Prepare to be swept off your feet as we journey through the twists and turns of politics, media, and a dash of unexpected gardening exploits. My co-host, Joe Haslam, and I, Adam Richardson, embark on a remarkable journey, weaving through the complex labyrinth of politics and media. We'll dissect the bitter political divisions tearing the United States apart, and strive to find the common ground we are all searching for, all the while emphasizing the paramount importance of your voting rights.
Dive into the second half as we venture into the realm of demographics and advertising, a world where your actions and preferences are meticulously tracked for political gain. We'll shed light on how this data collection feeds into an increasingly divisive media landscape and how, despite our contrasting political views, the majority of us fall within the central viewpoint or the first standard deviation. Trust us, it's not as complex as it sounds.
But we're not all about serious discussions; we like to mix in a little bit of fun too. Brace yourself for some astonishing real-life stories, like the tale of a couple who were using a live bomb from the 1890s as a gardening tool for over four decades. We also uncover other shocking finds of unexploded bombs and weapons from World War II across the globe. So, whether you're a political junkie, a media enthusiast, or a history buff, we've got you covered. So come along, and let's unravel the mysteries of politics, media, and explosive gardening tools together.
Prepare to be swept off your feet as we journey through the twists and turns of politics, media, and a dash of unexpected gardening exploits. My co-host, Joe Haslam, and I, Adam Richardson, embark on a remarkable journey, weaving through the complex labyrinth of politics and media. We'll dissect the bitter political divisions tearing the United States apart, and strive to find the common ground we are all searching for, all the while emphasizing the paramount importance of your voting rights.
Dive into the second half as we venture into the realm of demographics and advertising, a world where your actions and preferences are meticulously tracked for political gain. We'll shed light on how this data collection feeds into an increasingly divisive media landscape and how, despite our contrasting political views, the majority of us fall within the central viewpoint or the first standard deviation. Trust us, it's not as complex as it sounds.
But we're not all about serious discussions; we like to mix in a little bit of fun too. Brace yourself for some astonishing real-life stories, like the tale of a couple who were using a live bomb from the 1890s as a gardening tool for over four decades. We also uncover other shocking finds of unexploded bombs and weapons from World War II across the globe. So, whether you're a political junkie, a media enthusiast, or a history buff, we've got you covered. So come along, and let's unravel the mysteries of politics, media, and explosive gardening tools together.
Today on the Idiot's Guide we are talking about. Are we as politically divided as the media makes us out to be? And if you're ever looking for some good old-fashioned garden gnomes, try to avoid using 100-plus year old, unexploded ordinance for the job. I'm your host, Adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, Mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. So I think one of the things that I want to start out this episode with is just to kind of have a disclaimer is this is a political discussion, that is about politics, but it's not about politics.
Speaker 2:It's not about political positions.
Speaker 1:Right, you know, or the stance that you take, in a sense, like when you're having a debate or a conversation about particular policy, you know. I think it has more to do with just the fact of you know where we are as a nation, what our political parties have really historically behaved as, and you know, and why you know. Sometimes the noise is not necessarily the biggest thing, it's just noisy. So, anyway, I don't want to elaborate too much before we talk about, like, how we come to that conclusion.
Speaker 1:But ultimately, I was reading an article the other day and the article posted some general statistics.
Speaker 1:They weren't quite like on the money statistics, but they were pretty close, and what it basically said was that and forgive me, I can't even find the article at this point, but it was an organization that's out there trying to basically bring unity about our politics, our parties, and you know the goal is bipartisan approach towards everything, and so one of the statistics that I mentioned is that 30% of our nation of 330-something million Americans would say that they're Democrat in some way, shape or form, while 30% of our Americans would say that they're Republicans, and so that leaves 40% that don't really say they're anything, they're just kind of in the middle.
Speaker 1:Now those numbers aren't quite right, but they're pretty close as far as how our nation is really spread out. For you know, and I would say that it's hard to say that like every American out there is going to say they're part of a political party, because that's absolutely not true, not at all. I would even say that you know the percentage of Americans that actually would subscribe or ascribe to a particular party is I think the percentage is a little lower than I would expect. You know, but I'm also a military veteran, so I'm also one of those people that.
Speaker 1:I'm like this stuff matters. This is really a big deal.
Speaker 2:For anyone it should matter. You know it's. I'm not a veteran, but I feel that everyone should vote. You know everyone should register to vote. Everyone should have a say. Everyone should make their voice known, to the point that I think it was in the 20, was it the 20, 22 or the 2020 election? I can't remember which one it was. I think it was the 2020 election.
Speaker 1:Such an election.
Speaker 2:Well, I sat down with my daughter and we so she's obviously she was what 14, 13 at the time and I wanted to show her what it was like to vote, because, I mean, at this point in two years, she's going to be voting and the earliest earlier we can teach them and show them. And you know, she's starting middle school, high school at that age and starting to see a lot of the political conversation in school, online, on TV, everything. And so I sat down with her and I pulled out my ballot and we actually filled it out together and so we went through. I showed her. Okay, here's the first one. It was a presidential election, so here are your options.
