What’s this all about?

All right on this episode of I had to say that I actually want to step back and talk about this podcast in and of itself for a few minutes, what I want to accomplish with the podcast, what I'm hoping to, to do, I have a lot of things bubbling around inside this head of mine that I'm trying to

translate to a media form,

where I can get some of my ideas out there and share them with people. I am hoping to build a platform

that will encourage discussion

and conversation. I don't want this to be just, you know, one side of any issue banging the drum back and forth, and back and forth.

And until I can get things,

you know, built up a little bit, yeah, it's just gonna be me and my two cents. I've, I'm always going to welcome you know, feedback and opinions and other people's thoughts on these things. It's I don't want this to be a one sided engagement. But I, obviously I'm the one running it. And it's going to be my opinions and my beliefs. I do however, I'm a firm believer in debate and discourse and facts versus feelings. Yes, we're all emotional where people were human, it happens, I get it. But at the point where I think things really started slipping is when somehow, feelings became more valid than facts. All of a sudden, people were more concerned with how they felt about an issue, or how they felt about a topic. And the facts be damned, because they weren't relevant. And the decreased emphasis on facts, made things a lot more difficult. You can't have discourse, when you're only basing your conversations off of your personal feelings, because feelings are personal, they're just that it's a completely subjective state. And it's not my place to tell someone how to feel about something any more than it's their place to tell me how to feel about things. It's ridiculous to even assume you could pull that off, no one is going to accept those sorts of terms and conditions. The problem being with that mindset of when everyone is looking at things from a personal standpoint, from a basis of feelings, like I said, you can't really have discourse, you cannot have a discussion or conversation. And it devolves from the potential for change and growth to people basically waiting their turn to talk. Not so they can hear another opinion or another stance, simply so they can put theirs out there and then feel self justified that they said their piece, and why isn't everyone jumping on board their bandwagon now? Because it's that's how they feel that must be the most valid and most important thing. And when we got to that, that point, that condition, realistically, it makes emotional development. Actually hindered people think, you know, oh, well, I'm more in touch with my feelings. And I'm, I'm in touch with this, and I'm in touch with that. Yeah, but you're doing it in such a way as to inhibit or completely stop.

I mean, it's it's either slow growth or no growth. And we need to get past that the human thought process, spent thousands of years growing and changing and evolving. And we had great thinkers, once upon a time, who Renaissance thinkers, the all going all the way back to the Greeks and the Romans. And I'm sure even farther back than that, and philosophy, lessons that are still taught 2000 years later, or more. And instead of using that mindset of reason, logic deduction, here's why this is that this is why that is this. Here's why I think that it doesn't agree with what you think here are other causes and factors and assumptions that back up my argument. And we've gotten away from that. And it's, I feel this way, and you're not validating me as a person, if you don't agree with what I feel. If you don't tell me what I feel is okay, then you're a bad person, because you are not giving me the credit I deserve. The problem with that standpoint is it's completely selfish. And I don't encourage that standpoint, because it does not allow for any kind of real personal growth. I will never say that I feel a certain way about something and then refused to hear any argument as to what I it's not a I don't have firmly held beliefs in the fact that my feelings are the most important thing. There are a lot of things I don't feel real good about that are facts. It's just the way the world works. And I'm not saying we shouldn't try and change the world. I'm not saying things can't change, but you can't change them simply based on a subjective set of standards. What is massively horribly offensive to one person may be completely banal and pointless to another. And we have gotten so hung up on the feelings that we've developed unrealistic expectations for accommodation, people get offended at things that literally, from a logical and sane standpoint, make no sense. getting offended because a person didn't know your preferred pronoun, when they have literally no basis for that pronoun to be associated in their mind. If you're not walking around with a sign hanging around your neck, that my preferred pronouns are they there, and it's it, you can't get mad at the person who addresses you not knowing that.

But we do

know, obviously, not all of us. But enough people are doing this where it is a thing. One of the a lot of the in a lot of these podcasts, I may reference things that are going around through social media and the internet. Because that's how we have common touch points in our society today. It's an it's not a new concept. It's just a new medium, inside jokes, you know, memes go back hundreds of years, they were they would put them up on posters and flyers. I remember back in the you know, early night, late 80s, early 90s, you know, means used to come through on fax machines in offices, somebody would drop a cartoon and send it to a friend of theirs, who would send it to 10 friends of theirs. And then it evolved into email and these you'd get these chain letters that would have 10,000, forwards in the in the address bar for a three panel cartoon that somebody thought was funny. And it's usually some social commentary or some political thing, or just, you know, a dirty joke. And that that little touchstone would travel around the world. Now, it's posted on multiple platforms of social media that are seen instantly by anywhere from 10 people to 5 million people, depending on who you are. These supposedly social media influencers and celebrities who are famous for nothing other than being famous, they slap something on their social media. And generally, it's not even them doing it anymore. Now it's you know, assistants and psychics, and they have software that'll you make one post and it goes to 19 different outlets. So you know, they're working really hard to get there 5 million people that listen to everything they say. And it's grown so exponentially, that these are the touchstones we can use to find common ground. The problem is I actually was, I posted something on Facebook A while back, and one of my family members replied to it and said, You're one of the few people actually feel like and have a disk or I've seen this other places. But I feel like anybody that would post something like this is going to automatically snap my head off. And you'll actually talk to me about it. And I explained where I came from with with the particular post and, and then I explained my logic behind using it. And

honestly, these means

they're fine when they're used as a touch point. They're made, to convey ideas, be they complex, or simple or basic, or entertainment or knowledge or, and you take it and you break it down into the lowest common denominators and the simplest form. And this becomes a problem because when you're only getting a little bite of the facts, you're filling in all the blanks with your own personal feelings and your own personal biases and your own personal beliefs. And you're making what's in front of you fit the narrative that's in your head. So people will identify with it and engage with it and spread it. Now this is you know, it's a good and a bad thing. The oversimplification of facts and data is a problem because nowadays, a lot of people will look at the meme and base their entire philosophy or their belief or their view on whatever subject off of something that fits into two or three panels without digging a little further and without taking that as a prod to say, Hey, is this might actually be valid. Let me look into it. And it's all just woven together with these days such it's like a reckless approach where people will rebroadcast an AMP and boost everything up. So you get everybody talks about, oh, this went viral that went viral. This could go viral, you should go viral. I honestly, I don't know how many times I've heard Dude, you should put that on the internet. It'll go huge. And I have a friend who will hopefully be a guest further on down the line when I get us set up going where I can have guests who when I told him I was doing this said, Well, you know, I think it's gonna work for you. Because if nothing else, you're one of the realest people that I know. And you're gonna say what's on your mind. And regardless of how people feel about you personally,

realness has a resonance and people will pick up on

that and they will, they will feel that you are being real and authentic. And that is, honestly what I'm going for. It's whether you like what I have to say or not, really, I'm looking for engagement. Here, I'm looking for feedback. I'm looking, I want people to think, and discuss, and grow and learn and try and make things better for all of us while we still got time. And I'm not trying to be all Doomsday, horrible doom and gloom. I'm not saying anything, you know, grand, apocalyptic. Well, we have time since the things I'm just saying, none of us really know, tomorrow isn't promised for anybody. It's cliche, but it's the truth. And honestly, it's, I think it's in all of our best interest to just try and make the best of the time we have, you know, do those things that will expand your personal growth, expand your knowledge base a little bit, you'll be better off for it. And that's really what I want I as I'm getting older, and things are changing, for me, personally, I want to do something to leave my mark on the world, I want to make the world a better place, I want you guys to help me make the world a better place. And I'm not trying to, you know, change it on some massive grand scale. I mean, it would be amazing if I did, I think we'd all be, you know, fairly happy if more people were more open minded and more willing to embrace logic and learning and education, I think it would be great if we embraced another Renaissance and where the arts were all of a sudden, back to being important in terms of not getting famous and doing something because it's going to get you viral, and it's going to get you lots of likes and followers and money. But doing something for the sake of making something beautiful, or something new, or something, something unique. You know, write the song, write the poem, you paint the picture, take a picture and get it to get a camera, get a film camera, get a digital camera, use your phone, if you see something that that's out there, and it's beautiful, just you know, seize it and share it and spread it around. Realistically. It's the little things that are going to change the world. And I may get to sounding like a broken record and harping on these things. But it's the truth. Instead of, you know, focusing on all these things that keep tearing everybody apart. And they're out there, it's I'm not saying it's not. And I really realistically, like I said, I would love it if we could change the world. And I believe we can through embracing and learning about each other, learning about what we have in common instead of focusing on things that we are different. Because the differences really don't matter. The little crap that you have no control over should not be a factor, how you're born, what you look like, those things should not matter. And unfortunately, they Unfortunately, they do. And

that's what we need to change, we need to get over that

equality, fairness, respect. Those things are what we need. But everyone needs to realize those things mean everyone gets treated the same. And that's really what I'm going for here. I want everyone to feel like they can bring their opinion to the table, they can have their opinions here. And they will get the same fair shot to be heard as everyone else. Now granted, since this is my show, my opinion will get laid over or responding to basically everything here. But that does not mean my opinions The only right one and I'm more than willing to talk about any of that. And realistically, that's what I want from this and I hope that's what you guys want to and with that being said, we'll guess we'll be going back to rants and raves and political discourse and everything else that I feel like spouting off about, but for now, that's what I had to say.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai