Right Problem. Dangerous, Bullshit Answer.
All That Remains’ Phil Labonte has come out with an incredibly inflammatory and harmful message: therapy is for women, and men don’t solve their problems by talking. What a complete and total load of bullshit.
On a recent episode of Today’s Boondoggle Podcast, Labonte ran through a string of claims about masculinity, mental health, and society. Some are backed by real research. A fair number are flat-out false. The throughline is an argument that feminism is wrecking men, expanded from a 2024 op-ed he wrote for Fox News.
Here’s the most damaging part. Phil says he’s worried about male suicide, which is absolutely not something to laugh at, and then in the same breath discourages the single most-studied tool we have for preventing it. Therapy has saved lives. It saved mine. The actual research says the opposite of his take: therapy works for men. What’s true is that men are less likely to seek it and harder to keep in it, largely because of the exact tough-it-out norms Phil is out here reinforcing. For someone fronting a band this size to call therapy a women’s thing, from a platform that big, isn’t just wrong. It’s irresponsible.
And the evidence he leans on falls apart fast. He says divorce is at an all-time high. False, and not even close. US divorce sits near a fifty-year low, 14.2 per 1,000 married women in 2024, roughly half the 1980 peak. He says abortion is at an all-time high. Also false. 2023 saw about 1.04 million abortions, 15.9 per 1,000 women. A decade high, sure, but the real peak was 29.3 per 1,000 back in 1980-81, nearly double today. Both wrong numbers are load-bearing for his feminism thesis, and both point the opposite direction. “It’s all downstream from feminism,” he says. Based on what? “You can’t be a boss babe and a mother at the same time.” Pure opinion, zero fact.
The real shame is that All That Remains matters. I’ve seen them live. Overcome and For We Are Many still spin for me regularly. Opinions on a podcast are fine. Stating false things as fact, from that big a stage, is another. Phil Labonte needs to do better.
If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7. Call or text 988.
Source: Today’s Boondoggle Podcast