'll do in those situations. We hope to make the right choice, but I don't know. Until that situation happens, I don't know how I'll react.
Speaker 1:I know. And the sad thing is that when all this shit started happening, when I started seeing people protest, I was really kind of doubting the whole thing. I was like I don't know if that's going to have any effect. And we had a couple get-t togethers where we were kind of talking to people like what do you think about this? And you and I basically were the only people who said we were willing to kind of do what had to be done. Everyone else was like oh no, I'm not going to do that, I'll call my representative and I'm like okay.
Speaker 2:So we stopped. How has that worked out? Yeah?
Speaker 1:We stopped with those meetings because we realized most people and I think that's true of the entire population You've got a very small percentage of people who are willing to put themselves in the way. If it was just me, I would just fucking move out of this country because, honestly, it's been a great country. I'm not one of those people who fantasizes about what our country's been through and what we've done. So the fact is that if you want to have some asshole run and turn it into some fucking prison, concentration camp, fucking nightmare, I'd rather just move. I'll go somewhere.
Speaker 1:I'll go to Mexico, but I've got three kids.
Speaker 1:Right you know what I mean, and we're stuck here. We have a business, so like what do we do? So that's the problem, I guess, with the kids. We're educating them as best we can, letting them know that there's a serious threat. But you know, how do you teach that to somebody who's so young, so um, unaware, I think, of the realities of life, because until you get to a certain age, you just don't know how fucking disgusting people can be right you know, they don't really have any perspective as to what happened in the past.
Speaker 2:We've been around several decades so we, you know we've seen some good times and some bad times, but we also are getting a glimpse of what is coming down the pike and what they learn in history. Now I know we live in a very sort of progressive metropolis. We're very fortunate that we live in the Chicagoland area, so we are surrounded, by and large, by lots of educated people, progressive people, artistic people, people that care about each other. Artistic people, people that care about each other. Right, but the, you know, the powers that be are already moving to erase some of that history. Yeah, um, our kids may not be aware of what we were aware of growing up. Um, it's being flushed out of textbooks. Yeah, um, it's being, you know, parsed by social media sources that you know. There are two or three folks on this planet that pretty much run the information pipeline.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for as much information as we seek out. Our kids want to be kids, you know. They want to hang out with their friends. They want to go play darts and pool and have a couple of drinks. Yeah, you and I, we sit in front of the computer, we watch the news and we dig down, you know to the dark web and get information from reputable sources. And it's dark, it's just disgusting.
Speaker 1:There's only so much I feel, that I can do, that we can do short of breaking laws and assassinating people. I don't think we're there yet, but I think we're very close Agreed. The problem, though, is that the protests, I think, were a great step, but they're not causing change. It's nice to see, and it's good to see, that other countries are seeing that we don't want this shit, but unfortunately, they're just moving forward with all the same shit that they wanted to do. We're going to have to up this. It's going to take everything. It's going to take the protest, the boycotting, everything, but how do we get the different generations into it?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and you know to your point. Going back to our kids, we could run for office. We've done some things as younger kids, thankfully before iPhones, but we probably aren't in the best position to impact that change. Our kids are, however, of that age. My son has a lot of interest in public policy and a couple of his friends are as well. They are now beginning the talks of running for office.
Speaker 1:You know, starting small, that's awesome, yeah starting.
Speaker 2:You know, in their ward somewhere or you know work for representative um, that works in the community, but they are starting to show signs of wanting to participate, which is a great first step, fantastic, um, right now they need somebody to put the brakes on what's happening now so they do have something to work with in the future, because, if this can, we're six months in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or eight months in, pardon me, yeah, and they're already talking about rigging everything. They're already flat out reaching out to the states going rig the election for me, right, and they're doing it, they're doing it. That's the thing 36, 37 million people who are following behind him, even if he's a pedophile. Well, not even if, because we know he is.
Speaker 2:Almost because of, even if it's proven, they're fine with it.
