75: What U Gonna Do Cuzz

00:19 Mo Facts with Adam Curry for February 2nd, 2022. This is episode number 75. Two episodes in two weeks, back to back. Yes, we are on fire. I'm Adam Curry coming to you from the heart of the Texas Hill Country and time once again to spin the wheel of topics. All the way to Northern Virginia. Please say hello to my friend on the other end, Mr. Mo Facts. How you doing, Adam? Mo, I'm good. What are we doing, man? Back to back. Well, we owe the people an episode for the one we skipped and to make sure we get back on the cycle because, you know, both our schedules are cycle dependent.

00:56 Yes, we have cycles that need to intersect. Hey, by the way, Mo, in the words of Morgan Freeman, happy Black History Month. Happy Black Future Month. Where the Kanye. Yeah. Oh, is that what he said? That's what he said? Happy Black Future Month? Well, no, he was saying we need to stop focusing on the history and more on the future. So that was. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, it always makes me laugh, Black History Month in February, the shortest month, the calendar. And the coldest. And the coldest. Yeah, that's true. Hey, well, I'm very excited. So I guess we have, is this a little shorter than normal? Will this be less than five hours today?

01:39 I think we should get out of here before five hours. I always love it, though. Always an education. Yeah, so it's going to be going to go back over some things because there's been a common theme that's been running through the show. And what happened, what we discussed on the last show and the recent events in my personal life, I think this show is going to be just a more personal show. Okay. Well, we like the personal shows. And these are always the most interesting to me. So let me crank it up here. Let's get the wheel of topics going.

02:23 We're going to find out what it is. Round and round it goes. What's the topic for today's show? Nobody knows. Well, Mo does know because he put it together for us once again. The topic for Mo Facts with Adam Curry, episode number 75, is... It's okay not to be okay. Okay. It's okay not to be okay. It's okay to not to be okay. And this is a personal show for me, just talking about personal experience, but then also doing it. If I'm going through this, it might be other people out there going through the same thing. And the point I mean by it's okay not to be okay. We're coming up on a week to the day when I found out I was going to be fired. And I'm going to stop using the words separated or parted ways with my company.

03:07 It is what it is. I was fired at no doing of my own other than want to take, want to maintain a medical autonomy. Now, as I said, and I'll keep saying that a company, I'm a capitalist. So a company has the right to do, or companies have the right to do what they want. But my issue is the coercion that went to, you know what I'm saying, that took place. And now you're hearing, well, you did it on your own choice. You did it on your own choice. The equivalent would be, say, a Me Too issue. Right. If a person was to quit their job because they were put in an awkward situation, and then they were told, oh, well, you quit on your own choice.

03:50 No. This is a very tough situation. And so just to be honest with the producers and the facts family, I have been angry as hell. I have been mad. Well, this is very understandable. You put you said before, you've told me how the social contract was broken. And that is partially the world in general, but certainly the whole idea of a corporation in America where you start and 15 years later, you're basically kicked to the curb with a letter is

04:30 a form letter. It's not even, it didn't even have my name on it. That's the, that's the thing I think about. What did that just have employee number? No, it just says basically like an open, I wish I had it here close to me, but it was basically like you to whoever it may concern kind of situation. Wow. Yeah, there was no, no, there was nothing personal about it. Completely cold. And I'll say it, did it end with like, you can contact HR to. finalize stuff or anything like that? It is final. The note was the final, you know what I'm saying? The final, but healthcare and stuff like that. I mean, that's well, they said you'll be kicked off at the end of the month, so they gave me a week to find healthcare.

05:17 Enjoy the marketplace and all the spam that Obamacare brought us there, brother. Oh my God. Like, I mean, I basically had to cut my phone off because all the text messages and the calls. It's the worst. Yeah. Yeah. But my issue is that this government, United States government, you know, colluded with corporations to get rid of the undesirable. Yeah. And, you know, I didn't think this would, I am not surprised, just being as a black man. You figured they were going to get you some kind of way, but I didn't think it was going to be this kind of way. And the reason why I know that sounds very

05:59 unmo-like, but this is what goes on in the back of your head. Like, something's going to get me. I've been on a too good of a run. And that's kind of sad to say, but it is what it is. Now, but you clearly don't feel like you've been gotten or captured because quite the opposite has happened. You've really been able to free your mind and explore other things now. That's true. But what I mean by gotten is a stumbling block is going to be put before you at some point. And the reason why I'm having this show is two things because I'm sure there's people out here that's going through the same thing with less opportunity than me and less, you know, less

06:45 clear path in front of them than me. So I speak for them, but also just to go back and talk about this anger because the angry black man is a trope, right? It's a meme. So you have not displayed any, of course, I know you're you've been on edge and disappointed and of course angry, but you have even you know, we talk all the time about stuff not on the show. Um, you really haven't displayed real anger that I noticed. And that's the thing. It's a even to the point where you can't display it, not with not me personally, but there's a social

07:29 norm, or maybe that's not the word, but it's like an expectation that a black person can't be angry because it's not a good look, right? Because it feeds to the from the last show. You see what happened when you did some kind of anger. Do you feel yourself literally holding back because of that very reason? Do you self-censor yourself because of that? Well, it's a couple of reasons. And we're going to get this. This whole show is about this topic. Okay, good. But, you know, so it's a couple of things. It's not self-censoring from the fact that nobody wants to seem like a whiner. Nobody wants to seem like a complainer. Whatever you throw at me, I'll deal with it.

08:11 That's just being a free-minded person that comes with that. But also, an angry black person is seen as a, I would say, as more of a threat than any other person, especially an angry black man. Even compared to our counterparts, the women, we're not allowed to show that range of emotion because then you're crazy. You get labeled with these labels. So it's maybe an online. There's only one kind I know that. Do you remember? I don't remember which protest this was.

08:47 This may have been back after Occupy Wall Street. I can't remember. But there was this kid and he was protesting and he was, you know, young black, young black boy, maybe like 13, 14. And his mama came out and she grabbed him by his ear and dragged him off home. And the whole Baltimore was at Baltimore. The whole country was like, hell yeah. Why don't we have more of that? That was fantastic. Right. That's that's that would have been okay. But if it would have been his father, no, no, big problem. It would have been another, it would have been something. Yeah, no, I understand. I'm just pointing that out. Is there is there is this one instance that the black mother is revered in America for this.

09:33 And then just to speak since we're on Black History Month, this is the difference between King and Malcolm X. See, King was acceptable because he really never got angry or showed his anger. Right. And Malcolm was the other way around. Yeah. He was, you know, saying not angry, but he could be perceived as angry by the way he spoke. And it's like, oh, we're. we're going to go with the king. We'll go with King's method. We can't go with Malcolm X method. So, like I said, I just want to explain this. This is just me being transparent with people. And it's a secondary purpose to having this conversation. And we'll get through it as we get into it. So I guess we can just go ahead and jump in to the first clip. And this is Dr.

10:16 Fields explains the psychology of anger. I want to tell you that I do think that anger is your default emotion. It's what you go to because it's the safest emotion. Because see, if you go to anger, then you're less likely to be hurt because you've already started a fight. So it's not like you went and said, Hey, listen, I really like you and I want you to want me and accept me. And then if you get rejected, that's painful. But if you go in and say, I don't want you to want me because I don't like you and I'm going to yell at you and scream at you, then it doesn't hurt because you never find out where they would have let you stay.

11:01 Anger is a big part of it. And I do have the freak out. And that happens a lot, like almost every day. But then I go through like a ton of different emotions throughout the day. Sad, you know, all kinds of different stuff happens. That's because anger is just the outward manifestation of hurt, fear, or frustration. One of these days, it doesn't have to be this show, but I would love to know more about how Dr. Phil is viewed by Black America. Because you've brought him up on the show several times in the whole history of just wondering where he stands.

11:40 The reason why I bring Dr. Phil in is because he's like the mainstream media's doctor. So his takes are widely accepted. So that's why I do that as just a good center balanced take on certain things. So he talks about fear, frustration, and uncertainty, I think was the third thing he said. But that is the thing. And it's a constant calculation of, well, I can't seem too angry. I couldn't stand up and have a Jerry McGuire kind of rant because that would be taken differently.

12:26 You remember the movie on the street? Well, yeah, I was going to say, yet, yet Cuba Gooding Jr. pulled it off perfectly and everybody loved it. Right. But that's, I mean, but just the way how Jerry McGuire stood up in the office. Ah, I see what you're saying. Right, right. No, that's not. That's probably going to get you in cuffs carried out the building. But yeah, I mean, like I said, I have to talk about this because. But that is also a pre that is a preconceived notion. I mean, you say that, and I'm agreeing with it, I guess, but I don't know that that kind of depends on the office. Yes, and I'm totally on board with you. I'm not going to fight you. But there are some circumstances where that would be very appropriate, and skin color wouldn't make any difference.

13:13 And this is the thing. This is not exclusive, as I always say. It starts with us. Now, what you're seeing is the anger of other people. They're getting fed up. And one of the most, I don't want to say passive, but agreeable set of people in this world are Canadians. Oh, man. I was talking to one this morning. Yes. Yes, they are. They're very kind people. Their typical mode of protesting is to grouse. They complain. That's all they do usually. Oh, yeah. But you see what's happening there now. Yeah, this is that when you push people into a corner and it's like, okay, I'll take that.

13:57 I'll take that. I'll take that. Now, when you start to affect the way that I feed my kids and my family, and not only the way you feed them, but it affects the status in your home. You know, I mean, because like if you're not a provider, I mean, like, the two main modes is like protector and provider. So it, you know what I'm saying? It kind of kneecaps you on the provider side of it. And then that starts to cause turmoil inside the home or creates an environment for turmoil and that kind of thing to grow. Yeah. So, and that this is where no man in the house comes in. So we got to start looking at these things and say,

14:35 what's going on? We've been telling you that, you know what I'm saying? It starts with us, but now you're starting to see the impact of the state and how it's trying to leverage itself as the fat doe father. Yep. We'll take it. By removing the providing portion of the father. Right. Which, if like I said, and then that you're sitting around the house all day, and then you're angry and you're stressed out and you're frustrated. And then that makes you even tougher to deal with. And then it destabilizes anymore and it becomes this complete cycle. And then it's like there's really nobody you can talk to about your problems.

15:16 Because one of the things about I'm just going to say about black people is the two sources where we do a lot of talking is the lunch table and the barbershop. Yeah. Which these two things have been taken away from us because you can't go to work. One, because we will work from home, a lot of us. And then two, can't have lunch. You don't have a job anymore, period. Right. And then you can't go to the barbershop either. Right. Because it's by appointment. It's one at a time due to the COVID rules. So they cut off your CNN. Well, they cut off our communications line. Well, not even communication in that sense, but like that's where you get stuff out. Like the guys cut it out. Right, right, right, right. The guys kind of sit around the table like bitch about stuff.

16:00 Exactly. Yeah, I hear you. So you take those two modes away from people and it's like, what do you have left? Twitter. Right. Well, that pressurizes it. That causes a negative. That's a negative outcome. Of course. Of course, very negative. So what I want to get into now is he said a clips, and this is from the 1960s. And it's a black man. He's an older black man. It's going to matter because I got a younger black man that we heard before. But I want to listen to the frustrations of older black men in the 60s when they try to be part of America, but it ends up coming out as anger. I don't agree with the moderator nor Reverend Robinson that we want some kind of agreement.

16:42 We want agreement by which we can live or die. You choose. I've spoken to you a lot of times in hatred and anger, and you have not heard me. Well, you had better hear me today. It's because you consider me a vagabond leader that I'm not to speak here. Well, you had better cut those neckties off of them black boys that you put in their district because they don't know what's happening. And I'm from the pits of nigga hell and I know what's happening.

17:20 If you won't listen to me when I make an appeal for the Negroes, because you have no concern for the Negroes, listen to me when I make an appeal for America. You claim you love America. Well, we love America. But you are driving us back and you are making a Samsung out of us and we are going to pull down the building. Wow. Do you know where that was or who that was? I don't know who it was, but he was speaking to a council meeting and he was a community leader. I would say that. That's why he said you consider me a vagabond leader because he wasn't part of the structure.

18:05 Right. You know what I'm saying? And he was just venting like, you know, we love America just like everybody else does. But at that time, it was based off of race. But now at this time, we're hearing the similar sentiments at these town hall meetings and things of that nature. So what I'm just saying is just showing examples of it started with us. And now we're seeing it happen as predicted. As predicted all over the world, and people are being pressurized. And anger can be a very destructive force if left unattended, either personally or to society itself.

18:50 And as we were saying, that the reason I want to go back a little bit to the last show and where we talked about lynching and the pressurization and the fear mongering, that kind of thing. And it left the door open for the Russians to say, hey, America has problems. Let's exploit that. Let's exploit that. Let's give it gas. Let's feed it. That's what he's saying here. And it's not that, you know, people are trying to work with outside groups and, you know, that was the first choice. It's like, you left me no choice. Right. Is that making sense? Is it making it? Of course. Of course it does. And so now that's why you hear people like

19:34 considering like, well, that doesn't seem like that bad of an option. If this is, if this is the way the system is going to go, maybe we need to consider something else. And that's a very dangerous. dangerous thought to allow to linger for a country or a nation. Absolutely. It's happening everywhere, except for the UK, where they just said, screw it. Yeah, so everything's good. So I just like I said, I'm laying this out is the anger is a real emotion. It's it manifests itself in different ways. You have the simmering anger, and I would say that's where mine has been at.

20:20 That's very unhealthy to keep things in is very, very unhealthy. You know that, of course. I do know that, but then at the same time, you have to keep up what they call keep up airs, right? You have to seem like everything is okay. You can't let the kids know it, which is what dads do. Yeah. Right. And that's what kills you. Yes. Yes, of course. Of course, that's universal. And that's certainly for men. Yes. And that's why men in general die younger than women. And that's why black men are the lowest on the life expectancy rate.

20:56 Because one, either you haven't obtained success in America and that makes you stew, or you have obtained obsess in America and it isolates you. Right. Because success is a very isolating thing. I mean, you probably know. I mean, because you're always wondering, like, well, I can't let on that, you know, something's going on because. Yeah, until I started being honest and doing podcasts and then it became really easy. I am who I am. No phony, no fake, no hidden, no trap doors. You know, that's that's what has probably saved me. And I'm glad you made that point because this right here, this coming and speaking on it three or four hours, you know what I'm saying?

21:39 And then, you know, what I do independently, that is the best outlet possible to kind of take the lid off the pot a little bit and let some of the steam out. And now, now, especially since we know the final conclusion of your work situation, now you now you're really free to speak, right? But the fact that I was left lingering and I keep using this word for so long, that adds to the anger. That adds to the like, seriously, like, I mean, you wake up. I mean, because like, okay, I'm just going to give people how I went through the process. You get the letter and you're like, wow, you know what I'm saying? Okay, that happened. And then it's okay.

22:21 Okay. All right. Well, this frees me, which it does. And then it's like, but hold on. I didn't do anything wrong. No. That's that's the part. Like, I mean, I could see if I was slacking off at work or, you know, made a mistake or that kind of thing. You could justify it or rationalize it. When you've done nothing except say you don't want to take part in mass mind control, no offense to anybody saying that took it, but it's like, I don't want to do it. And this is where the race thing comes in. And it's the same thing. It's the same feeling. It's like, if I don't comply, then you can end me at any time.

23:01 And like I said, this is where that mechanism bleeds over to everybody. Well, what no, what happened was it was under the surface. You know, it was just under the surface. It's there. And then it's like, wow, like you really did something to me that I had no, you know, I recourse. You had no control over it. Right. Right. It's very hard for men. That's the frustrating part. It's like, I mean, I'm not worried about the future because the future is going to be what it's going to be. But it's like, you can come in and flip my life upside down on a whim.

