you've been lied to. We've all been lied to from the beginning. And it's not just one side or the other. Whoever's in power. That's how they maintain power. They lie to us, they manipulate, they distort, right? That's their job. Hello and welcome to Awake at the Wheel. So in today's episode, we're going to be exploring some of what's happening across the border in the U.S. with their election. So two Canadians talking about an American election. You might be wondering why. Well, I think that there's a lot of different psychological components that we can evaluate and discuss as far as the way in which society is approaching this election. The candidates, their views, their values, their opinions, and some of the cognitive dissonance that perhaps exists in so far as people switching from one side to the other or, you know, being very divisive and black and white about the way in which they are approaching this election. So we're going to start out by looking at a couple of videos. And with regard to some individuals stance on the election and on the candidates, and then we'll jump off from there. Tell me three Democratic policies that you support inflation reduction Act, American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Law, the PACT Act, the Chips and Science Act. I think it's good that Biden pulled out of Afghanistan. I can go on and on. I get why you're right. Okay. Would you like to talk about the pull out of Afghanistan? Why did you feel bother that I just listed policies I think are good because I think it's great. They lower prescription drug costs. Don't know enough about those policies. So one of them and the Inflation Reduction Act is capping the cost of insulin for Medicare recipients at $35 out of pocket per month. And I think that's really good. I don't think seniors should be having themselves price gouging. Now, Medicare want to go to drug prices. I think that's really good because of Joe Biden and Democrats base. I think Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. I think the election was stolen and I think he's going to be killed for his treason. How about that. Talk? He said when he was running that he wouldn't defund the police and he's done that. Biden has defund the police. Well, I mean, he hasn't defunded them, but he's defunded a lot of the police. And because that is done on a citywide level, not the national level. That's true. That's true. But I mean, overall, I think that this is the scariest times that we have lived in. And how will Vice President Harris solve the situation on the border? If you think the president. Well, this is this is my number one thing. Okay. Anybody who is not a criminal who wants to come in this country should be vetted. You know, you've had them and then they get to come in. I'm all for immigration. I trade every Republican voted for all the immigrants and I'll trade them right now. Yeah, well, a lot of people would because they'd vote for Democrats, right? No, no, because that's what they should do. We don't want the Republicans. We Republicans are evil because when we win, there will be a civil war and we need a military on our side. And then we will destroy the red state National Guard like Texas. I'd love to see the military go in there after we win. Wipe out the Texas National Guard. Take out Everton. Tillman, the Rio Grande. Watch em drown in that chair of his. So. And what to say about the people that say the Democratic Party is for peace. And you're calling for Greg Abbott to be thrown to the river. Everybody is for peace. But Tony Abbott is pardoning people who committed murder. So can't have it. Can't have it. You know, people say, Trump saying that's a call for Obama. But I feel like cult is such a negative word. We are not a cult. We are a group of Americans that love our country and want it back. Are there any old hits or things you hope he goes back to? gosh. I feel like whatever he speaks out of his mouth. I just. Love it. I just love it. It doesn't matter what he says. Yeah, I love it. I love being here. We're going to love hearing what he has to say. But this isn't a cult. No, I don't think so. So what do you think Kamala will do as president to stop inflation? She said she would look into the price gouging. And do you think we all know that's going on? Do you think it is right for the Democrats to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris for the ticket of who could be the next president? It's a matter of it's a matter of the vote. I mean, what do you mean by we receive even if we replace our politicians all the time and that's within their laws, is for all their delegates to just say, well, screw whatever people did in the primary and let's let's give all the votes for somebody else. They're perfectly not only capable, but it's perfectly all right for them to do that, because that's the party's rules. Is it unfair to some people? Yeah. Do you know, is it unfair to animals that they don't get to vote Yes. It isn't fair to animals. They don't get a vote. It's unfair to plants. They don't get a vote either. Okay. And you could look at it this way. And it's actually true. They don't get a vote. Okay. Because not a human that are human. They're not 18 years old. Okay. How would a plant vote if they wanted to vote? Like it's literally impossible? Well, given enough technology when we can finally talk to plants and they live longer than us, so they get to be 18 years old, you know, and they get to vote for a long time. Well, okay. You believe that plants should have the right to vote? I believe that they think that they should have the right to vote. I believe that your dogs and cats, even if you were able to talk to them, they would say, yes, we have the right to vote. Well, where do I start? Obviously, these videos are you know, the creators posted these because these are somewhat extreme and outlandish and some silly responses. And I understand that. But I don't think that it's too far from the truth of the divisiveness that exists over in the U.S. And frankly, here in Canada, too, Politics has become such a it's such a strange landscape. I mean, I've been a voting age for long enough now, and I don't think that it's ever been this tense and odd and and divisive. Like I said, I think that in large part social media is to blame. And I know that we talk a lot about social media, but I feel that it provides people with this false sense of knowledge, and there's not always vetting of the accuracy of the information that they're consuming. And at least in the sampling of videos that we watch, I can I can really hear some probably some misinformation, some things that they're perhaps parroting that they heard from others on social media. So I think that in large part that is part of the challenge. Yeah, that's a big part of the challenge, you know, and we believe we have opinions now, I'm kind of paraphrasing Scott Adams here. He's not the first person to say this, but just I like the phrasing. He says Our opinions are assigned to us and I like that because. Yeah. And if someone says, no, no, I you know, I'm a critical thinker. I step back, I look whenever you might be the anomaly, but even then you're going to have some kind of bias. And we you know, we know confirmation bias is real. So, you know, we're going to be we're going to scrutinize the messages that we don't like. We're going to be less, you know, let's say, judicious in our scrutiny of the other messages. We're going to be more inclined to, let's say, jump into certain topics. You know, see only one side. The fact is, the person who believes that I'm totally unbiased, I'm a critical thinker, whatever the person who believes that is the most dangerous because, you know, I aspire to be that way, but recognize that your flaws are still there, just like everybody else. And the more mindful we are of them, the less the less likely we're going to, you know, we are to fall into those traps. But to pretend that we can't fall into them or that only this side does some of these bad things, no is done by both sides and the differences more recently, and again, social media is the biggest culprit. More recently, the the opinion that's being assigned more than ever before truly is that the other side is dangerous, harmful, less than or evil. Okay. That's never been before. At least you know, in the west, here in Canada and the states know that. Is that dangerous, that divisive? And I'm hearing all these stats. I can't pull them out of my ass right now, but I'm here in the States where, you know, males and females are far less likely to be with somebody from the other political side than ever before. Right. So we're really siloing ourselves off. We are making two different societies, basically, it seems. And, you know, of course, it's much worse on any other social media platform. And in the old days you say, okay, that's like 1%, that's 5%. This is loudest voices. But I think more and more people are seeing it in their real lives. I'm hearing it from a lot of patients where they truly feel that if I hold these political opinions and, you know, the majority or a large a plurality of people around me don't, they do feel isolated. They feel afraid to share their opinions and they feel judged. And as soon as they say one thing that goes against the grain of what everyone else around them is saying, suddenly it's not that they have one differing opinion, but now I am a racist, sexist, homophobe, you know, right wing, blah, blah, blah. And it's usually it's the thing is, though, and I'm going to be biased here, maybe from what I've seen, but I truly believe what I've seen is that far more likely on average. Okay. To people who have, let's say, center to right views, that they're going to be tarnished and labeled and just seen with such derision and so on. Whereas people who are center or on the right are less likely to do that. Obviously, on average, again, a lot of people on the fringes, by an average, I'm seeing more, more desire to engage, to try to, you know, have these discussions, to try to figure out because many of the people, they weren't right to begin with. They were said they used to call people on the left or center left their friends. They all hung out, but they decided left is going more and more and more radically over here. So they're saying, well, wait, you're the same people I want to still like, you know, I want to still have this engagement with you. And so I'm, you know, again. So I may be biased, maybe, you know, I'm sure I know I've seen a lot of people on the right who, you know, who make all these derisive statements, you know, and just ugly and just dismiss them and everything. I see that. But on average, again, I think like normal white, normal people, quote unquote, educated, intelligent people who are normally thoughtful in many other areas of life. I'm seeing so many on the left where that just goes out the window when it comes to anyone who center or, you know, on the right. And again, it has to be it's an all or nothing kind of proposition if you don't agree with every single policy, every belief, every ideology of mine, somehow now you're evil, you're fascist, you're right wing. So and to blame social media a little bit more here, I think that this overlaps a lot with the issues of isolation and loneliness. So social media has been a huge culprit for people feeling more lonely and more isolated than ever before. And incidentally, we're seeing the most divisive political climate we'd ever seen before. So I think that there's some connection there in part. And also I think that perhaps it's further driving this divisiveness because people feel so lonely and detached. They just want to belong to something and to some group. So if I go like, you know, really hard on the left, you're on the right, at least I'll have a sense of belonging. And that's key. And that truly is. I mean, we've talked before in other podcasts that society becomes so atomistic and it's being basically promoters that cannot be your own authentic self, blah, blah, blah, blah. And and it's almost narcissistic. But the fact is, it's like if the only thing that grounds you is your sense of self, but you don't really have anything underneath that, okay, How does that ground you when there's no real substance to that? What is myself any way might have any hedonistic pleasure, any desire, any self-serving, you know, identity I want to adopt. Like if that's all I have, that's not enough. Okay, humans, we need something else. We need something above us. We need some kind of, you know, principles, values or connectedness as social animals. Something along those lines. And when when what we've been evolutionarily designed to expect and to operate within, when that's been shifted so much recently, again, because of technology, it's, you know, feeling isolated so we can connect with so many people, but it's not the same connection that our brain has craved for hundreds of thousands of years. It's so different. Online screen time is not the same as being in person and getting all the rewards that one gets from face to face interactions, right? So when that's lacking, there is a more desperate desire to become part of something, as you say. So now politics is not something I do. It's not something I believe in. Politics now is me. My identity is wrapped around that. So if you disagree with either my politics or a policy or an ideal ideology or agenda or something of that, you're disagreeing with me. You're denying my existence now. And to be clear here, I don't know what percentage of people adopt this, but I'm seeing it more and more. And it's not just on the fringes. More people, you know, centralize that. That becomes the race. And that's why I think that's it's, you know, and and why can't you see how important this is? And and now with all this going back to social media, our opinions being assigned to us, when the rhetoric has been turned up to 11, when is the end of the world when they're literally saying, if this man is elected, he will steal democracy, he will literally end democracy. We don't like it when we're being told that half the country are fascists. Okay? Not a tiny percentage of half, but the half literally are fascist and want to take away your reproductive rights, want to take away your bodily autonomy, want to take away everything you know, that they they want to keep for themselves. And God forbid, if you're of this color of skin or this sex or this sexual minority, you're on their hit list and everything. When people are being told that from the youngest of ages, prominently gay by supposedly credible sources or by people that they feel connected to like, you know, influencers and so on. Again, this desperate need to belong when those people that you belong to this group, this identity, when they're telling you that, when that those are the opinions you're being assigned, especially from a young age, what else would you expect but what we're seeing? Yeah, and it's so interesting, like the overlap in the various things that we've been discussing and how it all ties into this, because we're seeing this then seep into other institutions outside of politics, such as health care, teaching, the legal profession and so on. And it's, you know, it's problematic. I don't need to repeat what you already said. It's problematic for all of those same reasons. But it's also it's almost I don't want to make light of it and say laughable. But some of the things that people say are laughable. You pointed out the fact that in one of our outside of the podcast discussions about people calling individuals racist for mispronouncing Kamala Harris his name, right. That's not racist. Like, maybe maybe it's careless. Maybe it's, you know, a number of things. Like I I've dealt with this my entire life. I've worked with people for, you know, a decade and they still can't pronounce my name properly. I don't think they're racist, but that's what it's turned into. Right. And not just that. Now, here's the part that anyone observing this, whether it's being used against them or they're just stepping back and observing it, it's so maddening is the hypocrisy. So with the mispronunciation of Kamala's name, excuse me, any Republican or anyone else says it, God forbid you're a racist, you're you're a sexist and everything. Well, Bill Clinton at the DNC convention mispronounced her name, Kamala, over and over. Bill Clinton, the hero and everything. he also mispronounced Kamala. Okay, But that's not racist. Or. Racist or he's a man. So why can it be sexist? Again, they it's just this hypocrisy is so there's two things. One is the hypocrisy that is just driving people crazy. And then the other is the Gaslight. And that goes along with the hypocrisy. So when you hear all these candidates or all these politicians, the candidates themselves, all the celebrities that they have, and then they accuse the other side of doing literally what they're doing or making outright lies, and then you have the fact checkers on the major media like CNN and so on, where they only fact check one side or they'll fact check one thing and let everything else go. I mean, there's just so much of it. So it is maddening and it is something that I'm hearing more and more people once again, they're not far right. They're not KKK, They are centrist, but they have eyes, they have ears and they have a brain and they're seeing it. And once again, they're recognizing that the opinions being assigned to them by the media or social media are harmful. They're not based in reality, and they're being used to manipulate them. And and again, and if this was all happening on the flip side, if if I saw this happen, if Republicans were if their media were dominating the airwaves and, you know, if social media was influenced mostly by right wing personalities and so on, I'd be saying the exact same thing. It's not about politics. It doesn't matter. It just happens to be on one side more than the other these days. But the the the the tools are the same, the implications same, the strategies are the same and the consequences are the same. It's a kind of mind control. It really is. And again, there's just so much information, there's so much misinformation that the average person doesn't have the time to sift through it all. So they're going to find somebody who they they trust, somebody they believe is credible. And again, that's where their opinions are being assigned to them. And to think that all these people, that their source is credible, they know how to, you know, to suss it out and to find out who the credible sources and other people don't know. Like, again, that's it's a kind of arrogance. It's a kind of ignorance. And it's the kind of thing that is leading to what we're seeing here, where people are just spouting out stuff as if it's fact without even knowing that. And I know lots and lots of facts. And I also know that a lot of the facts that I know you know, I don't know how much of the fact is infused with misinformation or false facts or distortion and so on. I don't know that. So I know what I think I know, but I also know that there's so much they don't know. So I'll say certain things, I'll try to find evidence and so on. But, you know, I'm humble enough to know and say like, you know, I don't have all the answers and I can't give a, you know, a comprehensive enough proper answer to certain things. I'll tell you what I think I know. Here's what I'm seeing. And I always say to people, I'm open to having my mind changed. And I've had in the past I've had that where I thought something and someone provided other ideas like, thank you. That's how one learns. But there's such a lack of that these days. That's or that's the problem that again, if you hear something that doesn't conform with what you already believe or want to believe, well then it's fake news, It's misinformation. It's, you know, and and again, it takes such arrogance to believe that you can know what is fake news and what is real news. That's again, this is just it's it's not what's my word here. It's not based in reality. Yeah. And I don't follow enough of this to to know if there's like an equal or greater amount of, you know, left probably propaganda versus right. But I will say living in a border city, I'm exposed to a lot of American TV, and I think I do see probably an equal balance of like propaganda style commercials on Detroit TV about both the left and the right and things that seem, you know, very forceful and again, very divisive. And this is being put out by the parties themselves. So I can only imagine that online there's probably quite a bit of of right propaganda as well. Well, not nearly as much, only because there are smaller sources, I mean, and disturbing studies have shown this. I've looked at the numbers before. I can't remember them all right. Now, when they do show the bias, it is definitely left leaning. And and when you hear this is the biggest part in back to the opinions being assigned to us, it's one thing if it's some celebrity or some Internet, you know, pundit that you believe in or that you like, okay, that's one thing. But when all every single major news station, aside from Fox, I'm talking about the major ones, when they all have the same narrative. And for example, with Kamala Harris, what was the narrative joy suddenly or maniacal cackling or what I'm going to assume is anxiety based, you know, cackling every time she can't answer a question and so on. Now it's that's called joy. Okay. Some of her odd, you know, her eccentricities and so on. Once again, joy, joy at every single station. And I saw these like they're all over X, You can see these where they're posted suddenly within one day, every single main station, every single one newspaper, TV and so on. Joy, joy, joy, joy, joy. And at the same time, there was the exact same messaging. They literally all started calling J.D. Vance and Trump weird, weird, weird, weird, weird. Okay. So interesting. Yeah, it's fascinating. So again, some of the people that I listen to, they they either are connected to or they they watch themselves like people who are involved with the CIA, the Deep State and so on. And they're talking about like these are like, these are like, clear what's right where you are. These are signs of an actual operation. And we know that the deep state, however you want to call it, but that it's been involved in many such operations, usually is with foreign countries, but it's also been at home and we've seen it happen over and over. It has been proven time and again they infiltrate, you know, even like BLM, for example, they're showing that the BLM, that was not an organic uprising, okay. That there were some, you know, bad actors involved because they're trying to sow dissent, they're trying to distract, to try to divide, you know, because if if the peoples are unstable, it's easier for the people in power to do what they're doing. Right. When you're distracted by all this other garbage. So I mean, things like that. So even what they here's the thing, the drinking water of the day is going to be cognitive dissonance and cognitive dissonance reduction because when people have been fooled, when they've been told to believe something, when the evidence that runs counter to the narrative that they've been fed is presented to them instead of being rational and stepping back, my gosh, I was fooled. I was lied to, I was manipulated. I better be a bit more cautious instead of that. And so they. Double down. Double down. And that's how cognitive dissonance rational because nobody wants to believe. Sorry. Most people, at least in the West, it's a mostly Western phenomenon, don't want to believe that they're stupid or bad. So if they're shown to be that, you know again and you don't have to, that's all people. Cognitive dissonance reduction. If you say, Oops, I was lied to, that doesn't make you stupid. That doesn't make you bad luck realizing what happened, changing course accordingly. That makes you smart and good. And that's what you know. But most people can't do that, so they don't change their opinions. When they're given the evidence, they double down, they get very emotional, and then they get angry at the people who try to present this conflicting evidence to them. And I've experienced that many times on social media, you know, and I say, here's what do you think about this? And I very rarely got an irrational response. Every once in a while somebody will write and say, wow, I didn't know that They look into it and they were like, wow, okay, thank you. But that's it's almost you know, it almost never happens. It's very, very rare. Most other people, they just get upset. They start, you know, word salad, they start getting emotional, they start attacking me with ad hominem and so on. The usual playbook. It's predictable. You can if you've been involved in enough, if you understand the human psychology, right, you can predict it so easily. And that happens. So again, the people who are most of the people that I know who are now considered right, they were all left or central, you know, they all were. And then they realized what was happening. And they once again, they were the they were the minority who were able to overcome the cognitive dissonance reduction and the discomfort at realizing, you know, the ugliness of reality. And the ugliness is you've been lied to. We've all been lied to from the beginning. And it's not just one side or the other. Whoever's in power. That's how they maintain power. They lie to us, they manipulate, they distort, right? That's their job. And when you recognize that, it helps you see things just a bit clearer. Now, do I know again who's lying and who's telling the truth? No, I don't. But when I see things that don't add up, what I see the whole media talking about, they see Biden in a certain light or, you know, Harris in a certain light, and then within a day, literally reverse it with we say, you know, Kamala Harris, she's a border czar. No, she's not. She did a great job on the border. She had nothing to do with it. Like all these things, we're going to change the country. We're going to make the country better than ever before, and we're going to move forward and everything acting as if they're not the people in power right now, like this kind of stuff, like this kind of messaging. And people are just consuming and there's going. Yes, yes, yes. And how many people have actually stopped and said, wait a second, wait. You guys were in control for the last three and half years of the last four presidents, only one was Republican. The last three were Democrat. Like, where is actually I think it's even goes back. Well, it was last year, three out of four. But they're not saying that now. By the way, will say year. That would be a very easy right wing talking point. They were in power for three out of four years, sorry for three out of four presidents, and they've been in power for less than half years. So why didn't they get anything done? Well, then there's a whole. But there's Congress, then there's Senate, and that is the executive branch. And, you know, and so all their all these fighting with each other, they're always and anyway, the bottom line is it's really hard to be able to get out of this. I send them my team, your team, and to be able to stand there in the middle, look around and say, holy, you know, like there's a lot of shenanigans going on. There's a lot of stuff that I thought I knew that I really don't know. There's a lot of you know, it's really hard to do that. It's much easier to just join on one team because they're going to take care of me. I'm going to belong, as we're talking about. I'm going to be part of this on the good side. I'm on the good side. I'm fighting. I'm fighting against evil, you know, and stuff like that. It's much easier to do that than to say, Wow, there's a lot of bad guys on all sides. That's a scary thing. Yeah. And I'll empathize with both sides here. As far as the candidates are concerned, because this is probably a very different climate for them to navigate to as as candidates and as politicians. Right. There's so much additional stuff that they have to figure out and navigate. And, you know, candidates have always been under scrutiny and so on and so forth. But I think the microscope with which they're under is very different. Again, because of social media, because of all the influencers and commentary out there. It's not just the the main news outlets anymore. It's it's everywhere and everybody has an opinion and it's hard for people to sort through again which opinion to adopt and how to address it. And and I think I've said this a lot about Canadian politics. So I feel that while people are entitled to their opinion, of course we are. We're in, you know, a democratic nation. We should have a say in an opinion, but people are, I think, taking it too far to the point of being unpatriotic and being like incredibly disrespectful to, again, either side. yeah, for sure. And it's funny because no, no, I was going to get this whole other thing. So one of the things that I'm seeing just I mean, I think the perfect example of that is, yes, as you're saying, like first of all, the the belief that Canada or the States is just such a corrupt, horrible country that that's one that's one of the divisive stances. Right. Okay. But then if that's the case, why do so many people want to come here? Exactly. You know, and it's what is going to say was the people I see sometimes the most patriotic are often new immigrants. Right? Because they appreciate how good they have it here and they respect the values of the country. And they want to assimilate and they want to contribute and, you know, and to benefit from this, you know, what could be a great country. But, you know, so many people are saying that was up until just not that long ago. Now they don't feel that same sentiment. And even a lot of the immigrants who are coming are jumping on and saying, terrible, You know, you're a colonialist country, right? And never mind where their came, where they came from and so on. And and immigration is one of the biggest things here. And it's and again, if someone brings up this topic suddenly, well, you're racist or xenophobic or whatever, okay. Versus no, the rational person says unfettered immigration has never worked in the history of humanity. It's no longer a country if, you know, if you don't have anything that unites you, if you don't have any shared beliefs or values or whatever, it's it's just it's it's just a landmass. Okay? And and when you have a bunch of people within a landmass, never once in the history of humanity have people not fought to try to take control and to try to, you know, inculcate that mass with their beliefs and so on. So like we need of a founding principle. And so it's the unfettered immigration is the impact of having so many people come on. It's realizing, you know, every day looking at story after story in Canada of how the immigration policies are leading to like people are abusing the system. So many people are coming here and fake visas are fake student visas, fake refugee claims. You know, homeless people are being are being watched by word neglected. Right. You know, people on low in low income are being neglected. Veterans are being neglected for a whole