So Begins the Un-Coddling of the American Mind

Summary

Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning with Sasha Stone

Episode: So Begins the Un-Coddling of the American Mind

Release Date: February 10, 2025

---

Introduction

In this compelling episode titled "So Begins the Un-Coddling of the American Mind," host Sacha Stone delves deep into the cultural and political shifts shaping contemporary America. Drawing from his experiences as a former Democrat and Leftist, Stone critiques the current state of the American mindset, particularly focusing on the effects of "coddling" the younger generation and the ensuing societal ramifications.

---

The War on Women's Sports

The episode opens with a contentious discussion around a fictional executive order signed by former President Donald Trump aimed at protecting women's sports. Stone juxtaposes Trump's actions with J.K. Rowling's tweet criticizing the left, highlighting the polarization surrounding gender issues.

Notable Quote:

"With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over." – Donald Trump [01:06]

Stone reflects on the irony of feminists on the left, who previously labeled Trump as an adversary, now facing his initiatives that ostensibly support women's athletics.

---

Coddling the American Mind

Central to Stone's argument is the concept of "coddling" as explored in Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind. Stone discusses how overprotection has led to a generation plagued by anxiety and depression.

Key Insights:

• Mental Health Crisis:

  "That disinherited mental health among Gen Z is a travesty." – Greg Lukianoff [02:47]

• Fragility and Empowerment:

  "You're teaching them to be weak." – Greg Lukianoff [03:50]

  Stone shares personal anecdotes about his daughter's mental health struggles, attributing them to societal pressures and overprotective parenting. He argues that instead of empowering youth, current societal structures have inadvertently undermined their resilience.

---

Free Speech and Thought Policing

A significant portion of the episode critiques the suppression of free speech on college campuses. Stone emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and the dangers of silencing dissenting voices.

Notable Quote:

"Free speech is really how truth comes about." – Sacha Stone [03:18]

He references the Evergreen State College controversy involving professor Brett Weinstein, illustrating the clash between institutional policies and individual expression.

---

The Evergreen State College Incident

Stone provides a detailed account of the Evergreen State College protests against Brett Weinstein, who opposed a "day of absence" for white students and faculty. The episode portrays the event as a microcosm of broader societal tensions regarding race, free speech, and institutional authority.

Key Highlights:

• Jonathan Haidt's Commentary:

  "This is not a discussion. You've lost that one." – Donald Trump [14:30]

  Haidt critiques the administration's handling of the protests, labeling it as ineffective and overly accommodating to student demands.

• Stone's Perspective:

  "It's like the baby alien that burst out of John Hurt's stomach in the movie Alien. Slithered into the shadows and emerged as a monster no one was prepared for." – Sacha Stone [16:12]

  He likens the situation to a science fiction scenario, emphasizing the unpredictability and volatility of the protests.

---

The Impact of Social Media and Cancel Culture

Stone explores how social media has amplified issues of victimhood and identity politics, leading to a culture where individuals are quick to cancel others to ascend social hierarchies based on perceived victim status.

Notable Quote:

"Everyone was expected to keep those plates spinning to ensure real life never happened to all of our children now becoming adults." – Sacha Stone [07:12]

He argues that this environment stifles genuine discourse and fosters division, making it difficult for meaningful conversations to take place.

---

Personal Transformation and Uncoddling

In a candid segment, Stone shares his personal journey of embracing "uncoddling" — a process of building resilience by facing adversity head-on. He details the backlash he faced after publicly supporting Trump, including threats and loss of income, but emphasizes the inner strength gained from the experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Resilience Over Comfort:

  "What I gained was more valuable than any job or money. It's that thing inside us that guides us toward doing the right thing." – Sacha Stone [21:30]

• Lessons from History: Stone references historical figures like Giles Corey to draw parallels between past and present struggles for personal integrity and resilience.

---

Cultural Commentary and Satire

Towards the episode's conclusion, Stone employs satire to critique contemporary social media culture, particularly targeting the superficiality and performative aspects often highlighted on platforms like Instagram.

