 So a video resurface of the rapper Cardi B talking about how she drugged men and then robbed those men while she was a stripper. And today we're going to be discussing this because this bleeds into a larger social conversation and how it truly is affecting our mental health. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewire Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. So what I like to do is kind of look at different things going on in our society and share some of my experiences as well as my thoughts and opinions to try to help you improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And in case you missed it, I had the honor of discussing just mental health and a bunch of serious topics and like how to help people with depression with one of the most world-renowned doctors, Mark Goulston, okay? So please, if you have not yet, please go check that video out. It'll be linked up in the info card as well as in the end card. Go check that video out. If you are struggling with depression or you know somebody who is struggling with depression, you have to watch that video. It's a little bit longer but if you have to just turn it on in the background, turn it on, listen to it, whatever you got to do, alright? But anyways, yeah, let's talk about Cardi B. So something I'm going to be doing with my channel for all of you Rewired soldiers who have been here for a while, I'm going to be doing some social commentary. It's kind of what I do because I'm looking at just the way society reacts to things, how it affects us in our personal lives and things like that, and we can look at examples happening in our culture and kind of be like, hmm, what's going on here, alright? So those of you who don't know what's going on, yesterday this was actually a trending topic where Cardi B, an old live stream I think it was, came up where she talked about when she was a stripper, she used to drug and rob men, okay? Not cool. Not cool. I'm not a stripper form. I am not defending that at all. I actually just watched a video over on Complex from their everyday struggle episode and it's a great episode because they talk about a lot of the hypocrisies in hip-hop culture, things like that, some good conversations came up about would this be different if it was a man rather than a woman, also her ethnicity and everything like that. So if you want to check that out, go for it, I'll link that down in the description. But anyways, so people are talking about Cardi B being canceled, like cancel Cardi B, cancel her for doing this terrible, terrible thing. Was it terrible? So freaking lutely, okay? And should Cardi B be held responsible for this? Should she make some type of amends? Absolutely, and that's what I'm going to be talking about in the second half of this video. What I want to talk about right now is this insane idea of canceling people over their past. Like this is just something that has never processed with me and it's this culture that we live in, all right? Like one of the most beneficial things that can help you grow as a person is to see how other people grow because if you've been to a dark place like I have where you felt absolutely hopeless, when you felt like a terrible human being, you know how awful that can feel. And one of the only things that gave me hope was seeing other people who pulled themselves out of the gutter, right? Whether it was external circumstances that put them there or even their own mind that put them there and their own decisions that put them there. But when I see people pull themselves out and grow as a person, like that is inspiring to me. Now, this is more of a broader subject, like I'm not talking specifically about Cardi B right there. I don't know enough about Cardi B to say whether she's a good or bad person or anything like that. Some of her tracks are pretty sick, but I don't know enough about her as a person. I'm just looking at the pure aspect of it where people are finding out about other people's past and then saying we should cancel them. Like here's why that's insane, okay? I just want you guys to open up your mind for a second. Think about the message that that is sending out to the rest of society. Like think about that real quick. As society watches this happens, right? As society is sitting there and watching this go down on Twitter, go down on social media and they're seeing, they're seeing somebody whose past got brought up, right? And people are then trying to cancel them. Like imagine a person who's in a dark place. Imagine a person who is doing wrong, who is doing bad, who is doing terrible things. What are they thinking? What are they thinking? What is the message that we're sending them? You want to know what I think that message is? Because I've heard that message many times when I was in my drug addiction, when I was in my alcoholism, when I was robbing, cheating, and stealing from people, you know what I heard? Chris, why would you ever become a better person? Nobody's going to forgive you anyways. People are going to keep digging up your past till the day you die. Why would you become a better person, right? People are going to cancel you for finding out things about your past, right? Think about the message that we're sending to these other people. And here's the thing, like what's the alternative? What's the alternative? Like think about it, okay? Let's talk about Cardi B right now, okay? Is Cardi B drug and rob men? Yes. Is Cardi B still drugging and robbing men? No. What's the alternative? The only other alternative for this scenario is that Cardi B would still be drugging and robbing men. Is that what you want? Is that what you would want? Like I remember this coming to mind, this whole idea coming to mind. I remember somebody on Facebook posting something where it was like an old bully from high school reached out to them to apologize, right? And they shared that message and they said, oh, you were a jerk to me in high school and now you want to apologize to me? Like yeah, yeah, like what would you prefer that they stayed a jerk and had no self growth like throughout their entire life? Like what's the alternative here, people? Like think about that for a second. Think about the message that you were sending out to the rest of society about this whole cancel culture and holding people's pasts over their heads. Okay? Now is Cardi B a better person today? I don't know if she's the best person, but it seems like she's better than she was. And I come from a program where we talk about progress, not perfection. Okay? As long as people are taking steps forward to improve their lives, like I am happy for them. If you are watching this video and you are a little bit better than you used to be, bravo to you. I got you all back. All right? If you're still screwing up, like all of us do, then we still got things to work on. So the second half of this video is I want to talk about, you know, is Cardi B remorseful, where's she at now and everything like that. So anyways, Cardi B took to Instagram and she made this post. So she says, so I'm seeing on social media that a live I did three years ago has popped back up, a live where I talked about things I had to do on my past, right or wrong that