23:43 And I don't think the rest of America and the rest of the world understood what that was like. Well, people, the people who understand it are the truckers. Yes, that's what I'm saying. And people are going, oh, okay. I see. Yeah, they're not happy. No, they got big trucks. We need them. And that's the thing. Like, I mean, so that's why I'm saying every, it's a great opportunity for empathy because now people can see the it's not the action it's the threat it's the underlying well when is when is the other shoe gonna drop right which when

24:19 exactly right and and i'm not speaking for all black people but i can just speak for myself as a mr my black experience you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop even though you don't say it even though it's not communicated it's when things are going really good like they were i mean i just look back i mean a year year ago, I was moving into my new home. I had the podcast going. I was gainfully employed. You know, everything was on the up and up. And then it's like, you know what? We, we as society, or we as they want to switch things up. Yeah. We don't want to shake things up. And it's like

24:58 you realize the repercussions of that. We don't care. You know, if you don't want to comply to whatever we say is right, so be it. And it's your fault. It's like it's put back on you. It's your fault that you didn't comply. So what I'm saying is this doesn't have to really do anything with race, but what it did was tap into that racial subconsciousness there. Gotcha. So let's go ahead and get into this. You know, I told, I totally understand. That's triggering. That's all hell. Right. And then, but then, and it's a lot going on because it's like, well, I can't say anything about it because I don't want to seem like a complainer.

25:40 And honestly, I really don't have anything to complain about compared to others. But then you go back to the in the loop again. It's like, but I didn't do anything. Yeah. And it's unfair. Right. I know. It's unjust. The minute you say that, just this unfair. It's like, oh man, okay. Well, there it is. It's done. But the nat, but the natural thing is for people to say, suck it up. Suck it up. You're a man. Suck it up. You know, that's the. There was an interesting video in Ottawa. And one resident, and the residents of Ottawa, of course, are flipping out because it's just noise and hornhonking for days. And one guy is just flipping out and he's yelling at the truck driver. And the truck driver's like, hey, man, we just want all the mandates gone.

26:24 And the guy says, and this kind of shows you, and I understand, I can totally humanize him. He says, but that's just for people to go to their job. That's not a full-on mandate. They're not jabbing it in your arm. I thought, wow, this guy just doesn't get it. And, you know, there's a level of misunderstanding when you're not affected by something. And that's the danger is to say, well, it was your choice. Exactly. It's like, what choice did you give me? You know, I don't trust this, you know, whatever you're trying to give me, whatever it is, just fill in the blanks.

27:00 I don't trust that path forward and I don't want to participate in it. So it's like, okay, well, let me just, you know what I'm saying, snatch your means of being a provider away from you and see if that gets you in line. See, this is the butt-breaking mentality of this vax situation. It's like, won't you just sit on it for a while and you come back and see if you got your senses together? This is pretty much what they did. Yeah. Right. And they're just going to try to break you. And it's like, well, I'm not going to break because I'm standing on my principles. But it also opens, like I said, it puts you in an awkward situation because you've destabilized a lot of men's position in their home.

27:42 The amount of emails I've received, particularly from New Zealand and Australia, from men who, you know, they just email me and they say, dude, like, I got to feed my family now. It's like, I'm going to have to take this damn thing. It's heartbreaking, but that's what they always say. I got to feed my family. And now we see about when we talk about, and like I said, this is for all men, the show is, but specifically, I have to talk about the racial aspect of it because there is that underlying dormant racial

28:20 programming that a lot of us have that this situation triggered or you know saying or it can trigger but does and then throw in for some reason all of a sudden uh historically um black colleges and universities are getting bomb threats just to sprinkle some on top you know like what when is that a thing and then on top of that you factor in oh well we need a woman supreme court justice yeah black one right so all these things is like it all fees into it of this

29:00 boogeyman because it might not be real i mean like i said it might be just in our heads but it you can't fear fear is something that fear can make you sick right and it can and if even if it's not real doesn't mean it's not impactful i was talking to um a guy from nigeria yesterday it was funny because you know the power went out right in the middle of they were he was part of a podcast interviewing me but he had his stuff on batteries and he said oh that's just life in nigeria and i said so how'd it go in nigeria with covet he said man it's like totally totally like nothing. No one knows anyone who died. And he says, We already know the government's corrupt. He says, It's not even from the anti-malarial drugs.

29:43 We just weren't afraid of shit. You know, you got it, you know, you had it for a few days, and then you're better. And he says, I know 500, 1,000 people. I don't know anybody who died from it. And I said, That's crazy because I know at least five princesses from Nigeria. I can't believe that you don't know anybody who died from COVID. And that's the other thing is like that feeds into the nocebo effect. And that's what I'm talking about. Fear, fear can definitely have some definite, it can manifest things once you start to harp on it because I'm a firm believer that everything begins in the mind, right?

30:20 So when you start to think, and it's those when you start to think and you're thinking thoughts that are not controlled, but it's just like your mind is running away with itself, that's when you get in some serious danger. Yeah. So let's just go ahead and get to the second part of the angry black men. Yes, this is this is wonderful. Should you try to pretend that I'm crazy because I want America to be saved riots that goes on in this country and in this city, the city is better than Pittsburgh.

31:01 And then you think we have no right to ask for something. Is it too much to ask you to grant us human dignity? Should we be put down and shot to death for this request? If so, you can aim your guns. What the hell do you think we care about dying if you're going to deny us the right to live? Yeah, man, you don't see stuff like that often anymore. And that's a that last line. What do we care about dying if you don't want to give us the right to live? Right.

31:41 I want everybody to keep that in mind. When you, like I said, when I put my anger is just coming from the audacity and the power that someone can make a decision to impact someone just because of what they won't do, not because of what they will do. If I'd have taken an action or what they did do or what they did do, if I had taken an action and I was sacked, it'd be like, oh, well, I deserve that. You know what I'm saying? I would have got over it. But the fact was like, wow, like, so then you start to wonder, what's next? Are they going to come for your kids? Are they going to come for your freedom to move around? Are they, you know, all these other things start to come because, like, wow, if you took it this far, how far are you willing to take it?

32:26 And that creates a very unhealthy place in your head, space, or headspace to be in. And like I said, I'm being just completely honest and transparent with everyone because hopefully somebody that's in this same space will not feel alone and isolated. I think we all feel that way. I mean, I'm in a different place than you in my life in general, but I've just turned it into my vocation. It's like, to deal with it, and this is the honest truth. I prefer to engross myself in the details, try and find figure out what the next move is, what's being done, why it's being done.

33:07 And that's how I process any anger that might crop up. I really don't have any, even though, like you, everyone has a reason to be angry. And what's next? And what the hell, if they did this, what can happen next? I'm also in Texas. That does make, and I'm not in Austin. Let's put it that way. In Austin, I was unhappy. I was very unhappy during the heavier restrictions, which are still in place, you know, or they're trying to keep them in place in Austin. So that's understood. And everyone finds a way to deal with it. I'm fortunate. And what the real issue is, it's not about the money. It's not about any because money can be made. I mean, this is a world where money just moves around. If you're saying you have a plan, you can get money.

33:52 So it's not about that. It's about the power that, you know, a group of people have over your personal freedoms. Yeah. That's where the rubber meets the road at. And then the destabilizing effect has, and just the callous way it was done. You know, how do you just throw people away and say, well, when you get your mind right, we'll have a spot for you. You know, when you learn to know your place, we have a spot for him. Right. When you come here, right, that's exactly right. And this is where. is where we've been saying this for a long time about men and dresses, specifically black men in dresses in Hollywood.

34:36 It's like, this is what you put on the dress moment. This is David Chappelle in his dressing room. Here's the dress. Come on, Dave. You know what I'm saying? It's funny. Yeah. You know, that's kind of thing. Like, come on, it's just a needle. Just a little prick. It's a little. It's crazy. It's crazy. Right. So when you do that, you're going to trigger some of the racial programming because I'm not immune to it. I mean, I deal with it probably better than most, but I'm not immune to it in any kind of way. Another one of those things they didn't really take into consideration. Right. So now you're starting to see why. Especially from the party that's in charge that loves black people, Mo.

35:20 Well, now we're seeing the ugly side of them. See, they love you as long as you're doing what they ask you to do. When you don't, that's when we get to see the real true colors come out. It's like, well, don't let them move around. Don't let them eat. Don't let them go to grocery stores. Don't let them, you know, make them show a car. In Canada, literally, you're in the grocery store. If you're unvaxed, you can only go into the produce aisle and get food. You can't get like, you know, a shovel or a hat or underwear. They chaperone you, make sure you don't go there. Now, tell me,

36:00 that's a ritual of a humiliation. Sure is. It's not a function because you mean the coof can't be on that aisle. I mean, what are you saying? This is. Yeah, exactly. And when you start to humiliate somebody, it's like, oh, okay, this is personal. I mean, you could take, I mean, they might not mean it as personal, but it's going to be taken as personal. It's like, why would you do that to say you can't go buy, you know, certain goods if you're not, you know, saying vaxed or not? It's punitive. It's obvious. Right. And it's, and it's petty. And those are the things, like I said, those are the things that make people start to lose their mind.

36:39 Yeah. Right. And now I have to do this because with that anger, if you don't do something with it, it will destroy you. So now I want to get into getting some therapy. And this is Clip 2A. Hi, I'm Purpose Taylor, and you're tuned into Black Men, Get You Some Therapy. Today's topic is anger. Anger at its core is a secondary emotion. The primary emotion is hurt. Underneath the hurt is disappointment, and underneath the disappointment is an expectation that hasn't been met. Unfortunately, when we look at anger, anger feels like a much more powerful emotion that we can display and is okay for us to display and acknowledge.

37:18 The key word to acknowledging anger is just that. Acknowledging it. In order for one to acknowledge something, they must be honest with themselves. A lot of times we try to present anger as if it's something that doesn't exist or we like to bury it. The way that anger can manifest itself depends and varies. Sometimes for us as men, anger shows up in two ways: in an internal way and also in an external way. The way in which we internalize anger may show up in some of our own self-destructive behaviors. Sometimes we hurt ourselves physically through self-harm, self-injurious behaviors, substance use, and substance abuse.

37:56 And some of the ways in which we externalize anger can be in the ways in which we treat the ones we love or just strangers. Sometimes it can show up in the form of our impatience, how we talk to folks, our tonality, sometimes even just our facial expressions. I always tell people that being angry is not what usually gets us in trouble. It's how we manage our anger. Well, this is interesting. I'm a big fan of therapy. I started, I did some therapy after my second marriage. I'm like, okay, let me just check a few things here. I think men in general are getting more used to the idea. Does this guy have a podcast? Is this YouTube or where is he doing? Yes, this is actual podcast called Brother Get You Black Man Get You Some Therapy.

38:38 And this was episode 10. He needs to get him some sound advice, which I'd be happy to help him with. Because I like it. It's important, but it was terrible quality. But yeah, it was an important message, but it's lost due to the quality. I'm not lost, but you get my point there. But I'm for this. Is there a stigma on this with black men? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But not a stigma. And the stigma is going to lay on somebody's couch and let them poke around in your brain. That's not exactly how it works. No, I'm giving you that stick. Yes, I got you. That's the perception of the stick. That's the stigma. I got you. Now, like I said before, going to talk to your friends at the lunch table or the barbershop.

39:23 The barber shop or your bar. or you get some older guy who's there and can say some wise shit. Exactly. And then, church, that was the other thing. I forgot bringing it to the church. So they cut off church. Yep, cut that off. They cut the church off. They cut the barbershop off and then they cut the job off. Yeah, next they just cut your dick off. Well, I mean, we know stress and those kind of things had effects on that. So literally, I'm not sure. Is there something you want to talk about, Moe? No, it's not. No, no, no. What I'm saying is that's that's the last thing you have left, and then stress can even impact that. So, um, straight up, yeah. So, so when my point is this,

40:06 is this by design? I mean, I have to ask this question. Oh, because are they trying to pressurize people for a reason to get a reaction? Because the way I'm looking at this timeline, it's February now. Okay. So, people probably have two, three, four months of savings, right? You burn through your savings. Now, here we're at summer. We're at summer, it gets hot. People get a little crazier. People can go outside. I mean, people are not really going outside now because it's 20 degrees. You know what I'm saying? But when it starts to get hot and your money gets low, are we going to start seeing some things pop off in cities? Whether it's just somebody pissed at somebody, you know what I'm saying? Just pissed in general and they pop off or things like we talked about.

40:51 I think that's already happening. Mo, this is already happening. This is already happening. I believe so. I just see the reports like Portland, Oregon, one night, you know, like nine shootings with deadly consequences. What? You know, we don't need to. It's interesting. So, okay. So, first of all, my view, yes, this is intentional. It's all intentional. This is the great reset. I take these idiots at their word when they say they're going to do some kind of reset. You got to break shit to reset it. That's just, I think that's what is happening. And it's part of the financial markets. There's a lot of the wire type stuff going on with everything.

41:36 Real estate is the solution to everything. So we see neighborhoods destroyed, neighborhoods burned. Now, all of a sudden, developers go in. It's happening everywhere. I see it. I'm not stupid. The wire opened my eyes, really. The demolition is demolished. It's the control demolition through people. Yes. It's free. It's like it's free demolition. It's like, let's just make them mad and they'll burn it up and then we'll come back and build it. Build it back up. And well, I saw literally saw the United Nations Secretary General Gorteras. He had a tweet, and the tweet said, you know, here's the priorities for the world, basically.

42:20 One, defeat COVID-19. Two, change the financial system. What? That's what we're dealing with. So something very big is going on. And yeah. I don't know if that was, what was the first part of your question? What you were really asking? If this is on purpose. Yeah. So I think you're right. That's why it's happening to everybody. It's in 1919 again. I mean, we talked about the racial riots. Yes. Yes. I love that. The racial riots of night. I brought it up on No Agenda. Dvorak just, he went, holy crap. And Chicago is primed for that.

43:04 And when it starts to get hot, people's money start to get low. Add some chemtrails. Right. And then not only that, then you add some. Okay, now we can really go out and protest because it's warm, it's hot. You're going to start. I think you're going to start seeing more loitering. Yes. More loyal. And not only that, but mandate. You know what I'm saying? You're going to see more pushback against the mandates. The one in DC was large for something of that, you know, just what it was. But when it gets hotter, you're going to start seeing more people come outside. And this man, the OSHA mandate is not the mandate issue. That's not, it's, but the government did that, like I said, in

43:47 collusion to coerce people. And it gave a tip to the hat to the corporations. Like, go ahead, we won't get in your way. And that's where the real, for me, that's where the real anger comes in because I thought the government works for me. I mean, like, in theory, in theory, of course, I mean, see, that's the underlying thing I'm talking about. It's like, yeah, we say that, but it's like, nah, the government don't work for us. But now it's being proven. So it's like, oh, well, I was right all along. Right. So I guess we can go ahead and get into part two of this clip. A lot of times when people usually get to that point, they usually explode and it causes them to act or do things that they later regret.

44:31 The important piece for black men is that we have a lot of justified anger given the issues that are going on. But we don't want to hold on to it and we don't want to allow it to manifest in a way that's detrimental to ourselves and the ones we love. We must understand that anger can be destructive or constructive. When it's destructive, we harm ourselves and we harm others. When it's constructive, which is known as righteous indignation, it can lead to change and transformation. It's not about eliminating anger, it's about eliminating the destructive nature of anger. We're emotional beings. Anger earmarks our human experience. And in some cases, it can be used for good.

45:09 For example, Rosa Parks, in her anger, didn't give up her seed, and that led to change and transformation and reformation for us as black people. Yeah, I like this guy. And I will say, just thinking about how you answer my question, yeah, there's a stigma of someone rooting around in your mind. You know, you can also say that is ignorance. You know, learn about what therapy is and how it can help you. And a podcast like this is obviously encouraging. Right. But I'll say that two things I want to say. One, I want to point out the Rosa Park thing. If Rosa was Ron Parks, point base. Yeah. You see what I'm saying? Like that is even then. It was, of course, we know Rosa Parks was, you know, it was some stage something.