Speaker 2:And so we looked at the voter guide. So Utah has the voter guide that you get. Yep, I don't think we got one that year. We had to go online to get it. But we pulled up. You know who the candidates were, their statements, everything about it. We looked at their platforms. All that made a decision. And then we went on to the next one. I think it was for a governor of Utah, and so we looked at all the options. That's why I think it was the 2020. Okay, so we looked at all the options. We read up on everyone to see who should we vote for Now. I didn't let her make my choice for me. Obviously, it was my ballot, but it was important to talk about. How do you find the information about who's going to lead you? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so teaching her how to do all this. We went through. We took us about an hour and a half, I think, to go through the entire ballot. I vote by mail. That's why we were able to do it together and so we sat down, we went through everything, we looked at all the details and it really helped to inform her and be a better citizen when the time comes to vote, because she knows how to vote.
Speaker 2:Now I have another daughter who we brought into our home when she was 17,. She adopted just last year, so she was 18. When we adopted her, she had no idea how to vote. She still doesn't know how to vote because she's never been taught, she never had the opportunity. She doesn't have those opinions, whereas the daughter that I sat down and talked to about and helped her to understand and not influencing her political stance in any way, but showing her how to find what matters to you as a 13-year-old or as an 18-year-old, this is what you do. It's really important, no matter where you are on the political spectrum, that you vote, and I think that's something that you know. Talking about common ground and bipartisan and all that. I think that's something that we could all agree on.
Speaker 1:I agree, yeah.
Speaker 2:Bipartisan is doesn't matter who you vote for. Obviously the political candidates you know they care about who you vote for. But it doesn't matter who you vote for vote, vote your view, vote your opinion, vote your stance.
Speaker 1:Well, because if you don't, you're I mean don't complain. If you didn't get your way and you didn't take part in it, then you have no position to stand on. If you're arguing against that, right, I think the, and even more so like you're running into recently. I heard something, actually today, that there's a couple individuals running or that are in Congress that are asking to lower the age of voting to like 15, which I mean there's no reason to really do that, but at the same time, like okay, I guess part of my like the logic in that is when you are old enough to move out on your own and be on your own you may not be at 18, do that. Then maybe we can talk about you making that kind of a decision alongside the rest of the adults.
Speaker 1:Well, my view is- when you're not legally responsible for yourself. You shouldn't make a legally responsible self decision.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think that should happen to 18 either. 18 years old is not an adult neurologically, I think.
Speaker 1:in Utah you can't even buy cigarettes until you're 19.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. 21 is the standard age for alcohol and that's because they don't want it affecting the developing brain. So obviously we know medically that 18 is not fully developed.
Speaker 1:But hey, you want to be president.
Speaker 2:And so. But you can join the military at 18, so but I kind of agree with that stance of lowering the age a little bit, because in my view you either have to lower the age to when the brain is at that developmental stage where it becomes more, where it's through the worst of the transition into that teenage development cycle which is between 12 and 14, maybe a little bit into the age of 15. So I'd say 16 years old is probably a reasonable timeframe to start voting, but that's because the brain has developed new views and now it's solidifying that.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just throw it out. And just if you can spell your name, you're good, you can vote.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, neurologically I'd say people should not be voting until they're at least 22, because that's neurologically when the brain is in general done developing. Now it continues to develop until about age 26,. But at age 22, it's pretty well done with that developmental stage and the rest of it is just a stabilization period. And so that would be my thing either 16 or 22, but definitely not 18, because there's absolutely no reason for 18. If you're gonna let them vote at 18, you might as well let them vote at 16, because there's no real difference between those two ages. A few more years of development, but honestly, we let in World War I, world War II, we had soldiers out there that were 16 years old, even younger. They didn't say they were 16, but they were and they were still out there. And so if we allow that, we allow 16 year olds to go out and drive a death machine. I'm talking about cars. Cars in the hands of 16 year olds are death machines.
Speaker 1:Anyway. So I have one coming up. He's about six months actually. No, he's now almost four months away from becoming a 16 year old. I'm like you are nowhere near getting a driver's license. I want you to know that At the time, like just behavior-wise, you are nowhere near a driver's license.
Speaker 2:At the time of recording, my daughter is at the DMV getting her driver's license. So yeah, that's a terrible thought. She's ecstatic. Watch out, watch out. I have not. But no, I keep going with your point. I just wanted to throw in some neurological stuff with the idea of lowering that voting age.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you know, most of the realization of reading the article that I read was about this we hear so much going on, we hear about like so and so in this party has been doing this and so and so over here is getting indicted and so and so over here there's subpoenas out for this and so, and you're just like, oh my gosh, can you just shut up please, like I don't mind being informed, but I don't need it from a fire hose, and that's how I feel like it is. And not just the information, but what information is being given and others that are being dodged, the information about you know, like I don't know, like I remember, like I just thought about this, but what's his name? John Krasinski or something like that, the guy from the office. So, anyways, during the pandemic, when we were all in lockdown, he did a series of YouTube videos.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was the. Maybe something. Yeah, yeah, some good news.
