POLITICAL VIOLENCE: How Hate Speech and Divisive Rhetoric Poison the Body Politic

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What happens when we disguise bigotry as opinion? In this watershed moment for American discourse, I felt compelled to address how dangerous rhetoric spreads through our society like a poison.

Recording without my usual co-host, I reflect on the eerie timing of our recent episode about empathic reasoning—a conversation that became painfully relevant in light of political violence. This isn't about partisan politics but about recognizing the mechanics of how harmful narratives propagate and create climates that permit violence against marginalized communities.

Speaking from my experience as a member of the LGBTQ community, I share two contrasting social media responses to recent events—one calling for civility across differences, another calling out religious hypocrisy. These divergent viewpoints frame my reading of excerpts from my book "Language of the Soul," where I detail how beliefs spread like contagion through casual conversations, media, education, and political propaganda.

The historical thread is clear: from Matthew Shepard to the Pulse and Club Q shootings, divisive rhetoric has real-world consequences. When public figures reject empathy itself as "a made-up new age term," they deny something fundamental to our humanity—something anthropologists confirm is an instinct that serves our collective survival.

This deeper conversation requires us to move beyond false equivalencies that normalize hate speech. Civil discourse with ideological opponents demands genuine understanding and empathic reasoning while still holding firm to core values of human dignity. Only by becoming conscious participants in our collective narrative can we write a new story that honors our shared humanity.

Join me in this deeply personal exploration of how stories shape our reality and how we might find our way back to meaningful dialogue in a fractured world. We can get our hands in the clay—individually and collectively—to craft a more compassionate future.

Transcript

Introduction to Unscripted Episode

Speaker 1 0:45

Hi guys and welcome to Language of the Soul podcast, where life is story. I want to start this week's episode by saying it's a little bit of an anomaly in that not only do we not have a guest today, or do I not have a guest today, but I'm going a little bit off script. In other words, we had an episode planned. It was not, there was no guest, but we planned to do one of our mini episodes where Virginia and I just talk about a given timely topic and unfortunately Virginia had to cancel. But I like to stick to the plan. Call me inflexible, but I don't like a change of plans. But more than that, I'm so committed to this podcast. I use Lewis Howes as my sort of muse and my example and he said you know what? I never dropped the ball on the podcast, you know from the get-go. I just never missed an episode and I've kind of made that my goal. But more than that, it really serves us. I would say I can speak for Virginia here. Not only does it provide a platform for others to speak their truth or tell their story I guess that's more in line with the spirit of our podcast it provides a forum for others to tell their story. I know it's inspired listeners We've gotten some really good feedback but it serves us too.

Speaker 1 2:04

My writing is normally the place where I experience my catharsis, and it's not just an emotional purging or catharsis, but it's actually how I come up with a new policy to move forward in my life. You know a lot of us writers, I think. Take all those puzzle pieces that life's mystery offers to us, and we sometimes resolve cognitive dissonance by finding out exactly how they fit together. That's certainly the case for me, but when something's on my mind and I just don't have the resources, time or energy to write an essay or a book about it, I just want to air my thoughts and hopefully they'll be of value to somebody. But it absolutely serves me. Short of it being a rant or an editorial or a therapy session, there's something obviously on the pop culture radar right now. Not just the pop culture radar, but really the whole noosphere is being affected by current events. I don't want to minimize it at all.

Speaker 1 3:00

It's a pretty tricky moment in our dialectic. In short, we have a lot of episodes in the wings, which is a good thing. We have a lot of padding, so when we record an episode. It doesn't really drop for another good month and a half to two months.

Speaker 1 3:15

So what happened here is those of you that are regular listeners will know we recently had an episode on empathic reasoning. That was with my brother-in-law speech teach Jimmy Urbanovich and it was very inspiring. It was a kind of light and organic and a lot of nostalgia and a lot of inside jokes and you had to be there stories. But when it got poignant it really focused on because he's a communications professor the concept of empathic reasoning how, in essence, effective reasoning must encompass our empathy and compassion. But just as passionately, jim expressed the idea that critical thinking just might be a lost art that we need to revive. In other words, he said my goal in all of my teaching, if there is an agenda, is to teach people to have civil discourse with their ideological foes, civil being the key word. Right, what is lost when we can't have civil discussions? Well, civilization, for one right, it's right there in the word. But how about our humanity? But it was just ironic that we recorded that several months ago and the day I think the day it came out, the day it dropped was the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. So it's still a hot button topic, as it should be. There's no right thing to say at this point, but a couple days have passed and I think the investigation will reveal a lot more, so it's a little premature to really say anything political about it. But in the spirit of our show there is a human level of all current events world events, social issues that transcends politics, that acknowledges the meta view and acknowledges our humanity above all else. I hope that makes sense and those of you that have listened in kind of know that's how we roll. Nothing gets politicized here. Really, this will probably be the most political episode, because I am a member of the LGBTQ community, so I'm very invested in the conversation that I'm devoting this episode to.