Notable Segment:

"Is this heaven or is it just a white woman? A white woman's Instagram." – J.K. Rowling [25:12]

This repetition underscores Stone's critique of societal obsessions with image and status over substantive values.

---

Conclusion: The Path Forward

Stone wraps up the episode by reiterating the necessity of "uncoddling" the American mind. He calls for a collective awakening to overcome the pervasive culture of fear and entitlement, advocating for a return to resilience and genuine personal growth.

Final Quote:

"Let the great uncoddling begin." – Sacha Stone [25:12]

He urges listeners to embrace challenges as opportunities for strengthening character, emphasizing that true empowerment comes from facing adversity rather than avoiding it.

---

Closing Thoughts

Sacha Stone's episode "So Begins the Un-Coddling of the American Mind" offers a thought-provoking critique of current societal trends affecting the younger generation. Through personal narratives, expert opinions, and sharp cultural analysis, Stone calls for a reevaluation of how resilience and free thought are fostered in modern America. This episode serves as a compelling invitation to listeners to engage in meaningful discourse and champion the development of a more robust, fearless mindset.

---

For more insights and essays, visit sashastone.substack.com.

Transcript

[Sacha Stone]

This is free thinking through the fourth turning. My name is Sacha Stone. So begins the uncoddling of the American mind. It won't be easy, but we don't have a choice. With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over. Donald Trump, 45th and 47th President A the United States. For podcast listeners, a tweet by J.K. rowling. Congratulations to every single person on the left who's been campaigning to destroy women's and girls rights. Without you, there'd be no images like this and a picture of Donald Trump signing the executive order to protect women's sports. What must it have felt like for all those feminists on the left who have spent the better part of a decade insisting Trump was an enemy to women, a rapist, a sexual harasser, an assaulter. To see so many young girls encircling him as he helped protect their future with the swipe of his pen.

[Donald Trump]

I want to make this a really good signature because this is, you know, this is a big one, right? Oh, I think we have a 10. We have a 10. God bless you, Mr. President. With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over. Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women's sports will be only for women.

[Sacha Stone]

What they should be asking themselves is how it ever came to this. How do we raise a generation to believe such falsehoods about themselves? Or to feel the need to be something other than who they are? Or to lie about the biological differences between men and women? Or to teach them never to speak up when they know something is wrong? How did it arrive with so many millions of people too afraid to stand up for them? How do we get to 2024 with the left handing over the cornerstone of their movement to Trump? Look no further than the coddling of the American mind as written in the book by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, which has now been turned into a movie. I was full of self confidence when I was 18, but while I was in college.

[Greg Lukianoff]

That disinte mental health among Gen Z is a travesty. Almost every other person I know has some sort of mental health problem.

[Jonathan Haidt]

We face this huge mystery. Why are Gen zers so anxious and depressed?

[Greg Lukianoff]

This is a whole generation going off the rails.

[Jonathan Haidt]

We identified the three worst things young people are being taught and we called them the three great untruths.

[Sacha Stone]

And it was like, boom. This is what is happening.

[Jonathan Haidt]

They contradict ancient wisdom, modern psychology, and common sense.

[Sacha Stone]

Free speech is really how truth comes about. There's complexity in truth on campus.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Administrators teach students that they're fragile and can be permanently harmed by words.

[Sacha Stone]

I just gotten out of psych hospitals and it felt like Stanford expected students to be more fragile than the hospitals expected of their patients. I was scared of what the day was gonna bring me.

[Jonathan Haidt]

If you think that something wrong has happened every time you feel a spike of emotion, this is setting up students for paranoia and misery.

[Greg Lukianoff]

You're teaching them to be weak.

[Sacha Stone]

That's like the exact opposite of empowerment.

[Greg Lukianoff]

Tribalism is human nature. That doesn't mean we have to live that way. Us versus them. Anytime you see the world in this binary, you skew your vision and you're.

[Sacha Stone]

Unable to understand the other person. Social media, social media.

[Donald Trump]

If you like something, it means something.

[Sacha Stone]

If you don't like something, it also.

[Donald Trump]

Sends a certain signal.

[Sacha Stone]

Professors, social media, I would just follow their command. Any person who needed to be canceled, I was ready to do their bidding.

[Jonathan Haidt]

We're taking these amazing kids and, and teaching them that they're capable of much less than they actually are.

[Greg Lukianoff]

If you can teach yourself to see.

[J.K. Rowling]

Reality more clearly and break those thought.

[Greg Lukianoff]

Cycles, you get relief.

[Sacha Stone]

Now I'm thinking for myself. I'm open to new ideas. I'm excited to learn. I'm much happier. I'm at peace. It feels really good. Most people on the left recognize there is a problem. But they won't agree with so many of us that Trump and his tough love are the way out of it. Probably not even Lukhanov and Haight. But the time for niceties is over. We can't worry about whose feelings might be hurt or who might be offended. No, this is the time to save America and its young from a dominant contagion that has overtaken nearly every corner of American life. It isn't just the denial of science and reality. It's that so many of them have become so afraid of just words that we can do nothing except blow past them and try to salvage whatever is left. We've arrived all the way on the opposite end of where the greatest generation was when they were sent to war to save the world from Hitler. How do we get from Patton and MacArthur and Eisenhower to a generation who believed that words have the power to destroy them? Just words. Imagine George Patton arriving in modern day America. What would he make of the nation's young people? I guess I just can't take it, sir.

[Donald Trump]

What did you say? It's My nerves, sir.

[Sacha Stone]

I just can't stand the Shelly anymore.

[Donald Trump]

Your nerves? Well, hell, you're just a goddamn coward, Scap. Don't have a yellow bastard sitting here crying in front of these brave men who've been wounded in battle. Shut up. Don't admit this yellow bastard. Nothing wrong with him. I won't have sons of bitches who are afraid to fight stinking up this place of honor. You're going back to the front, my friend. You may get shot and you may get killed, but you're going up to the fighting. Either that or I'm going to stand you up in front of a firing squad. I ought to shoot you myself, you goddamn bastard. Get him out of here. Send him up to the front. You hear me, you God Damn Coward?

[Sacha Stone]

Or MacArthur, the guy who said it is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it. And you are remembered for the rules you break. And you don't win wars by dying for your country. You win wars by making the other son of a bitch die for his. How do we get from that to this?

[Greg Lukianoff]

Let me explain why misgendering is an act of violence. I know this sounds extreme and I know I talk about this a lot, but this is because the situation is extreme. Getting misgendered as a trans and non binary person not only triggers the trauma of being conditioned into a gender that is not ours, but it also triggers the trauma of existing in a world that at large would prefer we did not exist. So getting misgendered can feel like a smack in the heart. It represents all that we are up against. And yes, mistakes absolutely happen. But let's say you turn a corner and accidentally smack someone across the face. You wouldn't immediately be like, hey, look, it was an accident. You would tend to their pain and make sure it doesn't happen again. But then every time you turn that same corner, you continue to smack that person. Yes, it may still still be unintentional, but at a certain point, the lack of intention is a choice. So maybe first you have to take in the fact that this causes real harm and then approach your misstep with the level of awareness and effort that it will take to stop hurting us. I love you.

[Sacha Stone]

I don't know what makes Donald Trump so tough and resilient, but I do know that whatever he has, we could use a lot more of it to help us uncoddle the American mind. Not a moment too soon. How to destroy a whole generation. My daughter came home from high school one day just before Trump won and said, I'm worried I don't have anything wrong with me. What did she mean, I wondered? It wasn't long before I found out her classmates had all been diagnosed with something. Adhd, bipolar disorder, ADD, and depression. I told her there was nothing wrong with her because I raised her to be happy and healthy, so why would she need therapy or drugs? Because her friends all had therapy and drugs. To make matters worse, my daughter, whose best friend was black and whose president was black, was now being taught that she was part of systems of oppression that caused harm to other races. She was told she had to stand outside of the circle because what she said didn't matter. That was when the depression started. I refused to medicate her then, but Once she turned 18, there was nothing I could do about it. So she, like all of her classmates, got a prescription, became like a fashionable water bottle or a tattoo, a cultural identifier that she was somehow broken and therefore deserved protection online. By the time my daughter graduated, only one of her friends had announced she was a boy and wanted what my daughter casually called top surgery. I never heard the expression before. These words tumbled out of my daughter's mouth like it was all perfectly normal. Top surgery and puberty blockers. Suddenly, her friend now had a boy's name. By the time she graduated college and moved into an apartment, two of her roommates were now presenting as the opposite sex and were a couple. A boy she'd had a crush on had fully transitioned and was now a female. Somehow she escaped the madness, and I know I dodged a bullet. Maybe some of my parenting paid off in the end, because at the very least, I didn't have to have that conversation with her that she might really be a boy. It would turn out that my generation of helicopter moms who overprotected our kids and boosted their self esteem never seemed able to back off and allow them to suffer the slings and arrows of what it means to become a resilient adult. To escape us, they disappeared online, building a whole new societal structure, Lord of the Flies style, that would ultimately take our social justice lessons and turned them into a strident new fundamentalism that ranked and categorized people by most victim. If you had mental health issues, your status was boosted. If you were not white or not heterosexual, your status was boosted. The highest status or the most victim were trans people. Most of us didn't realize what we'd done until much too late to turn things around. It wasn't only the fault of the coddled generation. Everything on the left reflected those ideas. Institutions, the Democrats, Hollywood, doctors, journalism, big tech. Everyone was expected to keep those plates spinning to ensure real life never happened to all of our children now becoming adults. When you look at it like that, it's easier to understand the reaction to Trump's win in 2016. The mass hysteria that ensued showed the fruits of our labor. It was like the baby alien that burst out of John Hurt's stomach in the movie. Alien slithered into the shadows and emerged as a monster no one was prepared for and had no way of dealing with. Evergreen College is a great example of a generation of mines destroyed and how effectless administration would further coddle them, pander to them, and teach them nothing.

[Donald Trump]

Fuck you and fuck the police.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Last month, Evergreen State College in Washington went crazy when a professor of evolutionary biology named Brett Weinstein objected to a day of absence when white students and faculty were asked to voluntarily leave campus. Weinstein branded it a form of racial segregation. A group of student protestors called him a racist. The confrontation incited further protests, debates over free speech and claims of systemic racism on campus. And things haven't calmed down. Tomorrow, Evergreen will hold its graduation at an off campus location 40 miles away.

[Donald Trump]

Would you like to hear the answer or not? No. Are you gonna get it?

[Jonathan Haidt]

This is the video, viewed by millions that put Evergreen State and Weinstein in the national spotlight.

[Donald Trump]

This is not a discussion. You have lost that one.

[Jonathan Haidt]

This is not a discussion. You've lost that one.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, you've lost that one.

[Jonathan Haidt]

So what are they doing here if they don't want to talk to you? Well, this is part and parcel of their central mode. They're just simply shutting down somebody that they don't want to hear from.

[Donald Trump]

I am not interested in debate. I am interested only in dialectic, which does mean I listen to you and you listen to me.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Weinstein has taught at Evergreen State for 14 years. He describes himself as deeply progressive, but has been denounced as a racist tool of the alt right by some students and faculty. Weinstein objected to the day of absence in a formal protest email to colleagues, arguing that, quote, one's right to speak or to be must never be based on skin color. Calls for his resignation followed by virtue.

[Donald Trump]

Of the way they constructed this.

[Jonathan Haidt]

You were making a statement by being on campus that you were not an ally. And I feel like I am an ally to people of color in their.

[Donald Trump]

Attempt to gain equity.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Do you have any sense at this point of why they want you to resign? Well, they think that I'm a racist because if you stand up against one of these things, because you think it's ill considered that you will be branded as a racist.

[Donald Trump]

We are here to support the anti blackness camp as well.

[Sacha Stone]

We just wanted to be like, until you're accountable for these actions, you don't get to teach students at Evergreen. You don't get to spread this problematic rhetoric and instill it in students.

[Donald Trump]

Yes, you're disrupting my class.

[Sacha Stone]

So at this point, we would like Brett to be fired, but that isn't happening. The administration is refusing to take action. They're choosing to protect this white CIS male professor over its students.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Later that day, the students held a raucous meeting at which they presented a list of demands, including the disarming of campus police and mandatory sensitivity training for all faculty. It's the one point on which the protesters and Weinstein agree. Evergreen's embattled president, George Bridges, has mishandled the crisis. I think their concerns are legitimate. They're articulating ideas that have to do with race, ethnicity, power, privilege, and we're taking a look at them.

[Sacha Stone]

That's my problem, George.

[Donald Trump]

You keep doing these little hand movements or whatever come through.

[Jonathan Haidt]

People were criticizing you for using hand gestures. Absolutely they were. And you know, that seems crazy to people from the outside of Evergreen. It may, but it's noise. But the noise has been effective.

[Greg Lukianoff]

No, fuck you, George.

[Donald Trump]

We don't want to hear a goddamn thing you have to say. So you don't need to watch that door, watch all the doors, watch the windows.

[Greg Lukianoff]

You need to keep eyes on them.

[Donald Trump]

And somebody needs to go in that room real quick to make sure that there's no way you have room for them.

[Jonathan Haidt]

I mean, essentially sounded like you're being held hostage there, spending a key. If you were to go to the bathroom, you had to go with two escorts. Is that true? That's what the students felt was true. I was going to go to the bathroom. What do you mean by the students? Well, that's what they said, if you want to go to the bathroom. I was going to go to the bathroom regardless, and they wanted to escort me. I felt very safe there. Why? What? Why did they want to escort you to the bathroom? I don't know. Did you ask them? No, of course not.

[Sacha Stone]

By 2020, the evergreen generation had come of age and now were pouring into the streets like the Red Guard during the cultural revolution, tearing down statues, demanding people raise their fists and ordering all cult members to post black squares on their Instagram. And what did the government do? The same thing as the Evergreen administrators. They pandered. They coddled they taught them nothing. Trump charged forward through all of it, somehow being the one person with the right set of skills to state plainly the harsh realities no one on the left wanted to hear. These were existential crimes. To them, he was breaking our carefully curated rules of language, our thought policing, our politically correct house of cards. Trump's bull in a china shop behavior might have been traumatizing in 2016, but by now it seems as necessary as Ripley taking the wheel to drive the tank and rescue the crew and aliens. Because enough was enough. Talk to me.

[Donald Trump]

Talk to me.

[Sacha Stone]

Get them out of there.

[Donald Trump]

Shut up. Do it now. Shut up.

[Greg Lukianoff]

Whoever's left, just shut up.

[Donald Trump]

God damn it. God. Where's the bone? Where's the bone, Sergeant? God. Get the out of here.

[Jonathan Haidt]

Hudson, Fast.

[Sacha Stone]

Guys.

[Donald Trump]

Hudson, look out. Hudson. Pick picks.

[Sacha Stone]

Fall back.

[Donald Trump]

Fall back.

[Sacha Stone]

Cut off.

[Donald Trump]

Do something. Come on, keep moving. Hold on, Newt. Ripley, what the hell are you doing?

[Sacha Stone]

Who else but Trump would arrive at the super bowl with this ad directed by Michael Bay.

[J.K. Rowling]

America was founded on an idea of freedom. America's always stepped forward in time of.

[Donald Trump]

Need throughout our short but powerful history. Ask not what your country can do.

[Jonathan Haidt]

For you, ask what you can do for your country.

[Donald Trump]

Tear down this wall.

[J.K. Rowling]

We've been there for all of it.

[Donald Trump]

150.

[Sacha Stone]

A second plane hit the tower.

[Donald Trump]

Our heroes are humble. They have an inner pride to keep this idea alive.

[J.K. Rowling]

Protectors are born, they're not made. America's Secret Service, protecting this super bowl.

[Donald Trump]

Is asking a few more to step forward.

