Poetically Correct EP. 7 - Freedom

In this thought-provoking episode of Poetically Correct, hosts Isaiah Howton and Marcus Conley dive deep into the complex concept of freedom. They explore personal, societal, and philosophical perspectives on what it means to be truly free, examining topics like systemic racism, technological advancements, and individual limitations. Through candid conversation, they challenge traditional notions of freedom in America, discussing how factors like race, economic status, and personal values shape one's ability to experience genuine freedom. The episode offers a nuanced look at freedom as a spectrum, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, empathy, and understanding the consequences of one's actions.

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Transcript

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So, I mean, there's always going to be parameters and and limitations to what you can do. I don't think that is necessarily what, what doesn't if, because, if that was the case, then nobody would be free, because we all do have limited Donald Trump can't go dunk a basketball. He can jump, you know, you probably don't even wake up in the morning without feeling a whole bunch of pain, all doped up and stood up there, yeah, I know your game, Donnie, I said, Oh, I see it. Um, that's sick. Not like, not wake like waking up and being angry, or like being in pain and like thinking that you're dictators like that sucks. I can't do that about the thing that you're passionate about. Do you talk to the people in the community that things are bad? So until then, how are you gonna change anything that's going on? I'm trying. I'm trying to keep it PC here because, you know, it's a that's a that's a that's a that's a delicate topic. Here we go. Hi, I'm Marcus Conley, and I'm conflicted. I'm Isaiah Holland, and I'm misusing my influence. That's a good one, right there. Man, and this is poetically correct. We poetically Correct. Jesus, we are back with another episode. More tune for your heads up. You know, we're here, still surviving and thriving in this in this society, this this world. I feel like things are, you know? The funny thing is, man, things are not like, more calm right now, but I it's less shit I feel like I see on a day to day basis. Um, I mean, and by that, I mean, like, less, like, felonious, kind of wild things that could potentially derail society. Not that they aren't happening. They're still happening, but I just see it less. So I'm just like, I guess everything's wrong. But, you know, we still out here surviving and surviving and thriving. Man, how you doing? Cool? I mean, I'm surviving. I don't know if thriving is a word, but it's I kind of feel that though, because I've been recently trying to, like, take a break from some of the political like reading about what Trump is doing every day, or what the administration is doing, but, you know, it's, it's almost like forced burnout. You know, they're there. The administration is like, forcing people to, like, get burnt out from following, like, all the chaos, yeah, that they're, you know, that they're engaging in, and that's, honestly, we talked about last part. But that's like, it seems like that's a tool, you know, it make people tap out and be so overwhelmed with, you know, grief and just discomfort from, like, what's going on in the world and and and then you can kind of slip in whatever you want on a day to day basis, because it's like, I just can't, I can't, I can't, I can't tune into every Trump press conference or or, you know, every address of a particular issue, because it's just it's exhausting. So recently I have been been able to, like, veer away from, from being like, hyper visual and hyper aware of like that. What was that? What was the last big thing? There was some a week ago. I didn't change my mind. There was something like a week ago that happened that I remember, I was like, wow, that's wild. Yeah. I mean, it's always a big thing. I'm not sure I know that they passed the BBL, yeah, the BBL is, the BBL is here and living. I think, I think they're trying to promote a tax cuts act or something like that. I'm not sure if it's past or not, but alligator Alcatraz, yeah, we, I think we talked about a good amount of that stuff. But, yeah, I mean, we throw a dart at the wall and you'll land on something ridiculous. Yeah, man, this is wild. I mean, it is interesting. But, I mean, I don't feel like it's just us. I feel like even conversations I have with, like, every conversation I've had, like, for the first six months, it was, oh my god. Can you believe this? Can you believe this? I feel like Fourth of July actually was kind of like the stopping point. It was like, you know, he had the parade, yeah, the parade that was wild. And it's like, well, I here. We are, you know, niggas was like, we gonna protest. No kings. He was like, it don't matter. Here. We here anyway. What you gonna do about it? Elon been quiet too. More quiet, I guess, from the oh, oh, that's what it was, the fucking Epstein list. Oh, yeah, I haven't really been following that, that shit. Oh, we, oh, we got, we wasn't even gonna get to that. That's that. Was wild, these motherfuckers basically, was just like, didn't happen? Yeah, nah, for sure. What do you mean? I mean, we had we had it, we had a document. And here's the thing, like this is, this is why. So, like, you think everybody's stupid, and even this point where Republicans are like, Yo, like, bro, hold on, because this, you know, the house was like, Yo, what's up when this came out, this was COVID. We all watched that documentary, and collectively, everybody was like, Yo, this is the craziest thing ever. And then we all remember when Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. We were and everybody was the most obvious conspiracy theory of all time. Everybody, collectively, I'm not a singular person that I know, that anybody knows, was like, Yeah, Jeffrey ace killed himself. Everybody was like, Man, this is, come on. This is classic, you know, from the movie type stuff. I mean, this is, and then they threw old girl in jail, Ghislaine. They knew her, and she was sitting in jail ever since. And the thing now is like, and by no means am I a Ghislaine or Jeffrey Epstein apologist. However, if the list don't exist and it's not a thing, why is she in jail for? What if nothing happened? What is she in jail for? I mean, this is that that was, that was why, and I don't even know, I wasn't following it super closely, but I remember seeing, um, whatever, like, not verdict officially, but like, whatever came out. And it was their, their kind of finding was, like, nothing there. And I was just like, yeah, how do you even, how do you go through the mental gymnastics of even getting to that, um, when there's been so much rhetoric around not only the list itself, but like, the contents of the list, we've heard of people specifically who were there. I mean, Biden and Trump themselves, went back and forth about this, and then now it's like, yeah, it didn't happen. That's, that's pretty wild. I mean that, but it's at a point, I mean, and I think this speaks to what we were talking about. It was like, I feel like I actually that might have been in the nail of the coffin of like, Yo, truth doesn't matter. I mean, true what? What is truth at this point, if the government literally can snap his fingers and say, No, it didn't happen. Yeah. And, you know, it's dangerous, because I forget if this was in the in the BBO, or if it was in there, if it's in a proposed legislation right now, but they're, they're either actively or planning to cut funding for like, national news media, like PBS, yeah, and, and, you know, I was reading, Oh, damn. What's the, what's the, what's the book called George Orwell, 1984 1984 recently, and it's a little too close what I was thinking when I was reading that book. And it's just, it's scary because, you know, it you read things that are fictitious and that are, you know, that's our story and fantasy or whatever. But then you see stuff happening in real life. And I always think life imitates art. You know, life, the world is, is it reflects what people think and and express in storytelling, right? And it's like, if now I'm look, I'm reading that, or if I if now I'm looking at what's going on the world, and I'm like, This view was like a little 1984 ish, that's scary. I mean, people say that exact phrase all the time. Yeah, people say it all the time, but it's like, what did, I guess, the the that I mean. And, you know, when, even when talking about, like, it's an interesting thing, I was having a conversation with the big homie, Morgan, shout out, when we were talking about AI, and she said, like, how dystopian it all is. Because I was like, people don't even remember, like, like, you know, the Jetsons and everything. Was like, flying cars. Nobody even wants a flying car, right? Like, people were like, Why do a flying car when I can chat GPT and like, kill 10 small children in the Congo for this, for this output, it's like, you know, why? Why? Why worry about, you know, fly. Why fly a car when I can, you know, have these, this unlimited information at my fingertips, like flying car as a utilitarian use, versus, you know, being able to get whatever I wanted that at the, you know, drop of a dime. It's an interesting thing. When you talk about like that 1984 and the other and what I think a synonym for like, when people say this is like 1984 that dystopian thing is such an interesting it's such an interesting dichotomy to look at, because also, but what is happening is, I mean, you have Japan, you. They are doing research right now to have like, their internet speed, like, 3.5 times faster than anything that's ever happened before. So you have such an advancements in tech, and that's getting, you know, translated to AI over here. It's an interesting like dichotomy, how we have such great tools and such the internet. Because, so here's the, you know, I don't we should not be cutting public funding from any mass media. No, that's, I mean, I think they had already done it with NPR. They were trying. I remember that was going down a few months ago. We should not be doing that point blank period. We also should not be cutting funding from education. None of, none of, none of these, these basic human rights education information, we I that needs, that, that needs, like, secure funding. However, just not to play devil's advocate, but to kind of an interesting dichotomy to me, at least, is with the advancements in tech and with how, like, the idea and concept, and obviously, this is what I go to school for, like, mass media versus what we have now, where, like, what is even mass media? Kaisen, that is mass media, but he's streaming from a computer in his, you know, house. We're, I mean, you know, we're not mass media right now, but like, say, we, you know, millions of people listen to this. What I mean? What's the difference between that and NPR and so it does. It does bring up a very interesting thing of, like, especially when you talk about media, and you talk about information, and I think it's, I mean, we're in the information age right now, but I don't think information is has been any more critical at any time, especially in the age of misinformation and disinformation that we live in. Of going back to the to the Epstein thing, like, what's real and what's not, they said they were going to release the video footage of the day Epstein died, and it's like, okay, like, now AI, bro, you could just, I mean, they and we wouldn't know. I mean, I'm sure someone could figure it out, but we wouldn't know. So, so that is, no, they wouldn't. I mean, I literally see AI commercials now, like, prominently, like, I just watch YouTube and his AI commercials, all of the graphics they fucking the administration puts out is AI, yeah, it's like a NOR. It's a very normal thing. And I see people in the comments all the time, can't tell the difference. So it's very interesting. I think I was telling Morgan, like aI literacy and tech literacy, I think, is probably the next frontier of the most important type of literacy. But at the same time basic community, good, good, yeah, no, not to cut you off. But as I cut you off, I remember in elementary Well, we were doing computer class. Yeah, he was doing computer class, like, and it was like, What is this? And my mom had never heard of that. Yeah, that's like, what? So that's like, that's got to be the next thing is, learn how to differentiate between AI and reality. And also is going to have some interesting philosophical questions of, like, what is reality, necessarily? And I don't want to be that guy, because that's like, you know, that's, we didn't get there, that's, that's, I like, that type of stuff. But to, not to drive the point home, but like, yeah, just to get this thought off, um, I think on the flip side, it's like, this weird, like these dichotomies happen, where AI literacy, and I'll just call it, like virtual reality, whatever, vitally still important though, is this, is this a weird thing where it's like, it makes these type Like, being able for me to speak with my voice, and I'm saying this, and it sounds very like simple and it's like, why is he saying I'm speaking with his voice and you're receiving it. But I mean, like the idea of communication is a relationship, right? Like, you can't have communication without relationship, so the relationship between me putting something out and you responding to it, and that's having that interaction that's the basis of communication. The basis of communication. Ai, kind of cuts can, can cut that out. So it's a very interesting thing, and not to get into, like, right? Like, actual writing and all that stuff. But there's, it's like, this two sides of the coin where it's like, yeah, AI literacy is important. But even more important, because AI literacy important is important is what I'll just call, like, analog communication, you know, old fashioned communication, being able to speak. I mean, people literally can't. And there have been studies about this, people cannot go to, like, I'll just put a general setting, like a bar, and walk up to somebody and TALK. That's. Very and for our generation, that's very uncomfortable, yeah, throughout the generation, and that's not even because ace, that's because of social media. So the generations becoming behind us. I mean, you probably have people now like, hey, I need a prompt. I want to talk to this girl. And, I mean, that's just like, what does that do to the human psyche? How does that impact relationships? How do you okay, you meet this girl through through y'all, y'all both chat and this is an extreme example, but I mean, y'all both chat GPT your way through your initial first date in whatever way. And I know this should be happening on a dating apps. You know, you out here, chat GPT in your way through responses. And then, let's just say y'all hit it off. Y'all two years in a relationship, and y'all first actual conflict comes up, and y'all have to have that conversation. And obviously that's the romantic relationship, work relationships, professional relationships, familial relationships. The need to be able to communicate thought and idea, going back to what we were talking about last time with like, actual critical thought and not having an output that you put a half baked idea in, and it gives you something that is is derivative of a whole bunch of other ideas that got put into. I could see that potentially being pretty perilous for a lot of interpersonal relationships and, you know, societal relationships as a whole. So that's just an interesting thing to me, where it's like, yeah, AI, literacy is, like, important, because you do need to be able to discern and make sound decisions on what is what and how to use it and what it can be used for. But at the same time, you need to put your eggs in the other basket of being able to have conversations with people, because no matter what anybody says, I mean, you still have to do that. There's nothing that's going to be able to replace that. Because this is the thing, when you talk about like, what's reality versus what's not reality is still, if I need to go down the street to a coffee shop and order coffee, I have to interact with another human. That human could be having a bad day. I could be having a bad day. And we have to work through all of these things and these physical emotions. The other thing about it, once again, not to get super granular, but like, there is a you can get to a philosophical physical level, where it's like, sound waves, right? Like the like, this is what linguistics and people study, too, about, like, how that you know, you know, what's the word like, affects the way people Yeah, exactly. Affects with how people perceive you, affects how you perceive yourself, affects like your emotions and all that. So like the spoken voice, the spoken word, hearing, hearing that, transferring that thought of what you hear, hearing the human voice. I mean, all of these things, these very, very real things, reality that are just what we'll call baseline natural reality. I mean, that is, that's it. The other thing is, I'll let you go, but like, that's 2000 years of of DNA that you can't replace, and that is vital for our for our, uh, for our survival on this planet. So it's interesting, and I really have no answers. I mean, this is literally what I study I'm doing, you know, communications, psychology, minor and, you know, with the rap thing, I'm talking to a lot of linguistics people trying to figure out, like, how rap can be used as a linguistics component. So it's stuff like I spend all day thinking about. But I don't even have any answers, and nobody really does right now, so it's interesting. It's funny that you talk about the importance of like, hearing voices and like and being able to navigate how you're perceived, or how you perceive other people based on how they speak or what they say, and stuff like that. I was in a training the other day, and, you know, delivering closing argument, or, like, opening arguments in front of people. And back to when I was younger, I hated speaking in front of people. I hated talking to people. If I went to go to a coffee shop and I didn't know exactly. I had to plan out what I was going to order and what I was going to say, and usually when I got to the front and, like, not be able to, like, have a natural conversation with somebody, it had to be very thought out. But I say all that to say I haven't had that much practice, like engaging in speaking with people in like, I don't have as much practice as you would if you wasn't in the internet age, I would definitely say and so when I was delivering this, this opening argument, I was I was pretty loud, and one of the things that somebody told me was, like, you have to be careful about how you deliver your speech, because if it's too like, you have to be you have to control your voice. You have to control how loud you get. And if you get too loud, you may come off a certain way, and you. There's a whole lot of things behind like black men, of course, people, loud, loud, uh, voice and whatnot, but, but the the point of it, though, was like, you know, always be in tune with how you're speaking, yeah, and how your tone sounds like, what your pitch sounds like, how you're delivering words, how you're pronouncing and enunciating words like people don't. That's, I learned so much from that conversation about lawyering, but I didn't even learn any law, per se. I learned how to talk, you know, and that's, that's something that I realized that you had to really learn how to do you have to learn how to talk to people. You have to, it's a skill. You have to learn how to to enunciate your words, pronounce your words. You have to learn how to if you have to learn how to understand who you're speaking to, as well, like if you don't understand who you're speaking to, if you don't understand what they how they might perceive you. You know, you might run the risk of coming off a certain way that you didn't intend to come off as you might run the risk of coming off real aggressive, or, you know, violent, when all you were really doing is just being