Speaker 1 5:19

I'm going to start by saying you know, in the same way, that our episodes only become more poignant, it's almost freakish how we record them and then over time, they become more not just poignant but timely almost freakish how we record them and then over time, they become more not just poignant but timely and significant and relevant. In the same way, the book that inspired the podcast Language of the Soul was written. As some of you know, I was asked to do an online talk during the pandemic. Yes, to keep artists inspired, for us to remind one another why we do what we do. But I quickly decided I'm not that interested in talking about the nuts and bolts of craft is how I put it the Western storytelling arc and all the things we learned in school. I was more interested in talking about why we tell stories in the first place. So it was a blast. My outline from that online course became the book. Outline from that online course became the book.

Speaker 1 6:09

And the point is, as I wrote the book, not only did I honor my outline, but I started realizing just the vast implications of story, which is why our podcast is so far reaching and so far ranging. We've had guests from evidential psychics to epigenetics researchers, to a Harvard literature professor. And the reason is, as we say every week, life is story. The implications are immense. More importantly, there is no way anyone with eyes and ears or any sense organs at all really there's no way any organism with a sophisticated prefrontal cortex or a sophisticated limbic system didn't catch during this last election cycle and campaign season, how story is used as propaganda to manipulate the populace. It's around us all day, every day, and we're crabs in the boiling water, absorbing it by default, sometimes unexamined, socialization, right, the media there's a million ways in which we adopt stories and they actually come to constitute our worldviews. During a campaign cycle, surely all of us can see how stories are fabricated, spun, promulgated. See how stories are fabricated, spun, promulgated, reinvented, spun again based on current events. And it's dangerous. You know, we all know the danger of a good conspiracy theory.

Speaker 1 7:41

What I do want to say is this Very justifiably, very rightly, even news organizations are showing restraint In a non-political way. They're saying yes, a life was lost. Let's acknowledge the family, let's have empathy, let's allow this sacred moment to be what it is, without politicizing it. The restraint has actually been amazing, and that's a no-brainer to me. Of course, there's a life lost and that's a sacred thing. Of course, political violence is never the answer, and I just want to make that very clear. However, some news organizations have been smart enough to say we recognize this as a watershed moment. Whether it's the end of something or the beginning of a conversation, this is a watershed moment. So I think it's up to each one of us.

Speaker 1 8:34

At what point is it appropriate to talk about what led to this? Every time there's a school shooting, we have the same circular conversation about gun control, possible legislation and a whole lot of praying right, but progress never really gets made. So I think we've been talking about the unprecedented divisiveness for a long time now. We've been talking about the role of narrative and story in stoking this divisiveness, you know, and conspiracy theories are just the extreme of it. It exists along a gamut, but the point is, it's not enough to just give lip service to divisiveness.

Empathic Reasoning and Civil Discourse

Speaker 1 9:13

I'm going to transition into reading two recent social media posts, and I think anybody that says anything right now is taking a huge risk, not of exposing themselves to violence per se if they don't have a huge platform, but of alienating friends who are not like-minded. I really give these two people credit for posting you know, burying their souls about this, but their respective takes are vastly different from one another, and I'm not including names to protect the innocent, but these are both people I very much admire and adore. You'll see, I'm going to read one of them and then comment on it, and then I'll read the second one, and then, of course, I'm going to go into my own thoughts. And here's the point A whole chapter in my book is devoted to the mechanics of ideological warfare, and that's a pretty dangerous term. I think we need to clean up our language and stop calling it an impending war or an ongoing war. But you get the idea. What are the mechanics of ideological warfare? If you believe in hate speech or even divisive rhetoric, how is that spread? And, I would add, like a poison, in case you've never thought about it. It's very clear how it operates and, as a member of the LGBTQ community, I'm going to again read from my book and give you a very clear example. So there's no denying the phenomenon. Okay, but I'm going to start with the first letter. So here we go. Enjoy A thought A life was taken yesterday.

