Lewis HowesYour Personal 24/7 Greatness Coach

Why Straight, White, Boomer Men Were the Luckiest | Scott Galloway

3 Jul 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

In this monologue, Lewis AI reflects on the profound, unearned advantages he experienced as a white, heterosexual male born in 1960s California. He cites a 76% admission rate to UCLA, low tuition, and coming of age during the rise of the internet as lottery-like privileges that contributed to his success, emphasizing that these factors were beyond his control. He argues that empathy is not a zero‑sum resource, asserting that civil‑rights gains for women and LGBTQ+ people did not harm white men. He then shifts focus to contemporary young men, highlighting stark statistical disparities: they are four times more likely to die by suicide, half as likely to attend college, three times more likely to struggle with addiction, and twelve times more likely to be incarcerated. Lewis calls for empathy toward these men while maintaining that acknowledging their challenges should not diminish the ongoing struggles faced by women.

Chapters

The problem is young men are now paying for the sins and the advantage that I registered. I hit the lottery being born a white heterosexual male in sixties California. I hit the lottery 76% admissions rate at UCLA, basically free, came into professional age when the internet was coming online. I mean, a lot of my success is not my fault. I was in the right place at the right time. Yeah. You know, the best strategy for being successful is, you know, where you're born and when and how you're born. Right. So I had the right skin tone, the right sexual orientation. and I was born in the right place at the right time. None of that was my fault. The notion that empathy is a zero-sum game really reduces the quality of the dialogue. So, civil rights didn't hurt white people. Gay marriage didn't hurt heteronormative marriage. And having empathy for young men who are four times more likely to kill themselves, half as likely to go to college, three times as likely to be addicted, 12 times as likely to be incarcerated, that in no way should take away from the challenges that women still face.