The Rise of Uncancelable Culture (Ep 325)

The Rise of Uncancelable Culture (Ep 325)

Some truths only get said when someone refuses to blink. Today we push through the discomfort—stigma, family pushback, and the calls to “tone it down”—to share what recovery really looks like: eight years sober, steady mental health care, and the courage to protect kids from what culture quietly normalizes. We talk about the right to speak plainly, why good-faith stories matter, and how faith steadies you when critics knock on your door and demand you stop.

We dig into the double standard that lets catchy lyrics about being “drunk in the back of the car” echo at youth events while labeling a parent’s sober testimony as “too dark.” Words shape norms, especially for children, and repetition becomes permission. That’s why we keep advocating for consistent standards and practical safety—like having EMTs and security at large cheer competitions—because preparedness is care, and care saves lives.

Along the way, we revisit the pillars that keep this movement going: accountability, therapy, the 988 Lifeline for crisis support, and a faith-forward resolve to serve rather than please. Despite canceled segments and closed doors, the community keeps growing—reaching nearly 90 countries and hundreds of cities—because honesty resonates. If you’ve ever felt pressured to go quiet about your pain, your progress, or your purpose, consider this your permission to speak. Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs a spark of courage, and leave a review to help more people find their way to hope.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Mission Statement

2:17 Stigma, Censorship, and Free Speech

5:27 Personal Boundaries and Family Pushback

8:53 Intervention Attempt and Resolve

12:01 Faith, Accountability, and Ongoing Care

14:30 Sober Eight Years: Identity Shift

18:10 Culture, Lyrics, and Normalization

22:20 Youth Events, Safety, and Preparedness

27:00 Why Sharing Hard Stories Matters

30:30 Purpose, Obstacles, and Calling

34:00 Global Reach and Community Impact

38:30 Gratitude, Milestones, and Closing

#Uncancelable #CancelCulture #FreedomOfSpeech #CensorshipDebate #VoiceYourOpinion #SocialMediaImpact #ResilienceInArt #DefyingCensorship #EmpowermentThroughTruth #AuthenticVoices #CulturalCritique #StandForYourBeliefs #CreativeExpressionMatters #ChallengingNorms #UnfilteredDiscussion #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices325

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Mission Statement
• 2:17 Stigma, Censorship, and Free Speech
• 5:27 Personal Boundaries and Family Pushback
• 8:53 Intervention Attempt and Resolve
• 12:01 Faith, Accountability, and Ongoing Care
• 14:30 Sober Eight Years: Identity Shift
• 18:10 Culture, Lyrics, and Normalization
• 22:20 Youth Events, Safety, and Preparedness
• 27:00 Why Sharing Hard Stories Matters
• 30:30 Purpose, Obstacles, and Calling
• 34:00 Global Reach and Community Impact
• 38:30 Gratitude, Milestones, and Closing

Transcript

JustinAlanHayes: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We're grateful to have you with us, uh, watching, listening, near or far. Uh we are grateful to have you uh the uh the uh the backing of the Voices for Voices uh movement of helping others, sharing mental health stories, recovery, trauma, things that each of us go through on a day-to-day basis. Uh and I'll just preface that saying we all have mental health. So when somebody says, Oh, I have mental health, yes, they do. So do we. Each individual, we all have it. We have physical health and we have mental health. And the stigma is still out there. That's why years later, from 2017, when I began taking my mental health seriously, the stigma's still there. People don't want to talk about it. People don't want to share, they walk away, they shut our show down, they they do all kinds of things, and yet all we're doing is sharing stories of individuals to the best of their knowledge, the best of my knowledge, in good faith. And I see no no problem with that. Uh, if we want to get talk about the constitution, the first amendment, freedom of speech. Uh, we all have it. If you don't like what we're talking about, turn us off. We already have people close to us who have canceled certain portions of the the show, and that is it's very hurtful. It's very uh yeah, hurtful is the word. Uh, when people step into situations that they don't want to know the facts, they don't want to listen, they don't want to, even as much as they say they do, and they say they care, and they say they love that's not a way to do that. It's one thing if I wanted to step away, if our organization wanted to step away from the show, from work we're doing, such as Voices for Voices Publishing on Amazon, on Barnes Noble. And that's uh you know, this is just the beginning of that, and it is uh beyond me why people feel the need to step in and say something, and they they want a full shutdown of the organization, of the show. Well, I got news for you. That's not gonna happen. We're not gonna get shut down, we're gonna continue to speak the truth, speak events. If people are uncomfortable with me talking about these particular things, then they know how to they know how to remedy this situation. But I'm not gonna hold back, and neither should you. When I started the organization, that each and every day, all hours of the day, voices for voices is something that is with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days, 366 on the leap here. Uh and so no matter what happens, no matter how it happens, no matter who it comes from, you can't stop a person from sharing events that are going on in stories and experiences. And again, I say this frankly to everyone, every single person, every single person in my family, in my extended family, that if you don't like me sharing these these particular instances of what you're trying to do and what you tried to do, and what you're continuing to doing, continue doing well that's not on me, that's on you. I didn't I didn't I didn't do anything wrong. I think that's where us as individuals, and I'm not going off any self- self-help books because there's no self-help book for each of us. We all had a different situation, but I I would tend to believe a lot of us would just say, okay, you're right, I shouldn't be doing this, I need to do something different, I need to whatever. Uh and maybe it's not until people come into your home, your house, and try to tell you how everything that you're doing is wrong, it's dark, uh we're gonna pull you out of the studio, uh, which has happened, but it doesn't stop our movement. Uh, come to find out that our movement is pretty decent in size, and that's an understatement. I'm here to help people, and if you're one of the people that doesn't like how I'm helping people or doesn't think I'm helping people, all I have to say is under the First Amendment free speech, I'm allowed to share my story, my experiences in good faith, and that's what I've done, what our guests do, and what we'll continue to do. So I don't know, maybe there's we've talked about, you know, maybe some jealousy and envy of different parts of uh parts and pieces of uh projects, things that we're thinking about. I can't help that. You know who does? God. God helps that. And so that's that's who I answer to. I don't answer to a room full of people telling me in my own house that oh, we need to go get you checked out. Really? How about this? Y'all that were part of that intervention? They claimed it wasn't an intervention, which it was. Why don't you get checked out? Why don't why don't you sit down with a therapist, a psychiatrist? Why don't you get checked out? I get checked out all the time. It's been a standing thing that I get checked out consistently, have been, will, and until I take my last breath, I will I will continue to be seen. And so I find it very interesting, and you may too, you may be in a certain in a similar situation, maybe something similar happened to you, or you know that it's happened to somebody you know that if you don't stand up for yourself, if I don't stand for myself, then voices for voices, everything I and others have worked for go goes to not. I'm not here, we're not here to uh oh no. We're not we're not here to what a lot of people are are saying that we are. We're an organization founded on the bedrock, the foundation of mental health, mental illness, trauma, recovery, helping people, sharing experiences, sharing events that have been traumatic, how we've gotten through them, or resources, you know, like the nine eight eight. If you are somebody you know is going through a crisis, you can text uh nine eight eight, you can call, you can uh chat, whatever your communication method is. People care, people are standing, sitting by, waiting to have a conversation with you or somebody you know. And so when when people wherever they're at, how close to you or how far away uh people are, we we just we just wanted to say, hey, I'm being checked out consistently for the last seven years, gone on eight. It's gonna be eight and roughly uh 45 days or so. Eight yeah, it's gonna be eight years that I've been sober, haven't picked up a drop of alcohol, no illegal drugs. Yeah, that that's changed me. Because I'm not that partier, I'm not that that person, the person that I was was not the real me. I was, you know, weekends drinking, getting drunk. Uh and some people have a problem with that word saying getting drunk on a TV show and podcast. And I say, Oh, okay. You got a problem with that? How about this? How about Taylor Swift has a song that talks about I'm drunk in the back of the car? She's okay saying that. I was at a cheer competition with kid children, uh, you know, six years, five, six years and older. And the DJ had no problem playing that song, that bit of the song. And as a parent, as a father, I don't like that. I can't do anything about it. I can voice my concern on here and share with the world. But if you don't like me talking about, oh, you know, you're talking about getting drunk and how you did, and well, you know what? Then if you don't want me talking about it, then we should not be able to have that type of a song and worship that person that talks about getting drunk and drinking alcohol. We can get into a whole conversation on how Taylor Swift, as an artist, over the years, how her music has gotten darker. So if you want to talk about it, let's talk about it. I tend to like most of Taylor's music. She was a sellout. Like some musicians to reach the masses, large amount of people wearing more than provocative outfits at her shows or concerts, you know, the eras, you know, that just you know wrapped up last year. And so this isn't a verbal assault on her or anybody. It's it's bringing this to the forefront. The well, in this instance, it's okay because it's a song and it's a catchy song, and people know it. I would prefer my daughter not to hear that. Not to hear that part. Because as much as we want to do as parents and say, okay, they said this word, um, you know, this is just in a song. We we don't say though, we don't say those words. Well, guess what? That's a bunch of baloney because the more a person hears something, the more normalized things get. Meaning that, oh, it's okay, you know, it's just a Taylor Swift song, and it's just the song. And yeah, she says drunk, and you know, we put it on the radio, and we play it at you know, cheerleading competitions with six-year-olds, and and uh the the friends and family, and siblings, and nephews, and nieces, and cousins, and teammates, and we have no problem doing that, but we have a problem when Justin Allen Hayes steps forward with Voices for Voices and talks about how the first half of my life I was drunk a lot, and it was the mask, the insecurity part of it. Uh, it was a mask of the insecurity I had as a person, and I've talked about this many times, you know, having acne, uh had braces twice. Uh I was an outcast. Now I'm okay with that. I'm okay being an outcast because I'm stepping out and stepping up, and the haters and the people that want to try to step in to a situation that they have no business, if they want to step in, there's many other times and places. But when you step into my house, when you step into my house and you have the gall to tell me what I'm doing is dark, and we're worried, and all this because we're telling the truth, we're telling what's actually going on, because you don't want to believe that things happen in our own neighborhoods and our own, you know, our neighbors could could potentially uh this isn't to call out anybody specific, uh, but we we tend to, and we have over the years, tended to think that oh well this event at this church, where this church was burned to the ground and injured and killed people in this school that somebody with a gun comes in with intentions to harm people, students, kids, children, adults, teachers, administrators. All this has been normalized because it happens so often. And you you saw and heard me on another episode talking about the lack of security and uh medical uh medical treatment, what uh options at at this cheerleading competition I went to and how for six hours and a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, a couple thousand people, and you have children with their respective teams or their their cheer squads. There's no law enforcement presence at all. There was no EMT, nobody available that if uh you know uh there was an acrobat, acrobatic move like uh uh cartwheel, and I don't know all the names of the those things, but if somebody got hurt, what were they gonna do? Oh, we'll just put some ice on it and then we'll drive you to the hospital. Or who knows? I don't even know what the action plan is. It wasn't shared with us, none of it was. But at a high school football game, they're damn sure there's law enforcement there and then ENT. And you know, you can argue and disagree with me all you want that oh, cheerleading's different than football, and well, not really, because they both uh involve humans, and they both could potentially have an injury somehow, somehow, unfortunately. We don't want that to happen. That's not that's not what we're saying. We want to be prepared, and I didn't see any preparedness after this competition, and so to add on to the you know, the song talking about uh you know the Taylor Swift song talking about being drunk in the back of the car, uh, and she has many other songs that reference uh you know, meet me in the back for a drink or something, those uh those those words. So don't quote me exactly on that. Uh, but there are multiple songs of Taylor Swift with whom people worship some people, and so I say to anybody out there, yeah, do you want your you want your kid, your child to be hearing those words and normalizing that at six, five, six, seven, eight years old? Guess what happens? The more we hear something, the more normalized it be. It's like, oh that Taylor Swift said in her song, so it can't be that bad, and I don't even know what drunk means, but then at some point they find out what drunk means, and I don't want I can't stop this, nobody can, but I wanted as few people as humanly possible to fall into those ways of what I did and what I went through, and the decisions, the bad decisions I made. So that's for my daughter, that's for your daughter, your your uh, your boy, your girl, your nephews, nieces, grandchildren, cousins. It goes for everybody. And because I'm a voice for voices for voices, you know, I'm I'm the one that gets called, we're the ones that get gets called what we're we're talking about dark things. No, we're talking about real life. So, how about that? These things are happening, and how can you help somebody if you don't allow them the opportunity to share their their story, their experiences? If they believe others are involved and have been part of said events, said experiences, then I'm not going to stop them from saying that because that's their good faith story that they believe to be true, and we're covered under the First Amendment. Now, you might not want me to be to be covered on the First Amendment, but I am. I'm a U.S. citizen, and so are you. Of well, you're talking about being drunk, and you know, that's not really appropriate to talk about on a show. And you know, there can be children that are watching and listening. I point right back to that Taylor Swift song. I'm drunk in the back of the car. Heard it tens of times. How many different birthday parties, other gatherings, wedding receptions has that song been played? And so that gets into the mind and it becomes normalized, and I don't want my child or your child the thing getting drunk is normalized, that it's uh that it's a good path. I've been through it at the time. I thought it was the best path. I didn't foresee myself making it really to 30, let alone 40 years old, because I had that little confidence in myself, so much insecurities that I didn't know what I was gonna be able to offer the world, or even people even my local community when I would travel, I'd be you know, getting drunk on the the airplanes, and so that's how I would cope with with those types of things so that when things changed and I change to the real Justin, some of y'all don't like it because that wasn't I'm not that same person. I I don't have those ambitions to do that. I have ambitions to help people and to stay sober, to trust in God, Jesus Christ, put my faith in in Jesus Christ, and know that it's his will to be done, not mine, not what I want to do. We get greedy a lot sometimes. I'm like, well, I want to do this, I want to do that. Well, voices for voices is what I want to do. However, the only reason it's still going is because of God. There have been many hurdles, many uh I'm trying to think of the one the one show where people go through an obstacle course and you know they they have to, you know, they have something spinning and they have to. get past it and then they gotta you know it might be the ultimate warrior it's it's some type of competition and there's all kinds of things that it they have to endure to get to the end of the uh the course and then obviously the best time wins you know the shortest amount of time and that's that's exactly how I feel and I've felt for quite a while where every turn we make every word we say every show we make every podcast we share we are here to help people and to leave a legacy to my daughter and if you don't like how we are helping people if you don't think we're helping people if you say nobody's watching nobody's listening then that's your opinion and I don't agree with it but I respect it because not only am I covered under the First Amendment you are as well if you're a U.S. citizen so if you are allowed to do that what would you do? People just started entering your home your apartment your dorm whatever and uh close the door turn off you know TV everything and and you know kind of have these somber looks on the face their faces I hope and pray that never happens to anybody else ever again it's one of the hardest things I've had to endure as a human as a person but God has kept me here and we're continuing we're continuing on we have books that are published that you can find on Amazon or Barnes and Noble Voices for Voices publishing there there's tangible tangible things you can hold, you can feel you can touch and I think I'm not I'm not trying to uh get ahead of anything but I really believe we are gonna help three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond part of it is because of these events that have occurred within like the last month or so I don't have a problem talking about my mental health I don't have a problem talking about if I'm taking medication I don't have a problem sharing about my mental health because I find when I do share when I do go to my standing appointments with my provider that I feel like a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders because somebody's listening somebody cares like my mom like my dad who who passed last year and I'm still grieving through that that that event and I I still can't believe that he he's not here with us. And so I because I talk about life and death and the people and situations and talk about my father passing and different things I don't care if you think it's dark. I really don't I've tried to put on the you know the face of oh yeah they really do care and but it's always Justin that needs to be uh seen that Justin needs his mental health Justin needs this Justin needs to do this Justin doesn't need to do that I don't see very much self-reflection on anybody else that has attacked me an organization and pull in the studio you know what that's okay that's fine pull pull it you did it when something's worth fighting for helping people you can be damn sure that I voices for voices everyone associated with us is here to help and to share and some people may say well how are you helping them by talking about things well like you're not telling them not to uh do like a triple flip on a bike and like well yeah you're helping them and telling them well that's super dangerous and only the you know trained professionals should be doing that so the way we're helping is is unique and different and it's a niche which I'm happy to say that we're leading we're leading the world on this movement. So whether you're near or far if this is your first show first episode revenue from the beginning it's all because of you that we're here it's because a God has given me the strength to continue on this path and then secondarily it's you our listeners our viewers it's it's a movement I've been certain places and people are starting to recognize me so it's kind of like this paparazzi effect and not all of it's gonna be good there's gonna be people that you know have their comments and uh one way or the other and that's okay they're allowed to do that they're allowed to voice their opinion so are we and if it bothers you that I talk and we talk about real events real things real bad things sometimes that are going on in our communities and our states and our territories and provinces and our nations we're gonna keep doing that we're gonna keep shedding light on on that we're gonna put a spotlight on it so thank you very much for being with us each and every one of you watching listening if you're here in the United States you're here in northeast ohio you're somewhere and another another uh country territory province uh city state township uh municipality and oh by the way we because of you we've we've gotten very close to reaching over 90 countries and getting close to 850 cities across the world that we are reaching and that's just with the analytics we have we know that we're not getting a full picture because of private servers and and and uh you know those circumvent you uh you know privacy uh not wanting to be tracked and we get that that's okay and it's okay to be you it's okay to have your beliefs we're not telling people to do illegal things we're saying legal things positive legal things that help people that's been our goal from episode one and I am still just floored uh with gratitude and humbleness and everything that comes with it that this is episode three hundred and twenty five three hundred and twenty five the stats uh over you know uh very few if you look at all the podcasts and TV shows very few pass or reach a hundred episodes even less reach two hundred even less to reach three hundred and oh my gosh we just may hit 400 here at some point in the near future I don't know what the future holds God knows what the future holds for me for voices for voices it's God's will be done not mine and I just want to say God bless you God bless the United States of America God bless you wherever you are across the world and let's keep this movement going let's keep helping people let's keep sharing let's let's just be compassionate human beings how about that so until next time Justin Alan Hayes Voices for Voices we ask that you please be a voice for you or somebody in need we'll see you next time everybody thank you so much.