Martin Gurri Knows That The Twitter Files Won't Solve Your Problems | Clips | Dad Saves America

0:00 - How does the information age, this sort of information tsunami, what role does it play in the rise of like, I guess we'll say identity politics? Because I think that's something that's a big part of what we're grappling with, and I think Trump also played a role, if in nothing else, just maybe instigating a reaction in the world, this world of identity politics. How do you think about this? - Okay, so there's a couple of ways to think about it and Trump definitely did play a part.

0:30 I think on the one hand, it's against. The cult of identity says there are these categories of oppressed people and what is the oppressing factor? It's the system. The system is usually managed by white males or some version of that. So it is a very typical emanation of the revolt of the public. I think a lot of the ferocity, and call it a cult for a reason, it's not a metaphor.

1:01 I actually think it plays a kind of a pseudo religious role in peoples' lives. Because a lot of the people who are involved in this are real zealots of identity who are very young, are, are people who are looking for whatever human has always sought which is meaning in their lives. They want something that tells them you were put here for a purpose and that purpose is important. So you are important. In the old days, there were all venerable institutions that provided, basically, their function was meaning-creation, religion, community, you would, you know, silly things like the Shriners or the Chambers of Commerce, that would place you in a setting where you were an important person in a certain context.

1:52 And above all, of course, a family which gave you the audience. I mean, being Cuban, you know, my extended family I have always felt was the audience to my life. And when I was sad, they cried for me. And when I succeeded, they applauded me. And so I never felt lonely. You go through what's been happening in that younger what I call the zoomer generation who are the most fanatical believers in identity, well, I mean, religion is being abandoned.

2:20 Community, you're gonna join the Chamber of Commerce? I don't think so. The Shriners are dying and then even the family, though, is withering away in many instances. So they're divided, you know. There's divorce tomes, and so forth. So, and fewer children so it means that that gigantic Cuban family that I had is less and less likely to be encountered. So you want meaning and you place your desire for meaning on this identity called politics, in essence.

2:50 Right? And politics was not erected to bear that burden. Politics is not gonna fulfill that. So you get angry because you're demanding things that cannot possibly be given to you through the means you're seeking them. And my interpretation is, of course, the collapse of the institutions, you know, family and so forth, particularly religion, but also community. That's part of the crisis of authority I've been talking about. And now this zoomer generation seems to be the one that was born with a cellphone in their hands so they are the most digitized, so their idea of human contact is very different than of an old person like me.

3:31 This is human contact, right? No, no, no, no. Human contact is this, all right? This is human contact. So basically, they have, they're very anxious. I mean, when you look at the, I mean, I can't say that is cause and effect because that's almost impossible to say. It's correlation but the people who seem to be more fixated on driving these differences, which is what identity is, we're different.

4:01 We're this little group or that little group, and don't you come, you know. Every border of every identity group is fortified and we'll fight to the death so you don't get in. Right? The people who believe in this seem to be more anxious, more depressed, more suicidal, less independent in many ways. You know, they have sex later, they drive cars later, they leave home later, so it's a cluster of things that all go together, I think.

4:28 But ultimately, the sad part, I guess, is they're polluting politics with a demand that can't ever be met. Politics wasn't set up to give you meaning, all right? Politics was set up for boring transactions that were some people got some things and some people didn't. All right? And no matter how much you triumph in politics, it's not gonna happen so that you feel like my life is important Right? So a lot of anger, then, becomes associated, frustration and anger, and then of course, you blame it on the system.

5:02 But I think what it has to do, as much as anything, has to do with demanding of something that can't give you what you want, which is meaning.