AI transcript
0:00:06 Now our change honors LM Montgomery along with Anne of Green Gables,
0:00:11 the ambitious and inquisitive orphan every generation has embraced as its own.
0:00:18 These special edition $1 circulation coins celebrate a timeless storyteller and story,
0:00:24 the power of imagination and the place that Montgomery’s PEI holds in our hearts.
0:00:28 Find the LM Montgomery $1 coin today.
0:00:35 The 100% Canadian beef McDonald’s Western barbecue quarter pounder is quite the mouthful,
0:00:39 so who better to sell it in 30 seconds than a 100% Canadian auctioneer?
0:00:45 So mercy, it’s back, 100% Canadian beef topped with delicious smoky barbecue sauce and bacon,
0:00:50 who wants bacon? We got hickory smoked bacon strips, crispy onions, who wants pickles?
0:00:55 Not one down, better than two sizes of processed cheddar cheese served on a toasted sesame seed
0:00:59 bund and did so for a limited time at participating McDonald’s restaurants in western Canada.
0:01:08 I’m Scott Galloway and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Narratives about the attempt on Trump’s life
0:01:14 were shaped as the event was unfolding. Most of them are Mr. X, the real story,
0:01:23 the crisis of young American men. Mr. X as read by George Hahn.
0:01:31 Moments after he was shot by 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks and swarmed by secret service
0:01:39 agents, Donald Trump had the instinct and physical courage to pump his fist for the crowd and shout
0:01:46 fight. That image of him, defiant with blood running down his face, may help him recapture
0:01:54 the White House and mark the year, possibly the decade. Soon after, anyone with an internet
0:01:59 connection rushed to vomit out an explanation of events that rendered their perceived enemies as
0:02:08 un-American, dangerous even. Republican congressman, Mike Collins of Georgia, announced on X, quote,
0:02:16 Joe Biden sent the orders, unquote, equating Biden’s clumsy shooting metaphor, it’s time
0:02:22 to put Trump in a bull’s eye, to instructions to carry out a hit. Elsewhere, conspiracy and
0:02:27 misinformation from the left speculated the shooting had been a false flag staged by the
0:02:33 Trump campaign itself. People on the far right declared that the secret services failure to
0:02:40 prevent the shooting was caused by the DEI assignment of incompetent female agents. Spoiler
0:02:47 alert, more white men protecting white men from other white men isn’t the solution.
0:02:54 There’s also an understandable raft of questions wondering why, if attendees at the rally could
0:03:00 see the shooter on the roof, the secret service did not. Thus far it appears this was a story of
0:03:05 incompetence versus a conspiracy. Regardless of your politics, there are a few people who deserve
0:03:12 to be relieved of their duties more than director Kimberly Cheadle. When President Biden addressed
0:03:18 the nation on Sunday, he highlighted the need to cool down the temperature of American politics.
0:03:25 Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the
0:03:30 reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot
0:03:37 be like this. We cannot condone this. This is a reasonable request and also has zero chance of
0:03:45 happening. All of these narratives are an effort to get you to look away. We knew who the perpetrator
0:03:52 was before knowing who he was. A lonely young man with access to weapons of war trying to recapture
0:04:00 social status with a perceived heroic act of violence. I’ve written and spoken a lot about
0:04:06 the obstacles, financial, educational, social, sexual, spiritual, facing young men today so I
0:04:12 won’t relitigate my case. If you’re interested, you can read more at the links in this post at
0:04:20 profgalloway.com or find my TED Talk on YouTube. The Cliffs Notes. Over the past generation,
0:04:26 there’s been a deliberate transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Among other things,
0:04:33 the result is unaffordable and indefensible costs for education and housing. Things are especially
0:04:41 bad for boys and young men. Algorithmically generated content on social media contributes and
0:04:49 profits from young men’s increasing social isolation, boredom, and ignorance. With the deepest
0:04:55 pocketed firms in history attempting to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life
0:05:01 on a screen, they grow up without acquiring the skills to build social capital or create wealth.
0:05:07 They face an educational system biased against them and enter a workforce where the minimum
0:05:14 wage is below the poverty line. Many boys grow up with nearly no male role models. The results
0:05:20 include loneliness, depression, suicide, and an increased susceptibility to radicalization
0:05:27 and belief in conspiracies. Alienation and disaffection drive depression and violence.
0:05:34 By age 27, high school dropouts are four times more likely to be arrested,
0:05:39 fired by their employer, on government aid, or addicted to drugs than their peers who graduated.
0:05:47 One in seven men reports having no friends, and three of every four deaths of despair in America,
0:05:55 suicides, and drug overdoses, are among men. We’re facing declining household formation,
0:06:01 reduced birth rates, and slowing economic growth just as the baby boomers are entering decades of
0:06:08 non-productive retirement. There is, to put it simply, a cohort of young people in our country
0:06:15 who are denied the same opportunity presented to my generation—the chance to live a meaningful life.
0:06:22 A generation of alienated young men can quickly thrust a nation into darkness.
0:06:28 I spent last week in Germany for the European Championship. In between football matches,
0:06:34 we did bike tours, learning about the history of Deutschland. For most of its centuries-long
0:06:39 history, Germany has been a progressive society, tolerant of diverse religions,
0:06:48 nationalities, and sexual orientations. Central to its 12-year descent into fascist totalitarianism
0:06:52 was the same incendiary that inspired the Russian Revolution,
0:06:58 the Arab Spring, and the fall of the Roman Empire—struggling young men.
0:07:05 The Great Depression left many young men in Germany unemployed and without prospects.
0:07:10 The National Socialist Party capitalized on this desperation by promising jobs,
0:07:16 economic stability, and a return to national greatness. For young men from lower socioeconomic
0:07:23 backgrounds, the Nazis offered unprecedented opportunities for social mobility. By joining
0:07:30 the party or its affiliated organizations, men could gain power, status, and influence that were
0:07:37 otherwise unattainable in the rigid class structure of Weimar Germany. These recruits
0:07:44 made up the two million-strong Hitler youth, and then the Sturmabteilung, or SA, also known as the
0:07:52 Brownshirts. Sometimes it takes just one disaffected young man to change the course of history.
0:08:01 Gavrilo Princip was born on July 25, 1894, in the village of Obliay in Bosnia,
0:08:08 at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the second of nine children in a poor Serb
0:08:18 peasant family. Only three of his siblings survived infancy. Think about that last sentence and the
0:08:24 impact on your perspective had you been raised in an environment where only one-third of your
0:08:31 brothers and sisters survived. Gavrilo moved to Belgrade in 1912, where he joined a Serbian
0:08:37 nationalist organization, the Black Hand, a secret military society known for its use of
0:08:45 terrorism to achieve political aims. Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
0:08:52 his wife set off the chain of events that led to World War I and set the stage for World War II.
0:09:02 He was 19. There have actually been only 231 documented acts of political violence between
0:09:11 2010 and 2020 in the U.S. However, with 40,000-plus gun deaths each year and 10 mass shootings a week,
0:09:17 it’s naive to think large, frequent gatherings such as political rallies won’t eventually be
0:09:23 subjected to random violence. What makes it more likely, the glycerin to the nitro of struggling
0:09:34 young men, is access to weapons of war. The AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle Crooks apparently used
0:09:39 is not a weapon for hunting, target shooting, or self-defense outside of a war zone.
0:09:43 Cue the dull comments from gun violence apologists.
0:09:52 The original AR-15 was designed in the 1950s because U.S. combat soldiers needed an accurate
0:09:59 weapon that fired multiple rounds at the enemy fast. The AR-15’s descendants, once banned by
0:10:05 President Clinton, are now the best-selling guns in America. When Trump was president,
0:10:09 he considered reinstating the ban until the NRA talked him out of it.
