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The Reckoning Of Woke Culture - Piers Morgan

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Piers Morgan observes a significant cultural shift in America characterized by the rise of what he terms "Bro Archy" and "bro politics," noting that this movement prioritizes efficiency over optics and doing good deeds rather than merely looking good. He contrasts figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, who engages in debate preparation with his team, or Elon Musk launching rockets into space, against a backdrop where actions are taken even if one disagrees with the underlying ideology; what matters is that tangible progress is being made. Morgan highlights how this "bro" culture has resonated deeply with young men across America who have felt lost and struggling to define masculinity in an era driven by social media and virtue signaling. In this current climate, traditional markers of success like winning are often overshadowed by a celebration of losing, while weakness is frequently valorized over strength, leading many disillusioned youth toward influential figures such as RFK Jr., Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, and Vivek Ramaswamy. Morgan acknowledges the historical necessity of movements like #MeToo in correcting historic imbalances regarding male behavior towards women but argues that society swung too far on this pendulum, leaving young men confused about how to behave after being conditioned to feel ashamed of their gender. He points out that while it is easy for some to dictate behavioral norms, others who were previously told they must be a certain way are now facing uncertainty as the pendulum begins to swing back toward balance. This tension is illustrated by recent scandals in the UK involving figures like Greg Wallace, where past "ladish" behavior from decades ago has suddenly become grounds for severe backlash and complaints. Morgan further notes that this cultural shift impacts how people meet; historically, 40% of marriages began with workplace romances facilitated by gender imbalances, but modern restrictions on such interactions have forced reliance on dating apps which are now declining in popularity as they foster flimsier relationships that drop off quickly. The discussion turns to the concept of "cancel culture," which Morgan suggests has effectively been cancelled following a decisive political victory for Donald Trump aided by supporters like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan who reject virtue signaling. He traces the origins of wokeism back to the 1960s as a clarion call against social injustice, but argues that in recent years it was hijacked by what he describes as fascists who demand total conformity regarding values, heroes, books, movies, and jokes. Morgan asserts that enforcing such uniformity destroys integrity, particularly citing issues like supporting trans athletes in women's sports to the point of undermining competitive fairness; when society demands everyone think and act identically under threat of destruction for deviation, he argues this behavior mirrors fascism rather than justice. Morgan concludes by analyzing the recent election as a definitive repudiation of these progressive ideologies, noting that Kamala Harris, despite her attempts to move toward the center during her campaign, was defeated because voters trusted Trump's ability to fix the economy and handle illegal immigration more effectively. He attributes part of this victory to Trump's "swagger" on the world stage and his display of personal courage after being shot, which Morgan describes as a badass statement that resonated with many Americans. The transcript ends with an advertisement for Nomatic travel gear before Morgan reiterates that while the concepts of wokeism and identity politics may be dead in principle, their execution will take time to fully fade away following such a clear electoral signal from the American people.
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there's this uh rise of the Bro Li Archy and bro bro politics at the moment which is fascinating I think it's I think it's really interesting but this prioritization of doing good over looking good of sort of efficiency over Optics and um you know this is one of those examples I think where both have gone aai both the thing that you did and the way that it was done and the way that it was led up to uh but in stock contrast to VI ramaswami doing debate prep with his top off hitting a hitting Four Hands On is court or Elon Musk you know sending Rockets into space sort of a world of people doing things even if you don't agree with the things you can't deny that they're doing stuff and uh yeah I wonder what the medium-term future looks like now for America well I think one of the most important things of the broer gari in terms of its impact is that so many young men gravitated to it because they've been feeling lost you've talked about this a lot I've talked to you about this a lot I've got three sons from 23 to 31 I've seen it firsthand how they've been struggling not just my sons but their their friendship group have been struggling to understand what it means to be a man in this weird age that we're now in social media driven age virtue signaling driven age a a weird time when losing is almost more celebrated than winning where the old alpha male chess beating is now seen as something to be ashamed of um where weakness is almost now seen as a greater characteristic than strength and I have been on this for years thinking this is a ruinous way for society to go and suddenly along in America uh you have this group of very alpha male guys all chess beaters from RFK Jr to Elon to Trump to Viv to Joe Rogan all of them um very strong minded guys to a lesser degree in a different space Andrew Tate and his brother who wield extraordinary influence but I think have a stre of blatant misogyny in Andrew's case which I really don't like but a lot of the reason for his appeal is that lost young men gravitated to to him because he was pounding a drum of take care of yourself be uh be proud of being successful aspire to be better than you currently are Etc and that resonates with people I'd add Jordan Peterson to the I was GNA say even though Jordan's not a massive fan of Andrew uh the message in principle isn't that different no no and the message is be proud to be a man again you've been ashamed of being a man for many years now since the