Japan&#8217;s population plummeted for the 14th year in a row in 2024, declining by nearly 900,000 people despite massive government spending aimed at encouraging childbirth.
New data <a href="https://www.stat.go.jp/data/jinsui/2024np/index.html">released</a> on Monday by Japan&#8217;s Internal Affairs Ministry shows the number of Japanese nationals declining by 898,000, marking the steepest annual decline since authorities began keeping records in the 1950s.
Roughly a quarter of the decline came in the 15-64 age demographic, which fell by 224,000 in a severe blow to the nation’s tax base, according to Bloomberg.
The country&#8217;s fertility rate in 2023 stood at just 1.2 expected births per woman over her lifetime, far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/japan-s-population-falls-by-half-million-as-birth-rate-stays-low">reflected</a> in Japan’s child population declining to a record-low 11.2% of the population, 13.8 million, after a decline of 343,000 last year.
The sharp demographic downturn comes despite the Japanese government <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/japan-s-population-falls-by-half-million-as-birth-rate-stays-low">approving</a> a $25 billion package in late 2023 to expand child allowances, improve childcare, and increase education support, only for birth rates to plummet further.
Former Health Minister Keizo Takemi described Japan&#8217;s demographic outlook as &#8220;critical,&#8221; warning the country only has until the 2030s to reverse course, per Newsweek.
Surveys show many younger Japanese are reluctant to marry or have families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, rising living costs outpacing salary growth, and corporate cultures incompatible with dual-income parenting.
The nation&#8217;s population is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/japan-birth-rate-declining-population-82662ea061286cb907fd7d071e5b0b9b">projected</a> to shrink by approximately 30% to 87 million by 2070, when four out of every ten Japanese will be 65 or older, potentially placing a crippling strain on Japan’s extensive welfare state, according to the Associated Press.
Experts like Ekaterina Hertog, an associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and Institute for Ethics in AI who researches the societal impact of Japanese labor practices, are concerned that monetary incentives simply won’t be enough to increase fertility simply due to how Japanese culture has developed in the modern era.
&#8220;Marriage trends in Japan and South Korea are significantly shaped by economic conditions and their intersection with gender roles,&#8221; she told Newsweek.
The number of annual marriages on the island nation dipped below 500,000 for the first time in 90 years in 2023.
Hertog explained that Japanese women still have the expectation of prospective husbands fulfilling the &#8220;traditional male breadwinner” role, causing many lower-paid men to postpone marriage or skip it entirely.
&#8220;Another important set of factors are family norms, that prescribe children&#8217;s support of elderly parents and the difficulty of negotiating them in societies which have had low fertility rates for decades,&#8221; she added.
Ryuichi Kaneko, demographer and professor at Meiji University, told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper: &#8220;I believe one of the reasons Japan&#8217;s declining birthrate has become especially severe is that, in the postwar period, the country built a society that prioritized economic activity to an extreme degree.”
&#8220;We believe the declining births has not been effectively controlled,&#8221; Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters regarding the new demographic data, according to the Associated Press.
This trend has been reflected in other Southeast Asian countries post-World War II, with China, South Korea, and Taiwan all experiencing similar if not more severe declines in fertility following mass urbanization, demanding work cultures, and changing attitudes toward marriage.
Similar trends are emerging in the United States, where fertility rates have dropped to 1.67 births per woman — also below the 2.1 replacement level — despite various government incentives for families.
Both nations are discovering that financial packages alone may be insufficient to overcome deeper cultural and economic factors affecting family formation decisions.
With fewer working-age citizens supporting a growing elderly population, Japan&#8217;s traditional social welfare systems face unprecedented strain — creating economic challenges that many other developed nations may soon confront.

Elderly people seen during the concert at Ikebukuro

Marriage Crisis: Japan’s Birth Rate Falls To Record Low Despite $25 Billion Gov Intervention

Culture

Health

Japan

Marriage

World

Hooters, a restaurant chain most famous for its all-female staff serving wings in skimpy clothing, is filing for bankruptcy, the company announced on Monday.
Hooters of America is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas after accumulating $376 million in debt, and through the bankruptcy process, plans to sell off all 100 of its company-owned restaurants to two franchisee groups that operate Hooters locations in Tampa, Florida, in an effort to keep the chain afloat.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in our efforts to reinforce Hooters’ financial foundation and continue delivering the guest-obsessed hospitality experience and delicious food our customers and communities have come to expect,” <a href="https://www.hooters.com/about/news/hooters-of-america-takes-strategic-action-to-continue-its-iconic-legacy">said</a> Sal Melilli, chief executive officer of Hooters of America, in a Monday press release.
The company plans to exit bankruptcy in “approximately 90-120 days.”
The bankruptcy process comes with an attempt at a rebrand, or “re-Hooterization,” of the company, Neil Kiefer, the CEO of a company that runs a group of original Hooters restaurants, told Bloomberg.
The leadership is moving toward a more PG-13 vision of the company: no more “bikini nights,” as Bloomberg put it.
“You go to some parts of the country and people say, ‘Oh I could never go to Hooters, my wife would kill me,”’ Kiefer <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-03-27/hooters-bankruptcy-founders-to-welcome-families-end-bikini-nights">said</a>. “That’s depressing to us. We want to change that.”
Hooters was founded in 1983 and became famous for its chicken wings and its female staff wearing orange short shorts and low-cut tank tops.
The chain has been the subject of numerous scandals in recent years that have severely impacted the company, including lengthy legal battles over racial and gender discrimination.
Most famous was a 1996 lawsuit where Hooters was <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/sex-discrimination-does-refusing-hire-men-food-servers-violate">accused</a> of “employment discrimination based on sex in hiring only female food servers, bartenders, and hosts, with the intent of providing a sexually stimulating aura for male patrons.”
In addition to scandals, casual dining as a whole suffered in 2024, with &#8220;TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Bucca di Beppo, and Rubio’s Coastal Grill all filing for bankruptcy last year,” the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/01/business/hooters-files-for-bankruptcy-as-chains-founders-seek-control/">reported</a>.
According to court filings, Hooters has approximately 5,957 employees in 151 directly owned stores in 22 states, in addition to 154 franchise locations in 19 states and 17 countries, per <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-31/hooters-files-bankruptcy-in-texas-as-brand-mulls-turnaround-plan">Bloomberg</a>.
The company confidently <a href="https://www.hooters.com/our-future">asserted</a> in an FAQ announcing the bankruptcy: ”Is Hooters going out of business? No. Hooters is here to stay.”

Hooters

No More ‘Bikini Nights’: Hooters Goes Bankrupt, Pivots To PG-13 Vision In ‘Re-Hooterization’

Discrimination

Economy

Gender

Restaurant

U.S.

Women

Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione is requesting access to a laptop in order to prepare his defense against terrorism charges, according to a court filing made public yesterday.
Mangione, 26, is <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use">accused</a> of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two high school students, outside a Manhattan hotel in December.
The Ivy League computer science graduate from a Maryland real estate family faces a rare New York State charge of murder as an act of terrorism, as well as federal charges that could carry the death penalty.
The requested laptop would, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/25/us/luigi-mangione-laptop-jail-united-healthcare/index.html#:~:text=Through%20his%20lawyers%2C%20Mangione%20has,lawyers%20said%20in%20Monday's%20filing.">CNN</a>, “be unable to connect to the internet, run video games or play movies or other entertainment, his lawyers said in Monday’s filing. But it would let him examine, from his jail cell, more than 15,000 pages of documents and thousands of hours of video that prosecutors gathered and were required to turn over to his attorneys.”
Mangione’s case has become a cultural flashpoint. While most Americans were horrified at the alleged brutal murder of a father of two, many Leftists <a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-healthcare-ceo-luigi-mangione-josh-shapiro-3a8c64a0bc412e0eeb84bca0c99b6e67">rallied behind</a> the “#FreeLuigi” movement.
Thousands donated to Mangione&#8217;s defense, and his court hearings have been packed with supporters, to the horror of many.
Crowdfunding efforts launched for his legal defense have collectively <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/21/fundraising-unitedhealth-ceo-shooting?utm_source=chatgpt.com">raised</a> over $700,000, despite platforms repeatedly removing such campaigns.
Many on the Left, according to CNN, seem to be channeling their frustration with the health care system through Mangione, with some going as far as calling him a vigilante.
In court documents, prosecutors describe evidence of extensive planning before the shooting, including Mangione&#8217;s internet search history showing months of queries about Thompson and UnitedHealthcare&#8217;s corporate structure.
Authorities reportedly recovered bullets at the crime scene inscribed with anti-corporate messages and what investigators characterized as &#8220;manifestos&#8221; on Mangione&#8217;s electronic devices detailing grievances against the healthcare industry.
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use">said</a> in December, “Mangione planned his attack for months and stalked his victim for days before murdering him — methodically planning when, where, and how to carry out his crime.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty.

