Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - WHAT DO TEENAGERS THINK OF AMERICA TODAY? EP 50

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

The Power Move Podcast with Joh Gafford Episode 50Learn and burn Entrepreneurship from serial entrepreneur John Gafford and his band of mayhem makers. From stripper poles to the oval office, business lessons are everywhere. This Week:When it comes to American politics, teens tend to be fairly pessimistic. In a recent survey, only 24% of teens said they were satisfied with the way things were going in the country. This is in stark contrast to adults, who are much more likely to be satisfied with the state of American politics (41%).I wanted to bring my son, Hayden Gafford on to discuss the views of teens on America. Oh and Colt finally bought an iPhone. With Hayden Gafford, Chris Connell and Colt AmidanLinks: Listen On Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=70ad5ca4f51e4accListen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-power-move-with-john-gafford/id1582927283Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejohngafford/Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gafford2Watch the Vegas Strong Documentary https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdUyL_4Od8yY-3yVTsvY-aQ

from the art of the deal to keeping it real live from the simply vegas studios it's the power move with john gafford back again back again back again you know what i think boys episode 50 i think this is i think it's 50 5 0 is the number man this is like a cancel and today i gotta tell you this is a it's like an after school special today if you will it is this is going to be a very special episode of the power move because you're not the best looking one i know that's i'm not the best looking one well i definitely have the best hair today welcome to the power move my name is john gafford i am your host to the left of me I'm not the best looking one. Well, I definitely don't have the best hair today. There's a question on that. I definitely don't have that. Welcome to the Power Move.

My name is John Gafford. I am your host. To the left of me is, as always, Colt of the Bulgarian Mongoose Amidon. Colts. Or cold. It's Starbucks. Cold. Cold.

You know what? And also across from us is Chris, the counselor, as with us as always, and a very special guest in the studio today. Hair. For those of you who may wonder what it's like to live in my house and be part of my life, I've actually got Hayden Von Gafford I, my one and only son, in studio today. Hi, Hayden. Hi. There you go. How you doing?

First, I like that. Yeah, I mean, look, we're going to joke. I'm just going to add that to the end of mine. I want to, I want to say a lot of people, you know, I go to events and I go to things and I see people and they placate their kids onto stage and they, and they put them on stage and they put them here and I get it. Everybody's happy for their kid and everybody's proud of their son. I'm as proud of my son as you could be of anything um well maybe that's not true because i gotta tell you something i'm almost more proud of connell colt colt got an iphone he did

don't get me smart our text groups are no longer ruined they can have my life is ruined no more green bubble life is ruined i am no my life like Like, mi vida. It's horrible. Can you tell us the story of the iPhone? No, because, look, like, I'm like, oh, gosh. I had one client was like, oh, my gosh. And legit, really, I thought was mad about it. And I'm like, all right, this could be affecting my income. Plus, with other business ventures, you know, half people were on WhatsApp, Signal. And I'm like, this is just getting too much of a headache.

I seriously would have like 30 different things going at once. So I said, you know what? I'm going to buy the bullet, do the iPhone. Wow. And can I tell you? Here it comes. Holy. More than Tom Hanks?

Cover your ears because I'm about to hurt. No, no, because he's crazy. He's supposed to run me. Here's it. More than Tom Hanks? Worst fucking decision i've ever made in my life and i've made some bad decisions like sitting in this room with us every week is a bad decision probably seriously no oh my gosh you guys so i'm like okay so i had the original iphone okay then i got like the iphone three got rid of that three months later it was the original iphone

still pretty much got the i think fifth and sixth generation had both of those got rid of those no they're not they're the same phone so this phone i get on like cool something cool is going to happen oh it's vibrating that's pretty cool yeah buddy it's the original iphone it's slow it sucks the camera sucks it's not user friendly i have to use two hands with it because it's not everything's all over the board with it it's an absolute horrible phone and if you like it's for three reasons you're either a follower and if you like starbucks you're also a follower okay two you're ignorant you're ignorant because you've never had a better phone you've never had the samsung or three you're just so tied into apple so one of my clients who is a big apple works for apple been with apple

from day one he's like oh my god he got an an iPhone because you were texting. He goes, why would you do that? He goes, the new foldable Samsung, like we are all salivating. Like this thing is so amazing. Why would you go to an iPhone? I'm like, thank you. It's the worst, worst decision. So three things. Are you following?