Speaker 1 10:43

That's the truth, not my truth, not your truth, just the truth. And here's what I keep circling back to Does the end really justify the means? Because if you think it does, where is your moral compass? Or mine? I've seen so many people online say it's okay or karma, because that person was evil, because they caused harm, because their beliefs or actions didn't align with ours. And yet if the tables were turned, if it was someone they valued, we'd see outrage, we'd see grief, we'd see demands for justice. We've become so polarized that we're bending morality, depending on who the victim is, and that's not morality. That's indifference dressed up as justification and a moral high ground. The universal truth is this this A human life was lost. It doesn't matter if that person was the worst of the worst or the holiest of the holy. It is not ours, individually or collectively, to make that decision.

Speaker 1 11:44

Laws exist for a reason Not to be bent, ignored or twisted when they serve our narrative, but to hold all of us accountable equally as the law can. It's not perfect by any means, and if speaking this truth means I lose friendships, whether online or in person, I can live with that. It will sadden me because I value our differences. I value friendships where we don't see the world the same way. I value friendships where we don't see the world the same way, because in that tension, in that discomfort, in those contradictions, that's where growth lives. Growth doesn't come from dragging someone over to my side or me being dragged over to yours. It comes from seeing that two truths can exist at the same time. It comes from recognizing that the space between is where the real work happens.

Speaker 1 12:32

People talk about utopia like it's this place where we all think alike, feel alike and hold hands singing kumbaya. But that's not utopia. To me, a utopian society is messy, nuanced, complicated. It's not rainbows and sunshine 24-7. It's not about common decency so much as mutual respect. It's about unconditional positive regard for one another, even indifference. Utopia looks like this.

Speaker 1 13:02

I can say I hear your anger even though I don't share it. I can say I see your joy even though I'm not in the same place. I can say I see your joy even though I'm not in the same place. I can say I love you even when I don't agree with you. It's not easy, it's not clean, but it's real and maybe the most radical act we can do right now is hold space for both our similarities and our differences, because the truth is we need both. Okay, well, I found that really beautifully written, really articulate, eloquent, and some of the wisdom in there is pretty undeniable, it's pretty inarguable and, like I said, it came from a loved one. So I made an extra effort not to get my feathers ruffled because on some level it just had a very familiar ring, had a very familiar ring Throughout the past, I would say seven to ten years of extreme divisiveness.

Speaker 1 14:00

Often, virtue signaling is a way of being complacent and complicit, not just sort of enabling, but being part of the problem and not the solution. And, frankly, anyone who's drank the Kool-Aid and can support anything that this administration stands for has lost their credibility as a human. In my world, any defense of this administration's policies are, by definition, gaslighting. I want to read two sentiments that I saw online. I think they were both memes and I just jotted down the sentiment, but it kind of says it all. You know, when you encounter this kind of virtue, signaling or maybe another way of putting it is putting lipstick on a pig you got to recognize it for what it is.

Speaker 1 14:48

When somebody says we should be able to disagree and retain our friendship in the face of this divisiveness, when you call certain racist, bigoted policies an opinion, that's not a differing opinion, that's something at odds with our humanity and with our civility. So the two quotes I wanted to share again I think they're from memes are calling bigotry an opinion is like calling arsenic a flavor. Calling bigotry an opinion is like calling arsenic a flavor. That's from Jack Cameron. The other one is let's be clear, when y'all crawled over the Capitol and tried to murder the entire Congress, political violence became the epidemic you claim is being spread by the left. So yeah, everything is gaslighting. Up is down, down is up, the sky is green and the emperor's new clothes are alive and well. The stakes are too high to virtue signal at the moment.

Speaker 1 15:39

I agree the spiritual realm is the answer to everything. The micro affects the macro. I've said it a million times, even on this podcast Look to the man in the mirror. Be the change you want to see in the world. And in fact I've got more Gandhi quotes. I'm going to scroll down and find one that's appropriate right now. Well, I've got a couple. Let me read Thich Nhat Hanh. You know what do you do in the face of not just adversity, but social unrest and political violence? Thich Nhat Hanh said Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity. So in that spirit, you know, that post that I read was right on the mark.

Speaker 1 16:25

Nelson Mandela, in the end, reconciliation is a spiritual process which relies on more than just a legal framework. It has to happen in the hearts and minds of the people. A legal framework, it has to happen in the hearts and minds of the people, nelson Mandela, you will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution. That's the same spirit of trying to reach across the aisle is one way of putting it. But also have that empathic reasoning where, in your critical thinking, you actually consider the experiences that might have led a person to their respective worldview. That's, you know, one thing we've got as humans we're compassionate and we're empathetic.

Speaker 1 17:04

In my world, when the stakes are extremely high and there's gaslighting going on and there is complete manipulation of the facts, to create a narrative to enforce or enact policies that are completely counter to our humanity, our civility and everything democracy stands for, that kind of grace has no currency. I'm not a militant activist, I'm a pacifist. I believe all the change needs to happen on the micro level, spiritually, within each one of our hearts, and then the ripple effect will play its part. However, we cannot permit spinning of the narratives and manipulation of the facts. It's too important right now and, yes, there are entire books at the moment on social media's effect on our noosphere and how people are being literally radicalized online. So there's a lot to talk about here.

