This F@#king Country

The Meaning of Manhood When Everything Seems Broken

• greg • Season 1 • Episode 9

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The temperature is high and the stakes feel brutal. I’m angry, exhausted, and still trying to make sense of a world where a flotilla carrying baby formula can be framed as a threat and where the institutions meant to protect civilians seem built to protect power. That’s the doorway into a raw conversation about Gaza, media control, and the meaning of manhood when courage is scarce and the cost of silence is paid by the vulnerable.

I trace the fear around a humanitarian flotilla and the wider pattern it represents: governments talking about law and order while civilians starve, platforms shaping what we’re allowed to see, and narratives of political violence that many of us no longer trust without evidence. The thread here is credibility—who has it, who spends it, and how ordinary people can still piece together a truthful view when algorithms, ownership, and access all pull toward a safer story. I share where I look for reporting, why platform ownership matters for speech, and how selective outrage numbs a public that needs clarity, not theater.

This also becomes a reckoning with masculinity. I lay out a simple code—protect, don’t exploit; tell the truth; never punch down—and ask why so few men with wealth or reach live by it in public. I call out the performance of “both sides” neutrality, praise the artists and a handful of politicians who refuse it, and talk about raising my sons to carry empathy into a culture that rewards bluster. If strength means anything, it should mean accepting risk to defend people who can’t defend themselves. That’s the spine I want to see, and the one I’m trying to grow.