I felt I needed to do to make a living. I never claimed to be to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past. I always speak my truth. I always own my stuff. I'm a part of a hip hop culture where you can talk about where you come from and talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are. There are rappers that glorify murder, violence, drugs and robbing. Crimes they feel they had to do to survive. I never glorified the things I brought up in that live. I never even put those things in my music because I'm not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it. I made the choices that I did at the at the time because I had very limited options. I was blessed to have been able to rise from that, but so many women have not whether or not they were poor choices at the time. I did what I had to do to survive. The men I spoke about in my life were men that I dated that I was involved with men that were conscious, willing and aware. I have a past that I can't change we all do. So yes and no. So this is just purely my personal opinion based on my personal experience. So something that she's getting critiqued about is there's no apology in there. So yes, like I said, I am somebody who had a terrible, terrible past. And I happen to work a program where part of my own recovery is making amends. OK, I make direct amends or most recently a broader amends to a group of people publicly, right? We make amends wherever possible. OK, so that's that is from, from my opinion, what is lacking from that post. All right. So then you can look at it and say, OK, has she grown? Has she changed? Like, she's changed because she doesn't even have to do that anymore, right? And that's something that I just, I ask people to empathize with, you know, just, you know, where people come from. And that's why as a society, we need to make living conditions better for all people, everybody in this country, you know what I mean? But anyways, here's the thing. Here's the thing. My guess, purely an assumption, OK? Purely speculation, if you will. Cardi B probably does not even know who these men were, OK? She does not have their name. She doesn't have their phone number. Can't look them up on Instagram, on Facebook or whatever. It was something she was doing in the club, right? And she did it to a lot of people. So how could Cardi B make a direct amends to those people? Well, that's something that a lot of people in recovery from addiction struggle with as well. There are so many people in my past who I hurt or even people I might have even put in danger because of my reckless behavior, that I don't know who they are. I'll never see them again. If I did see them again, I wouldn't even remember how they were. So what do you do? And this is just something that I learned in my life because a lot of us struggle with this self-hatred for our past. By the way, that's another reason why it's a dick move to keep bringing up people's past. Like, it is a dick move. Like, at what point has somebody served their sentence, you know? But anyways, I still have that internal voice saying, Chris, you're a bad person. You're a terrible person. You did these things. So what do I do since I can't go make direct amends to those people? What I do is I make an amends to the world, okay? And this is a debt that I'm going to be paying for the rest of my life. In June, if I stay clean and sober, I'll have been clean and sober for seven years. I was in my active addiction for about eight or nine years. But I feel the wreckage that I did is something that I need to pay off for the rest of my life. Now, how do I do that? How do I do that? I do that in different ways. I do that with this YouTube channel, dedicating my time to making these videos, right? It's now become a job in which, you know, I'm very blessed and fortunate where it's paying my bills. But I'm always trying to give back more than I take because I used to be an awful, awful, awful human being, right? So that's a way that I try to pay back the world for things I've done, not just with this channel. Like, I do other things and some people are gonna think, like, oh, okay, Chris, humble brag, but this is just, I'm the only reason I'm sharing this is because if you're somebody who had a dark past and you're trying to get through it, get over it, get past it, like I just, maybe some of these tips will help. Like, I help out homeless people when I can, okay? I have a rule of thumb though, never give them money, only give them food or water. Like, as a former drug addict, like I know what I would do if people gave me money. So that's a rule of thumb, right? I try to help people where I can. And it's just small, stupid, like tiny little things. Like, if somebody drops something in the grocery store, I just pick it up for them, right? Like, I'll help an old person. Like, I'll just do random things because I have this debt to the world that I'm trying to pay off because there's so many people who I can't apologize to. You know what I'm saying? I try to be a better father. I try to be a better boyfriend, you know? Because I have exes who I was not the best boyfriend to. You know? I do my best to never litter. I used to just like throw garbage out of my window back in the day. I don't do that stuff anymore. I try to be a better person every single day because I have a debt to this world that I owe, that I feel I have to work out for the rest of my life. Now, in Cardi B situation, I don't know. I don't know if she's involved in philanthropy or anything like that, but that is something that, you know, I would suggest if it's anybody, you know, if anybody watching this, like just find ways to give back because here's the thing. Here's what I always, you know, taught my clients when I was working in the treatment center. It's really hard to keep hating yourself when you keep trying to put good out in the world. You know what I mean? Like I don't meet many people who go out and like, you know, feed the homeless or something and they're like, man, I'm a real piece of garbage. You know what I'm saying? So if you take this opportunity to repay your debt back to the world, like you will gradually start to forgive yourself. But anyways, like, I guess the last topic I'll talk about is does Cardi B deserve anybody's forgiveness? No, do I? Absolutely not. But we still have this life that we have to live. So what are we going to do to start repairing it and moving forward? You know what I mean? So anyways, anyways, let me know your thoughts on this whole situation down below. Let me know your thoughts on this subject. Should we hold people's past over their head and what do you think about that idea that we're sending a message out to the world that why should you even try to get better because people are still gonna hold that stuff over your head? All right, anyways, that's all I got for this video. Again, don't forget to check down below, right, like, oh wait, over there and watch the video I just did with Dr. Mark Goulston, okay? Huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. And if you're new here, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell, all right? Thank you all so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.