Speaker 1: Calzon Media, Yo, Murray Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Honekah, Happy Festivus, Yo,
Speaker 1: Winner Solstice, the.
Speaker 2: Least Navidad, Balik Bayon, Saint John Bosco. That's kind of
Speaker 2: how you state it's a guy, look Maley. Anyway, all right, guys,
Speaker 2: Holiday Edition. As you know, in cool Zone Media, we
Speaker 2: try to take our foot off the gas for at
Speaker 2: least one day and behind the bastards they do at
Speaker 2: least one episode of somebody Nice. Last year, I brought
Speaker 2: Alma my wife referred to her by her prefix, to
Speaker 2: give y'all a color folks guide to surviving our holiday meal.
Speaker 2: And you know, it was pretty fun.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I wanted to bring her in again and kind of
Speaker 2: talk about, you know, some other just good stuff. But
Speaker 2: here's the reality. Man, let me just be real. It's
Speaker 2: a loud white people in this audience. So I have
Speaker 2: to make sure I understand the people for which I'm talking. Now,
Speaker 2: you colored folks, that's already been down for a while.
Speaker 2: Like I didn't need to tell y'all that y'all already knew,
Speaker 2: you alreadyknew what to do. Like I had to tell
Speaker 2: you that, you know, so we were just having a
Speaker 2: little fun time, you know, like for example, if you
Speaker 2: listen in by yourself and you colored, melanated, or you
Speaker 2: with somebody that is, I'm gonna ask you a question,
Speaker 2: and I'm just gonna prove to y'all who I don't. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I'm recording this in my own home. I don't know
Speaker 2: where you are, but we're about to have this moment me,
Speaker 2: me and the colored person I'm talking to right now.
Speaker 2: If you were gonna go into a black house for holidays,
Speaker 2: should you bring a dish nobody necessarily asked you to bring.
Speaker 2: Should you volunteer a food item for the meal and
Speaker 2: just bring it? That's the correct answer. The correct answer
Speaker 2: is absolutely not. You absolutely do not volunteer food. You're
Speaker 2: assigned food. We take it very seriously. You don't walk
Speaker 2: in here with your mama's casserole recipe. In side note,
Speaker 2: I just learned something about casserole. I don't know what
Speaker 2: took me so long to realize this, but casserole is
Speaker 2: just white people struggle food. I get it now. It's
Speaker 2: like you just take whatever's in the cabinet. There's probably
Speaker 2: some ritz crackers and some creama mushroom and some green beans,
Speaker 2: throw some cheese on it and put in the oven
Speaker 2: and it'll feed you for weeks. I get it now,
Speaker 2: it's your struggle meal. I totally get it. I can't
Speaker 2: believe I didn't understand it now. Obviously I don't want
Speaker 2: any but I understand it now. I was like, I
Speaker 2: don't understand why y'all like casserole so much. People would say, well,
Speaker 2: isn't it antie lotta casserole? No, antie lottas are purposeful,
Speaker 2: and there's one way to make them. Well, there's two,
Speaker 2: either with meat or without. That's different. When you say casserole,
Speaker 2: you talk about anything. I totally understand now. And you
Speaker 2: know what, respect, I don't know what it is about
Speaker 2: when you see a person and a poor version that
Speaker 2: just makes me a limo empathetic to them where you
Speaker 2: see the poor version of them. I just it's hard
Speaker 2: to explain it, especially now. Listen y'all. Obviously poor people
Speaker 2: could come in all different colored, sizes and shapes, obviously,
Speaker 2: but when you from them where I'm from, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe two poor white people because they just that there's
Speaker 2: the white family that lives in your hood. That that's
Speaker 2: that's really all you know. Every white person you know,
Speaker 2: a flu you never met any poor white people because
Speaker 2: it's you from the you know what I'm saying, We
Speaker 2: don't make it out to him or a spirit. It
Speaker 2: won't make it out there yet. It's when you start
Speaker 2: traveling and then you're like, oh, there is such thing
Speaker 2: as poor white people, and then it all makes sense.
Speaker 2: You just like, oh, okay, anyway.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just I tend to find myself being much more
Speaker 2: empathetic when I find the poor versions of something. I
Speaker 2: know how ridiculous that is, but I don't know what
Speaker 2: to tell you.
Speaker 3: It is what it is.
Speaker 2: So in honor of understanding y'all's experience, I know that
Speaker 2: when you go back home to the holidays, and I
Speaker 2: know if you're a listener to the politics, you probably
Speaker 2: most likely have vastly different views than your family, especially
Speaker 2: if you had to travel for the holidays. You probably
Speaker 2: or at least it's one of them jokers that you
Speaker 2: just like, please don't make me talk to uncle Mark.
Speaker 2: I just the way that the statistics work, at least
Speaker 2: in America. You got a conspiracy theorist in your family,
Speaker 2: you got somebody who you got Alex Joan, You gotta
Speaker 2: you it's somebody. It is a vast number of people.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it might be your own mama and daddy. It's
Speaker 2: a vast number of people in your family who has
Speaker 2: had their brain baked. Now, don't mean now, I'm not
Speaker 2: talking about somebody who you just disagree with. Okay, that's different,
Speaker 2: although I am going to get to that too. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about somebody who's just out of here, okay, Because listen, dude,
Speaker 2: you can people's experiences and their views on how to
Speaker 2: solve the things in the world. They can vary, you know,
Speaker 2: and that's listen, that's normal. That variation is going to
Speaker 2: make you a better person, okay, and it makes the
Speaker 2: nation better if we can find a way to talk
Speaker 2: about these things. But I'm talking about y'all who's like,
Speaker 2: oh that fam. I can't even I like, what the
Speaker 2: hell happened to cousin Jeff? Like what I just we
Speaker 2: can't even we can't even talk. And from what I
Speaker 2: understand now, Babe, this is a TV trope. But the
Speaker 2: way y'all fight, y'all be yelling at each other at
Speaker 2: the table, like we'll fight like that, like we fight
Speaker 2: different we go outside and fight now again, maybe po
Speaker 2: White people is different. But the way y'all be yelling
Speaker 2: at your uh, at your elders and ship, that's that
Speaker 2: just don't be happening with us. We don't yell at
Speaker 2: our elders. It just it just don't happen. We yell
Speaker 2: at each other. But you you keep that you you
Speaker 2: don't bring that energy to your elders, So your experience
Speaker 2: might get crazy. So what I want to do is,
Speaker 2: on a serious note, give y'all some best practices. This
Speaker 2: is serious as to how to deal with Uncle Mark.
Speaker 2: So this is the hood politics. Will prop search for
Speaker 2: common ground guide to dealing with Uncle Mark Hood politics.
Speaker 2: Y'all all right now some of you may or may
Speaker 2: not know, And I'm gonna talk more about this later.
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna have a CEO on the show this year,
Speaker 2: especially because of what's going on with polarization and divisiveness
Speaker 2: in this election year. But search for Comic Ground Peace
Speaker 2: Building Org. I'm a part of. We have these things
Speaker 2: called these best practices cards, and I'm just gonna give
Speaker 2: you a taste of this. I'm gonna put a link
Speaker 2: in the show notes for y'all to be able to
Speaker 2: have us for yourself. Now again, These are just suggestions.
Speaker 2: These are ways to sort of help in a lot
Speaker 2: of different areas when it comes to engaging in social
Speaker 2: media talking to somebody who had they brain baked with
Speaker 2: conspiracy theories. When you just like somebody just trafficking and hate,
Speaker 2: it's just a very difficult person. And the person that
Speaker 2: I am making this in your family is your uncle Mark.
Speaker 2: Now you may not have an uncle Mark. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: an uncle Dave, or maybe it's your aunt Sally, or
Speaker 2: may it's grandma, Grandma just scrolling you know, conservative TikTok
Speaker 2: now and just she's her favorite thing is libs of TikTok.
Speaker 2: And I don't know, whatever the case may be, it's
Speaker 2: just it's all bad. Now, how do you deal with
Speaker 2: this situation? Now? The first thing that really sucks is
Speaker 2: the fact that at and I resent this often, is
Speaker 2: that I always have to be the bigger person. And
Speaker 2: there are times that I'm not going to be. There are,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, there are times I'm not fit
Speaker 2: to be the bigger person. You understand them saying, like
Speaker 2: I'm on the listen, You've heard me say this before.
