rant · moment 25 of 29
Bowling Alone and Gary Vaynerchuk's Evangelical Hustle Preaching
from Episode 148 - Streak of Evil (with Yannis Pappas) · #148
4 min
Riffing on the death of American community (referencing Bowling Alone) and small tribal communities forming around hobbies, Tim attacks Gary Vaynerchuk-style hustle culture for telling unhappy, unequal people they just need to grind harder.
- Modern communities form only around shared hobbies or interests, not proximity — dog parks for liberals, Wendy's parking lots for oxycontin users in Old Hickory, Tennessee.
- Bowling Alone describes the death of American community, leaving lonely people united by nothing while wealthy families operate in a completely different world.
- Wealthy people in LA are passionless and unaffected by everything, though they do have excellent soaps.
- Gary Vaynerchuk and Instagram motivational speakers function as capitalist evangelical preachers, telling people to hustle and get it, which is a sham if you need to be told.
- People unhappy in life might just want to be something they're not — like Carson Daly — and need to accept their actual limitations instead.
- The American Dream being sold pushes everyone toward entrepreneurship, but there's nothing wrong with having a regular job and finding happiness in family, friends, and hobbies instead.
- A lot of people in jail waiting execution were their own boss, yet society looks down on regular employment as if it's beneath the American Dream.
- Being Steve Jobs requires not just brains but willingness to tell your daughter to get out of your face and an evil streak most people don't have.