45:55 Yeah, we know she was. It came two weeks after for the PR. Yeah, after the Hugo her with Hugo Black and the people that we were saying was backing her. But what I'm just saying, if that would have been Ron Parks instead of Rosa, yeah, that would have had a different, different story outcome. Right. So now we have to have this constant calculation in your head: is like, what's the acceptable level of anger? So what happens is, okay, you press it down, press it down, press it down, press it down, and then you explode. Then everybody's like, oh, where'd that come from? He's crazy. And it's like, no, I've just been eating shit for a long time and taking it. And

46:40 men in general in this today's society is expect to suck it up, take it, suck it up. You know, if you exhibit any kind of behavior that's like aggressive, that's toxic masculinity. You know, that kind of thing. So you have this powder keg of being pushed down and even toxic masculinity. That's always been the case for black men because, like I said, all black male anger is toxic, is what you're saying. It's perceived. Right. And then our counterparts, the women, it's kind of celebrated that they can be angry. Yeah. Because, right, exactly. When you have somebody go, I mean, corporations actually look for that

47:22 trait because they can weaponize it, you know, for their business to go in there, be a fire starter, you know. No, that's that's the quintessential, you know, uh-uh. Oh, no, you didn't. You know, that's that's cultural now. That's cultural across all racial lines. That's just what you, all right, respect for that woman. Correct. And you see it like, I mean, because all the time, whenever there's a DMV scene in a movie or a TV show, there's some black woman playing that role. Let me just say what you're saying. Yeah. It's even baked into the archetype

47:58 to say it's okay for them to have that kind of outburst. But for men, it's like, even when you raise your voice, and I mentioned this before on the show, even when I would be at work when I was still physically there in the office, and I'll be mid-thought and like you get a scout on your face when you're mid-thought. People will come by and say, You're right, you're right, Mom? Really? Okay, really? So you have to be conscious, even of that's some deep ass programming, man. It's heavy on all sides, on all sides, yeah. And it's and it's not, like I said, it's not just American. I'm talking about people that from all over the world that were coming like, you okay? You're everything all right. You know, oh man, Mo Mo's got that Kunta Kinte look again, everybody. Okay, back up.

48:42 Right, well, that Nat Turner look, you know, Nat Turner has been turned up, right? So, but that's that's a real fear. And I don't want to be allowed to point, but no, but it sucks to hear this. It's horrible. And just to speak on therapy, now my mom, she's saying she's a licensed therapist. You know what I'm saying? Like, so therapy has been, you know, talked about in my house. Basically, into the family, yeah. Right. But what I, me and her, have this debate going back and forth is. I think the way we do therapy in this country for poor and middle-class people is broken. Oh, I'm sure it is. Because without a doubt, I'm sure it is. Without even knowing enough about it.

49:28 So, because when you have somebody come in and say, All right, we got 50 minutes. Let me tap into your brain and give you some drugs and we'll fix it. Well, not even drugs, but surface that issue. And then they look at their watch and go, Oh, your time is up. You know, let's just leave it right. Put a pen in it right there, and we'll see you next week. Now, hold on, you, I can't bury that stuff back. Now I'm going out to my life for another six days before I come back here to therapy again. And you've unopened or you unearthed this whatever the issue is, and now I have to take this back into my real world. I think that's a very broken system.

50:09 And that's not just for poor people, that is the rich people version also. But the rich people version usually includes group therapy, which are very interesting activities. I've participated in a few, and that's where you really get to expand a lot more and go a lot deeper in, believe it or not, a safe space. But the typical therapy sessions, that's kind of how it goes for everybody. Except for that. But what I'm saying first is you can pay for more. Like you said, you can get group sessions. You know, that's not bad. You're absolutely right. I'm just saying that the basic therapy session is your 50 minutes looking at the watch. Sorry, you got to go. That's kind of the same. But then, of course, if you have money, then you can expand as much as you want.

50:50 Right. But if you're on the insurance plan, no, no, you're screwed. You're screwed. Yeah, you're screwed. And it's like you come home and like everybody looks. And I got to be transparent again. I've never went to therapy before. Don't expect that I will go to therapy. That's just me. And like I said, that might be a stigma. It might be a stereotype or whatever. But I just don't want somebody poking around in my head because that's, and that may, like I said, my mom is a therapist. So that is a very probably ignorant take on it. But it's, it's very, I'll say it comes with masculinity.

51:29 You always want to seem like you're in control of things, even if you're not. That's just like the troping meme of, are we lost? And your dad's like driving. He's like, no, we're not lost. But you're lost as hell, right? But it's like, I can't let the wife and kids know I'm lost, you know, because I'm the navigator. I'm the guy behind the wheel, you know. Well, this is a lot of these things we're discussing to me also shows, and of course, this is also being destroyed, is how the male-female model, when it's in harmony together, works so incredibly well. Because yes, Rosa Parks, if it was Ron Parks, would have been a different story.

52:10 But if it was Ron Parks and he was 80 years old, it might have been yet a different story. So there's all these different types of things that our individual and our sexuality just have on a social scale when you work together is really good. That's just my take on it. And quite honestly, I suck at directions and I've just given that to my wife. I'm like, I'm just going to turn the navigator voice off because I like yours much more. And you tap on the window a little bit to let me know which way to go, which is always fun. And it's funny you say that because that was kind of like the mom was in the pasture seat with the map. Yeah.

52:52 And she's like, I don't think we're in the right, you know. So, but I'm just saying like the stopping and asking for directions. Oh, fuck no. Not going to do that. I'm a man, damn it. Exactly. I'll figure it out. I'll see. I'll see something I recognize. I'll pull over. I'll pull over. I'll bring out the sextant before I ask for directions. Or I'll run out of gas. And at least that gives me an excuse to go to the gas station. And while I'm in here paying, it's like, hey, hey, you know, right. So, but it's, it's, I speak about this, they say it's very destabilizing the effects on masculinity. And that need to hold on to the masculine, it just makes the situation worse.

53:36 I would say. So I guess we stopped at 2B. Let's go ahead and get into 2C. Interesting enough, I'm not a big fan of the notion of getting rid of anger. When we talk about eliminating anger, anger is something that can't be eliminated, but it's anger as something that can be managed and controlled. First, we actually have to develop a vocabulary around other emotions besides just anger and sadness. We need to be able to identify when we feel helpless, when we feel frustrated, when we feel disgusted, when we feel shame. The way we manage anger. anger is to acknowledge that we're angry, but beyond that, we need to know what our triggers are. Knowing what our triggers are helps us to respond accordingly. This is why I tell black men that it's so important to be introspective.

54:21 It's important that we be able to sit with ourselves and examine ourselves and ask ourselves out of curiosity why we show up in certain ways. After that, it's important that we learn to take a pause. A pause is good because it allows us to collect our thoughts and think of possible ways to remedy the disagreement. Black men, it's okay not to be okay. And that's the point where this show comes in at doing the show, the process of it, it provides time for introspection. It occupies the mind. Because I wouldn't know what I would be doing if I didn't have something to do in saying this situation went down.

55:06 You will have a lot more time to just like for it to fester. You know, it's just like, oh, you know what I'm saying? You just harp on it. So that's what the good part of this show. And then the good, it's good to say there's good anger or there's a good way to channel anger. But I think a lot of times people don't know how to do that. That's that's a very untaught skill. Either we pack it down or we or we tell it's an outburst. And those are the two mechanisms for dealing with anger.

55:50 Now, I would say this: two points I made was frustration and shame. Once again, I had to be very transparent. A lot of my anger comes from frustration of being like this. Well, that, and then just at this point in life, being 41 years old, you kind of had your map set, right? Like the kind of things in front of you is like, okay, I'm going to do this for the next 10, 20 years. I'm going to do this. The kids are going to be here. Once they get grown, then we'll do, you know, you're setting up for that, the middle game. Like, this is the middle game. Right. And to come in as just somebody just

56:31 a shitty time in life to be confronted with it. Right. Because you got to maintain what you got. Because that's where the shame comes in. Because it's like, I can't lose my house. And this is this is to go to speak to the guys that wrote you letters. Like, it's the shame part of it. It's like, either one, they probably get their identity from their work. Because like, people are, who are you? Well, I'm an engineer. I'm a doctor. I'm a, you know, that's they speak their vocation. Some people, their vocation is their identity. So if you separate them from that, it's like, who am I? You know, that's the question you have to ask yourself. It's like, who am I? Then the shame of just being out of work for me, it's family members I haven't even told yet.

57:17 Because once again, you want to go back to having everything under control. So the shame part of it, and we talked about sign language, right? It's a shame, insult, guilt need to be right. Shame is a part big part of it. And it's like, if I can avoid this shaming feeling, but then you feel shame because you lied about it. So it's like, so it's either like, damn, like, I can't get away from this. So, yeah, shame and frustration for me are the two biggest things. So, and just from me to you, I mean, you got nothing but shit to be proud of, man. You're changed here. That's the thing. Like, it's being an entrepreneur in itself and working for yourself.

58:03 There's a like there's a certain stigma that comes along with that. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Because it's, it's like you, you, you eat what you kill kind of thing. Yeah. And people that are working, and I could, I can speak for the, I mean, I've been in the working class for all my life. It's like, well, there's a certain uncertainty that comes along with that. That's something that especially, yes. Especially if, but that's seen as a negative. Because people have this for people. Yeah, for people who aren't entrepreneurs, that is the one reason why they aren't entrepreneurs.

58:40 That's exactly right because they don't like that feeling. But when you switch lanes mid-life, if you came into the game, an entrepreneur, that's one thing. It's like, okay, that's that's him. But if anybody, if somebody came to you and said, well, you know, I'll quit my job to start a restaurant. The first thing in the back of a worker person, my like, that's pretty crazy. You feel what I'm saying? Like, even though it's not crazy, the person thought out they were saying, thought out their plan, and that kind of thing, but it's like, you got a good job here. You know, it's like, uh, you sure you want to do that? What if you fail? These are the questions you start to get. Well, that I did go through that specifically when I dropped out of college.

59:22 My parents gave me one month. They said, You're in this house for one month, and either you are back in school or you're paying rent or you're out. And that motivated me. And then I got a job in television, which is crazy, but that's how things go sometimes. And even though that was like the most mind-blowing thing that could happen to anybody, most people around me were like, Well, be careful, you know, you know, show business. You know, it's not, you know, have something to fall back on. Right, that's that's the that's the key right there. Something to fall back on. If there's something to fall back on, either you walked away from it or it's been taken from you, it's like, okay, yeah, you're going to just walk on the high wire, huh?

1:00:07 And now the risk versus reward is greater. I mean, well, the reward is greater and the risk is higher as well, but it's a certain mentality that was being baked into Americans specifically. Yes. That you go to job, you go to school, you get, you get, you know, some kind of training, vocational, either educational, and then you go get a job. And you, you, you, you said you live in that, and uh, you live in that space until you retire. And this is the social contract that's been, you know, written for all of my life. I can't speak to before that, but that was the understanding. And now, for somebody to say, I've done all the right things, I checked all the boxes, I worked hard.

1:00:50 I understand, I grinded my way up, you know, up to where I'm at. And then for somebody else to come in and decide how that goes, yeah, that's where the frustration comes in. I understand. So now we got to go back to show 13, Deconstructing Kanye, because we've seen Kanye deal with this publicly, you know, being called crazy and because, you know, of his outburst and his takes his hot takes and those kind of things. You know, they're just saying, Kanye, just get back in line.

1:01:31 You got a good life, Kanye. You know what I mean? You're a rapper, you're a producer. Why do you want to be an artist? Why do you want to be a fashion person? Like, this state, this state, that's crazy. So now we got to go back. And this is Kanye from show 13, number five. Kobe Brian won five championships. He sprained all kinds of muscles all through his body, tore ligaments. And for people to go to Kanye West, where I'm playing in the highest level of mental sport, I had Mark Zuckerberg wanting to meet with me. You know what I'm saying? I had people come to want to meet with me that are makers of the world at this point. So I'm playing at this mental sport as a black man

1:02:12 post-Pac, post-Biggie, Puff Daddy, Jay-Z in debt, completely control. The management knows how much exactly you're making on your tour, and it's just $2 less than what your house costs. And I'm ending up in debt every year. And then I have a breakdown. I should have a hospital in the back of my room for what I'm dealing with. Don't NBA players got like knees iced every time? I need to just like leave every day, just go right to UCLA for the level of game and sport that I'm working at. But we don't make Kobe's legacy be about one torn ligament. And my legacy ain't about, oh, he got mental health.

1:02:53 That just comes with the level of sport I'm playing at. What you talking about? People trying to sum me left and right. Yeah, that was a good episode, too. So that thing about, you know, people trying to sun you. And so this is the other side of it. Like, because, like I said, I'm a free man and I don't regret anything. So I want to make this clear now. I have zero regrets, but when you make a decision, there's pros and cons to it. And when you start to map these things out and then you start getting feedback from people, it's the sunning part.

1:03:28 Like, you did what? So, like I said, certain family members I haven't told, but other family members that you told, the first thing I got back, like, you got kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They can help produce, damn it. No, but like, just think about that. Just think about that for a minute. I'm saying I don't want to do something for me and my personal health. And it's like, but you got kids. It's like, but I don't want to do this for my personal health. But you got kids. So it's like, I'm supposed to sacrifice myself. And this goes back once again to about the sacrifice is sacrifice yourself if it doesn't work out or you're dead, you got heart issues, you know what I'm saying?

1:04:15 All these other things that come along possibly with it. And of course, it's not everybody. But this is okay. I had to ask this question. We always ask about what's your number. Here's another what's your number? Okay, say we had a gun and we were going to put a bullet in one chamber and spin it. How many empty chambers would you need to say, okay, that's a risk I'm willing to take? Yeah. 10 chambers, 100 chambers, 1,000 chambers? Like, when will you play that game? Because I'm not playing that game. You see what I'm saying? That's basically what they're asking me to do is, just spin it. It's like,

1:04:56 there's 999 chances that you won't get shot. You know, it's like, whoa, it's like, hold on. Well, that's people who don't share the same opinion about what this, what the shot is. And they don't see it as, you know, hey, you have options, you know, and they see that as the easy option. So it's ignorance. Right. But I'm just saying, like, what would be the acceptable amount of empty chambers that you're willing to take that risk with one live round in one of those chambers? You don't have to ask me, man. I'm just saying. So I'm just, yeah, of course, we're in the same boat. But I'm just saying, that's, that's the mindset of, oh, just spin to spin it. You know, I get a version of it like, well, you can't even see your daughter.

1:05:39 So that's right. And she can't see me. That's right. Right. It's the same thing. It's on you, dad. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? How are you not going to take that risk, Dad? You know, sure people something, you must be a bad dad. You want to say let this small thing stand between you and your daughter. Yeah. Well, fortunately, my daughter has the same opinion. So she has the same opinion. Yeah, I'm just saying this is the kind of mental game that they play in sunning you. And they wonder why or how it can impact your mental health. So I just want, I just wanted to point that out because as we've seen with Kanye, if you don't do what's expected, then you're crazy.

1:06:20 Yep. But on the other hand, if you're from other communities and you don't do what's expected, you're innovating. He's so innovative. He's risk-taking. You know, he's a cavalier. He's a Maverick. You know, they have all these terms. Yeah. For other people. You know what I'm saying? It's like, hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, it's like Elon Musk. You know what I'm saying? Like, if he was a black man, like, what? Electric cars. I don't know. Maybe, maybe. No, I'm saying, like, with the, but this is the genesis of the idea. If you would have said that, like, before he actually built Tesla, you want cars around batteries?

