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The Relentless Epidemic Devouring Manhood In America | Tom Bilyeu Clip

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The podcast addresses a stark decline in sexual activity among young men, citing viral statistics from 2018 and subsequent data indicating that virginity rates for males under thirty have worsened significantly since the onset of COVID-19. The speaker attributes this trend to a confluence of factors including social media dynamics on dating apps, which facilitate hypergamy where a small number of men monopolize access to women while others face rejection due to fear of being "meat-fished." Compounding this issue are digital distractions like pornography and video games that numb male desire. The discussion highlights the profound emotional disconnect in modern relationships, noting that many young men have become desensitized or gullible enough to accept superficial connections with AI chatbots as substitutes for genuine intimacy, a phenomenon exacerbated by dating app culture where women tolerate multiple partners while other men struggle to find stability. The conversation shifts to the societal impact of this crisis, touching on demographic concerns such as falling birth rates and the rise of alternative male role models like Andrew Tate. The speaker argues that figures like Tate are symptoms rather than causes; they emerge because disenfranchised young men feel demoralized by a lack of recognition for their masculinity and social mobility. In contrast to these radical voices, there is an absence of positive masculine figures currently championed by the culture at large, with Jordan Peterson briefly filling this void before facing backlash. The dialogue suggests that while some on the right look up to traditionalists like Joe Rogan or Peterson, the left largely rejects masculinity entirely, leaving a vacuum where young men seek validation through extreme ideologies rather than constructive self-improvement. A central theme is the speaker's philosophical view of sex as an act of profound generosity and vulnerability from women, which serves as a mechanism for natural selection to encourage men to become better versions of themselves. He posits that historically, women acted as gatekeepers who pushed men to achieve stability, get jobs, and develop skills in order to earn respect and intimacy. However, the modern pathologizing of male desire has broken this dynamic; when society labels traditional male pursuit of sex as "disgusting," it removes the incentive for young men to strive for self-improvement. Instead of being driven by a partner who pushes them toward excellence, many men now rely on solitary outlets like OnlyFans or masturbation, which offer no pathway to elevating their character or building a shared future with another person. The speaker emphasizes that sex is not merely physical but a unique form of connection where feeling loved and worthy are inextricably linked for men. He recounts his own childhood excitement about the prospect of having sex as comparable to becoming wealthy, viewing it as a goal that propelled him forward toward worthiness. This perspective contrasts sharply with current cultural attitudes, such as mocking women's bodies or treating relationships like business transactions where one party extracts value from another. The transcript concludes by asserting that for men and women to function healthily within the evolutionary framework intended by nature, there must be a return to a dynamic where responsibility is shared but distinct: men bear full personal responsibility for their lives while women help shape them into better individuals through genuine connection rather than antagonism or detachment.
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young men are not getting laid and we saw the viral, you know, 2018 stat of like it jumped up and we just didn't have any stats past COVID and we're like, do you think it got better in COVID or worse during COVID? And we finally we finally got the stats, so >> right? >> It's way worse. No way that that got better. So, this is the update. >> Look at that. >> So, young male virginity rates. Share of young men under the age of 30 report zero female sex partners since they turned 18. >> I mean, that is like proper exponential growth. >> The housing market crashed and then it got real bad since then. That was it. That was it. >> Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to figure out like do you feel like you have a thesis on that point and like what the hell happened? >> 100%. This is very simple. It's a confluence of events. Getting mocked is huge. Being afraid of getting meat toed is huge. Effect of we'll call it social media, but dating apps, social media, all of that where hypergamy kicks in. Right now, we are in a period where women tolerate a guy who's sleeping with multiple women. And so, now a small number of guys, thanks to the dating apps and thanks to shifting culture, are able to monopolize a huge amount of uh sexual access to females. And then men have numbing things as well. So, they've got pornography and they've got video games. And so, they've got things that like >> the new graph update. >> She be saying all of the things. >> launched in 2016. >> that one is still such a trip to me. You can get your porn for free. >> But again, I mean, you understand though why