So this stuff is very problematic. And it's it's done under the guise of social justice and being kind and being wonderful and, and open and so on and so forth. So it it's problematic, but it's disguised as something good. You have to put that as a, preeminent, aspect of that person's identity. there's no other way to put it. You are breeding racism But then they throw in this racist stuff and almost, I don't know how to put it, like, twist it by by by stealing the goodness of the, the good nuggets that were in there. Hello and welcome to awake at the wheel. So in today's episode, we're going to explore some of the material that's out there for learning purposes for children. So we've spoken before about some of the problematic messaging that's out there and some of the concerning things that are being presented to children at a very young age with respect to social justice and, political views and ideology. So, of course, it's important for children to learn about social justice and learn about what's happening in the world. But the problem arises when there is a bias that's presented to kids at a very young age. So I want to start out by, watching a quick video regarding a book that I actually saw at winters not too long ago. And I think there is an increasing number of books such as this that are at stores and also in school libraries. As well as in other areas that kids are accessing. So let's take a look at this video just to to frame up our discussion. People have gotten real heated about this book. Antiracist baby. They're like, oh, my goodness. Target is selling this book. This is what the world has come to. Why are you upset that a book like Anti-Racist baby exists? Oh, you want to uphold white supremacy? I see you don't want to teach your kids about race, Because you benefit from racism. Okay, I get it. So, literally, the only reason to not pick up this book is because you benefit from white supremacy, and you want to keep that going. So on. I'm going to pass it right over to you to comment on this. First. Well, if Woke had a face, that would be one of them. Okay. Now, the other piece would also have there'd be lots of other, features. But for that, that arrogance, the smugness. Okay. The assumptions, the her version of reality must be the correct one versus, hey, it's written by a fraudster, a proven fraudster, a grifter. Okay, who paid a lot of money to start an institution or a State Department within the camera. Was it within the university or office? It's an institution. But, they got millions of dollars, if I'm not mistaken, nothing was produced. Okay, if you ever actually heard Ibram X Kendi speaking, he's not intelligent whatsoever. It's like his thoughts are logically incoherent. His claims are just not feasible. Okay? It's just it makes no sense. And he toned it. I think I mentioned this before, but he toned. I think he took down one of his posts that you used to say up until just recently, because too many people, realize what the game is. He said. The only way to basically to, I think, was it to remedy racism or to to compensate for racism is more racism basically just gets different people. Right. And he modified that because he thought that people were misunderstanding him. Know what the problem is? People understood him. Not her, of course. But anyway. And so, yeah, if there was, you know, what's the right word here? The things that the people like her say about people who are opposed to this type of propaganda, this ideology, sure. There is a tiny proportion of people that I think would be appropriate to say this about. There are actual racists out there. There are people who, you know, who want to, uphold white supremacy, etc. they are the tiny minority and smug, arrogant, ignorant people such as herself. And I'm going to call without diagnosing. It's not a clinical diagnosis, but narcissists like her, okay? They don't understand that just because someone holds a different beliefs than you, that doesn't make them all these things that you're, you know, portraying them to be. I should see people like her rile me up. Now, most of it's performative because I'm used to seeing this. Okay. So I think my blood pressure probably hasn't changed at all. But, you know, like, in theory, this is how riled up I'm getting. And yes, I think it's performative, but I also think that it's rooted in her actual real world view of things. And I just I take issue with the with all of it, but with the definitive statement that she makes. And the only reason you wouldn't want to read this to your child is if you profit from racism or whatever it is that she said. I wouldn't want my child reading that, and I'm pretty sure I don't profit from from racism. Just saying. Right. There's there's so many other things to consider. But you're right, people who are so, self-absorbed and so sure that their worldview is the only worldview makes definitive, biased statements like that. Right? And to be clear, when I say performative, I was referring to my own outrage. Gotcha. Yeah, I think she genuinely believes all that. Right? She truly does. And she's the kind of person, like, there's a term, you know, I some people hate when we throw these terms around, but these terms came from some place, not just an insult. It's a descriptive term that helps people understand what's going on. And she is the prototypical useful idiot. And for people to understand that it's someone who so desperately wants to buy into some belief system, and that belief system is being propagated by people with bad intentions, you know, against, let's say, the West. And so useful idiots are the ones who will just go right along to their, you know, to their demise, to their eventual demise and don't realize that people like them once the baddies are in power, whether we're talking communists, socialists, racists, whatever it might be, once they're in power, they usually just like that are the first to go. They don't understand that. They think they'll have a seat at the table. No they won't. You'll be a table leg if you're lucky. All right. So, Yeah, it's just again, it's that smugness the way she said that and she again, that's why I said if wokeness had a face, it would be hers. And if it had an attitude, it's the same, thing. And as you say, it's like she's making all this assumption that the only reason somebody wouldn't want to read this versus all the other legitimate reasons, but she's just too ignorant. And again, another term that people, you know, throw around the Dunning-Kruger effect, the discrepancy between what people really know or their capabilities versus, sorry, what they think it is versus what they really are. Okay. And so we see that and that's what it's coming out here. Because again, only her belief can be correct versus all the other explanations. And if she hears it, it's la la la la la. No, you're just racist. You're making excuse for your own racism. Yeah. So back to what you're saying about, you know, people like that think that they are guaranteed a seat at the table at the table. If they behave this way and speak this way and, you know, quote, say the right things. What is actually happening when they get there though, like, why? Why are they being thrown out? Because there's no use for them. And no, it depends now, by the way, because if it's for example, don't get too political here, but if it's for example, Queers for Palestine. All right. They truly don't belong at the table. They will be gone, you know, just on ideological reasons, because they just don't fit in, for anybody else in less extreme cases, it's because they serve no purpose. Their only purpose is to flood the market with these bad ideas and to cause division. That's what this is all about. It's dividing conquer. And once that's done again, look at her. I don't know anything about her. And I'm going to be very judgmental here. She may be a highly intelligent, very capable, blah, blah, blah person. I doubt that because those kinds of people have critical thinking capacity and she has not, at least in that video. I want to be clear only on this video. Right. But the people the thing with them is, because they are so let's say, lacking in, insight into their own, beliefs, their own motives, their own capabilities and so on. They are the first people that if you say here, if you if you provide them a narrative and the narrative is you are a good person, you are doing good, you're going to help marginalized or whatever people, the oppressed, whatever you want to call it, they are the first ones to bite on it uncritically, not thinking about whether there's another, you know, narrative or a subtext going on here. And, and again, that's they serve the purpose because you flood the market with people like them. And once again, there's no other purpose for them. Now there's other people who will be the, the, the, provocateurs, the ones who are going to start riots, the ones they're going to cause damage, okay? The ones who are going to threaten people, you know, they serve another purpose. They'll stick around longer because you always need thugs like them, all right? But someone like her, she really serves no purpose. Once again, once the bad people are in power, unfortunately, they're not totally in power. As you and I, I've spoken about many times, they have occupied so many positions of power, not hurt the people who are, again, who are promulgating all these bad, bad ideas and intentions. Right? They are seeping in and they've permeated, and there are far too many of them. Right? We should have zero tolerance policy. I don't know what the percentages, but you know, both you and I, through our professional experiences, our personal experiences, we know that they are, you know, prevalent. Right? So but they haven't got all the power yet. So they're still used for someone like her, you know. So that's why I'm saying like, so she serves a purpose right now. Okay. But but think about that. What what could she bring to the table like really long term. Yeah. What what other than promoting this and getting it to her whatever point that, you know, whoever they is want it to get to? I think to somebody watching this and who maybe thinks the way that she does, will also make some assumptions about you and I and why we feel this way and why we think this is problematic. But I think it's it's abundantly important for you and I to maybe clarify our professional stance here in terms of, whether it's this ideology garbage that's being thrown at children or anything that's biased or one sided, it squashes kids ability to think critically and to develop their own values and morals and view things safely from a critical eye. So this stuff is very problematic. And it's it's done under the guise of social justice and being kind and being wonderful and, and open and so on and so forth. So it it's problematic, but it's disguised as something good. Exactly. And that's the thing, the disguise. Right. And that's how they've worked it into the system. You know, because most good thinking or good good minded, good hearted people, if they really knew what was going on, they wouldn't have let it happen in the first place. Right? So many parents are shocked when they find