1:07:01 Right, but he didn't build Tesla. Elon Musk is not a good example. He's a figurehead to me. He, you know, he was put in charge of Tesla. It was already, it existed already. Okay. Well, I'm just saying, like, the narrative. You know what I'm saying? Like, if, if, whatever, if you're going to take a risk, then you're crazy to take a risk because Elon is African, by the way. He is African. Yeah, he's the richest African American ever in history. We always put respect on his name. So let's go to now. We're going to go to show 41, and I forget what title this. What? I had the title somewhere, but show 41 nonetheless. And this is Tupac.

1:07:40 And he's going to talk about being locked on the outside. And, you know, and no, that's not it. He's going to talk about, you know, getting rich and greed in America. This world is such a, and when I say this world, I mean it. I don't mean in an ideal sense. I mean in every day, every little thing you do. It's such a, gimme, gimme, gimme. Everybody back off. You know, everybody's like, you taught that from school, everywhere. Big business. You want to be successful? You want to be like Trump? Gimme, gimme, gimme. Push, push, push, push. Step, step, step, crush, crush, crush. That's how it all is. And it's like, nobody ever stopped. Just, you know, I feel like instead of us just being like, slavery's bad, slavery's there, bad whitey, bad whitey. I mean, all right, let's stop that. And everybody's smart enough to know that. I mean, we've been slighted and we want ours.

1:08:25 And I don't mean by like ours, 40 acres in the mule because we're past that. But we need help. I mean, for us to be on our own two feet, us meaning youth or us meaning black people, whatever you want to take it for. For us to be on our own two feet, we do need help because we have been here. We have been a good friend. If you want to make it a relationship type thing, we have been there and now we deserve our payback. It's like you got a friend that you don't never look out for. You know, you dressed up in Jews. Now America's got Jews and they got they paid and everything and they lending money to everybody. everybody except us. Yeah, this was back when uh he still talked like that, and you could still get an interview with him like that, right? So that was 92. Yeah, but I just want to show from 68 to 92, you hear the same

1:09:11 assembly. It's the same message, it's the same thing. It's like, hey, you know, you want us to be good, you know what I'm saying, good citizens, take part in this American dream, but you know, you want to dictate certain things to us and not allow for upward mobility. Now, of course, this is not race-based with this shot, but it's still, you know, we're going to, they're kind of picking the winners and the losers. It's like, how can you do that? You know, and it becomes so pressurized that, you know, people, I don't think people really understand where we're at. It's so many homeless young men out here.

1:09:57 It's, it's, it's, you know, and specifically black men, because I talked to them, you know what I'm saying? Like, when they start, excuse my language, like I use on cuss like this, but when they stop giving a fuck, America has a real problem. Like, I don't think they understand what's really going on. You know, they don't. When the homeless people stop caring, when the, when, you know, when the homeless, the hungry, the out of work, this is what you see in the great razignation. A lot of people are just throwing their hands up like, let's go. Whatever it'll be, will be, you know, and it is what it is. Add a sauce on top of that, or we're all going to die in 10 years from climate change, just as a narrative that just floats around.

1:10:41 And then the racialization of everything, and, you know, without any explanation, if you factor that in, then you factor in that, you know, men can't find women, or they can't, if they find a woman, they can't take care of a woman, no family, nothing to live for, no kids. Like, America, I'm telling you, y'all sitting on a powder keg. Now, I don't know how it's going to, the trouble is going to manifest itself, but I see all the parts because I can truly empathize. Am I in a better position than most? Yes. Am I immediately my life's going to change? No. But the fact is, when you come and upset somebody's life like this,

1:11:25 how this normally looks is you're being evicted. How this normally looks is, you know, you had to pull your kids out of certain things or, you know, things that you were aspiring to buying a home and those kind of things. Now, my down payment, I got to live off of until I find another. When you start dashing people's dreams like that, it's a very powder cake. I know I said it, but I want people to understand, like, it's a reason why there was a social contract. There was a net, just out of the goodness of the heart. It was, if these people get pissed off enough, it could be real trouble.

1:12:06 Yeah, and this kind of brings in your demolition man theory. Yeah. Because what? They pushed them to the last point they could go underground. Once you put me underground eating rap burgers, it's like, what? What? What do you want from me? You know what I'm saying? Like, where's the lose for me? I'm at the bottom. You know, so yeah, that's why I keep harping on the demolition man thing. Once you push people underground and that, you know, they get comfortable there. And it's like, well, the only thing between me and success is those people, whoever they are,

1:12:46 you're going to get a natural reaction. And Tupac got another clip from him. He's going to explain that. Once we stop asking, then demanding a start. It's interesting how hip-hop rap music in the beginning or a song like Grandmaster Flash is the message where basically they were saying, you know, it's like a jungle sometimes. I wish, you know, I wonder how I keep from going under it. The whole root of what that song was was basically saying, look, these are the problems here. You know, and here we are 10 years or plus later. The problems are still there. And the intensity of the music has built to the no hope, the I don't give a attitude.

1:13:25 How did we get from Grandmaster Flash the message to where we are now in hip-hop? Again, you have to be logical. You know, if I know in this hotel room, they have food every day, and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat. And they tell, and they open the door. Let me see the party. Let me see, like, they're throwing salami all over the. just like throwing food around. Well, they're telling me there's no food in here, you know what I'm saying? Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in. You know what I'm saying? We are hungry, please let us in. We are hungry, please let us in. After about a week, that song is going to change to we hungry, we need some food.

1:14:07 After two, three weeks, it's like, you know, give me all the food racking our door. After a year, then you just like, you know what I'm saying, a picking the lock, coming through the door, blasting. You know what I'm saying? It's like you're hungry. Yeah, and that's why you see the trains. I'm not, we're seeing stuff like people are robbing trains, people are walking away from their job in mass. This, what this symbolizes to me, and just like I said, my experiences, people are unplugging from society. Uh, and I don't understand, I don't think people understand how problematic that is.

1:14:50 You know, uh, it's some well-armed uh, you know, elements in this society that can make things very hard. And that, like I said, this goes from Tupac from 1992 was the first clip to 1994, and you could hear like the disin you know, saying disenchantment with the system. It's like, you know, well, and even at the same time, he's it's he's achieving so much success personally, but he was seeing things get worse, you know, for people around him. So, as I said, I just want to bring this, you know, bring this to the light. Yeah, because it's really

1:15:33 people weren't listening, and what's cool about it in a sick way is that hip-hop was just completely commercialized, culturalized, and people, the words just became meaningless, just became a story, didn't become fact or truth or reality. But hip-hop is the voice of the underclass, sure. It's you know, even today, we need to listen to what these kids are saying. And I don't say I don't speak kids disrespectfully, I'm saying the young, like once they get to the point where I don't even care anymore.

1:16:13 When you get to that point, that's when a person gets to the point where I don't have anything to lose. Yeah, that's a very dangerous place to be. Now, luckily for me personally, I've seen a person go through a change like this. Uh, my father and my mother, they went back to college, you know, saying in their 30s. I mean, literally back to college, not like go to uh uh Phoenix, you know what I'm saying? Not like I'm talking about picked up the family, uh, quit their jobs, and because my dad saw, he was like, okay, uh, in 84, 85, he's starting to see like the jobs leaving the country, you know what I'm saying? So he's like, well,

1:16:58 this job, me, because he had a good job, he was a technician, he had his, you know, saying he had his, he had the equivalent, what it was, two-year degree, and he had already achieved enough credits to get it, but you know what I'm saying, he hadn't, you know, didn't know that he had enough credit, he was just still going to school. And he finally realized, and him, me and my mom sat down, like, you know what? If we want a better life for our kids, we need to make a decision. And they packed up their things, packed us up, and we moved to a college town and they went to a university. Now, when they got there, this is where I'm going with this. This is where the no man house, my dad ran into it because they told him it's like, well, because they couldn't find daycare for me because he was there.

1:17:42 So, and the social worker literally told him, like, well, if Mr. was to leave the house, we could find daycare for Mo. Wow. All right. And the reason why that was what year? The 80s? 1984. Wow. Yes. So this is not some antiquated thing. This is this is I've lit most of the stuff I talk about on this show. I've either lived it or one degree away from it. And my dad was like, hell no. I'm like, he basically cussed the lady out. I mean, that anger, like, once again, like, what, what are you saying? Even to entice. Yeah. That's insane.

1:18:28 But it was said, I mean, like, normal, like, hey, you know what I'm saying? If he leaves, we can give you all the help you need. And I'm seeing the same thing crop up now because when you lose your job, you lose your insurance child protective services. is a very odd division of government. Well, I have a whole, I could say, I have a, yeah, it's very ham-handed at best. Let me just say that. It's one approach solves all problems, which in these cases, no family is the same, no child situation is the same.

1:19:08 Like, I don't want to say it goes too far down that rabbit hole, down that rabbit hole, but and we'll talk about that on upcoming shows, trust me. But the fact that what I'm saying is when a woman is presented with the state, which can't provide, right? She's looking at her man like, you ain't working. Yep. And in some mind, like, well, you wouldn't even, and then it becomes, and it's not my personal situation. Let me make it very clear. But when she looks at you and say, all you had to do was take a shot. You know, right. Then she's like, well, this government will offer me Medicaid or Medicare, whichever one it is. If you're not around, then I can get help. I can get daycare. I can get this.

1:19:52 We're going to see a No Man in the House 2.0, I believe. And the cool thing about it is previous to this show, because this is coming from, and I know there's a lot of throwback clips, but we have to look at them in context now of, you know, saying in a certain way that we haven't looked at them before. But long before me and you hooked up, you and John were doing the No Man in the House because this is actually from a No Agenda clip. I had covered it as well, but this was from one of the shows that one of the producers sent me back for show two. But this is a recap of No Man in the House one.

1:20:30 Before we moved into Pruitt Idol, the welfare department came to our home. They talked with my mother about moving into the housing project. But the stipulation was that my father could not be with us. They would put us into the housing project only if he left the state. Oh, yeah, that's right. The state. I remember this. And like I said, that was then.

1:21:09 Now we're talking about 1984. Yeah, Mr. San if you just leave, everything will be all right. We'll stand in as the father for you. And I got a weird feeling, an eerie feeling, this is going to be the scenario once again. Because once you run through all your savings, once you run through, you know, saying every option you have, there's going to be one main difference, and it's going to be a digital payment with a digital wallet with a central bank digital currency from the Federal Reserve. That's how they change the system. They're going to remove retail banks and you're going to get direct pipeline to the government, which gives them the ultimate control of giving you something extra or taking something away.

1:21:56 And they can cut you off any minute. You didn't do this. You didn't get your update. You know what I'm saying? Your kid's not updating on their shots. Or you watch the wrong Netflix show. Or listen to the wrong podcast. Dude, XNA on the Oddcast Pay. I'm sorry, but I mean, like, you know, you know how it goes. I mean, this is the times that we're in. I'm there with you. So let's just get into this second no-man clip. The welfare department had a rule that no able-bodied man could be in the house if a woman received aid for dependent children. If a man lost his job, he's looking for work. He still had to leave the home.

1:22:37 And there was even a night staff of men who worked for the welfare department whose job was to go to the homes of these welfare recipients. And they searched to find if there was a man in the home. I remember also our second episode talking about this, how mind-blowing it was to really understand in depth what had gone on and what's still going on. And it's coming back before in 1984 was going on because it wrap up the story of my personal story. My dad was like, before I leave, we'll have to send Mo to live with his grandparents. With his auntie and uncle in Bel Air. Right. No.

1:23:18 With grandma and grandpa in rent control apartments, which IE was in the country, they call them projects, but there were rent control apartments. And literally, you would see men running out the back door. When the inspectors came. Yes. Yeah. So I've, like I said, I've lived this. And so now it's like, okay, now. now I see what a state set with this. Because whether I'm right or not, I feel like there's an enemy trying to break me to their will. And I don't care how kumba ya or namaste and all that you are. When you feel like you have a target on your back, it's going to make you angry.

1:24:03 Yeah. It's going to make it's going to make you angry. Now, like I said, my anger is different because I do have other options before me, but that still doesn't negate the fact that someone arbitrarily just threw, you're saying a whole damn wrinkle in my whole life behind what? For what reason? For what outcome? Yeah. Again, I only have one answer. What is that? I mean, like, say it one more time. It's intentional. It's intentional.

1:24:42 So then, so if it's intentional, what is that? Now that ratchets it up the anger. It's like, if it was ignorance, it's like, okay, they're just ignorant. You know, I mean, even though I'm mad, you know what I'm saying? They was ignorant. You know what I'm saying? It was an ignorant mistake. But if it's intentional, now I got to see like, how far are you willing to take it? And I think that's where a lot of people, you heard one lady said about the mask. You know what I'm saying? It was in the news. I'm going to show up with all my guns loaded. Did you hear? Did you see that? Did you see that clip? I didn't, but I understand. I understand it. She was at a school board meeting. She was like, I'm going to show up. When you start hearing people talk like that,

1:25:25 somebody needs to dial back the pressure somewhere. Well, I think Canada will lead the way. We'll see what happens with these truckers, and that will be resolved one way or the other. And it's going to happen pretty soon. I don't think this will last very long. And you know what? That's what we differ at. And this is its perspective. Because this system, they know no stop in my mind. They know it. No, I don't think we differ at all. I'm saying that protest is not going to last very long. One hour. Oh, you're talking about the protest. I thought you're talking about the pressure. No, no, the pressure is on for a long time. This is just the beginning.

1:26:07 We're just getting started. Okay, I misunderstood you. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, I'm with you on that. This is why we connect so well. We know that these are reptiles doing this. Like this, like, I think it was Nillie Fuller said, don't be confused to think that they're confused. Exactly. It seems like they're like, what? They're all over the place. Like, what are they doing? Do they know? Can you ask that? Do they know what they're doing? I mean, do they realize? That's the thing. That's the question. Like, don't ever begin your sense. When you're talking about they, capital they, don't ever begin your sentence and say, do they realize? No, they do. They realize what they're doing. And

1:26:47 I've been caught up in it. And like I said, it's the frustration and somewhat of the shame because if you're never not worked, like, how do you say that? I don't even know how to say that. Like, I don't work and I'm not working. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's a and like I said, that's a personal issue, but that's still a weird sentence for me to say. But you are working. You may not be employed by a company, but you are working. I'm staying working. I'm definitely working. What I'm saying is employed. Let me say that. When you say you're not employed. Yeah, but you don't say that. I say I'm self-employed. Right. But I'm coming from a place of being a worker for 25 years.

1:27:30 Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I know. That's a weird sentence to put together. But I also, I also know you a little bit and you've got it all in you. You are, you have everything you need in there. Oh, yeah. And this show is not all doom and gloom. But what I'm saying is first, we have to understand what it's like. This is not solely about me. Yeah. Because it's people out here that made the same decision I had and they don't know where their next check is coming from. Right. Their next dollar is coming from. Those kind of, you know, so I have to speak for the experience to say, one, to them,

1:28:11 go talk to somebody. For the people that know people like that, reach out to your brother. You know what I'm saying? And your sisters, whoever saying, but for men, like I said, I'm making this show about men because the expectation to provide is baked into our identity. Absolutely. So that's absolutely. hardcore. I mean, like I tell my wife all the time: if people come to our house and it's messy, they're going to look at you. If we're put out on the street, they're going to look at me. That's just the social norms of it. Nobody's going to be like, wow, did you see Moe's house? It's really a mess.

1:28:54 No, what is he doing over there? They're going to look at the woman because it's just assumed that the woman takes care of the home. Like I said, that could be totally far from the truth, but social expectations I'm talking about and social norms. So we talked about no man in the house, and my dad, he was placed with the same thing. And he was like, you know what? I'm not going to come to the no man in the house. So they sent me to my grandparents, which I think it had an impact on me to live with older people for a year and a half, two years, and gave me a perspective like no other because

1:29:38 their wisdom was constantly, you know what I'm saying, just showered on me. So, and you just, I mean, like I said, you just get another kind of love from grandparents. You know, it's a little different from parent love. So I don't regret that. And my parents don't regret that. But the stigma and shame my father felt. See what I'm saying? That you had to send one of your kids away. And we saw this with the Great Depression. See, these things, like I said, we it's not harping on history. We got to look backwards. The Great Depression, a lot of people had to send their kids away because they were starving.