Speaker 1:So what the fuck do you do with that?
Speaker 2:Right, and you may have seen me. From time to time there are a few people that kind of pop up out of the swamp and try to come at me a little bit on social media and I just thoroughly enjoy it. More than anything in the world, it's better than coffee in the morning. Those people like they have not earned my time, they have not earned my effort anymore. They have proven that they don't care, that they are incapable of learning or they're willfully ignorant, and that's why they no longer get any of my resources to teach them, to tell them something, because they don't care. As you said, information does not matter, facts do not matter. He's a felon. He has 34 felonies.
Speaker 1:You know, even before that when he first ran, when he did the grab him by the pussy.
Speaker 1:It's over right Way back when I was like how do you not know? This man's a piece of shit, right, I never knew how many fucking pieces of shit were in this country and now I do. Yeah, 36 million. Yeah, so I've got, I've got the number. Yeah, so it's great to know. But it's also really fucking soul crushing to realize there's that many people who just have no moral compass, they have no empathy for human beings. It's such an uphill battle. Yeah, I don't know. I I think we are so close to having to do something, luigi style. You know someone's gonna have to do that. Even if it starts, you know the media is not gonna report it, they're gonna hide that shit, exactly.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's been. The media's been complicit, it's been so. I'm so sick and tired and this literally happened two days ago, before the news starts, and I forgot this. May have been um, may have been abc at the time, doesn't really matter, because they all do it, yeah, but the lead to the story was they're going to do a story about the potential guard coming to chicago. Um, to, you know, put troops in the streets with sidearms, and it was framed as Trump's crackdown on crime Right.
Speaker 1:Bullshit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not what that is. Can we please stop playing that game? And it's not even a game to them, I realize as a media company, as a legacy media company. They're under the thumb of the billionaires that own everything.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:But my God, can we please just start calling it what it is to start, so people have some sense? Please just start calling it what it is to start, so people have some sense. And the other comment I wanted to make, just about that point that you brought up, is until about a week or so ago, one of the things I want to talk about was how our local news does not cover any of that. You know what? I don't care about a squirrel that can water ski. I don't care about a hot dog eating contest. I want to know that President Trump took over Times Square with armed troops. Can we please stop the human interest stories and start reporting on what is actually happening, so at least our children have some sense of what's going on?
Speaker 1:I agree. You know what. We're at a point now where you can't do the normal. I can't stand now watching famous public figures not take a stand. Yes, I am so sick and there's so many musicians and artists that I like, but they're just fucking walking the line.
Speaker 1:And I'm like fuck you man Admire Springsteen so much. I did before and now even more so. You know all these people who are just putting it on the line, going no, this is just not fucking right. But the rest of these cowardly motherfuckers. It's like you've got millions and millions of dollars, you have made so much money, but they're like oh no, no, god forbid I, I lose my base.
Speaker 2:It's like fuck you, all right so if you cater to nazis, you're a nazi, yeah right exactly. I don't care how it sounds basic but that's what it applies to. So if you're happy, like I, I'll. You know I restore cars. I buy and sell parts. You know to restore cars. So my policy is I'll take their money, because any money I take from them is less money they have for food. Trump hats yeah but yeah, you know their flags, their bumper stickers, but more importantly, ammo weapons whatever.
Speaker 2:So I'll sell to them, I'll take their money, but I'll never give them a nickel of mine. And if your base is half Trumpers or half MAGA, guess what You're catering to? Millions of neo-Nazis. Essentially is what it boils down to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's sad because I know a lot of people in my circle, which really bothers me. But I know a lot of people in my circle which really bothers me. But I know a lot of people who are not taking a stand. They are of the belief that we've been in shit situations in this country before We've come out. It's fine, it will work itself out, which, yeah, it will eventually work itself out, but it might be 50 years, it might be 100 years, it might be 10. Who the fuck knows?