Avalanche of me too of times up which absolutely had a an important role in society in correcting a historic imbalance in the gender no question and historically bad behavior by a lot of men towards women I I absolutely do not denigrate either of those movements but what it did do as I knew it would do the pendulum swung so far the other way that actually it freaked the hell out of young guides and they were suddenly like what am I supposed to be how am I supposed to behave and women listening to this might think well it's easy you know how to behave actually it's not that easyly if you've been conditioned to think that being a man is XY Z and suddenly you're told all those things are things to be ashamed of and now we've had the pendulum swing back a little bit and you're seeing a sort of corrective balance where I think people have begun to work out where the boundaries are where the lines are to a degree I think it's still compx out there um and you're seeing it at the moment with the whole Greg Wallace scandal in the UK and you know for American viewers very simply he's a guy who does a cooking show on TV who's been very Ladish for 20 years or so uh and now that laddishness has come back to be used as a stick to beat him and he said a lot of things which are pretty unpalatable to women who've now ganged up to complain about him um but again that raises that whole area of workplace banter uh workplace relationships right I mean I read uh that until 10 years ago 40% of all marriages began with a workplace romance that stat cannot exist today because how does it start historically it would be a guy in a superior position with a woman in a in a lesser position that's historically because of the gender imbalance in the workplace so how do how do people meet now at work they're not really allowed to so what happens then then you gravitate to dating apps they're all pretty they're going out of fashion too to create a flimsier relationship as well they drop off more quickly yeah and that's you seeing that their popularity is decreasing so I do think well how are people meeting each other actually with difficulty yeah Elon said cancel culture had been cancelled something you'd been Haring on about for a while you think that's true well I like I like the idea of it I certainly think that when you've got a thumping win for a guy like Donald Trump who's been helped over the line by people like Elon like Joe Rogan and others who simply don't to or believe in the concept of cancel culture that's incredibly powerful and I think they send a message to the work world and I always temper this kind of part of a discussion about woke wokeism by saying it when wokeism originally began back in the 60s in America um it came out of Music actually and it was just it was a Clarion call for people to be more more aware of Social and racial Injustice by that criteria alone I'm woke happy be woke it's just the way it's been hijacked in the last 10 years by what I call I call them fascists they hate it because they hate fascists but I say do not understand that when you operate on a principle of cancel culture of virtue signaling of fact avoid about things like supporting trans athletes in women's sport to the point where it just destroys Integrity of women's sport irrevocably when you pound those drums actually you're behaving like a fascist where you want people to think like you to act like you to speak like you to have the same values to have the same principles to have the same Heroes to read the same books to read watch the same movies to laugh at the same jokes and if you deviate we're going to destroy you that's fascism actually and they don't seem to either understand that or they're in denial but this election's a big wakeup call because I think this election was you had kamla Harris Progressive pretty farle Progressive throughout her entire political career desperately trying to move to the center when she became the the nominee but it was all too late because the receipts were there and the receipts were used against her memorably in that transad that the Trump campaign did which they Reon move the needle by up to three points where it simply ended with carela Harris is for they them Donald Trump is for you that was very simple but very effective because actually personal pronouns are and we all kind of know they and now I've noticed on my emails people have stopped using them because they now realize actually it's made them look a little bit ridiculous particularly those who insist on calling themselves they as Joe Rogan said about Sam Smith there's only one of you buddy yeah do you think it's a a repudiation of that obviously you've made you've made the claim that wokeism is dead and identity politics is dead and virtue signaling is dead I think I think the the concepts are dead the the actual execution of a death may take some time but I do think that if it wasn't dead you'd just seen a massive victory for a progressive far-left candidate in carela Harris who pretended she wasn't but actually is to her bootstraps and and she got wiped out and I think that that's an indication of three things one Americans trusted Trump to fix the economy and illegal immigration better than they trusted her to do that uh secondly there's something about him on the world stage the Swagger that Trump brings to the office which annoys a lot of people but he's actually quite effective and I think that that was partly in people's minds particularly when he put his fist up after being shot he showed the world that the potential president of the United States was a badass strong guy and I think that moment we won in the election when we look back in in history to that moment particularly when he then got back on a debate stage the week later a rally stage and did it all over again in front of 20,000 complete strangers I spoke to him that night he rang me cuz he'd seen me talk about it on Fox and I said I got to say whether people love you or hey that is a badass statement of personal courage and he was he was interesting because he he actually said in that call you know I knew if I didn't get back out there now I might never get back out there which I thought was an interesting you don't often hear Trump a little bit of vulnerability a little bit where he kind of knew himself in other news this episode is brought to you by nomatic traveling should be about the journey and not the chaos of packing which is why I 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