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, some good news. And had, like his kids did coloring like crayon pictures and he's like brings up the picture of that, like this is what's going on over here. And you had like highlights of nursing staff taking care and like really good stuff, like encouraging. I don't mean like everything's all flowers and rainbows, but when everything else, all the only thing that you hear is that everything is on fire. You want good news, you want a good blend of some of that stuff.
Speaker 2:You think that and in truth, we do, but the problem is you're talking about the media. Oh yeah, and when it comes to media, it is they are looking to get the most views Right, and so Shock and awe is always Well yeah. So think about the movies that are often talked big about. They're overcoming an obstacle, they're fast in the furious. It's Marvel, superhero movies, all these high action things. But when you ask a guy what their opinion of a romcom is, there you go, you're gonna get ugh and even a lot of women.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't mean to sound sexist here, it's just from a media standpoint, from a demographic, general viewpoint. These are generalist statements. This is why we get advertised what we do on Facebook for the commercials that we get, they're looking at this demographic data. It's not applicable in the real world. This is just what the media presents, and so when I say these things, it is not meant to be sexist. These are the media viewpoints that lead to these conclusions, and so are they ever going to feed a guy good news? Easy things? No, because that's a guy's view to romcoms. Romcoms are no conflict, no destruction, happy ending stories and it's just not going to happen. But if you've got something like Fast and Furious 20, I think what are we up to on the Fast and Furious series? Now I probably would Fast and Furious 50?. Yeah, at least you know. You know that's gonna be what comes on on everyone's feed on YouTube. That's what your commercials are gonna be.
Speaker 2:I've been having to go through and this is how I mean I know this because I do this work with clients that I have how to feed properly the information for marketing. I don't do the marketing, but I do a lot of demographic research, but on my YouTube. So my personal YouTube views and everything the commercials I've been getting have been horrible, and so you know I try to. I never want to see this ad again. I got one ad four times and I had to hit I don't want to see this ad again. I don't want to see this ad again.
Speaker 2:And each time it showed that ad you can see why am I seeing this ad. And it was because of geographic region. And then another one was because of age, another one was because of, I think gender and age was maybe the same one. And so I'm seeing all these things but the same commercial. I declined it and or said I don't want to see this because I don't agree with this, I find it offensive. And then they bring it right on back because of a different demographic marker, and so that's what happens. When it comes to political, it's that it's not necessarily the political parties, although it kind of is and we'll get into that a little bit later but a lot of the media. They want that because you're going to watch. If you're not going to watch because you agree with it, you're going to watch it because you're hate watching it and it is guiding to those very basic, most of the time incorrect viewpoints the demographic data that they have on you and sex sells.
Speaker 1:There was a. So I mean it's on radio, it's on like like I listened to Spotify Okay, I use that's one of my players and I pay for premium so but I used to work years ago on a construction crew I was a foreman for him and one of the guys loved playing his Spotify through a speaker, but he would always he didn't pay, he hated paying for it. So it would just be random selections of the music he was listening to, plus commercials, and the commercials are based off of his browsing data. And so, all of a sudden, these really inappropriate job site commercials come on talking about access to things, images, products and it was just like bro, we have to find a different player to start listening to. Like I don't. It's okay, it's a construction site, you're not going to offend very many, but it's still gross, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that's an important point. So my wife used to work in a construction office. So she didn't work the construction site, but she worked in the office. So she's dealing every day with these burly construction guys. And you know she my wife does not hold back. When I first met her she, what was it that she said? So, um, her, oh, her brother came out of the house. I was over there hanging out with my friend that was marrying into the family. Now, this was my first time meeting my wife. She walks out and her brother wanted to throw some balls for the dog, and so the first thing she says is why don't you go out into the field and find your balls? So I mean my wife does not. I mean she doesn't hold back. So construction's a pretty good job for her, but every guy around her would be. So try to be so sensitive about not saying things around her and she could pull worse jokes than them.
Speaker 1:My wife's the same way. So my wife prior service military just like me, and you know, in the military it's funny because you still have this like you still need to be appropriate and respectful. However, I also was in automotive and so I was a diesel technician in the military, and so shop talk is like a legit term for very vile stuff, and so we were, you know, like for her to hold her own in any kind of insulting conversation, I just stand back and smile because she will just waste anyone in front of her.
Speaker 2:But for me. I find all of that super offensive. I grew up in a very proper household. Well, I mean, my dad taught us how to properly use our utensils, so we were taught the American way of using utensils, we were taught the British way of using utensils and we were taught the East Coast way of using utensils. There are three different methods of how to eat with your silverware.
Speaker 1:I'm really curious, but it has nothing to do with the subject we're on.
Speaker 2:But this is the house that I grew up in. We were very proper. I'm a very proper person, so most people think here I am a guy. You know they can joke with me about all this stuff. I find it super offensive.
Speaker 1:Tune in next week when we talk about the proper use of utensils in different geographic regions.
Speaker 2:There is, there is an actual I mean etiquette classes talking about deportment. Deportment is how you hold yourself. It is not talking about deporting.
Speaker 1:I was like, yeah, we're gonna get to the border crisis.