Story as Propaganda and Manipulation

Speaker 1 17:58

And the kumbaya is really offensive to anyone who's not protected by white privilege, anyone who's a target of this administration or threatens to be further marginalized, ostracized, silenced or erased. So, in that spirit of virtue, signaling as complacency and as permission, I want to read the next post, because it's the complete other end of the spectrum and I haven't even really said my piece yet again, as a member of the LGBTQ community who has been hearing the same rhetoric for literally my entire adult life I'm not going to say for 57 years, but my entire adult life. It just gets dressed up differently, right? Family values Everyone my age knows that positioning the gay community specifically as a threat to family values is a thinly disguised way of marginalizing, ostracizing, silencing and erasing a subsection of the population. I've heard it since Bush won, I've heard it since Reagan People that aren't paying attention. Right, and frankly I would say I feel like the sky is falling and I'm chicken a little, because I did write a whole book about how an awareness of the stories that surround us and those we adopt by default through socialization or the inculcation of media, through the manipulations of political campaigning and propaganda, all of those I wrote a book about it.

Speaker 1 19:26

And the election still went the wrong way. The election still went the way of fascism and basically an authoritarian regime. We're throwing democracy out the window. So, yes, I'm frustrated more than I've ever let on on this podcast and I do feel like chicken little. So you're going to see in a moment some things that I've been preaching my entire life through example. Frankly, not by being militant, but by working with the system and relying on my own example to my 22 nieces and nephews. You know, just being a good brother, a good cousin, a good son, it actually hasn't been enough. In a lot of cases, nobody is looking beyond the end of their nose. Why are they thinking about the gay community? They're just not. They're going about their daily lives. So, in the same way, when we were waving our arms in the air on this podcast leading up to the election, nobody was paying attention really until the cost of an egg hit them in the pocketbook and suddenly their privilege was threatened. That's when people look beyond the ends of their noses. But you know what? I'm going to take this opportunity after reading the second letter which will set the stage for my chapter of the book that I'm going to read. There will be no denying how this works once you've listened to that chapter of the book and I guess I'm.

Speaker 1 20:45

It's a little premature, but I'll say this in the 90s, when there was a need for it, there was a really great. There was no real internet yet, but there was a great. Uh, I guess it was a really great. There was no real internet yet, but there was a great. I guess it was a printed thing that was making the rounds and it was like I'm going to walk you through the day of a gay person. You're going to wear the moccasins, I'm going to walk you through their day. And now there shouldn't be a need for it. But I'm constantly amazed at the level of ignorance.

Speaker 1 21:11

And anyway, the little exercise went like okay, you get up in the morning over your cereal, you turn on the TV. There's an old film noir with two men kissing. You're not gay, but that's all you've got as entertainment, you know. And then it just goes on and on and on to the point where, like now, you have to bring a same-sex date to the prom. You're not attracted to men, but you just have to or not go at all, and you know, it just flops everything. And it was really eye-opening for people.

Speaker 1 21:39

So now, again, after reading the second letter, I'm going to walk you through my chapter of the book, after which your eyes will be opened and you'll realize wow, I haven't really been paying attention. Some people don't even know the name, matthew Shepard, but I'm sorry, I was paying attention. Some people don't even know the name, matthew Shepard, but I'm sorry, I was paying attention throughout because these are my peeps. So I am going to school you. So, without further ado, here is the second post that I promised you, and it majorly contrasts with the first, in that this is a hardcore Christian, maybe not a Christian nationalist Not MAGA for sure, maybe far right but somebody that I very much respect, who happens to be a Christian. And here's what he has to say to his fellow Christian, and I'm sure that includes some Christian nationalists. But I think he's right on the money.

Speaker 1 22:31

So enjoy, I'm going to write a controversial post. If I get cancelled for it and am never allowed to sell another book, so be it. My faith demands this. I usually do not talk politics on social media. My posts about Jesus Christ are very straightforward and I usually do not cause flack with them. But this morning my wife paraphrasing and I usually do not cause flack with them, but this morning my wife paraphrasing and I discussed going to church and I honestly do not have the energy or strength to go somewhere with conservative, quote-unquote Christians and hear how Charlie Kirk is some kind of martyr akin to Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr Guys.

Speaker 1 23:12

He did not speak out about being a follower and doer of what Jesus taught, which was inclusion, peace, love and acceptance. Charlie Cook stood on a foundation of white supremacy using the name of Jesus Christ. He stood on a foundation of racism, bigotry, white nationalism and was made famous because he went around to the liberal colleges and stirred up hatred and anger. Charlie Kirk did not teach us to love everyone, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, creed, political leaning, socioeconomic standard or who they chose to worship or not. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, warned of people like this. Matthew 7.15.23 says Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Later Jesus said these same false teachers would come in his name.

Speaker 1 24:19

Here is my question to all who believe Charlie Kirk was a true Christ follower. How many people did he lead to Christ? What is his legacy? What were his fruits? But how many people did he lead to believe in exclusion and hate? That's the reason the country is so divided right now, mostly for profit. When he was killed, charlie Kirk's net worth was upwards of 12 to 20 million dollars. He was a sensationalist speaker who rode the wave of hate and division in the name of Jesus Christ for profit and attention the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Now, did he deserve to die? Absolutely not. Murder should never be celebrated or condoned. Jesus also taught that there is no room for violence in a heart filled with love. But please, please, please, stop teaching our young people or your own family that this man taught the same lessons as Jesus. Look at his fruit, look at this country right now, because Jesus taught and commanded us to love everyone. Let me say it again for the people in the back Jesus commanded us to love everyone. E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. Charlie Kirk taught and commanded to hate anyone who didn't look like him. His name should never be mentioned in the same sentence with my Lord and Savior, jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 25:45

Also, for those who say we are to love the sinner but hate the sin I absolutely hate that garbage line. It is not in the Bible, because what you are doing when you use that line for people like transsexuals and gays and liberals, is taking the place of God and choosing what is sin and what isn't. If you use that line, you think you know more what is sin than God himself and you should be ashamed of yourself. The Bible says to just love. It never says to make up what you believe is sin and what isn't. Now go cancel me for telling the truth. I really love what my friend had to say in his post, how he called out the hypocrisy. But more than that, he shares my aversion to normalizing hate speech and divisive rhetoric by playing apologists, by sublimating it and wrapping it in something more palatable.

Speaker 1 26:37

Another tactic along those lines that reeks of bold-faced hypocrisy is this false equivalency. It's very fashionable to lazily parrot the cop-out that, oh, both sides play the dirty game of politics that come campaign season. Both sides skew facts, sling mud, spin narratives and spout propaganda to cull favor and win the vote. Both sides spew hateful rhetoric, so there's no value in dissecting who started it, and both sides engage in political violence. These are false equivalencies because the agenda itself is heinous and a direct threat to our humanity and civility.

Speaker 1 27:11

Earlier I shared this spot-on meme about arsenic as a flavor, but now I'll use my own analogy, with a few caveats. While political violence is never okay, murder is a sin and we should extend sympathy and reverence to those affected by political violence. We can also take advantage of this watershed moment to have a nuanced conversation that is not partisan or politically motivated. Here's the analogy conversation that is not partisan or politically motivated. Here's the analogy If a perpetrator was found to have poisoned our water supply, it would not only be a threat to national security. They would be, by definition, a terrorist. There would be no debate about it. If you agree that hate speech and divisive rhetoric is a poison, here's my equivalency.

Speaker 1 27:54

What's being poisoned is the body politic. It's been contaminated to the point we're on the brink of an ideological war and possibly a very real civil war. Young people are being radicalized online by hate mongers. An entire industry predicated on getting engagement by appealing to our basest instincts. To other eyes it's a cottage industry. I call the rage racket. What's being poisoned are the minds of our youth. What's being poisoned is the invisible sphere of our morals, ethics, principles, thought forms and paradigms, the codes we live by, that become law. People's lives are affected by this poison.

Two Contrasting Social Media Posts

Speaker 1 28:34

As promised, I'm now going to break down the mechanics by which this poison spreads by reading two excerpts from subsections in the chapter of Language of the Soul titled Story and Belief. The first excerpt is from the subsection the World is a Stage and I kind of jump in midpoint, so bear with me. In previous chapters we've explored how our wiring for metaphor has ensured that we learn more in the narrative realm than the didactic, in other words, that mapping of highly emotional experiences on our respective worldviews means that the vicarious experience of partaking in story is more effective than persuasion in shifting personal paradigms. We've explored the countless ways we're all products of the stories to which we've been exposed. I've suggested that, collectively, society is the sum of its history.

Speaker 1 29:22

Now let's look into the means by which personal experience translates into the status quo those values, thought forms, paradigms, schools of thought, codes, dogmas and doctrines we adopt and pass on to future generations. Dogmas and doctrines we adopt and pass on to future generations. How does personal experience translate into universal experience? How do personal beliefs propagate and capture public imagination? Or, put another way, how do individuals impact the course of human history, actively or passively.