Speaker 1:But look at all these people who are getting scooped up, all these people who are thrown into concentration camps, people who don't deserve this shit. So you're okay with all this shit happening, just thinking, oh, it'll work out at the end. Doesn't cut it to me and everyone who's just not taking a fucking stand. My wife had given me some shit. She's like but what are you doing? And I'm like I'm, I'm voicing my opinion, you know? I mean sure, I'm not going Luigi on anybody yet, but I'm voicing. You know where I stand. I have gotten rid of any, any fucking human being even remotely. That's follows Trump even remotely.
Speaker 1:If you're even like, oh, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Michael, fuck yourself Right. I'm so torn because I really really want to do something. Having the three children, I really need to protect them and keep things as safe as I can right, you know and I think so many of us are in that situation like you're just fucking torn so you watch this shit.
Speaker 1:It just eats your guts out every day knowing what you really think should be done and being able to do it right and we, in part of you, know us growing up in the times that we did.
Speaker 2:We grew up in a time where our elected officials are there to represent us. We voted for you, so you are going to take care of us. You are going to make sure that our beliefs, you know, the things that we hold dear to us, our freedom, just the comfort and safety of being neighbors. That was their job, and we now know that they've failed to do it for decades.
Speaker 1:Decades yeah.
Speaker 2:The Republicans, on the other hand, have played this long game, and as much as I hate them, they're brilliant, very, very smart, brilliant and they literally laid in the weeds and just started laying the groundwork back in.
Speaker 1:They started with Newt Gingrich, I think, getting the courts, getting the gerrymandering of everything.
Speaker 2:Everything and it was quite brilliant. There's just no way around it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I don't want to say that the fucking morons in Congress are those smart people, the billionaires, the people who had this whole plan, people we don't know about, fucking brilliant.
Speaker 2:That's the decision. It's not decision. Yeah, it's not Congress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just found the fucking monkey that people like to watch in front, so people go look at the monkey and they don't pay attention to what's going on behind. Exactly, you are dead on. They have played this long game for decades.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable how well it's worked out for them. I hate to say it, but the reality is all of their dreams are coming true, don't you think?
Speaker 1:for a moment like who?
Speaker 2:wants this in their life. Truly, who wants this type of government in their life, Republican or Democrat? Who wants fascism? Assholes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's all I can say is yeah, people who are morally bankrupt. So, with saying that of how brilliant the fucking Republicans have been about this, now we've got to look at the fucking useless Democratic Party. Yeah, because I was brought up to be. Yeah, because I was brought up to be democratic as brought up to be liberal, and if you're a liberal, you're a democrat because, republicans generally do not, uh, even consider shit like that.
Speaker 1:Right me now who's not? You know, the smartest man on the planet can look at this stuff. Look at the history of what's been going on for decades, all the shit that they've been doing. You know the Democrats saw that. You know they were aware of the whole thing and they did fucking nothing.
Speaker 2:Well, they wrote strongly worded letters, didn't they? Oh my God, Didn't they come out and wring their hands and gnash their teeth on television for three, four minutes?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I am more disgusted with the Democratic Party because I feel completely betrayed, like the Republicans. You know once I figured out who they were. They're vile, but I'm like okay.
Speaker 2:There they are doing Republican things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but now you've got the Democratic Party being useless and doing similar shit or doing nothing, right?
Speaker 2:Thanks, I appreciate you. You know, on the House floors talking for 24 hours straight, or whatever it is. That's great. You know what all that did was stall. They just waited you out. Let's start doing things that put sand in the freaking gears you know, let's start jamming these things up.
Speaker 2:There have to be ways to do it, because clearly they don't care about the courts, they don't care about court rulings, they don't follow up on, you know, court orders. So all right, now we know what we're up against and it's clear, because now they're just saying that you know the quiet part out loud. You know trump, I think over the past three days he has literally said well, people want me to be a dictator, people want a dictator okay, so like the gloves are off.
