Unraveling the American Dream

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to Critical Defiance, the podcast that's allergic to comfortable illusions. I'm Niels here, as always, with the dynamic duo of Bobby Socks and Bill. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Hey, folks. Ready to have your foundational beliefs gently dismantled? [00:00:16] Speaker C: Good to be back, Niels. Today, we're wrestling with a big one, a national myth so deeply ingrained, it's practically tattooed on our collective consciousness. The American dream. [00:00:30] Speaker A: That's right, Bill. The promise of hard work leading to a better life. The picket fence, the upward climb. But in 2025, with wages, stagnant, housing costs through the roof, and a healthcare system that can bankrupt you faster than a meme stock crashes, is that dream still awake, or has it flatlined under the weight of economic disparity? [00:00:51] Speaker B: We're peeling back the layers of that iconic image, folks. We'll be looking at the cold, hard data that suggests the ladder of opportunity is missing a few rungs, especially for those who weren't born on the top floor. [00:01:04] Speaker C: And we'll be asking the tough questions, who benefits from this persistent narrative? What are the real barriers to getting ahead in America today? And maybe, just maybe, it's time we dream a new dream altogether. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Stick with us, and here's your weekly reminder that y' all can follow us and learn more about our show over@critical defiance.com we know more and more of you have been tuning in, so why not solidify your spot as a defiant one by subscribing to the pod on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or in whatever app you use to listen? You can also be part of the conversation by leaving comments on our episode pages over@critical defiance.com don't forget we're on Instagram and Facebook too, and we love to hear from you there as well. Spread the word about the pod like glitter at a drag show. Speaking of drag, if you'd like to give us a tip, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com critical defiance and slide something into our virtual cleavage. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Well, I guess that's an image. [00:02:14] Speaker B: You're welcome. [00:02:16] Speaker A: So the news this week, I didn't want to do our typical news recap. You know, we went from doing when we started the show, we did like a big news recap and it sort of eat too much time. And then we got it down to the big three. And we're liking that it's going well, but, you know, this week it was more about sitting back and reflecting with a cup of coffee and saying, listen, what the hell is going on here? Because we've been through how many news cycles together now we're going on one. [00:02:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:42] Speaker A: This is going to be episode 1515. [00:02:45] Speaker B: And we're through the first hundred days of this administration. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, Regime, monstrosity, whatever you want to call it. So, yeah, I thought we'd take the time today to just kind of chill and talk about what the news cycle and the world of political news is like nowadays because it's, it's gotten pretty damn crazy. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I will say, at least to start off it went. So we all dealt with this bombardment of just shock after shock after shock coming through the news coming from the administration, from the White House. [00:03:20] Speaker A: They flooded the zone. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Flooded the zone to the point where when, like there's like four days with no news coming out of there. Now I'm worried. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Yep, same here. If it's too quiet, I'm scared, suspicious. So what have been, you know, you could go either way with this. So I'll ask both questions. But for you guys, what have been like your favorite and least favorite moments since we've started doing this? Think about that length of the cycle, you know, that last 15 weeks or basically since Trump started. You know, what have been the highs and lows for you guys? [00:03:56] Speaker C: My favorite moments are always when the courts slap him down. [00:04:00] Speaker B: I was about to say, I was going to say my favorite moments are any Trump clip clapbacks from anyone, whether it's seeing a huge protest go across the country or somebody in a court or some other representative just being like you're orange and insane, you know, that's the best fun times. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Speaking of orange and insane, have you seen the makeup pictures of him that came out last week where he basically just did his face but not his. [00:04:27] Speaker B: Ears or his neck because nobody ever taught him the proper drag foundation? [00:04:33] Speaker C: What he did, I think perhaps. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Did he do his makeup at the makeup table in the Pentagon? [00:04:38] Speaker C: I was, I think, I think perhaps he needs to avail himself of Pete's facilities over at the Pentagon and get a professional to do this. [00:04:46] Speaker A: Yeah, cheating Pete's Beauty Parlor. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Didn't that get slapped down? So maybe they just have a really big thing of tinfoil taped up, taped up against the wall. [00:04:58] Speaker A: So you see what's happening here? You slap down the cheat and Pete's Beauty Parlor and now we have an orange faced president with white ears. It's not co man. It's not a good look for us. [00:05:07] Speaker C: I think it's Elon's. I think Elon cut the budget for Peach makeup room. [00:05:13] Speaker A: So what about you? [00:05:15] Speaker B: Well, I was just gonna say for an administration that wants to ban drag and is going after us queer so much, they bicker like girls in the back room of Drag Race. [00:05:27] Speaker C: My least favorite moments are every time I hear Trump say the words. I don't know. It almost doesn't matter. What is this constitutional? Are you aware of this? What do you have to say? He don't know who the hell is in this question. I want to know who the hell is in charge and what the hell do you know? [00:05:51] Speaker A: Yeah, for a while, I thought it was Elon, but, you know, he's withdrawing back into his shell now. [00:05:56] Speaker B: Well, when you have an entire country go against you and have your stocks plummet because your cars are put together with glue. [00:06:06] Speaker C: Oh, poor little billionaire. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Being the village troll did not work out well for him. [00:06:11] Speaker C: Poorly. [00:06:12] Speaker A: No. Millionaire. They're so whiny, too. [00:06:14] Speaker C: Oh. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Like, now that I think about it, the whole billionaire class is so whiny. [00:06:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's always been like that. [00:06:23] Speaker A: All right, so which story stuck with you guys the most? Like, if you had to pick one. If you had to pick one that was, like, your big story since. Since the beginning of all this, what would it be for you? I'm going to start this one. For me, it's Gilmore Garcia. [00:06:35] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:06:36] Speaker A: For me, it's this ongoing story of this man pulled off the street who basically, as far as we know, did nothing worse than domestic dispute with his wife in a traffic stop, but somehow that makes him Mr. Gangland. And now we're deporting him to El Salvador with no duplicate process. No America, like. [00:07:01] Speaker C: But, but. But he has MS.13 Photoshopped on his knuckles. [00:07:06] Speaker A: What's Photoshop? What's Photoshop? Nobody could be that good at Photoshop. [00:07:13] Speaker B: I would say, for the stories that stuck out the most, I mean, for me, it felt like a very big tipping point once they officially took transgender off the historical website about Stonewall. Because that, to me, was the most offensive way of saying they want to get rid of trans people. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Well, it was no longer the writing on the wall. Yeah. Did the thing. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah. It went from, you know, trying to do it behind the scenes so overtly, just being. Yeah, no, we want to not only make you not exist now, but we're trying to pull you out of history. And almost every trans topic to come out since then mirrors the ways that trans people have been villainized in histories. And so just following that always sticks with me, because it's like, hey, I'm watching the same history play out. [00:08:09] Speaker A: I think the trans community is very much like the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to human rights issues in most countries because they tend to be targeted first. And here we go. We're already going. We're down that slippery slope. What's always amazed me about it is you're talking about a reasonably small number of people, like, most people just don't realize or know that. We're talking about slightly over 1% of the population. So maybe 1 in 100. [00:08:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And, I mean, obviously things like this are hitting the entirety of the trans community, but they're really going for trans kids first. They really are. What the HHS put out. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Oh, that was diabolical. So I don't know if any of you guys in the audience caught it or if you caught it, but HHS put out a new report on treating gender dysphoria. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Wow. It's like they went back 30 years. [00:09:06] Speaker B: I could barely get through the intro of it. [00:09:10] Speaker A: You know, the intro is degree. [00:09:12] Speaker B: Even right from the intro, they say, you know, things like how. How gender dysphoria leaves after adolescence and other just completely backwards. Like, I read that, and the Holden Caulfield in me came out. [00:09:28] Speaker C: Remind me again, what's the name of the Secretary of Health and Human Services? [00:09:33] Speaker A: That's Robert F. Kennedy. [00:09:36] Speaker C: The only person I have heard on a news broadcast sound even approachingly stupid to Trump is Robert F. Kennedy. I mean, these two are in a goddamn pie. They belong together. [00:09:52] Speaker A: We talked a week ago or two weeks ago about how, you know, HHS was putting together an autism registry to track and study autism. Well, now that's a chronic disease registry, kids. [00:10:03] Speaker C: Oh, is that working? [00:10:05] Speaker B: And we're working on making. [00:10:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker B: They want to make sure that gender dysphoria is a chronic disease and so is mental illness. [00:10:16] Speaker A: So what they're doing with this database is accessing people's medical records directly without consent and building lists. That's a little familiar. And, yeah, it's gonna scary. So what do you guys think the theme of this regime has been so far? For me, it's bullying. For me, it's bullying and revenge, but mainly bullying. [00:10:37] Speaker C: I am so depressed to know that I live in a country that 20 years ago would never have sanctioned any of this insanity. [00:10:52] Speaker A: We wouldn't have even dreamt of it. [00:10:53] Speaker C: And, yeah, and today, people vote for it. [00:11:01] Speaker A: People clap. [00:11:02] Speaker C: Big fucking thing. Zig Heil. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Basically, when I think of this regime and what it's like, based on or what we've learned, it's based on bullying. It's based on double speak and confusion tactics and gaslighting and fear and it's based on, you know, taking what a different regime in history did and trying to change it so that it's not as obvious. But those of us with any historical context see directly through what's going on. [00:11:36] Speaker A: Yep. [00:11:38] Speaker B: You know, between registries and. I feel like it's almost every day now that there's a new video of somebody being taken off the street. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Literally disappearing people. [00:11:53] Speaker C: Just because there isn't a video doesn't mean it didn't happen. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you guys know what our friend Kanye did over the weekend? [00:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you see the album cover? [00:12:02] Speaker C: I want to know. I don't think I want to know. Please. [00:12:05] Speaker A: The title of the song is only two words, and the first one is Heil. What do you think the second one is? I, you not. Track called Heil Hitler got dropped over the weekend. [00:12:17] Speaker C: God damn. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Well, did you see the album cover? The album is supposed to be called World War Three. The album cover. I saw a video weeks ago with the person who took the original photo because Kanye just photoshopped it and changed somebody else's photo that was supposed to be like a political piece. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Oh, God. [00:12:38] Speaker B: You know, it's two people in KKK uniforms, but one is white and one is red. And Kanye is supposed to be in the red one or something. But it was a bunch of photoshopped of a different piece. But like, yeah, what world are we living in where a man that we collectively know is off the fucking rocker is. Obviously sees what this regime is about more than the people who voted for them. [00:13:06] Speaker A: I want to know why they give him a platform. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Because we're not like Germany who banned Nazism. [00:13:13] Speaker A: We're going to get into that next week. The joys of banning things and porn bans in particular. Okay. [00:13:19] Speaker B: So that's a lot to deal with in the first hundred plus days of a presidency when it comes to news. And recently, speaking of, you know, people being arrested or getting disappeared, the mayor of New Jersey's largest city was arrested this past Friday after allegedly trying to force his way into a migrant detention facility. And he has been released. They took Mayor Baraka down to a DHS detention center. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:54] Speaker B: When they arrested him, because I don't believe. Was it ICE and the police, or was it just. [00:14:00] Speaker A: It was just DHS that picked him up. And, you know, since then, DHS has been saying that there's an ongoing investigation and they have made some absolutely wild claims. So what I want to put out there is the body cam footage of all this is out there, right? [00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:17] Speaker A: DHS is saying things like, one of the congressmen body slammed an innocent female DHS agent. And we're all looking at the footage, waiting for the body slam, and it's just not there. [00:14:27] Speaker C: Where's the entertainment? [00:14:28] Speaker A: But they're talking about locking people up for it. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. This is the double speak I was mentioning. Got it earlier. This is. There are four lights for the Star Trek fans out there. [00:14:41] Speaker A: Yes. Three. [00:14:43] Speaker B: You're seeing something. And now we're telling you that you're not seeing that. [00:14:48] Speaker A: The short list of people who was there were Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and Lamonica McIver, all Democrats from New Jersey. They were protesting the reopening of Delaney hall to hold migrants, arguing that the private prison company operating in Geo Group lacks the proper permits. So we're watching this one really closely because now we're talking about locking up Congress critters. And that's. That's an interesting maneuver. [00:15:13] Speaker C: Did you just call them Congress, Dad? [00:15:16] Speaker A: Yes, I did. [00:15:17] Speaker C: I like that. [00:15:19] Speaker B: Yeah. I also am starting to see a trend of. I mean, I guess this is ice's whole thing, but people are being arrested, and then it's like they have to doctor up a reason why. Yeah, like, you know, that doesn't happen. [00:15:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of talk about trespassing in this case, and I don't see people that are not on public property. So what the hell? [00:15:43] Speaker C: They asked him to leave the premises and he did. He went outside onto public property, and then they decided, fuck it, we're going to arrest him anyway. Let's, let's. Let's piss some Democrats off. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Yeah. They wanted to make an example. They wanted to own the libs. [00:15:58] Speaker B: The Republican side does not see the issue with just arresting people. [00:16:04] Speaker C: Oh, hold on, hold on. They just don't have the ponies to stand up to Fearless leader. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Yes. And, you know, these guys know what they're doing is wrong because the bulk of them, they're wearing masks and sunglasses. [00:16:24] Speaker B: Because they don't want to be identified. [00:16:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So I look at situations like, you know, Bobby, you live in one of these places of the world where it is illegal for you to go outside wearing a mask because it might obscure your identity. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Well, yeah. [00:16:36] Speaker A: And yet they're encouraging it with law enforcement and ICE agents. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Well, don't forget, most countries think it's weird that America has undercover cops. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:48] Speaker B: You know, where. [00:16:49] Speaker C: Where. [00:16:51] Speaker B: Exactly. The ICE is just another arm of the police, in a way. When we were talking about our favorite, least favorite things coming out of this administration regime Same thing at this point, I mentioned, you know, trans rights being taken away, trans history being erased, stuff like that. And now we have the official no more transgender people in the military. I'm just going to start off with this. Makes me enraged. There are many facets of it that make me enraged, but the whole general idea does. So per an AP news article that basically broke down the entirety of what they're considering transgender in the military and how they're finding this and why we can't have transgender people in the military. Apparently the transgender community is not strong enough to mentally or physically endure what is needed to be in the military, which I think is pure bullshit. Considering being trans is a battle you live with every day that. That, you know, you can't fix with a machine gun. I would say that there are some things in war that are easier than being transgender. So there's that. And then to tie into things like a registry and going into people's medical records. For those in the military who have not yet come out, they will be going through military medical records to find any cases of troops that have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or seem to be getting therapy or treatments for gender dysphoria. [00:18:44] Speaker A: And these are the same people that scream about hipaa. [00:18:47] Speaker B: I was about to say hipaa who. I remember when we were first talking about the autism registries, a lot of people were saying, well, oh, that breaks hippo. Well, now no one in the military has medical privacy. Basically, if you are in the military, you no longer have medical privacy. They will look through your medical records whenever they want for any reason. And right now, it's for gender dysphoria. Wow. There's a lot about this that is just infuriating. Nobody has any privacy anymore. They're just going to dig through your records. The. The way they're talking about those who have already come out or been forced out, they say that those troops are in the process of voluntarily leaving the military. Yeah, you made these people come out. I know there were some that were out and proud and ready, but there were a lot that, you know, weren't comfortable yet. Your reasoning for them to come out was because you need to know who trans in the military to ban them from the military. But we're saying that those who have already come out are voluntarily leaving the military. [00:20:03] Speaker C: Cool. [00:20:03] Speaker B: I love this. Doublespeak. This is great. It's like we're teaching a whole country about gaslighting all at once. [00:20:10] Speaker A: You want doublespeak? They. They called for a mandatory voluntary self identification how do you use mandatory voluntary and voluntary mandatory voluntary self identification. What the does that mean? [00:20:26] Speaker B: I mean, if we want to get even enough further into the contradictory statements, they are going to make some exceptions for those who are currently transgender in the military. Or how they like to boil it down to those who suffer from gender. [00:20:42] Speaker C: Dysphoria twisted a little hard. [00:20:44] Speaker B: Let's remember that you don't need gender dysphoria to be trans. It's a symptom. It's a possible symptom of being trans. So that's going to be a whole nother episode probably. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Bobby. They're trying to make gender dysphoria seem like a disorder that makes people trans so that they they can make it about gender dysphoria to prevent people from being trans. [00:21:04] Speaker B: And they're also trying to make it seem like those with gender dysphoria are lesser than and weak. Huh. I wonder what happened the last time an entire group of people was thought to be lesser than and weaker than. So they are putting out rules for exceptions for those who are currently trans in the military. Let me just pull up this article again because I want to get some of the wording right, but in the same tone of doublespeak. Part of this ban has to do with making sure that we don't use pronouns in the military. No, no more pronouns in a world. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Where everybody is called sir or ma'. [00:21:53] Speaker B: Am per the new Pentagon policy would allow for limited exemptions that includes transgender personnel seeking to enlist who can prove on a case by case basis that they directly support war fighting activities. [00:22:11] Speaker C: How do you prove that despite your gender dysphoria and wish to transition, you have war fighting? How do you prove you have this war fighting will unless you go and shoot up a fucking elementary school, you crazy ass. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Their exemptions are you are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but you basically still listen to orders is what I get from you agree with the war fighting. And then the other part of that is, is you have to, if you are diagnosed with gender dysphoria for 36 months, live in your assigned gender at birth without any signs of mental or psychological distress and you have to be called sir or madam and go to the bathroom that aligns with your gender assigned at birth. But we are no longer using pronouns in the military because. [00:23:27] Speaker C: We can say this and we can, and they can have totally opposite meanings, but they must exist in our same crazy universe. [00:23:37] Speaker B: It comes to things like these exemptions forcing somewhat because you don't live with gender dysphoria and not be affected by it mentally and psychologically without getting the proper help. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Between what the HHS put out for care for minors and children with gender dysphoria, when we look at that and we look at this type of exception, or what they want to call, quote, unquote exception, it really reads like, let's see how much of the trans population we can get to kill themselves before we start outwardly going after them. And I know that's a big thing to say. I know that's a heavy thing to say, but one of the main treatments for gender dysphoria is having the person be able to live in the gender that they are. And this is just discussed. All of this and the fact that this transgender troop ban is happening the weekend that is the anniversary of the first Nazi book burning at the sexual institute of science. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:53] Speaker B: They were trying to. [00:24:54] Speaker A: Or are we? [00:24:56] Speaker B: And not only that, the second part of the coincidence is that those who have not outed themselves as trans military already. I forgot which branches have which days, but I know they have until June 6th and 7th. So Pride Month. And if I'm correct, either one or both of those days is specifically a trans pride day. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So this is coordinated to abuse and disenfranchise people. You're out of your mind. [00:25:21] Speaker C: Excuse me to interject. I am not transgender. I am not queer. I have no gender dysmorphia. I am a boomer. It absolutely infuriates me that anybody with no firsthand experience in the issue has the gall, the absolute, unmitigated gall to tell me that my child, who I witnessed go through the pain and the trauma of gender dysphoria, hasn't got the personal fortitude and stamina to serve in the military. Pardon me. Pardon me. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Amen. I may have flat feet and ask. [00:26:10] Speaker C: Pardon me and gentlemen, but you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. You don't know. You're ignorant. Climbing off the soapbox right now. [00:26:22] Speaker A: I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. Because when you look at what people go through just to be themselves, you're going tell me that this is someone who's not qualified to fight. They're fighting their entire life all the time. [00:26:34] Speaker B: These aren't people who are dedicated. They don't have the dedication and the mindset and the willpower of what it takes to be in the military. Maybe I've never shot a gun, so I don't know what that's like. Meanwhile, being trans is figuring out the world Again, want to kill. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Are they looking forward to going to war? Probably not, but you'll draft their ass anyway if they don't come out. [00:27:01] Speaker D: Alright, alright, Defiant Ones Skeeter here dropping in to give you the lowdown on how to stay connected with your favorite purveyors of truth and witty banter. That's us, by the way, over at Critical Defiance. You've been showing some serious love lately, and we are absolutely here for it. So if you want to make it official and join the ranks of the truly defiant, head on over to critical defiance.com that's where you can dive deeper into what we're all about. And because we know you're all about that on the go life, you can snag our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your audio fix. Subscribe and you'll never miss a moment of our insightful. Well, you know, rambling. But wait, there's more. We actually want to hear what's bouncing around in that brilliant brain of yours, so drop a comment on our episode pages@critical defiance.com and let us know what you think. We're also hanging out on Blue Sky, Instagram and Facebook, and we'd love for you to join the party there too. You can find all the links conveniently located on our homepage. Consider it your treasure map to enlightenment and maybe a few memes. Seriously though, if you dig what we're doing, spread the word like a juicy piece of gossip at a family reunion. Tell your friends, tell your enemies. Maybe they'll finally see the light. Tell your barista, tell anyone who will listen. And hey, if you're feeling particularly generous and want to toss a little something our way to keep the truth telling train chugging along, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com critical defiance every little bit helps us keep the mics hot and the critical thinking flowing. Thanks for being awesome, Defiant Ones. Now go forth and challenge the status quo. [00:28:44] Speaker A: Welcome back to Critical Defiance, the podcast that likes to poke holes in the comfortable social narratives that keep us enslaved. I'm Niels, and with me, as always, are the sharp minds of Bobby Socks and Bill. [00:28:56] Speaker B: Hey, everyone. Ready to get a little uncomfortable? [00:29:01] Speaker C: Good to be here, Niels. Let's unpack this dream, shall we? [00:29:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that's exactly what we're here to do, Bill. Today we're tackling a concept so deeply ingrained in the American psyche, it's practically a national anthem. The American Dream. But in the 21st century, does that dream still hold water? Or has it become More of a mirage in the desert of stagnant wages and rising inequality for generations. The story we've been sold is pretty straightforward. Work hard, play by the rules, and you'll climb the ladder. Own that little slice of suburban heaven and your kids will have it even better. Bobby socks. What's your take on that classic picture? Is it still holding up? [00:29:42] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely, Niels. Just gotta pull yourself up by those bootstraps that you can't afford because your wages haven't budged since Dial up was cutting edge. The idea is lovely, this Horatio Alger story, but the data paints a pretty bleak picture for a lot of folks. We're seeing increasing wealth concentration at the top, and the rungs on that ladder seem to be getting further and further apart. [00:30:13] Speaker C: And let's not forget the foundational inequities that were baked into the cake from the start. For many marginalized communities, that dream was never even a possibility. We're talking about systemic barriers based on race, gender, and so much more that have historically and to this day continue to prevent equal opportunity. Redlining, a practice which excluded blacks from many communities, was active policy within the financial community until 1968 and still goes on undiscovered in many cases. And up until 1974, it was perfectly legal to deny credit and mortgages to unmarried women. Barely 50 years ago, it might seem like a long time for younger listeners, but take it from someone old enough to have lived through ain't. I was born in the 50s. My father was a high school dropout with little ambition and maybe even less work ethic. A man who seldom a job for as long as a year, yet somehow managed to cover the costs of two children, buy a car, and purchase a home on Long Island. As a point of reference, that home cost a little under $11,000. You can barely remodel a bathroom for that today. There were no luxuries and certainly no credit cards. We survived, but we did it on the sporadic income of just one person, as did virtually all of the other families in our little slice of suburban heaven. Try and accomplish that today. [00:32:13] Speaker A: I don't know many people who could nowadays. [00:32:15] Speaker B: It sounds like laughter. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Utter fiction. [00:32:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:19] Speaker B: Like Bill, I know you lived through it, but it's a. For my generation that it might as well just be for movies. [00:32:25] Speaker C: I get it, I get it. I understand that. Because I look back and I was like, how is this even possible? I look around me today at people who are struggling just to pay rent and they gotta. They gotta stop buying coffee so they can save up Enough for a house. [00:32:44] Speaker A: It's always the avocado toast. [00:32:47] Speaker B: And it's infuriating when especially again, being from the younger generation. Bill, there's a good portion of your generation, the boomers who like to tell us, the millennials, gen zers, that we're. [00:33:01] Speaker C: Just hard on you young whipper snappers. [00:33:04] Speaker A: It's the avocado toast. [00:33:08] Speaker B: We're killing the restaurant industry, but we go out to eat too much, but we're not working hard enough, and we should be able to buy a house. [00:33:18] Speaker A: It got worse in the 80s. I think that's where I saw it for the first time with my own eyes, was growing up in the 80s and hearing these phrases like greed is good and seeing these guys in suits on the TV talking about basically owning the damn world. [00:33:35] Speaker C: By the 1980s, it took a second income and a half dozen credit cards just to keep pace. Housing prices had quadrupled twice since the 60s and were really on the verge of skyrocketing. A new car now cost at least twice what a new home used to cost in 1960. If you were employed, you probably had health insurance, but by this time, your copay was nearly equivalent to what the entire bill would have been a couple decades prior to. This was the decade when guaranteed pensions started to dwindle and the stay at home parent became an endangered species. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Both of my parents work. They had to. And in the 90s, I'm watching people put up these McMansions, these idiotically huge, overdone houses on tiny lots and buying Escalades. And now all of a sudden, it's all about excess. It's all about showing your neighbors how much you've got. [00:34:38] Speaker B: When the 90s and 2000s hit, the American dream started to become more of a status symbol than an attainable goal. Houses got bigger and bigger. One car stopped being enough. And the more objects you had, the closer you were to attaining this dream. The explosion of reality TV definitely didn't help the populace have a good idea of a standard. It was just the more you have, the closer you are. It stopped being the house, husband, wife, 2.5 kids, and turned into how many acres is your mansion, how many bathrooms does it have? And how many cars can you fit in your garage? [00:35:19] Speaker C: Exactly, Bobby. By this time, the dream had become more of an illusion than an actuality, more appearance than reality. The Keeping up with the Joneses ethos of the 50s and 60s had become more of a keeping up with the facade. [00:35:39] Speaker B: It turned into Keeping up with the Kardashians. [00:35:42] Speaker C: Oh, my. Yeah, yeah. [00:35:44] Speaker B: A way to show the. I almost want to say, bastardization of the American dream. [00:35:53] Speaker A: What better example of realistic goals and standards? No, seriously. Yeah. It got hyper competitive. Suddenly the American dream was about what you could accumulate and how much you could show it off. [00:36:04] Speaker B: And it became a race. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And it was always something of a rat race, but woof. The 80s cranked it up and then the output in the 90s and the 2000s was just off the wall. We convinced America in the 90s and the 2000s that there were no poor people. We were all middle class. And most of us were actually just temporarily inconven millions to billionaires. So we should act like it. [00:36:31] Speaker B: I remember when we had to get a couch and I remember crying. [00:36:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:38] Speaker B: I remember being like, what do you mean? The couches on the cheaper end are in the $800 range and the average couch is like a thousand five hundred. Is it too late for me to learn carpentry and upholstery? [00:36:52] Speaker A: I have a rough idea of what your rent is because we've talked about it. And the thing that blows my mind is in the same market, when I was your age, my apartment was four times larger and half the price. [00:37:04] Speaker B: Oh. [00:37:06] Speaker A: So it blows my mind to see how it's progressed. My bathroom was bigger than your kitchen. Wow. [00:37:14] Speaker C: It. [00:37:14] Speaker A: Wow. That was my mind. [00:37:17] Speaker B: That's real depressing. [00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:20] Speaker C: I rented a three bedroom house. Cottage. It was small, but it was on the water for $500 per month. [00:37:37] Speaker B: I. All right, so I'm gonna say a feeling that most of my generation feels, especially regarding the American dream. With hearing the prices and how they've changed like that. I was focusing on the wrong shit in utero. Man. I should have been starting my savings for my house. I should have been learning about the housing market. [00:38:00] Speaker A: And you shouldn't have had the avocado baby formula. Really? [00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Like a man. Oh my God. From the sleek houseware ads of the 1950s and 60s to the stories told in books, film and music, we can trace the evolution of societies and specifically America's view on this stream. [00:38:23] Speaker C: The funny thing is that as long as the goal remained attainable through the 50s and the 60s, media and advertising focused upon its embellishments. As soon as attainability faded in the 80s and 90s, their whole focus shifted to necessities. Let's just sell them what the hell they need because they can barely afford. [00:38:46] Speaker A: That and mark that up, because that's part of what happened economically is up stops being on luxury goods. They started looking for the margin from the rest of us. [00:38:56] Speaker C: Yes. And instead of making it last 30 or 40 years, make it last three or four years. [00:39:02] Speaker B: So then we have to keep buying it. [00:39:04] Speaker C: Yeah, don't even. [00:39:06] Speaker A: My two favorite examples of that are cell phones and boots. [00:39:10] Speaker B: Yeah, those are my favorite examples. [00:39:12] Speaker A: If you give somebody 50 bucks to go buy a pair of boots, they will. And they will last them six months, a year, and then they will spend another 50 bucks to buy another pair of boots. Give them $200 to go buy a pair of boots that last them 20 years. The net savings is massive. But most people don't necessarily have the 200 bucks up front that is American life today. [00:39:33] Speaker C: Yes. [00:39:33] Speaker A: And the average American can't handle a 400 emergency for folks. [00:39:37] Speaker C: Right. And if today you give them $200 to buy a good pair of boots, they'll say that I'm buying the $50 pair because I need the 150 for a bill. I need to pay my electric. [00:39:49] Speaker A: So, Bobby, you had thrown a hell of a quote at us, and I think it was from a track you wanted to talk about because it was something that got your mind moving. [00:39:58] Speaker B: So in the spirit of this episode, I've pulled lyrics from the Green Day song. [00:40:05] Speaker C: From whose song? [00:40:06] Speaker A: Go figure. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Wow. From I know. We're all so shocked and in awe. I've pulled lyrics from the Green Day song titled the American Dream is Killing Me, just as a really great example to show again how media is showing how society feels about this myth. The American dream is killing me. People on the street unemployed and obsolete. Did you ever learn to read the Ransom Note? Don't want no huddled masses TikTok and taxes under the overpass Sleeping on broken glass. Obviously with the title, it was hard not to just be like, I'm going to throw the whole lyrics into the show notes. [00:40:49] Speaker A: I wish we could afford to license it. But it brings something to mind for me, Bobby, that I didn't think of before we started recording, which is from the top down. And I think you'll agree with this too, Bill. The corporate media has one message, and from the bottom up, the poets and the artists and the beatniks and the musicians have a different message. And somewhere in the middle, where we live, they collide. Yeah, that gets a little interesting. It brings us to places that we talked about when we prepped for this episode, like movies and stuff like that, that have that American dream motif or that American dream gone wrong motif. Or something we train. Yeah. Or something that we try and draw into the American Dream. Like Gatsby great one. [00:41:39] Speaker C: I don't know how much you struggled with picking the exact lyrics to use here, but I can tell you that the ones you chose, they encapsulate my own sense of loss and mourning for something we should never have lost. [00:41:58] Speaker B: It's interesting that from your. Also your perspective and your age, that's how you hear it. Because I hear it as somebody validating how I feel about the American dream now being suffocating and overpowering and not in a positive way. The American dream trying to get it feels like just being hit down over and over. [00:42:28] Speaker C: I grew up as a kid believing this shit. This was like a fucking icon for me. And then the decade after fucking decade, I watched it be brutalized and just decimated. And now we're here where we are today. And yeah, it ain't a dream, it's a goddamn nightmare. [00:42:53] Speaker B: Okay, so the dream might be fading or turning into a nightmare, as Bill said, but what's actively extinguishing it for so many, I'd argue it's the trifecta of debt, housing costs and healthcare. Bill, you've done some digging on the housing front, right? What are we seeing out there? [00:43:12] Speaker C: It's brutal, Bobby. The dream of owning a home, that symbol of stability and upward mobility. It's becoming a fantasy for a huge chunk of the population, especially you younger people. According to Harvard's Joint center for Housing Studies, a typical mortgage. In 1965, my childhood accounted for roughly 17% of household income. Today, in 2025, that same mortgage drains more than 34% of household income. That's a doubling of housing costs relative to stagnant income over that period. We're talking about bidding wars and predatory lending practices and wages that simply haven't kept pace with skyrocketing prices. [00:44:14] Speaker B: And don't even get me started on student loan debt. It's like shackling an entire generation before they even have a chance to run the race. The average student loan Debt is now $35,000 at minimum, which is massive dragging down the economic mobility. Niels, what about the healthcare piece of this nightmare? [00:44:36] Speaker A: It's a moral and economic catastrophe, Bobby Socks. The fact that a medical emergency can be bankrupt a family in the wealthiest nation on earth is a stark indictment of the system. We see millions uninsured or underinsured. And even with insurance out of pocket, costs can be crippling. This isn't about pulling yourself up by those freaking bootstraps. It's about trying to stay afloat in a leaky boat nowadays. And the bootstrap Thing drives me nuts because it's. People like to talk about meritocracy, but the version of it these guys have in their head winds up being something completely different. [00:45:12] Speaker B: And we hear stuff all the time that like McDonald's, Starbucks and any other company you can think of fast food wise will hear about how that they're reaching record heights with stocks and the money that the companies were and their profitability. We hear about how as companies the profitability is going through the roof, but that's not matching the wages of the workers. [00:45:38] Speaker A: No workers get a pizza party to celebrate their success. What the fuck? And you can't have capitalism. You really can't have the style of capitalism we have in the end, without slavery. It was built on slavery, it's designed around slavery. [00:45:58] Speaker C: We are absolutely moving ourselves backward to a class based caste system. Guys, I'm old. I like to think of myself as lucky for having lived through what I consider to be the quote, golden age of serfdom. Let me explain. Every civilization has had their surf class, the downtrodden laborers who propped up the leaders, the nobility, the feudal lords, the merchants. This hierarchy survived well into the 1800s, becoming somewhat less brutal through the centuries, but surviving nonetheless. As the capitalist industrialists rose through the 19th century, they accumulated more and more wealth and power which they wielded over the lower classes with little or no oversight. Their boundless thirst for more of everything served them well. Until it didn't. By the 1890s, the vast imbalance of wealth and the beginning rise of workers rights movements plunged the nation into a severe economic depression. In response, politicians, ever attuned to the shifting winds, began to legislate regulations on the industries and protections for the workers. At least until the tide of depression was turned. Then, instead of continuing the effort to its logical conclusion, they sat back and congratulated themselves on having averted a total economic collapse. Until barely 30 years later, the Great depression wreaked havoc on the world once again. The great minds got together, sat down and formulated an appropriate response. This time they went much