Speaker 1 29:52

Imagine the spreading of pollen by bees from one flower to another. On a grassroots level, we spread ideas passively in casual, water, cooler conversations. In the workplace, we spread them gossiping in the fellowship hall, at church, the line at the supermarket, even in bed at night, as we relay daily events to our spouses. In a broader sense, beliefs are spread through parental guidance, education, religious doctrine, work practices, media and advertising. Our leaders proffer ideologies through political propaganda. News organizations in turn perpetuate it via talking heads and political pundits. Beliefs spread effortlessly in pop culture through song lyrics and cinematic dialogue, and even still images in all genres and formats of media. One of the more recent platforms, but perhaps the one with the strongest influence, is social media Viral videos from Instagram. Influencers have unprecedented reach, traveling at lightning speed. Now imagine that the bees in our metaphor are mosquitoes and what's being spread is not life-giving pollen but the plague. Such is the potential danger of the propagation of belief and such is the cautionary tale of this chapter.

Speaker 1 31:11

As mentioned before, all life forms, from single-celled organisms to much more complex multicellular organisms, hardwire experience. The lexicon of innate or instinctual responses is regularly augmented with learned biological responses to environmental influences. Still, homo sapiens seems to be the sole species capable of learning vicariously. In other words, although learning is theoretical without the experience to back it up, homo sapiens seems to be the sole species capable of learning vicariously. In other words, although learning is theoretical without the experience to back it up, humans can and do adopt beliefs through inculcation and indoctrination. Every day we assimilate or discard ideas. We're exposed to fitting them into our existing worldviews like puzzle pieces or rejecting them altogether. Personal experience aside, the beliefs we vicariously assimilate or reject come from the countless sources listed above. Collectively, we call the sum of those influences our social conditioning.

Speaker 1 32:11

Okay, and to carry the point further, I'm now going to jump to the second excerpt, which is from the subsection titled the Mechanics of Belief. The Mechanics of Belief. Our examples of how belief impacts our finances, livelihood, relationships and health are compelling enough. I encourage you to revisit Dr Beckwith's list of life structures and speculate for yourself how others on the list might prosper or suffer at the hands of well-entrenched beliefs. Moving forward, there is more to consider on the topic of beliefs. Let's continue to explore how our individual beliefs form our respective worldviews and how those worldviews or value systems collectively make up the sphere of thought, forms and paradigms that drive world events.

Speaker 1 32:57

Earlier in this chapter, I cited a sentiment I share with Law of Attraction teacher Abraham Hicks A belief is just a thought. You keep thinking Hicks and Hicks 2004. However, in the same way, thoughts and feelings are reciprocal. Each can trigger the other. Thoughts and beliefs can do the same. In other words, once a belief is hardwired in one's worldview, or once a puzzle piece is locked into the whole to use our handy metaphor it will surely propagate similar thoughts. The law of attraction ensures that, like thoughts snowball, they accumulate and gain momentum when the lens of our beliefs colors daily experience.

Speaker 1 33:37

In that spirit, gandhi often spoke about the anatomy of belief as a determinant of destiny. He put it like this your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.

Speaker 1 34:02

Though all the phenomena mentioned are interrelated in nuanced ways, the above model certainly has the ring of truth for many. When in Rome, in short, beliefs are contagious. This goes not only for an individual's worldview and resulting destiny, but for societies at large. The anatomy of societal beliefs follows a pattern similar to that of the individual. History is riddled with examples of belief as contagion from phenomena like the mass hallucinations of the Salem Witch Trials and the McMartin Preschool Trials to the 2020 election denial narrative.

Speaker 1 34:38

Other more subtle ideological shifts occur over time and are harder to pinpoint. I call them slow burn ideologies. Often they are so slow and stealthy that, like frogs in boiling water, we adopt them unaware. Every day, we assimilate unexamined perceptions and biases by default, on autopilot. Let's look at an example, one that has been simmering in Western European Judeo-Christian culture, arguably since the advent of Christianity, to tie things into our former conversation about tolerance. The example has to do with the current ongoing climate of homophobia.

Speaker 1 35:18

The concept of sexual orientation is relatively new. Historians agree that notions of heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual orientation simply did not exist post-Bronze Age, the oft-cited examples of fluidity being classical Greek culture and the Roman Empire. Historians also agree that institutionalized traditions like taking on a same-sex lover, an erominos or an erastes, were due in part, to the fact that childbirth was the number one cause of death for women at the time. Add to this the fact that contraception had yet to be invented and that men are notoriously well horny, and it all begins to make sense Throughout antiquity and the Roman Empire, the tradition of same-sex marriage existed, however reserved for privileged classes. Christianity, with its roots in Judaism, eventually turned the tables on all this seemingly progressive personal liberty For reasons we don't have the luxury of dissecting. Doing so is another book altogether. The centuries since have been characterized by a slow emergence from the demonization of all things non-binary. The early church extended its policy of fire and brimstone to sexuality throughout medieval times and well into the Renaissance. Though same-sex marriage re-emerged in the form of enfrairement in certain regions, the privilege was selective, as was persecution of any sexual deviance deemed heresy. Flash forward During the writing of this book, both the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, florida, and the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs have ignited conversations about the pervasive climate of homophobia that may have been a factor Between the two tragic incidents.

The Mechanics of Belief Spreading

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54 victims were killed. The true motive in both cases remains a topic of debate, as does the very topic of hate crime legislation in general. Those who oppose the distinction have long refused to acknowledge the role of prejudice, racism or bigotry in fueling hate crimes. For that matter, opponents staunchly dismiss the notion that a climate of fear or hate even exists, let alone that it has the power to permit such horrific transgressions. After the Club Q shooting, congresswoman Lauren Boebert rubbed salt in the wounds of the LGBTQ community by offering up prayers for the victims, while refusing to acknowledge the targeted community by name. More problematic is her record of relentlessly contributing to the fear-based homophobia that fostered a hostile environment that would permit such violence. Both Boebert and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene knowingly peddled misinformation, rhetoric, conspiracy theory and propaganda that at best marginalizes and ostracizes individuals, at worst it makes them targets of violence. The far-right stance has been to turn a blind eye to its role in fostering animosity through rhetoric.

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Here's the reality. Everything from suggesting non-binary individuals are sinners or abominations to relentless government-sponsored campaigns that position the LGBTQ community as a threat to family values contribute to this climate to varying degrees. Easier to finger are measures like the archaic aversion therapy backed by leaders like Mike Pence, for that matter. Ron DeSantis' Don't Say Gay bill in education and its distant cousin Don't Ask, don't Tell in the military are designed to keep subsections of the population silent and invisible, to erase them in essence. In this spirit, the Bush administration attempted to diminish the LGBTQ population to a mere 1% of the population, contrary to most studies. What better way to dismiss the rights of a subculture than to reduce it to a mere sliver of the population.

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Proposition 8, regardless of one's views on the nature and definition of marriage over the course of human history, sought to defy constitutional principles by withholding rights and privileges from designated subsections of the population. It was attempted, of course, under the guise of religious principles applied to an otherwise strictly legal contract. The thing is, our much-valued separation of church and state renders the discrimination unconstitutional. Regardless of one's particular moral standards, even if religion-based, the constitutional principles of equality, justice and personal liberty take precedence. In the ongoing debate over marriage equality. Each side has its well-premed arguments, some moral, some based in principle, some emotional and fear-based with no rationale.

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Regardless of political platform or agenda, one thing is clear there is an undeniable connection between rhetoric and innuendo and the hostile climate that results from it. Hate crimes like the two recent nightclub shootings are rooted in a homophobic climate. Even so, after the Club Q incident, boebert and MTG only turned up their rhetoric. They continued to amplify outright lies like the inferences of pedophilia and child grooming proffered by hate mongers' libs of TikTok. These congresswomen, as a singular example, are leaders with ostensible influence. There are simply too many destructive rhetorical quotes, media statements, tweets and documented policy decisions attributed to them to cite here. And although these congresswomen in their ilk, categorically shirk responsibility, those within the trans community know full well there is a correlation between rhetoric and its statistical effect on the LGBTQ community. They know the true reason trans women find themselves victims of violent crime and murder at a rate many times greater than that of the general population. There is a reason the attempted suicide rate among LGBTQ adolescents is over four times that of the mainstream.