1:30:19 So it's like here we are again. I wasn't starving, but if they wanted to have a better life, then they had to send me away, you know, that kind of thing. So it's, and the shame that he felt, even to this day, he apologizes to me. It's like, dad, what are you apologizing for? He's like, well, you know, I had to do what I had to do, you know, for the better life. That kind of thing. So like I said, I've experienced someone in the middle of their life make a decision that's a better decision in the long run, but it's going to be hard. It was hard those years when they went to college. I mean, it was like the one, two places we ate out was like Domino's pizza

1:31:00 and Wendy's. Like we would actually get like go to Wendy's like a steakhouse. And I remember to this day, like with the ketchup, like pumping the ketchup in the cups. And man, you would think we were going like to Scissor or something or Root Chris. Yeah. But like that's the, you know, him making the best of a tough situation. So this next clip is from the family, and that was the Christian Illuminati basically. Oh, yeah. Ran by Doug Cole. And this also comes from the Kanye episode. But this is the family, the black guy talking about, you know, the frustration, but also dealing with anger as well.

1:31:43 And often men, especially who are confronted with themselves, they don't like what they see. And they don't like it being put in their face and spoken to what it actually is. And it's ugly. It's debased. But my point is, is the shame keeps us locked in our circumstances. And then if we don't deal with shame, right, we start blaming. We blame our wives. We blame white folk. We blame black folk. We blame the economy. We blame doctrine. Everybody. There ain't nothing scarier in this country than a free black man speaking. Why? Because we've been through some shit here.

1:32:28 That was another good one. Yeah, so that's that's the with all this anger said, and it may be justified that I feel angry. I put myself in this position, right? To be dependent upon a company for this long. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's their choice at the end of the day, whatever they want to do. So what you have to do is reflect on yourself and say, how will I not get myself in this position again? Right. Like, right? But it's, you want to absolve yourself of your, you know, what you took part in, even though there was a social contract, even though there was an understanding.

1:33:09 At the end of the day, if somebody else feeds you, you're at their behest, right? You know, so this is what we have to accept. Well, a lot of young people younger than you, about a decade younger, are just kind of now figuring out that there's no free lunch. Yeah, it's like if you. you're not, no, but if you accept something, then there's going to be strings attached to it, right? And it's not even about the free lunch, it's about there's no lunch, there's no lunch, right? Exactly, you know what I'm saying? Like, even there's no cafeteria, you know what I'm saying? You had to go out and kill what you eat, or you had to eat what the cafeteria gives you.

1:33:53 Yep. Uh, well, I'm sorry, I apologize, you know what I'm saying? But uh, for stepping on you right there, but no, no, it's okay. No, it was just like I said, I'm in my own head right now, and like I wanted to do this episode, and I went back and forth on it, still about the shames. Like, well, you can't let you know, you got to keep up heirs. That's that's the thing. You got to keep up appearances, you got to keep up, you know, uh, everything is all right. And well, what you're what you're doing here is, um, I think it's beautiful to listen to. You're um venting, you know, yes, you've built your own barbershop here.

1:34:31 I may not be the right guy to uh be saying stuff back to you, but as a man, I can, and I think everyone who listens has the same feeling. It is kind of like, hey, we're in this barbershop. This brother over here has got some shit to say, and it's good, it's good to hear it. And don't underestimate the fact when we come and do this, it's very helpful. A lot of the times when I make shows, it's what I'm either processing or um or being made aware, like, oh man, we need to keep our eye on that, or maybe people are going through this. And this is not about me because, yes, I am angry, were angry, may continue to be angry, but it's how do I channel that anger into something constructive?

1:35:18 And that's what I hope people take away from this: whether you're dealing with a loved one, a wife, a wife dealing with their husbands, husband dealing with their kids, or dealing with themselves, or brothers, whatever else. Realize even when people say they're okay, they're not okay. Yeah, this is a very not to be okay. Tina and I remind each other of this often. If someone has a weird response about something or you know, families, just stuff. And we always had to say, Okay, let's just look at their situation from their viewpoint for the past two years. You know, let's just bring that in for a moment so you can kind of okay, uh, all right. So, someone may be a little more on edge than I may be,

1:36:01 yeah. And they may be dying for you to say something to them, just like I wish somebody would ask me, Am I okay? Yeah, uh, and that's why, like, when you separate somebody from their job, you've separated them from a part of their culture. It's a, it's, no, we have work families, and somebody that sees you every five days a week, every day at the lunch table, they can sense something ain't right. Uh, and it's like, do you all right? It's like, nah, honestly, I ain't you know, and then you get in the conversation about the time the lunch is over, you're all laughing and you left it there, that kind of thing.

1:36:44 So, at least, like, because the people that you work with, they share your social economic status. No, it's it's not just a job, it's very important. It's an important part of life, and they can understand when you say, Oh, well, you know, my transmission went out, you know, you know, saying a couple thousand, like, like, because they understand, like, we make similar money, so I understand how that hits you. Whereas, if somebody either they don't have a car, or they don't have or they just have the money, they might not understand. So, this is the separation for that. I would say to people, start forming your own groups.

1:37:24 I think that's why the no agenda meetups were so important. Oh, yeah. I think, yeah, I think that's why the Facts family, when they come to live chats, they look forward to seeing each other. Um, so yeah, so it's you have to start forming other groups because we've been me personally, no church, no barbershop, no job. Uh, that is a very isolating feeling. Now, I'm playing this next to the clips. Uh, it's four clips, and this is a 1960 frustrated uh, man demands American Keep Their Word. The reason why I'm playing these next four clips is when I hear this, I hear my father, and then now I also hear myself.

1:38:06 Uh, and it probably hopefully it gives you some insight to that racial program I talk about, how it how it forms. So, let's go ahead and get to the first part of that clip. You know, this this revolution is filled with so many ironies, really. Uh, first, you tell us that it is men. manly to keep your word. All right, if you are a man, you keep your word. And now, all that the black people in this country are demanding, and even the black people in the whole world are demanding, is that you keep your word. You told us we were free. Well, then, show us that we're free. You told us that there is justice, equality for all in this country.

1:38:48 Well, then, stick to your word and let us see the justice and equality for all. Or else admit to us that you're not a man. You're a word. You're afraid of us. You're afraid to give us equal stand. You're afraid that if you give us equal ground, that we will match you and we will override you. And if that's what you're afraid of us, then tell us that just what you're afraid of. But don't keep hiding it from us and holding this up to us. And every time we ask you for something, you give us a little bit of something. And it's all tokenism. We don't want tokenism. And there are most black men in this world that don't want charity. And yet, still, every time we ask you for something, you give us a little piece, a little piece. You're playing games with us.

1:39:30 We're not children. So you hear the intensity. Yeah. And like I said, that's my thought. Like, that's what time my father is on. Like, even in his age now, he's an intense person. So that's, like I said, when I hear shit. Man, you're like looking at Fred Sanford. Well, I'll say this. My dad is a mix between, I would say, more George Jefferson. George Jefferson. Okay. Yeah. That's it. That's, I mean, like, seriously, and maybe James Evans, like, and Bill Cosby. Like, if you put all of those in, like, a.

1:40:10 Oh, that sounds pretty cool, actually. Because one, charity, what he made there. And that, that's what makes you say, I'm good. Right? And even by somebody asked, oh, now I'm good. Hey, hey, you're saying, you need something? Now I'm good. Even though you may be broke and don't have a dollar in your pocket, before I let you know, I'm not good, I'll go hungry. And maybe like I said, maybe these is the most ignorant mindset to have. But when you have the appearance thing of, well,

1:40:52 if I ask for something, that only reaffirms in your mind that black people can't do for themselves. So we got to fake it till we make it. And like I said, I'm going through the mental process now in my own head and transferring it out to across this microphone for people to feel me. Yeah, I feel you. It's like, okay. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you. Please ask. Please stop me at any point and ask because I want to make sure we understand it. When we first connected and you reached out to me and we're chatting back and forth.

1:41:32 And then I think I suggested, hey, we should do this as a podcast. Now, I don't even know if you can ask this or if you want to, but did you, for at least a while, think, hmm, we'll see. Let me just give you a pleat, complete, honest answer to this question. One, I would have would never ask you to do a show if you didn't ask me. Right. That goes that I'm good, which that's an ignorant thing. Like, that would have been dumb of me not to, but that goes to the I'm good sense. Like, right. I never asked for help. A lot of things with the show, it comes out of that.

1:42:15 It's like, man, I could do this. No, no, you actually came offering me help. You never asked me for anything. You were telling, you were giving me information. I was asking you for stuff. Right. So I'm just saying, that's how you know what I'm saying, validate your place in life and in the world. You know what I'm saying? Like, I got this. I got this under control. Now, you asked, in the back of my mind, what do you mean in the back of my mind? Did I think you were just blowing smoke? No, I mean, or that I was, was I, I don't know. I'm just, I'm just curious. No, just, I mean, like, I mean, so. Did you at any point feel, oh, here's this white guy going to help the black guy?

1:42:54 No. Okay. I didn't ever think that. I thought. But I, but I can, but you understand why when you talk about your programming and I'm hearing some of these things, that would be an there you go. We've learned something. The things I think you're thinking because of a small difference in us are not the things you're thinking. And the shit you're actually. actually, you're actually pissed off or worried about. I'm not considering. Yeah. And I'm going to ask you a question, give you a scenario. If you'd have asked me to do that without me proving myself,

1:43:34 then I would have probably took that approach. But the fact that you waited to see and you decided to work with me based off of my ability and skills, it never crossed my mind. Okay. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because if it had been the first time, it'd have been like, oh, this is an outreach program or a charity. Because I got accused of that. I'm sure you did. Yeah. But they don't understand the work that we did. You're saying prior to it actually coming to the public. Correct. Correct. That we both got to some understandings. So, yeah, it's the timing that you chose to use of saying, hold on, let me wait. Not even wait, but I'm asking this person because I've seen that he's a valid,

1:44:16 you know, he's capable of this. I liked our conversations. I thought it was fun to record them. Right, right. Which, like I said, what y'all are witnessing, it is basically what we would do. You're saying in general. But this is my takeaway. Very important, actually. So the stuff that people were worried about, and that, of course, I also crossed my mind. It's not something at all that you thought about. Even though, of course, I had no reason to think that because you're absolutely right. It was, I was only thinking of a show when I thought, holy crap, we're talking for an hour. We should do an hour and record it. Little did I know it would consume like an entire day.

1:45:01 I'm just kidding, Mo. I'm just fucking with you. You know, and but still, that was what was circling around, and you had no thoughts of that whatsoever. And then, you know, I'm hearing today, of course, stuff I understand. It's universal, but stuff that I didn't know. And that's that's kind of what this show is about. Like I said, this is more of a personal show because oftentimes I make the show about the content, whatever the story is in the media, and just how I perceive it. But this is an inward look to say what's going on outside. This is how it affects me internally. You didn't tell me that, or us, that you witnessed the no-man about the house when we did that show.

1:45:44 Right. Why not? Because it was more about the story and not me. Now it's that's why I say a lot of these clips they're throwback clips, but we're looking them at the and me internalizing or how it affected me personally. Before it was about the presentation that I was trying to give on the topic. Got it. So this is like I said, this, I was a little leery about using throwback clips because I want to make sure we always have fresh content. But in these, you got to remember, I grew up with Tupac. Yep. You know what I'm saying? 92, I was 12, 94, I'm 14. No, you were consuming that shit like no one else's business.

1:46:25 I was living it, not consuming it. You were living it, right? I'm actually because that 50, I mean, of course, when you were a teenager, like rock stars and those kind of things, you know what I'm saying? They you actually live it, you know, uh, because it has an impact on you. But you know, we were living this mentality. So I'm just going back and saying, this is what, this is how these things stack up, you know, and shape me. And like I said, these next three, well, four clips total, but these next three clips is that what shaped it shaped my mindset via my father. Like you don't ask for help. You know what I'm saying? You don't let nobody know, you know, you need help.

1:47:05 Yeah, I'm good. You don't ask for charity. And this is not exclusive to black because one of the famous scenes in an awesome movie, Cinderella Man, when he finally had to go to the welfare office and get help, once he got back on his feet, he went and paid it back. So it's a very old masculine mindset that you don't take charity, that you don't take help. No, I don't need no help lifting this. No, I got, you know what I'm saying? You don't ask for help. But what I'm saying to people is it okay to ask for help because if you're feeling like I'm feeling, and I got stopped right now, you, of course, I thank you, you know what I'm saying?

1:47:48 But I also got to give thanks to my man E-Class. He's been through this process with me through the whole thing. And that's what kept me sane. The conversations me and him having, you know what I'm saying, behind the scenes. Because we worked at the same place. I know he's really important to you. Yeah, because we worked at the same place. So he understands what I had to go through to where I got. you know, and, but at the same time, he took the jump off the porch earlier than I did on being an entrepreneur. So now I can go to him and ask him, like, okay, that kind of thing. So you never know how important your brother is and how important, you know,

1:48:31 they are to you. So I got to stop now and just thank him. As well, like I said, we, of course, we do this here publicly. But I just want to give him his flowers now while he's living while he's living. Yeah, because, like, right, because that's the, you know, because a lot of times I'll be like on edge, like, man, like, I can't believe they people playing with me. Right. But he was like, man, it's all right. Because he remind me, like, you reminded me, you're a free man. Your future is bright in front of you. Hell yeah. Right. But they, they upset my whole apple cart. They sure did. They sure did. You know what I'm saying? I was on the verge of buying another property and all these other things. And like, they just kind of just came in and like just kicked dirt on all that.

1:49:13 So that's where the anger came from. But we can go and get to the second clip now. Well, big man, I've seen my father have to put up with all kinds of stuff. He was a big man. He raised a family. He went down south and he had to go around to the back door with his wife. We're not asking for anything. We're not asking for any favors. All we want is what's ours. Now, there are many black veterans who are coming back and they're mad. They're angry. Do you think that they're going to sit down through this? Our fathers didn't have the knowledge that we have. They sat through it. But there are other black youth that are not going to sit through it. We know about Chan. We know about Fannin. We've read the books of our revolution.

1:49:58 We've listened to Mal and his quotations. We know where we stand. We're not going to sit for it. We're asking. And if we ask and we don't get, we're prepared to stand up and take it. If I ask a man, I tell a man I am hungry. I tell him I am cold. And I ask him to do something about my condition. And this man holds a loaf of bread right in front of me so I can see it. And I keep asking him, I'm begging him to please give me a slice of the loaf of bread. I am hungry. Then it is known by every psychologist that the next step in the progression is I ain't going to knock him upside the head and take the bread from him.

1:50:40 I'm not going to starve to death. Wow. It's really interesting. So the exact same example as Tupac, but this guy also has the cadence and kind of the sound of Kanye. Yeah. That's crazy. And you got to remember, Kanye's dad was a member of the Black Panther. And you heard what the dude said. We read the books of Mal. Once America, once we realize if you're not going to hold to your word, that was the mindset then. Yeah, yeah, we'll become commies. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, like, who? Whatever.

1:51:19 We'll go with someone else. It's like a product. If you buy a product and the brand is starting to fall off, you start to shop around looking for another brand. Yep. And I'm just like I said, this is a warning flag. This is not a, I'm not recruiting for Putin. You know what I'm saying? This is not what I'm doing. What I'm saying is all those people in the streets that are without jobs that, you know what I'm saying, or without prospect, without future prospect. That's the main thing, the prospects. Because, you know, we always can find another job. But when you ruin somebody's career, because all it takes is one year, one blank year on your resume, you're done.