farther, determined not to leave behind a system that was destined to repeat history. And they largely succeeded. The decades that followed were easily the most prosperous of any before or since. For the vast majority of the populace. The golden age of serfdom, half a century of success beyond anyone's wildest imaginings ultimately led to complacency and forgetfulness. The wealthy began clamoring for lower taxes and got them. The corporations began clamoring for less interference and got it. The financial industry began clamoring for less regulation. And guess what? They got it all. While the working class struggled ever harder just to stay afloat. And within 30 years, the Great Recession of 2008 was our reward. But instead of serving as a warning beacon, it went largely unheeded. So that today we find ourselves on the precipice of yet another economic collapse. So that today we find ourselves on the precipice of yet another economic collapse that is largely the result of our own actions and inactions, or at least those of our ruling class. Granted, there's a significant body of evidence that this pending catastrophe can largely be attributed to the actions of a single player. But let's not forget, we the people, experience the brunt of the pain. We the people chose to ignore the lessons, and we the people placed that single player in the position of power he now occupies. [00:50:20] Speaker A: To talk about that single player for a second, his cronies have been making a very interesting point when it comes to the economy and how they want to handle the American economy. Lately, they've been running around saying that factories are our future, which is factories here. And having Americans work in factory jobs is our future. And that's where it gets crazy. Because when you survey Americans on the right, you find out that 80% of them agree that factories are the future of our economy. And then if you wait a week and survey the same group of people, 73% of them say they would never work in a factory, how's that going to work? [00:51:06] Speaker B: Talk about no explains. Sounds like the poor are all the horse from Animal Farm on our way to the glue factory. [00:51:15] Speaker C: Can I respond with a resounding bullshit. 30, 35 years ago, we decided that we were no longer going to be a manufacturing economy. It was time for us to evolve into a service economy. And we've done that successfully for the last 30 goddamn years. And now we have this Luddite. This. [00:51:46] Speaker A: Yep. [00:51:46] Speaker C: This product of idiocy who believes clean. [00:51:50] Speaker A: Coal is real clean coal. [00:51:52] Speaker C: For what's actual sake, take us back. [00:51:54] Speaker A: Mandatory, voluntary. [00:51:56] Speaker C: You cannot take us back to where we were 40 years ago without utterly ruining us. [00:52:05] Speaker B: I think they're trying to go back a little further. [00:52:07] Speaker C: We are already in pain. We are already in sad economic shape. Our wealth inequality has never seen levels like this. But you want to take us all back and put us in factories, and you want to keep us there. And then you want to have us working beside our children in those same factories. Wait, don't I remember this from the 1880s, 1890s. [00:52:38] Speaker A: Generational jobs. [00:52:40] Speaker C: I'm Having a flash. [00:52:41] Speaker A: That may be for different reasons. [00:52:43] Speaker C: If the traditional American dream is looking more like a faded photograph, like a nightmare, what could a more realistic and equitable vision look like? Is it solely about material wealth? Or are there other measures of success and well being we should be focusing on? [00:53:05] Speaker A: I think that's the crucial question, Bill. Maybe the dream needs a serious upgrade. Instead of just chasing bigger houses and more stuff, perhaps we should be prioritizing things like economic security for all, access to quality education and healthcare as a right and a sustainable environment. Just maybe. [00:53:27] Speaker B: I'm with you, Nils. Maybe the dream shouldn't be about individual accumulation at the expense of everyone else. What about a society where everyone has a fair shot, where basic needs are met and where community and collective well being are valued? It might not be as flashy as the McMansion fantasy, but it sounds a lot more achievable. [00:53:50] Speaker C: And perhaps we need to challenge the individualistic narrative that underpins the traditional dream. We are all interconnected and a society where some thrive while others struggle ultimately hurts everyone. Maybe, just maybe, the new American dream is about collective progress and ensuring a decent quality of life for all. [00:54:22] Speaker A: You call me. [00:54:24] Speaker B: I know there are definitely some people who are like communism, but it's like, why can't we just. [00:54:29] Speaker C: Can we share our toys? [00:54:31] Speaker B: But when it comes to this dream, I think at this point in time, in 2025, the definition of success has changed. In terms of the American dream, do we all still want a white picket fence and 2.5 kids? Is the American dream now just about surviving? Is it about something else? Like, how do y' all define it? [00:54:57] Speaker A: I would say for many it is about surviving. For me, the American dream is autonomy. Not being wealthy, it's not being rich. It's having enough money to have the options that I want in life. The option to do things, to go places, to spend time with people, spread it around a little bit. I want choices. I want options. So it's not about the money itself. For me. It's about what it gives me. So for me, it's having enough to do those things. It's not about the house or the car or the white picket fence. For me. There's actually no, like, image. What it is. [00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really the hierarchy of needs. [00:55:35] Speaker A: At this point is Maslow is here today. [00:55:39] Speaker B: It's Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Running water and food. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Yes. [00:55:43] Speaker B: And feeling safe. [00:55:45] Speaker C: My dream is that I would like to know that I can get sick and not have as my only two options, either dying or Burdening my children with lifelong medical debt. That's all I want. [00:56:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I think my idea of the American dream is. Well, at this point for my generation, the words the American dream almost seem not a threat, but just a way to make fun of somebody, put somebody down. I don't know, it's a negative term for me. I just want to survive for me, like I would like. Like what Neil said, like I to have enough money to make some options and also be able to give and maybe be great to not live paycheck to paycheck. Because at this point, more people in America are one paycheck away from being homeless than we are one paycheck away from being a billionaire. [00:56:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's the thing. When you see that homeless guy on the street, remember that is three steps from being you. And Elon is 30. [00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:48] Speaker A: So. So is the American dream dead? Maybe not entirely, but the previous version of it is certainly in critical condition. I think it's time we stopped blindly chasing a potentially outdated ideal and started demanding a more just and equitable society where opportunity isn't a lottery ticket, but a fundamental right. [00:57:10] Speaker E: In a world of relentless innovation and unparalleled influence, there are those who shape the very fabric of our cultural landscape. They are visionaries. They are pioneers. [00:57:20] Speaker A: They are Big Gay. [00:57:22] Speaker E: At Big Gay, we don't just set trends. We are the trend. From groundbreaking advancements in avant garde textile design to the strategic deployment of culturally impactful meme campaigns, our diverse portfolio redefines excellence. Our employees. They are the best and brightest individuals who possess not only exceptional talent, but an innate understanding of the nuanced art of fabulous. They navigate complex social dynamics with effortless grace and possess an uncanny ability to identify the perfect statement piece, be it a power suit or a perfectly timed bon mot. Big Gay offers more than just a career. It offers an ascension. A chance to collaborate with the leading minds in fields you didn't even know existed, to enjoy perks that transcend the ordinary, from private viewings at exclusive art galleries to bespoke emotional intelligence coaching sessions. If you possess an unparalleled drive for innovation, an unwavering commitment to aesthetic excellence, and a demonstrable aptitude for turning heads, then perhaps you have what it takes to join the ranks of the elite Big Gay, where influence is always in vogue. Visit biggay enterprises.comcareers to explore opportunities. [00:58:35] Speaker A: I didn't have much time to dig into this, but right before we got in here to record, I noticed a skeet on Blue sky where they call them Skeets. Which is terrifying, if you know what that means. And, yeah. So the owner of the Old State Saloon in Boise, Idaho has announced they'll be hosting a Hetero Awesome Fest in Boise outside the State Capitol building in late June to counter. Oh, LGBTQ Pride Month. [00:59:05] Speaker B: That's scary, considering some of the other things Idaho is currently doing and trying. [00:59:10] Speaker A: To pass the Hetero Awesome Festival. [00:59:13] Speaker C: This is. [00:59:14] Speaker B: Sounds like two minutes hate from 1984 for straight people. [00:59:19] Speaker C: This is the equivalent of taking Black Lives Matter and turning it into All Lives Matter. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I see. Well, me Niels can probably relate to the. Every Pride month, we get to see the comments of why don't we have a straight Pride parade? [00:59:37] Speaker C: Oh, God. [00:59:38] Speaker A: Because you're all straight. Because all you fuckers are straight. [00:59:41] Speaker B: Because most of the world is the default straight. [00:59:45] Speaker C: Yeah. President Donald Trump says he will appoint Fox News host and former prosecutor Janine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. I would love to say that I'm surprised, but I've been sitting around here for a hundred days watching all those other appointments, and this is right up there, right on top. This is. Yeah, I should have expected it. [01:00:17] Speaker A: I totally. [01:00:18] Speaker B: 100 years. [01:00:19] Speaker A: I thought he had a type. We have Press Secretary Barbie. You have Justice Department Barbie. We have DHS Dark Barbie. [01:00:31] Speaker B: Don't do Barbie. [01:00:32] Speaker C: Like, this Barbie would never. [01:00:34] Speaker A: He's got a type. And now Jeanine Pierrot, he's branching out. [01:00:38] Speaker B: Is it branching out if we're picking more people known mostly for TV things that make you go. And then we have our third freedom fumble. So we have Sad Santos. [01:00:55] Speaker C: Oh, dear God. Is he stolen? [01:00:57] Speaker A: Yo, Santos. [01:00:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:59] Speaker B: George Santos is still in the news. He's been asking Trump for pardon. And I just. Here's a quote from a grown man. We're talking about masculinity. And I'm not being gay. This sounds gay. I don't know, man. The quote is, I'll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the President is willing to give me. Oh, my God. [01:01:24] Speaker A: Poor little man. [01:01:25] Speaker B: Can you get up off your knees? [01:01:27] Speaker A: Holy. [01:01:29] Speaker C: Literally and figuratively. [01:01:33] Speaker B: Because. [01:01:34] Speaker A: So I got a big win for us this week. I got one good big Bill Gates. Bill Gates. Aside from taking this regime to task, particularly Elon, and talking about how the world's richest man is killing its poor, poorest children, Bill Gates has announced that he will be donating 99% of his wealth, which is about $107 billion. So every week, we like to talk about stuff we can do. What do you Guys, think. [01:02:04] Speaker B: Design your own dream. Take the American dream and make it work for you. Sometimes that's when you have an apartment. The American dream is baby steps. Like going from a mattress on the floor to a bed frame. Don't let the media tell you what your dream should be. Don't let your dreams be dreams. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Is it two and a half children or is it two and a half cats? That's up to you. Don't let anybody tell you what you're supposed to do with your life. [01:02:29] Speaker B: It's 2025. Pets are the new children. [01:02:34] Speaker C: Beware of the myth. Learn to notice when the assumption of the reality of the American dream is an underpinning of what you're being sold. They convinced millions and millions of Americans to take out 30 year mortgages, to spend 30 years for most of them back then, the better part of their lives in debt to buy a house. Yes, those millions and millions of Americans built some wealth. You know who built a lot of wealth? The bankers, the financiers. We still just go to work to pay our bills and our mortgage rat race. Maybe that house is really a nightmare. Hey, critical thinkers still basking in that American dream glow. Hold onto your hats because next week we're venturing into some seriously tricky territory. We're talking about censorship. Yeah, that word that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. But we're not just talking about banning books, folks. We're diving into the debates raging around pornography and how attempts to control that particular form of expression can have some seriously spooky knock on effects. Think porn bans are just about well porn or well porn? Think again. We'll be dissecting how these restrictions can creep into other areas of our lives, chipping away at the very freedoms we claim to hold so dear. [01:04:36] Speaker B: We'll be looking at historical precedents, current legal battles, and the uncomfortable reality that when you start drawing lines about what people can consume, those lines have a nasty habit of moving. [01:04:51] Speaker C: Prepare for a conversation that might just change how you view the First Amendment. Tune in next week for Critical Defiance. You know where to find us. That's about all the time we have this week, but you can follow us. Sign up and find out more about the show over@critical defiance.com. don't forget to subscribe to us on Spotify or in your favorite podcast app. For easier listening. Hunt us down on social media and tell your friends to join us. If you'd like to donate and help boost our efforts, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com critical defiance or pledge your support by subscribing on our website. Every little bit helps on our journey to bring you great content. Tune in next week for Critical Defiance. You know where to find us.