Speaker 2:We're not fooling anyone anymore. Start jamming shit in the gears and stopping this any way you can stop worrying about. Is this right? Is this legal?
Speaker 1:start making things happen I don't know if they're even worried about it being legal. Honestly, that's been their excuse. But I don't know if they give a shit because you've got like bernie. I love fucking bernie the guy has been like steady his entire fucking career. You can go back to the time he was a fetus and he was saying the same shit, you know so so people like that are so few and far between though, you know.
Speaker 1:But you're right, you have to fuck shit up, but nobody is doing it. Nope, and you know. Again, I hate to bring up the israel thing again, but I had no idea the influence that israel had over our government when I started hearing about the apac and that shit. And then when Netanyahu came and I'm looking at that photo of Democrats and Republicans with that fucking guy, I'm like holy shit. So that says everything. It says well, there you go. There's no fucking moral compass, even though they claim one.
Speaker 2:Right Claim this moral high ground and the reality is in a different way. They're just as destitute morally. It's In a different way. They're just as destitute, you know, morally, and it's just crushing.
Speaker 1:Is it the power thing you think? Is it the you know? Power corrupts and ultimate power corrupts ultimately. Is it that or is it just? Are we just flawed as a species, like I keep quoting Bill Hicks saying we're a virus with shoes. Because the older I get, the more I am so fucking sure of that and I don't think we fucking deserve this planet. I really don't again, if I had, if I did not have children, I'd be like fuck off.
Speaker 2:You know just everyone, fuck off absolutely you know, and to your point you know. So you know musk is spending, you know, billions and billions and billions, you know, to send probes to mars or whatever he's doing. You know, if he wants to send a freaking school bus there, I don't give a shit. The reality is the amount of money like a Bezos or a Musk has they had an opportunity? We're talking in what? The tens of billions? Now 450 billion. I don't even know what the net worth is now.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, supposedly he's going to be a trillionaire in a couple years. I've read this is going to be a trillionaire in a couple years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've read this one the first trillionaire yeah, you could be heroic in an exponential magnitude by solving some world problems with the money you have. Absolutely, you can be remembered as one of the most influential human beings in the history of mankind and instead you're going to threaten to release the Epstein list, but you don't. You're going to blow up I don know where is he six, seven rockets have you know, blown up in midair or on on the launching pad. You know so it's a giant. You know dick, measuring contest in space to your point. It has to be power. I don't see any other common thread. You know, it's not fear. They've. They've achieved that station in. Now they have the ability to act.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're right, I think Musk with his money he could. I'm sure he could actually end world hunger.
Speaker 1:He can feed everybody on this planet Right Easily, several times over. You know, if he put any of that money into cancer research or anything, yeah, the good he could do. But he's talking about going to fucking. He's like a fucking six-year-old he is, he is, it's just. I did a couple podcasts before where I just talked about humanity, Because if you take the politics out of it, if you take all the bullshit and you just boil it down to our human nature because that's why we're here is there are not enough people on this fucking planet who have empathy and who care enough to fight for.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I shouldn't say there aren't enough people, but there's too many assholes, damaged, fucking human beings. Damaged who are just fine with letting people get murdered, disappeared. They take delight in other people's suffering. Yeah, they really do, and that's a serious mental malfunction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, I grew up on the south side of Chicago, in Market Park, and they used to have the Nazi marches when I was a young kid, jesus Christ, and I remember going and watching them and I remember I took some photos when I was there and I took some photos of groups of these kids and man, you just see that fucking anger in their hate, that hatred in their eyes and just yelling and screaming the worst fucking shit. And I should have known it then. I should have known.
Speaker 1:This is what fucking humanity is, and it's just so fucking dumb because you have to teach somebody that kind of stupid racism, knowing this whole thing, and now they want to fucking disappear all the horrible things we've done to the black people in this country, like, oh no, we can't teach people that. That's horrible. It's failing on so many levels. It's sad because I try and think of good, positive ways to fight this and I always come down and back to luigi yeah I.
Speaker 1:I don't see any other answer unless a bunch of us are ready to do that we are absolutely on the same frequency and you know, there's this caveat.
Speaker 2:We just have to say it out loud. Like we are not, you know, advocating that we all need to start going out and assassinating everybody. That's not what we're suggesting.
Speaker 1:We're hypothetically talking about a solution. Exactly Hypothetically, absolutely.
Speaker 2:But we have reached a degree where talking seems to be out of the question. Yeah, I've thought this through a little bit. Just, I've put myself in those shoes, because if I'm going to think the good thoughts, I'm going to think the bad thoughts too. I want to understand what my options are, and you know what I do. I think about, like the people, like John Lewis, that die before they're done with their work. Yeah, and then I think about this oily orange shit stain that's going to live to be like 107. Probably so.
Speaker 2:The level of unfairness is something we need to move on, because it's just unfair. That's just how the world works and it sucks, yes, but I started thinking about that. What if there was? If the right has their militia, what if the left had their militia? And what if they did start taking things into their own hands and making some judgments on their own and maybe eliminating some of these problems? You know what I keep coming back to, because we're empathetic people, but then that's just going to incite the other side and they're going to start killing more good people, right? So it's this death spiral that you can't get out of, right, you know like? So it's this death spiral that you can't get out of. So, although it would be satisfying and it is so, so righteous it would hurt more the people we love than we're willing to lose right, and it's just a no-win situation yeah, best case scenario boycott.
Speaker 1:Because if there's one thing this fucking country runs on, it is fucking money. Man, they don't give a shit about people or anything, but they give a shit about people or anything, but they give a shit about their money. So if you could take these fucking billionaires out, if you can get people to say fuck it, we're just going to boycott Amazon. We're going to boycott all this shit, right, fucking Tesla, the whole thing. We're going to fucking crash it down to the fucking ground. That's the only possible choice I see us having without violence. But I don't think we can get enough people in this fucking country to turn off their idiot tube and stop looking at their phones and fucking make a decision and say you know what? Because here's the thing. Eventually we're all going to lose out financially in every way.
Speaker 1:So if we could just say you know what let's take a month, let's get hit hard now and let's let them know that say you know what let's take a month, let's get hit hard now and let's let them know that you know what. We can keep fucking doing this right. I don't know what their end game is, because they're they're getting rid of all these immigrants who are doing so much of the work right, so for them yeah, the economy is gonna tank right.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just a matter of when. So I don't understand their philosophy of this whole thing. Unless they're going to do like a Gaza thing, they're just going to start going in and stealing land and stealing everything else, killing people off or putting them in prisons and then just taking everything. I could definitely see, because I mean, I think that's what Netanyahu is doing is feeling it out right to see. Well, if the world goes along with this, who's the next country exactly?
Speaker 2:the problem with that that, I see, is and we realize that you, we're just, you know these are hypothetical, but so then, who does that work for them? So, all right, they want to take over California and you want to build, you want to turn it into like the entire California coast, into six beach houses for the six wealthiest people on earth. Who's going to build that for you?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Who's going to demo for you? Yeah, who's going to pour the concrete? Who's going to demo for you? Who's going to pour the concrete? Who's going to put the rebar in? They're getting rid of the people that work the hardest to make you the most money and on top of it, they're paying in billions in Social Security and they can't recover that. So they're essentially making our Social Security system solvent by just the opportunity to live here and work hard and raise a family, and we are so willing to put a bag over their head and throw them in the back of a van and dump them and put them on a plane to uganda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are a virus with shoes. Good god, yeah. So we. We keep coming back to this horrible fucking spot of despair and then I keep keep thinking how is this? I know how it's hitting us. How is it hitting our kids? Like what impact is it having on them? And like what they want for their future? Have your kids shared anything with you about what they're thinking about now that things seem to be a shit show?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Yes, as a matter of fact, it has come up and it does come up, unfortunately, and I'm gutted to know this, but none of my children want to have children, and it is because of the world they live in right now.
Speaker 1:Wow, they've actually came out and said why would you do that kind of thing?
Speaker 2:All three have basically. Well, they've said it for sure and they've basically implied that you'd have to be crazy to want to raise children in this environment.
Speaker 1:There's something about the Gen Z. I think they're Gen Z's, right, I believe so. Yeah, there's something about this generation that I really admire. It seems that they really have identified the bullshit that goes on in this country and all of our institutions, and they're pushing back. This is messed up. I know dating's fucked up All the norms that we kind of accepted and went with. They're kind of pushing back on, which I think is fantastic.
Speaker 2:Agreed yeah.
Speaker 1:But I just feel bad for them because there's so many wonderful things falling in love and dating and things that I think they're gonna miss out on because they're just. They're just. I mean again, what kind of fucking role models, what kind of examples have we made for them? I mean, as parents, I think we've done good, but overall, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very bleak outlook right now. Yeah, um, and we're speaking on a day where more school children were shot oh fuck. It was either in church or during a prayer session in school. Yeah, you know, thoughts and prayers don't work.
Speaker 1:Oh, fuck that.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't work, and they see that. You know you don't want to shield them from it. You don't want them to be filled with anxiety and despair, but you also can't shield them from it, because this is the world that they live in.
Speaker 2:Yeah they live in, yeah, and they can take action if they're aware of what's going wrong. So in that regard, I think we'll be okay to some degree. But I'll backtrack and say, you know, going back to like the population thing, we didn't really touch on it specifically, but so this population situation is a real deal and republicans have like a repopulation program. Yeah, oh, for sure it's, that's a real thing. A lot of white people, a lot of white repopulation program yeah oh, for sure it's. That's a real thing.
Speaker 1:A lot of white people a lot of white people in that program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep yeah, and the problem is with um, and I'm just going to say it. I know this sounds, uh, perhaps elitist, but the people that are considering not having children because of how terrible things are, yeah, those are the people that need to have the most children.
Speaker 1:just Just like idiocracy? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:You know we need good people to have more good people. But we're being outnumbered because those good people are too smart and are too empathetic to realize that if I bring more children into this world, look how bad it is now. Imagine it in three years, right? You know I have kids in their 20s. I've had children. You know I have kids in their 20s. They're, you know, I've had children, you know, in in that time span.
Speaker 2:So they're at that age where that is a decision they'll have to make yeah and if they're deciding not to, we're going to be in a lot of trouble if good people don't continue to have good people yeah, I agree, I think we're already.
Speaker 1:I think, honestly, we're already there. I think that's been going on for decades. You know, the smarter people are kind of looking at the world and going, no, fuck this Right. And yet the other, fucking the dumb sons of bitches, are just pumping them out.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, we're fucked and we're probably on the other end of that scale. You know you and I both have three, yeah, which you know a lot of. You know families and friends. We know I have one, two that's true. Yeah, you know two kids at the most, you know, they're hoping for a boy and a girl. You know, yeah, when I was a kid, they had nine, seven families, huge families I'm the oldest of five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here well, I'm in mid of five, but yeah, but yeah, no. Now one, two they're. They want more kids and they're doing everything they fucking can to guarantee that no one's going to want to have kids, exactly Right.
Speaker 1:Everything is just. It just seems so fucking insane. There's got to be a plan. I'm sure there's a plan in sight and I'm really afraid it's like the Gaza plan. I really think they just want to kill off whoever doesn't agree and take all the shit. I don't know what the fuck they'll do with it, but you know what? I don't think they care. I think they know that they'll be dead before I mean, anything really matters right so do they just want their spawn like ruling, this fucking wasteland?
Speaker 1:is that what they're? I don't, I don't know. That's worth wondering about.