Speaker 2:Okay, Joe, no deportment is how you carry yourself, how you properly sit at a table, all those things, but no, but with my wife. People are always sensitive around her, but she'll joke just like anyone else. She's got a worse mouth than any of them, Not with cuss words, but oh, she tells some jokes.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the point of kind of the subject that we're talking about is the fact that you know what we do, how our mannerisms, what we communicate, what we look up online and how we entertain ourselves when we're off or whatever, what music we listen to, to what we buy. I mean, it's connected to the cards that we use when we pay electronically. It's connected to that. So it's gonna tell that, hey, we like this kind of food, we like this kind of music, we like these kind of services, we like watching these kind of shows. And it's just gobbling up all of that information so that every single time it comes to you, it's this customized experience per customer and our consumer, because that's our culture, our culture consumes. Now put that into a political scale and you can basically they're using that to tailor this political advertising to you.
Speaker 1:Right. However, I don't know if it's necessarily tailored. It's tailored to my hearing, to where it's going to get my attention, but it's not tailored to me.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's tailored to your demographics and it's tailored to where you live, like this video that I saw four times. I still hate that. I kept saying that, but it's you know, it tailors it to those demographics, not necessarily to you. And so the media shows a lot of this divisiveness because that gets the clicks.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:And so I think the point that you're trying to make is that it really isn't as divisive as everyone thinks it is.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think it's also just the fact that everybody's just tired of it, that's for sure. And so the paper that I had, and maybe I don't know if you want to cover a little bit more of kind of this swing I don't even know what you call that, but why don't we do that? Why don't we talk a little bit about the percentages so that it's a little more, a little less about just 30, 30 and 40. And so that we have a little better picture of what exactly we're talking about when I speak about some of these other percentages?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the 30, 30, 40 actually makes a lot of sense. And the reason I say that is because what I'm just talking about is I've got a bell curve, so it's a standard deviation chart and so it shows, if you've got a central line, the population on either side of that into standard deviations, up to four standard deviations out, so four steps away from the norm or from the average. And so the idea here is with we talked about last week the law of large numbers. Yes, I looked it up, it's an actual law. I don't know why I forgot that, but I can think it was too illiterate at.
Speaker 2:But it's when you're looking at the law of large numbers that the more data that you have, the more responses that you have to a given prompt, the more to the average it's going to be. And so that's what the standard deviation is, and so how often it's going to show up in that? So if you've got multiple options, how often is that gonna show up? It's gonna be in that bell curve format and so when we look at this, the first standard deviation is 68%, and so 68% of all responses or we're talking political, of all people that are political, would fall into statistically that 68%. One standard deviation from central viewpoint. And so here in the United States we have a very standard view or capitalist economy. We have very strong national identity and family is strong for us. We have a lot of viewpoints that are not necessarily the same as with other nations.
Speaker 2:So even if we look at Canada, very close to us, but not the same England where we came from we have a lot of different viewpoints as far as leadership, and so the idea is we have a central viewpoint in the United States Outside of looking at are you politically right, politically left, where do you fall in there?
Speaker 2:We have a standard view within the United States and that's the central point. And when we go outside of that, statistically 68% of all people in the United States that are active voters are gonna fall in that political spectrum. And so when we look at that number, and that's gonna be 34% on the right, 34% on the left, and so going one standard deviation either direction, but that's gonna be one standard deviation, 68%. And so it's not that far from that center point. And so if we assume half of those, or maybe two thirds of each of those segments, that falls into that 40% that you were talking about. And so now we've got this okay because there's closer to that center. So you're gonna have people within that closer to the center, further away from the center, but still within one standard deviation. Okay.
Speaker 2:And so everyone's falling. That 40% is falling into that central line viewpoint.
Speaker 1:And I think one thing to emphasize with that is that central line is basically we can stand in the same space, have a mutual discussion and not leave angry at each other, because most things we would find a peaceful resolution about.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's the first standard deviation. Is that even if you are on the far end of that first standard deviation on the right, the far end of that one standard deviation on the left, but you're still part of that 68%, those two people can have a conversation and be comfortable, not arguing, not being extremely divisive. They find a lot of common ground.
Speaker 1:I'm calling the protesters. We're burning the city down, right exactly.
Speaker 2:And so what we see here, statistically, mathematically, 68% of us are within standard deviation, the next standard deviation, and so, just so you know how many people that is. So, when we're looking at, there are 258 million adults in the US. Of those, 69.1% we're registered to vote in the 20, as of the 2020 census, in the 2020 election. So that is 178 million people in the United States. Adults in the United States were registered to vote the voting turnout in the 2022 election. So this is gonna be a little bit lower of a number because it's an off-presidential election. Turnout is usually a lot more in a major, every four-year election. So 79% of those voted, that's 140 million people. So 140 million active political voters in the United States. So that's the full spectrum of everyone. So we're discounting the people who are registered but don't vote. We're discounting the people who aren't registered to vote. These are just the active voters.
Speaker 1:So under half.
Speaker 2:No, because half would be 130-ish. So a little over half at 200.
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry yeah, because 250 million adults, it's adults.
Speaker 2:Yeah, adults, we're not counting kids. See, I was already there Unless they do lower the age and then we may have to look at that. So 68% of that is going to be 96 million people. So 96 million active voters in the United States generally agree within one standard deviation of the central line for the United States on both sides of the political spectrum. Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2:That that's a huge number. If we look at all people in the United States, that's a third. A third of the entire population tends to agree. It was some variances, obviously we're on a standard deviation some variants, some different viewpoints, but generally agree. And then, if we go down, so the next segment in this so is the second standard deviation. Okay, so that's when you get to that next segment and that makes up 27.2%. So another 27%. These are what I would call more of the staunch political adherence. So this is someone who doesn't matter who is running for an office. They're going to mark Republican or Democrat. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they're just going to vote that line, no matter what. They're going to agree with that position, whether they agree with it or not. They are Republican, they are Democrat, that's all they vote.
Speaker 1:Here's a question, because this is something I don't even actually know the answer to, but I know I have the right to vote, and if I register as a particular party and I vote into the other party, is that like, am I put on a hit list somewhere? Like I've always been curious about that because, like, what's the purpose of me saying my affiliation? Well, if I'm, at the end of the day, I can vote for anybody I want.
Speaker 2:This is why Trump's win in 2016 was so surprising, because when they did all the exit polls, when they did all the surveys, everything Clinton Clinton was yeah had a major lead on him. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, the problem was they were. There were a lot of people, it came out later. Part of this is just assumptions. Some of it is factual data. People were too embarrassed to say that they were going to vote for Trump, and so they either didn't respond or they said they were voting for Clinton because it's more acceptable, but they still voted for Trump when it came down to it, and so that's why it was a surprise win.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get on Hillary's hit list.
Speaker 2:No, but it actually actually used to be the case, and that's why, in today's society, there is a lot of fear over a lot of these extreme positions, and we hear a lot about it on the right, but the left has this to this extreme of position of watching over voters to make sure that it's an accurate vote. They used to do that, and if you didn't vote the way that the person who's watching you wanted you to, you got taken out back and you laugh. But that was the case. It was a very, very dangerous time for voting because it was not secret.
Speaker 1:So again it goes back to the fact of why even ask then in the first place? If the goal is my choice on the front end of it, then you know whether or not I'm coming in there. You know 70% Republican, 30% Democrat, you know whatever or vice versa or something in between, and be like I'm completely independent. Nobody can tell me what to do, and most people who will do that are just that's what they do. I'm going to be independent. That way you don't need to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and I think the only reason why we ascribe to a certain political party or vote for anything like that one is the primaries, so that we know who's going to vote. And so in Utah, only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary. In the Democratic Party anyone can vote for that if they're not affiliated to the Republican Party. So that's part of why you ascribe to. It is so that with any vote that you give in the primaries, your vote counts.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Because we're a two-party system, so having some affiliation for that makes sense, but really what it comes down to is you want to be part of the club. You know, one of the first, one of the worst things that I ever saw my now. What is she now? 19 year old, oh, she's getting old when so I mentioned her earlier, she came into our home very late in her teen life and she only had about half the year at that high school that she went to that she graduated from. Well, when the principal was standing up and trying to show off everyone, he said who belongs to this group, who belongs to this group who you know, had 4.0 or these different classifications, and he had them stand up. Well, because my daughter had only been there for six months. She didn't stand up for anything and I don't know that she was hurt from that necessarily. I know she felt kind of left out, but for me as a parent that was very aggravating.
Speaker 1:Oh, I had been furious.
Speaker 2:That the principal in trying to promote something actually promoted divisiveness. Yeah. In that she wasn't part of anything, she didn't get to stand up, and so it was a very hard thing, but that is something that we all crave is to be part of something, to be included, and so we joined political parties whether it's Democrat, republican, libertarian, green Party, constitution Party I'm gonna try to name them all or registered independent Nine, nine different groups at least.
Speaker 1:that are part of the main vein.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or a registered independent. You are part of a group that you then adhere to, and so it's something that you there's a sense of belonging that we want to be part of that. Now that can be dangerous, because if you're part of the left wing and you don't necessarily hold left wing views but you are more left wing, then if you say, hold more centrist views, but the more you're in that left wing, the more likely you are to adhere to the standard for that left wing view, and so you become more extreme with time not to the point of extremism that we see in the world today, but your views become more on that line because you want to be part of the group. So this is why it can be dangerous to join these political parties. This is why it can be dangerous to adhere to them, because it's not necessarily that they're bad, it's that you become more tied to that.
Speaker 1:And so Can we use the word indoctrinated.
Speaker 2:It's not indoctrinated, because this happens with any group that you belong to.
Speaker 1:It's true Anything that you do, but either way, like it's still a level of the slow boil, basically is what's happening. And so, on either side of this, I think one of the things to point out is that this extreme, to the point of extremism that typically is the loudest element of this only makes up about 4.8%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's 4.4%.
Speaker 1:Now that's still Statistically. What was that Like? We did the math the other day or yesterday and it was like it was about 6 million.