Speaker 2: I'm not a pacifist, Like there are times that somebody
Speaker 2: need to taste slapped out of their mouth. I understand
Speaker 2: there are times for that to happen. But in austinary
Speaker 2: know we talk about peacebuilding, get trust building and common
Speaker 2: ground works on this idea is this idea that like
Speaker 2: peace moves at the speed of trust. Right, you don't
Speaker 2: get nowhere with somebody that don't trust you, right. So
Speaker 2: that's one thing. Another thing I would say, just overall,
Speaker 2: and this is like, this is really like even even
Speaker 2: whether it's this situation, this is just relationship advice. And
Speaker 2: not that I'm an expert, but I can say this
Speaker 2: because I've I've failed at it so many times. Most
Speaker 2: of the time, people just want to be heard. They
Speaker 2: just want to know that you heard them. Not that
Speaker 2: you listen to them so that you can shut them
Speaker 2: down or so that you can rebut what they said,
Speaker 2: but that they just know they were heard. You follow me,
Speaker 2: Which sucks because that means you're gonna have to sit
Speaker 2: through sometimes some of the wildest shit just to hear
Speaker 2: what they really saying. And that's the strength, honestly of
Speaker 2: little politics is like I think that's why y'all like
Speaker 2: tap in with my show is like I'm telling you
Speaker 2: oftentimes what these people is really saying, you know, and
Speaker 2: they're saying a lot of words, but this is what
Speaker 2: they're saying. And a lot of times, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of the stuff that the other cool zone media
Speaker 2: shows deal with, like especially we talk about like in
Speaker 2: cells and stuff like that, like these fools are lonely
Speaker 2: and they just long for belonging. And a lot of
Speaker 2: times that's how like a lot of these little radical
Speaker 2: for our right white boys get radicalized because they're just
Speaker 2: looking for belonging. I just I need a squad, you
Speaker 2: feel me. You find those in all types of different communities.
Speaker 2: A lot of times you find them online or in
Speaker 2: gaming communities. Then they get you know, radicalized through those circles.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, people want to
Speaker 2: be heard. And it might have started off from like
Speaker 2: an honest to goodness, legitimate grievance. And that's the skill
Speaker 2: we're gonna talk about right now. Now keep in mind
Speaker 2: again I'm not writing theology for y'all. Like I'm talking
Speaker 2: about like the two days you have to spend with
Speaker 2: your uncle. You're not gonna convert him, all right now,
Speaker 2: let's just say which I'm pretty sure this is how
Speaker 2: it would go because you just don't feel like it.
Speaker 2: You probably on your fourth cocktail. But Uncle Mark is
Speaker 2: ready to like send you some stuff, and he talking
Speaker 2: real wild about things, and now he wants to debate you.
Speaker 2: Uncle Mark is all kind of tough topics all over
Speaker 2: the news whatever, or he just freaking freely, you know,
Speaker 2: in a way that like it feels like if I
Speaker 2: don't say anything, I'm agreeing with him, and I don't
Speaker 2: want you poison in the brains of my nieces and nephew.
Speaker 2: But most people's common practice is to like just be like, yo,
Speaker 2: can we not talk about that? Like I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to have a nice time, like just chill, you know,
Speaker 2: you try to shut it down all kind of racial slurs,
Speaker 2: they like dead naming, just making fun of trance, just
Speaker 2: all of it. Obviously, if somebody talking like that, like
Speaker 2: it don't deserve respects. And that's another thing that's hard about.
Speaker 2: It's like, okle Mark, don't deserve it, especially the way
Speaker 2: you talk about everybody like this. But now you got
Speaker 2: to be the bigger person while at the same time
Speaker 2: not standford this bullshit. You feel me, So the game
Speaker 2: gets real weird. Now you have to show a respect
Speaker 2: that's not being reflected or earned. And I don't know
Speaker 2: Mark as well as you do, but I know I
Speaker 2: have to be like, hey, man, I'm really interested in
Speaker 2: what you have to say, but these slurs are like
Speaker 2: that's a hindrance to me. And I mean, you gotta
Speaker 2: have your opinion. But I'm saying like, at least for
Speaker 2: this conversation, br like, just don't talk to me that
Speaker 2: way you feel me like, and then that it makes
Speaker 2: it more personal, like, hey, I would appreciate. I'm not
Speaker 2: correcting you specifically, I'm just saying like, hey, I'm really
Speaker 2: I'm really trying to figure out where you're going with this,
Speaker 2: but like, hey, I could do it out all the
Speaker 2: all the extra, but like, but tell me what you think,
Speaker 2: just like look, man, like, just don't talk to me
Speaker 2: that way, Like I'm not trying to hear that, just
Speaker 2: like I wouldn't that nobody talk to you and call
Speaker 2: you anything ocal Mark out your name. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I'm oftentimes it's like Mark ain't never met
Speaker 2: no trans person, so it's like you don't even know
Speaker 2: these people. So I'm like, well I know them, you
Speaker 2: feel me, and like I wouldn't let them talk to
Speaker 2: you that way? So please, This is you know, you
Speaker 2: approach a topic respectfully, right, and you try to understand
Speaker 2: where this person is coming from. Now, the best way
Speaker 2: to do that, especially in that scenario, is to just
Speaker 2: ask questions about what they're saying, whatever the topic is,
Speaker 2: just to be like, you know, hey, so like one
Speaker 2: is like, okay, where did you get that information? All right?
Speaker 2: And what do you hope what happened to see in
Speaker 2: the world? Okay, why do you think that that's better?
Speaker 2: And just be curious about what they're saying, right and
Speaker 2: what you're doing, and genuinely listen because when you genuinely
Speaker 2: listen to some of the stuff they say, you could
Speaker 2: actually hear or what they worried about even with all
Speaker 2: the racis shit. Now listening, of course doesn't mean you
Speaker 2: change in your mind, right, And I'm pretty sure in
Speaker 2: there you could find a lot of times you can
Speaker 2: find a shared goal. You're like most of the time,
Speaker 2: like I found again, people just want to matter, like
Speaker 2: you want to know that your work matters, that people
Speaker 2: see your pain and they see your suffering, whether your
Speaker 2: suffering is is imagined or not. Because again I'm talking
Speaker 2: about a family member here, right, this is this person
Speaker 2: you related to this person. This I'm not talking about
Speaker 2: some blowhard on the street. So there's a shared value here,
Speaker 2: Like i mean, as crazy as your uncle Mark is,
Speaker 2: I'm hoping like there was at one time that you
Speaker 2: and Uncle Mark were great, but he got his brain cooked, right,
Speaker 2: So there is a shared value, you know, and you
Speaker 2: could understand like nobody wants their stories erased or their
Speaker 2: stories ignored. You can understand that, right. Also, I think
Speaker 2: a big practice is like have a non anxious approach,
Speaker 2: like try your best, as annoying as Uncle might be,
Speaker 2: to just kind of keep your heart, maintain a non
Speaker 2: anxious you don't have to be combative. Just wait and
Speaker 2: what I find, and of course this isn't These are
Speaker 2: just practices, These are not rules. What I find is
Speaker 2: once you can mirror back their actual fear and grievance,
Speaker 2: you can start talking about ways to address that, which
Speaker 2: sometimes isn't even a topic that they brought up. And
Speaker 2: I'm assuming if you would listen to my show, that
Speaker 2: you understand that solutions are nuanced and they come into
Speaker 2: all different sizes and shapes. And I'm hoping you got
Speaker 2: receipts about what you're gonna say, and then you could
Speaker 2: start saying, hey, actually, I think we all feel that way.
Speaker 2: Now keep in mind, I'm saying this as someone who
Speaker 2: doesn't have an uncle Mark like y'all do, so I
Speaker 2: can empathize with the frustration you might feel with an
Speaker 2: uncle Mark. I just don't have one. But I do
Speaker 2: think these things can help because I have definitely had
Speaker 2: very difficult conversations. So like a good like practice is like,
Speaker 2: all right, so ogle Mark, when you said, you know,
Speaker 2: Blase Black WOOPI woop. That really got me thinking, hey,
Speaker 2: can I ask you about YadA YadA? Like okay, so
Speaker 2: you say this, and I was thinking, like how you
Speaker 2: feel about boom boom boom?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And this is like again you're showing curiosity, and it's
Speaker 2: like I'm just I really just want to understand where
Speaker 2: you're coming from. And then if you don't want to
Speaker 2: feel like a herd, because oftentimes they gonna start thinking
Speaker 2: they're convincing you or that you're being compative, and you
Speaker 2: can be real where you could be like yo, listen,
Speaker 2: like I strongly disagree with you, but I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to understand where you're coming from. And I found that
Speaker 2: that is super disarming with people sometimes like what don't
Speaker 2: you agree with? And then a lot of times I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: we could get to that, but I just want I
Speaker 2: want to understand what you're saying first cause and then
Speaker 2: I say, maybe I don't disagree, I just I want
Speaker 2: to understand what you're saying, you know, and that curiosity helps, right,
Speaker 2: And then you could go to the common areas like
Speaker 2: I said, like, nobody wants their story race, nobody wants
Speaker 2: their suffering to be minimized, Like I totally understand that
Speaker 2: you have a voice. You want your voice to be heard, right,
Speaker 2: And then I would approach like oftentimes I go with
Speaker 2: the like, well, but I surely don't want my voice
Speaker 2: to be heard at the price of somebody else's. I
Speaker 2: don't want to put somebody else through what I'm complaining about,
Speaker 2: because that's not right either. And now guess what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about, justice boom, Yeah, I'd be like, I philosophically
Speaker 2: believe that, and especially somebody who's like mad at the government,
Speaker 2: I'm like, there's enough money to go around. My success
Speaker 2: doesn't have to come at the cost of other poor people.
Speaker 2: There's plenty of money to go around, so just because
Speaker 2: I would like more for my community doesn't mean I
Speaker 2: want less for yours. That's a brain breaker for these people.
Speaker 3: Boom justice.
Speaker 2: Now. The next thing is probably issues about the news
Speaker 2: and the media that, like your family is, is absorbing.
Speaker 2: I think the first thing to do is first acknowledge
Speaker 2: your own bias and your new and I think the
Speaker 2: most common practice is to assume that the other person's
Speaker 2: news is ridiculous and yours is correct, right or to
Speaker 2: like these people would tell themselves that they did their
Speaker 2: own homework right now. Granted, the truth is most of us,
Speaker 2: including myself, are not trained journalists like I don't. I'm
Speaker 2: a college grad, so I know how to double check sources.
Speaker 2: I know how to read footnotes, I know how to
Speaker 2: look for dissenting voices. I know how to understand that
Speaker 2: biases come from different ways in different areas. And I
Speaker 2: know what I'm reading has a lens, and that's fine,
Speaker 2: because even the lens tells me something. It tells me
Speaker 2: what these people actually value. What usually happens is when
Speaker 2: somebody brings up a news story, the other person brings
Speaker 2: up another news story that says the opposite, and then
Speaker 2: they'll finally start being like mainstream media, mainstream media, mainstream media, right,
Speaker 2: and then that you can't trust the system, you know,
Speaker 2: and then and then usually the conversation stops because there's
Speaker 2: nowhere to go after that. What I usually do, or
Speaker 2: what I think a good practice to do is in
Speaker 2: this scenario, that's like, if we're not just talking about
Speaker 2: your own practices of like just doing a quick Google
Speaker 2: search on if a story is true or what other
Speaker 2: news reports reported on it, who reported on it, why
Speaker 2: they reported on it, and are there other stories on
Speaker 2: that story? Right? That's just a quick Google will let
Speaker 2: you do that I found in person. When someone brings
Speaker 2: up a story, since all of us have all the
Speaker 2: information in the world on our phones, I'll be like, yo,
Speaker 2: tell me about it, what was the name, and then
Speaker 2: pull on my phone and Google it and just like
Speaker 2: it with them, be like oh word. So then I'll
Speaker 2: be like, yeah, I'm reading it, and then say, hey,
Speaker 2: but there's this other page here, and then hey, but
Speaker 2: there's this other page here. Hey but there's this other
Speaker 2: page here, and then just kind of challenge the idea
Speaker 2: that like, no, like I'm not just I'm not just
Speaker 2: telling you the story's false. I'm like, I'm this is
Speaker 2: in real time. This is what I do when stories
Speaker 2: come across my page. I just kind of like look
Speaker 2: it up, you know. But all that leads to the
Speaker 2: final part, which is probably your biggest scenario, which is
Speaker 2: the conspiracy theories, especially going into twenty twenty four, mostly
Speaker 2: the big lie. Let's talk about it after this, all right,
Speaker 2: we're back before I get into conspiracy theories. It's the
Speaker 2: thought crossed my mind that your family probably calls you
Speaker 2: woke and they mean it in like a pejorative way.
Speaker 2: Here's the way I have found to approach that. Now, again,
Speaker 2: that don't happen in my house because we're black. But
Speaker 2: it's not like black people subjectives anyway. I would be like, hey,
Speaker 2: what do you think woke means? And just ask like
Speaker 2: what do you mean by that? And then not a
Speaker 2: combatter way, just like Yo, what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: And like okay, and then turn it like this, Hey, So,
Speaker 2: so you think it's important to be like aware of
Speaker 2: the ways that you know the government treats us and
Speaker 2: hides the truth and allocates resources and the ways for
Speaker 2: which your rights are being undermined. Is that is that important.
Speaker 2: Is it important to like be informed about stuff like that?
Speaker 2: They'd be like absolutely, And you're like, well, that's you're
Speaker 2: woke too, because that's because that's really what it means.
Speaker 2: It just means to stay awake of the ways that
Speaker 2: you're being oppressed and just kind of leave it like that,
Speaker 2: this is what it means, and like it means. Woke
Speaker 2: is past sense of awake, and that's I mean, that's
Speaker 2: what it means. Long pause. Here are the things you
Speaker 2: have to remember about conspiracy theories and people who are
Speaker 2: like in that rabbit hole. First of all, understand that
Speaker 2: all of us at one time in our life believed one,
Speaker 2: some more serious than the others. There you probably believe
Speaker 2: in one now you just don't know it's a conspiracy theory.
Speaker 2: Like it's because there's just so much information out there
Speaker 2: and so much time has passed in the world that
Speaker 2: there's most likely there's a conspiracy theory that you believe
Speaker 2: it whether you know it or not, right, So there's that. Secondly,
Speaker 2: really understanding how someone how and why someone falls for
Speaker 2: this makes these conversations much better. And the practice is this,
Speaker 2: most people tend to believe stories that match their views
Speaker 2: and are reported by sources that I already agree with.
Speaker 2: I guess that's just how most of us work. But
Speaker 2: the practice of even interrogating that, searching for verification for
Speaker 2: those stories, and then sharing them with caution. Right, But
Speaker 2: oftentimes when you're talking about conspiracy theories, you're not talking logic, right,
Speaker 2: do you guys remember the birds aren't Real thing? A
Speaker 2: dude did an amazing ted talk that started the birds
Speaker 2: aren't real or he made it up and then created
Speaker 2: this character when he saw that it was going viral.
Speaker 2: He was at a protest in Memphis and he saw
Speaker 2: all those signs and then just kind of for a joke,
Speaker 2: just wrote on a sign real quick, birds aren't real,
Speaker 2: and then it started showing up. So at that point
Speaker 2: he started to, you know, reverse engineer a mythology around
Speaker 2: birds not being real, and then he created this character.
Speaker 2: He said it was an organization founded that's been around
Speaker 2: for forty years, not longer than that, sixty years, founded
Speaker 2: in the seventies because in the nineteen seventies the government
Speaker 2: murdered eight billion pigeons, killed him on and replace them
Speaker 2: with drones so they could spy on us. Like that's
Speaker 2: the story and the evidence is all around us. Where
Speaker 2: do pigeons? Have you ever seen a baby pigeon? No,
Speaker 2: they come out the factory full. He was like, where
Speaker 2: do you always see pigeons? They're on power lines. It's
Speaker 2: because they're charging there, and I'm a pigeon truther. And
Speaker 2: then he even started staging events where they would go
Speaker 2: and demand justice for the pigeons, just playing this character
Speaker 2: almost like just to see how far as go, and
Speaker 2: then people was like really in and then finally like
Speaker 2: he called up CNN and he was just like, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: I made that up. But here's the experience of what
Speaker 2: I learned. He said, people would while he was out
Speaker 2: doing being the character doing the protest, would come at
Speaker 2: him being like you are a fucking idiot. You're destroying
Speaker 2: the world, like you're so stupid, and one would think
Speaker 2: he would respond these are his words, He was like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm paraphrasing. You would think that he would respond as himself,
Speaker 2: like his real life self, and be like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this full fell for the bit.
Speaker 3: This is hilarious.
Speaker 2: But he said in other times he found himself responding
Speaker 2: as the character, being like, damn fool, you don't even
Speaker 2: know me, and just because you came at me like
Speaker 2: this makes me want to dig my heels in worse
Speaker 2: because I don't like how you can. I don't like
Speaker 2: I won't sit right with me, I don't like how
Speaker 2: you talking to me. And it makes you more embolden.
Speaker 2: And he was like, and I know I made it up,
Speaker 2: but that's what was happening to him. He felt more
Speaker 2: emboldened to lean into the character and to just defend
Speaker 2: it because how dare you talk to me that way?
Speaker 2: So sometimes when we try to do the splash of
Speaker 2: water on our uncle Martin, that's fully into the conspiracy series.
Speaker 2: It drives them further in. So now you as niece
Speaker 2: or nephew to Uncle Mark, who's kind of all the
Speaker 2: way in in whatever ways you know the telltale marks
Speaker 2: of a conspiracy. Usually it may have started as a
Speaker 2: nugget of truth and then it spirals into this whole
Speaker 2: other world, and that whole other world oftentimes is communicating
Speaker 2: a fear that these people have. And then the hard
Speaker 2: part about conspiracies is that some of them did happen,
Speaker 2: like the Smedley Butler situation, which was like there was
Speaker 2: a fascist plot to overthrow the American government, like that
Speaker 2: did actually happen. You know, technically Trump's Rico case is
Speaker 2: a conspiracy like, but it's a true one like these happened.
Speaker 2: But one of the tell tale marks for a conspiracy
Speaker 2: theorists that are like ridiculous is the amount of people
Speaker 2: that would have to sign on. They're huge, like, and
Speaker 2: the amount of people you'd have to pay to keep
Speaker 2: silent for this to be viable is ridiculous. And here's
Speaker 2: what I know. People talk. There's not enough money in
Speaker 2: the world to keep people shutting up. So those are
Speaker 2: two signs. There's a lack of a loss of control,
Speaker 2: and conspiracy theories give us a sense of control that
Speaker 2: there are strings being pulled that explain what I feel
Speaker 2: is out of my reach. So there's an underlying fear
Speaker 2: and a mistrust there and a desire to make sense
Speaker 2: of a world that does not make sense to them.
Speaker 2: So there's an insecurity here. But also that draws you
Speaker 2: into a community of people, right, So when you're trying
Speaker 2: to like break somebody out of a conspiracy theory, you're
Speaker 2: actually asking them to leave their family and friends because
Speaker 2: they're so far into this community and what they have
Speaker 2: as their unifying mark is this belief that John F.
Speaker 2: Kennedy Junior is still alive or whatever it is. Right,
Speaker 2: they have this thing that unifies them all. It's just
Speaker 2: like asking somebody to not gangbang. It's like, we grew
Speaker 2: up together. This is my family. I can't just walk
Speaker 2: away that point. Everything they see proves it. That's your
Speaker 2: confirmation bias. That's happening right there, and they're in and
Speaker 2: the more you fight them, the more that they get entrenched.
Speaker 2: My practice usually is to just like, like you said,
Speaker 2: like everybody else is just be like, all right, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go get another drink, all right, Uncle Mark. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: Usually that's that's what we'd be like, Oh, that's crazy
Speaker 2: because the conspiracy theorist person will talk your ear off
Speaker 2: if you let them, and it's exhausting because it's a
Speaker 2: never ending rabbit hole. I get it, and I think
Speaker 2: it's important to remember that you at your Christmas dinner,
Speaker 2: your Christmas Eve party, you not gonna change Uncle Mark's mind.