animated. And again, there's a lot of stigma behind that, but the main point is still valuable. I think, is just people need to think about how they're interacting with people, how they're communicating with people, and what the effect of not only their words, but how they deliver their words, how that affects a relationship, and just be cognizant of people around them. Like I always think when I'm walking down the street and I'm like, walking up kind of close behind somebody, I'm like, I'm always thinking, like, I should, like, walk past them instead of, like, lingering behind them, because maybe they'll think, like, what is he doing back there? You know, again, that's another thing that's like, Yeah, I'm a black man walking behind somebody, God forbid, is like a little old white lady, like I might be real scared my distance between us, or like speed past her, but, you know, I again, I'm not recommending that people, like be conscious about that in terms of, like scrutinizing themselves and causing Anxiety being around people. But it's definitely something to consider, like making sure that you're aware of, you know, who's around you and and how you're interacting with them. And so obviously, that's an interesting point. Of course, there's a, you know, the funny thing, and this can lead into the, I mean, this is a perfect segue into the freedom thing. Um, we'll stay especially on, on, on that thing of because it happened to me, though, that I was getting off the elevator with a young woman in my apartment complex, and we were getting off, and we were walking on the same floor, and we were walking the same way, and, you know, I was behind her, but I didn't want to be, you know, too close, because it's like I I had, you know, I understand the implications of that. Whatever it could be. You never know what it could be, but understanding it could be taken a certain way, and knowing the other side is like, Okay, what does it take for me to fall back and slow my pace down and to stay on my phone right? Like, what does it take and having to take those considerations I'm I mean, we know everybody doesn't do that blanket statement. Sorry for generalizing white America. White people don't say, excuse me, they don't that's not some shit they do. I was I Where was I? Was I was, uh, I was out eating lunch somewhere with somebody, and oh and oh in New Orleans, I was a Richie. I was my brother. We were at a restaurant, a restaurant that we go to all the time, like, the owner and us, like, it's like a family thing. We like, like, we're very close. We go to this restaurant. We actually went. I was in New Orleans, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, every morning we went to this restaurant. So that's how, that's how often I'm there. And like, when I go, that's a place I always try to go, and I give them a shout out. It's called Russell's Marina grill. That's my people shout out to Pablos, the best restaurant in New Orleans. We're there, and we're sitting with our family just eating breakfast. And a, actually, a decently old white lady with a walker was walking past and like, whatever it was, probably her daughter wanted her to try to get past Richie seat, and she was just trying to just keep getting past, and didn't say anything. And it's like, and she would, because the expectation was that Richie would just move out the way. Now, yeah, I'm not going to sit here and assume these women were, like, these young niggers need to move, but at the same time there, we're not going to sit here and act like there is not a, not an innate thing, especially in the south of hey, you need to be considerate of white people in their space. That was, that's a told learned behavior. That is. Is generational. It's cultural. It's not the same everywhere that being in Philadelphia, people interact totally different. Another thing, in terms of considerations that people take, this is a big thing. Me and my mom always talk about it generationally with you know, blacks is, we don't say hi on the street anymore. Back in the day, you see a fellow Black person walking down the street, you're like, at least given not something acknowledge the presence of, hey, you're another black person. Walking into society is probably difficult, right? Like, I'm here for you. You know, at least in the street interaction, whoever knows, um, we don't do that. Not only that, we try to not make eye contact, because it's like, man, think I'm me mugging him. He might think I'm, you know, there's like you, there is, there is an anxiety with with that, and it's so interesting of how, how people like perceive, how people should interact with them, too. And I think that's the flip side of it. There is an expectation with, you know, with black people, for the most part, from what I've seen and learned, the conversations we've had, especially with black men, of you need to be pretty much overly considerate of your space, anywhere, yeah, and I mean that physically, your energy, your tone, yeah, um. And it can be a situation of which you are completely in the right someone could say some crazy, something crazy to do. And you know, you as you as a, as a baritone, get up and kind of get like this, and use your full voice. And now it's like, Oh, my God, I think he's about to try to kill everybody, you know, um, it's an interesting it is a that is definitely, definitely real. And I think those considerations are important, though. I'm not going to say they're not. I mean, my thing, I've always been under the belief that, like, I think that's kept me alive in situations. I think, like being understanding how to navigate and understand, okay, what type of people are around. What is my setting? Where am I? That's important. Everybody has not everybody has to, because people don't everybody should. I think if everybody did that, we would see a lot less conflict. I can tell you what we see, a lot less like random acts of violence. A lot of them start with, like, Yo, I was walking down the street. We had a miscommunication, even if it's non verbal. And now we have a confrontation. And now we got a nigga movement, yeah, and now because have weapons, because it's America, now, because we all have firearms, someone's getting shot. You know that? Like, if people just took those considerations and say, Okay, this is a space. We're in a space, and we have we're all interacting within the spaces, as a fellow human here, and we are interacting in this in this time. But people don't think about that, and that gets into the freedom thing of it all, just like here. So let's, let's talk about space. This goes, whose space is it? White people are like, this is my space. There's no, there's no if ands or buts. About if this is their space. Yeah, it there. At least it comes with an assumption that, or, like, sort of this assumption that when I move, I have complete autonomy over you know, you have a certain elevated level of of freedom to maneuver. Interesting news, is it elevated, or is it baseline? And we're just below the baseline, because I don't know about y'all go ahead. No, I'm just to fully further explain like, because the way it's been told to me once again, was like, if you, if there is a police officer and you don't Yes, sir or No, sir, your life could be at risk. If you were walking down the street at night and you are too close to a white woman, Your life could be in danger. Is that how life should be lit like I should those be considerations I have to make. I don't know. I know I have to make them because of the situation. But should we that's kind of No. So you don't think so. Okay, no, definitely not. I mean, again, that comes with the understanding of, in the thought process of, I'm walking behind this white woman. I'm a black man. I'm a little bit taller. I might be a little bit bigger. It's cops around here. They might and it's kind of dark they might see, you know, say it's, it's, you're considering a lot of different things in that moment. And it all culminates into, I should just, like, hang back and not get too close to her, because it might look a certain way, and it's super unfortunate that we have to do that, but it is a reality. But it's only that what it it's it's mainly that way because of the history of of black men in the. Acting with white women, and you can get into specific stories, obviously, like Emmett Till and and whatnot. But all that to say no, because we shouldn't have to do that. Because nobody should have to worry it. Nobody should have to be hyper vigilant about like, how they're maneuvering in a space and a different person of a different, you know, race, different, uh, gender, sex, different sexual orientation, whatever it is, somebody different than you gets to maneuver that space with a certain level of confidence that you can't have, because you know that if you do, if you act how that person is acting, how that, you know, white man is acting, how that, um, other person is acting, you might face repercussions that they wouldn't face if they won't face because, you know, they have a particular identity. So I there's really unfair, because it is, it's disproportionately negatively affecting black people. Obviously, we see that. But just to to kind of delve deeper into this. So we are talking about these considerations, I guess, obviously we can. We can distinguish a line at racism. I mean, we can make it distinguishable at, you know, racist acts and systemic, you know, racism of, okay, Emmett Till you know that story of, you know, say hi to the white woman, or whatever was at the White woman. And now you know he's, you know, getting lynched and whatnot. But we are saying at the same time, like, you should consider you a person, and so where, where is the line? Because I see what you what you're saying is like, we should be all on the same level of, I have the freedom to walk down the street. That's just not the case. We agree that that should be the case. But with, let's just, let's just say we all do have that freedom, then where's the line? Because what, what is done with that freedom? And a lot of times it's like, yeah, it's my freedom. It's my shit. I walk down the