1:52:04 I mean, seriously, one gap year. Let's just say if I stop working for a year and they're saying I had to go back to look for a job, I'm done. I'm toast because, like, what did you do for that year? Like, nobody wanted you, so we don't want you kind of mentality. So this is the kind of thing that's being played. And I'm glad you pointed it out because he said the same thing that Tupac said. It's plenty of food around us. We're seeing billionaires double their wealth. Yeah. And then we're seeing the bottom people saying, I don't want to work. And I'm not saying bottom in a derogatory way, but people that just say, you know what, I'll just, whatever you're going to give me, I'll take it.

1:52:46 We're seeing them be all right. So it's like, why am I going to bust my tail? Yeah, it's not a good position. All right. So, and then, like I said, the way the corporation handling these things of, you know what I'm saying, like basically waiting people out, starving them out. That's the other thing. It's like no severance package. Like seriously. I mean, like, really, this is how y'all feel about us. So, now you understand the disdain. It's like, oh, wow. Like, no severance after 15 years. No insurance. Nothing. Not even. Okay, so you don't let me go.

1:53:25 Not even a personalized letter. Not even, yeah, give me a form letter, not even hand sign. So you're gonna, you're gonna say the best thing we think for you is to leave you without a job and health insurance during the world deadliest pandemic. That's that's your idea. Sounds good to me, Bob. Yeah, so that's that's the thing. Like, okay, so all right, so, but don't come crying to me when shit hits the fast, right? Because I'm telling you, this is not, this is not, this is not what, but I'm not confused that they're confused. Exactly. This, this is what they want to happen. So what now I got to look at and say, hold on, hold your horses.

1:54:03 Don't take their bait. Uh, just like we know, they're trying to bait people into being getting kinetic, taking you saying physical action. And I had to warn of that as well. So this is why I'm saying, understand your anger, understand the source of your anger. And it's not just the mandate. There's a lot of people that lost their businesses due to the shutdowns and those things of those nature. There's a lot of people losing their businesses to the supply chain issues from destabilizing the workforce where they can't find people that can are willing to work because the government, aka daddy, is

1:54:47 basically supplementing the people not to work. It's like stay at home. So it's all these things. And I know I'm not confused. They're confused. So what are y'all really trying to do to us? That's my question. Like, what are you really trying to do? And it's a huge problem. But we can continue on and go to number three now. All we're asking, no one wants to see blood. No one likes the smell of blood. No one wants war. Anyone who has been in war doesn't want war. Everyone knows what it is to see the inside of a man's gut hanging out and see your friends die, see relatives die.

1:55:27 No one wants to regress back to the state of mind where you have to think it's all for the cause. Therefore, my mother has to die. My wife has to die. My brothers and sisters have to die. No one wants that. But you're pushing us to it. You're leaving us no choice. We're asking. We're begging. The students of Columbia, they ask. The brothers down south. The brothers in Latin America. The brothers in Africa. They're all asking. All they're doing is asking. Our fathers ask. Our grandfathers ask. The presidents of our universities, our colleges had to go to your back doors to beg that their children be given just enough money so that they could be taught something to live off.

1:56:12 And yet, still, they asked and asked and asked, and you refuse to give them anything. We're just about out of patience. We're not going to ask anymore. And that's the whole point. We're just about out of patience. In the 1960s. Right. And like you said, like I said, my father, I seen the way this country dealt with him and my grandfather. And I was that one generation post state sponsored racism, Jim Crow, that kind of thing. I never saw a water fountain with a color sign on it.

1:56:55 My dad did. And his dad definitely did. So it's right when you think like on the Godfather, right when you think when you think you're out. Yeah, they suck you back in. You pull me back in. Just in, and like I said, I thought it would always be, I thought the race car would get me. Who knew? Who would knew the VATS car would get me? And that's, like I said, that's that's a very morbid way to look at it. But that's the mentality that's suppressed. You know, I have, I have, I have a wonderful life, present tense.

1:57:34 But at the same time, it's like you have in the back of your head, like, some, some crap can go left. It can go left. You know, is this my time? Is this where you know? And then when I saw it, but luckily enough, I was able to see it coming way off and I prepared myself appropriately. But if I didn't have that sixth sense of so shenanigans about to go down, I could have easily been in a far worse position. Say if. if I would have told you, no, I don't want to do the show, Adam. That's not really, you know what I'm saying? It's not really something I want to do.

1:58:10 You know what I'm saying? And then this happens. Where does that leave me? You feel what I'm saying? So I thank you for creating a genre of podcasting in general. And a lot of other people do as well, I'm sure. You know what I'm saying? Because now it's twofold. One, it gives us outlet. And then, two, it also gives the opportunity, you know what I'm saying, to earn as well. Well, and there's a third is you are spreading information that I have never found before in this format. So you're helping people understand. And it's

1:58:51 benefiting, it's benefiting the world. So this is, this is, this is to me, I mean, I think you said the other day, we were talking about stuff. It says, you know, what happens if you blow up and you got like $500 billion and then you won't want to do the show. And I was like, no, even if I had $500 billion, this show I would still do. This is the one. This is the one I think I would pretty much do for sure. Right. And like I said, you could have took that the wrong way, but you see, that was so. No, what I'm saying is you could have, not to say you would, but that was me saying, waiting for the other shooter to drop. Not you specifically, but that's the, that's the way we in general, that's how we process information.

1:59:35 That's like, bruh, it's, it's, like I said, I've seen how this country did my father and my grandfather. Uh, and we had to talk about that another day, right? But just so you know, when certainly when you're an entrepreneur and when you're not, but even, you know, hey, I was fired many times for the stupidest reasons for my actual appearance. You know, didn't want to cut my hair. You know, never for something that I, you know, that really, you know, that I messed up. But in general, I know that that's what was promised you.

2:00:15 And that just doesn't, that's just, that certainty is gone. That that was ripped up. That's clearly, that's, you know, that's out. But let me tell you, now that you're free and now that you are, um, yeah, you got your head on straight, you, which you always had. You're a fighter, you're highly knowledgeable and intelligent. Man, we are happy to have you on our side with the, you know, with people who aren't going to despair. Right. And that's the main thing. Like I said, this is just me. What you're hearing with this show, hopefully people, it translates like I hope it is. This is not Mo being angry and, you know, just

2:00:59 no, no, we're titling the show Pissed Off Black Man. I mean, that's, that's what we're doing, obviously. Otherwise, you know, let's, we better put on the tin what's inside. No, but it's not, like I said, it's not that being angry. What I'm saying is you're seeing the process of the stimulus and then going through the whole anger process. Sure. Hopefully, why I felt this way, how I felt, why I felt this way. You know, what is it's under the surface. It's not like I'm walking around the house kicking, you know, stuff over and that kind of thing.

2:01:42 It's a stewing effect. Yeah. And what I'm saying is me, there's as a country and as a world, we're seeing it's the pots bubbling. You know, either somebody had to turn the eye down, take the pot off, or take the lid off. Something's going to happen. Because if this pot keeps boiling, it's going to get out of our control. And what I mean out of our control, I'm not talking about they because we can't control they. They're lizards. You know what I'm saying? It is what it is. What we have to do is one, not let them turn us against each other racially or across the pro-choice, the pro-choice argument of the round of vaccine.

2:02:24 Right. Because that's what they hope to do is have the infighting cause infighting amongst us, like in 1919. It's like, well, the immigrants don't like the blacks and the whites don't like the immigrants. Neither one of them dealt with the blacks and the blacks. You know what I'm saying? That kind of thing. So I'm trying to avoid that because I see that's where we're headed. And just to speak to that more, let's get into the fourth and final clip of the segment. The news media says that it's only the young that are militant, only the young that want this and want that. Okay, but we're 40% of the black population now. Or we were a year ago. ago, and still yet we're climbing. Before long, we'll be 50%, 55%, and then we'll have the command.

2:03:08 We're not going to take it. We're not going to take sitting in rotten parks and places that just aren't fit for living. We're not going to take it. There's a limit to a man's patience. And everyone knows that, God, Christ heaven, everyone knows that what we're asking is not a million dollars. What we're asking for is humanity. We're asking to be allowed to live like human beings. And God, you tell us that this is too much to ask. You're sick. You're definitely sick. How can you tell me that it's too much to ask to be a human being?

2:03:51 You know, just to make it even sicker, I just learned today. You know, the Federal Reserve, there's this weird law that they can wait two years before publishing stuff they did. And in 2009, we had the stimulus, which, you know, we were told was $876 billion, close to a trillion dollars. You know, it was trillion five, whatever it was. And after two years, the Federal Reserve went to court and said, no, no, we need, it has to be a total of 10 years. We really, we really just, so this is now 2012. Said, no, we really need another 10 years. We need more time to be able to get all the information together and publish it. So this just came out.

2:04:35 Do you know what the number is of the money that they created and gave to banks, not just in America, but worldwide in 2010, 2009? 2.1. $29 trillion. Now when you hear that, now I'm going to tell you my first reaction to the racial programming, but you can't do atonement. Exactly. This is why I bring it up. The guy even says, we're not asking for a million dollars. Now, of course, this was, you know, this

2:05:15 screws all Americans, citizens around the world, actually. It screws everybody. But that audacity, exactly what you're saying, this is, there's your proof right there. Plenty of money to do all that. Almost $30 trillion. That's more than our entire deficit. Now, I think we just hit $30 trillion as the known deficit. But there's no money for atonement. Or anything. Or anything. And just before we get into it, we were being robbed. We're being robbed blind. Right. And that's the thing is like, that's what the analogy of Tupac was saying.

2:05:59 You know that the money is here. You know they have the money. It's how they choose to spend it. Because remember those shovel ready jobs when that money was being handed out? Oh, yeah. Shovel ready. And the amount you just said, almost $30 trillion, but now we have bridges falling down? No, but that, but that, but that's not even the money that that's the secret money. That's the secret money we didn't even know about. What I'm saying is, but why in this country should we have bridges falling down when we just ran through $30 trillion? Well, there you go. So, and at the time, you had people complaining about schools and poor neighborhoods and those kind of things.

2:06:41 It's being, hello, Baltimore. Right, being deteriorated, you're saying deteriorated. And then it's like, see, it starts with us. While our schools were in poor shape, those bridges were getting even worse. Oh, yeah, no, it's accelerated. This is not even, in fact, this show won't even be about race in a year from now. No. And that's the point. As more they've pushed us in the same corner, it'll be self-evident. Like you said, this is bigger than race. This show is not about race. It's about how we perceive things differently due to the racial programming. But you know what I'm saying? And what I mean by programming is just how you digest it and interpret it.

2:07:22 Okay. But what through this lens? But the mistake, the mistake is by not by not hurting everybody equally in the timeline, this show, and certainly we're not the only ones, are able to understand that this is what's coming for everybody. Right. We're just the beta. We're just a beta test. Like, the rollout, like, like, Jim Crow was just the beta test for where we're at right now. It was just the beta. That's a t-shirt. Jim Crow was a beta test. I kind of like that. that. It'll, of course, be misinterpreted, but of course. Of course, it would be. But that's why I can see and made the meme of the vax and unvaxed water fountains.

2:19:59 the stereotype behind black men and anger. Just so this is going to just kind of examine that, why the stereotype is the way it is. And let's just go ahead and get into clip 21. You know, most Americans are really very fair-minded, egalitarian people. We believe in equality for all races, all genders. The challenge is that while our conscious selves are egalitarian, we still hold these unconscious or somewhat implicit biases that have been primed in us over many years, largely through media and culture. One of those stereotypes is we equate black men with fear.

2:20:45 When race drops into a conversation, our executive brains shut down on both sides. So if you are a white American who is, you know, a very fair-minded person, when race is presented to you, your brain will start to wonder: you know, is what I'm about to say next going to be perceived by the other person as racist or biased. And if you are of color, your brain likewise shuts down, right? It says, okay, is something about to come at me that might be an opportunity to invalidate my life experience? Both of your brains are going into fight or flight mode. It's just not a recipe for a meaningful, honest dialogue around something that's so critical and so important.

2:21:27 Well, there you go. It's exactly what this show combats is exactly that problem. But the opposite of what we do would be the lizard brain. Yes. Because they want you to get into the flight, fight or flight mode. Yep, the amygdala. Yeah. So that's the whole point is they don't want us sitting down and having a conversation like we do because that defeats the lizard brain and their and their way of thinking. So I brought this up one because you heard that the anger thing is scary. You know, if you're if you're an angry black man, that's a scary thing. Give us the link to go back to, like I said, when I'm at, you okay, Mo?

2:22:09 Everything all right, Moe. You know what I'm saying? When I'm sitting here thinking and I have my thinking scowl on, or is my wife like to say, get those knots out of your head. You know what I'm saying? Because like, you know, you have that those lumps in your forehead when you're thinking. So it's something conscious that you have to be, that's something that you have to be conscious about. Excuse me. And I want to make just an observation. If you notice celebrity, I mean, not celebrities, but popular people on the conservative side, they're a black. black men, typically have to smile a lot. I've noticed this, and I'm just saying, I've just noticed it because I'll explain why.

2:22:50 The Democrats or the left, they weaponize black anger and they say, We're the it's this is the Democrats play, and I want to, this goes back to the last show again. To black people, when they're facing black people, they say, We're the only thing keeping them from lynching you, right? That's their play, right? So, they need black people to appear angry so they can turn around to the white sector and say, We're the only thing keeping them under control and not going off and tearing everything up. Now, back to my point about the conservatives smiling, that this smile kind of like says, I'm safe, I'm okay. I'm not, you know, saying I'm not angry. Uh, and it's not just in politics, it's in

2:23:35 fields of work as well. But I just noticed this thing, and Larry Elders is one of them. Not saying that he purposely does it, but he's known for his smile, right? No kidding, yes, right. So, that's I was wondering what your example would be. I was thinking about that. Larry Elder's good one, but the fact that you was already pre-thinking about that lets people know I'm safe. And I'm not saying he purposely does that. It's not what I'm saying. What I'm just saying is for optics purposes, politically, the left wants you angry so they could promote that and say, We're the only thing that can control them.

2:24:12 Yeah, and they have a story for both sides, right? Right. So, I just want to say, you know, saying that that stereotype of being angry is very pervasive because I don't know why black anger is more potent or seems to be, or the narrative around it is more potent or dangerous than any other long, long, long period of programming. Yes. But like I said, I've lived this, and it's crazy because you're conscious not to smile too much, not to be taken silly,

2:24:52 but then also not to be frown too much to be seen as militant. That sounds really tiring. It is. If you're conscious of it, now once you break through to the other side of it, you don't give a rat's ass. Right. But when you're living in the paradigm, you know what I'm saying, or in the duality of am I, you know what I'm saying? Am I a nice guy? That kind of thing, you know. And that's another form of you're different. You know what I'm saying? That's another form of it we talked about last show. If you're always smiling and nice and fun and that kind of thing, oh, you're different.

2:25:31 It's very interesting that this mirrors or parallels in many ways the life of a celebrity. I know it's a twisted comparison. No, no, no, you're right about that. But they're trapped. They're trapped by, and I've witnessed this to some minor degree myself. I was held hostage by my hair, as an example. But you're trapped and you certainly can't be seen. When you scowl, boom, cover of National Inquirer. And I'm glad you made that point because it just sparked a thought in my mind. Notice when Kanye, when he's caught smiling, he goes, and it's the actual meme of him doing this, that he's caught smiling at a basketball game or something.

2:26:17 And then he just goes blank face like a stern look on his face. Right, right. So it's, it's because you want to be taken seriously, but then you don't want to be perceived as angry. Right. You know, it's a weird, it's a weird spot if you subscribe to that way of thinking, but it's baked into your programming across all your years, you know, of going through public schools and these kinds of things. For everybody, for everybody involved. Right. Not to, you know, and goes back to lynching because you will be conditioned, not in these times more per se, but like men that raised us were conditioned.