bunch of people who are coming in. And again, and when you say these things, you're going to get called racist, xenophobic, whatever you're saying. No, no, no. Let's have a proper process. It's just chaos never leads to anything good. And that's what it is. It's chaotic. It's here, it's in the States. And that's an example of, well, if you truly are liberal or a good hard left, whatever you want, say those things, you'll say, No, no, all people welcome. It's like, no, all people shouldn't be welcome. You know, we have the stories about the terrorists who are welcome and weren't vetted properly. This well, that's just one or two stories. No, there's more. Anyway, the point I'm saying is when we lose nuance, when we lose the ability to step back and look at things, you know, again, from as as unbiased as possible, even though it's always biases unbiased, all these problems exist. And we're watching it right now. We're seeing it on the streets and the politicians aren't seeing it. Well, some do, but most of them don't because they're living in their bubbles. Right. They're not seeing the people. Honestly, I see it, you know, we work with people who are going through this, whether it's them, their lives themselves or they work in industries dealing with many people who are, you know, who are suffering because of bad policies and so on. And again, if it's a left versus right, if it is us versus them or whatever, then you can't even point out the bad policies on your side because now you're a traitor versus No, no, I'm for the country, I'm for society, I'm for the people around me. So I want to see the best people in power. I want to see the best policies. I want to see the best ideas implemented. That's not hateful, that's not racist. That's not ignorant. Yeah. So I actually don't have an answer to that. What can people do with this? Because I think that it's so multifaceted and we've touched on a lot of the the reasons, which I think are all very valid. But in terms of what people can do, I feel like and in part it's finding other critical thinkers and even I'll take a step back from that, adopting a mindset of critical thinking and being able to admit that, you know, maybe my opinion was wrong, maybe my view is incomplete and, you know, be flexible in your ability to change your mind like we talked about earlier. I think that's probably a first step. And then finding individuals who you can actually have good faith discussions about these things with and not living in an echo chamber. I feel like that's probably the best thing that people can do. But as far as what type of large scale change will that make? Certainly nothing immediately, unfortunately. But I think if if more and more people choose to operate in that direction long term, it can make some changes. Yeah. And, you know, is the change going to be local is going to be, you know, more global? Who knows? I don't know. Maybe anything that we do or we talk about maybe will have no impact on the grander scale. But for most of us, our reality is just immediately around us. So even if we can't make change on those bigger levels, again, being more open minded and so on, maybe we'll be able to, you know, let's say, maintain friendships with other people. And like, you know, on my end, quite frankly, and I've lost so many friends and quote unquote, friends online friends, whatever, because of the statements that I've made. Right. And I don't I really don't care. It's not a loss for me, but I'm not going to suddenly turn around and say, well, if they're going to play that game, I can't be like, no, again, I, I allow anybody into my circle of friends, of people I communicate with, whatever. Because again, I want to make sure that I'm not stuck in echo chambers. Now, again, I'm surrounded more by certain types of people that I would consider. The more rational, the more humane, the more open minded, and the more realistic. That's my center people. And again, most of the people that I that I consider that way, they're not actually Right. Okay. They're not left. They're centrist because once again, they don't identify as left or right. And the funny thing is, I said this many times, I'll say it one more time, I am the most liberal minded, one of the most liberal minded people you're ever going to meet, Right? Liberal minded. It's not a political statement. It's liberal minded, it's open minded, It's flexible, it's adaptable. And again, that's I look forward to getting as much information as possible from all sides. And I asked people like, you know, what do you listen to? What podcasts and people have introduced you to some some I can't stomach. Others like, wow, okay, that's a whole other perspective that I wouldn't have got if I hadn't listened to it. So, you know, anyway, it's I don't hold myself out as the model of any of this. I'm just saying that I can speak from firsthand experience that, you know, having worked so many people who have done this the improper way and a feeling isolated and so on and doing it other ways, it's like, you know, that which I think is the proper way, which is, again, just being open minded and and letting people in and then filtering people, people out, you know, or letting them filter themselves out or whatever. Okay. I just I've just seen people do it the wrong way. So, I mean, and again, it always boils down to when it's the wrong way, it oils always boils down to divisiveness, suspicion, mistrust, dislike, and most importantly, isolation. Okay. Looking more and more isolated. So to that point, I'll offer a different perspective. And likewise, I'm very open minded, which is why I think we get along as well as we do. But I have not directly, but I've gleaned that I've lost some relationships professionally and personally because of maybe some of the opinions I hold from our discussions on the podcast or even in personal discussions or posts or whatever the case may be. And I do care. It hurts. Like it really sucks that these people who I thought we had a mutual respect for one another just disappear off the face of the earth all of a sudden. That really sucks. So as far as what people can do, I think really be mindful of the human aspect of taking these really strong political stance and in doing so, forgetting the person, the friend, the colleague, whatever it is that you knew to be a certain way, and then all of a sudden changing your opinion because of one statement that is taken out of context right? Yeah, that's very true. And yeah, so for me, again, like I said, I get it, but maybe I've been in this for so many years that, you know, again, when people suddenly turn or whatever else like that, to me it's like if that's, if that's how they want to be, I you know, it's no loss to me now, professionally, it can be a loss Like I know that you know, I'm probably cutting off a lot of options that way. But for me, I know what my values are. And, you know, if something important, I do want to speak out about it and I'm doing it with good intention. You know, I really can sleep at night because I know what I'm doing is not doing this for clicks or likes or anything like that. I do it because I believe it's important to, you know, to share these ideas. And so, yeah, so my values help me sleep at night. The the friendship of these people who would turn on me so quickly. That doesn't make I don't need them to sleep at night. So but again, everyone's different and I do get it. And again, that's something I've heard so many people who felt the same way that you did. It's shocking, it's hurtful, It's a betrayal. It is an actual betrayal. Right. And it's an irrational betrayal. It's an unfair betrayal. And it's an ugly betrayal. So I get why many people would feel that way. And again, I'm trying to I'm not trying to say to people, you know, just don't care or anything like that. I'm not saying that. I'm saying step back and question, do I really want that kind of person in my life? Right? If that's how they're going to act, I can't trust them. Yeah. So. Yeah, well, so on that note to our listeners, we want to hear your comments on the discussion that we've had today. Have you had experiences where maybe you've lost friends or relationships because of political views? What do you think about the divisiveness of the current climate? Let us know in the comments. And just one last things I forgot to mention. I just wanted to bring it up only because not everybody is so politically inclined and not everyone's following these things as much as I do. And you know, so I get that. So one thing I want to say, you know, I talked about this before and I just mentioned this to you. I just want to bring it up that for people who are seeing people act so irrationally, for people who are watching cognitive dissonance reduction play out in real time, okay. One of the things is, and this is what I've seen, it's like I just want to bring this analogy that we talked about. It's like watching someone who has a partner who, let's say, is cheating on them. It's so obvious. Here's text messages that prove the person's cheating. And if you're trying to say to them, look, I just want you to know, here's what's going on with your partner, They are cheating on you. Right. And here's the evidence. Instead of looking at it going, my God, I can't believe it. Now I've got to make these tough decisions. They get angry at the friend, you know? Right. And or and before the hardcore evidence comes, even though it's not conclusive, there's enough smoke, it looks suspicious and whatever else. And because the person isn't able to handle this potential reality if they are cheating, do I leave them? Do I confront them? You know, how do I deal with the shame and so on? Because they're not able to do that. They distort reality, they deny, they rationalize, they project. They do all these defense, they employ all these defense mechanisms. And if you've seen it happen with someone in a relationship, whether it's about cheating, whether it's about abuse, whether it's just someone who's not a good partner, you will see the exact same processes happen When people are dealing with the politics, it's the same thing. So I'm just letting people know that if you thought that you've seen this stuff before, you probably have. Okay, that's that's cognitive dissonance reduction. So anyway, I just want to throw that there. So. Yeah. All right. So on that happy note, until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.