street, I might, you know, I'm gonna expect people to get out my way. And obviously, if everybody thought of that, that we can just be bumping into each other. Yeah? So yeah, I guess, where do you think that line should, should be? And obviously, you, I'm not asking you to solve the problems of the world, but like, if you can run through what you think that I that idea of that, that freedom, yeah, it's definitely out of at a minimum, I think we should always be trying our best to consider who we're around, obviously, and it requires a lot of assumptions being made. But you know, if you're, if I'm on the metro and I'm, if I'm, if I'm like, let's, let's say, if I'm getting on the metro and there's a girl sitting all the way in the back, and, you know, she had, she's in one row of seats, and there's a row of seats behind her, and there's nobody on the metro but her, and I go and sit next to or behind her, yeah, that is a lack of understanding of, oh, if I, If I sit down here, she's going to be like, What is he doing? What might he be trying to do to me? What is, you know, she's going to automatically start thinking of anything that can go wrong. And even if, like, she doesn't know who I am, maybe I really just did want to sit there, but I need to be aware of the fact that that's a consideration that she even had. What is this dude gonna do to me if Why did he come over here and sit down near me when he had all this other space to occupy, he decided to come near me, you know, saying that's a thing that people think and so it requires me to understand like, Okay, what might a woman in her position be thinking? What might someone at her position be thinking when I do a particular thing, or if I say, if I just come up to her, I'm like, hey, that's she's gonna think. Like, yeah, what's going on, you know? So you have to be, we have to have a certain level of cultural competence when it comes to people that don't share our identities, don't share, you know, the same race, same gender, same sexual orientation, whatever it is, we have to have a certain understanding of how that person might be thinking. Why? Why? Why do you feel? Why do you feel like we have to do that? Because, unlike your example before, where it's like, you know, we all interact in the space equally, and I can just, you know, I'm free to do whatever I want. I don't have to think overly detailed about, you know, how I'm how I'm walking behind, you know, an old white lady, you know, unlike that example, the. Real world operates in a way where if I get on, if I am walking behind, you know, a middle aged white woman, I am thinking, like, Oh, she might be like, Oh, this dude getting kind of close and call the cops on me. So we operate in a world where these, I the identities that we have. There's, there's, there's stigma attached to them. There's, there's assumptions attached to different social identities. And so it's, it's unfortunate that we have to be aware of them for ourselves, but I think it is beneficial to understand what assumptions somebody else may be making in order to avoid certain conflicts. I guess my question is, How unfortunate? I mean, yeah, because let's, let's just say we existed. Poof, hey guys, we live in America. That's not racist. I don't know. I don't know. Okay, I just did that. I just ended racism. Right now, racism for the next five racism for the next five minutes, is not a thing, right? Okay, so, um, it's not a thing. However, what still will be a thing regardless. I don't get I don't care what anybody says will be innate cultural differences between between races, between ethnic groups, between um socioeconomic groups, between people from the miss out. But if that exists, but if that exists racism, it exists because if you're differentiating people based on culture, I don't necessarily, I don't know about that differentiate. Differentiation doesn't this differentiation equal, but differentiation means we're acknowledging different differences in race and but there are, I mean, there are, for sure, but, but I don't think it's as as I don't think, yeah, I mean, it's a hard discussion. I'm not like, I don't know if I'm the right person to talk about it, but you won't talk about it. We hear it's poetically correct. We're gonna figure this shit out right now. We're gonna solve racism right now. If we're differentiating people based on race, and there's like, cultural differences that we acknowledge and we use that. We use those cultural differences to like, compare people. And you know, a stratified way we we say, oh, black people are like this. So, you know, they're more they're more prone to be XYZ, then we're going to get to racism eventually. So I think it's kind of difficult to imagine. Let me devil's advocate, just so so culturally and I mean, it's, it is hard, because culturally we, I mean, the reason black people are even black in America is because of racism. So, I mean, it's very it is difficult, I see what it's difficult to take us out of that, that contract. But let's just construct, but let's just do it. Let's just say, for some reason, a whole bunch of black people ended up in America just by choice, and we just decided to live here. But we still brought our own cultural things with us. We had, I mean, we culturally interact with each other differently, so like, how I'm gonna greet you as, as as a black person, like, when, when, when, how us meeting at that talent show versus if one of us was white, would probably be a little bit different. How, how you would approach me, the comfortability you would, you would feel with me taking that video and understanding what you had going on. I don't know if that's necessarily bad. It's just like I we are familiar with each other. We come we come from, we come from Ace. And once again, racism the only differentiate. Differentiating factor of this, like, the reason I use a lot is geographical differentiators. Going from the South to the North, the way people interact with each other on the street is completely different. I mean, you do not say good morning to people in Philadelphia. That is not Did you cursed out at seven in the morning? Do not talk to people first. You know, walking around the South, funny enough. Not Houston, people don't talk. And Houston is odd. But, um, other places in the south, New Orleans, you know, you walk around street. You know, how you doing? Good morning? What's up? Um, acknowledging those differences. And I get what you're saying, when it, when it, when it's phrase based, so we can maybe move out of a race based thing. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, there are going to be differences in I mean, that's what makes people, people. That's what makes cultures. Culture is there are going to be differences. How do you acknowledge those differences without and once again, I'm not asking you to know, but how do you, how do you acknowledge those differences while also maintaining and what we can just call free. You know, there is a freedom of being able to do that without fear. You. Without fear, I can acknowledge the difference and make considerations without fear of repercussion, which would then create anxiety, yeah. And once again, the reason that's not going to happen now is because of racism and all the other isms that we have in this country, of course, but just in a theoretical sense, I guess. How would you, how would you go about kind of balancing out just the innate differences between people, between groups, between sexual orientation, gender, sex, you know, race, whatever it is going to be. How do you, how do you make those considerations where, that's what I'm saying. Like, how do you make the consideration without, um, going too far and and limiting yourself and your freedom and ability to navigate a space? Yeah? Yeah. I think it's a give and take. You know, like, you don't, freedom is an absolute, you know, you gotta, you're gonna have to give and take with it. Oh, I like that. Oh, I like, I like that. Oh, we gonna get oh, we gonna get to something today. Oh, yeah, we gonna get there. Yeah, yeah. So, again, it's the same thing with the example, you know, me getting on the metro, and there's one girl in the back, and I get near her, it's like, I have to the like the idea of freedom to go sit over there. And so my freedom to sit in the in the seats that are like near her are restricted because she might be afraid that I might do something to her, right. Uh, she doesn't know who I am, right? So, so my freedom is restricted, but I understand that it's a necessary, unnecessary evil, so to speak, because me exercising the freedom of sitting next to or behind her or near her would cause her discomfort. So what happens when you exercising your freedom to do something results in discomfort or anxiety or stress on another person? And so if we're trying to get to a world where we're all operating on equal footing, we have to consider what happens when you when you exercise a certain level of freedom, and it hurts somebody else. You said something about chat GPT earlier. I have the freedom to go on chat GPT and ask whatever I want. You can it. Can create whatever I need to create. What happens when you start to consider, every time I enter and input something into here, it takes up what? Like, I forget how many gallons of water it is, but, like, it's a lot of water when you like, when you when you like, search or do something, chat, GPT, it takes up a lot of water. Yeah, right. So you're always doing a value assessment of of what happens when, what happens when you're trying to to to exercise some freedom that you have, some right that you think you have, and and its results in consequence, what happened? What is in your mind, what's what's more important the freedom or, or, you know, having the freedom or, or, uh, avoiding the consequence, essentially, is it more important that I have the ability to use chat, GPT whenever I want, or is it more important to save, uh, you know, a gallon or two gallons of water, or whatever it is, right? Somebody, everybody has to make that, that judgment for themselves. And I think I'll just stop there. That's my short on that. That's probably long so, but no, it's not good. And that takes exactly into freedom, from freedom to and clearly, in this country, people are like, I'd want to be able to do what the fuck I want. I mean, that's this point blank period from day one of when all of them heathens from Europe came over and decimated all, not all of but a lot of you know indigenous people on this land freedom in the name of freedom, yeah, and the Wild part to me about that is that after that, you realize that you can't govern a society and with absolute freedom, like there's no way to have a governed people and have those people have so let me ask you this, when you think of freedom, what do you think of them? Yeah, because I think most people when, when we I mean the con. I feel as if, from what it's been taught to me, been taught to me this, when I, you know, was a kid and learning about the Statue of Liberty and the American flag, it was freedom, freedom, freedom. And it was seen as an absolute. It was our rights, and the way this country is built is now, obviously, I never believe this bullshit, but you know, it was our rights and. What this country provides, and this flag right here allows us to be free to do whatever we want. That's what I heard. Wasn't. I knew that wasn't. I knew that wasn't the case, but that's what I heard. Yeah, I think that's the initial concept of freedom that we have, and it's, it's indoctrinated into us, like you, they want to talk about indoctrination. They, as in, conservatives, want to talk about indoctrination through, like, critical race theory or whatever indoctrination is, just like we're repeatedly telling you this thing is true, or this is how something works, and you buy into it, essentially. And that's how we think of freedom in America, is our we get to, we have the freedom to do whatever we want, and we have we control our own destiny here, and yada yada yada. So that's, that's what I initially thought of freedom as, and I bought into that for a while. I think, I think I definitely was like, oh yeah, we have it better here. But as you get older, as you experience things, you start learning about the world. You're like, you start realizing people's concept of freedom is so different that we talked about this before freedom now is like, depending on who's talking about it, it can be like a dog whistle for being able to freedom as a concept of I can do whatever I want, including Fucking over a marginalized community without repercussion or without backlash from the government or society. And so when that's your concept of freedom, that's where I obviously divert like but that's how people's concept of freedom is built up in certain spaces. Freedom in the black community is completely different than that, because freedom in the black community always came out of we're fighting for this. We're we have to work for this, you know, we, we we weren't born with those innate freedoms that y'all had. We didn't come here with the right to vote. We didn't come here on our own freedom. We didn't we didn't have the free will to come here on our own. We were taken here, right? And so the concept of freedom built in our community in other communities is going to inherently be different than what the concept of freedom is in a white community, Anglo Saxon community, white male communities, whatever it is, um, and so I think it's really important to know where the idea of freedom is has been born out of for any individual group of people. Right? Freedom is different for black men than it is for black women or, um, black people who are in the LGBTQ plus space right like freedom for me is I get to get on the metro and sit wherever I want, Essentially, um, well, as compared maybe to a black woman, right? I I get to get on the metro, and, you know, I'm a bit of a bigger guy, like people when I walk through the metro, sometimes people will, like, shrink back and like, allow me to get by. But if you're a black woman getting on the metro, people might not even look at you like you. Might you. People might you. Might be an older black woman with a with a cane, and some dude is gonna sit down and in the last seat on the metro and be like, I like, you know, like it's freedom to sit down is different between genders, between races, between so thinking about freedom has to come from a place of understanding of where other people are coming from. So, but it sounds like you're saying there's no baseline, like we can't baseline freedom. Yeah, there's no there's no objective idea of freedom. The objective reality of freedom is like, I can really do anything I want with the body that I'm given. That's kind of the body and abilities that I've been given. You know, that's, that's kind of what the absolute objective free idea of freedom is to me, at least, like the anarchist. I guess my thing with this is like, so I have a I have my perspective and kind of my philosophy on life, how I go about things, man, I feel like people have the freedom and the choice. And this is a massive generalization. There's people in captivity. I mean people in prison, you know, people in an abusive relationship. So I'm saying this, you know, just blanketly. Jen. Early. But, um, anybody can do whatever they want. I mean, let's just even, let's just say this for the most part, like, even, even, even if you're in prison, right? Like, you still have freedoms. There's shit you can do. You can wake up. You can go, you know, lift some weights. You can go. I mean, if, when they allow you go outside, you outside, you, you know, like you can talk to this one person. You cannot talk to this person like you still, there's still there's still choices and considerations that you as an able bodied person, and that's the other thing as an able bodied person, as an as as a, I'm speaking as a non neuro divergent person, right? Like considering those things as well. Um, but you know, having i for, I would say just the common folk of America has the ability to and the freedom to kind of wake up and kind of go about life how you choose. I do think America grants you that thing. I was talking to Richie about this, like we can choose what job we want to do. I mean, this is not the case in other countries. We can choose what job you want to do school for we can choose if we want to work or not. Go ahead. I want to play devil's advocate so you can. I'm gonna just finish my because the thing what I was gonna say is, I guess my thing is, why does freedom have to and have have to equate to no consequences of that. Because my thing this, how I always approached it was, yeah, you have the freedom to go punch somebody in the face. You do have that freedom. Yeah, you're going to prison. It's an assault. You're going to jail. Like, there you but you still have it. So, yeah, so good freedom, freedom without consequences, is anarchy, like that's exactly, oh, is that freedom? I guess, no. And so that's not for you, man and not, this is a really biblical idea, too. In I can't speak to other religions, but, um, in Christianity, there's a lot of discourse about how discipline is freedom. Understand is basically the whole idea of Islam as well. That's like, yeah, discipline, it allows you to be free, and one with a lot, exactly, and so I Oh, shit, actually. And Buddhist, I mean, that's like a general spiritual thing. It's like, if you give yourself up to a higher being, to some higher power, that discipline allows you to be that idea of truly free from all of the worldly kind of expectations. Yeah, being because the idea of freedom, it only works to an to to a certain point when, in like, an absolute way. Because people talk about the absolute idea of freedom, like, I can do whatever I want, and I can, I can, you can drink as much as you want, technically, treating alcohol as much as you want, but then you're, you might become an alcoholic, right? And so are you really free if you're, if you're tied to alcohol, if you have to drink to like function or to to manage your emotions, right? It's that freedom. No, that's not freedom. But you you do have the free, the physical freedom to drink however much you want. But it comes with repercussions. I can go out tonight and I can I'm free to drink 20 shots in an hour. Yeah, I'm not gonna wake up tomorrow morning feeling good. Yeah, that's consequence I had to think about. So when we think about, you know, the ability to do something specific. It's always going to have to tie back to a consequence. In our mind, whenever we think about our our freedom to do that thing. You know, you can't have everything. You can't have the ability to drink, you know, to drink a whole bottle of honey in one night and wait and and not expect to wake up with hangover or, you know, something or something negative, right? Yeah. So everything comes with, all actions come with, come with consequences. So if you're exercising a freedom and you're taking an action, there is consequences to that, and you have to be considerate of of what those consequences are, or else you're going to be a slave to whatever those consequences are. If you're, if you're if you're never considering what, what those, what those consequences could be, if you're never considering when you go out at night, you know you're, you're gonna wake up with a hangover, you're gonna, you're gonna be tied to so then you won't be. You won't have the freedom anymore. You won't have the, yeah, you won't have the you don't you won't be if you abuse your freedom. Yeah, exactly. Exactly that. You put that way short. Than I ever could have. You're abusing your freedoms. If you're abusing your freedoms, you're not, you're not going to be in you're not going to have the same freedom that you think you have. No, no, I get it. I mean, that's, that's a very interesting I mean, that's data. That's a very interesting you could, I mean, these are life principles. Obviously we can go once again as well as I could walk out on the street and punch somebody in the face. I'm going to I'm going to jail right now. Now I don't have freedoms anymore, at least for the two days I'm in bookings. You know, I mean, my freedoms are that are in terms of the freedom I have right now being in this in this apartment, are severely limited in the things I like to do. But so I guess there's a thing with that, of like, There's levels to the freedom. So there's the personal freedom of the spiritual freedom of, even with me being in bookings, I still have freedoms within that. So there's like, if I allow myself to be in a place to do that, if I allow, if I have, you know, the understanding of self, to say, Okay, I am still in this place, but I have freedom to control my emotion. I have freedom to and once again, some people don't have like, yeah, that's the other thing I want to stress. Some people do not have these freedoms, whether it is, once again, neurodivergencies, or they're in situations in which you cannot display emotion and you can't so I'm not trying to act like everybody can do this, but you know, for the people that can, there's that personal freedom. Then there's like, the, I guess we can call it the societal freedom of I then have to consider, there's the personal one, and then there's the interpersonal one, where it's like, there's other people that are impacted by this, yeah, the personal one maybe could be absolute. Maybe, like, if I guess that is that not the idea of religion is like you. I mean, it may be not an idea, but it's a concept that does get grappled with, like the idea of free will versus fate. It's like, do I have freedom to even make my own decisions? Yeah? Verse, you know, in society, in these constructs of, of, hey, yeah, you do this. This is the consequence, which we also see, is not the same for everybody, you know, and that's going back to my earlier thing, when I was, like, saying I was gonna play devil's advocate. You we had the freedom. You said we had the freedom to, like, choose our jobs and stuff like that. And I know what you're saying, like, it's generally that is true, but when you look at it a little bit more granularly, some some people's choices are different, and that's, that's the issue, right? My mom, she was like, kind of she, she wanted to be a doctor at one point, but she was fast tracked into nursing, because that's where black women, so if you want to be in medicine like you have to at that time, at least. I'm sure it's kind of similar now, but at that time, it was, if you want to be in medicine, you better be a nurse. And then 20 years later, she's making much less money than the doctors there, but she had just as much promise, or what so. So the point is, technically, everybody has the freedom to be a doctor, but depending on who, I guess, technically do they because, I mean, we're getting technical, yeah, yeah. Again, it's not if you don't have opportunity. Because what it sounds like you're saying is you're like, and this is, this is the illusion of freedom in this country, and this is what they sell as this, and I say they as as the controlling state of the country, which right now happens. I mean, well, it's always been white people, but right now it's a very specific type of white people who are, like, no, everybody. We America. We have these freedoms and these freedoms. It's like, I really don't, because, once again, when you get granular, I don't have, like, if I don't have an actual ability, and I'm not when I, when we start talking about like, stuff like this, I don't fuck the theory, like, if there is no practical way for, you, know, your mom or another black woman, that position to get to a point of not, not having to settle with being a nurse, and they can't get to this, to this, what would be, you know, quote, unquote, next level of being a doctor and having it on private practice or whatever, I don't have the freedom of that choice. I can't, I can't, I can't choose that. And that's why, that's why I keep going back to saying, like, I acknowledge a lot of choices. Like, people really don't have. People don't, yeah, theoretically, theoretically, theoretically, I feel like, theoretically, if you are, if you are born, you know, in a living below the poverty line, and you know, you gotta, you're, you're, you're 14 years old, having to take care. Are, you know, your little two little two little sisters, and you know you have no father in the home. Theoretically, I don't know if you have a chance to go to Harvard. To be quite honest, I really don't. I don't know how that would work. Best case scenario, it's just way more diminished than you know, you're some other person that is not in that situation, somebody who's more privileged than you. And so that's, that's kind of what freedom is. More a spectrum than it is, two polar opposites of freedom, or not free or not free. Freedom is, you know, it's the it can be diminished over time, or, you know, it again, that person has the option, technically, to go to Harvard, if that's what they really want, and that's all that they put their their mind to. I guess it's possible and and the issue with that is that's what they love. They being conservatives, or just, you know, white people, they love to hang on to those Oh, but such and such person made it out of that situation as if that's the rule, yeah. And so what that? What that tells me when somebody says something like that, is, you don't understand that just because one person made it out of that situation doesn't mean that it's likely, it's just as likely for other people to make it out of that situation and do whatever it is that they're trying to do. It's not, it's not just as likely that that person you know will go to Harvard Med or whatever, just as, just as much as it's likely that your child, who grew up and went to private school and, you know, was had access to all types of resources, it's not as likely as that person as going to, you know, Harvard Med because of the resources they had, the upbringing, whatever it is. So, yeah, it's just all, all this, I think, goes back to people's lack of understanding and lack of consideration of what other people's identities, different different identities do to their life opportunities. I'm gonna throw in a curveball here, because this, this thought came to my mind, and I give you a zinger. You ready? I'm scared enough. Better be strike three, full count. I'm coming. I'm bringing it. I do you two questions, two parter, do you think black people in America are free? And if not, what do you think would be either? If it's not a metric, what do you think it would take for you to be able to make that consideration, to consider black people for and yes, I'm saying as the whole of blacks, I'm not, I don't give LeBron, because LeBron make a billion dollars a year, I don't care, but I mean the mass I mean, I guess we can say blanket statement, as long as we make up 50% of the prison population. Probably not. Yeah, no, no, the answer, the answer is no, but again, it's all dependent upon what you how you view freedom. But, yeah, it that's such a complicated question that you had to unpack. I think we probably did a better job of discussing that in our in what led up to this, as opposed to like giving like a like a blanket answer to that question, you got to give a blanket. But, I mean, I mean, like, so I guess once again, we can run through certain metrics, once again, being 50% of prison population. That's just not. That's, yeah, absolutely not. It sounds like what we're saying with the thing with your mom, and what we've been talking about now is this access to education. I mean, now we can just break it down by kind of the component parts of like, the sectors of America, healthcare, education. It seems as if, in America, I guess freedom is tied to access. Yeah, and, and I would, I think where I would start with this inquiry is like, what are, I don't know if you've heard of it's like Maslow's hierarchy of news or whatever, yeah, so like that first rung is like the basics, like shelter, food, water or something like that, as long as that floor level is not equal for everybody, like, maybe not equal, but like, as long as those needs are not met for every black person or every person in general. But if that, if those need, if those need shelter, water, food, and whatever else it was, are not met for all black people, then no, you know, we're not free, because you need the ability, you need housing, you need food, you need water to do, to manifest. Your destiny. Essentially, the American dream is, you know, you have the you have the the ability, the resources, everything you need to do, what you want to do, and if you don't have food, which a lot of people don't, you don't have water, which a lot of people don't, if you don't have shelter, which a lot of people don't, a lot of black people don't have those things, then there's no way you can be considered a free person, not in the way that that America likes to think of freedom as, again, I'm manifesting my destiny. I'm taking the world by storm and do whatever I want, you can't, I guess, if we have such large once again. I mean, between prisons here, between, you know homeless people, between you know people, people who don't have access to food and to water that. I mean, that is a large section of it. I mean, there was a lot of, like you said, it's a lot of people, and not just black people. I mean, I'm talking like I'm talking like I'm talking every race now, then. I guess it is ironic that we say we're free, that we consider ourselves the country of freedom, when there's so many people walking around without the freedom and ability to even go get it, get a meal to eat for dinner. But it's the illusion, though, people are, people are wedded to the idea that I can be here and I can do whatever I want. That's why poor or poor white people think that they're free when Trump is like cutting Social Security and all like benefits that mainly poor white people are accessing. Yeah. Yeah, right. Like, you think you're free, though, because back in the day when they had slaves, they was like, You know what? Poor white people, you're not gonna give you nothing, yeah, but one thing you can have is the ability to to place yourself in a higher position on the racial hierarchy than these black people, these Africans, right? That's what we'll give you. And that