out what's been going on in the school boards, even though people like you, myself, and others have been talking about it, screaming about it for years, but they just couldn't imagine it. And then when they actually see it with their own eyes, when their child, you know, some experiences it it's a big shock. Right. And, something you said about the. Yeah, the critical, the ability to think critically. Right. So there's two things going on here. One, it's that actual cognitive capacity that, you know, learning those skills. If a teacher is just selling propaganda, saying this is the only story, right, the kids don't learn it. But then the second thing is, psychologically, any child who is intelligent, and insightful, on his or her own, who can say, wait a second, maybe something else going on here. They risk the social repercussions, they get penalized, social and, let's say academic repercussions, whether they're in high school, elementary school, university, the teacher, the principal, the, the, the, the professor or whoever else and the other students, they jump on them because, again, it's not saying, hey, here's something that's going on, let's think about or whatever. It's like, know what we're talking about. It's so evil that if you were to even entertain any question about it, you must be evil yourself. And so, you know, you are worthy of attack. And it's teaching people to shut up really quickly. And the fact is, an average person, I'm just gonna make up numbers, okay? Out of 100 people, maybe 20 people would speak out like just naturally forget about how it's presented. Okay? Like most people, they just kind of go along with it. They listen. You don't think that critically critical thinking, unfortunately, is in short supply. So let's just say 20 out of a hundred people naturally would have a curiosity and challenge and so on. Okay. When you have the of those 20 people being attacked and everything, one, maybe two at most will continue and will persist. Everybody else learns very quickly, shut up. And it's it's so sad but so true. And back to something you said early in that statement there. I think that I'm very clearly, awake to what is going on in our schools. And yet I am still flabbergasted by what I've recently learned about the the teachings in my son's school, about race, about racism, about discrimination and so on. And so I, I like I can't believe it. I, you know, we've spoken at length about these things, but it's one of these realizations I had, like, you know, not in my kids school. Yeah. And my kids school too. And it's it's absolutely it's nuts. Yeah. And, you know, in another, video, we have an episode. We talk about this directly, And before we go any further, maybe we should take a look at one of the pages from Anti-Racist baby so people can understand what we have or what we take issue with with regard to the book. Ibram Kennedy's anti-racist baby. Page for quote. Open your eyes to all skin colors. Anti-Racist baby learns all the colors. Not because race is true. If you claim to be colorblind, you deny what's right in front of you. Unquote. Kendi is explicitly arguing against the idea of teaching children and adults to be colorblind. Being colorblind means ignoring someone's race and just looking at them as a person. Candy wants you to train your children to constantly be aware of people's skin tone and race, and how to be an anti-racist. He writes, quote, the common idea of claiming colorblindness is akin to the notion of being not racist. As with the not racist, the colorblind individual, by ostensibly failing to see race, fails to see racism and falls into racist passivity. The language of colorblindness, like the language of not racist, is a mask to hide racism, unquote. For Candy and others, if you're colorblind, that means you're not noticing racism all the time. And in order to be anti-racist, you must be ever vigilant and relentless in finding racism everywhere. That means you cannot teach your children to be colorblind. If you follow Kennedy's advice and raise an anti-racist baby, you must raise a baby to be race conscious. So right off the bat like that is confusing to us who are highly educated adults. How is a child supposed to take that? It's. It's contradictory and it's confusing. And, I won't get into where I learned this from, but I'm aware of, a presentation that's being done in schools across my region. One of the slides in this presentation is entitled Hate Crimes and Micro-aggressions. So like the term hate crime is is pretty serious. And on this list of hate crimes and microaggressions is exactly that. I don't see color. Another part of this presentation is also, it's a trap, frankly. Spoiler alert I'll tell you what I think of it right from the get go, but it was a series of, three individuals. One of them I don't want. I almost hesitate to describe it because it sounds, you know, like I'm being a racist, but nonetheless, there's three individuals and three professions. And the children were asked to identify which person was of which profession. And even though some of the kids got it correct when they revealed the answers, they said, no, that's racist because you made an assumption, even though you're correct that the brown person was a doctor. That's racist. So they're being given this message of exactly like that individual was saying in the video that, you know, be very vigilant and aware of race, but also, you know, don't don't be. Which is it? Right. And the bottom line is, you know, in order to follow these, you know, these rules, you have to be racist because you have to judge somebody based on the color of the skin while also not doing that. All right. So as you say, it's paradoxical. It's it's internally incoherent and it's dangerous. It's harmful. And again, it's being framed in such a way that, it's it's like a religion. And we've talked before about this. Why Wokeism is a religion. Because heretics get excommunicated if they're lucky. Okay. Gets much worse if they're not. And that's what we're we're finding. And we have to just assume this to be true. And then if somebody in any profession and someone can complain about us, okay, but if a teacher, if, and we've seen this happen, this is not hypothetical, by the way, if anyone doesn't know this has happened, whether it's about race, gender, sex, whatever you want to call it. Right. Religion, it's a whole bunch of other controversial issues. If you question, all you're doing is questioning the orthodoxy. You can have your license suspended, you can have it revoked, you can have fines levied against you. You can be socially ostracized completely. It's you can be, person, basically. In society, it has happened. It's continuing to happen. It's only getting worse. Our new sorry, our new government. Right, is, is, on the brink of making these types of, let's say, you know, thought crimes, right? Actual crimes, you know, it's it's dangerous. And that's why people have to understand. We're not exaggerating. We're not fear mongering. We're pointing out something that has been pointed out for many years. And, you know, far too many people have been asleep at the wheel. And I've just thought, no, it couldn't happen. It's happening. Like, what more evidence do you need? Yeah. And I know I've spoken before. You know, that I watched a lot of The Simpsons growing up, and I remember there I can't remember which episode it was exactly. But there is, the independent thought alarm, and they would push the button when somebody had that. And like, I thought that was so funny as a kid. It's scary now because I feel like that is exactly what's happening. Like you said, the thought police in these dark crimes, it's actually coming to fruition like a funny joke from a show from when I was a kid is actually happening in real life. Yeah. And you know, if you if you listen to the people who are the strongest, proponents of this type of, you know, just terrible, tyrannical thinking or authoritarianism, right? If you actually listen to them, I've watched enough interviews with them. When people really, really push them, it becomes very clear that they decide. They believe that they are the arbiters of truth, of what's decent. Okay. Like it really is because people are asking the question, like very pointed questions, because they're making some blanket statement or that's racist or that's this or that, and the people who aren't afraid to challenge them, you know, they're given these situations and these are not these wild, unbelievable hypotheticals. These are actual, you know, very pointed questions. And it really boils down to where the person is like, well, what dictates it is how I feel about it or another person if another person is offended and we've talked about this, literally anybody can be offended by anything. And if that's what we use as our metric, we're in big trouble. Because, you know, and that's what happens in these discussions. The person brings up hypothetical that again, that is very, grounded in reality. It's a very solid hypothetical. And, you know, in the end, the person has to finally say, well, okay, well, if that person was offended, okay, then we shouldn't say it kind of thing, right? And but again, taken to its logical conclusion, it's completely illogical or irrational because we literally won't be able to say anything. And and here's the thing. People don't understand this. If there are certain words or terms that are almost universally understood to be hurtful or offensive, right. Of course, then I can understand that. All right. But if one person has a problem with that or a tiny group or something like that, they've decided it's a problem. We can't expect everybody else to adhere to that. That's that's narcissism. We've talked about this before. It's literally narcissistic to believe that everybody should conform to your demands. And that was exactly what I was going to say as well as that, of course, we want to be sensitive and not say things that are purposely hurtful and harmful. And there are societal norms surrounding that. But even though societal norms are starting to get blurred by all of this craziness, whereby I think that there's been a shift, where feelings are now facts and or at least are perceived as such. And we know in our profession that that's, you know, a hallmark of, cognitive inflexibility and mental inflexibility when you're viewing your feelings as fact. One of the tools that we utilize with our clients is to help them view the facts of the situation and not allow their feelings to guide their thoughts, actions, and so on. So I, you know, from that perspective, I, I think that this is largely problematic. Yeah. And I mean, there's a term that's emotional reasoning, right? Just because you feel certain way doesn't dictate reality. And so we're being our kids are being taught, and adults are going along with it, right. To promote that which is so harmful. And once again, you know, when you talk about, you know, colorblindness being either a hate crime or a microaggression, the fact is it the point in the end, whatever you call it, if kids or adults know, especially kids, we're talking kids here, that there's a prohibition against not just this, but anything potentially tangentially related to it. They start becoming so apprehensive. They start doubting themselves. They start feeling they aren't allowed to speak out. They can't say anything at all. And to that's that's if you want to create an anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder. Okay. Have people question their sense of reality or a sense of self-worth. This is a perfect way to do it. And you know, everyone throws a name around. It's been around for since I should 60. Do the math. You're wrong. 80. Almost 80 years. Okay. But George Orwell, right, with, you know, 1984. That's right. And 48 but, you know, everything that he's sorry not everything. So much of what he wrote about back then. Right. As a book against communism, against fascism, totalitarianism, it is coming true. And it's not coming true in those countries necessarily is coming true in Canada, in the UK, in certain states and in America. It's, you know, and again, you know, we we might be beating a dead horse here or people might be thinking that, oh, you can't say that. But what about all that. That's, that's a violent statement and things like. That's right. It's okay. So, you know, again, that's why, you know, I think you and I will continue to speak out on these things because, we just hope that somebody hears this. Someone who's in a position to do something. We're trying. We're trying to use our position, whatever we can to, you know, to try to help people just look at what's going on. Right. If you agree with it, fine. Tell me why you agree with that. But how can anyone agree with basically, like I said, teaching children to inhibit their thoughts, to question the reality that they see. And going back to this all about being colorblind and everything like that, right? So are we literally colorblind? No. That's one of the features that we see. But the point that people don't understand is, you know, I might know that you, you know, have a certain, certain pigmentation. I might see that you are a woman, blah, blah. And those things can trigger some unconscious beliefs and biases or whatever. Right. But those don't necessarily dictate how I consciously conduct myself, how I consciously deal with you, how I see you consciously and everything like that. And, you know, and if those things are being unconsciously triggered, but I'm seeing you for the person that you are, then we're fine when you're teaching children. No, no, you have to be vigilant about it. You have to put that as a, you know, preeminent, aspect of that person's identity. You there's no other way to put it. You are breeding racism or. Or. Anything else like that. That's how you create it. Yeah, yeah. So let's let's have a look at another one of these gems that that is out there, just so we can maybe further illustrate our point. And, and again, for anybody who disagrees with us, I'm more than happy to discuss in the comments or otherwise. But the challenge is I think that nobody is able to discuss these things. If they're not in agreeance with one another. And and that's part of what this is breeding as well, is that there's there appears to be, this mandate, if there's one right answer. Yeah, exactly. And again, that's where the religion comes in, right? That there's only one right answer. Not it's not the majority answer. It's the only right answer. And once again, it's not just that you are wrong. You are a terrible person. Yeah. Yeah, you're not only wrong, you're a terrible person for being wrong. Oh, and if you're a terrible person, you deserve whatever terrible thing happens to you. Yeah. Not my idea. A book about whiteness. Written and illustrated by Anastasia Higginbotham. When grown ups try to hide scary things from kids. Oh, no. Not again. What? Mom. What? Not again. It's usually because they're scared too. Who is that with their hands up? Why is that policeman screaming at him? Bing bing bing bing bing! They want to bury the truth. You don't need to worry about this. You're safe. Understand? No. Our family is kind to everyone. We don't see color. Deep down, we all know color matters. Skin color makes a difference in how the world sees you. And. And how you see the world. I want to bring my aunt a gift. This will only take a minute. It makes a difference in how much trouble seems to find you. Or let you be in stores and cars and sidewalks at school. Your skin color affects the most ordinary daily experiences, including which neighborhoods welcome you. So relieved you got here safely. Why wouldn't we? The protests marchers came to demand justice for the unarmed African-American. They demand an end to killings across the nation. Part of a shameful pattern that has claimed the lives, particularly of young men of color. Marchers referenced past victims and a video taken by a bystander. There are blocking the road. Breaking news. Family speaks out on police shooting. You may get the message that racism is happening only to black and brown people. Racism is a white person's problem and we are all caught up in it. I can't watch the news. That police officer was just doing his job, mostly by refusing to look at it. Come away from the TV. Now, look. I made your favorite. You can face this racial justice. We must step up. Understanding the truth takes courage. Especially a painful truth about your own people, your own family. Are you all right? Even people you love may behave in ways that show they think they are the good ones. Racism was not your idea. You don't need to defend it. You can bring your curiosity to learn about it and see that it's true. I'll be over here if you need me. Okay. Our shared history in the United States of America. White people have committed outrageous crimes against black people for 400 years. All along. Every step of the way. People who love, justice and love each other have been fighting back. And then. Because Anastasia Higginbotham is fun and. And creates little things at the ends of her books. Here are some activities. One. To know whose liberation you're fighting for your own. White supremacy has been lying to kids for centuries. White supremacy is pretend. The truth is much simpler. Dangerous? Not dangerous. Whiteness is a bad deal. It always was. All right. Here's a contract binding you to whiteness. You get stolen land, stolen riches, special favors. And there's little footnote says land. Riches and favors may be revoked at any time for any reason. Whiteness gets to mess endlessly with the lives of your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and all fellow humans of color for the purpose of profit. The only price is your soul. Sign below. Dude, we can see your pointy tail. Yeah. Who do you think is trying to make this deal? So I know we just had a conversation about using our words and having, you know, adult conversation and and intelligent conversation, but I have no polite way to say this. And we don't often swear on this podcast, but that's Like, I'm sorry. Like, I don't know how else to put that. That is the the biggest load of horse shit I had ever seen. And it is so utterly hypocritical and racist in and of itself by saying that. And I've said this before about other things. If you swap the word white for brown or for black, that would be racist. So why is this not racist? I cannot believe the gravity of racism that is in that book, and that they're convincing people of. And what what really bothers me about books like this and material like this is that there's 3 or 4 nuggets of good information and like having, having I can't remember his exact words, but having a heart of justice and having that guide your, your values, having a strong attitude, like being a good person that's kind of strong throughout this. But then they throw in this racist stuff and almost, I don't know how to put it, like, twist it by by by stealing the goodness of the, the good nuggets that were in there. Well, exactly. And that's always the game. And that's why lumping in hate crimes with microaggressions and instead of having any nuance, it's all the same. So, you know, if you do something that nobody else would perceive, but one person did and saw it as a microaggression, that's as bad as, you know, committing an actual hate crime, because when you have nuance, that's part of critical thinking. And the people who are pushing this crap, they don't want people to think critically. So they're just trying to again, they're dumbing it down. And and they're doing it through emotional appeal. They're try again once again. You can be one of the good ones, right? Don't be like those bad people. And you know this bad enough when you're brainwashing children with this. But the fact that adults see this and there are so many weak minded, weak willed people who say, sign me up! And again, these are the useful idiots. And they just they can't see what you just described. It's pathetic. It's it's enraging. And most importantly, it's happening and it's happening to our children. And again, the fact that so many adults can't see this, how do you expect any kids to be able to see it? They don't. They're being brainwashed. It's a literal brainwashing literal. I'm not being and even be hyperbolic literal brainwashing. And this person doesn't need my sympathy. But I do feel bad because I do sense that he's a well-intentioned, kind individual who wants to do good things but has been brainwashed by this garbage. You know the guy who was talking about the book this, right? Yeah, yeah. And the author who's like, I can't speak to anyone's motives, but yeah, sure. Yeah. But, you know, let's just say, I will be mindful of my words here, but let's just say harkening back to one of our first episodes where we talked about Wokeism and everything. Okay, I am going to infer I could be wrong, but that he was, you know, not the capital of the football team. He was not the most popular among the males. And, you know, and that he was probably marginalized. And people have talked about this. Many people have. And we've talked about this. It's really about allowing the, the it's giving opportunity to I would say, for the people who felt marginalized in high school, whether it was about their race, their, you know, their athletic prowess, their looks, you know, their sexuality, anything like that. Okay. It's the people who felt that they were not part of the cool kids. Now this is their opportunity to get revenge. And if you gave them a, a scepter. Okay, instead of using this scepter for good. Okay, they're going to use it. Clunk everybody over the head. Who you know, who were there as perceived enemies back then? I know it sounds, reductionistic. But having worked with enough people having this, you know, I've seen how it's played out and having spoken to enough people who, you know, either being the perpetrators or the victims of this type of wokeism. Right. I truly believe in most cases this is what we're seeing. It's the uncool kids now. It's their time they get to shine. And instead of lifting everybody up right, they're stepping on the they're the enemies, which is 90 something percent of the population, say, 80 to 90% of the population. And they're trying to lift up the few people that they deem worthy. And it doesn't matter what their, what the source of the marginalization or oppression is, it's just that the people who didn't do as well as, you know, as others, right? They they believe that we should elevate them and it's never the question of, well, why didn't they do? Well, it's just an assumption. It must be because of the color of their skin or this, this or that and books like that. Again, if you're a white kid, you see this, you're like, oh my gosh, you know, my family are monsters. And if you're a kid of color seeing this, you're given a free pass because, oh, I'm. The. Victim. I'm the victim here. You're right again. And we've talked about this, and this is why it's so pernicious. Because, as you said, there's a few good things sprinkled in and there's just so much rot. You know, that goes along with it. Yeah, yeah. So we often talk about what can people do here, and we're speaking about kids books. I'll speak directly to, to parents. Because I know that we're crapping a lot on this stuff, and some might actually be surprised by my suggestion here. So we start out by talking about presentations in school and teachings and school and books being read in school. And I'm aware of a lot of parents who will not send their kids to school on the day that, you know, a certain presentation is being held or certain topics are being discussed, I actually advise quite the contrary, send your kids and let them see what is being taught. Let them learn what is being, what they and their peers are being exposed to, but then have a conversation about it at home. I firmly and strongly believe that if you set a good foundation at home of what your family's values are, what the expectations are of your family, it is important for them to see the other side and understand the world that they live in, the differing views that exist in that world, but still then be able to stand firm in their own beliefs. And yes, that may come with consequences, but I don't think ignoring the other side is helpful in any way. Yeah, I agree, I think it is good to expose to, you know, to all sides. The only the say, exception I'll make is sometimes and parents have to think really hard about how they do it. Because it shouldn't be about you should be about your kids. Okay. But sometimes parents, they want to really make a stance like they want to show and they want to show their children. So they're teaching the children a different way. You know, they're saying, no, no, we are, you know, everyone else. And again, let's be careful because taking to the extreme can lead to problems. But if done properly, showing, you know, these other kids or these parents are just going along with it blindly. And I don't want to subject you right to that type of ideology or brainwashing. So I am taking a stance for your protection. So that's one way of doing it. But I do think also it's very important at some point that the children have to be able to be exposed to it. And, you know, and again, as you say, as long as the parents are fully aware of it, that they can have a discussion. And, you know, look, let's talk what can parents do if, if something's happening? If it, if it's happened without your, consent or your knowledge, you know, you raise a stink, you talk to the school, and we've talked about this before. You get other parents who have similar mindsets. You find out who it is, you do a little bit of whispering, a little bit tentative probing, and you will find other people who share your values. And, you know, and you get a group and you hold somebody to account and you elevate as much as you can. That's one way. And if you know ahead of time what's going to be, you know, taught, you say or taught brain inculcated, you say, I want all the materials, I want the resources. I want to know the background of the speakers. If it's a teacher themselves. Okay, show me. I want everything. Because as teachers, we have the resource parents. We should have the right to know what our children are being taught or indoctrinated with. So I think people should really do that. Be active agents, because don't just throw up your hands, say, well, what can I do about it? There's lots that you can do. You may not be able to change the system, but you can protect your child within that system and teach your child to think critically. That's the most important. And again, the kid does have to speak out. You don't want to make a child a martyr, but let them have the ability to say, just because this person in front of me is a teacher or a librarian or a guest speaker, or whatever, right? I have the ability to process, think about it, and talk with other people to see, you know, again, just because and parents may be wrong about certain things, right? Like again, that's why it's good, as you say, to expose them, let the child see all this information and see what makes more sense, what's more credible, what's internally, coherent. This is for a bit older children, of course, because younger kids, as we say, I mean, the materials that are being presented to these kids are way above many of their heads, unfortunately. Right. So what we're talking about, it's we're going from like Joe, the JC up to university kind of thing. We're trying to teach good habits. And one of those good habits is critical thinking. Absolutely. So as I mentioned earlier, if any of our listeners challenge what we say or have, you know, questions or thoughts about our opinions, or what we presented regarding these books, certainly leave it in the comments and we're happy to discuss. Yeah. And on that note, until next time, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.