Quote · The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Fixing AI's Branding Problem + Advice for Anxious Public Speakers
Where this was said
Q3: Political Reversals — What Galloway Got Wrong
At 21:00 · chapter starts 17:24
The final question triggers Galloway's most reflective segment. On DEI, he still believes in affirmative action but now thinks it should use an adversity score rather than race — Trevor Noah's kids don't need a hand up, but a white kid in Appalachia with an incarcerated father does [1] — Scott Galloway "Galloway used to be a DEI advocate. Now he thinks DEI departments signal a problem already solved and that affirmative action should be bas…" 15:55 . On taxes, he has moved from a 40–50% ceiling to advocating 50–70% rates above $10 million a year, arguing that money above a certain threshold produces no additional happiness but could fund universal pre-K or healthcare. He has softened on gun absolutism, now accepting that most licensed gun owners are responsible. On trade, he credits Trump with correctly identifying the asymmetry of trade with China, even if the broader tariff approach is wrong. His sharpest reversal concerns online anonymity — he was once a zealot for it, but now thinks platforms should require verified identities behind anonymous accounts to prevent weaponised false reporting. And finally, he takes direct responsibility for supporting the US military strike on Iran: he believed weakening Iran's military could trigger a popular uprising against the regime, but admits he vastly oversimplified it, ignored the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, and failed to account for the incompetence of Trump and Secretary Hegseth [2] — Scott Galloway "Galloway supported the US military strike on Iran, believing it could topple the regime and liberate the Iranian people. He was wrong. He f…" 21:35 . 'I got that wrong and I need to own it,' he says — a genuinely rare moment of unhedged accountability from a public intellectual.
Galloway was once a free speech and anonymity absolutist. Now he thinks anonymous accounts should require verified identity behind them — not to end privacy, but to end the weaponization of anonymity to destroy people's lives without consequence.
Galloway supported the US military strike on Iran, believing it could topple the regime and liberate the Iranian people. He was wrong. He failed to account for the Strait of Hormuz, the geopolitical complexity, and Trump's incompetence — and says he needs to own it.