illusion of like, oh, like, I, I have a higher status than it when race is like, the thing that separates you from the lower class, or whatever, then you're and that is in your race is like, super tied to, okay, I lost where I was going. No, you good baby. You good baby. I'm over here sitting by thinking, I'm losing what you're saying. I'm thinking. I'm thinking about how let's take, let's, let's take Donald Trump. Do we think Donald Trump is a free person? I don't think he is. Oh, that motherfucker got all kinds of things he tied to, but, but, you know, what's the worst part is, like, he's, he's not free from hate. Like, that's like, the worst, that's the worst type of, like, lack of freedom. He is not free from hatred. No, that's really too much to be free. Like, like, there is too much anger in his body and too much, I mean, it seems like that. That's kind of that, that seems to be the flaw in the issue with with conservatism right now, and by not conservatism as as a in theory, but in practice. And what in this hardcore right leaning thing is they're like, they can't even necessarily enjoy the freedoms that they have because they're so concerned about if someone's going to take it. Yeah, I would not consider that a free person. I would not consider that that to be a like, free type of thinking of I am so afraid that the freedoms I have are going to be taken I mean, it's like, if you have a billion dollars and you're scared to spend it, or scared to do anything, is you're afraid somebody's going to rob you. You might as rob you. You might as well just not have the billion dollars at one point. I mean, yeah, so that that, that's the interesting thing. So I guess nobody freeing this motherfucker, man. We just all here chained and shackled to the American way and to the to the I think we're chained and shackled to the illusion of freedom. That's the interesting I feel like free. I feel like freedom at this point is the only thing that's like, kind of free, whoever, whoever freedom is, whoever. I guess the Statue of Liberty, like whoever freedom is, is kind of like chilling. Because I when you when you think of it, I mean, I think there are people who are free, but when you look at the people in America who are free, and we would consider free people that would that we can go to in our personal lives, or just point to it be like, Man, that's a free person, right there. They're not the richest people. They're not, you know, the most successful. Um, they don't have the most of any, I think, going back to what you said, it's a lot of overindulgence of freedom. Mm. Even, probably even having the most freedom. Probably, yeah, no, like, too much freedom. Yeah? Like, no, really, though, um, it really does come down to what people value, though, because me, you don't think that Donald Trump is a free person, just because, like I said, he hates to, he hates people too much. Yeah, he free like, but he thinks he's free because he's, he's the president, and he feels like he has a lot of authority. He, he feels free to do what he want. He, he thinks he's here to do on this earth. You know, saying he thinks he's here to, like, be a dictator. Essentially, nobody can, can convince me otherwise, but he what, what his value is in his his freedom matches what his value was in, right? Like, if, if my value was money, and my value was like, if I can have as much money as I as I want, like I would be free, and I had a lot of money, I would be free in my own eyes. I don't know that. I don't know. I don't know. Just give me, just give me a value. What's a lot of money? Oh, just, let's just say this was your philosophy, and just put yourself in the new if you had a million dollars, and your idea was, if I have a lot of money, I'm going to be free. I don't think a million dollars would be enough, especially not when it's somebody that you go to lunch with who has $3 million I think, I think I'm more so saying, like, what, what is like society's collective idea of freedom under determines, like, who we view as freedom, who's not like somebody here, somebody might hear me say Donald Trump is not free, and be like, What the hell Are you talking about? Clearly, is, but it's like, where the what I value in, like compassion and empathy, he is completely devoid of all that shit. Yeah, and so to me, he's not, he's not free. Because, to me, in order to be a free person, you have to, you should be empathizing, and, you know, being compassionate to other people. And he completely, since he completely lacks that, I just can't consider, how can you operate in this world without those things? Well, because once again, I think that comes back to you like he I don't think he has, I don't think he has the freedom of choice from a from a neurological sense to, like, choose to wake up and be happy about like, like, shit, just being okay. Clearly, he does. I mean, clearly, clearly, he wakes up and is pretty upset about, like, how things are going, and is like, I not only do I need to change I need to change them now. And this needs to be changed drastically. And I'm gonna, like, be highly emotional about my disdain with certain things, um, it's like, I mean, I mean, he is a narcissist. So it's like, Can narcissist be free? It's going back to that to like, like, and that's what you're saying. If you don't have ability to to, you don't have like, if you don't have a choice, really, if you don't have a choice to if someone does something that affronts you in some way, and you don't have a choice to let it go, Yeah, I don't know a lot. A lot of y'all out here is emotionally enslaved. A lot of y'all really, I mean, and I'm definitely part of this, have been part of this. But a lot of y'all really are not free from, like, jealousy, anger, all these things, because you can't, like, disagree with something and like, let it go. You know, like you have a lot of people have to expend a lot of emotional energy trying to get their point across. And it's, it's a lot easier and a lot more freeing to like, just let it go. Um, that's interesting that my, um, the big homie. Big homie Dwayne always say, we talk about this all the time. Freedom isn't free. Freedom free. You have to sacrifice like two. Hey, me and Isaiah. Have an argument. Isaiah is like, Yeah, I think, you know, niggas with blonde hair are stupid. Now I could engage. I could be really upfronted by that, and allow that to this is a stupid example, but, like, just to use it as the as the point, to drive what you're saying home and to get to my point of freedom isn't free. I could, like, it would be more freeing for me to let that go. Yeah, and let that off as a stupid remark, because that's what it is, right? But if I but that's a choice, I then would have to choose to if I felt like you were personally disrespecting me, I have to choose to put that to the side, and that's where the values come in. What I was trying to say earlier was, if your value is more in your, your personal pride and your the perceived respect that that other people's have, your lack of thereof. If that's more important to you than maintaining, like, your peace of mind, then you're gonna go, you're, you're gonna go down the route of, I'm, actually, I'm gonna engage with this, this bullshit, you know, say I'm a, I'm a, I'm a fight this nigga about this, you know, like, if you, if your, if your value is, I need people to respect me and or that that value is higher than then I'm cool with other people not liking me, and I rather just be cool myself. If you would rather assert your you know, if you would rather protect your your your respectability, then that's what you're going to do. And you're going to give up with the freedom to walk away from the situation. This goes back to what we're saying about being on the street, having a moment like moment, like, yo. I mean, that that is this, that that's actually the more realistic thing. Like, okay, you're walking down the street. You bump into me, you know, you big lift weights guy. So now I'm, you know, all played out on the side, and I'm like, yo, you know what? Hell no, I'm not letting that slide. Say, bruh. Say, bruh, yeah. Um, so it's not, but with that being said, it sounds like, and this is, this is a, this is a, and we can kind of like, let this we don't let this one sit and let people think about this and come back and we can talk. This can kind of be the segue to the next episode. It sounds as if what we're saying is, and we've touched on this before, but to be truly free, and even the theoretical sense, because if we, if we were to look at, yeah, you, if you do really have the freedom to do to do something or not, it's only as good as if you can do it or not, and even if you have the ability financially, whatever, if you're not personally sound and don't have your like own values in order. I mean, I just, I don't know. I don't know. I have a hard time, hard time conceptualizing that in my mind. So you know, not to tell people what they value should be, but to tell y'all what y'all value should be. I think the first should be some self confidence and self actualization and self awareness of what you do and don't have, right? So it's not to say neurodivergent people can't be free. Yeah, can be free if you know what, what your situation is, yeah, you have to operate within that framework. I so that's the other thing too, where it's like, once again, the reason absolute freedom is bullshit, because there's always going to be a framework. You can't just do anything. We can't humans can't fly. You're not free to go, goddamn, spread your wings and just start slapping from the top of a building. So, I mean, there's always going to be parameters and and limitations to what you can do. I don't think that is necessarily what, what doesn't if, because if that was the case, then nobody would be free, because we all do have limited Donald Trump can't go dunk a basketball. He can jump, you know, dude probably don't even wake up in the morning without feeling a whole bunch of pain, all doped up and up there. Yeah, I know your game, Donnie, I said, Oh, I see it. Um, that's sick. Not like, not wake like, waking up and being angry, or like being in pain and like thinking that you're dictators like that sucks. Think about, think about being on, think about being on top of the world. I'm president of the free first look at Obama up there. Obama was up there, like, Yo, I'm gonna have to handle this. And we saw what he looked like when he went and we saw what he looked like when he came out. But like, even his energy around it was like, I get, you know, Joe Missoula said this interestingly about Jason Tatum that one time. And you know, he's, like, a kind of erratic thinker. He's someone who probably, I would say, he's probably one of the more free people that there is, because, I mean, he don't care what anybody I mean. So there's this line of, like, there is the line of not caring what anybody thinks. And that goes into being, there's a there is the line of self confidence and self actualization to not care what anybody thinks, versus being a jackass. There is a line we know. Oh, yeah, the people who listen to this are smart, so y'all know what a line is, too. But for the masses who are hearing this, the line is, as we said at the beginning, fucking somebody. Are you harming somebody else with your self confidence or whatever? That's probably around where the line should be drawn, but it's different case. Okay? I say this Joe Missoula, when Jason apparently was went to complain to him about something, and he the scrutiny or whatever, and he was like, yeah, something about like, man, you know, it sucks because all these people are talking about me and I just want to play basketball. And Joe was like, No, you get that like, you get the ability for people to talk about you, right? So when you look at it from a, from a from a standpoint of of optimism and and abundance, to say, Well, I have this. I do. These are the abilities I have. I'm aware of what I have, and I'm aware of what I don't have. Then you can go out there and be free. Then you can go out there and be free within those parameters. And I think that's really, that's kind of what it is. I think at the end of the day, that's where freedom is, freedom within the parameters. Freedom ain't free. You're gonna have to come off of something. You have to come off of something. Yeah, you're gonna have to you, you're gonna have to get, I mean, some, some gonna have to go, if you, you can't say you're once again. I want a whole bunch of money. You gonna have to break that off to, I mean, you're gonna have to, you gonna have to sacrifice this family time. You gonna have to sacrifice some and you have a whole bunch. Okay, I'm free. I have a whole bunch of money now. Someone playing in your face over some money, and you can't walk away from the money. Yeah, or now you have an obligation, like a moral obligation, to give that back to your your community or, like, your family, right? Like you're not even free to choose who you give them your money to, because in your mind, it's like, if I don't, if I don't break off some for my moms, my pops, whatever, then I'm I'm a sorry, I'm a sorry, ass dude, right? Like, you got to give something. You got to take some. It's a blessing to have money, but it comes with responsibilities. You're free to do what. You're free to blow it all at magic, at Magic City, right? You're free to do that, but there's consequences to that. Yeah, right. You're gonna look like a sorry ass. You're gonna look sorry as hell you do something. No, yeah, you're not gonna have the money no more. You're just not gonna have it anymore. So it's interesting, I think, what it comes down to, and that's what we'll leave with, like, it's about knowing what, knowing what you are, knowing who you are, knowing what you have, knowing what you don't have, and knowing what like in not knowing necessarily what you want to do, but going with, like, knowing what you have and what you don't have, what everybody has limitations. I'm not a math whiz. I can, like, just not, that's just not some I'm with. I can do words really well. That's some I really do well, right? So I probably am not going to go, you know, work for NASA in the, in the, you know, space department. I go to communications department. I make some graphics. I can't go work on the rocket ship, once you realize that. And but then I'm okay with that. So now I'm completely free to operate within my space of communications. Oh, I can, I, yeah, I can go to, I can go communicate. I believe I can go communicate for NASA. I can go communicate for Starbucks. Actually, fuck Starbucks. I can go communicate for, uh, damn. I don't like any big corporations. I, you know, I, I can go communicate for UNICEF. There we go, find somebody not as problematic? Yeah, you know, I can go do that. You gonna go communicate for target? I so with the framework of, with the framework of what I have going here, you know, funny shit I would because, you know what, you know they here's a problem. These motherfuckers are beholden to this idea of we need to be for everybody. No Dumb asses. What is you want to talk about a company who did it not know that's like the most scramble. We don't have an identity. We are just picking and choosing whatever's hot at the time to go to that because we're beholden to this money, because it was all the financial decision. So now you call with your tailor between your legs, because actual humans and actual human relationships were harmed by decisions. You had the freedom to make that stupid ass choice, and they made that dumb ass choice, and that now suffer the consequences. So yeah, I would go work with department for photography, because I'd be like, Y'all need, clearly, y'all need help, and y'all clearly have, like, no good black. I'm sure y'all have some blacks, every black person I worked with target corporate, y'all fucking up. I don't, I'm sorry, but I mean, y'all, y'all did a bad job with that one. Um, so it's, it's knowing, knowing, being aware of where you are, within society, within yourself, within your within your, your situation, I think, allows you to be free within a framework. And I think that's kind of what it all comes down to, is being free within a framework. Let's think about this extrapolated just, just for shits and giggles before we go you. Yeah, like, Donald Trump's free in America. He ain't free in China. Go to China and try all that shit. He ain't free. He ain't free. And she hood. He ain't, he? No, hell no, he ain't. I mean, you just so it's like, but this is, it's not just him, it's me. I mean, it's everybody. Nobody is globally free to do whatever they want in some I mean, he can't. He can't go walk around openly, walk around in, in Palestine right now. You can't go, can't go walk around there, yeah, like so there's a framework of, he's operating in this freedom. He's free here. And as we said, I mean, we can't say and that's this thing that, and I want to say this too, because this shit, I need to stop seeing this, this idea that, like the Eastern world, is not free at all, like people have no freedoms. People are just told what they want to do. People are unhappy because they don't have choices they make that shit needs to stop. That is not true. They have freedom. They have freedom from shit that we don't have. You know what doesn't happen in China, Little Timmy doesn't go shoot up the school. That never happens. That does not happen. Our kids aren't free from school shootings. I thought about the other day. I was like, Man, I'm like, legitimately glad I made it through high school without a school shooting. That was a genuine because there were days, but I was like, Yo, this could really go sideways. Yeah. So people have freedom, freedoms from all all that kind of stuff that not being gunned down by a police officer. I mean, there's like, you know, we get to that freedom from a freedom too, but it's all within a framework, and it's all contextual. And I think what we kind of broke down here, and what's what, what the problem with the rhetoric around freedom right now is there this they in, you know, the powers that be right now, and the people in power and white people historically, speak about freedom as if it is an absolute cookie cutter. There is this freedom, and it looks like this. And that's just not true. And it's not only and once again, if you don't want to go to China to see take your ass down to the hood or go to prison, you can go visit. You want to see people not living freely in America. You want to go. You want to go see, uh, people not living freely in America who, because it'll be like, well, they, they put themselves there, all right, you want to go see people not living freely in America who didn't put themselves there. Go to a trailer park. I mean, that does that free? That's not free living. It's not, it's not freedom. That's not freedom. They just don't have opportunities go to reservation. It's not freedom. That's not freedom. Go to the projects man. That's not like peop. We have people in our own country right now who aren't afforded these abilities in the freedom. And when you pull back the curtain and curtain and delve deeper, as we were saying, it's not because they don't want to be in a different situation, they don't have the ability. They don't and when they get the ability, nine times out of 10, they change their situation. The vast majority of those peoples in those situations do not have the ability because of great forces of people using their freedom to be fucking horrible people. So stop using your freedom to be fucking terrible and do it to like, actually help some shit, please. Thank you. Mic, drop. HOST, facts, let me not be angry black I fucking look like Malcolm Gladwell and shit, and I'm over here looking like, you angry black man, for real, right now, I know, man, it's all bad. It's all bad. Um, with that being said, I am Marcus Conley. Um, oh, well, I'm tripping. I'm spirit about this. Yeah, here we go. I'm back. I'm back, baby. Um, no, yeah, with that being said, I am Marcus Conley. I must be out. There we go. And that is poetically correct. And you know, y'all can be free, but it's gonna cost you, so pay the price to live your life. All right, we're gonna catch on next lap. You.