OPENING
Who are you? And who gets to decide?
And, does deciding who you are change how
other people perceive you?
Are you the person your parents think you
are? Your boyfriend. Can your husband decide who you are?
Video Clip – Andrew Tate
states Women are the property of men
Video Clip - 'Parental rights' is the latest fight in the education culture wars
The answer to all these questions begins with looking at Tribalism.WHAT IS TRIBALISM?
Source: Ronald Regan - War is an Alien Threat
When I was kid, Ronald Regan was president.
A former actor who used to be the textbook definition of a conservative.
Nowadays, he’d be labeled a snowflake. Was he right? Would we put all of our
conflicts aside and come together if confronted with a common enemy? Or would
we keep fighting each other?
To understand Tribalism, let’s look at
Americans and Canadians.
Let’s pretend you are an American who
doesn’t like our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. You cross the border into Windsor,
find the first Canadian you can find and kick him in the shins.
When the story is told, Canadians will not
see that YOU, an individual, hates Canada. They will assign you to the tribe or
group “American” and determine that all of America hates Canada. And all of
Canada will put their differences aside to be afraid of Americans.
Canadians will be on guard the next time they see an Americans, because maybe this American is also dangerous, also hates Canadians, and might kick me in the shin.Because of what one individual did to another individual.
Why are we like that?
Tribalism. So what is tribalism?
Source: Tribalism in a Polarized America | Patrick O’Connell | TEDxBowdoinCollege
When you are part of a tribe, you feel
connected. Like an extended family. When one of you is attack, all of you feel
attacked. That feeling is your brain trying to predict the future by
anticipating threats. If Canadians perceive Americans as a threat, even if it’s
not supported by evidence, their brains will tell them to be careful around
Americans. Because it’s trying to keep you alive.
The more afraid you are, the more likely your brain will quickly categorize something as a threat. And that is logical.
As long as the threat is real.
And herein lies the problem. You’re brain isn’t so good at determine what threats are real and which ones are imaginary. Our brain is not an impartial computer. Memories are not stored like photographs.
So how DOES the brain work?
HOW BRAINS GROUP INFORMATION
They help us predict the future.
Our senses experience the world around us to the best of their ability. Our brain focuses on the parts necessary for our survival and ignores the unnecessary. So, if an American attacks a Canadian, the brains of other Canadians will change once they hear the story. Their brain will know they might need to be careful around Americans. Even if you’re not conscious of it, that will be at the back of your mind. Because your brain wants to keep you alive.
So how does your brain tell the difference between what is safe and what is dangerous?
Through lived experiences, the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories we hear from others.
We learn it.
Human beings are social animals. We evolved in
groups because historically we have been safer together. We belong together in
groups. So why are we the people more divide than ever?
Video Clip – Violent Crime in Canada Spikes to Highest Level since 2007 (CBC News)
Video Clip – Retail Council of Canada Receiving "Daily" Reports of Violent Shoplifters
Video Clip – Non-Human Being Remains? Mexico Holds Congressional Hearing on UFOs
Video Clip: Mexican UFO Expert Conducts X-Rays on Non-Human Beings
Video Clip: New video shows 'jellyfish' shaped object soaring over US base in Iraq
Video Clip: UFO hearing previewed by House GOP: 'We're done with the cover-ups'
And that fear is making humans act like rats trapped in a cage.
When we are afraid, we are more likely to
perceive other people as a threat to our safety. Especially if that other
person is different than us.
How can you tell if the threat your brain perceives as real IS REAL? If you see a snake, your brain will immediately say danger. Snakes can be dangerous. You then have to stop and look more closely at the snake.
SIDE BAR:
This is what women mean when they say “All
men.” Women cannot tell just by looking at a man if they are safe to be around.
Because the evidence of their entire lives and all of recorded history says the
number one threat to a woman’s safety is a man having a bad day.
But I’ll move on.
When you meet a person, your brain works
quickly to identify if the person is a threat. This action is rarely conscious.
The more afraid your brain tells you to be, the less logical you become. Fear
can override your logic brain, which makes sense. If you wake up and find a
snake in your bed, now is not the time to wonder if it’s friendly. Your brain
relies on what is has seen and experienced before.
So let’s talk about how black people in the media affects you.
If you live in a small town, it’s possible that you’ve never met a black person in real life. Seriously. It still happens. When you do meet a black person, the only memories you can access are the ones of other people. What you have read about, what you have seen on TV, and what your friends and family have said.
If all of your friends say black people are dangerous, your brain will tell you the same thing. Maybe you clutch your purse closer to you because you’ve heard black people are thieves. Maybe you let out a yelp when you see a black person in a normally white space. This used to happen to me all the time, followed by a quick “Or sorry Joe. Didn’t realize it was you.”
Because for a split second, their brain categorized me as black and dangerous. Changing which category I was in took conscious effort for the other person.
When we are stressed or afraid, we are less likely to take the time to reassess risk. If our brains say it’s dangerous, we agree and don’t think too much about it.
Now, let’s talk about unconscious bias.
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
New research in neuroscience strongly suggests
humans may not have free will.
Video Clip - The strange neuroscience of
free will - BBC REEL
Source: Free
Will is Only an Illusion if You Are
I know that was complex. That’s what I’m
here for. To turn that into regular English.
Your brain is faster than your conscious
thought. There is a gap between when your unconscious brain makes a decision
and your conscious brain is aware of the decision. In that gap is where you’ll
find all your unconscious biases.
To put that differently, if you are unaware
that you have unconscious biases, its likely that ALL of your decisions are
made unconsciously.
Our brains aren’t like computers, but they
are influenced by programing. We teach our children how to act, how to dress,
what to eat and what not to eat. By teaching children about perceived dangers
in the world, we hope to keep them alive.
So when a Canadian mother point an American
man and says “Stay away from those people” the child’s brain will take in the
programming. Each time they see an American they will perceive danger faster
than their conscious mind can stop it.
If you are born with pale skin and you
align yourself with whiteness either consciously or unconsciously, when one
white person is attacked, you feel like YOU are being attacked. If one white
person loses out to a job and that job is given to a black man, you believe
there’s a chance that a black man may steal your job.
If you have darker skin and society has labelled you as black, when a black person is assaulted by a police office, you may be afraid a police will assault you.
But not all perceived threats are actual threats. That is why we need the conscious mind to filter through all the evidence to make a more informed decision.
Once upon a time, everyone in your church was family. Everyone in your community was a neighbour. Everyone in your country was a potential friend. Now no one trusts the church, no one talks to their neighbour, and our country is more divided than ever. No one feels safe anymore because every new person is a potential threat.
We have been conditioned to believe that we are safe with people who are like us, that people who are different from us are dangerous.
The fancy name for that is xenophobia. Historically, being xenophobic kept you alive because society has been deeply racist. Your brain tells you to stick with your own kind or risk being assaulted. Sometimes that fear is logical.
We’re watching the same thing happen now.
In response, Jewish people gather together because they know the attacks are coming.
All around the world, people living in fear have succumbed to tribalism. They have removed Jewish people from the group “neighbour” and put them in a separate category “other.”
Think logically. What does a middle-aged housewife from Australia have to do with the military decision of a foreign country? The only thing they share in common is a religion, one they may or may not actually practice.
Why are you making their religion the most important category and not the country they live in? Because your brain has decided that the Jewish religion is dangerous. Not the person’s gender, not her location, not even her political views. Just her religion.
Now, go sit with that thought and think about why you believe that.
Human beings are more than the country we were born in or the religion we practice. Human beings are more than the tribes that they belong to. Because human beings all belong to the same tribe.
IT IS TIME FOR HUMANITY TO GROW UP
A few weeks ago, I stitched a reply to the following question: What if an alien came down, gave you a mic and said, for the next 60 seconds, What would you say?
My answer: Stop Fighting.
All of us are running around like children. Like our parent has left the room or the babysitter has stepped out. We're children causing chaos because our parent isn't around. Who's our parent?
God.
In the West, we've treated God like a parent because we got used to the church acting like a parent. for a very, very long time, the church told us what to do and we obeyed. But we don't believe the church anymore.
For various reasons.
Video Clip: Catholic Church covered up priests' child abuse: report
Video Clip: Indigenous survivor describes her 'haunting experience' of boarding school abuse
Video Clip Vatican and UFOs? What is in the archives? (NewsNation Report)
And because we trust the church, we don't trust God. And because we don't trust God. We think we can do whatever we want.
Children.
Someone has to say this, so I guess it will be me: I don't care who started it. Stop.
I don't care who threw the first punch. Don't throw another one. Fighting is wrong.
Now, this is something that we teach our children, right? They have to know that in kindergarten, children are taught this. But adults have forgot it.
So a reminder. I don't care who you're fighting with right now. Stop.
Stop acting like children and grow up.
Rioting in the streets because you've been told you have to do something you don't want to do is the same thing as a child throwing a temper tantrum because they've been told to take a nap. Rioting in the streets because you're upset with late stage capitalism. That's a different topic. But for that, we all need to come together.
There are forces in the world that are trying to separate us. So in case you have forgotten, there is one race, the human race. There are forces that want to divide us. It is time for the human race to come together and look at the people that are separating us because the people that are trying to separate us. They're the enemy.
And we need to come together to get them out of power.
CAN ALIENS SAVE US?
I almost forgot the most important thing because there is a nonzero chance that aliens are real. Really, They might exist.
And it's very possible that they are just waiting for us to grow up before they come help us. Because if aliens are real, they have the technology to save us.
They have the technology to end poverty, but they're not going to do it until we grow up.
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