Luigi Mangione supporters pack NYC court for murder hearing

Luigi Mangione Requests Special Laptop Privileges In Preparation For Terrorism Trial

Crime

domestic terrorism

Luigi Mangione

New York

UnitedHealthcare

Trans-identifying lawmaker Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-democrat-confronted-with-biological-reality-introduced-as-gentleman">Sarah McBride</a> (D-DE) took some serious backlash on Thursday for claiming that the Republican Party was focusing on &#8220;culture war&#8221; issues to the point of being &#8220;bizarre.&#8221;
&#8220;We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection,&#8221; McBride began, waving aside criticism of Democrats&#8217; behavior both during and since President Donald Trump&#8217;s address to the joint session of Congress.
&#8220;I appear to live rent free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues,&#8221; McBride continued. &#8220;I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me thinking about how to lower the costs for American families. &#8230; They are obsessed with culture war issues. The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird and it is bizarre.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trans-Identifying Dem Calls The Republican Party &quot;Weird And Bizzare&quot;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_-B6w3ePwjw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
But the consensus on X was that McBride was not really in a position to make that judgment call.
&#8220;&#8216;The American people deserve serious elected officials,&#8217; says the man who believes he&#8217;s a woman lol,&#8221; former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;The American people deserve serious elected officials&quot; says the man who believes he&#39;s a woman lol <a href="https://t.co/IVRcbHwKhR">https://t.co/IVRcbHwKhR</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1900221754657718340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Men pretending they’re women and demanding that everyone go along with it is weird and bizarre,&#8221; added The Heritage Foundation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Men pretending they’re women and demanding that everyone go along with it is weird and bizarre. <a href="https://t.co/SCYU81K8PK">https://t.co/SCYU81K8PK</a>
&mdash; Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) <a href="https://twitter.com/Heritage/status/1900260605329605003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I don’t know I kinda think it’s weirder and more bizarre for a man to claim that men can become women and then put on ladyface and demand everyone participate in an obvious delusion,&#8221; The Federalist&#8217;s John Daniel Davidson posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I don’t know I kinda think it’s weirder and more bizarre for a man to claim that men can become women and then put on ladyface and demand everyone participate in an obvious delusion. <a href="https://t.co/UoK62shE7s">https://t.co/UoK62shE7s</a>
&mdash; John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnddavidson/status/1900266723573666078?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The Trump War Room account posted a simple, &#8220;Bruh.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bruh <a href="https://t.co/5qGDS0G7HL">https://t.co/5qGDS0G7HL</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1900220308851704305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;This person is not in a position to tell us what is &#8216;weird and bizarre,'&#8221; Fox News host Lawrence Jones said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This person is not in a position to tell us what is “weird and bizarre.” <a href="https://t.co/bvPhD5GQ29">https://t.co/bvPhD5GQ29</a>
&mdash; Lawrence Jones III (@LawrenceBJones3) <a href="https://twitter.com/LawrenceBJones3/status/1900243350915109058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), who sparked ire from the Left when she introduced McBride as &#8220;Mister,&#8221; weighed in as well: &#8220;What&#8217;s truly &#8216;weird and bizarre&#8217; is thinking you can throw on a wig, put on some makeup, and suddenly become a &#8216;female.&#8217; No amount of pretending will ever change the way God created you. The truth is unshakable, and no one will ever erase it from our culture.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What&#39;s truly “weird and bizarre” is thinking you can throw on a wig, put on some makeup, and suddenly become a “female.”
No amount of pretending will ever change the way God created you. 
The truth is unshakable, and no one will ever erase it from our culture. <a href="https://t.co/ZnII5Rn7mn">https://t.co/ZnII5Rn7mn</a>
&mdash; Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMaryMiller/status/1900246971170119779?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

House Democrats 2025 Issues Conference

Trans-Identifying House Member Torched For Claiming Republicans Are ‘Weird’ And ‘Bizarre’

Trans-Identifying House Member Torched For Claiming Republicans Are 'Weird' And 'Bizarre'

Politics

Republican Party

Social Issues

Transgender

Exorbitantly priced rare Pokémon cards are nothing new, but this is certainly the first time a snack food vaguely resembling one has sold for five figures. 
Images of a 3-inch-long Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto that looks surprisingly like the character Charizard went viral online in 2024. The uniquely shaped snack, called &#8220;Cheetozard,&#8221; was later put up for sale through Goldin Auctions, which led to a bidding war among collectors.
Charizard was part of the first generation of Pokémon released in the 1990s. The character is one of the most popular of the Pokémon lineup, second only to Pikachu.
An opening bid of $350 was quickly surpassed. In the end, a total of 60 bids drove the purchase price up to $87,840, which included $72,000 for the item and several thousand more for a buyer’s premium.
Cheetozard officially sold on Sunday, March 2, per <a href="https://ew.com/charizard-cheeto-sold-auction-88k-pokemon-11691267">Entertainment Weekly</a>.
The auction site described the item as being &#8220;affixed to a customized Pokémon card and encapsulated in a clear card storage box&#8221; for display and preservation. 
&#8220;It was initially discovered and preserved sometime between 2018-2022 by 1st &amp; Goal Collectibles,&#8221; the description says. &#8220;The Cheeto surged in popularity on social media platforms in late 2024.&#8221; 
The surprising snack food was shared in an Instagram video posted by 1st and Goal Collectibles, a store in Georgia. 
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5bj8FtLGa5/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
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“We’ve had the Cheetozard for about 5 years now and we totally forgot we had it until cleaning out the safe! Loads of offers have come in,” the video caption said. The post helped the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto draw attention from potential collectors worldwide.