0:10:17 We knew who Thomas Crooks was before we ever heard his name. As my pivot podcast partner,
0:10:24 Kara Swisher, put it, he was “that kid.” Somebody none of us had any trouble imagining.
0:10:31 A kid with little social capital or connection to others. We know that kid. Some of us were that kid.
0:10:38 A classmate told The New York Times about Crooks being mocked as a freshman for his
0:10:44 dorky SpongeBob t-shirt and poor hygiene. She said, “Those other kids would always say,
0:10:52 ‘Hey, look at the school shooter over there.'” The coarsening of our discourse, income inequality,
0:10:56 and political polarization are problems that warrant our attention and resources.
0:11:04 But the accelerant poured on almost every serious problem in our society is a generation of young
0:11:12 men who lead increasingly bleak, lonely lives. We don’t have a monopoly on struggling young men,
0:11:18 but we do have a monopoly on struggling young men who have access to weapons of war.
0:11:24 We need more empathy, as well as programs that restore more connection.
0:11:33 Investments in third places. Vocational programs. Expanded freshmen seats at colleges.
0:11:40 Child tax credits. Negative income tax credits. A $25 minimum wage. A culture of mentorship.
0:11:46 More men teaching in primary schools. Age gating of social media. Mandatory national service.
0:11:53 And fiscal tax policies that stop the transfer of opportunity and prosperity from young to old.
0:12:04 Each side wants to blame the other’s rhetoric or find a novel conspiracy. The issue is more boring
0:12:12 and hiding in plain sight. The most dangerous person in the world is a lonely young man,
0:12:19 and we are producing too many of them. Worse, we arm them with weapons that every other developed
0:12:28 are instruments of war. The US is nearly impervious to foreign threats, but it’s waging war on itself.
0:12:37 The frontline of this war is on our own soil, raging and largely ignored. The struggle of young men.
0:12:49 Life is so rich.
0:12:51 (soft music)
0:13:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
0:00:11 the ambitious and inquisitive orphan every generation has embraced as its own.
0:00:18 These special edition $1 circulation coins celebrate a timeless storyteller and story,
0:00:24 the power of imagination and the place that Montgomery’s PEI holds in our hearts.
0:00:28 Find the LM Montgomery $1 coin today.
0:00:35 The 100% Canadian beef McDonald’s Western barbecue quarter pounder is quite the mouthful,
0:00:39 so who better to sell it in 30 seconds than a 100% Canadian auctioneer?
0:00:45 So mercy, it’s back, 100% Canadian beef topped with delicious smoky barbecue sauce and bacon,
0:00:50 who wants bacon? We got hickory smoked bacon strips, crispy onions, who wants pickles?
0:00:55 Not one down, better than two sizes of processed cheddar cheese served on a toasted sesame seed
0:00:59 bund and did so for a limited time at participating McDonald’s restaurants in western Canada.
0:01:08 I’m Scott Galloway and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Narratives about the attempt on Trump’s life
0:01:14 were shaped as the event was unfolding. Most of them are Mr. X, the real story,
0:01:23 the crisis of young American men. Mr. X as read by George Hahn.
0:01:31 Moments after he was shot by 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks and swarmed by secret service
0:01:39 agents, Donald Trump had the instinct and physical courage to pump his fist for the crowd and shout
0:01:46 fight. That image of him, defiant with blood running down his face, may help him recapture
0:01:54 the White House and mark the year, possibly the decade. Soon after, anyone with an internet
0:01:59 connection rushed to vomit out an explanation of events that rendered their perceived enemies as
0:02:08 un-American, dangerous even. Republican congressman, Mike Collins of Georgia, announced on X, quote,
0:02:16 Joe Biden sent the orders, unquote, equating Biden’s clumsy shooting metaphor, it’s time
0:02:22 to put Trump in a bull’s eye, to instructions to carry out a hit. Elsewhere, conspiracy and
0:02:27 misinformation from the left speculated the shooting had been a false flag staged by the
0:02:33 Trump campaign itself. People on the far right declared that the secret services failure to
0:02:40 prevent the shooting was caused by the DEI assignment of incompetent female agents. Spoiler
0:02:47 alert, more white men protecting white men from other white men isn’t the solution.
0:02:54 There’s also an understandable raft of questions wondering why, if attendees at the rally could
0:03:00 see the shooter on the roof, the secret service did not. Thus far it appears this was a story of
0:03:05 incompetence versus a conspiracy. Regardless of your politics, there are a few people who deserve
0:03:12 to be relieved of their duties more than director Kimberly Cheadle. When President Biden addressed
0:03:18 the nation on Sunday, he highlighted the need to cool down the temperature of American politics.
0:03:25 Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the
0:03:30 reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot
0:03:37 be like this. We cannot condone this. This is a reasonable request and also has zero chance of
0:03:45 happening. All of these narratives are an effort to get you to look away. We knew who the perpetrator
0:03:52 was before knowing who he was. A lonely young man with access to weapons of war trying to recapture
0:04:00 social status with a perceived heroic act of violence. I’ve written and spoken a lot about
0:04:06 the obstacles, financial, educational, social, sexual, spiritual, facing young men today so I
0:04:12 won’t relitigate my case. If you’re interested, you can read more at the links in this post at
0:04:20 profgalloway.com or find my TED Talk on YouTube. The Cliffs Notes. Over the past generation,
0:04:26 there’s been a deliberate transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Among other things,
0:04:33 the result is unaffordable and indefensible costs for education and housing. Things are especially
0:04:41 bad for boys and young men. Algorithmically generated content on social media contributes and
0:04:49 profits from young men’s increasing social isolation, boredom, and ignorance. With the deepest
0:04:55 pocketed firms in history attempting to convince them they can have a reasonable facsimile of life
0:05:01 on a screen, they grow up without acquiring the skills to build social capital or create wealth.
0:05:07 They face an educational system biased against them and enter a workforce where the minimum
0:05:14 wage is below the poverty line. Many boys grow up with nearly no male role models. The results
0:05:20 include loneliness, depression, suicide, and an increased susceptibility to radicalization
0:05:27 and belief in conspiracies. Alienation and disaffection drive depression and violence.
0:05:34 By age 27, high school dropouts are four times more likely to be arrested,
0:05:39 fired by their employer, on government aid, or addicted to drugs than their peers who graduated.
0:05:47 One in seven men reports having no friends, and three of every four deaths of despair in America,
0:05:55 suicides, and drug overdoses, are among men. We’re facing declining household formation,
0:06:01 reduced birth rates, and slowing economic growth just as the baby boomers are entering decades of
0:06:08 non-productive retirement. There is, to put it simply, a cohort of young people in our country
0:06:15 who are denied the same opportunity presented to my generation—the chance to live a meaningful life.
0:06:22 A generation of alienated young men can quickly thrust a nation into darkness.
0:06:28 I spent last week in Germany for the European Championship. In between football matches,
0:06:34 we did bike tours, learning about the history of Deutschland. For most of its centuries-long
0:06:39 history, Germany has been a progressive society, tolerant of diverse religions,
0:06:48 nationalities, and sexual orientations. Central to its 12-year descent into fascist totalitarianism
0:06:52 was the same incendiary that inspired the Russian Revolution,
0:06:58 the Arab Spring, and the fall of the Roman Empire—struggling young men.
0:07:05 The Great Depression left many young men in Germany unemployed and without prospects.
0:07:10 The National Socialist Party capitalized on this desperation by promising jobs,
0:07:16 economic stability, and a return to national greatness. For young men from lower socioeconomic
0:07:23 backgrounds, the Nazis offered unprecedented opportunities for social mobility. By joining
0:07:30 the party or its affiliated organizations, men could gain power, status, and influence that were
0:07:37 otherwise unattainable in the rigid class structure of Weimar Germany. These recruits
0:07:44 made up the two million-strong Hitler youth, and then the Sturmabteilung, or SA, also known as the
0:07:52 Brownshirts. Sometimes it takes just one disaffected young man to change the course of history.
0:08:01 Gavrilo Princip was born on July 25, 1894, in the village of Obliay in Bosnia,
0:08:08 at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the second of nine children in a poor Serb
0:08:18 peasant family. Only three of his siblings survived infancy. Think about that last sentence and the
0:08:24 impact on your perspective had you been raised in an environment where only one-third of your
0:08:31 brothers and sisters survived. Gavrilo moved to Belgrade in 1912, where he joined a Serbian
0:08:37 nationalist organization, the Black Hand, a secret military society known for its use of
0:08:45 terrorism to achieve political aims. Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
0:08:52 his wife set off the chain of events that led to World War I and set the stage for World War II.
0:09:02 He was 19. There have actually been only 231 documented acts of political violence between
0:09:11 2010 and 2020 in the U.S. However, with 40,000-plus gun deaths each year and 10 mass shootings a week,
0:09:17 it’s naive to think large, frequent gatherings such as political rallies won’t eventually be
0:09:23 subjected to random violence. What makes it more likely, the glycerin to the nitro of struggling
0:09:34 young men, is access to weapons of war. The AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle Crooks apparently used
0:09:39 is not a weapon for hunting, target shooting, or self-defense outside of a war zone.
0:09:43 Cue the dull comments from gun violence apologists.
0:09:52 The original AR-15 was designed in the 1950s because U.S. combat soldiers needed an accurate
0:09:59 weapon that fired multiple rounds at the enemy fast. The AR-15’s descendants, once banned by
0:10:05 President Clinton, are now the best-selling guns in America. When Trump was president,
0:10:09 he considered reinstating the ban until the NRA talked him out of it.
0:10:17 We knew who Thomas Crooks was before we ever heard his name. As my pivot podcast partner,
0:10:24 Kara Swisher, put it, he was “that kid.” Somebody none of us had any trouble imagining.
0:10:31 A kid with little social capital or connection to others. We know that kid. Some of us were that kid.
0:10:38 A classmate told The New York Times about Crooks being mocked as a freshman for his
0:10:44 dorky SpongeBob t-shirt and poor hygiene. She said, “Those other kids would always say,
0:10:52 ‘Hey, look at the school shooter over there.'” The coarsening of our discourse, income inequality,
0:10:56 and political polarization are problems that warrant our attention and resources.
0:11:04 But the accelerant poured on almost every serious problem in our society is a generation of young
0:11:12 men who lead increasingly bleak, lonely lives. We don’t have a monopoly on struggling young men,
0:11:18 but we do have a monopoly on struggling young men who have access to weapons of war.
0:11:24 We need more empathy, as well as programs that restore more connection.
0:11:33 Investments in third places. Vocational programs. Expanded freshmen seats at colleges.
0:11:40 Child tax credits. Negative income tax credits. A $25 minimum wage. A culture of mentorship.
0:11:46 More men teaching in primary schools. Age gating of social media. Mandatory national service.
0:11:53 And fiscal tax policies that stop the transfer of opportunity and prosperity from young to old.
0:12:04 Each side wants to blame the other’s rhetoric or find a novel conspiracy. The issue is more boring
0:12:12 and hiding in plain sight. The most dangerous person in the world is a lonely young man,
0:12:19 and we are producing too many of them. Worse, we arm them with weapons that every other developed
0:12:28 are instruments of war. The US is nearly impervious to foreign threats, but it’s waging war on itself.
0:12:37 The frontline of this war is on our own soil, raging and largely ignored. The struggle of young men.
0:12:49 Life is so rich.
0:12:51 (soft music)
0:13:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
As read by George Hahn.
Misdirects
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