If you’re tired of feeling helpless but not ready to go numb, press play. Then subscribe, share this episode with someone who still cares about facts and fairness, and tell me: where do you see real courage right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to this fucking country. I'm your host, Greg. Thanks for tuning in. Today I'm just gonna vent about all the crazy ass shit that's been going on. It seems like everything's coming to a boil. There are so many things happening in the country, in the world right now, that are just on the verge of exploding. And it just makes me so fucking angry and depressed and sick all at the same time. I've been struggling for the last couple weeks. I haven't recorded anything just because I've been intaking so much crap and trying to process everything and figure out what effect it's having on me and what effect it's having on this country. All I could say is it's it's very bad. I I don't picture things getting better. I don't see a way out short of some natural disaster, um pandemic or earthquake or something that fucking uh shakes everyone to its core. Uh but as of right now, it seems like the powers that be are all uh very bad people, and nobody seems to have any kind of a backbone or spine or any kind of uh incentive to stand up to the these rich people in power who are just taking advantage of the poor people and uh some countries just murdering them outright. Some people in my life watch mainstream media, and when I have conversations with them, uh they are woefully unaware of some of the things that are going on. I find a lot of my news sources from TikTok, and while I appreciate that, and other news sources like uh Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera news sources and BBC, but I do see a lot of it come through TikTok. And now with the sale of TikTok with an American buyer, all conservative right wing, Trump supporting people, I would imagine TikTok in its current form will disappear and uh I would imagine be abandoned uh by anybody who's got a brain or anybody who uses it for reliable news sources. So here are the things that I just wanted to talk about that I don't know if everybody knows about. There is a flotilla currently on its way to Gaza. I think it's somewhere between 40 and 50 boats that are bringing humanitarian aid for the starving people uh trapped in Gaza. The uh Israeli government has already basically declared that they will capture or murder them. So these boats are full of uh baby formula and things to help people, and the Israeli government has deemed them as they have all the children they've murdered as a Hamas or some terrorist organization. And watching this happen, I'm I'm recording this on uh on Tuesday afternoon, and I imagine by the time I post this they will have been either um taken over or all murdered. And the fact that nobody seems to be doing anything about this is just uh I it's more than I can imagine. I know a couple countries, I think Turkey and Spain have sent warships along, but I don't believe they're gonna go in and engage if they have to with the Israeli army uh or navy. I believe that these people are gonna get murdered and nothing will be done about it. I if you're not aware of that, look them up and follow them because they will be they probably will be all massacred. I I'm learning more about Israel every day. Uh and should I, you know, I I don't know anything about Israel. I I'm a horrible fucking history student. I've never known anything about history, uh about Gaza or Israel and what their conflicts have been with Palestine and I've learned a lot though since then, and I I while I still don't completely understand the conflict because it doesn't seem like something that can't be solved if you take out the psychos out of the situation and just, you know, treat it as a humanitarian thing. But in the meantime, the Israeli government has basically murdered at will thousands and tens of thousands of children uh have had the target practice on them, uh one day shooting them in the head, one day shooting them in the back, wherever. Other ones, they're they're starving to death. They're dirt, basically it seems like their whole plan is to just take over the land, get rid of everybody, and take over the land. And our beautiful country, our beautiful government is going along with it. We're financing uh so much of it. And then I believe Trump uh is gonna have something to do with rebuilding Gaza uh once they've murdered everybody and stolen their land. So I don't know how to deal with that either. It's it's foul, and again, nobody's stepping up. I watched his UN speech, I watched a lot of people walk out when that Netanyahu uh spoke, which I guess is good, but does it matter? This is not making a difference. Nobody seems to want to stand up and and do the right thing. Recently we all experienced Charlie Kirk's uh death, which is just riddled with inconsistencies and lies. I I don't know how the fuck that guy got shot. I I don't like Charlie Kirk. I don't think even remotely what they said happened happened. Uh the same thing with the assassination attempt on Trump. There's not one percent of me that thinks that that was real. I I think they basically murdered an innocent person in the in the stands or two uh to make it look good, but I don't think Trump was shot. I don't there just it there's nothing, nothing about this administration, nothing they do uh seems legitimate. It it's all just a fucking scam to get more power and more money and more wealth and just fuck everybody else in the country along the way. The people in this country, his followers, the people who still support him must be so filled with hate and ignorance and stupidity that they either can't see it or they just choose not to, or or they're they're just as bad as he is. I I honestly think it's the third one. I honestly think that they're just as fucking horrible as he is. And what do you do with that? I'm seeing people protest. Italy, the people of Italy shut down the entire country uh in protest of it, which which is a beautiful thing. And and my God, I wish I had any kind of faith in Americans to do something like that. But I honestly believe that Americans are an entitled, lazy, ignorant. We're just not the best people. There are some of us, I think, who who have huge hearts and have great moral codes and want to do the right thing, but I think we are vastly outnumbered by the ignorant, the people who have been brought up to hate, brought up to believe the worst things about each other when you know it it it's the people in power who are just fucking everything up. And I don't know how to get through to people like that. I don't think it's even possible. The problem with with some of these things is that like I'm learning a lot of this stuff because I am going deep dives, I'm watching videos, I'm I'm doing some research. I know sounds kind of conspiracy-wise, but TikTok is being sold and it's gonna be gone soon. It's gonna be sold to Trump's friends. Uh the guy from Oracle is gonna buy it some of it, and it's gonna be basically taken over by a bunch of rich conservatives. And I'm sure you won't be we won't be watching any more political content or anything against Israel, god forbid. Uh Netanyahu already greenlighted the whole sale. He thinks it's great. Overall, I guess the the humanity of it is sickening. And and if I break it down a little bit more and I try and think about