cheetos

Flamin’ Hot Cheeto Shaped Like Charizard From Pokémon Sells For $87K

Flamin' Hot Cheeto Shaped Like Charizard From Pokémon Sells For $87K

Food

United States

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni delivered an impassioned speech on the state of Europe at CPAC on Saturday, asserting that Europe’s identity had been “sacrificed on the altar of wokeness, bureaucracy, and mercantilism.”
Meloni came to the defense of Vice President JD Vance in her speech, who has been heavily critiqued by European elites for his speech regarding censorship and cultural identity at the Munich Security conference last week.
In her address, Meloni declared, “We must say to [the elites] that we will never be ashamed of who we are &#8230; we affirm our identity and work to strengthen it.”
“Without a deep-rooted identity, we cannot be great again,” Meloni emphasized.
During her appearance via video at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the prime minister described supporters of mass migration in Europe as part of a “mainstream propaganda machine” that she said falsely predicted Italy’s international isolation.
“We do what we say. We do what is right. We fight for what we believe in. And moreover, we trust people, not fear them.”
Meloni also underscored her perspective on the dangers of so-called “American liberal leftism,” which she argued had been adopted in Europe by a set of “ruling classes and mainstream media.” She maintained that these elites “imported and replicated in the old continent the most reckless theories,” fueling what she sees as a weakening of Europe’s true cultural underpinnings.
Continuing her endorsement of Vance’s position, she reiterated that the vice president had urged European leaders to be clear about “what we are defending” before discussing defense and security matters.
“Vice President Vance was discussing something deeper,” Meloni said, emphasizing “identity, democracy, [and] freedom of speech” as the cornerstone of any Western alliance.
She called on European leaders to show the same level of unity in protecting these foundational values, insisting that “you cannot defend your freedom if you lack the means or the courage to do so.”
Meloni concluded by arguing that greater cooperation is critical, warning against the notion that Europe is “distant or even lost.” Pointing to successes claimed by conservative leadership in various parts of Europe, she maintained that momentum continues to build.
“There is a growing awareness in Europe that security is now the top priority,” she noted, urging leaders to focus on measures that safeguard both Europe’s borders and its cultural identity against what she characterized as external threats and internal ideological pressures.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Italian Prime Minister GIORGIA MELONI&#039;S Full Speech at CPAC 2025" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l1GGSPp_Md0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Conservatives Gather For Annual CPAC Conference In Washington DC

Italian PM Defends Vance: Europe Has Been ‘Sacrificed On The Altar Of Wokeness’

CPAC

Europe

Giorgia Meloni

Global Politics

J.D. Vance

Google is eliminating diversity targets in its hiring process and has begun an extensive review of the “risks” posed by the company’s DEI programs, marking a major pullback in the tech giant&#8217;s approach to workforce representation.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the tech giant <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-kills-diversity-hiring-targets-04433d7c?mod=hp_lead_pos1">will no longer</a> set specific targets for boosting minority representation in its workforce.
This marks a major shift away from Google’s 2020 pledge to raise the proportion of underrepresented groups in management by 30% within five years. Google made this commitment along with several other tech companies following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent riots.
In an email to employees, Google said it was reviewing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that “raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped” and noted recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump aimed at limiting DEI programs. The company is also evaluating whether it will continue releasing annual diversity reports.
Black employees comprised 5.7% of Google’s U.S. workforce in 2024, an increase from 3.7% four years earlier, while Latino employees rose from 5.9% to 7.5%.
Google’s latest annual report released on Wednesday has omitted a pro-DEI sentence that had been present in the report since 2021.
That sentence stated that Google was “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”
Google’s decision follows that of other major players in Silicon Valley, who are making similar moves to unwind or modify their own diversity targets and efforts.
Meta recently eliminated a team overseeing its diversity programs and ended formal goals for bringing in more women and minorities, with one senior human resources official telling employees that the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.”
Around the same time, Amazon indicated it would wind down certain diversity-focused initiatives, and references to “diversity, equity and inclusion” being “good for business” were removed from the company’s website late last year.
Some companies have also quietly removed diversity language from official documents and public reports, hinting at a broader shift that extends beyond the tech sector.

LGBTQA+ pride flags in the Google sign to celebrate Gay Pride Month, Manhattan, New York

Google Throws Out Diversity Hiring Targets, Considers Cutting DEI Programs

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Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles sat down with social media influencer Justin Waller to discuss life while enjoying high-quality cigars. Over the course of their conversation, they discussed the issue of how men can reclaim their place in society and the phenomenon of women initiating divorce more often than men.
Waller said one way husbands can avoid being left by their wives is to make themselves men of substance. After discussing the crisis of a lack of male role models, the influencer talked about how to overcome this problem.
He offered this advice to the men out there, “Become a man that&#8217;s so hard to replace that she never wants to be the hero. Which is the beautiful thing about love, by the way. I love nothing more than winning. And then calling her and being like, ‘Hey, babe.’”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/feminism-is-wrecking-women-michael-the-alpha-mentor-justin-waller" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE FULL &#8216;MICHAEL &amp; THE APLPHA MENTOR&#8217; INTERVIEW</a>
While society focuses on issues like “toxic masculinity,” men are continually falling behind by every single metric, including academically, socially, and professionally. The number of men enrolling in college has dropped. And it’s no secret that a lack of strong male role models has contributed heavily to societal decline. 
The one place men are overrepresented is not a good one. In 2021, men <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/traditional-masculinity-is-the-solution-to-the-male-loneliness-epidemic-not-the-cause">accounted for</a> roughly 80% of suicides.
Waller told Knowles that he believes family doesn’t always mean being related by blood. 
“[The] thing about love, and I have plenty of that in my life, so I have really deep understanding of what it&#8217;s supposed to be like. And that has nothing to do with my childhood. You build your family in life, you know, and I don&#8217;t particularly believe that family is the blood that was given to you. I think it&#8217;s the family that you build.”
The influencer said of his wife, “We become one flesh. And now we get to have kids who are of the same blood [as] both of us.” 
Waller added, “Sometimes people say, my friends, they&#8217;re really my family, and I&#8217;ve got very close friends.”
The conversation moved to the general negative attitudes toward traditional masculinity in our culture. “A woman is never going to stay attracted to you if she feels like she&#8217;s the dominant force in the relationship anyway,” Waller told Knowles.
He also said it’s not possible to have “society without religion.”
“The nuclear family was a real thing, and I truly believe the only reason we really lost it is because when we went off the gold standard and started inflating money, we went from a man that could go to work 40 hours a week, take care of his family, take care of the people that he loves, and be the head of the household to this situation where they started to become peers.”
“And when you lose respect, you lose love. And that&#8217;s when the family broke,” Waller said.

Michael Knowles & Justin Waller

‘Alpha Mentor’ Justin Waller Talks With Michael Knowles About How To Reclaim Traditional Masculinity

'Alpha Mentor' Justin Waller Talks With Michael Knowles About How To Reclaim Traditional Masculinity 