Speaker 1:Oh, 6 million, yeah, 6 million people. That's still a lot of people, that's still a lot of noise, yeah, However, I think the thing to kind of the reason why I liked seeing this perspective and like seeing the whole picture of it. This gives a 10,000 foot view of our almost political system and says, man, if all I ever hear like it's coming out of a fire hose is the most extreme garbage that's out there, and everybody's fighting against everybody and they're all drawn whatever they have, acting childish, doing all sorts of stupid things. And then it turns out that, man, you only make up 5% of what's out there and everyone else is going good, lord, sit down. Yeah, and run our country, sit down, stop acting like children, and you can join the big kid table again. But until you don't, or until then, you have to go sit at the little kid table, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now, and that's the thing, the 96 million people who sit within that standard, first standard deviation. We're essentially giving our voice to the 6 million people who have these extreme views. Yeah, Now, the reality is probably the majority of those 96 million people don't really care. You're right, they hear that stuff and it's like guys, you're stupid.
Speaker 1:I think the point is it's almost like saying be a duck, where the water hits you and just trickles right off, it doesn't affect you, it doesn't impact you. However, I'm talking about the slow boil that eventually it will wear on you. I mean, what is the ancient Chinese torture of the one drop? And it just consistently does that until it digs a hole into where it's at and you're like it's just a drop of water, but it can lead to complete destruction. And so I'm gonna cover some of these statistics here. Just to kind of give, this is Pew Research Center and so they're a recognized research statistic center for a lot of what's going on nationally Talking about. And this report actually, I only have like seven pages. It's 143 pages long. It's very, very thorough. These are some general statistics and I liked this. I just kind of grabbed from it.
Speaker 1:But 65% of Americans say they always are often feel exhausted when thinking about politics. They're just tired of it. And this was recent, like this is within the last few months, like the last three months they did this research. 4% of US adults say the political system is working or working extremely or very well, so they're doing pretty good. 23% say it's working somewhat. About 63% express not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the US political system, so that says a lot. When you talk about voting power and you have almost the same amount of people who vote don't even have the confidence, thinking it's broken. Okay, this thing is busted. So it's really sad to think that that's a legit number. 16% say they trust the federal government always or most of the time. Well, trust has hovered near historical lows for about 20 years now, so it's not something new. What was that percentage? Again, that one is 16%, 16%.
Speaker 2:So on a bell curve you're looking at. Those are the outside the standard TVN numbers.
Speaker 1:The growing share of public dislikes both political parties. Nearly three in 10, so 28% express unfavorable views of both parties A highest share in three decades of polling, comparable. Basically shares adults 25% do not feel well represented by either party. So it's one of those things where they don't have any confidence in it. They don't like either party and they feel like, well, nobody's there to represent me. Yeah, and they're about the same percentage.
Speaker 2:Well, and if we look at this from a standard deviation standpoint so we've talked about standard deviation across the entire US If we take that same curve and we look at it from a political party standpoint, that will change the view. And so if you're looking at 68% within that political party, hold the central view of that political party and outside of that you get that standard deviation mark so extended out to two, three, four standard deviations outside. Now you see why those political party adherents, so the people, the what are they called pundits? Or the people running for office, candidates, candidates I don't know why that word pundits I think that's one too and then I think those are commentator.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but you can see why the candidates generally tend to, when they're trying to get the votes, they go to what we would see as the more extreme points within that party, because they're looking there are more people that they can reach on those outskirts than in the center and they just essentially throw a bone to those people that are in the center to get those independent votes. And so we're still looking at the same statistical standard deviation within each of those political parties. But that's also why, once they get into office and they no longer have to seek the vote. They generally tend to be more central in their actual work. It's because now they're going back to what they actually believe in instead of just trying to get the votes. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm and so.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing that like and this kind of goes with what you just said, there is this polarization, so partisan polarization. So more than 8 in 10 Americans 86% say the following is a good description of politics Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems, and that's true. Like they work on this massive campaign to say and promise the world, and then I'm supposed to sit here and hold you to what you said, when really you haven't done anything you said you were going to do and all you've done is go after your opponents. Yeah, like that's not why I sent you there. You know, like it's absolutely terrible and like I have to say this because I'm a veteran, so I'm active in disabled American veterans, which is very active for veterans and very active, and in Congress to pass bills to protect veterans.
Speaker 1:And you know, having this back and forth garbage is pointless. It's almost like guys, just, you know, just, just let's start from scratch. No kidding, you know, can we, can we make it like nobody over the age of like 60? Maybe even 50. Okay, and that way, that way we don't have. The average age in Congress is 70.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, it is just crazy that that's the average age it's. I don't know if that's accurate, but it is. I was actually reading it, just the other day.
Speaker 2:I know it's up there. It's crazy that that's the age of well and it's because they don't want to lose power Right and there should. No one in politics should be there because they love power. George Washington, going back to good old GW Yep, george Washington, he was given the option to be president for a third term. I mean, it was basically guaranteed he still would have had to run and still would have been voted, but it was almost a guaranteed position. And that's when he gave his farewell address and said I know I could, but for the benefit of America, I am not going to that's. That's what we need to adhere to is George Washington stance on. We need to pass it along. We need to stop having these old guys that have been in there for 30 years and really cut it down to a much shorter time.
Speaker 1:We'll get more done as as as an advocate for, for mentoring and coaching. The entire process of what you're doing is multiplying, so it's not cloning, it's not preserving, so I'm like, eventually, just a head brain in a machine, because I have to stay there, like I have to know that I am just dust at the end of the day and if I don't make an impact into a you know as many lives as I can, then nothing's coming after me and and I need to look at it and say what happens when I'm gone. And I want to make sure that I'm working on that well, you know, early, early into into my own success, so that I know that that carries forward. That's the legacy that you know they talk about, the legacy that they've built, and you're like it's not a legacy if they never let go of the stranglehold. Right, it's.
Speaker 1:It's literally, you know, like there's another one here that talks about like money and politics, and just that alone is part of the reason why it's nearly impossible for anybody under the age of 50 to really do this. Right, you have a very, very small percentage of people who can campaign to get that kind of funding to, to run for anything, yeah, and so because they have that I mean when it takes billionaires to step in and say I can do this like, and everyone else that's involved has invested 40 years into the politics just to get a foothold. Like you're. You're already like, you're already nailing the coffin in your 20s. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's just it's just, it's crazy that we allow that kind of a system to exist for our political offices. You know, and and I just want to throw a disclaimer out there we're not going to say what political parties we adhere to, but Adam and I are on opposite political sites Extreme.
Speaker 1:So extreme, and so he threw a quarter at me on the last episode.
Speaker 2:Hey, you hit me in the forehead with a quarter. That was just getting even. I don't know who did it first, but no. So I do want to be clear that we do hold opposite viewpoints when it comes to political parties. But I mean, we have a podcast together, we work really well together, we have conversations together. We disagree but we have very good conversations. And so the idea here we are coming from two different viewpoints, but this is everything that we do share in common, and I think this is needs to be more in the political world what Adam and I have, we, we don't see the world the same way. Well, I guess we kind of do, but we don't have the same political stance.
Speaker 1:I think we both concluded. You're right, we don't have the same political stance, but I think we're in that middle. Yeah, we are one. What is the one, the one variant, or?
Speaker 2:one standard deviation.
Speaker 1:Yes, one standard deviation we're we're both on those ends, like that's, that's about as extreme as we are is, like you know, there's a lot of mutual conversation and discussion and, honestly, that comes from being respectful, like to each other, and you can go a long way, you can. You can have great conversations about things that you disagree with, as long as you don't start throwing bad words at each other and right, calling each other names or, you know, I mean I I hate to say it, but like we're, we're in the middle of a political mess right now and there are some people gutting for a good spot up in, you know, the presidential role and they're acting like children, the way that they're behaving, and it's just sad to watch.
Speaker 2:And and here we've done an entire podcast and all we've talked about is what we agree with and what we see as the same. Yet we come from two different political viewpoints. Yeah, that's the reality of politics. It's not as divisive as everyone wants to make it sound. I mean, I could run down to all the statistical basis for everything that everyone does, but the reality is, when it comes down to it, we all pretty much agree, and that needs to be the point highlighted. Yeah, that needs to be the what's on the news that we really do agree. We really aren't that far. I love watching the TV show the West Wing, but one thing that I really don't like about it, and I think it's common within the political spectrum you know, anywhere you go, they always talk about the other side as being the enemy. And so when did we start talking about people, fellow Americans, that simply have a different viewpoint? Our neighbor, our neighbor, our coworker, literally our neighbor, our coworker. When did we start seeing them as the enemy? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Really, what is going on? They're not our enemies, they're our fellow human beings, our fellow Americans. They stand and they salute the flag just as much as we do.
Speaker 1:I listened to a snippet earlier a couple months ago and there was the downfall of Tucker Carlson leaving Fox and moving over to another area. Like he's over on X doing his stuff. But one of the questions that he asks about like and I'm not going to go into detail, like I'm not even going to talk about my opinion it's probably you and I probably align very much with that one.
Speaker 1:But you know, one of the questions that they asked was you know when do you think we're going to fall into a civil war? And this kind of chart, this kind of graph, gives me hope that we're not even close. We have a lot of really noisy people out there that are just squawking birds. They're just loud, you know what? And if they were a squawking bird, get your shotgun out and shoot them off the cable. Just get rid of them. Like, don't do that, people please.
Speaker 2:We're not calling for anything like that. It was a metaphor.
Speaker 1:But the idea is shut them up. Just say shut up, like you don't need to listen to the garbage. It's motivated from 5% of the opinion of the world and that it really doesn't matter that much. Like you can listen to it if you want to. But understand that 95% of people are going to be reasonable and have a great discussion with you. So seek out those conversations because I promise you we are nowhere near the idea or concept of a civil war. If you start noticing how much we mutually get along. Yeah, I think that's kind of the big deal about it, but in the meantime there is a if you ever do end up heading in the direction of war, like there have been in the last, you know, hundred or so years.
Speaker 1:There was, um, you know, there was a household and this is in Wales, so it's not near us at all, but nearby, in the harbor of Wales. I gotta remember where this like I can't remember exactly where it is Milford Haven, um. So there's a gentleman. His name is Jeffrey Edwards and he, um, uh, it's I don't even know how to say that name. How do you say that name? Sian, sean, sean, sean and Jeffrey Edwards of Milford Haven, uh, pymbrokeshire, uh, talked about a. Uh, Pymbrokeshire.