what it means as far as like our manhood. It's hard to define manhood, especially in this in this country, in this time. I was brought up to believe that as a man you take care of the people you love, you take care of your own life, you you're responsible, you live by a moral code, you you don't shit on people, you don't take advantage of people, you don't punch downward people with less than you. You you fight for things that are right. That's the way I was brought up. That's the way I try to bring up my children. And it's just so lacking these days. That that kind of sense of manhood of doing the right thing, of having a backbone, a spine, a moral compass that seems to be lacking on such an enormous level. The men of of this country who should be standing up, who should be doing the right thing, who should be protecting this country, the Constitution, our families, are just failing. I don't even know what to say about the manhood thing anymore. I mean, we have got an entire party. We have two fucking parties in this country. One of them has completely succumbed to get whatever the fuck they want and fought fell in line behind a dictator. No spine. Did they ever have a spine? I don't know. Did they have her have a moral code? I don't know. I have to guess not. But if it's if they did and they just sold it out for power, I I'd have to doubt if it was real. I I just I listened to these people fucking speak on TV, and I I can't stand them just talking. Uh my wife likes to watch that show at Chris Cuomo, who I believe is just a sad fucking excuse for somebody who needs to stay relevant, and started this show now where he tries to get both sides on. And it it's like there's really not two sides. There's the we want to fuck everyone over and take all your shit and we don't care about law. And then there's the people who do. And and to sit there and let the one side just rant and try and rationalize what they're doing and lie, I don't get that. I just I mean, again, there's a guy who I think used to have some kind of semblance of I don't know, courage or or some kind of self-respect. I I can't imagine him having any now. I I look at these podcasters, these fucking billionaires like Rogan, who just none of these fucking people, none of these men take a fucking stand. None of them. They're fucking wealthy as shit. These guys can fucking just say eat rocks and and and fuck off, and I've got my own money, I don't have to fucking go along with the program. And all of these fucking billionaires are going along with it. All these multi, multi-billionaires are going with the program because there's never fucking enough. What is wrong with the men in this country? For a country that's based on cowboys and all this hard ass stuff. We are the biggest group of fucking snowflakes, spineless, gutless, nutless fucking snowflakes. Elon Musk was probably a piece of shit from the time he was born. There's a guy with$450 billion. That man could fucking fix everything, and all he wants is more power. He he just keeps siding with the wrong fucking sides of the government, of history. Every fucking chance he gets, he chooses the right wing fanatical nutjobs. Where did we fail with manhood? I've got two boys, and I struggle every day trying to raise them to be good men. I know I only have so much time left, so much influence, and then they'll be out in the world and they'll they'll make their own choices. And every day, every chance I get, I try and influence them in a way that makes them make good choices, to think about other people, to be compassionate, have empathy, and consider other people's lives and the and the roads they've walked and the lives they've experienced when they when they say things and when they make choices. And I don't think we have men like that in this country anymore. There are a few people out there. I I I've said before, uh, Springsteen's one of those guys who's come out and did not have to, you know. Actually, you know what? I take that back. I think everyone has to. I think we're at a point in history globally, every person's got to take a stand right now. There's no more just sitting on the sidelines. So you got the guys like Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, you know, all those guys on talk shows just fucking with the Trump regime and pointing out all the atrocities that are going on. And God bless them for doing that. And I am so happy that we do have some real fucking men who've got the balls to speak against this administration, because they're few and far between. Because I don't think we have any politicians. I I have yet to hear, you know which politicians I actually have had the balls to fucking say things? The females. I am so impressed with so many of the female uh politicians. They they are probably the very few who've come right out and and cut right to the chase and call things for what they are. And of course, Bernie, because Bernie's Bernie. There are no real men in the Republican Party. Not fucking one. The type of men we have in the Republican Party are the type of man that covers his face, is armed to the teeth, and goes out and kidnaps innocent families. That's the kind of fucking man we have in the Republican Party. These fucking Nazi wannabe goons are getting a chance to cosplay as a cop. But they're not going after real criminals. No, these fucks are brutalizing women and children. They're fucking assholes. They're going out and kidnapping some fucking food vendor off of the street, leaving all his belongings behind. What kind of fucking man is that? And what about the Republican politicians? What about those men? The men who are doing everything they can bending over backward to keep the Epstein files closed and out of the public view. They are doing everything they can to make sure that those poor fucking kids who've been abused and trafficked will see no justice. Everything they can to protect the pedophile. That's the kind of men we have in the Republican Party. They are not men, they are bad fucking people. Do you remember when our young men went off to war to save the world from that fucking dictator in Germany? But now we have these fucking guys, these cowards, these cucks protecting the predators because they are predators. No trace of manhood in any of these filthy pedophile-loving assholes. Not one trace. I, as an American citizen, as a father, as a man, I am sick to my fucking stomach with the lack of manhood, with the lack of integrity, with the lack of moral code of the human beings, of the males in this fucking country. What a bunch of fucking snowflakes. All these fucking podcasters, you know, everyone is just so in the fucking middle. Oh, you know, we didn't vote for this. It's like fuck you. You're not that stupid. None of you fucking guys were that fucking stupid. You just don't fucking care, or you're just fucking nutless. Seriously. I am so sick to my fucking stomach with the men in the United States of America. I expect nothing from humanity. I expect nothing from the men. Maybe something will happen and women can take over and show the fucking men what it's like to have some fucking balls. That's it. I was just sick to my stomach, and I wanted to point out a few things, and I'm hoping hoping whoever listens will watch the live stream of that flow till. I'm hoping the more people who watch, the more people will be outraged when they're all murdered at sea. This is Greg. Thanks for listening.