Jedediah Bila details her relocation from New York to Florida, citing Governor Ron DeSantis's leadership and lower crime rates as decisive factors against returning to a "blue state." She recounts being barred from The View studio during the pandemic despite medical exemptions, criticizing vaccine mandates as scientifically flawed infringements on liberty. Bila condemns modern feminism for demonizing men and undermining family structures, arguing these shifts foster dependence on big tech and pharma while eroding personal responsibility. Ultimately, her testimony highlights a broader societal drift toward authoritarianism and the loss of individual autonomy in urban environments. [Automatically generated summary]
And then it was really funny when we got down here, the place that we had planned to live in was not as advertised.
So we lived at hotels for a while.
So that's probably why it's a little mixed up in my head.
But what I do remember is a conversation I had with my mom.
when I got here and that was the one challenge. I'm a family girl so leaving my family in New York
they're not quite ready to move yet although now my mom just came down here and she's like I gotta
get down here. The one thing I remember feeling is just I took a deep breath I was sitting on
the beach and I was like wow I just feel like I shed a whole bunch of baggage that I had on my
back in New York City.
There were so many restrictions and at the time it was in the heat of the mandates and you know, you're not my friend, you're my enemy, you didn't get the vaccine and it was like all of that just turmoil, the crime and it just felt so, I felt light.
I don't know how else to say it.
I felt like light and airy and like I was ready to like re-embrace life and I think I did your show Soon after that on the panel, and you were like, no, you just sound different.
And I think, you know, for people like us, you know, you you're coming from California.
I'm coming from New York.
I think for people who really believe in freedom, I don't think we realized, at least let me speak for myself.
There was a lot of frustration.
That was in me, and especially when I had a child and I realized, wow, this system is so broken.
And then I saw the crime and I was like, what can I do?
And there was just so much frustration brewing that finally to be in a place where freedom is prioritized, where these values that we hold so dear are front and center, where you know you're going to raise your kid in a place, you know, and I don't know, listen, I don't know if I'm going to be in Florida forever, but I will tell you this, Dave, I'm never going back to a blue state.
I'm done.
If I go anywhere, it's going to be, maybe I go to Texas, maybe I, you know, dip a foot in Tennessee or, you know, have, you know, Florida ends.
It's, I'm not going back to that though.
There's a darkness and there's a dystopian just, you know, those dystopian movies that we used to watch and say, well, that's not real life.
Thank God.
Yeah.
That's what it feels like tangibly in a lot of these woke cities around the country and states.
Well, it was all meant to be for me, because I've actually always loved Florida my whole life, and my folks have lived down here for part of the year, so I've always been coming down, so what you're talking about, I had two... Oh, you might be talking about one of two things.
I have two giant alligator canvases.
These, like, six-foot canvases that I've had for years, but I think what you're talking about is that we have a whole wall of alligator skin wallpaper, and one day, I woke up in the morning, and there was a lizard on the alligator skin wallpaper, and I was like, This is as good as it gets.
So I want to ask you something, because since we come, you know, I'm originally a New Yorker before my crazy eight years in Cali, so since we come from such a similar place, and now I think our political outlook and our sort of life outlook are very similar, what do you think about the people, the kind of people that were the Northeast people, let's say, the New York people, that should have some fight in them?
The Cali people, a lot of them just seem fried to me, or like Northern Cali, okay, wine country, SoCal, San Diego, you're just sort of fried by the weather, and okay, you just accept it.
New Yorkers have a fighting spirit, and that's why it was so hard for me to see, and I still have a ton of family in New York, so many people just accept it, and not only accept it, but like, thank you, sir, may I have another, and they're bringing, as I'm off the grid right now, I don't know if mask mandates are back in Cali, they're supposed to be right now, and they could be back in New York, and people would welcome it.
Yeah, New York has lost its soul, I've said many times.
I grew up there, and there was a rebellious spirit in New York.
It was really rebellious.
And it used to be an enclave for like, if you went downtown Manhattan was like artists and writers and people who challenged the status quo.
And of course, yes, the city always was liberal, but they would challenge like corporate America and big pharma.
