NOTE: This episode was recorded before recent political events, and events with my podcast.
Jay Stang, is a husband, father, U.S. Marine, future billionaire, and friend.
In this episode we discussed the somewhat anachronistic values he’s inherited from his famously-outspoken father, and a number of our other shared interests.
Topics discussed:
Jay’s Background and His Father’s Legacy
Thomas Jefferson's British Brothers
The Most Powerful Male Instinct
Feminism vs. Family Formation
The Communization of American Men
Why Libertarianism Is Communism
Space Dinosaurs on the Gas Giant Planets
For more about Jay, please visit:
https://x.com/hydromerchant
Listen to the Full Episode Ad-Free:
Monologue:
What has conservatism conserved? No, really.
As you look around at the decay of modern American society—abortions, trans kids, pride parades, inflation, woke media, crumbling infrastructure, porous borders, impending foreign wars, and a failing spirit of doing hard and virtuous things and taking big risks—I think it’s a fair question.
Oh sure, we have the 4th of July, apple pie, and baseball. Yay, I guess. But the virtues that made America a dominant global superpower, if only for a moment, appear to have been sold down the river. And last I checked, it was the conservative party’s job to protect against things like that.
So again I ask, what has conservatism conserved? But truthfully, I know the answer. Nothing.
The big question then is: Why? And perhaps to answer that question, it helps to start with when. But asking when is a tricky thing because few of us asking now were actually there. I wasn’t in the halls of Congress, the Oval Office, the smoke-filled back rooms, the penthouses, or the private islands or estates where these sorts of decisions are made. I probably wasn’t even born yet when conservatism decided that it wouldn’t really conserve anything of value.
So if I can’t get back to the when, I can’t find out the why. Unless...
I had a time machine. Hold on a second, hear me out. Now I wouldn’t get in this time machine. I’ve seen enough movies to know that it would create all kinds of space-time distortions, and that would be bad.
Instead, I would send the time machine back in time for someone else to get into it and come forward in time to today. That man, of his era, could talk about the shifts in conservatism that he was witnessing and provide valuable firsthand information that none of us could find on our own. Then we could know not only the when but the why. And everyone wins.
Sound good? There’s just one problem: my time machine is broken. Can I borrow yours? No? Well, then we have a problem.
Oh wait! I have another idea. The next best thing. Rather than sending a time machine back to get that man, what if we sent something from that man forward in time? Perhaps his progeny? Could a man of his time raise a son who would grow up out of time?
You’re about to find out.
Which brings me to my guest this week. His name is Jay Stang, and he’s a husband, father, US Marine, future billionaire, and good friend. We got to know each other in various group chats when the world ended in 2020, and after getting to know him over dinner, barbecue, and DMs, I discovered that his personal life history matches a lot of the scenario I just described.
Because his father was the political commentator Alan Stang. Now, I doubt I have any listeners who are old enough to remember that name. But as you’re about to hear, Mr. Stang was part of the John Birch Society. And if you don’t know what that is, here’s how Wikipedia describes it:
*The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and right-wing libertarian ideas.*
Now, if you’re anything like me, that sounds like your kind of party. Alan Stang was an influential and outspoken part of the John Birch Society, and my guest this week, Jay, is his son.
So while we can’t send a time machine back to pick up Mr. Alan Stang himself, we get the next best thing: his progeny, who was raised to follow in his footsteps, to embody his values, to live a life based in an era where conservatism hadn’t yet failed to conserve anything.
But this isn’t to say that Jay stands in his father’s shadow. Far from it. It’s to point out that in some ways, Jay’s values are an anachronistic gift from his father, helping him and us to navigate a straight and true line in a world gone mad.
Because most of us have had to unlearn a lifetime of bad values. Perhaps with Jay’s help and insight, we can begin to learn lessons from him, his father, and his family values that we can build upon, to rightly instruct our sons, just as Alan Stang did, and as Jay is doing today.
In our conversation, Jay and I discussed:
Jay’s background and his father’s legacy
Thomas Jefferson's British brothers
The most powerful male instinct
Feminism vs. family formation
The communization of American men
Why libertarianism is communism
Space dinosaurs on the gas giant planets
And please welcome this week’s guest on the podcast, the US Marine and future billionaire providing his razor-sharp insight on our current national predicament, Jay Stang.
Jay Stang: The Courage to Hurt Feelings