Episode 34: Mission Accomplished

In this episode, we recap season 2 which started with the most important reason why we, as Americans, are free – freedom of speech. We discussed how propaganda is protected as free speech right along side of the misinformation and disinformation being feed to the public. We even went as far as to tell you how the media and government are lying to us all. We, as Americans, must learn how to be diverse in order to preserve the great freedoms this country currently provides. Please catch us with Season 3 starting in April 2024 as we discuss the most important election of our lives!

Read the Transcripts

The Collective Perspective is set out on a mission to understand some of the most impactful and controversial trends and topics in our lives today. Hi, I’m Jeff. Hi, I’m Travis. Hi, I’m Juwan. Can we find common ground in the middle, in a peaceful manner, but with real community benefit? We believe as veterans and concerned citizens, we are striving to bring together diverse views.

With fact based research to navigate this tough terrain in a search of a viable path forward. How do we unify as Americans and prove we aren’t all that much different? So meet us in the middle, not the left or the right. In Season 2, we have decided to focus on researching and exposing fake news and fake information.

We’re tired of the media lying to us. We’re tired of the fake news, tired of the government lying to us. We want to know the truth, and our mission is to seek the truth. Everybody, this is the Collective Perspective podcast, and we’re here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida, talking to you from Dcon Recording Studio.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Collective Perspective. This is Jeff. And this is Travis, and this is Juad. This is episode 34. I would say that we’re sad, but we’re not. This is the end of season two. It is time to move on to a different course of. Conversation something that is more relevant this year than it was last year and next year won’t be as irrelevant We’re here for next season.

We’re gonna talk about the most important election of our lives We’re trying to stay in touch with the crap test stay in touch with the crap test if you remember that Because we want to stay relevant. And current. And current. I would say this is the most important election of our lives coming up. I would say the most important reason why we want to talk about the election is leading up to it.

The fight for the election is now, not in November. I think what you need to know as our listener. The reasons why people vote for candidates, the second amendment, abortion, health care, whether their stock prices are going to go up. Maybe that’s not a televised reason, but I’m sure it is. I’m sure that, yeah, people have their reasons and I think those hit on a big portion of our society right now.

So nonetheless, we’re going to talk about all that next season. This episode we wanted to recap things that we already discussed. We went into this, uh, uh, this season two, just duos, Travis and I, and we decided that we were going to have special guests on that were just answering pre recorded questions.

And then we would discuss it. We felt that that was successful. It helped us progress our intro. And add a bigger voice to our podcast. And just like many of you, we are continuously learning and growing in our podcast. And that’s, uh, when we welcomed Jawad to the show. And as we learned previous episodes that, uh, us learning is a release of endorphins, dopamine.

In our original intro, it said, uh, we were going to discuss what? The media lying to us. Okay. Why is the government lying to us? And we want to know the truth. Our message is meant to be centric in nature. We all have ways that we lean a little bit more of. I don’t think anybody in the room is extreme. No, I’d say we all kind of lean towards the middle.

And I think the majority, I mean, I’m not a pollster, but if I were to put out a poll, I would say 80 percent of Americans are kind of in the middle, I would hope, but there are agendas from both sides that are. By the nature of polls, 80 percent is not in the middle. No, I’m just saying. 50 percent would be in the middle.

It should be more people in the middle than the left or right, but I agree with you. I think, I think you’re right. Many people are more centrist than what we see portrayed on TV and in the news. I think that realistically though, the sides, the left and the right have gone further away. And it’s shifted that center point, maybe a little more to the left.

So my views, I think are classic and yours as well. I think we’re both pretty much classic liberal views. I may be a little bit more. I, I am a little bit more, I shouldn’t say maybe right of center back, say 20 years ago, if you did a poll, the left and right were, it was a narrower gap between left and right.

Now I think that gap is much wider. So anything that’s right of center is considered extreme. It seems like these days. I do think that more people are in that center area than the outliers that are always televised. The ones that make the news, I think, are just the outliers. A lot of America is pretty conservative, bro.

They Don’t like anything extreme do anything, you know to infringe upon their morality in some perspective Just because you’re the loudest person doesn’t mean that you deserve the spotlight It’s true And I think that many news articles new shows news reports have been hijacked by a small Minority like 1 percent it’s probably even smaller.

Yeah, but small numbers with large large accounts we started season 2 with episode Freedom of speech episode 22 and many of us take for granted the freedom of speech that was handed down to us by our founding Fathers, but but do we really understand what it means? I felt like this is the description we’re reading So do we really know what our founding fathers were trying to do?

I think the majority Americans learn stuff in history And probably learned what that was, but then they forgot everything about it. I think you’re probably right. A lot of school has condensed what they teach in history. And I don’t feel like they’re encouraging students these days to explore more on their own.

There, I think schools are teaching to a test and not teaching to expand knowledge. And when that happens, I think you lose a lot of the initiative to really research and see what people were thinking back then. You’re told the highlights without the why. Oh yeah, hermeneutics. That’s very vital when it comes to a historical background.

In order to know where you’re going, you got to know where you came from. It’s very vital for people to have a firm foundation of, of an understanding of the historical background of America, our forefathers. There’s a lot of things that you learned in school that don’t really mean anything, even to the point where, yes, we’d all know basic math, but don’t we, majority of us go to the calculator or use our phone.

You get where I’m coming with that? I do. Whereas, but if there’s one thing that you want to remember about what you learned is how you got there. Yeah. How we got to where we are now, historically. I would say that history is probably the most important topic that you could learn. Absolutely. Other than, other than arithmetic and Well, I was going to say, talking about math, how everybody says, Oh, well, I’m not going to use that.

We’re not going to have calculators in our pockets when we get older. And when, in essence, we have a computer in our fricking pockets. But my son came to me with some math problems last night. And the night before. And I started going over it with him and teaching him. I think that math actually could be one of the most important ones.

Not just simple math, but the geometry and trigonometry and your algebra and calculus and stuff. I came to this realization last night. I was like, wow, this teaches you how to think logically and put steps together and put two and two together and not just say, well, I never heard that. I can’t figure that out on my own.

There is a sequence of events that need to happen for things to fall into place. And I think math teaches you that you can find that perfect sequence. So everything always falls into place every time. Yeah, absolutely. Are you tired of not knowing whether the news media is telling us the truth or not, or maybe you already know they have been deceiving us for our whole lives and our parents.

And their parents lives. Do you believe in diversity of thought? Are you stuck in the middle of the left and the right? Do you believe in healthy debates? Does context matter to you? If so, this podcast is for you. The Collective Perspective Podcast. Please like and follow our insightful podcasts on all major platforms.

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It was just one of the things that came to me last night. I was like, wow, God, I should drink scotch more often. Obviously when you, you dig in history, the flawed human element, and it shows us where the mistakes we made and how we can improve upon not making those mistakes again, being better for society, for our culture, for our government, and it educates us.

On how to avoid things that harm the common man or benefits the common man, not, not just in a negative perspective, but a positive perspective. So learning history for me is very, very vital. So with that, knowing the history of why they came up with a first amendment, freedom of speech, religion, and all of that, we did dive into that and that episode talking about how the first people that came over from England.

We were talking about how the Founding Fathers, when, and the colonists from England came over, they were persecuted for their religion, for their speech, for their beliefs, and some of them even for having weapons. That’s why they felt that that was very important to not have any restrictions on it so that you could be a free person, to believe what you want, to say what you want.

The only limitation would be as long as it wasn’t slanderous, libelous, or damaging to another person. Which brings us back to the mistakes that were made and how they improved upon those mistakes or the issues and came up with a better way or a better idea. The original idea of our government, our, our constitution was really a great idea.

The whole concept of freedom of speech has evolved. There’s been limitations added. I think they’ve been social limitations. They haven’t been legal limitations. Freedom of speech at some point is considered un, unprotected. The direct threats. Direct threats, even to put revenge porn, uh, isn’t. And one thing we realized to donating any amount of money to your politician is considered freedom of speech.

To add to that topic. We also talked about cancel culture in preparation for this podcast. I kind of wanted to come up with an example of cancel culture and how it’s kind of weird even now. Do you guys know who Brian Williams is? The reporter? The reporter. Yes. Do you remember him being cancelled? I remember he went away, but I don’t remember why.

I can’t recall off the top of my head. Was it like silently kind of like blackballed in some perspective? In 2015, Williams was suspended for six months for a broadcast for misrepresenting And lying about his experience in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And at that time, his salary was 10 million a year with a five year contract signed.

So we’re talking in 2015, this guy went on the air and people called him out on it and he was lying. But now we’re here on 2024 and people have lied and some people are getting canceled for telling the truth and other people are getting the pass for lying. Yeah, that is true. And how the table has turned, right?

I think as we keep progressing and we have more forums to express our speech, that the narratives and the, the information isn’t coming just from one area. So I think it will become harder to cancel people because they’re able to get their views out there. And the overwhelming. Like how X does it now is they have community notes, and even that is flawed, but it’s not as restrictive as the government fact checkers or any other fact checker that has a slant or a bias.

Like you said, flawed. You go to what is the popular narrative at that time that perpetuates a certain perception? It’s malleable facts. Whatever is applicable at that time that benefits a narrative that the mainstream media wants to perpetuate. He probably wouldn’t have lost his job now, but at that time it was very unpopular with what he tried to campaign.

And I think it’s malleable. I think facts of the perception of what the media wants you to believe is malleable. It’s whatever is popular at the time. The next episode is episode 23, Surveillance Capitalism. This is the last episode that Travis and I were duos, and the next episode Episode 24, the misinformation game, which we’ll talk about in a second, added Jawad.

So episode 23, surveillance capitalism. Have you ever stopped to think on how you’re being tracked and monitored through your own online activity for likes, comments, and purchases? Everything is being recorded in companies and companies are profiting from your data instead of goods and services.

Consumers and their data have now become a highly coveted product in the marketplace. So here we are talking about capitalism and it’s kind of funny because the episode right before this is. Covering capitalism and imperialism. We felt that surveillance capitalism was a new form of capitalism. You’re either on social media in the app and you’re part of it or you’re not.

They have control of it. A hundred percent. I don’t know if we came up with it or where you heard it, but one of the best things out of that episode, I feel is if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. No, I thought you said that actually, that was poignant point. I mean, that was very good.

If you’re not paying for it. You can go on Paramount, for example. If you want commercials free, you pay the 11. 99 a month. If you don’t, then you pay 8. 99 a month. And then you’re subject to listen to all these commercials. I’m sure that’s data that they collected the money that they’re pushing. Which commercials are you trying to fast forward through?

You are the product at that point. An algorithm. Of a consistency of your searches. What are you looking at? They could tell exactly how long you listen to it and how, if you listen to the whole thing, absolutely. Even on Facebook, even when you scroll down the feed, if you slow down and just read something, you don’t even have to, you don’t have to click on it.

Yeah. If you just slow your scroll. They know 0. 2, 0. 4. He stopped a little bit. He’s interested. Yeah. And then they, you’ll start to see that information generate on your feed. Now, what’s scary to me about surveillance capitalism is all of our TVs, the newer TVs have cameras in them. And I think they may be able to even see if you’re watching.

the channel when those commercials come on. Apple started with that initially with their devices, um, their computers. Do you, you talk about two decades ago, they put cameras up and then you can tap into them. I’ve got people that put tape over the cameras, so they, and it’s just what they traditionally do.

My work laptop has a little shield. Blinder that you click on. My laptop has duct tape over it and it’s been there probably for. Five, 10 years. I can’t take it off or otherwise it’ll peel my whole screen off. So episode 24 is where we added Mr. Mills here into the conversations where we talked about misinformation and how more prevalent that is in today’s society.

But not really, it’s more recognizable this whole episode, uh, this whole season actually is trying to educate our listener that you’re being misinformed and disinformed. And there isn’t a multiple times a day, there’s an agenda to it. And we want our listeners to be better informed on ways to recognize when they’re being misinformed or disinformed.

I think when those news reports come out and they have certain descriptors and using always and never, those are kind of red flags to look out for and say, Hey, maybe this isn’t correct. So in this episode, we, we discussed misinformation and disinformation. And it’s several ways that it’s enabled freedom of speech.

It’s basically legal to lie. It’s important to understand how certain groups like news organizations and politicians use it. Coverups are usually difficult to swipe under the rug with information highway of social media. It’s getting more difficult for these people to hide their lies. What is the tipping point and how do we measure when is it enough?

What is their tipping point fear when they perpetuate fear with misinformation? They put out disinformation Like you just this stuff that is not true. It’s misleading. No, bro What I want to know is the tipping point is at what point do we fight back? People will reach a certain precipice To where they’ve had enough and they won’t get there by being told about what’s going on they have to experience it and when they’re lied straight to their face and then someone calls them on it and brings receipts and Says This is not right.

I think that that’s when everybody reaches that point at a different time. But social media itself is a, is smoke and mirrors. I mean, no one really truly lives their true self on social media. You can’t stand by a truth when we all live in perception on social media. So you saying, okay, what is, when, what, what is enough?

What enough? When is it enough? When we’re no, no one’s living in truth on, on social media anyways. So they, there has to be some beacon of truth that can help us identify when we’re being lied to or how we can identify the lie or the deception that they’re perpetuating on social media. I think deception is a, is a good word.

Absolutely. And, you know, I, I’m, I’m guilty of falling for some of this clickbait and being misinformed. And then when I read deeper into it, then it’s like, okay, that was wrong. Or I’ll bounce it off Jeff over here. And he’s like, dude, that fails the crap test. I’m like, yeah, it does. Yeah. Sorry about that.

And one of, one classic example of it was COVID 19. There were so many different ways they threw out misinformation and, and, and deception concerning that. People are still wearing masks from it.

Are you tired of not knowing whether the news media is telling us the truth or not? Or maybe you already know they have been deceiving us for our whole lives and our parents and their parents lives. Do you believe in diversity of thought? Are you stuck in the middle of the left and the right? Do you believe in healthy debates?

Does context matter to you? If so, this podcast is for you. The Collective Perspective. Podcast, please like and follow our insightful podcasts on all major platforms. Don’t just sit there and listen to them spread the word. So much inspiration. So little time upgrade your audio video production with mixed theory studios from ads and podcasts, original music, create.

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I thought it would be important to, for people that maybe didn’t catch on to what the crap test is, we’re not talking about your pants being dirty. Maybe we are. Maybe for some people. We’re talking about an acronym. And it actually has two A’s. So maybe it takes two A’s to do it. The first C is currency, is the timeliness of the info.

Is it old information? Was it something from five years ago? And they’re trying to make it look like it’s from today? Most recently, like I called Travis on that, I was like, But there was still some relevance to it. But the time was like, well, you’re just talking about this now. Well, I think in that one, you were right.

The timing of that picture was wrong, but the the message behind the picture was what I was really going for on it. One of the topics we’re going to talk about next season is immigration. Immigration and the border are is a huge topic. That’s a big subject. Huge. But Travis sent me a video of it the other day.

I. I understand that type of thing is happening in the video, where people are landing in San Diego beaches and leaving their boat and Did you see that? You sent me the video, but the thing is, is that I don’t know when that was. I don’t, I don’t know when the video was. It could be, it could not even be what they say it is.

I’m not saying that it’s not happening. I’m just saying, from that video, I don’t know. The other part of the crap test is relevance. How the info fits your needs. Cherry picking, basically. The authority, the source of the information. Did some crackhead give you the info? It’s probably not true. You don’t even know if he’s a crackhead.

But, because he’s got some animation picture on his Twitter file. Don’t tell me I’m not right. A is accuracy, liability, and the correctness of the info. So that’s something, honestly, you kind of have to explore yourself. And I can tell you if there’s multiple sources saying one thing and they’re so said to be leaning in one direction or the other, and then another.

One of the things during the pandemic I noticed was that I can watch one news agency and they would be talking about a completely other topic that was super important. And then the other side was talking about a topic that was super important, but none of them really matched. And it’s just like, man, is there that many super important things that They didn’t even talk about this other angle.

Lastly, P is which I got a purpose. Do you really have to be the purpose? The reason the info exists. So intent, what is the intent? Intent. Yeah. That’s a big part of a lot of misinformation and disinformation. What is the intent of it? Is it intended to misinform you or make you believe something that’s inaccurate?

Or was it intended to give you more information, but turned out to be wrong? I mean, the intent there. To go even further, I was going to add the difference between manipulation and persuasion. Yeah. Or sensationalism. Man, we’re, we’re hitting home runs here. So who spreads all this crap? The media does.

Absolutely. Episode 25 and 26, we decided that. It was time to announce further. We were not the, I didn’t come up with this term, but believe in America, not the media. And yes, I do have a bumper sticker that says that. Can you imagine a day when everything you hear on the news report is unbiased without a personal political or business agenda?

The good news is there is good people in the world still, and there are still people born to be American heroes. And it’s time to wake up from the American dream and live it. These episodes explore that and. And where do you draw the line when it comes to propaganda in the media in America? I like that.

So, and there’s multiple different ways of propaganda. I was just telling a friend of mine today at lunch, did you know propaganda used to be called public relations and public relations still exists? And so does propaganda companies have their own public relations department. It’s just like, You have your own lying department?

Yeah. Public relations. Our buddy Edward Bernays changed that. Yeah, you went off on Bernays there for a while. Yeah, I’m getting him on these episodes. I’m personally, I’m going to get a picture of Edward Bernays and I’m going to put it on a t shirt. You say, you say it like a I’m putting Edward Bernays on a t shirt for you, brother.

One, for one thing he’s dead. God rest his soul. And then two, from the research that I did, the guy had his hands in everything. Including sauces. Is that like a That’s too deep. A Bernays sauce? Yeah, there is a sauce. It’s a sauce. I think it’s spelled differently though. But it sounds the same. That’s why it’s a Bernays is not an Italian name.

That’s why it’s a dad joke. Yeah. Oh. I thought dad jokes had to be clever, though. Sorry. Damn. Wow. That was a burn. I don’t know if I can make it home after that burn. Burned a hole in shorts. But we’re believing in America still. Propaganda doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re lying. They use it in advertising all the time, like bandwagon.

Propaganda is like, everybody uses it. There’s nothing harmful in saying that, I don’t think. I think you were probably trying to get to the intent behind the propaganda. Um, you know, good, there are good actors and bad actors, and propaganda can be used for both good and bad. And, you know, Bernays, he found out, he studied with, uh, Freud, or?

A relative of Zygmunt Freud. Okay. Like his, uh, that was his uncle. So he knew psychology very well, and. Well, we think he knew psychology very well because propaganda works very good. I would assume so. I think he took it to an extreme and used it in a manipulative way to showcase what he could do for companies.

And that’s where I see the bandwagon effect is more of a persuasion versus manipulation. In the, in the sense that, Hey, I’m just trying to get you to buy my product, man. These people like it. They think it’s a good product. You should too. That’s, that’s a persuasive argument. Yeah, I can, I like that. Now, whether actually everybody’s doing it or not, who knows?

You know, if you go to a restaurant and it’s always busy. That’s a good sign of a restaurant, no matter what it looks like. If it’s busy. That’s like my motto, never trust a skinny cook. I had a good story and I think this is a great thing since we’re talking about intent. I told you I was going to tell you about it.

A great story about my son. So today I saw him picking him up from school and I saw. Him crying, he was frantic and I was worried. I was like, man, what’s wrong? He gets in the car. I lost my retainer, dad, just in tears, scared. You’re going to be mad at me, man. I lost it. I lost it. I’m like, well, where did you lose it?

And I look throughout his bag, he’s just crying hysterically. And I said, dude, you just gotta calm down. It’s just a retainer. But you’re gonna be mad at me? And I said, you know what, man? I can tell what your intent is by your physical state right now. What I mean is, is that if you came to me and said, Hey dad, I lost my retainer with no remorse, no remorse.

But the fact that you came to me and hears that you, that it meant so much to you shows me that it was a true mistake. And Hey man, we’ll just get you another one. I ain’t mad at you. I find lessons even in that would be, yes, you’re consoling him and doing the right thing. And with that same tone, continue on and say, so how can we prevent it next time?

Episode 26, where we talk about, we titled it United We, not the Nintendo game. Do you believe in United We Stand? Our forefathers have a saying, United We Stand, Divided We Fall. I think that’s 100 percent correct. Episode 26, we explored What does everybody want in their life? What do people need to live their life to the fullest?

We all have our own version of the American dream, which is what makes this country so great is because you have the ability to be different. And what freedom means to us as individuals. We are not all that different throughout this whole process of this is episode 34. We have grown as a trio. I hope our listeners have grown if they’ve stuck with us that we all just want the same thing.

We all want real. The only thing real these days is the love you have with your family and personal relationships. Everything else is questionable. Yeah, anything online, which is where many people spend their lives these days, is online. It’s, it’s fake. It’s, uh, it’s an illusion. And when we get out there and we see our fellow humans just walking around, just strike up a conversation.

That’s my challenge to all of our listeners. Just strike up a conversation with the cashier next time you’re checking out at the grocery store. You’ll find that it will brighten their day. And you’ll feel better too. I challenge our listeners for the next five days. First of all, plan to eat a meal with your family at a dinner table, but don’t allow cell phone and see how you all are detached from each other and have to rediscover each other on a social level.

Try telling that to a two year old. Actually, this is something that we Have done for a long time and we eat meals together. My daughter’s been missing lately because she’s working during that time. But when we do eat meals together, there are no phones at the table. And we sit there for about 20, 30 minutes, you know, we’re military family.

So we eat fast, uh, but we sit there and we talk and we, and, you know, find out how each everybody’s day went, what’s going on. Who has troubles with what and where we can help. And then afterwards we go about our stuff and we go back. So we, we take that, you know, up to an hour sometimes of just quiet. No, no devices.

When my kids go to their friend’s house, they say that they don’t ever really eat dinner at the table. They eat in different parts of the room, parts of the house. They take it wherever. They don’t sit down like we do, and when our friends come over and have dinner with us, they sit down at the table with us, no devices, and they’re like, wow, this is different.

And they like coming over and having dinner with us. And this is the beautiful part of what you’re saying, is that’s the reason why Jeff’s son came to him and honestly expressed himself. Because Jeff takes time, spending time with his kids, and he makes them talk to him. They communicate. So he, there’s a place where he feels a safe place with his dad.

Your children feel, feel a safe place with you because y’all spend time building the trust that they, it’s okay to honestly express yourself. Social media doesn’t do that for anyone. It’s a psychological, it’s, it’s like a psychological healing or a growth kids need to know that my mom and dad is interested in my day.

And that’s how we bring people back together, having that open conversation face to face with them. I think it really comes down to, and I know you’ve heard this book before, The Five Love Languages. If you don’t know, look it up, The Five Love Languages, but everybody has. A language, one of the five love languages that they need to, but the beautiful part about this is united.

We, and, and that, that it starts in the home. It starts with us. It starts with our children. It starts with our community. It starts there. The fall, the small footprint of our cultural and our, our lives as humans, it starts right outside your doorstep by just waving at your neighbor and just asking them how their day is going.

And that, that’s a great, uh, subject, United. We, what you’re talking is a complete opposite of the next topic, uh, episode 28, 50 degrees of shady. If you’re constantly around people that blow you off, you know, I have a saying in business and just in life. It’s okay if you’re a busy person. But a truly busy person will always find time for you if they’re truly busy.

If they don’t find time for you, they’re full of crap. They’re not that busy. They procrastinate. They’re lying to you. I guarantee you that is probably 99 percent accurate there. Because a truly successful busy person finds time. Or they just, you know, don’t really want anything to do with you and you need to Unfortunately, they’re not telling you that.

I guess maybe that’s something you learn in sales anyway, in the world of misinformation and propaganda, which we’ve already pretty much discussed in detail here, certain people with personality traits, and I think that’s kind of where it was important for this episode 28 was there are certain personality traits that just are prone to manipulate you.

And the difference is, is manipulation is something that is going to benefit them. Persuasion is something that’s going to benefit you. Or be mutually beneficial. And manipulation, I would say, is more on the dark side of things. Manipulation carries such a bare weight of intent as leaders in society use it to get their way and convince you to vote for them and or buy their products.

Again, propaganda is legal, technically manipulation is legal, but again, What’s the intent? The gentleman, Brian Williams, that lied and got suspended, that wasn’t the case for him. I guess they just like, that’s a bad business model for everybody. We’re a bunch of old liars. Who was the other one? Um, the other big, uh, Tom Brokaw?

Um, it was, um, was it Tucker Carlson? What’s the other one? No? Yeah. No, no, no. You talking about Bill O’Reilly or something? No. Um, no. It was an older, uh, reporter. Nah, not Bill O’Reilly. So you said I’ll admit I like Tucker Carlson. Who was, who, Brian Williams. No, there was something on these guys. I think it was, not those two guys.

I’m just running down. It was another guy. I think he’s, he retired. He did, but he was kind of forced into retirement for something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he was, I think. Okay, well, if you don’t know. Yeah, he was on Fox or something. No, I think it was like an ABC or CBS. He was one of the big, uh, no. Can we look it up?

Yeah. Look it up. So the other personal one was who, Travis? Dan Rather. And he had, uh, an accuracy of, uh. President George W. Bush’s military service was disputed. He came out and said, We reported a true story. We didn’t do it perfectly, but we made some mistakes of getting to the truth, but that didn’t change the truth of what we reported.