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History repeats, emerging from the slow-burn cloak of our binary system has been a process, one that's moved at a snail's pace, to be precise. Folks both within the queer community and outside of it took offense to the blind eye turned by the likes of Boebert and MTG after the mass shootings. But many of these same individuals are simply too young to recall the Matthew Shepard era In the 90s, the literal cruc. Young to recall the Matthew Shepard era In the 90s. The literal crucifixion of Matthew Shepard led to the passing of unprecedented hate crime legislation in the form of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

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During its deliberation, controversy abounded. Talking heads like radio host Laura Schlesinger and Rush Limbaugh argued until red in the face that, in the same way, affirmative action was unwarranted. The LGBTQ community merited no special treatment. Even at the time, I thought there would be no need for special treatment, were there not special hatred. According to Dr Laura, there was no climate of homophobia to discuss, no pervasive rhetoric-based milieu to permit or even encourage such a heinous act as the slaughter of Matthew Shepard. According to her, he was just a slight, wimpy kid in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Homophobia and Rhetoric's Real Impact

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Hopefully, these vivid examples drive home the potency of the unexamined beliefs and values we adopt by default. Most of us of a certain age told an off-color joke in youth a fat joke or a pull-out joke or even a fag joke without thinking twice about it, without considering how the lack of sensitivity could passively contribute to a general climate of bigotry or homophobia. Thankfully, today's culture is more aware than ever of such microaggressions across the board. For the majority of the well-intentioned among us, the perpetuation of negative stereotypes and unexamined bias or prejudice is unconscious. If we are fish breathing invisible water, unaware of its existence, that water is story, not just the jokes we tell or the overt stereotypes in literature and cinema that fuel our biases, but the story that surrounds us every day. Okay, so clearly I used my own marginalized community as the example of how damaging hate speech and divisive rhetoric, excused as a difference of opinion, not only creates a climate but puts those it targets in very real danger.

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To drive the point home, I'm going to list a number of other inflammatory comments of Kirk's clearly meant to incite rage, profit from the divisiveness industry and stoke violence. Think about the consequences each might have. On guns, he said it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. The second one is we made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s. Then he went on about a whole DEI culture that we live in. Third, mlk was awful and not a good person.

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Kirk claimed that parts of MLK's legacy or speeches are things he didn't actually believe. He compared abortion to the Holocaust, saying abortion is worse. The actual quote is we allow the massacre of a million and a half babies a year under the guise of women's reproductive health. That's how we get Auschwitz. That's how we got the greatest horror of the 20th century. When questioned if he was making that comparison, he responded Absolutely, I am. In fact, it's worse, it's worse.

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Next, kirk called gender-affirming care, child mutilation, referring to trans people or trans identity as a mental delusion or an abomination, saying that science, biology and facts no longer matter. Kirk claimed that Jewish philanthropy is subsidizing your own demise. He claimed that Jewish donors funding US universities are subsidizing institutions that breed anti-Semites and endorse genocidal killers. He also alleged that Jews control the colleges, the non-profits, the movies, hollywood, all of it. This clearly parrots anti-Semitic conspiracy tropes like replacement theory. Kirk has said Islam is not compatible with Western civilization. Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.

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Kirk often dismisses the concept of white privilege, calling it a myth or racist, and argues that DEI programs prioritize identity over merit. And then, finally, the quote I'd like to meditate on as we bring this episode to a close reflects the worldview at the crux of his dangerous rhetoric and that of his followers, if not the far right. He said, quote I can't stand the word empathy. Actually, I think empathy is a made-up new age term that it does a lot of damage. So I started this episode citing our former episode about empathic reasoning. So we've pretty much come full circle, as Jim Urbanovich pointed out in that episode, empathy is crucial to critical thinking, so you can't have civil discourse with your ideological foes without it. My entire life I've heard liberals or the radical left described as being bleeding-heart liberals who subscribe to lifeboat ethics.

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This compassion has long been shunned by the right in favor of individualism. Collectivism has been shunned in favor of isolationism and globalism in favor of nationalism. Kirk suggests compassion and empathy are not innate to the human condition. When he says empathy is just a new age term, that's actually dangerous. He's just dead wrong. All sociologists and anthropologists will affirm empathy is an instinct in humans, just like altruism, because it serves the proliferation of the tribe. And that's notwithstanding any notion of spirituality, to which Christian nationalists the bulk of Kirk's followers, ostensibly subscribe.

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The truth is, there might just be love at the core of collective intelligence. There might just be love at the core of our essential selves. We need to usher out archaic, darwinistic paradigms like survival of the fittest, which was actually survival of the most adaptable, in favor of the Lamarckian idea that there's just as much symbiosis in the universe as there is competition, that there's just as much symbiosis in the universe as there is competition. Okay, so it should be clear. We could do a whole podcast, not just a whole series, but a whole podcast on inculcation and indoctrination, and I just hope everybody is a little more vigilant.

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If it's true, this is a watershed moment I'm sorry I keep using that word, but I just really loved it when I heard it on CNN let's make it one, let's keep the conversation going, let's learn to reason empathically, let's learn to have civil discourse with our ideological foes, and all of that requires empathy. Okay, guys, thanks for listening. Listening and remember life is story and we can get our hands in the clay individually and collectively. We can write a new story. See you next time.