2:26:53 It's like, well, you don't want to come off as angry. You don't want to come off, you know, that kind of thing. So the conditioning is there, you know, just, you know, just lighten up, lighten up, you know, that kind of thing. So I just wanted to point that out. So now, speaking of anger, one of the most famous angry movie clips is from Network. Did I skip over one? You did. Yeah, okay. I did. I want to do this. I think I want to do it this way. Let's go ahead and just go ahead and go into Network. Are you familiar with that movie? It's one of my most favorite movies ever. Are you kidding me? That's right up there with Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Which one? The new or the old? No, the old, of course.

2:27:34 John Wilder. Please, please, please. Do not insult me, Mo. Do not insult me. I know. I was just saying, like, that was a piece of crap that second one. I don't know what that. What about Charlie and Charlie Factory? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is one of my favorite movies as well. How about that? But yeah, let's just go ahead and do it in the switch order. Let's get into 23 first. This is Network, and I'm Mad as Hell. I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

2:28:20 We know the air is unfit to breathe, and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller. And all we say is, please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel belt and radios, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone. Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest.

2:28:59 I don't want you to ride. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. You've got to say, I'm a human being. God damn it. My life has value. So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.

2:29:42 So, yeah, so obviously you would think he was talking about 2022. I love that he even had the Russians in there. That was great. And it had the body count. Yes, you're right. You're right. You're right. It's like certain amount of people shot, others killed. So, so this is where. And of course, there's that beautiful, beautiful meeting that Howard Beal has with the guy, they, with the representative of they up in the boardroom. And he has that whole speech as well. It's like, you have no idea what you're doing, you stupid man. This is not how the world works.

2:30:23 Right, but he was fed up. And this is kind of like how anger could be good. Because anger could push you to action if you channel it correctly. So, first, I just want to identify that we are angry. That was kind of like the first part of the show and give, for me personally, where the anger comes from and how it's perceived through a certain lens. But now it's just like, what do you do with the anger once you have it? Right. Because, you know, anger is not one of the things like I can just make it go away. You know, because it's coming from a place of being frustrated or, you know, uncertainty or those kind of things. So another person that was angry was Christ and the Bible, as well as other members in the Bible.

2:31:05 But I've heard about me being, yeah, me being a believer. I wanted to get into what they call either righteous indignation or either righteous anger. We can get into 22. So I think we first have to realize that there can be righteous anger and then be unrighteous kind of anger. And how do you know the difference? Certainly, I think anger means it's a strong feeling that we have. And we want to be angry at the right things and not be angry with the wrong things. And so if we're angry because this is some value of God, we're concerned about his glory, then that's the time that we can be angry and we have righteous anger.

2:31:50 But if we're just angry about petty things, things that relate to ourselves, things we can't get our way, then those are the wrong kinds of anger. I think we also can look at it from a constructive and destructive kind of thing. That constructive anger would be focused on the problem, for instance. Whereas destructive anger is just letting your emotions out and yelling at somebody and that type of thing. And you just focus on the person instead of the problem. So this is talking about. about the righteous anger. And another source of my anger is just the overall impact of everything that's going on right now

2:32:40 to young black men specifically. Because I got to look at myself and say, hold on. If I was going through this now at the age, let's say I was in my 20s, early 20s. Yeah, how would you feel? What would it be like? Yeah. Because I'm seeing guys that took the same path I took. Some of them are homeless. I mean, like, because I mean, you work your way up. So the years that you were in college and that kind of thing, you're working, you know, warehouse jobs and that kind of thing where we could maybe get roommates, two, three roommates, and survive.

2:33:19 That's not even possible now. Yeah. So that's another source of my anger. Just the, that's kind of the macro anger of how society is being played with and the impact of it. And I understand as things become more and more pressurized, those, and the reason why I played this clip, the order I did, the way we talked about the body count Chicago, that's a source of this. That's young men that don't know how to channel their anger or place their anger. And what do you do? The closest person in you that pisses you off, you, you,

2:33:58 it comes out. And people are using this anger and frustration for political purposes. Yes. That's that third wave we always talk about. Yep. What gives what makes a person go out and want to loot and steal and that kind of thing is that they get giving up on society and they feel like society is giving up on them. So this is just more of another source. When I take when I, once I go through the process, okay, okay. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to be all right. Bright future ahead of me. Things may be a little bumpy, but I at least got a runway.

2:34:38 And you're saying you're in aviation. So I just got to get the plane to going fast enough to make it with the runway I have. I mean, that's, that's my challenge. But at least I have a run, at least I have a runway. A lot of these young men, they don't have that. And they've just been thrusted into this new world. And how do you, how do you cope with it? And I don't think, and the fact that, like I said, it's being weaponized and utilized to push political motors, that really makes me angry. Like that makes me angry, or at least if they know it should. Right. And it should, because a lot of these people didn't ask for this.

2:35:21 It's just the world changed under them. And I don't think as a nation, that should be the, that should be the process. And then you'd say like weaponizing immigration and those kind of things is just going to pressurize the situation. And then we blame them. Like, look at how they killed themselves in Chicago. It's like, have you ever been in a situation like that? If you can't, if you haven't, then you don't understand. And I've only been adjacent to situations like that, but I can definitely understand because it's like this. I'm going to be honest with you. If podcasts don't work, if the job don't work and whatever don't work, I got to get it how I get it.

2:36:02 Like that, that hasn't lost, left me. You know what I'm saying? Now that could be working with my hands, working with my back, or whatever else it entails. Because at the end of the day, a man got to feed his family. Of course. So I can't act like I don't empathize with people. You know what I'm saying? They had to go get it the way they get it. Now, it's other options, of course, but you only know what you know as well. What's interesting is, you know, for years, I've lived in the back of my mind. I mean, really, if PayPal pulls the plug for some reason, I got a problem. I got a real problem. I share that problem. Yes, of course. There's all of these, there's all of the, I mean, there's solutions, but

2:36:45 again, you just start to look at a problem and say, okay, at least I have a solution. And if not, there's a solution there and a solution there and a solution there. That is also inherently American. We are, we do have some born in, if not entrepreneurialism ourselves, we have respect for it. And it's beaten out of you. Yeah. The thing is, entrepreneurial, entrepreneurialism is a, it's native to humans. Yes. It's beat up out of us. Good point. Years of school of. form dependency.

2:37:27 It's like, oh, that's scary. Go make your own money. That's scary. You know, you think you can take care of yourself? And then when you factor in, like I said, with insurance, that's the and that's the deal breaker. And I'm going to say to the Republican Party, you might want to think about looking at reshaping healthcare. I know they've dug in on this for financial reasons, but whoever figures out this healthcare situation is going to have a loyal following. Because that's the really, that's the one thing that keeps people from betting on themselves.

2:38:10 Yes. Well, good luck with that. It's just like the black vote. The healthcare fix vote, whoever fixed that, it could be a huge opportunity for them. Oh, yeah. The insurance company has rigged and they pay both sides. It's way beyond that, Mo. Healthcare is Wall Street. Done. That's it. You don't need to know much more. It's Wall Street. It's bullshit. It's shenanigans and it's deep and it's not simple to fix. So people will fix healthcare outside of healthcare individually. It'll be a lot cheaper.

2:38:48 You'll be able to get most of what you need. And I was just about to say that: is that whoever presents an opportunity to say, you know, we can offer health care for a reasonable price. Yeah, that's going to happen. I guarantee you that's going to happen. Now, they'll have a loyal following. So I'll just say, keep pushing it that. But it just, like I said, it doesn't make any sense how they hold you captive. But let's go ahead and get into another throwback clip from Kanye because Kanye is kind of like a running theme in this. Yeah. Because he's the epitome of betting on yourself. I mean, he has an album called College Dropout. Yeah. Don't let that be lost on you because he saw early on,

2:39:30 and I wish I had that clip I'll put in the lost tapes of basically saying, you know, you go all your life to get a degree. And like, basically, this, this, the punchline is his son inherits his degrees. Right. So he's been a big proponent of betting on yourself. So that's why I use a lot of him in this in this show. So let's go ahead and get into 23A. Another thing is like this idea of like apologizing. We'll apologize for saying George Bush don't care. Apologize for running on stage with Tim Switch. Apologize for wearing the wrong color. I ain't apologizing. Nothing. Y'all dealing with grandpa. Now, I done been through too much. I'm the founder of $3 billion company.

2:40:15 You think I'm finna listen to somebody online? Tell me who I'm supposed to apologize for? Do you feel like, and since you did get there, do you feel any of the pressures when people say Kanye did let him down? When we think about George Bush, don't care about black people. That's when everybody was like, oh, Kanye. And then when we look at Kanye now, I mean, if we agree or not agree with you, just when you say the wrong color hat. Yeah, think about this for a hat. This is one of my main things. It's like, what is the culture? It's like, man, this ain't for the culture. We're doing something for the culture. We are orphans, bro.

2:40:55 We are cultureless. We don't have our own culture. We sign to culture vultures. We sign our life away. Our contracts are culture vultures. Think about everything that's cultural. Taking the knee is cultural. Being on social media is cultural. Wearing high fashion is cultural. Pushing a foreign is cultural. All these things are not owned by our culture. So who designed the culture? What does it mean to do it for the culture? That's why I do it for Christ. There's one thing that about Kanye. He didn't do the I'm all right, man, when he really wasn't all right. He, I think he even went to Diddy and said, hey, man, I need some money.

2:41:38 Donald Trump, give me money. Anybody invest in me? I got something going here. He was right, but I kind of remember that is not a moment of Kanye saying, I'm okay. Well, I think he did it all the way up. When I mean he did it, let me clarify what I mean. I think he played the role of, I'm all right, I'm okay, up until it started affecting his mental health. And then he understood that I'm going to need help. Right. And that's, like I said, this goes back to the charity thing. The last thing any man wants to, and this is general to men, is to ask for help.

2:42:18 I don't know. It's just, I don't know. know why. I don't know why that is. I don't know if it's hard-baked into our gender role. But what's interesting is Kanye had financial trouble. He asked for help. Then he asked, he literally openly said, I need help. I got a mental problem. And they excoriated him for it for everything. He did both of those at the same time. Right. Because he tried to play, he tried to go alone to get along. But when he did that, it's a new, it's a New Day America speech at that live concert. That was the point of not just giving. That was grandpa talking. Right. Like, that's the point. And that's the point I'm at. Like, honestly, I don't give a rat anymore. You know what I'm saying?

2:43:00 Like, not about life, but just I'm betting on me. And this is the part of the developing the free mind is that you block out all the things I said before, the shame of admitting that you're saying that you're betting on yourself and you're taking a less secure route to success. Because at the end of the day, I had to live with myself. I had to look the 50 and 60-year-old Mo in the mirror and say, did I leave it all on the table? Did I bet everything on myself? And I think that's what kind of what Kanye probably went through because he really wanted the media's

2:43:43 accepting him. That was the whole point of running on the stage. You didn't give me my awards that I want. It's like, I'm a genius, but you won't recognize it. Then he realized that them want, and I'm just speaking from me watching Kanye very closely, but just watching from the outside. It was to the point where I don't let you validate me anymore. Your awards don't validate me anymore. And that's when you start seeing, but it had to come to almost costing him his mental health. Yeah. Which ain't that, that's really the underlying whole point of this episode is one,

2:44:26 men take a look at your mental health because it's going to manifest itself in your physical health as well. And don't feel like you're alone. And if you feel like one of your brothers is being isolated, reach out to him, pick up the phone. Don't say, he's all right. He's good. You know, pick up the phone and give him a call and say, you good, bro? You know what I'm saying? That kind of just that kind of thing. You might even be surprised what effect that would have because we're going to get into a dark portion of the show here. And I promise there's a light. A light at the end of the tunnel. I promise you. So don't think we're going morbid here.

2:45:06 But we have to talk about suicide and black men. I had a very informative interview with Dr. Joanne Frederick about the signs of suicide along with prevention just moments ago. And yeah, you got to pick up on some of those signs. You got to pay attention a lot, Shannon, because this comes out of nowhere. Sometimes you just see people who are full of life and sometimes the happiest people. And that's why they always say, check on your strongest friends because sometimes your strongest friends are the ones that need the most help. I was one of those guys that always put on this strong facade, always happy, always trying to make everybody else happy.

2:45:46 Meanwhile, I'm suffering in silence. So you never know who could be dealing with somebody. So always just check on them. Say, hey, man, you okay? Everything good? Even when you think they're happy, still check on your friends. Make sure you do that and your family members. Yeah. So this, this is only the strongest one. So I'm going to go back to Kanye for a minute because he had a line in a song called Gorgeous. And he said, if they ever saw a black me, they probably try to crack me. So just going back to the mental programming and the racial programming, that this, it's a term called unapologetically black. I don't know if you ever heard that. Sure.

2:46:27 Sure. So this also plays into that respectability politics. See, see, respectability politics is a way of them weaponizing you deciding what's acceptable or not. And they make it about frivolous and trivial things like your hair or twerking or this kind of silly stuff. But what it's really about is finding that sweet spot where you can be you and society is okay with being you being you, like Kanye. Like before, he was an a-hole. He was this, he was that, you know, all these things until he found that sweet spot to say, you know what?

2:47:12 I love myself. I'm happy with myself. myself. And until you find that mental health is a real concern, most people don't find that, unfortunately, until much later in life. Correct. They're lucky if they're lucky. And some don't find it at all. And it can definitely have a cascading effect on life because then you start seeing things. And what I mean by that is you'll see something happen and then it'll shape. This is where this is where that racial programming gets very dangerous because everything that happens to me due to my race, everything that happened because I'm black. Right. You know what I'm saying? Everything that happened to me. You know, he could have easily went that way.

2:47:57 And a lot of us easily could go that way. You know, like, this is happening to me because of who I am. And then you make it personal. It's like, well, I can't change me. So then you get a doom and gloom kind of thing going on. And that, then you find yourself in a dark place. And I want to make a point here about suicide. And I want to ask you a question. Have you ever heard, or is there a perception that suicide is not a black thing? Gosh, that's let's put it this way.

2:48:42 It's not to put you on the spot. No, no, black suicide is typically not the way black death is portrayed on television ever, whether it's the news or fiction. So, so for that reason, I would have to say, yeah, it's not a thing. But not like black people swimming is not a thing. Right. And let me give a little context with the suicide myth because the numbers are growing every day. And it's young black men that are harming themselves.

2:49:20 But the typical suicide method that we see in our community, quote-unquote community, is the long road to death. The unhealthy eating, the alcohol, the drug abuse, that kind of thing. Eating, like, I'm serious. Like, eating is a long road to suicide. Sure. We all know what we're supposed to eat and what we're not supposed to eat. But if you don't enjoy your life, what the hell is dying young? What is that? Slap some more on my plate. That kind of thing. Well, I mean, hey, if it's going to get me, whatever. It's that morbid, you know, if it's going to get me, it's going to get me kind of, you know, because life ain't that enjoyable anyway.

2:50:03 So, or, or in the bottle. A lot of people drink themselves to death. Now, you wouldn't classify that as a classic suicide, but it's the same mentality there. Sure. Now, I'm going to drink myself into harm. And then drugs is self-explanatory. It's nihilist. It's taking hold amongst young people everywhere, but sounds like this is, of course, once again, not reported. Of course not. And like I said, older people used to have this, or when you get middle-aged. And this is touching on a lot of shows I'm going to cover later. But

2:50:43 one thing that I'm going to tell you now, Adam, one thing that dawned on me when I started working with you is 40 is not old. No, I mean that in the most respectful way, because I'm explaining, let me explain to you why. Once you're past your physical prime as a black man, life's over. You're old now. And it's tied to athletics. You know, notice all our heroes are athletes. Of course. No, I understand. Young entertainers, those kind of things. So if you notice, there's no, and a lot of actors get into this situation. There's no middle-aged black actors.