[Sacha Stone]

The great uncoddling begins. Last summer, I had a decision to make. It was a pivotal election year. Sooner or later, someone would find my substack. See, I had announced I was voting for Trump and would expose me on the pages of a high profile site. I could wait it out, stay quiet in public and confine my ideas to a place almost no one in my world even knew about. Or I could come clean. I could tell the truth. I could use whatever voice I had to help destroy and dismantle a destructive movement I helped build. I watched other fearless women like Megyn Kelly, Abigail Schreier and J.K. rowling speak out loudly. And I felt like a moral coward. So I made the decision to start speaking truthfully and without fear. I had to uncoddle my own mind and learn how to survive it all. The mean comments, the doxxing, the threat. And yes, I lost almost everything they could take from me. Most of my income, freelance gigs and whatever was left of my reputation. What I gained was more valuable than any job or money. It's that thing inside us that guides us toward doing the right thing. When you betray that impulse, it feels bad. You know you sold yourself out. And worse. You have to live with it. I wanted to show my daughter that life isn't easy. It's as hard as showing up in Butler, Pennsylvania, and having a bullet just miskilling you on live television. It is about having an entire administrative apparatus that includes a massive alignment of power, sabotaging your presidency and calling you an existential threat to the country. It's showing up at the Capitol while exercising your First Amendment right and being called an insurrectionist. And yes, it's having the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences not invite you to the Governor's Awards. It's having Academy members not find your white dudes for Harris joke funny. It's having an embarrassing hit piece written about you as an implicit threat. Invasion of the Body Snatcher style. Living through that awful experience has taught me a lot about human nature, about the fake friends we make online and the fragile safety net we imagine is there. But it isn't. Its protection depends on your willingness to comply, to bend, to conform. I also learned that I'm stronger than any of them. I never caved and never apologized. Guess what? I survived. In Salem, a cantankerous wife beater named Giles Corey refused to confess to witchcraft. They piled stones on his chest until his tongue stuck out and his heart stopped. If he can do that, I can handle the cold indifference of the phonies in Hollywood.

[Donald Trump]

Purge your contempt and give us the name of the man that accused Putnam. You will say it, Corey. Speak, man. We cannot relent. What say you, Corey?

[J.K. Rowling]

Ma.

[Donald Trump]

Wait.

[Sacha Stone]

Lay on.

[Donald Trump]

You are commanded by the Corps. Lay on.

[Sacha Stone]

That is what I want my daughter to spend the rest of her life knowing. It isn't just. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And it isn't just all we have to fear is fear itself. It's also that living in a protective cocoon makes you afraid of everything. And that fear will ultimately destroy you and every great thing you might do with your precious life. What does Giles Corey say to them? More weight. So let's have it. Let the great uncoddling begin. Thank you for listening to my podcast, sashastone.substack.com and remember, to thine own self be true.

[J.K. Rowling]

An open window. A novel. A couple holding hands. An avocado. A poet written in the sand. Fresh fallen snow on the ground. A golden retriever in a flower crown. Is this heaven? Or is it just a white woman? A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram. Latte foam art, tiny pumpkins, fuzzy comfy socks, coffee table made out of driftwood, a bobblehead of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a needlepoint of a fox, some random quote from Lord of the Rings incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther King. Is this heaven or am I looking at a white woman? A white woman. White woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram.

[Donald Trump]

White woman.

[J.K. Rowling]

A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram. Her favorite photo of her mom, the caption says. I can't believe it. It's been a decade since you've been gone. Mama, I miss you. I miss sitting with you in the front yard, still figuring out how to keep living without you. It's got a little better, but it's still hard. Mama, I got a job I love in my own apartment. Mama, I got a boy and I'm crazy about him. Your little girl didn't do too bad. Mama, I love you. Give a hug and kiss to Dad. A goat cheese salad, a backlit hammock, a simple glass of wine. Incredibly derivative political street art. A dream catcher bought from Urban Outfitters. A vintage neon sign, three little words, a couple of doves, and a ring on her finger from the person that she loves. Is this heaven or is it just a white woman? A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman. Woman's Instagram. White woman. A white woman's Instagram.