I don’t know exactly what it was that he reported. I think he made, he made a A disparaging, it had to do with his service in the Texas National Guard. Episode 29 and 30, we discussed, hey, guess what, healthy baits do exist. We felt it was an important thing to experience. If you listen to them, you’ll see where Travis and I had opposing views.

And then I think we came together and we, it wasn’t one of those agree to disagree. It was we agree. We agreed that capitalism in its current state has been used in wrong ways, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s broken. And my, my claim was that it was broken, whereas in capitalism is broken was your thesis.

That was your, that was your statement. After we discussed it, we found that the true form of capitalism has not been used. It’s been some form of capitalism, and it’s always had a slant and is, in its current form, does not work for the consumer. We thought it was funny. The header for that one was, We declare that nobody’s feelings or friendships were damaged.

In the making of this podcast warning, this podcast was performed by experienced podcasters and longtime friends. The owners of this production company do demand you to try this concept at home as it can be dangerous to some. We challenge anyone to have a civil debate with someone that has an opposing perspective.

We dare you. And it could just be as simple as chocolate is better than vanilla. I think that would definitely, uh, that already, that conversation has already ended and we haven’t even had it. Ha ha ha ha! Because it’s a agree to disagree. Yeah. It’s like, uh, orange juice, California’s better orange juice, man.

No. I’d see, he had to rebut me, because he doesn’t have the same perspective, and I’m okay with that. So we move on. But the truth is, it’s healthy to consume orange juice, whether you consume it from California or Florida. As long as you squeeze it yourself. Yesterday my son and I were driving home from his school and we saw three little kids on the corner and they were selling lemonade and I had a bunch of ones in my pocket and they were like, it’s just a dollar each glass.

I said, here’s three dollars each glass. Me and Gavin, you could see that it was freshly, there was still pulp in the water, in the I gave up the punchline, but there was, it was basically just pulp floating in water. It wasn’t lemonade. And like I tasted mine, I’m like, this is just water. Lemon flavored water.

So are you sure it was pulp floating in there? No, it wasn’t even lemon flavored. It didn’t even taste like lemon. I don’t, I was, I mean, the mom was there and you would think that, okay, the mom tasted this stuff before the kid, but she did. Travis is like, okay. You ate a whole bunch of couch lint or something crazy, man.

They were amazed, and they probably could go out and buy some lemonade. No, I’m sure they had more money. They had money to buy lemonade. Yeah, they invested some lemons. That leads us to Consume or Be Consumed. Episode 31 and 32 are together. And it was basically all, I think what we realized in the first episode of Consumerism is I could just, I saw your face when you tasted that lemonade, man.

I just know you, bro. You can’t hide that. He can’t hide any expressions on his face, bro. Man, I would have paid a thousand dollars to see your reaction. I wasn’t mad, though. I was just like Gavin’s like, dude, dad, they just gave us water. I’m like, yeah, man, I just dumped it out. He’s like, but you, Gavin couldn’t understand why I dumped mine out the car window.

I didn’t let the kids see it though. Oh, that’s good. That’s going to be a good visual on the way.

I paid six bucks for it, dude. Hey man, sometimes you just gotta do nice things and not really expect it. And, and I think that, that right there is the key. You probably gave them little kids more confidence and, uh, you know, a boost to their own morale just by saying, Oh yeah, Hey, here you go. You’re out doing something on your own.

You’re being ingenuitive or, you know, whatever. I could, I could hear Jeff like, man, I should turn around and tell them, show them how to make lemonade. No, no, no. I just let it be. Oh yeah, well, it’s funny, man. I gotta set the example for the little man. Yeah, yeah. And that’s I didn’t, honestly, I didn’t even get mad, I just kind of laughed about it.

I don’t know, there’s better, there’s worse ways of losing money. Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t really lose it, I gave it. Yeah, you sowed some money into it. Consumed or be consumed. I think in this day’s age, everybody’s out to get happy, out to get high, dopamine high, from the moment you hit. Enter on place order for Amazon.

It’s not always about drugs getting high and getting that euphoric feeling. You don’t think it is, but it’s not about you mentally thinking, Hey, I’m going to do this so I can get high. There’s a difference. It produces a dopamine, whether you do it intentionally or not. So the natural highs are not like drug induced highs.

They’re different. Yeah. But it comes, but the crazy thing, it comes from the same receptor. So that means it’s not a bad thing, um, because our bodies produce that naturally. Right. Unless you stretch it to belief, uh, non belief, like taking extreme drugs that bring you to the limit of. Right. And everybody, once they get that feeling, they don’t know where they get it from or how they got it.

But they shake that muck. I’m shake the bush No, they um, they want to replicate it and they they want it again They remember what they did when they first got that feeling. So that’s what they it’s like the Pavlov dog training They know this experience will give me this feeling. Let me do this again And for some people it’s as easy as going out and buying drugs for others.

It could be Giving three dollars a glass of lemonade to little kids. I mean, it kind of does make you feel good that you did a good deed for the day. Or it could be hitting that send now button, you know, or purchasing that expensive car or that coat that you’ve always wanted. Yeah, we all want that feeling of relief or that That dopamine or adrenaline high.

So episode 33 we talked about capitalism and imperialism. We came back to that. What was the bridge between consumerism and capitalism was kind of where that derived from. But we talked about capitalism being possibly broken or not. Uh, we talked about surveillance capitalism, and unless capitalism gets its act together, I think it’s, you know, capitalism itself is in its own driving engine.

It’s how people utilize the abilities, the restraints of capitalism. You know, I have a really hard time, I wanted to go and try to buy something on Amazon today. We don’t even make it in the United States. It’s gotta be a Chinese thing. Really? Yeah. It’s a, it was a. Gimbal. You know what a gimbal is? I’ve heard that term before.

I, uh, uh, uh, If you explain it, I, I would probably recognize it. It’s like a stick that you stick to a camera and the camera moves remotely. Okay. With your thing. So you can do, like, I wanted one for my phone. So when I’m going, uh, when I’m filming, I can just tilt. Professionally tilt. And go like this. And then also zoom in and out.

There are none made in the U. S.? There are, but they’re like 250. You can, I got one of my Amazon shopping cart for 69. I haven’t hit it around yet though, but it’s Chinese. It’s just modern day imperialism. The Chinese have pretty much taken over anything you buy, even our food farmlands in the United States.

I think that leads to why this is the most important election of our lives because Some say it might even be the last election of our lives. I’ve heard that before. I hope that’s not true I agree. For God’s sakes. It’s time for us to unite. It’s time to us to fight now No, I said as long as the prices are cheaper, these corporations are gonna go get cheaper labor.

They’re gonna do it They can even put the made in America on, on product, but there are components to that product that is country. I think if it’s like 10 percent or there’s a certain percentage that it has to be assembled in America, then they can say it’s made in America. So they’re going to go for the cheaper so that they can, they can have a bigger bottom line.

It’s just inevitable segwaying into our upcoming season talking about the election I think we should kind of highlight the core beliefs of each of the parties that are running Not right now. No, not right now Yeah, I’m just saying like, you know the Republican the Democrat the Independent the Libertarian the Green Party I mean, I think we can spend an episode talking about that, and Well, let’s close this one out, and then we’ll focus on this.

Oh, yeah. Alright. How do you want to close this one out, brother? Imperialism. What did we come to on imperialism? That it is, it’s more how America is spreading it’s reach or how, how, not America but countries are spreading their reach to impart their form of Governance, it’s no longer a weapons war. It’s an information war.

They have Nukes all over the world. Everybody has it we all I think everybody knows that if they pull the trigger it’s the end of a lifetime, but Unfortunately people have to have an extreme and then back off at the extreme. It’s not about bombing people and explosions and it’s about dismantling things and corrupting things internally in organizations and societies.

We’re well on the way of being overrun by people that are not even from here. So I think that’s where I want to leave the fact that if you haven’t listened to all the episodes, I think You should. Get on that journey. Follow us. Next season we focus on the most important election of our lives. Somebody’s gotta stand up.

One thing I learned the other day was the meaning of, uh, apocalypse. Most people might think apocalypse is the end times, but it’s actually the Great Awakening. And something’s on the verge, uh, we’re on the verge of the Great Awakening. The fact that evil, evil is going to rise and be recognizable and be seen and the good people will unite and take over.

That’s the faith you have to have. And that’s how we’re going to roll because unity is we need to unify. And this podcast is meant to try to. Make that happen next season with that. Thank you. Peace. We see you, uh, next season. Peace.