Speaker 1:Pymbrokesh. I don't give a shire, there you go. So, um, lovely couple been there since 1982, they bought their house and, uh, they have this beautiful garden and one day a police officer's walking down the street and uh, notices this odd-shaped rock that's in their garden. And it's not a rock, it's actually the, the shell of a bomb or a cannon that went off. So it didn't go off, it didn't explode, it's unexploded ordinance and so technically they had a bomb in their yard and they've had it there well before they bought the house in 1982. The only reason why is because that area is right by this harbor area that the ships would come in. And this is back in 1890s, 1880s, um around then they would come in and they would shoot, like target practice, at the sand berms that were around there. They like, obviously they would make sure that, like they weren't towards the village.
Speaker 1:But because of that the development over the years, all of a sudden this unearthed, unexploded shell is sitting in somebody's yard and they've painted it the cut the one of the pictures in the article. It's, it's red and she's used it over the years to knock the dirt off of her trowel when she's gardening. She's like, yeah, I'm a tink, tink, tink, tink, tink. Ah, that's good. Oh, no, a little bit more Tink, tink, tink, tink. You know nothing, you know, could you imagine, oh goodness, like just tink, boom.
Speaker 1:So anyway, the couple, they uh the. The shell weighs 64 pounds, so it's like a big, giant rock. It just is not shaped like a rock, it's shaped like a massive bullet. It looks like a giant bullet. And uh, they, uh. So the police officer was passing by and knocked on the door and he said hey, by the way, um, did you guys know you had a bomb in your, in your garden? And they're like well, we're gonna have to have the Ministry of Defense come out and inspect and verify. And by the next morning the bomb squad comes out to verify what it is and they find that it actually is a live, unexploded, uh bomb from over 140 years or 130 years ago. Like insane that's. That's so, so crazy. But they ended up.
Speaker 2:I'm holding my tongue so that I'm not making bad. The bomb just dropped jokes. Just that's why I'm not saying anything.
Speaker 1:The um. So Jeff or Jeffrey Edwards he's 77 years old Um, he was, uh, he was a little worried. He didn't sleep that night at all because, uh, you know, waiting for the bomb squad to come in and and inspect this thing that they've been plinking their dirty trowel on for the last you know 40 years and, uh, I don't know. Like, I think the thing that's crazy is just just knowing that this is in your yard and knowing what could have happened and being grateful that, honestly, it didn't happen. You know so, and uh, his comment bass is basically finding out once that it was still a live, uh, live round. He said, uh, there was still a little bit of life in the old girl. Eh, they could have. Uh, they couldn't leave it here just in case it decided to, or or they couldn't leave it there just in case it decided to blow. That's what he said. So, essentially, they took it to, uh, what's called Walwyn's Castle, buried it under five tons of sand and then blew it up. But what's interesting is, like I feel like that's a real overkill, because what they found is they found that it still was live, but it wasn't big, it was, it was a 65 pound shell.
Speaker 1:But the ordinance inside the explosive device inside was probably, honestly, I don't even think it would. It would fire. Even if you tried. There's no mechanism at that point, at that age, that would really do that. I wouldn't want to find out. Yeah, and the reason why is because there's a couple other ones. There's a in, there's a, there's a garden in, uh, I want to say it was German village, basically that there was another one from World War two bombshell, self detonated. Just just one day was like I'm done, yeah, and took out, uh, a meteor sized crater outside of a German village. Thank goodness it was outside of the German village but still, like, all of a sudden you're sitting there, you know having your you know breakfast and drinking your your coffee or tea or whatever it is, and you know all of a sudden just boom and you're like what in the world happened? That's quite the morning. I mean, I'm okay, some people have the ritual of a bomb in the morning, you know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:But I am avoiding every one of those.
Speaker 1:I just uh there's all the other shoe dropping, the bomb dropped.
Speaker 2:I've been building these up the entire time you've been reading this. I don't want to say them because they're so bad. I'll leave the puns to you.
Speaker 1:There's a World War two era weapons found stored beneath the Japanese school and honestly, I like I don't know what weapons maybe you know long rifles, that kind of stuff. I I'm not particularly, I don't know. It's another access link to to the article, but but yeah, I thought that was really interesting. Actually, this was just the other day that they they put this article out. It's from uh oh, now I can't remember the, the one that I got from last time, the most interesting stuff.
Speaker 1:I'll link the article in our, in our video. I always do so you guys can. You guys can check it out for yourself and see the picture of the red painted unexploded bomb and uh, yeah, like I think the only thing about that is like, hey guys, my advice, coming from the military, if you ever run across something that you believe is the shape of a bullet, it's a bullet, it's just a really big one. It can cause a lot of problems in your life. So, even if it may not explode, pretend that it would and treat it always like it will Do not touch, do not touch.
Speaker 1:Do not bang against it with metal. Don't paint it colors because it's pretty. Don't put a face on it. Well, you can put a face on it because they used to do that in World War II, but but uh, yeah, you didn't hear that, like on the missiles or paint little little smiley faces, yeah, but uh, all right, guys, we've reached the end of our show for today, thankfully, life's too short, so keep laughing and keep learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.