OnlyFans is so big. >> you what it is, but to your point, because I'm fed like a steady diet of deep emotional connection, intimate conversations, like really and I mean, look, the one gift I wish I could give people is to share a life with somebody who really puts you first. Woo. It there's just nothing better. From my perspective, because I have that, it just seems so wild. It's the one thing that I never And I try to put myself back in the days before I unlocked the key to being good with women and my sexual market value. I want to be always very clear about that. Running it like a business would just be so apparent to me. And in fact, I've never been bamboozled by strip clubs. So, I would not have been bamboozled by this. I know that the women are on the clock. I know that their job is to extract as much money from me as they can. And so, I am so aware of the game that's being played that it would stop me from ever being like, "Oh, this is a cool relationship." >> you feel like guys nowadays have just become more gullible, or the hole has been so deep >> that the hole is so deep that they're okay with it. >> Yeah. >> That just like a video game can be a proxy enough to something that you're like, "Oh, this is dope." I mean, even talking to an AI actually made me feel like I have a writing partner. I can't believe this trick works on me. So, it's really possible that they've just gotten so slick at the communication that you really you're like, "This isn't quite real, but I feel the thing I want to feel." The one that freaks me out more than anything is it really does feel like We saw that uh DSA, Democratic Socialists of America, where they were talking about uh the only difference between prostitution and marriage is the price and the length of the contract. And so, I'm like, if I'm walking up to somebody If If I'm walking up to somebody who might hold that belief, I'm like, and might film me and be like, "Yo, this guy's a creep." Like, when you think about like Aziz Ansari and like what he went through for just being awkward, it's like, "Yo, that is so crazy." So, I get why people would back off. >> I know people have talked about overpopulation, but now it's all about, you know, we're losing the amount of kids, replacement level. But, I'm seeing so much sentiment of like, "Who cares? This is good. Like, great." >> Like, they're they don't miss it. >> Yeah. They're like, "This is amazing. Like, this this is great for our our issues. This is less issues. >> Okay, so I I will give the pitch that people always give me about having kids. Because you haven't done it, you don't know what you're missing. That is true about having children. I am well aware of that. And so I constantly think about, okay, what's the thing that I'm doing that becomes the trade-off that's going to make that worth it. So first of all, Lisa and I tried to We had a guest on the show that we've gotten to know quite well. Their kids were in town. We're like, "Oh my god, bring them over to the house. Like let them swim." Lisa put out art supplies cuz one of them likes to draw. One of them happened to be like super into anime and manga. So I'm like showing them all the collection. And so you get enough of that energy. My sister has Her best friend has kids and so we'll game with them. And so I try to have interactions with kids in my life. We have these neighborhood kids that play in our bushes. They've never once uh talked to us or anything. But Lisa and I are like, "If that is the small contribution that we can make to kids having a good childhood is to let them trample our bushes, like not a problem. Like we want to see people having fun." So we try to at least get like those little bits. So when it comes to relationships, the thing that I would say for people is when you share a life with somebody, one, they shape you, which is tremendous. Two, the human mind desires connection so aggressively that um this was another thing we were talking to Andrew Bustamante about. I think it was actually his wife Gigi who said, "Oh, one of the ways that you target somebody is you know that they need connection." And so you can get people to confess the most outrageous [ __ ] just because you're their friend, you're there. And part of American CIA statecraft, tradecraft, excuse me, is to build real friendships. I'm like, "Real friendships with dirtbags?" Like, "Yeah. Like you really want people to build real authentic friendships." And I was like, "Damn." That level of connection is important. >> some feedback. Yeah, I'm getting some, yeah. >> A good point that other people are saying that we need to talk about, which is you can't talk about this trend without talking about the Andrew Tates and Fresh and Fits of the world and their effect on this. >> I would say Andrew Tate reminds me of Donald Trump in that he is a symptom long before he is a cause. What happens is you get guys that are being made fun of, told they're not enough, they're finding it impossible to climb the social ladder, and that is very demoralizing. It's going to make you feel some kind of way. And then someone like a Tate will rise up in the same way that Momodou rises up when people feel disenfranchised from housing. You get a guy that's like, "I got you, bro." When you feel like you're not being recognized as a man, you're not being celebrated for masculinity, you're not being pushed to be better. And cuz once as a guy you're pushed to get stronger, to get tougher, like a flywheel that exists entirely in your own mind takes over, and it feels incredible. And so I've said many times one of the greatest gifts that a man can give himself is to get physically strong. Like when you go through the transformation of going into the gym, lifting heavy weights, at my peak I could deadlift almost 400 lb. And look, by standards it's not a lot, but that felt so good to go from like I can only deadlift let's say 185 lb to like working my way up up up up up up up up up. You're like, "Okay, this makes me feel some kind of way." I have a feeling people that do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu feel the same way, like I'm in control, I can fight, I can defend myself. And so there are things that take over in the brain. So anyway, you're feeling disenfranchised as a man, nobody's pushing you to get better, you're not getting any attention back from females, and then this former nerdy guy turned kickboxer who makes a lot of money, gets a lot of girls, is in great shape, he can fight, comes on the scene and is like, "Fuck everybody who tells you you're not the man, you're the man. [ __ ] all these hoes." You're going to be like, "Yeah, [ __ ] all these hoes." Like they make me feel bad, this guy makes me feel good. And as for people that know how I got started on YouTube, it was all mindset. So it was doing the like, "Listen, you can really do something with your life." And we used to do these things called impact quotes, and I would take two or three quotes, and I would do like an improv, almost like spoken word poetry aggrandizes it a little bit too much, but they were They were very And so I was trying to like hype people up and take them on this journey and make them feel that they could do anything. And so people would put them on a loop. They would string a bunch together, and they would just listen to me for like an hour in the gym while they worked out. You know, I mean just you can do anything you set your mind to. You got to do this, but you have to be aware of that. You really can manipulate somebody's neurochemistry by doing that kind of performance. I think Tate is best understood as a WWE character who has risen to popularity specifically because people already feel like that. He puts words to it and tells them I can pull you out of this. That to me feels like a cause and effect. Like you're If men feel that way, that kind of character will rise. >> Yeah, and I think again, if we look at the chart, it's not like his popularity popularity grew right at that pivot point. It was really after this really kicked off right at the height. >> This [ __ ] already started happening. >> Correct. And so he was the answer to it for some people. When I would hear the pushback, first you got to understand why, again, what's the the actual cause behind his success, but also is there anyone else, let's say, on the other side? Where's the positive divine masculine figure that's really being like pushed by culture? Like who is that? Like give us that person. Yeah, where are they? Like ultimately I think that's what culture is looking for. There was a time early on when Jordan Peterson Peterson was kind of seen as internet's dad kind of thing. And then he went down for a little bit, and then like people tried to cancel him, all this other stuff. And then I feel like more radical people have filled in those gaps. >> honestly, the closest person is probably Rogan. He is very smart. Very wealthy. Uh funny, very successful at his job, yolked. He is >> that the culture has turned on him and saying no, he's the toxic masculine again. >> Like he's still massive. Massive, massive, massive. There for sure people on the left have turned on him because masculinity is viewed negatively. It's absolutely absurd. >> But you're saying, what does the left consider to be the positive? Cuz there are plenty of positive versions of masculinity being put out by people that lean right. >> Right. >> And so, people on the right have plenty of people that they can look up to. But if you reject masculinity out of hand, if you're an effete intellectual, it's like, okay, then. But even that, like, look up to somebody like Jordan Peterson. Like, if that's your bag. But I don't think that that is something that has a flywheel internally, and I don't think the left has a positive masculine vision. But that the whole left and right divide thing feels like a different problem to me. >> We can't talk about this problem in isolation, but there are different layers that stack up against it. So, yes, they're not having sex. The young male grads are just as jobless as the people who have degrees, so they're not >> really fast, cuz I I you're going somewhere very important, but when we first uh pitched talking about this, the thing that I actually want to talk about is sex. I don't think people fully understand what sex is for a man. And so, there is in a relationship, for sure, I will tell you the quote that has given me the highest predictive validity is that a woman needs to feel loved to have sex, and a man needs to have sex to feel loved. So, there is a feedback loop. I can feel it in myself, where sex is really a thing. It's a a totally unique form of expression, a totally unique form of connection. And if anybody has kids in the car, now's the time to take them out, cuz I I I I really mean this seriously, and I'm going to talk about this as um sort of plainly as I can, but I'm going to say things that are very strange. You and I were talking about this off camera. I really really mean this. We were talking about the dildos being thrown on the court of the WNBA, and I was like, I really hate this. I have a really strong reaction to this. It is a a mockery and a threat of a gift that women give. And the thought of being sexually receptive is so crazy to me. I can't believe that women are willing to do that. I cannot believe that they are willing to put their body in an insanely vulnerable position to allow me to place a part of myself inside of them. It is an act of such generosity of kindness. I don't know. It It's For me, when a woman has sex with you, she is saying at the deepest level, you are worthy. Pick a mic up just so you can drop it. Like that, yes. That's very profound. And to feel that and have somebody uh look at you in the eye in a positive way is amazing. Plus, I mean, obviously you can get Sex is a very complicated thing, and we're describing something that's far more tender, and it is certainly not always that. But like, that act is a thing. And I remember as a kid being like, "Oh my god, one day I'm actually going to have sex." And it was like, I could not believe it. And I remember that emotion so well. And I was like, "This is going to be awesome." And I was as excited about actually one day getting to have sex as I was about one day being rich. Those were like the two big like I can't believe my future contains I'm going to be rich and I'm going to have sex. This is I really was over the moon about it. That propelled me forward becoming worthy, becoming the kind of man that a woman would be willing to do that for. And it's like I try not to take that for granted. I try to make sure that I'm earning that that level of gift, connection, whatever with my wife. And I feel like that's getting lost in all of this. And when you get antagonistic towards women, you make it so much less likely that you will ever get her to cross that because now it's like, "We're what? At war?" And you somehow expect her to make herself vulnerable to you in that way? Like it's just wild. I see Okay, so on the woman side, when I see that chart, you know, that looks insane. The woman What the market is telling me is the women are like, "There are no men worthy." And yeah, they're all in their mothers' basements. They're all They don't have jobs. They don't have all these things. And I'm sure Drew will have all the stats to back that up. >> you a real hot take? >> Mhm. >> Oh god. >> Give me >> believe this, so I'm going to say it. I think the way that evolution made us, women are meant to help men become men. >> They are the natural selection. >> They Well, they're the sexual gatekeepers for sure, and that creates a natural selection, but I'm talking about something slightly different. >> Interesting. >> By pathologizing men's desire to get laid, by pathologizing that men do a lot of things simply to get laid, by saying that that's a bad thing, we have broken this sort of like time-honored thing of like, "Okay, ladies, you got to make him jump through hoops to prove that he can become a stable, well-adjusted man in order to get access to sex." And men will do all this crazy [ __ ] get their life together, get a job, get get steady work, make money, so that they can get laid. >> Mhm. >> And because we said, "Ah, that's disgusting. That's horrible. These men are terrible." We broke Women are now like, "Yeah, [ __ ] Like, what is that?" What I got very fortunate that I found a woman who was raised to be the most traditional woman you could possibly imagine. And so, I got a good decade or more with Lisa where she interfaced with the world through me. And she pushed me to be a better version because she wasn't interfacing with the world directly. It was like, "We're only going to get paid what my husband gets paid." And so, now I'm going to push him to do better, to get more skills. Hey, take that move. Take that risk. Yeah, go there. Do that. Like, she was always behind me pushing me to be more, to be better. And I wanted to earn her respect, and I wanted to keep having sex with her. So, it was like, there was a lot of things that I would do just to impress my wife. I wanted to be a better writer to impress my wife. I wanted to do better in business to impress my wife. I've wrote written so many cards because they're true to my wife saying, "Everything I do, I do to impress you." We made that toxic. And so, now, through all the things that we've talked about, plus this idea, you've got men there's nobody pushing them to be a better version. They're going to OnlyFans, and it's like, "Well, if you can pay the money or whatever, you can jerk off, great." But like, you can imagine, they're not trying to elevate you. They're not trying to make you a better version. They aren't connected to you in a way where it's like, "Well, we we go, we succeed or fail together, and so now we're going to work as a unit." >> responsibility in that relationship? >> Men have got to bear responsibility for their own lives. This is your whole schtick is you need to be the one with the massive amount of personal responsibility. And women need to understand, "Hey, this is part of the dynamic between men and women." And when that breaks, if you're wondering why there's no good men, well,