Lots here, but these are the juicy parts:

Donald Trumpā€™s running mate, JD Vance, said that professional women ā€œchoose a path to miseryā€ when they prioritize careers over having children in a September 2021 podcast interview in which he also claimed men in America were ā€œsuppressedā€ in their masculinity.

The Ohio senator and vice-presidential candidate said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that ā€œpursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning ā€¦ [but] they all find that that value system leads to miseryā€.

Vance also sideswiped the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a one-time Somali refugee, claiming she had shown ā€œingratitudeā€ to America, and that she ā€œwould be living in a crapholeā€ had she not moved to the US.

Of Afghans who assisted US troops during the occupation of that country who were now seeking to come to America, Vance asked whether ā€œcertain groups of people can successfully become American citizensā€, and said those hostile to Minneapolisā€™s Somali American community ā€œdonā€™t like people getting hatcheted in the street in [their] own communityā€.

At the same time, Vance claimed that ā€œthe left uses racism as a cudgelā€, and that he had been a ā€œlittle too worriedā€ in the past about such accusations because they can be ā€œcareer-endingā€ and ā€œdestroy a personā€™s lifeā€.

At about 39 minutes into the recording, when asked what he saw inside elite institutions like Yale Law School that made him view them as corrupt, Vance answered: ā€œYou have women who think that truly the liberationist path is to spend 90 hours a week working in a cubicle at McKinsey instead of starting a family and having children.ā€

Vance added: ā€œWhat they donā€™t realize ā€“ and I think some of them do eventually realize that, thank God ā€“ is that that is actually a path to misery. And the path to happiness and to fulfillment is something that these institutions are telling people not to do.

ā€œThe corruption is it puts people on a career pipeline that causes them to chase things that will make them miserable and unhappy,ā€ Vance said. ā€œAnd so they get in positions of power and then they project that misery and happiness on the rest of society.ā€

Minutes later, Vance adopted the perspective of a hypothetical professional woman to answer Sharmaā€™s question about where ā€œthe racial and gender resentment comes fromā€.

ā€œOK, clearly, this value set has made me a miserable person who canā€™t have kids because I already passed the biological period when it was possible,ā€ Vance began, ā€œAnd I live in a 1,200 sq ft apartment in New York and I pay $5,000 a month for it.ā€

He continued: ā€œBut Iā€™m really better than these other people. What Iā€™m going to do is project my, like, racial and gender sensitivities on the rest of them ā€¦ even though the way that I think has made me a miserable person, I just need to make more people think like that.ā€

On the other hand, Vance depicted men and boys as ā€œsuppressedā€, saying 52 minutes in that ā€œone of the weird things about elite society is itā€™s deeply uncomfortable with masculinityā€.

Warming to the theme, Vance said: ā€œThis is one weird thing that conservatives donā€™t talk about enough ā€¦ We donā€™t talk enough about the fact that traditional masculine traits are now actively suppressed from childhood all the way through adulthood.ā€

Assessing his young sonā€™s habit of fighting imaginary monsters, Vance said: ā€œThereā€™s something deeply cultural and biological, spiritual about this desire to defend his home and his family.ā€

He connected this with a hypothetical invasion: ā€œIf the Chinese invade us in 10 years, theyā€™re going to be beaten back by boys like you who practice fighting the monsters who become proud men who defend their homes.ā€

By contrast, for Vance, ā€œTheyā€™re not going to be defended by the soy boys who want to feed the monsters.ā€

At about 22 minutes into the recording, Vance mocked the claims of Afghan refugees to have helped the US military in its occupation, saying: ā€œApparently, Afghanistan is a country of translators and interpreters because every single person thatā€™s coming in, thatā€™s what they say is this person is: a translator and interpreter.ā€

He attributed the idea that the US should grant asylum to those who helped US forces to ā€œthe fraudulence of our elitesā€, saying: ā€œYou talk to people who served in Afghanistan. And one of the things they will tell you is, yeah, a lot of the translators and interpreters who helped us were great guys.ā€

Vance added, however, that ā€œa lot of the interpreters who said they were helping us were actively helping terrorists plant roadside bombs, knowing our routesā€, without substantiating the claim.

Vance continued: ā€œThe idea that every person in Afghanistan, even those who said they were helping us, are actually good people is a total joke.ā€

Vance expressed similar skepticism about another immigrant group, while characterizing himself and others as victims of the left.

At about 25 minutes into the recording, Solheim said: ā€œThereā€™s like a whole section of downtown Minneapolis that they call Little Mogadishu. Like thatā€™s what they call it. Thereā€™s nothing in English. People are frequently hatcheted to death in the street.ā€

Solheim added: ā€œI was just down there a couple of weeks ago. Itā€™s like a totally different country.ā€

Replying, Vance said: ā€œThe thing that I hate about this is the left uses racism as a cudgel. And I myself was guilty of being a little worried about that. Like, I donā€™t want to be called a racist because I knew it can be career-ending and they can destroy a personā€™s life.ā€

Vance then asked, rhetorically, ā€œWhy donā€™t you want, you know, people getting hatcheted in the street in downtown Minneapolis? Is it because youā€™re a racist or is it because you donā€™t like people getting hatcheted in the street in your own community?ā€

ā€œLike, obviously, the answer is the latter,ā€ he concluded. ā€œBut the left uses racism as a cudgel to shut us up and to make it impossible to complain about obvious problems.ā€

Last July, not long after being named as Trumpā€™s VP pick, Vance suggested in a speech that Democrats would describe drinking Diet Mountain Dew as racist. The comment backfired and was widely mocked.

At about 28 minutes in, Sharma said: ā€œYou know, thinking about the Minnesota example, specifically, thatā€™s how you get someone like Ilhan Omar, who despises the country.ā€

Vance replied, ā€œI mean, [the US] gave her an incredible amount of opportunity and she has a complete lack of gratitude,ā€ later adding: ā€œMy family has been here as far as I can tell for nine, 10, like many generations. Iā€™ve never heard a person in my family express the ingratitude towards this country that Ilhan Omar does towards this country.

ā€œAnd look, this is the way the laws work. This country belongs to Ilhan Omar in the same way that it belongs to me,ā€ Vance allowed.

ā€œBut my God, show a little appreciation for the fact that you would be living in a craphole if this country didnā€™t bring you to a place that has obviously its problems, but has a lot of prosperity, too,ā€ he concluded.

Vance also talked about institutions like universities and the media as components of a ā€œbroken elite systemā€, and portrayed their inhabitants as enemies whom conservatives would need to reckon with.

ā€œThere is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless weā€™re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. Thatā€™s the universities.ā€

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    ā€œThe corruption is it puts people on a career pipeline that causes them to chase things that will make them miserable and unhappy,ā€ Vance said. ā€œAnd so they get in positions of power and then they project that misery and happiness on the rest of society.ā€

    Heā€™s not wrong, except itā€™s anyone in that pipeline not just women, and the alternative isnā€™t necessarily childbearing. But of course this thought isnā€™t anywhere near his pumpkin.