And I'm shocked John. I'm shocked John likes the iPhone because he's usually on top of the good stuff, like everything that's good. No, you have to understand, John is a Mac user. So John is in the Apple ecosystem. So you're one of the three. He likes everything to work together. But is it worth having a shitty phone for that? John, have you ever once thought your phone was doing something

other than exactly what you wanted it to do? No. Well, that's because one of us believes their phone apparently plotting against them yeah and one and the rest of us don't it's just like it's it's an absolute garbage phone i'm serious like i was hoping to love it listen boomer settle down all right do you know at this point i'm gonna we're gonna go to the first youth of america, look. I want to say something before. So Colt's committing a common fallacy. Common fallacy. Which is?

This, what we call, what's it, ad veracundium. He's got these irrelevant appeals. Can't even Google it now. Irrelevant appeals to authority, right? So what he does is this. You ever seen those terrible memes online on Facebook? I know a guy who served in the military, and this is what he said. Therefore, that opinion is now somehow very valid, right?

The argument from anecdote. No, I've had both sides of this now. I've had a good phone, and now I have a shitty iPhone. You talk to one guy, right? Everyone I know that is in filmmaking and stuff swear by Apple. They go, this camera does stuff that you don't understand. Oh, really? Is that why John is like oh all time and cabo colt take the photo with your phone because you probably didn't even bring his phone that's me that's me placating you and if i don't

have a phone it's easy and i lost all my freaking cabo pictures stupid well you know maybe maybe that's the apple backs it up right to the cloud so it's just funny you can look at it it's called an advericondium i believe it's my job sometimes to throw out some scrabble words and uh that was a perfect i don't even know how you'd spell that so i can't even google check you on that adware i'm sure your iphone will uh complete the search for no it doesn't google it probably would no probably would did you mean advericondium colt okay well i tell you what you well my son is drifting into do we come on here to uh have a spelling challenge or are we talking about some stuff so no the reason that i had my son on today and and yes it's not going to be all all downers

today and it's not going to be all serious talk but i did want to talk about a couple things today on the problem just to let you know what we're going to talk about we're going to do this kind of two separate segments today right so the segment a let you know what we're going to talk about. We're going to do this kind of two separate segments today, right? So segment A is going to be we're going to talk about some political stuff. And I want to get a use view of America. I mean, I think it's funny for all of us to sit in here and just pontificate on whatever it is. And I have the next generation. My son just graduated top of his class from his private school, eighth grade class, which I guess is already disqualifying him from having an opinion that's going to be the better part of America.

But just, you know, he's a normal kid, right? He plays the video games. He does all this stuff. He sees all the same stuff. And I just want to get his kind of view of where America is based on current events, because obviously yesterday, shocker, shocker, happened again. Senseless tragedy of school. And, you know, thank God I got to pick my kids up from school yesterday cause 19 people did not. And, you know, and, and immediately today everybody jumps on, you know, the bandwagon

of the same bandwagon. They always jump on every single way that they do it. And I want to talk about some of the stuff I saw people say, I want to talk about, I just want to kind of get his idea of the view. So hi Hayden, how are you i am i'm good you're good so first of all i guess before we get to the serious stuff i'm going to i'm going to allow mr connell and colt to question you about me and anything they want because i think that you know people right now are hoping you say something that probably embarrasses me or shed

some light i don't feel that way in the very slightest. On the fact that I might put you in a closet. Go ahead, Colt. What's the first question for Aiden? How long does he take on his hair? His hair? I can answer that. He wakes up like that.

Dad probably takes like 30 minutes on his hair. It's not too long. Not too long? That is way long. See this right here? This is why you always need a counselor. We do. I've been with John.

Yes. I've traveled with John. Yes. Five minutes. Yeah. No, that's because he's not getting ready. He's not getting ready when he's in Egypt, the same way he's going to the office.

Of course I am. 30 minutes. We heard it from somebody. Five minutes. Okay, so now we've established my son has no concept of time. We've established that. I don't wake up at the same time Of course I am. 30 minutes we heard it from somebody. 5 minutes. Okay. So now we've established my son has no concept of time. We've established that. I don't wake up at the same time you do. Exactly. That's the problem. I'm going by when you do my

hair. Yes. We have like the same similar hair. That doesn't say it'd be 30 minutes to do your hair. It feels like it. It feels like it because you'd rather throw a hat on is what happens. John, could you do my hair? No. Is that why your hair looks so good? What do you beat him in what i beat him in um pretty much any fighting video game any video game yeah any video game

pretty much anymore which is humiliating to me which is weird that you haven't sort of put some time into it to try to make that not happen no you know it just it's it i kicked my kid's ass and he's so far ahead video games but i don't let my kids win anything. I don't let them win anything. My wife would get so mad. She's like, let him win. No, he's so far ahead. Well, I'm going to start asking some questions because I'm curious what you think.

And again, we had a conversation before this and I said, do not answer this stuff in a way that you think I want you to answer. If you say the wrong thing, you're grounded. But that's what we're essentially playing here. No, no. That's the thing about opinion. I just won a Supreme Court case.

Yes. Just wanted to throw that out there. Just wanted to throw that out there that you did that. Connell Law, 702 Connell. That's it, really? That's a Supreme Court for you, man. Good for you. It had to do with the rights of free speech.

Good for you. It was a free speech First Amendment issue. Good for you. And we won because somebody tried to sue my client for their opinion. They had an opinion on Yelp. And as the Supreme Court held, Court of Appeals held, that you can't have a false opinion. Okay. So in order to sue someone for defamation, I have to make false statements about you. So essentially what you're saying is I am constitutionally protected from looking dead into camera two and saying,

screw you Chili's, serve me six margaritas and tow my car. What kind of service is that? That's Chili's. That was really shitty service. That's right. That's it. You have an absolute constitution to protect the right set because if they sued you for defamation,

you file what's called a special rule of motion dismiss under anti-slap strategic lawsuits against public participation. Got it. Okay, cool. Anyway, sorry to throw that out there. That's a big one. You cannot have a false opinion. You can't have a false opinion. All right, cool.

So first, I want to say this. So the first question I'm going to get before we get into the nitty-gritty of specifics is, what do you, what say you about American politics? What do you think is good about it? What do you think is bad about it? I'm just curious. American politics kind of scare me. They do you think is good about it? What do you think is bad about it? I'm just curious. American politics kind of scare me. They scare you.

Why? I never really like to dive deep into that because like a while ago, I remember like a long time ago, it was the red and the blue. Pull your mic a little closer to your face, buddy. Okay. Okay.

It was the red and the blue and everybody knew what the red was doing and everybody knew what the blue was doing and you were very firmly on one side or another side and now it seems like every side is doing bad things and it's really hard to stick to one certain side because they're always doing something you like and something you don't like so that's why i just like to avoid them entirely and so but but how do you so how so avoiding it as far as just listening what they say or like say you're 18 years old like say tomorrow which in you know

four years you will be are you going to register do you think that registering to vote is important the way that you see the word in that I think it definitely is important but I really don't have a whole lot to base my ideas off of based on voting if I were to vote for somebody I would want to do a lot of extension research not by how much good

they're doing but by how little bad they're doing because there's no really other. Vote the candidate. Yeah. Vote the candidate, not the party. I've done that. I've voted for both. Yeah. Do you think that's going to... I think that we're going to see that with this newer generation and I think with

people following and idolizing so many people like Elon Musk and stuff and they sit there and go back and forth. I think this younger generation is not going to stick to one side or the other in my opinion as the older generations before us.

It could go one of two ways. It could go idiocracy style. Where it just keeps getting people, their parents because here's the reality. Most people's dumb ideas come from their dumb parents. Like that's a fact. If you's dumb ideas come from their dumb parents. Like, that's a fact. That's why people are racist. Yeah, your racist opinions come from your racist parents.

Your religion comes from your parents. That's how it is. People go, oh, no, no, no, my religion is the right one because it's the right one. It's just the house you were born into. Literally the house you were born into. If you were born into a Muslim household, you'd be Muslim. I don't know why people don't understand that. Like, intuitively understand i am

the culture and habits and traditions of how i was exposed to this world sure so when people have dumb opinions it's difficult for kids to come up with independent views now i'm finding though which is giving me hope in a different way not politically but just sort of from a sense of how to treat people the younger generation is absolutely intolerant of racism in a lot of ways. You're going to find fractions, and there's nothing that's – there's no 100% anything. But my daughter's generation, they see racism as being such a – I want to walk this back because I don't want to downplay anything,

but they're very – I think they blow out of proportion how often racism is an issue and everybody thinks racism's all the time but on an index most people go throughout their lives right and can have a lot of lateral movement in this country it's it's not as high on the index as a lot of other countries are in terms of racism how it affects you like india has caste systems where if you are here where they hate each other based on not color of skin, but caste systems. I think it's almost like, for example, let me ask another question, dude. Here's a question.