Speaker 2:But the reality is, when you have so much right like when is enough enough? Oh, it's not. That's the point. You know it's not. And and honestly I don't think Trump gives a rat's ass whether or not half of his kids die in a boating accident.
Speaker 1:He just doesn't want his daughter to die.
Speaker 2:He'll bury them on other golf courses because it basically makes them tax exempt. That's why Ivana's buried in a golf course, I'm sure he'll let the boys go.
Speaker 1:I don't think he wants his daughter, because I think he's still hoping to date her, maybe a little. Yeah, sick fucking piece of shit. Yep yeah, that's fucking horrifying to think that the kids are already at that. You know they're young adults to be thinking like I don't want to have kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no thanks.
Speaker 1:I mean what that does to your psyche, to actually get to that point, to actually say that.
Speaker 2:Right, so it's. I think we can change it and it will change. You know they're young, they make impulsive decisions, right, so it's. I think we can change it and it will change. You know they are, they, they're young, they make impulsive decisions, right, I think right, I think we can change that, but we need help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, john, we're going to have to. We're going to run for office. And you know it's funny because years ago, the first time Trump ran, I thought, well, any fucking monkey asshole can fucking run for office. Now, because I've just seen this piece of shit do it right and and he's just the worst fucking thing. So any idiot like I'm again, I'm not the smartest man in the world, but I I could run for office. There's no doubt anymore. You don't have to be like I used to think that politicians were smart people they're supposed to be better than us, right?
Speaker 2:yeah?
Speaker 1:but no, and again in in my own party, the democratic Democratic Party, I'm like fuck most of these guys. I think there's about 1% of them that I really like, and the rest of them go fuck off too Right, and that's a problem, though. So when we do have an election, who the fuck do you vote for? You don't believe in any of these assholes.
Speaker 2:We're still voting for the least dangerous. That's terrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and any time somebody interesting comes in, the Democratic Party is kicking them to the curb. They're like oh no, no, you can't be free think and you've got to follow our fucking platform of stupidity.
Speaker 2:I hope that we can talk again, greg, because I have a whole litany of people that the Democratic Party is pushing out or not recognizing that are valuable, creative, energetic leaders of the next generation. And the Dems are saying nah, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's not how we do things, that's exactly what we need right now. Yeah, we need somebody. Young Hogg, david Hogg, yeah, yeah, I love that kid Same.
Speaker 2:And the party just pushed him out. It was a procedural problem with the vote.
Speaker 1:I mean, the Democrat Party is just a party of stupid cunts.
Speaker 2:I mean a.
Speaker 1:Democrat, but he's just a party of stupid cunts. I mean, there's 1%, I think, jasmine Crockett again. Every time that woman opens her mouth. I love her so much more.
Speaker 2:Yep, I love Shapiro. You know who doesn't love Newsom right now. He's a god walking among men and, more importantly, his creative and marketing staff and social media staff. That's his dirty work.
Speaker 1:I really hope it's pissing trump off I really hope he's throwing ketchup at the wall, dreaming that you know he sees one of these fucking posts and just has a grabber, please you know face down in a bucket of chicken. It's like you know what's funny. All those, all the posts I see on social media where all they'd say is the day I hear, the day it happens, I'll be partying in the street. You know exactly what everyone's talking about, oh, about.
Speaker 2:You don't even have to say his name.
Speaker 1:How bad of a fucking piece of shit do you have to be that just across the world?
Speaker 2:that's all you've got to say. It's going to be a celebration, it's going to be a party.
Speaker 1:We just need to get there.
Speaker 2:We need to wait them out, we need to get there, wait them out is the wrong policy. We need to force things. We need to do something.
Speaker 1:But that'll be a conversation for another day. I hope so. All right, well, john, thanks. I think we're going to end it here, because we could probably have gone into every one of these things another hour, so we will pick and choose for our next conversation. Thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2:Oh, thanks for having me. It was great to be here.
Speaker 1:And we'll talk again.
Speaker 2:Sounds great All right Bye everybody.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening.