 So much like millions of other people, I just finished watching Dave Chappelle's hilarious new stand up special on Netflix called Sticks and Stones, but I saw Twitter was blowing up because apparently someone at Vice got really offended and we need to talk about it. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. If you're new to my channel, what I try to do is take different topics going on in the YouTube community or pop culture and try to see what lessons we can learn from them to improve our own mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And yeah, we're going to be talking about cancel culture, outrage culture and just sticks and stones can't break your bones baby, but anyways for those of you who don't know, I recently wrote a book called Canceled Inside YouTube Cancel Culture. It's a book specifically about cancel culture within YouTube and people freaking out over very trivial things. The book is available for free in the e-book version until the end of the month. Alright, so you got like five more days or so, it's pinned down in the pinned comment as well as in the description down below if you want to check that out. If you are against cancel culture and people being outraged over ridiculous stuff, you're going to love that book. Alright, so yeah, anyways, before I get started, for those of you who have not watched Dave Chappelle's new stand-up special, there's going to be some spoilers in here, so go watch it, laugh your butt off, come back, watch this. Alright, I'm going to link this vice article down below. So one of the funniest things, one of the funniest things about this is in the beginning of Dave Chappelle's stand-up, he makes a joke about how he's going to do some impressions, right? One of his impressions was preparing, it was a joke about what somebody like this writer advice was going to do, which is freak out. Like something that Dave Chappelle pokes fun at throughout his entire stand-up is this outrageous cancel culture and people losing their minds over the silliest things like stand-up comedy, alright? So in the vice article, again, I'm going to link it down in the description below, you can check it out, they were upset about his jokes that he made about trans people, they also called him a misogynist, they were also very upset that he defended fellow comedians like Louis C.K. as well as Kevin Hart, alright? And like it's just absolutely ridiculous, like man. So right now, I don't know if any of you watch the YouTuber Dr. Mike, but anyways, he has been recommending this book right here, The Cuddling of the American Mind, he's been recommending it like crazy and one of his most recent videos was he interviewed the author of that book, I'm like, you know what, let me check it out and see what this is about, like I didn't want to read it because I'm more liberal leaning and I thought this was just going to be a book from like some conservative dude calling people a bunch of snowflakes and stuff like that, but that's not what this book is at all, alright? Like I don't know this dude's affiliation or his ideas, but he's just a logical dude and he seems pretty open-minded, maybe a little bit more liberal, I might be wrong, doesn't matter, but the thing is this book is filled with psychology, social psychology, statistics and studies and it's basically a book talking about why we're at, where we're at in the United States with people getting so easily offended by the silliest things, like something he talks about like, okay, so I don't know if any of you have ever been through cognitive behavioral therapy, if you have been, let me know down in the comments below, but in cognitive behavioral therapy, you're taught to catch different cognitive distortions, alright? Cognitive distortions are the lies that your brain tells you, alright? Some of that is black and white thinking, categorizing things as all good or all bad, like people saying, this person is all good or they're evil, you're either with me or you are just the enemy, right? It also includes mind reading, like thinking you know another person's motives and intentions, something that you could never know, right? So what CBT does, and they talk about it quite a bit in this book, is it teaches you to get out of these cognitive distortions. The problem is, is that we live in a world where many people have had their cognitive distortions encouraged, right? Like I want you to, like this came up in the book, so I'm not taking credit for this, but it made perfect sense, like I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine this vice author going into their therapist or into a psychiatrist, right? And the vice person isn't in the book, but this is the example they give. Imagine this vice person going into the therapist or psychiatrist or psychologist and telling them about what happened to like, man, I just watched that Dave Chappelle stand up special and I feel very anxious, I feel like scared and worried, I feel like I'm being threatened, right? And imagine if that mental health professional looked them dead in the eye and said, oh wow, you're feeling anxious? Well, anxiety only happens when there's a life or death threat. So wow, we need to do something, right? Like wouldn't that sound crazy coming out of any therapist or mental health professional? So something else from the book that I found really interesting, I just finished a chapter, I think it was chapter eight or so I've been binging this book, I absolutely love it. But anyways, statistically, people who grew up in upper middle class families or households, they are more likely to get easily offended by things. All right. And a lot of it has to do with being sheltered as kids and not having as much exposure to hardships and things like that. So now when I see all these situations, when I see cancel culture happening, when I see people freaking out about silly things, I'm like, huh, like were you just never exposed to like, real threats, real danger, like real issues? You know what I mean? Like it has me thinking a little bit now that doesn't mean everybody from, you know, upper middle class families, but statistically, more of those people are. All right. But here's the thing. All right. Like again, my videos are to try to help you like, I want all of us to start improving our mental and emotional wellbeing. I'm telling you this right now. Like if you are getting offended over silly things like this, your life is going to be miserable. All right. This is what we call having an external locus of control. You are giving other people too much power over your life. If you're letting people offend you, especially comedians like Dave Chappelle, like you are giving other people in this world way too much power. All right. But here's the other thing. We have to realize that intent matters. All right. Let me say it again for the people in the back. Intent matters. And for anybody sitting here who thinks that I'm just being, you know, just lacking compassion and empathy for these groups. Let me tell you this. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a recovering opioid addict. If you saw the episode or the standard special, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He made quite a few jokes about opioid addicts and I laughed my butt off. All right. At the beginning of his stand up, he made several suicide jokes. In fact, his very first joke was about suicide. Okay. In the last three to four years, I have lost over 70 people. Over 70 people have died that I knew from drug overdoses or suicide. All right. And imagine if I got offended about the jokes that he made. Now I want you to imagine this too. In the vice article that we're referencing, they don't mention anything about Dave Chappelle making fun of opioid addicts or suicide victims, even though each year, tens of thousands of people are dying from opioid addiction. What if I got offended that vice didn't stand up for people like me, who's a recovering opioid addict or all the other people out there who are still struggling with opioid addiction. You see what I mean? Like we can all get offended by whatever thing that we feel that we care about. You see what I'm saying? But here's the thing. The reason why I didn't get offended is because intent matters. All right. Any comedian, any comedian especially, their intention is to make us laugh. Like this world is such a silly, messed up place with crazy things going on all the time. And if we can't even take a break to watch a comedy special and just laugh at the things that are so chaotic in this world, like we're going to be miserable, man. Like quit taking life so seriously. It's okay to joke about these things. Because part of it is it takes power away from those things. You see what I mean? So when you're watching this stuff, or even when you're interacting with other people online or in your real life, ask what their intention was. So when I look at Dave Chappelle, I'm like, what is his intent? So in this special two, he threw in a quick line. But I see where he stands on the opioid epidemic. He briefly discusses about how, you know, drug addicts aren't these like terrible criminals, they're people struggling with an illness, right? So you could tell that his idea is that people should receive treatment rather than just locking everybody up. Also, just yesterday, he did a benefit concert in Ohio for the victims of the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting, right? Like Dave Chappelle is not a bad guy. So remember, intent matters, like, we have to look at the whole person. We don't look at just this one thing they did, right? We don't say, Oh, he made an offensive joke. He's a terrible person. Clearly, Dave Chappelle is doing good things to make this world a little bit better of a place. He's doing a lot more than most of us are doing. All right. But anyways, like, God, everybody just needs to relax just a little bit. Alright. And if you can't, if you can't get over comedians making jokes, I highly recommend therapy. I'm in therapy, nothing to be ashamed of. But maybe you need to work with a therapist and get through some of these cognitive distortions. Alright, but anyways, don't forget my brand new book canceled is out and available. Now, you get a free copy of the ebook until the end of August. There's also an audio book available, the audio books, 10 bucks, the ebook is free until the end of the month. Alright, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel of our Patreon. You're all amazing. And a huge thank you as well to everybody supporting the channel in other ways like buying my books and all that good stuff. Alright, thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.