What do you think about people, and be honest, because if anybody, what do you think about people that smoke cigarettes? People that smoke cigarettes? Yeah. I think it's stupid. Okay. Although I don't think that they'd show, if it was super easy to stop smoking cigarettes, I think a lot of people would have already. I think nicotine is a problem.

And I think cigarettes, they're addiction. It's addictive. If it wasn't addictive, then I don't think nearly as many people would be doing it. And that's why vaping is so popular. Right. Okay, so let me ask a question. Out of your friend sets, out of the people that you as many people would be doing it. And that's why vaping is so popular. Right. But okay. So let me ask a question out of your friend sets and the people that, you know, eighth grade, eighth grade level. Sure. Right. Have there people that

have been like vaping looks cool or is it just like, or smoking just like nonsensical? I'm just curious. Any eighth graders, you know, smoke cigarettes? No, no, not, not that I know. Vape. It's more likely likely but i don't know any personally yeah because i think i think the point i was trying to make there is if you look back you know when we when i was his age eighth grade you're like a guy tells you know whatever his family's a little backwards there from their little bellies they tell some off-color jokes just the way it is oh yeah they smoke cigarettes But I think this generation is going to look at smoking as, are you nuts? Insane, yeah.

Are you nuts that you would do that? That's going to kill you. Like, are you nuts? And I think that this generation is going to view racism that same way. They do, and that's where, like I said, it gives you hope, right? Yeah, I think that's great. Kids don't smoke anymore. They're just very open about things.

I think they'll probably have uh changed opinions on guns i think i think like i said 70 of the world the world we live in is probably going to have what would be considered 10 years ago more progressive views right old people are the ones that sort of carry on old traditions like i think you should beat children with weapons right it was like elon musk said well well, Elon Musk said the reason that, uh, the reason that he doesn't want science to make people live forever is people need to die. So ideas can advance, can emerge. Yeah. But like I said, your grandparents, uh, we drank from the hose and we got beaten with a truck handle or whatever that,

you know, parents are just sort of not finding that that's the right way to do it. You know, more open, intelligent, emotionally intelligent sort of actions, behaviors. Yeah. So, but yet yesterday, you know, we talked about it earlier. There was a school shooting yesterday. Again, it was like, and it happens constantly, constantly, constantly. What, what says if you, if you were now you're, you're president of your school, let's pretend you're president of the country.

Okay. Okay. What would you like to have see done there? I feel like, I almost feel like we've seen everything we possibly could have seen done there, and it just hasn't been working. There's always something, we think we fixed it, and then a month or two later,

it happens again on a bigger scale. We have to tank everything down again and start rebuilding again. Whether it's trying to take those kids that don't really fit in and try to get them to fit in more. Whether it's making guns less accessible. It always seems to happen all the time. So I really don't know what I'd do in that situation.

It's okay. No, no. The president of the United States don't know what they're doing. Do you guys have that Josh Stevens Foundation thing about being kind and all that? We did back in elementary school, yeah. And then, do you guys have

sort of, have you guys ever had active shooter drills? We run them. It's a hard lockdown, which has existed for a long time, but they fit it more to Fit that kind of shooter identity. They're more popular now How does make you feel when you're going through them when I go through them it um It kind of worries me how often we have to run through them like how we just have to we always have to be prepared

For this because like it really could happen at any time They say there's 144 days gone by this year and 212 mass shootings. Yeah. Yeah, but the mass shootings, that takes in gang shootings, like a lot of that, right? But I get that point. It's sad because, like as a kid, we never thought about going to school and getting shot, right?

No. Or anything. I mean, honestly, I go to concerts and I'm still afraid right i go to movie theaters i'm i'm always looking for exits right like that's it's that's a tough thing i mean that's ugly well kids and stuff i mean like i said i was affected by october one i sat in a house the next day of someone that was killed watching the parents and the kids cry and being shocked. Right. And this is, I can't imagine kids. Speaking of October one, real quick, not to change the subject, but a guy on my team name or young kid is 21. Over the last two years, they've put together a documentary on October one face faced,

focused on the first responders. And it just came out. I'll post a link to it. If you're watching this on YouTube or wherever you are, check that out. It's a really cool documentary. I thought it was really good, and it was alarming to see that in apropos. But back to you, buddy. Do you think that, does it make you feel safer,

less safe or indifferent, the fact that there are armed guards at your school? That could really go either way, depending on how you look at it, right? I mean, it makes you feel safe that there are armed guards at your school? That could really go either way depending on how you look at it, right? I mean, it makes me feel safe that there's armed guards there just in case anything were to happen. But at the same time, the fact that we would need him just in case anything were to happen,

that also makes me worried, like, how much of a chance is there that this could actually happen? Yeah. How many of those, you know, you always see that, John, we were talking about it you see these platitudes oh well there's these veterans that come back from war it's like well how are they doing you know what i mean why would you stick it why would you put people in a situation where they just came back from probably one of the most traumatic things you know again not everybody sees

it as traumatic there's a lot of soldiers that return and can't wait to go back there's some that can go um a guy i do jujitsu with you know has described flashbacks to me yeah and just the horrifying nature of it so you're putting people in a situation where you know violence is paramount on your mind i don't know you know i don't know what that solution is i i never thought i'd live to see a day where we're advocating to arm elementary schools it It's just really crazy to me. Well, I mean, I got to tell you, I mean, luckily, you know, we're in a position to send him to private schools. And one of the first things that my wife really liked about the high school

he's going to go to was the fact that there are armed guards at the high school. There's four of them, and they're all ex-police. Yeah. And she loved that you know and and and it's unfortunate that you see that as is a necessity now but you do and and that's one thing i want to talk about was they said that you know somebody put a post up that said you know it would be 9.8 billion or whatever it would be to pay 75 000 a year to arm you know put an arm 131 schools whatever 131 000 schools whatever it was it was that dipshit that we were talking whatever but but then he said you know um you know but what

yeah we sent 40 million to ukraine to protect their kids against armed invaders whatever um which is true i mean we but but my first thought of this was my first thought of this was, of course, you don't want it to happen in a school. But is it any less impactful because they can't go to school because there's an armed guard? They go to Walmart instead? No. They go to a preschool? Let's be honest. Let's call it what it is.

Let's say I want to walk into a school and you have an armed guard. That's just one more person i might kill before he realizes they have armor is he is he uh is he like you know in the trench come on it's just those are platitudes they're not they're not solutions to anything you don't have you know a frontline assembly of guys with machine guns at a school warding off these waves of attackers that's just it's nonsense to think that a good guy with a gun is we've seen how many situations where the good guy with the gun's just the first guy shot yeah well i'm not look i'm not i don't want to get into necessarily the debate over guns

because everybody can debate on that today that's not what today is policy the problem the problem is with all of this i think is the problem is further upstream like by the time it gets downstream to the point where they're having a debate about guns and and violence and all these things i think the problem is way further upstream because it shouldn't have even got down here yeah and like we were talking earlier there are plenty of people there are plenty because of the two-party system in this country there are plenty of republicans there are that believe that you shouldn't have a large capacity high power 227 assault rifle there are plenty of them that believe that but they can't say that because it'll upset the nra because the republican there are plenty of democrats there are plenty of

democrats that feel that maybe there should be some restrictions on firearms, but you don't need to ban them all. But they can't say that because that'll upset the far left. I don't think, I've never heard any Democrat, I've never heard any Democrat talk about banning all guns. Never heard that once. It's never been a policy, and I hear Democrats talk about that saying, it's not about banning guns, it's about accountability, it's's about waiting periods it's about access to them well i think i think where

that comes from is is there's a lot of comparisons that get made to the uk there's a lot where guns are illegal so i think you see a lot of that comparison and people here want to let when a when a democratic when a democrat uh politician starts talking and comparing look at we'll look at the uk they don't have these problems. So, I mean, that's the leap, I think, a lot of. Yeah, I think everybody realizes the genie's been out of the bottle for a while. And here's the worst part. I think part of the narrative is we need to stop saying conservative or Republican.

