 They have a different political sign every four years in front of their house and that's not how we're operating right now and we have to wonder what's the 30 year time span, what's that's going to do to us culturally in terms of bringing new perspectives, getting new perspectives and making friends with people in our activities as opposed to just these conversations we're having about politically charged issues. What's up everybody and welcome to the show today. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified and in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. And reading your book, I wanted to get your opinion on this because I didn't see it represented. And to me, due to technology, I think it has sped things up, which is self segregation, where you but you hang out with people who think like you who feel like you see the world like you do. And you see this in like a high school cafeteria, right? The Asian kids over here, the black folks over here, the white kids over here, the nerdy kids are over here. It is a self segregation due to the familiarity that they have with each other due to their interests. Now, online, where we all would hang out and I would say, well, Todd seems cool. We had a few beers. I see him every week. That's about as much as I know you. That comfort is at a very surface level. But now with being online, people understand what your internal thought process is, what your beliefs are. You're putting them in memes and you're putting them out and they're offending people. And people are not following that person or you know what? I need to stay away from Todd. I didn't know he was a vegan. Are you kidding me? You know, like, so because of that, it's like, well, I don't want to hang out with any, I don't want to hang out with Todd. He's going to want to go to some shishy place. And my point in this is with social media and the way that people post, it becomes very obvious who's more like you and who isn't. And so it hastens that pace. And I don't think there's there's anything wrong with it. It's just preference of comfortability due to consistency in behaviors that we can count on and that we are comfortable with. Yeah. Oh my God. I'm so glad you brought this up. So so on the positive end of this is you can have everybody who has Asperger's syndrome who is a furry and who likes to cure and the smiths and they can all find each other because because there's only one for every three school districts. There's one kid. So that's so that's an amazing thing that everyone with every paraphernalia can find each other. The masochists can find the sadists and they can kind of have enough people of a sheer number of people they could choose people they actually want to be with. But here's the dark side of this. So let me actually pull back history was so I just saw this stat. I think this is going to be intrigued to you and the listeners. I want to give you an idea of how recent this groupiness is. So I was looking back at the hanging Chad election between Bush Bush and Gore in terms of all came down to Florida. So they had some polls right before they had that election. This is 2006. This is what the data showed. It was how warm and comfortable would you feel if the president that is the candidate not in your party becomes president. Approximately 40% of Democrats said I feel perfectly warm if Bush was president and approximately 40% of Republicans said I'd be perfectly fine. I'd be have warm feelings towards Al Gore. This is not how we remember the storyline. But just imagine if that mentality pulled its way through from 2007 to 2022 right now. How different the world would be if we didn't go to our individual sides of this huge endless dodgeball game where we're going to fight each other with these balls. And instead we said 40% of us said you know what? Not only do I not loathe the person on their side but actually they're kind of a cool cat. They play pickleball. They have good taste in whiskey. I like their music. Like they're really good with their kids. And then on the side they have a different political sign every four years in front of their house. And that's not how we're operating right now. And we have to wonder what's the 30 year time span. What's that's going to do to us culturally in terms of bringing new perspectives, getting new perspectives and making friends with people in our activities as opposed to just these conversations we're having about politically charged issues. Well I completely agree with that concern. And to Johnny's point you know growing up in my neighborhood there were diverse opinions. Yes it was blue collar. It was predominantly Democrat. But I had neighbors who were Republican while my family was Democrat. And they'd crack jokes and have their arguments after a few too many Miller lights. And at the end of the day like they still came together kids played together. There were no negative repercussions for being someone who has an outside view in that neighborhood. What we're now seeing is this segregation happening quickly where I just unfollowed Johnny. I go you know what I can't believe Todd posted another vegan meme unfriend. And we just keep pulling back into our comfort zone of just things that make us feel good online things that don't question our ideas. And with that we then start labeling the other person and the labels have gotten more and more ferocious. So it used to just be like oh you know that guy he's right wing then it became all right then it became racist then it became anti science then it became you know anarchist and the labels have grown in meaning to a place where well I don't want to be friends with someone who's anti science I don't want to be friends with someone who's a racist I can't be friends with my neighbor any longer he's clearly a racist. And where do these labels for someone who's trying to be in subordinate it seems to me like a more rapidly spreading phenomenon that the person who doesn't agree with you the person who's being in subordinate now has to have a label slapped on them so you can just know to avoid them unfollow them move away from their opinion. At one point I want to add to AJ's comment there and question which is am I growing up as AJ mentioned yes we had neighbors with very diverse opinions as well but there was an unspoken social rule that has been obliterated and social media put the nail in the coffin for which is you don't discuss politics and religion around strangers so like for instance if I go into a bar and just start yelling my political affiliation and how I feel about the other well that's going to get me punched in the nose and you don't do that because you understand that civil society makes room for people to have these diverse beliefs and opinions that work for them. If COVID didn't show us anything it's that facts don't matter that you can get whatever facts you need to beef up your end of your narrative and I got an expert who's going to back that up. So because of that there was the sheen on things where you just don't talk about those things and you treat people how they are dealing with you and there was a mutual respect and social media has nuked that buffer has been removed and now we're at each other's throat. I've gotten a lot of value out of this make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. I just realized that hanging out with the two of you because you're you're oversized lobes there's so much information to process in one single comment. With that you know I think this book pre pandemic fascinating post pandemic seeing the cost of insubordination seeing the way that people have been treated based on their preferences and their decisions whether or not to trust the science whether not to trust the vaccines it's wired a lot of people to be even more fearful of being insubordinate right to just give into the state to give into the mainstream to give into whatever the prevalent view is. So why is it so important that we continue to learn the art of insubordination when it feels like with the labels that are being passed around the shunning of our friends and family you know some of the articles that were written during the pandemic were what to do with a family member who doesn't wear a mask and it's like disona like not not a part of your and it's the vitriol that was expressed towards people and I I'm vaccinated I'm science very focused on on science and my experience with science I was first in line to get involved in a vaccine study and I have family members who still aren't vaccinated and can't come to visit me because well here in LA there's not much you could do when you're unvaccinated and you read some of the media and it's like well disona get get Uncle Phil out of the family like why are you still talking to Uncle Phil if he doesn't believe in science and of course someone who studies science science is ever evolving follow the science believe in science well you're going to hold a lot of contradictory views yeah at one point you're going to believe that cloth masks protect you the next minute you're going to realize you need N99 masks to protect you and and it has to evolve but it feels like we've become more rigid in our views of those who are being insubordinate those who aren't agreeing with us.