interview

Masculinity

Michael Knowles

The Daily Wire

The results of our pornography-drenched society are in. And they’re hideous.
Pornography has disconnected men from women. It has led to less mating – after all, why date when you can get the dopamine hit of seeing bodies in various combinations at the touch of a button – and serious, society-wide sexual dysfunction (certain studies now claim that up to 30% of young men now suffer from erectile dysfunction). It has emptied wallets and souls. The average age of first pornography viewing for males is now 12. Some 73% of teens aged 13-17 have watched pornography. The brain can respond to pornography and its attendant dopamine hits much like a drug. And just like a drug, for some, higher doses may be necessary in order to achieve the original effect.
In the last few years, the question of pornography has reared its seamy head. The availability and regulation of pornography has cut across political lines: libertarians see pornography as a harmless good, a simple and disposable product that harms no one; traditional conservatives see pornography as a damaging and soul-crushing symptom of hedonistic individualism; radical leftists see pornography as a form of female empowerment, with women “finally” controlling their own sexuality; traditional liberals see pornography as exploitation of women, a form of patriarchal domination.
Oddly enough, our pornographic society is a sex-free, relationship-free society. We date less. We get married later, if at all. We have fewer children, if any. We do not form the little platoons of society – the family – necessary for its preservation. Not all of that is pornography, of course. But the utter pervasiveness of pornography isn’t a minor factor, either.
All of this was foreseeable. In 2005, at the age of 21, I wrote a book titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Porn-Generation-Social-Liberalism-Corrupting/dp/0895260166/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FgmUDcYWQ-k9ZlvIuO-Vp3mAtqpf0gCS-q703gqFcwFQ2Iqcmi1934jgWkQvCHJ0Ec69uFf52e4Vfem5BAvl9TkHiv4XatNRmq4rAQwWqDtu2TRY3A5N5iQE59JHh7PPw4NDrnQggqkQBVXpN_iOVN16XfkAz7DmtXoXt8HK2M9XkWabmmO17A17Mi-ETB4ykgMqqsVq3v6P9cnWEfEQfKVKlOXR6MJfxpTMrYdgXMwL8elRv7z-IFFFOhC7iD31mgccTm-5cM-aUdwIg1FY_Iq4-UUgK4yZOTdL8JktDsI.4dEtzxnT8g1s-SbFTXZpYZzUZIKOGtzotAimZzBm848&amp;qid=1717512451&amp;sr=1-18" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Porn Generation</a>&#8221; – a book that was widely seen by many on both Right and Left as alarmist and prudish. That descriptor – prudish – was, at the time, one of the worst slurs you could toss at someone. It meant that you were repressed, that you were a Bible thumper. That you were – gasp! – judgmental. In the book, I wrote that pornography had become absolutely mainstream, from music to television to movies to education.
That was before the era of Kim Kardashian.
Here is what I wrote:
<blockquote>Our culture has bred hollow young men, obsessed with self-gratification. Young women are told to act like sex objects – and enjoy it…Society told the porn generation that final moral authority rests inside each of us – and in our vanity, we listened. The mainstream acceptance of pornography has become a social fact….In the absence of community-promoted traditional standards, subjectivism reigns. Nothing is expected of anyone; everyone may make his own rules about what is best. The “live and let live” societal model is a recipe for societal disaster.</blockquote>
To put it mildly, I was right.
Our society has begun to figure out that the sexual mores of a morally relativistic society are destructive – that age-old ideas about monogamy and marriage and the value of heterosexual relationships, cultivated over the course of millennia, might be more valuable than the latest slogan about the joys of licentiousness. Pornography’s obvious vacuity and the damage coincident with its ubiquity is a reminder that consent is not, in fact, the highest moral value: that just because people choose to engage in an activity does not make that activity morally good or acceptable. There can be pragmatic arguments over the nature of government power necessary to reverse the pornification of our society – do we have to delegate too much power to the government in order to squash the problem? Ought it be solved at the level of social censure rather than regulation? – but there can be no question that consent alone does not morally justify pornography. In the words of British legal theorist James Fitzjames Stephen, “It is one thing&#8230;to tolerate vice so long as it is inoffensive, and quite another to give it a legal right not only to exist, but to assert itself in the face of the world as an ‘experiment in living’ as good as another, and entitled to the same protection from law.”
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
The true answer to the question of pornography has been known all along: robust social institutions, as well as local regulations that make it difficult to create and obtain. We have a duty to our children to give them a society free of the scourge of pornography and its societal externalities. The Founders knew that, which is why they never considered pornography a protected class of free speech under the First Amendment. They would have scoffed at the very idea.
In &#8220;Porn Generation&#8221; I made a series of recommendations – again, recommendations snorted at, up until the point every American child had access to smut on their cell phones. Those recommendations included better parenting, of course; more church adherence; school vouchers; boycotts against products promoting social radicalism (see, e.g., Bud Light); governmental censorship where possible; cutting off funding to universities that promote obscenity. If any of them had been pursued in 2005, our society would be markedly better off in 2024.
They weren’t. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pursue them now. Pornography is merely a symptom of a broader underlying ill: a society that promotes libertinism as liberty, ignoring that a meaningful life is about liberty within a rubric of morality and responsibility. Any society that promotes libertinism rather than traditional liberty is doomed to the scrap heap.