We need to start saying pro-NRA. Yeah. Look, here's the thing. If you want to be pro-NRA, be pro-NRA. You want to be anti-Nra be pro-nra you want to be anti-nra be anti-nra but i think you should be able to be in either party and be either one of those things well that's part of it they shouldn't have that part of my upstream problem how about like pro-sensible legislation versus unfettered access to you know machines well again well again we got to get further upstream and that's all about one thing which is money in the system right and again i don't believe anything's ever going to happen

that's going to change it no part of me believes the genie's out of the bottle because there are more guns in america than people yeah what do you do it would take 40 50 years if you had buyback programs and cleanups and disposals whatever just for AR-15s would take 40 years. Well, apparently, I don't know what they were. Apparently, Australia implemented some sort of, and I don't know what they were. There's 20 million people in Australia. Yeah, that's it. Again, I don't want to sound like, these people always have a single shot answer. Like that Jim Jefferies clip where he's talking about they had this Port Arthur shooting, massive shooting, and the government came in and said, that's it.

No more guns. Everybody's like, yeah, that's it, no more guns. And everybody was like, yeah, these people are killing children or whatever. But in a country of 20 million people, in a country like in Canada, that actually has as many guns per capita, I think, as America does, they're just all rifles and shotguns. Yeah. They just don't have high-capacity guns. And again-

So he's going to go on that Canadians are superior thing. No, no, no, no. Watch him go. Watch him go. To say that there's no way to have any kind of sensible legislation, right, where you can say, look, if you're caught with a 30 mag, those are now illegal. You have to get rid of them like we did with bump stocks.

Everybody I know who's pro-Ghana is going to say that's not the answer. It's all mental health. Yeah. But again, it's difficult to make comparisons across countries that brings me to another question because i do i do take issue with some of the stuff i do take issue with some of the stuff in this and i want to ask kate you're you're 14 yes yep yes we fought it for a long time but you have played the fortnight yes sure sure right you've played the call of duty yes yep do you think the realism of those games

desensitizes kids your age to that level of violence? Okay, well, I don't want to get Fortnite wrapped in this because I... He's not trying to get ostracized. I don't think Fortnite goes for the very realistic take on things. It could take plenty of other games. Fortnite's not one of them. They've got laser rifles and jack-o'-lantern launchers.

It's just not very realistic. COD, on the other hand, that definitely focuses more on real life things. Call of Duty for the uninitiated. I really don't think video games are the problem.

I don't. I know a lot of people like to say that. I think clinical research and psychology also suggest that that's true. They're not the problem? So they've done a lot of people like to say that. I think clinical research and psychology also suggest that that's true. They're not the problem? So they've done a lot of studies.

I'm just asking his opinion. Yeah, no, I think modern clinical research would agree with you. Really? So I saw the video of the kid shooting at Buffalo. I saw the whole video before it was taken down. Yeah, I'm fucking weird like that. But it looked like a video game man like honestly like just walking through just bam i i have a hard time thinking it doesn't

like that just then i see these video games i don't let my kids play that stuff because in my opinion in that case the fact that he's streaming it on on twitch when he's doing whatever yeah but that's that could be more about like like culture or shots value. And when you don't care about yourself and you're in it, I guarantee you every one of these kids has unaddressed traumas, right? Yeah.

So whatever it is, I'm not likable, so I'm going to do something where my name will be known. I'll finally do one thing that's worthwhile. I'll be notorious. But that's not because a kid goes and plays a video game they're they're part of that actually there's an argument that that's called sublimation right where if you have rage or anger issues and you put it towards something like a video game or healthily towards boxing or martial arts let me ask you this i'm not gonna stop you because

i'm curious about something you just said what if part part of, okay, so let's say, oh, these kids seem to all want to be known, remembered, notorious, all of those things. Is there a way, and I'm not saying this fixes the problem. I'm saying is this fixes one of the leaky pipes in a house full of leaky pipes.

Is there a way to regulate or even fine media outlets, whatever else for publishing the names of these kids that did it. If you make it a permanently anonymous crime because they're not i mean now great at negative people with free speech and i should be able to print whatever blah blah but i would say if you make this a completely anonymous crime and nobody's ever going to know or remember your name i think that that's a good policy that individual publishers should implement they don't but they won't they won't because there's going to be some asshole shocked.