I mean, big pharma would have been a huge target by those people.
They would have not been like, they would have not liked to be told what to do.
They wouldn't have been like, Oh, I got 16, you know, jabs and I'm going to be online for the 17th one.
And it's okay to tell people, If they don't get a vaccine, they can't go into the deli.
I mean, that is not the New York that I know.
And I think that was what was the big challenge for me is that I saw a hypnotized population, just like kind of like the walking dead.
I mean, I hate to say it, but just like kind of robotically walking around.
When I say a dystopian nightmare, I mean a dystopian nightmare.
And it's just lost its spirit.
It's lost its soul.
I think that people have become allies of the state.
You know, and now it's just like a bunch of people who believe politicians over there.
They've lost that, that fire, that energy.
And the city doesn't read the same that it used to.
It doesn't read like a hub of cultural activity.
I'm sorry, but it doesn't.
It reads like a crime infested area where you're afraid to, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to build a family there because you're not only worried about the crime, but you're worried about the mandates.
You're worried about what happens in cycle two.
We all know there's going to be a cycle two of this pandemic.
It's coming.
It's coming.
It's going to be the mask.
Maybe it'll come just in time for the next election.
But the next time it rolls around, now you know that you know you can look around the country and know where those populations live, where they're just going to lie down and take it.
Oh, you want to shut down my business?
Okay.
Oh, you want to, you know, mandate that I get a vaccine or I can't a vaccine that doesn't stop transmission, or I can't go into a restaurant?
Okay, like, where is their line in New York, just in terms of making decisions for themselves and their families?
So I don't know what caused it.
But now there's like a subservience to authority.
It's like, oh, you're in a position of authority, you must know better.
Oh, I must be.
It's like everyone thinks they're an idiot now.
Oh, I must just wait.
I know I have common sense, but I guess I must be wrong.
And Bill de Blasio at the time must be right.
It's disturbing.
And it's a lack of autonomy.
And it's a lack of self sufficiency and a lack of personal responsibility.
All those things I hold dear.
They're just not there anymore.
On top of that, you got the crime.
So you're like, wow, I used to love New York because, you know, it was you could go out on the town.
Now it's like, well, if I go one block over, I might get knifed.
So maybe I won't do that either.
So it's just It's a sinking city in many respects.
And, you know, my friend Buck Saxton put a tweet out a couple of weeks ago and he was or a few weeks ago and he was talking about, you know, you hear it sounds like a scene from a bad movie going on outside, you know, with just it's crazy.
It's really, really crazy.
A police force that doesn't feel supported.
It's just so many factors.
And I love New York.
So when I say it needs to sink, I say that from a place of love, like you need to sink or you're not, that's going to be your only motivation to wake up.
Maybe it'll wake up voters, maybe it won't.
I don't know.
I think the people who flock to cities like that now are perfectly comfortable folding into a brave new world.
Well, I'm so glad that you said that, that you want it to come back because that's, I mean, I spent most of my adult years in New York City.
My grandparents lived in New York City, although I grew up in Long Island.
So I was always going to New York City.
I remember as a kid, I hated it because I thought it was this dirty, weird place.
And then as, then I was an adult and I loved it.
I loved the grittiness and the reality and the artists and all of the stuff that was New York.
And it just doesn't happen anymore.
You know, something you said before that about the dystopian part, it wasn't just the lockdowns and the crime and all that stuff.
But it was for me, it was something else in LA that when I would go to the supermarket and by the end, I really stopped going out because I just hated everybody.
And I was like, I'm just not going to go out anymore, which also isn't healthy.
But I remember that there was like this blank look in everybody's face, like you'd be walking around and I'd try to take my mask off and I'd be yelled at everywhere I went.
But that there was like no, there was no fight with the people.
And then you could almost see in a weird way how when they talk about the Holocaust, how a certain demonization of people, a certain you don't look at other people as human.
And I kind of felt that weird thing, like no one was looking at each other anymore.
We were just these orbs bouncing around in the egg section or the fruit section and then go about our lives.
Yeah, and people just bought into this fear so extensively that they became afraid of other people.