Ben-Article-PAID

Why Pornography Matters

Ben Shapiro

Books

Founding Fathers

Freedom of Speech

Pornography

Readers Pass

Social Media

Actress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Margot Robbie</a> will produce a live-action <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies">film</a> based on the iconic board game Monopoly.
The 33-year-old celeb along with her husband, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara will release the project under their LuckyChap banner, per <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/margot-robbie-luckychap-produce-monopoly-movie-1234972844/">IndieWire</a>. The film will be distributed by Lionsgate and produced by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">Hasbro Entertainment</a>. The announcement was made Wednesday morning during Lionsgate’s CinemaCon 2024 presentation.
&#8220;Monopoly is a top property — pun fully intended,&#8221; LuckyChap said in a statement. “Like all of the best IP, this game has resonated worldwide for generations, and we are so excited to bring this game to life alongside the wonderful teams involved at Lionsgate and Hasbro.”
“I could not imagine a better production team for this beloved and iconic brand than LuckyChap,&#8221; Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement Wednesday, per the outlet. &#8220;They are exceptional producers who choose their projects with great thought and care, and join Monopoly with a clear point of view.&#8221;
&#8220;We are tremendously excited to be working with the entire LuckyChap team on what we all believe can be their next blockbuster,&#8221; he continued.
Zev Foreman, Hasbro Entertainment Head of Film, also had glowing things to say about the new partnership. &#8220;As one of the most iconic games in the world, Monopoly provides an incredible platform for storytelling opportunities,” he said. &#8220;We are thrilled to have the unique vision of LuckyChap and Lionsgate alongside us to bring this historic piece of popular culture to the big screen.”
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Hasbro&#8217;s Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game that debuted in 1935. The popular game has hundreds of different editions and spinoffs and is sold in more than 100 countries and 75 different languages. It’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/19/living/feat-monopoly-80th-anniversary">estimated </a>that more than 275 million copies of Monopoly have been sold worldwide.
Hasbro Entertainment has more than 30 active projects in development, the outlet noted, including an animated “Transformers One” and a live-action “Dungeons &amp; Dragons” series for Paramount+. 
LuckyChap is also working on a film adaptation of the popular life simulation video game, The Sims. 
Robbie played the titular star in the 2023 summer blockbuster “Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig, which brought in $1.4 billion at the box office and was nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Margot Robbie

‘Barbie’ Star Margot Robbie Will Produce New Movie Based On Monopoly Board Game

'Barbie' Star Margot Robbie Will Produce New Movie Based On Monopoly Board Game

Entertainment

Hollywood

Movies

A woman went viral on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tiktok">TikTok</a> after posting a 50-part series documenting the downfall of her marriage. 
The entire saga is broken down into ten-minute segments, which social media users said they’re binge-watching like a TV show. The TikTok user, Reesa Teesa, racked up more than 122 million views on the “Who TF Did I Marry?” <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@reesamteesa?lang=en">series</a>. Each video clip has over one million views.
Reesa Teesa began the series by explaining how she met her ex-husband on a dating app. She identifies the man only as “Legion,” referring to a man possessed by demons in the Bible. Teesa explains how she got close to Legion during the COVID pandemic, leading to them moving in together and her becoming pregnant (though she said she later had a miscarriage). But after some time, Teesa said she began exposing many of her ex-husband’s lies.
Teesa said she posted the 50-part series so viewers could listen to her experience “like an audiobook,” per a report from <a href="https://time.com/6696963/who-tf-did-i-marry-tiktok-series/">Time</a>. 
“You can listen to all the times I made bad decisions, you can clearly listen to the good, the bad, the ugly, the embarrassing,” she said in a video posted Wednesday. “But most importantly, the redemption and the forgiveness that I am trying and learning to give myself. All in all, do not be dismayed that it is 50 parts.”
The first video in the series has 22.8 million views. Teesa has 2.3 million followers on the platform, thanks to the popularity of the series.
Teesa claimed that Legion lied about his job, employment history, finances, and family. She said she later found out that his family didn’t speak to him because of him being a pathological liar. Teesa called her ex “the United Nations of red flags.”
After the videos went viral, one viewer discovered the identity of her ex-husband, per Time. But Teesa said during a TikTok Live that she contacted that person and asked to have the information deleted. She said she didn’t plan to speak to her ex ever again.
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TikTok users love Teesa’s videos despite the time commitment it took to hear her whole story. One popular user comment addressed this phenomenon, which is unique compared to most short TikTok content. That user <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@reesamteesa/video/7338058381124488490?lang=en">said</a> Teesa “gave us our attention span back.” 
Many commentators are calling for the saga to be turned into a movie, which is what happened to a 2015 Twitter thread that went viral and eventually became the basis for the 2020 film “Zola.”

Tik Tok

Woman’s 50-Part Saga ‘Who TF Did I Marry’ About Alleged Pathological Liar Ex Goes Viral On TikTok

Woman's 50-Part Saga 'Who TF Did I Marry' About Alleged Pathological Liar Ex Goes Viral 

General

TikTok

viral video

Could Generation Z — the generation currently in their teens and early 20s — be finding religion?
This week, a TikTok from the fall resurfaced showing a young girl who looks to be in her early 20s sitting alone in a large, empty church with her knees up as the sound of someone playing piano echoes through the cavernous space.
&#8220;2023 hit so hard I had to turn to religion,&#8221; reads the caption of the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dandanthexanman/video/7293440492614847777?_r=1&amp;_t=8ivWbBWsofu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a>, which was originally posted back in October.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
is the next vibe shift a Gen Z religious revival? 
this tiktok has 2.1M views &amp; 382k likes, with comments like:
“I started praying” “I got baptized” “I went to church last week for the first time in my life”
what’s going on? 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/IWbfXwFkGu">pic.twitter.com/IWbfXwFkGu</a>
&mdash; Danielle Vermeer (@DLVermeer) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLVermeer/status/1735711025087873040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A quick look at the comments casts doubt on the idea that the post might just be a joke.
The video has a whopping 385,000 likes and more than 8,000 comments, most of which are from other Zoomers saying they too have wandered into churches recently.
&#8220;For real. I went to a church last week for the first time in my life. I get it now,&#8221; someone wrote.
&#8220;No bc low-key this,&#8221; wrote another. (That means &#8220;I kind of identify with this,&#8221; in Gen Z speak for those of you who are not chronically online.)
&#8220;The way I went from basically atheist to praying every day and going to church w my family now,&#8221; posted another.
&#8220;Nah bc I randomly started praying consistently,&#8221; another wrote.
&#8220;So relatable I left the church at 15 and now I&#8217;m back as an adult because I&#8217;m so scared of life,&#8221; one girl wrote.
Two commenters said they were just recently crying and looking up nearby churches. Others expressed relief that they were not alone in their desire to become religious.
&#8220;This wasn&#8217;t only me oh my gosh?? I became religious this year and go to church every week. Loving it,&#8221; someone wrote.
&#8220;Ok so it&#8217;s not just me? I literally started the process of becoming catholic,&#8221; someone wrote.
&#8220;So is this a collective thing? Cus it&#8217;s so bad that I even went to church yesterday, I need a reason to keep going on life,&#8221; someone wrote.
At least four people commented that they recently got baptized. Several said they recently returned to the Catholic Church, and one said they &#8220;literally went to confession the other day.&#8221;
Other commenters wrote that they were thinking of going to church for &#8220;some sort of direction in my life,&#8221; and one girl said a &#8220;breakup pushed me to church.&#8221;
At one point, the girl who posted the video commented, &#8220;Imma keep showing up.&#8221;
Comments like this, written in telltale Zoomer lingo, go on and on. Just when you think the hate comments are around the corner, more Zoomers are posting that they went to church.
A few other TikToks <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mandymalake/video/7298004187340721441?_r=1&amp;_t=8ix2qKEexP5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> young people saying the same thing — that they started going to church last year, although those videos got fewer views.
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On paper, Gen Z is the least religious generation. Nearly half, 49% of Zoomers say they do not have a religious affiliation, <a href="https://religioninpublic.blog/2023/04/03/gen-z-and-religion-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a 2022 YouGov survey.
However, about a year ago another survey noted a surprising increase in young people saying they believe in God. About a third of people age 18 to 25 say they believe, more than doubt, the existence of a higher power, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-surge-of-faith-among-young-people-424220bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a survey from the Springtide Research Institute. That&#8217;s up from only about a quarter of young people in 2021.
While belief in God does not necessarily translate to joining organized religion, some Zoomers commented on TikTok that they were drawn to church for the &#8220;peace and quiet.&#8221;
Back in April, a Los Angeles rabbi <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-surge-of-faith-among-young-people-424220bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Wall Street Journal that more young adults were showing up to Friday night services at the synagogue.
In many more traditional Catholic parishes, the churches are <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/3-reasons-why-young-catholics-love-latin-mass" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filled</a> with young people, including older Gen Z-ers who are already young parents with small children themselves.
Another driving force in these young people&#8217;s turn to religion could be Gen Z&#8217;s rampant anxiety.
More than 40% of 18 to 26-year-olds are diagnosed with a mental health condition, and 90% of the time it&#8217;s anxiety, <a href="https://www.harmonyhit.com/state-of-gen-z-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a survey by Harmony Healthcare IT.
The pandemic sent the most anxious generation&#8217;s mental health further into a tailspin, isolating them and intensifying worries about finances and their loved ones.
In response to life&#8217;s stressors, some Zoomers say they <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-surge-of-faith-among-young-people-424220bd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are</a> searching for relief in something beyond themselves and that faith provides an answer.
Belief in God “gives you a reason for living and some hope,” an Iowa college student told the Journal last year. Some of the TikTok commenters said they ended up in church for this reason as well.
Whatever the reason Gen Z-ers are ending up in church, clearly the next generation has the same age-old longing for peace, meaning, and truth.

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