They'll watch the fucking video. Yeah. No, trust me. I thought it was going to stop, right? Because the one I saw earlier was a crappy video, but it stopped. And that's all I wanted to see is Kim getting out of his car. And it just kept going. I'm like, holy shit.

But no, it's because they make money. When my friend got killed in October 1st. But I think that's why it needs to be legislated. Yeah, I know. I agree. car and it just kept going like holy shit but no it's because they make money right like when my friend got killed in october first be legislated yeah i know i agree but when my friend got killed the october 1st every single port my phone blew up for two days straight and it was purely i'm like i'm not speaking on behalf the family can speak and say no no you need to get out of there but no they didn't give a shit about her they just needed somebody to be on there to bring viewership like they don't care like they truly don't care well that was the premise beside behind that natural born killers movie right that quentin tarantino written oliver stone movie about how who is the guy who killed all the kids and had him in his basement what's

his name dahmer no he's the guy with eight people oh yeah um anyway yeah well i guarantee you poll nine out of ten people are probably going to know john wayne gacy who's the guy that came up with the process for pasteurization i don't know just like pastor but you don't but you don't know you don't celebrate our heroes. There's just no value in- Name one Columbine kid that died. That's right. You can name both the shooters. Absolutely. Isn't that just a symptom of our-

That's something dark about us. Yeah. I think we're dark creatures as it is. I think everybody's got a little dark side. Yeah. Well, buddy, let me ask you this. If you could change anything, what would you change? If I could change anything?

Yeah, pull the mic a little closer, a little in politics or just no no it's when the allowance comes up a little bit no no no i'm just saying you know if you could change any the way the country works the way anything happens what would you want to change um i don't like how... Everybody in this country seems to think that freedom is just a natural given thing. That everybody should have... And it's not. We all have to work for freedom. But it seems like a lot of people in this country just think,

oh, it's a necessity. Everybody needs to have freedom. That's why a lot of policies that could fix a lot of these problems in America don't get implemented because they violate people's freedom in this country. And I think, I genuinely think America should be less focused on freedom because what is it doing for us? It's getting a lot of kids killed. It's getting a lot of people killed because of just these situations that are happening that can easily be prevented, but we just can't stop them. That's a really astute point when you think that people always focus on freedom,

but they forget about corresponding duties. Because all rights come with duties, right? Because where your freedom stops is where my freedom to be free from you begins, right? And people always say, oh, I have the right, I have the freedom to carry a gun into a grocery store like an asshole. It's a gay you do. You got a gun on your hip. But now am I free from you? But now do you have the freedom to shoot the weird person with the

gun in the because you felt threatened you know i'm saying like that's what i'm so it's like the freedoms aren't just about your freedoms it's a very it's shifting the me to we right and if people had empathy for their neighbors and actually cared about other americans as an american your primary duty if you're a true patriot should be to care about the health and safety and wellness of all your other American brethren, right? That is a huge thing people forget, is that freedom of is the corollary is freedom from. So you have a very good point, Hayden.

I love that. That's a great answer because honestly like the thing is it it's the perfect scare tactic to get you to vote for them it's the same shit every single i mean i haven't been along live that long but 40 years the same team they're going to take abortion rights away they're going to take guns away they're going to take our rights away like marica like no i just we can all agree stop making nra needs to just step out politics like they've got to get rid of lobbyists they've got to get rid of all this stuff man like that's what's killing this country is everybody cares about their freaking bank you know what just give every politician a million bucks, say, there you go.

You can't make any more. Yeah, my policy is 10. Make it the most sought-after job. Make it like a professional athlete where there's, let's say there's 500 and some members in the House of Congress, right? 500 million. 100 senators, 400 and what? 434.

I can't remember. 400 and change or something. I think they, anyway, redistrictrictize who knows what there is now but if you gave each of them 10 million dollars and i'll do that bad math that the same one that you know i took umbridge with earlier um you pay them all 10 million dollars well that's you're looking at a not a not a ton of money in terms of you're looking at, what, a fighter jet? Make it so that the prime, the most elite, the people at Wharton and Stanford and MIT and Harvard are competing for that job. And it's not just a matter of a popularity contest because of what color is on your badge. It's who's bringing value to this equation. Parties are trash.

To be honest with you i'll go one step further i don't think that everybody should just have the right to vote if you have if you've done nothing nothing to earn or understand what you're voting for come okay you have to have a basic level of stuff and have it in all kinds of different languages and have a bit of uh sensitivity for things you may know but put a little effort in to understand who you're voting for. They need to have a test. Just like Caden said up front, like,

I don't know who to vote. I need to actually research and do some people don't, they just vote down the party. Yeah. They just sit there and be like, Oh, this is what my race or my religion or my group or whatever it is. Right.

It's supposed to vote for what's, what's really become, what's really become an unfortunate is like you said the duties of we you know we've gotten away from we and it's gotten to be a very much of a me country on every level from from the from the ultra rich to uh the poor that vote for what am i going to get yeah what's in it for me you know what i mean and um and i think i think unless we get back to a we idea here on all levels. Absolutely.

Not what are you going to give me, but what opportunity are you going to help me achieve for myself? It's us versus them, and it has been for a while. Yeah. It used to be. I think social media is the driver of that, and it continues to drive that. It's creating a greater chasm for sure. Ugh. Ugh.

Gross. Why not just put like a red and blue button in there and just come in and smash one with that's it yeah yeah and that's what they do one more question for one more question for the youth of today ready to you what's more important ready what's more important the equality of outcome or the quality of opportunity what do you think is more important what does that mean okay that means should everybody hopefully wind up in the same place or should everybody be given the opportunity to start from the same place? Obviously, everybody should be given the opportunity to start from the same place

because wherever you go from there, that's up to you. You had that opportunity to expand and grow, but you just didn't, and that's why you're at your level you're at now. If everybody winds up in the same place, then what's the point of working hard? Everybody's going to wind up at the same place. And good Lord, there's hope for America. Thanks so much. That was the right answer, man.

Smart kid. Not only have you not gotten your brain, I think the allowance is coming up. Oh, you got a multiplier. Good job, buddy. Good job. Your mom will be proud. I know she'll be super proud. You got your hair from your dad. We we're gonna do this a little differently part two today i might actually

cut this into two separate podcasts because part two is going to be completely separate it's actually you know what let's just cut it to a separate podcast today i think today was so we got it was a very special minutes bad mouth in starbucks and that's it everybody get out of here so real so real quick is there anything else you'd like to tell the folks, Hayden, that they should know about me, you, or the world in general? What's the worst thing your dad does to you every day? Like, does he throw stuff at you? My wife throws stuff at me.

He doesn't throw stuff at me. Well, hey, let him talk. Let him talk. So has your dad ever threatened you with a knife? Because my wife does to me all the time. No, he has not. Just my wife. I'm finding out that's not normal.

What else? Good ask. How do you feel about going into high school? I'm pretty excited. Getting ready to meet new people, for sure. You playing lacrosse over there, I take it? Yeah. I'll do that there.

All right. That's cool. Very smart kid, man. That's awesome. I've never hit him with a shoe. I have threatened him with violence because I think you need to once in a while. Sometimes I think you need to. I think you need to.

No, I'll tell you the worst thing I do to him every day that he loves. Dad jokes? My favorite. No, it's not the dad jokes that are the worst. They're still annoying. They're still annoying. It's the explaining of the dad jokes that I love. It's when I just assume he's not smart enough.

I know he's smart enough, but I just torture him. To make it seem like he's not. My daughter just sits there. I'm like, no, do you get what I just said? She goes, I get it. But do you get it? See, it's Mrs. Hippie, which sounds like Mississippi. Which is a river

and a state. And it's a river and a state. Anyway. All right, well, buddy,. And it's a river and a state. Anyway. All right, well, buddy. Good job. Thanks for joining us. Super proud of you. Super proud of the answers you gave today. Hope you guys, man, you know, look,

the world is a crazy place right now. And the good news is, as soon all of us geezers will be dead and there'll be kids like my son making the decisions. Let's hope so. Hopefully things will be better. So, right? So remember,

it doesn't talk. It doesn't matter if you're talking good or bad. It matters. They just keep talking about you. Not even, no, man. I'm going to get him in here.

I came and thanks. Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to the John Gafford.com. Well, we up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com. We'll share any links of things we talked about on the show as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram,

you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.