Speaker 2: But I go back to the square one thing, the
Speaker 2: like what are you really saying? And what they're oftentimes
Speaker 2: really saying is they feel out of control and a
Speaker 2: lack of trust. If the evidence is circumstantial. It's like,
Speaker 2: I personally am not even engaging in all that because
Speaker 2: I'll pull up a million examples of the fact that
Speaker 2: we went to the moon. But that's because I'm a sheepull, right,
Speaker 2: So facts don't really change the mind until they ready
Speaker 2: to accept them. That's not what you're here to do.
Speaker 2: And again, we're just at dinner. What I'm here to
Speaker 2: do is to say is to suggest to uncle Mark, Hey, man,
Speaker 2: I love you. You already have family. See weird that is?
Speaker 2: I just cut right through it. Amy, you should come over, bro.
Speaker 2: And then if they're into that, like I would suggest books,
Speaker 2: Hey have you read and so on? And so I'll
Speaker 2: have you read. And again, a lot of that stuff
Speaker 2: can happen by just while he talking googling, just like okay,
Speaker 2: how to debunked blah blah blah blah, just google it
Speaker 2: and just be like, hey, have you read so and so? Yeah,
Speaker 2: what's it about? I mean, it's about this thing. It's
Speaker 2: just here are some dissenting voices. And then you tell me,
Speaker 2: and then that's the other thing. I'll be like, you
Speaker 2: tell me, like, here's some a I found some people
Speaker 2: that disagree. They're from this this is Harvard law. You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, and just be like, oh whatever
Speaker 2: and be like yeah, eye roll, But like, hey, have
Speaker 2: you read this though? Like maybe I don't know, maybe
Speaker 2: it'll give you a not even an opposite perspective, but
Speaker 2: just like, hey, read this. Let me know what you think. Man,
Speaker 2: Like what they're tripping and now you've now planted a
Speaker 2: seed in something like you may have put a little
Speaker 2: pinhole into their situation. Now, lastly, please understand I am
Speaker 2: not an expert in diffusing all this stuff and this
Speaker 2: is just a thirty minute podcast on Christmas. I just
Speaker 2: want you to be able to enjoy your yams and
Speaker 2: not fight. I don't want your blood pressure to shoot
Speaker 2: up to the sky. So I'm trying to give you
Speaker 2: these best practices to keep your blood rush it down
Speaker 2: because Mark gonna be Mark. You're not gonna change his mind.
Speaker 2: Maybe you could save your nephew, but you ain't gonna
Speaker 2: change his mind, at least not today. Now, final words,
Speaker 2: which I probably should have said in the beginning, Listen,
Speaker 2: if you're having like us, like if this is causing
Speaker 2: like severe trauma or like mental crisis issues, food, ignore
Speaker 2: it all. Like you don't have to have conversations with
Speaker 2: Uncle Mark like peace out. It's fine, Like leave, take
Speaker 2: care of yourself. You don't have to be the moral
Speaker 2: compass of your family. Now, if y'all was fighting over
Speaker 2: sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie, that's a whole different story.
Speaker 2: Hood politics, y'all. You know, I don't know why I
Speaker 2: thought of this before, but you know you could use
Speaker 2: promo code hood for percent off on terraform coolbrew dot com.
Speaker 2: Like I forgot I own that company and this is
Speaker 2: my pod. Y'all, go ahead and punch it from a
Speaker 2: cold hood. If you in the cold Brew, get you
Speaker 2: some cold brew, gonna get you some coffee. Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: I can't believe, I ain't think of it. This still right.
Speaker 3: Now, yo, y'o.
Speaker 2: This thing right here was recorded by Me Propaganda and
Speaker 2: East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered,
Speaker 2: and scored by the one and the only Matt Awsowski.
Speaker 2: Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible.
Speaker 2: Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for Cool Zone Media. Man,
Speaker 2: and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in
Speaker 2: with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star
Speaker 2: ratings and sharing with the homies so we could get
Speaker 2: this thing pushed up in the algorithm and listen. I
Speaker 2: just want to remind you these people is not smarter
Speaker 2: than you. If you understand city living, you understand politics,
Speaker 2: We'll see you next week.