I mean, I remember watching a clip on The View that went through my timeline that Joy had said something like, oh, well, you know, now that the masks are here, I mean, why not always have them on?
I mean, you could get the flu.
First of all, that's idiotic.
Just from a scientific perspective, you know that if we're not exposed to germs, that's how we build an immune system.
So it's idiotic on that level.
And it's also like, wow, that told me something about her and it told me something about a lot of people that, you know, have her ideology, her worldview.
They're really comfortable in a world without that interaction.
Like this whole thing you're talking about, like glazed over eyes, follow authority, do as I'm told, you know, you're not my friend, you're my enemy because you didn't obey the rules.
There is a segment of the population that is very comfortable with that.
They want to be told what to do.
They're uncomfortable making their own decisions.
They're uncomfortable with other people making their own decisions.
This whole idea of freedom and liberty is uncomfortable for them in many ways.
And this was a manifestation of that.
So it was like, we all need to sit back and realize that it's not just people that are being tugged into this.
There are people that are willingly walking into this brave new world, that they will say, yeah, sure.
Oh, take my arm.
Oh, I don't need to ask questions about safety or data.
No, no, no, I trust you.
And then there's a segment of the population that's resistant to that, that wants to think for themselves, that doesn't want to be told what to do, that wants to be able to ask tough questions, and that isn't comfortable with a government authority, or a bureaucrat, or whoever it may be, or a corporate bureaucrat for that matter, telling them what to do.
The split in the population has never been clearer to me.
And a lot of those, you know, zombie types, I'm sorry, live in these woke cities, and I don't think they're going anywhere.
They wouldn't be comfortable in a Florida.
Because there's too much risk, Dave.
There's too much risk in the real world, you know?
Alright Jedediah, you gave me a great segue here because you mentioned Joy Behar and The View.
And I talk often about The View on this show.
We actually show a warning before I play clips from The View and it warns people that whatever you're going to see is either complete BS or insanity or something to that effect.
I will say that many years ago, when I lived on the Upper West, I lived two blocks away from Joy Behar.
Yeah, I mean, and I didn't sit there very long, people may notice.
It was about a year and a half.
I think I tested for the show for a few months, as I recall.
I was still at Fox.
I actually had one foot at Fox as a contributor, and I was testing for that show at the same time.
Roger Ailes, at the time, actually gave me, signed off on a, like, hey, all right, she's probably not gonna get the job, so let her just, it'll be good if she can go on over there.
And I was like, I know I might be able, I was like, great, you don't think I can get the job?
That only helps me.
So I went over, and I have to say, the show has changed drastically.
I mean, even in that show, I mean, that was eight years ago.
It was a very different show.
First of all, it wasn't as hardwired for politics.
At the time I was hosting with like Candace Cameron and Raven-Symoné, so there was a lot more pop culture.
But there was also, it still had that Barbara Walters feel to it, where she really valued Different viewpoints.
She defended that.
I don't know if you remember that show a while ago.
I mean, it was before I got there, for sure, where Bill O'Reilly was on and Whoopi walked off.
She made it clear that this would be called The View because there were supposed to be different views at the table.
When I got to the show, I have to say, For the most part, I had a good dynamic with the ladies behind the scenes.
There was some concern, I remember, a couple of times with a couple of episodes.
For example, the day that Hillary Clinton was coming on, which oddly wound up being a couple of days before I lost my job.
I don't know.
But regardless, who knows?
But the day before, the day she came on, I remember there was a lot of panic because I was very big on the email scandal.
And they worried that I was going to bring up something that was uncomfortable.
Like I had asked, hey, can I show this document that she signed that said that she knew exactly what the C in confidential meant?
And she lied to everybody.
She lied.
They were like, oh, I don't know.
There was a lot of like walking through the hallways quickly.
And what's Jed going to do?
I actually didn't get to an email question.
Imagine that.
I did ask her a question about being toned up, though, so I felt like that was gratifying for me.
But there was that.
There was another instance, I can't recall, I think maybe it was Maxine Waters, where I felt like tangible energy of like, uh-oh, you know.
The thing is, though, I noticed a draft, then I left the show.
I maintained a good relationship with, you know, the other hosts.
We had emailed here and there.
When I went back, Dave, during COVID, what the hell happened to these people?
What happened to them?
What happened to the show?
What's going on here?
I mean, I got, I went through a full pre-interview.
They knew exactly where I stood on the mandates.
I was naive.
I was naive.
I felt like, well, they know where I stand.
I'm going to go on.
They're going to have a real conversation with me.
I don't know why I thought that, but I thought, well, it would be ridiculous.
I was a former co-host.
It would just be so disrespectful to do anything but have a real conversation.
Of course, COVID became an issue.
I couldn't be on set, even though I tested COVID negative.
In fact, one time, I was supposed to co-host several times.
I was slotted to host, I think, four or five times.
One time, they came to my house, COVID tested me.
I tested negative.
I had an exemption letter from my doctor that said, not only was I not a risk to people at the time, they were like, she's not a risk, and here's her negative COVID test, and this is medically advised against for her.
I submit all this stuff.
I test negative and they say that's not good enough. You can't show up tomorrow. I was like,
well, then why'd you test me? You're testing the vaccinated people anyway. It made no sense.
But anyway, ultimately, they tell me I can't be in studio.
I do the show remotely.
And everybody saw how that unfolded, which was a shout fest.
I was, I say two things, and I get shouted down as misinformation.
All I was saying was, was what was had already been acknowledged by the CDC, which is that the vax can get and spread COVID.
So the mandate didn't make any sense was very clear, like everyone should make their own personal decision.
I didn't get an apology.
I didn't get Sonny went on some Tangent on on Instagram of posts and all this stuff responding to me like instead of responding to me in the show because didn't have an answer she went on Instagram it was I was like what is going on you were at my wedding girlfriend like what is going on here so you know the commitment to the ideology took precedence over just mutual respect over friendships over it's they've I'm sorry they've lost their minds over there it's it's now a panel of
a bunch of liberals and one person who wears the label conservative but agrees with them
on all the things that they deem must be agreed with, right?
So it's like, oh, you can't stray on the vaccine. So that person has to sit there now and
basically toe the line of the fake conservative, right? They get to say they have diversity on the panel.
They get to say they have diversity of thought. But that person, you know, on these important
issues like A, B and C, you can you either have to, you know, toe the line we say
or you have to make a really feeble argument and let us win is the bottom line.
So I just don't, and you know, Megan wasn't like that.
I don't know Megan McCain very well, but I worked through a little bit of Fox, but she's feisty.
You know, she wasn't taking any garbage there.
You see how that went?
You know, it's hard.
It's not what they want.
It seems to be that now, you know, that's just not what they're looking for.
Diversity of thought is just not, it's not what they're interested in.
It's sad.
We could have had a great discussion that day about mandates.
I think the audience would have loved to hear, but they knew that if I was allowed to talk, there would be people that agreed with me and they can't have that.
For people that have not seen your appearance on The View that you're referring to when they went off on you on This Way, we did cover it on the show, so we'll link to that down below so people can catch the clips of that, because it's really incredible.
And the dismissive way they treat you, and as you said, Sonny was at your wedding, like really crazy stuff.
You know it's funny because when I play clips of The View and it's usually I'm obviously I'm making fun of them and it's in some ways it's low-hanging fruit in a certain degree but that thing for whatever reason still is culturally relevant and I think it's interesting that you mentioned Barbara Walters because obviously she was an icon of journalism and she's not associated with it anymore as far as I know or at least it's very very behind the scenes.
And obviously she's older now, but when she started that thing,
the very purpose of the show, it was in the intro, I remember it 20 years ago.
We're gonna have these women of different walks of life, of different beliefs, of different religions,
of different skin colors, and we're talking all out.
And now it's just bash the hell out of whoever, either a fake conservative or a regular conservative,
That's exactly right because those were people who, this was an issue where people were saying, you really had to weed out people who were saying, I mean, think about it though.
That's a big show.
You know how many people would have just got the vaccine just to do that show?
There were people who were willing to say, I prioritize my health.
I prioritize my wellbeing and I prioritize my integrity more than doing your show.
And that was just the bottom line.
I did the same thing she did.
I said, I was lined up to do, I think three guest spots.
Plus, during my book launch week, a couple of spots backed back, we were going to do a whole thing for my book, and I was like, you know what?
I know this is going to hurt my book.
I know the book has my son's face on the cover, but I want to be able to tell my kid, more important than that I sat on The View to promote the book, I want to be able to tell my kid one day that I didn't sacrifice my principles or what was right for me or my health or my family for some show that couldn't accept a medical exemption for a vaccine that doesn't prevent transmission because they're too, you know, doubled down on their woke ideology and their, you know, dystopian nightmare to allow for some diversity of thought.
That's something I'll be proud to tell my kid one day.
Can you talk a little bit about, like, just the TV production style?
I don't want to harp on The View the whole time, but I think it's important.
Where now, like, you know, you in essence do a version of what I do.
You're talking to the camera, you obviously have some preparation when you do your show, but it's your thoughts and they're coming out of you as you see fit, and I'm sure you work with some people behind the scenes, but it is what it is right in front of the camera.
Where on television, whether it's The View or CNN or everything else, I think a lot of people don't fully realize how scripted, How prepared, how many voices are going into their heads before the show?
We posted a clip a couple months ago of Whoopi talking about the vaccines and, you know, my body, get your hands off it, and then the complete reverse on abortion.
Oh, no, sorry.
Sorry, I did it the other way.
Where it was vaccines, it was, you know, everybody get injected, or you're gonna be fired, and I'm not gonna sit down with Jedediah, blah blah.
And then abortion comes, and it's nobody touch my body.
But yeah, the production, I mean, of these shows, what people don't understand, and one of the reasons why I'm doing, you know, your show was actually a big inspiration for me.
I don't know if you know that.
We've never had that conversation, but I really appreciate people who are bringing unfiltered content that don't have all of that going on behind the scenes, all those people in their ears.
When you do a show like that, I mean, you go to show meetings,
the topics are chosen by producers based on, you'd sit in a room and where do you disagree?
OK, let's go with this topic.
That's how it works.
There's a lot of producer input on all.
I'm not just talking about network, on cable news, of what can be said, of what shouldn't be said,
of we're not going in that direction.
You've got a question you want to ask.
That's not the way they want the segment to go.
You don't get to ask it.
So there's a lot of frustration for people who just want to have a real conversation.
The segments are timed very short, as you know.
You've done a lot of cable news segments, I'm sure.
You've done a lot of segments everywhere.
So you don't really get to the meat of the matter.
And oftentimes on The View, you'll notice whoopie gets the last word.
So you could be in the heat of a debate and she'll just, It's wrapped, but she's going to get that last word and the audience loves the audience is very liberal.
So they'll clap and you're you know, you're it's a very difficult position to be in.
And truthfully, I think that over there, they really they don't want a likable conservative.
I think that becomes a problem because of the audience.
When I left that show.
One thing people some people don't know is I got a ton of messages from people that were like on the left that were like, you know what?
I really respected you or I really that was a problem for them because those people's eyes and ears were open and maybe they would be like hmm I was told conservatives were racist and bigoted you know so but yeah there's a lot that goes into the production there's meetings you know producers pick the whole layout of the topics there's stuff you can and can't say there's you know people looking over your shoulder if you stray you know it's like off she's a problem you know that goes on across the board whereas now I sit at my you know Jen and I be alive.
I pick my topics.
I say what I want to say.
And everyone says to me now, wow Jen, you sound like you're, it's like jet on the loose.
And I'm like, well, it's different.
You know, it's, it's, it's in a sense you are not cuffed in any respects.
You're kind of just yourself, which is something that really appeals to me about what you do, what I do, what a lot of people in the podcasting space do right now.
Listen, I'm always like, guys, if I burn the house down, I apologize in advance, you know, to the tech people that are in the room with me.
But a lot of the individuals sitting in those network spots are very uncomfortable with their own independent thinking.
Like, they don't trust themselves.
They've been so programmed, and a lot of these people are on the left in media, they've been
so programmed again, like this bow down to authoritarians, bow down to authority, bow
down to politicians, bow down, oh, what do I need to say?
How do I need to word this?
I mean, I've seen people on network TV sit and figure out their talking points of what they're going to say in a 20 second soundbite with a producer and write it out and read it over and over again.
I'm like, can you put that down and just tell me what you think?
So I would rather have people, Joe Rogan says all the time on his show, he'll be like, I'm not an expert.
Like, I don't know.
Like, I don't, he's willing to say, I don't know.
But people respect that because you're a free thinking person.
You don't have like loyalty to this or that you're just telling people what you think that's the way to come to real solutions not sitting behind you know a cushy network job where you can say this and say that you're completely filtered at all times because there's always a worry about this or that that's not getting that's not getting anybody to any solution so I think it's a good move.
Were you ever worried on your little red pill adventure in terms of like, oh man, I'm really in this deep.
I think a lot of people have that.
They start getting red pilled about stuff.
They start, you know, maybe during COVID they were questioning vaccines or lockdowns.
Then they start thinking about freedom a little bit differently.
My God, they maybe read a Thomas Sowell book or watched a PragerU video or saw one of us move to Florida and they start coming around, but then they freak out like, Oh my God, everything I knew was a lie.
Am I really surrounded by this many crazy people?
Could Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom really be devil worshipers?
Is it all true?
And it is.
Did you ever have any moments along the way where suddenly you were now more friendly with people on the right, you were getting probably tons of hate from people on the left, where you were like, wow, this is actually a little scary?
I always felt conservative and I grew up in New York City and I went to Columbia University and I taught in academia in a very liberal school.
So I was always very used to like, wow, the crazy is going on around me.
I'm not it.
I wasn't drawn to it.
And I was always kind of like, like, I always felt kind of like alone on an island sometimes, you know, so I don't I truly, if I'm being honest, found it very liberating once I and listen, I've made the right man to, you know, you and I both know that there.
Yeah, I am a free thinker, like, you know, and I talk about this sometimes, you know, that Sometimes the fans of President Trump, the big MAGA fans, were always like, oh, are you anti-Trump?
And I wasn't at all, but I was being honest with the audience.
I was saying like, hey, I don't know if I'm seeing a stolen election.
Help me, help me.
What am I missing?
That's who I am as a person.
I'm someone who's going to say, I am seeing a desire to steal an election as in collusion from social media, from big tech.
From Big Pharma, from the Fauci.
I saw what was going on there, that they tried to rob him at that moment, but I wasn't seeing it when it came to voting machines and tallies, so I was asking tough questions.
I took heat for that, you know?
And now it's interesting, a lot of people came back and said to me, you know something?
I gave you a lot of heat for that.
A lot of the audience came back and said, I gave you a lot of heat for that, and I regret that, because now I appreciate that about you, which I love, and I appreciate that somebody had that reflective moment.
A lot of people actually came to me and said that.
But to be honest with you, When I, when I left Fox, I think there was a lot of people thought I was going to leave Fox News and I was going to go work at CNN.
Or I was going to, you know, they were like, Oh, she's going to go liberal.
And when they saw that I actually sound more conservative, what the message that I really wanted to get out there is all I really wanted was to be completely unleashed.
I felt that need at this stage of life to just kind of let it all out there.
And I'm on my show talking about dating and relationships a lot.
I'm talking about, you know, why gentlemen have disappeared.
I'm talking about things that I never had the opportunity to talk about.
I'm going to make people mad on every side of the aisle, you know.
I'm here to fix stuff and I'm here to break stuff down and be real.
And this is the moment for that.
You know, this is the moment in the podcasting world.
This is kind of our moment, I feel like.
So I feel liberated if I'm being honest.
And I never worry if I'm too conservative.
I mean, now it's kind of fun.
I can like, I made Kamala Harris last week and I was doing the cackle.
I didn't do a great cackle.
I'm not going to lie.
unidentified
And I said, wow, it's great to be able to just do that.
Well, you just realize, it's like, you can say stuff, and if you don't let them control you, they can't control you.
So, whether I'm doing, trying to explain Rachel Levine, he, she, whatever, guy in a dress, girl, you know, Leah Thomas has a penis, he, she, she, whatever, is the number one women's swimmer, and it's like, if you fear that they're gonna cancel you over it, they will, but if you don't fear it, Then it's either funny to talk about or at least you can get it out sensibly.
So I want to back up to something that you said a minute or two ago about some of the things that you talk about besides politics.
You mentioned men and you mentioned relationships.
You know I toured with Jordan Peterson for a year and a half and he was always a large portion of his audience was was males who were trying to you know stand up straight with their shoulders back get their lives in order and it does seem like we have this like dearth in society of men that have their shit together basically,
that are kind of living the right way to find a woman or find a dude or whatever, but to live like a full life.
It seems worse, somehow it seems worse for men than women right now.
Do you think that's fair to say and what do you think that, what do you think is going on there?
Well, I think there's been a demonization of men, you know, and I think feminism, you know,
and when I say feminism, I don't mean feminism You know, a lot of the founding feminists were pro-life.
I mean, it was a very different vision they had.
They were talking about, you know, equality of opportunity.
They were talking about a society where women had the chance to succeed, removing those very legitimate barriers that existed for women at the time.
Um, and it was, it was a very pro-life movement.
As I said, I'm talking about the feminism of today, how it's been morphed, how it's been taken over by the left.
And now it's like, it's empowering somehow for women to be slutty.
It's empowering for women to, you know, to rag on men.
You saw what happened to Kavanaugh at that disgraceful, I mean, they just tore that man down with no evidence.
They were just, they made a decision about who he was.
This idea that men, you know, are bad or men should take a back seat and be quiet and let the women talk.
This idea of toxic masculinity and oftentimes what's referred to as toxic masculinity is just men being gentlemen, men wanting to take care of themselves and take care of their families.
Yes, men being strong, So I take all of these things on and I think that men in many ways have it harder.
And this is near and dear to my heart because I'm raising a son.
You know, I'm raising a son at a time where men are too easily demonized, where boys on college campuses are being told to sit down and shut up.
It happens all the time where they're told, Oh, take a back seat, let the women talk or their, you know, sexual harassment charges, just because you're charged with something now means you're guilty if you're a guy.
So this is all near and dear to my heart.
I think feminism has in many ways, Damaged men and damaged women.
You know, I played a clip the other day on my show of a woman out there talking about, you know, how it was empowering for her to be slutty.
And, you know, it was the patriarchy's fault.
Everything that happened to her was the effect of the patriarchy.
And, you know, all this nonsense.
And I'm like, you know, they've really done a disservice to women.
Women who now, you know, women who now think it's shameful to be a housewife.
Why?
It's shameful to be, or being a mom isn't.
Being a mom is the most important job I have.
It's the most wonderful, rewarding, important job that I have.
That was my superpower, right?
Carrying a baby.
That was my superpower.
They've robbed women of all these, and now they're robbing them of more, right?
They're taking their trophies.
They're taking all of their, oh, woman of the year.
It doesn't go to biological women anymore.
We've got to make everybody feel welcome.
So I think feminism has done a huge disservice, in short, to men.
and to women.
And what should really exist is mutual respect, people who respect themselves,
who care about themselves, who are free thinking individuals
and who respect each other.
And that's been lost and I think walked all over by feminism,
I mean, the idea that the people who are championing women are literally championing a guy with a penis.
I mean, Leah Thomas has a penis.
That's just a fact.
Connor, my director over here, mentioned the other day, why is he or she such a good swimmer?
Because maybe it acts as a propeller.
I thought that that was pretty clever.
But the people who were championing women are now championing this guy, girl, whatever
you want to say, as the winner.
And I think, it is my belief, that I think women want women.
Regular dudes.
I think they want those guys that open the door and do those gentlemanly things and actually take care of themselves.
The other meme on this one is that every other week one of Daily Beast or Salon or one of these idiotic websites write how working out is now part of the alt-right.
unidentified
You know, the far-right is using fitness as a tool to recruit.
It's like all of these things that would make you feel empowered as a person, right?
All of these things Health and wellness, being fit, feeling strong, you know, wanting a strong man beside you, wanting a gentleman, you know, being comfortable in your own skin.
These are all things, you know why?
Because they want a society of dependence, right?
They want you weak.
They want you subservient.
They want you feeling unhappy with yourself.
So now you have to what?
Maybe go live in the metaverse and maybe a big tech guy can go make a bunch of money off of it because you're too afraid to enter the real world.
They want you chronically ill because then you're a repeat customer for big pharma.
And this idea of being healthy and fortified and that's very threatening to a lot of the ideologies espoused by the left and a lot of people they love and they, you know, change dollars with oftentimes, whatever.
in terms of big pharma, I mean. So yeah, this sense of personal responsibility, this is their
enemy. This is their number one enemy. And I do think that women want gentlemen. I do. I think
that those women that buy into this nonsense all the time and hear all this nonsense about how,
oh, when a guy opens a door for you, they're just trying to make you feel small.
No, honey.
They're trying to be adult.
He knows.
He knows that when he opened the door for you that you could if you wanted to.
You've got arms.
You can open it yourself.
He's trying to be respectful.
Most women absolutely do want that.
And most women want a man who can defend himself.
Most women want a man who cares about taking care of himself and his family.
You know, they want a man.
They don't want a boy.
They don't want a boy who needs a safe space.
They want a man.
And they've been trained that that's a bad thing somehow.
And some of them take the bait.
And you know what winds up to those people?
Those women wind up very unhappy.
They wind up very unhappy, very, very unhappy in life because they're listening to this nonsense.
And they wind up alone oftentimes because they bought the story.
They bought the story.
So I think it's a lot of it is about, it's not, you know, rejecting modern day feminism is about embracing female empowerment.
It's not about tearing it down.
It's about saying you.
It's you.
You dress slutty.
You attract the wrong kind of guy.
That's on you.
That's on you.
Own your own decisions, your own choices, and what is the result of those choices.
Own it all, and you'll feel some control over your own life for a change.
Do you ever do any kind of off-the-grid disconnect, any version of any of that?
I think I've seen you maybe tweet about some weekends off or that kind of thing, because when you're in this machine, it just kind of never stops, and you've been able to stay sane throughout this?
I don't know if you know anything about the books that I wrote before Dear Hartley, but I wrote a book called Hashtag Do Not Disturb.
And it was about that.
It was about the need to kind of remove yourself from technology, take those breaks.
It was a lot about, actually it predated a lot of what we know about social media now
and a lot of the conversation and talked about like how we're being programmed to be a bunch
of addicted robots and how much joy and peace and sanity we get back when we just take that time away.
So I will take, I don't know, in the past couple of years, I don't know if I've taken a block of time,
but I'll even take a couple of days where I'll just shut the phone off.
I'll let everybody know like, hey, I'm spending time with my family, I'm recharging,
I'm gonna watch a good movie, I'm gonna walk on the beach, I'm gonna absorb a sunset.
I don't want to know what's going on.
Like, believe me, it's not going to break that badly.
You can wait another day.
And it's very, very important, I find.
And I find people that even, you know, aren't in media.
Life is hard right now for a lot of people.
People are struggling.
They've lost their jobs in many cases.
They're going, you know, going to the grocery store and inflation has prices sky high of common goods and services.
You know, gas prices.
It's scary for a lot of people.
And I've been in that position.
You know, Dave, I don't know how much you know about me, but I was a waitress.
I grew up in a very middle class family.
that struggled financially. I didn't have money. So I understand what financial struggle means.
I was a teacher, like kind of like struggling to pay bills for a long time. So I know that feeling.
And I think it's so important to kind of in those moments, I think, get away from your phone,
step away, recharge with your family. Remember what's good about your life. Remember what feels
Nature is always very restorative.
It's essential or you'll really lose your mind.
You'll wind up then stressed, then next thing you know, you've got anxiety, then you got, you know, Big Pharma rolling in with their, you know, medication, so.