2:51:25 Either they're young and they play young roles, or either they go to the Morgan Freeman kind of thing. And I wish I had this clip, but Denzel said this because there was a reporter kept talking about, you know, you know, the past, he kept bringing up his past accomplishments and those kind of things. And he got irked by it because he's like, let's talk about now. Because he understood if I let you pigeonhole me as an old man. Yeah, I remember that. I think I've seen that one. Me and Morgan Freeman are going to be competing for roles. Yeah, right. There's, there's no, I'm trying to think like the like the middle-aged actors, you know, saying white counterparts. There's always roles for them, but you're saying, or there's always roles written for them.

2:52:09 But there's there's not in our case because once you get past 40, you're old. Well, no, actually, the middle-aged actor black man is uh the overweight police chief, yeah, like right. That's the one, yeah, that's the one, that's the one. It's amazing that you say you put out these uh, these memes because you see it, of course. I do. I'm gonna give you a perfect example: uh, the guy from the office, Stanley. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, of course, Stanley. Great, what a great example.

2:52:49 The office is a racist piece of shit. No, it's honest, and you know what? That's why I love this show. I'm gonna tell you why I love the show because that portrayal of their black characters, yeah, uh, the two that's on there, yeah. The Darnell, I think, is Darnell. Yeah, yeah, I forget, I forget their names, you know what I'm saying? But I know Stanley, I forget the other guy's name, but the guy with the fro box, I think it's Darnell from shipping, right? That kind of progress, the pro the progression he went through going from the I can relate to that. That was kind of like my thing, like we're coming from the floor, you know, quote-unquote floor, so you're saying working way into the office.

2:53:32 I can relate to that, but going back to Stanley, notice Stanley ate what he wanted, he kind of was like inviting death to come. Yes, that's that awesome. That's that suicide mentality that I'm talking about. Ah, wow, okay, yeah. So, I mean, I had to give props to the office because they nailed that right on this right on the head as far as capturing that. Just like, oh, well, how sad that we all viewed that as very funny. Yes, the more you know, yes, it's not funny again. Again, another learning moment here. Yeah, Stanley is real, yeah. Stanley is real because once you get over that prime, it's like, well, death's gonna get me.

2:54:15 And what I find out is this is not exclusive to black men. No, but our physical abilities is so much part of our identity. Yeah, that once, you know, saying once you get the pop belly and that kind of thing, it's like, oh, I'm over, I'm old. I'm just gonna wait for death to catch me. I'm gonna have another side of ribs while I'm doing it. That kind of thing. You know, and it's sad, but that's kind of the mentality. That's why you see, and now, but now you see you, that's why obesity and COVID is running so low because of that very thing. But let's go ahead and get back into number 25 now.

2:54:52 And it's so important to get past the stigma associated with it. And you talk about stronger people. Well, 78% of all people who die by suicide are actually men. That's according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Because I think you talk about being strong. A lot of times, men are supposed to be strong. They're not supposed to share their feelings. They have all these emotions and they go through these things and don't know how to deal with them, don't know how to cope with them. And that's when the help comes in. That's when the mental health comes in. That's when talking to someone and checking on other people come into play. And don't forget about the guys that are involved in these suicides also that are the fathers, the brothers, the cousins. Because Ian had a father. He has a father, Ian Alexander Sr. You know, his feelings and his emotions go into play.

2:55:36 This is not just Regina King that's affected by this. All the men in his life also have to now cope with this too, which could cause depression or sadness that they're dealing with. So, and anytime that people are going through this type of thing, surround them with love, prayer, care, and check on them. And not only in this situation, but in everyday life, check on them. You know, there was one suicide that I saw. It might have been during Black Lives Matter protest kind of days. This young black man, and the cops are, he's like, they were like smashing and grabbing or something. And the cops, you know, it's like, you know, stop.

2:56:18 And he turns the gun upside down on his head and just blows his head off. I don't know if you saw that. No, I haven't seen that. It was really shocking for any, for any child, really, in my eyes, to do that. But that was one that's like, whoa, whoa, what the hell? How did that choice come about? But it's funny you say that because that is a suicide mentality. Yeah. To when you start smashing and grabbing and don't care and don't care about going to jail and don't care about if somebody kills me or if I kill them.

2:56:54 This is all traits of suicide that they're misdiagnosed. Like when you get to the point where you're playing the death, the death game. game of chasing that adrenaline rush of just shooting at people and them shooting at you. That's you're at the end there. But they wouldn't call them suicidal. No, right. But it's clearly there. And another point I want to move into before we get into the next clip is fathers. I don't know how men cope without having fathers because my dad is like, you know what I'm saying, been my anchor. He's like, you know what I'm saying? Because I could tell him, I'll call him.

2:57:38 He'd be like, what's up with you? What's going on? I'm like, I'm pretty good. And he can tell when I'm not all right. He's like, you know, said that last three times, pretty good. What's going really? What's really going on? You know what I'm saying? So the absence of fathers plays into this as well. Because so my father was not present at all, pretty much after I was six. Now, I forgive him because I know what he was doing. And I, and, you know, he made, he made a choice, but he always provided as well as he could. I was fortunate because I had lots of father figures in my life, older men who taught me like

2:58:24 CB radio. There's one guy. Another one taught me a lot about big band music. And so there I was lucky to have people in my life. But I do not have what you just said. I do have it with some of these men. And it's such a, it doesn't have to be your biological father, but the father figure. But without, I'm saying there's responsibility for all men to keep your eye out and to help. Right. And that's where to go back to the barbershop. That's why that was important because you at least get a dose of that in the barbershop. They would know your accomplishments. Oh, you graduated in high school, huh? You know what I'm saying? You know, keep going, that kind of thing, or the church, the same thing.

2:59:07 And you've isolated these people from these modes of support. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall really did a good job of kind of showing that, I think. Yes, because that's the way. And in the barbershop as well with Ice Cube. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a diversity of age. The fact that everybody has to come get their hair cut. So you get this, the diversity of socioeconomic diversity there. So, yeah, it's real. I mean, the reason why I'm saying this is

2:59:46 we have to make sure people don't get isolated in these times where isolation is running rampant. Because, and I'll make this point. Sometimes that people, even podcasting, may make people not feel alone or live streaming. Oh, sure. Those kind of things, because they're like, okay, at least I'm experienced this with somebody else so I can hear other people talk. Like a lot of times, people like to listen to us talk because it may be the only conversation in here for long periods of time due to isolation. Or just hear that they're not entirely crazy questioning things. That's that's another reason.

3:00:30 But yeah, it's, I want to make sure everybody's all right. And like I said, this is not exclusive to black people, but I know how we are that we don't want to have to ask for any help, you know, because we don't want to seem like we're getting charity and handouts, that kind of thing. So I just say once again, check on your brothers and you know what I'm saying, if you need help, seek help. So we can go on again in 26 now. But yeah, just check on people because it's important. And know that if you're going through these things, that there are brighter days ahead. And I live my life one day at a time now. And I wake up every morning. I thank God for the blessing that He's given me.

3:01:10 And I don't know how spiritual people are, but I'm very spiritual when it comes to that. Maybe not religious, but spiritual. I just thank God that I have breath in my body because I always say that I'm far from perfect, but I'm better than most. And you have to understand that no matter how bad you think it is, sometimes you have it a lot better than a lot of people in this world, but you still have to continue to try because tomorrow could be that day where everything turns around. So if you need help, there is help available. There's a lot of people to talk to. Once again, the suicide prevention hotline is out there, but also just your friends, your family, your pastors, everybody. Once again, 1-800-273-TALK is a suicide prevention lifeline that you can reach out to once again.

3:01:54 And if you feel that way, please speak up. And I'll. add one personal experience almost at the end of the show here. I had a moment in my life. I had a two-year-old daughter. I had a big house, a mortgage. I had a couple hundred bucks in the bank at the end of the month, and I got fired. And it was real this time. And I did not tell my wife. I didn't really talk to anybody about it. I just was freaking out internally for five days just trying to think, what can I do? What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? And the part that was good was the coming up with scenarios.

3:02:39 What can I do? Because that benefited me later. But the feeling that I had when on the fifth or sixth day I got that phone call. And in my case, they hired me back for four times as much. I decided right then and there, the one thing I'm not going to do is let it eat me up inside. And that's my point, right? That's that's the you just surmise the point of this whole show. Well, and it's something I was fortunate enough to just, and I'll be honest. Um, I'm always honest, really. Um, it was uh Anthony Robbins. He had back in the day, he had cassette tapes.

3:03:23 And I remember watching him, you know, I've done some info, uh, infomercial late at night. I'm like, okay. So I ordered his tapes, the power talk tapes, and it really didn't take me more than listening to one, and I totally got it. And it was exactly what he said. That feeling you have with your sad, happy, you know, jealous, all these feelings, you have the power to change that instantly. In a snap of finger, you can change that feeling internally. And actually, only you have that capability. And somehow that had stuck with me. And when I was in that position, only when I was fortunate enough for it all to end at that moment, I realized all the game playing, all that was good for what can I do?

3:04:07 What are my options? But the feeling is what will kill you. It will. And that's what can consume you. And the mental loop that you said, because you can't stop it. No, oh, no, no, you can't stop it. Start. Yeah, it's, I'm not going to say you can't because we can do all things, but it's breaking that mental loop of like, you know, like you were saying, you five days, you're just fretting what's going to happen next. What is you start playing out in these scenarios start playing out in your head? So I'm glad. Thank you for sharing that. But I guess we can go ahead and get to thank the rest of the producers. Yes. Hold on a second. Let me give you our little effect here because

3:09:58 I'd almost rather have a new one than an old 20. That's kind of dumb. But there's something about new money that excites you. You like $100 bills? Oh, yeah. I like new money too. Oh, most beautiful thing on earth is a $100 bill. I haven't seen a woman as good looking as a $100 bill. There's something about $100 bill that excites you. I could tell you why it didn't play, but thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring it back. There's no worries. We had to do it. Technical issues. The whole universe will be thrown off until the next show. We can't have the Matrix glitching. You're right. Like the time when we left the door open. That was bad. Yeah. It was bad. Everything didn't go right after that. But let's go ahead and get into the final clip from Kanye.

3:10:42 And this is talking about the victimization mentality. I've been canceled. I've been canceled before they had canceled culture. I was canceled before they had the term. Do you care about any of that? I do. I care about everything. Does it not rub you the wrong way, but does it get to your core when people do feel like rubbing me the right way? Johnny Gill. What do you say to people that say you turned your back on the culture? Exactly. 100%. I have turned my back on the idea of victimization mentality. We are locked up. We went from one to four. We went from one to four to one and three.

3:11:23 But we always pointing at the white people. But yet we want to spend all of our money on foreigns. We want to spend all our money on luxury as opposed to going and buying some land. America is for sale. And there's a lot of barren land. Disney bought a lot of it in Florida. But the culture has you focus so much on fucking somebody, bitch. pulling up in a foreign and rapping about things that could get you locked up and then saying you about prison reform. Like, it's bro. We brainwashed out here, bro. Come on, man. This is a free man talking.

3:12:08 Democrats had us voting Democrats and food staffs for years, bro. What are you talking about? Guns in the 80s, taking the fathers out the home, plan B, lowering our votes, making us abort our children. God should not kill. I can't tell y'all how to feel, but what I can tell you honestly is how I feel. Yeah, that was such a great bit from that interview. And I can't tell you all how to feel, but I can tell you how I feel. So I had to look myself in the mirror and I said, Mo you can't be no victim, bro. That's the only way. That is the only way you win in this game is you can't be a victim.

3:12:54 And the whole episode, I'll walk y'all through the mental process. Those five days you talked about, this is what I went through. And on the back end of it, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Nobody has control over my life except me. And Mrs. Facts. Well, there's that. But yeah, you know what I'm saying? That's that's it. You know, um, so yeah, so I had to, you know, saying it's gut check time, it's go time. It's like, there's no, there's no room for to be a victim. You could be angry, but how are you going to channel that anger? Uh, so I had to go back. I had to pull out the old book, The Seven Habits. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yes.

3:13:38 Dr. Covey. Yeah. You know, and I had to revisit the first habit. And the first habit is being proactive. And if you're proactive, that gives you the power and puts you back in the controlling seat. So these next three clips are for those guys that were angry like me and was empathizing with me. It's time to suck it up. It's time to get proactive, fellas. So let's go ahead and get to number 29. Habit one: be proactive. Basically means that your life is a product of your values, not your feelings. That your life or the organization's life is a product of your decisions,

3:14:24 not your conditions. The opposite of being proactive is to be reactive, which basically means that your life is a function of your feelings, your moods, your impulses, other people's treatment. The underlying principle of habit one, be proactive, is to take responsibility. Oh, wow, that's so true, man. And boy, are we being trained for that to be life? You know, how you feel, how you make others feel.

3:15:04 Crazy. Yeah, spot on. And he points out, and I didn't clip this because it was kind of buried in between two points he was making. But in between the stimulus and your reaction is your power to decide how you're going to react to whatever is thrown at you. Yeah. You have the stimulus, me being fired, and then you have my reaction. And in between there, if I just went off of gut feeling and got angry and stayed angry, they had control. But the fact that I say, you know what? I'm going to control how I react to this.

3:15:42 So I did three episodes of Converse this week. I've been busy. I've been talking to people in the back end of the fax machine. You know what I'm saying? Making plans. You know, more and more. And it's crazy how the universe works because when you think not in a lack mindset, but the abundance mindset, and I mean that just in the purest forms, not in these esoteric ways, but just the fact if you get out of that loop of how you've been done wrong and how things are bad for you and look at, oh man, I am free. I am a free man talking. Nobody has control over me anymore. Then the doors open for you.

3:16:23 This is very interesting. You used the term I would use. You said what the universe did. Universe or God? It's God. But what I'm saying is, I make, I never force my religion on anybody else. So I don't want the message to be lost because he said God. So that pertains to me. Whatever you. you call it, whatever you're saying, whatever you refer it to as you control with your mind your outcome. That's right by what thoughts where your thoughts are at. If you're in a negative place, things are gonna get worse. If you're gonna run it for late and you won't worry about getting caught by that light, you're gonna get caught by that light.

3:17:05 Or if you do get caught by that light, you're saying you're not worried about it. Guess what? You're saying it's just another minute, you're late. You know what I'm saying? It's about how the perspective you put it in. So, like, I never, I always make it a habit not to leave people in a doom and gloom state because if you do, then that's very harmful. So, like I said, I had to go back and dig out my book that Mahmoud Barame gave to me, God rest in peace. But he handed me this book, and that changed my life. That made it, that so the seed that this whole podcasting experience watered to say, you know what, I'm bigger than this job.

3:17:47 And I, you know, you know, the crazy thing is, I always thought I was bigger than my job after I read that book. But it's like when somebody takes something away from you and takes control out of your hands, then you get angry about it. But it's like, I was on my way out anyway. What are you? What are you mad about? Right. So it's just that, that's the point I wanted to make: is don't doom and gloom. If you need help, seek help. Adam, if you could please put that suicide prevention number in there, we'll get it in the show notes because I'm not poo-pooing it. You're saying it's some dark, it's the opportunity to be dark, but how you respond to it is how you're saying it's in your power.

3:18:30 It's that space between the stimulus and the reaction. That's where you decide how you want to react to it. Anything you want to say before we get into 30? No, I think you summed it up really well. The power of the mind is awesome, no matter what you call it. And whatever you're focused on, you know, there's so many sayings about this. You know, grass is always greener on the other side, but it's also greener where you water it. You know, so wherever you're focusing, that's where you're going to go. And that's what I've seen time and time again. Just what do you want? Just if you want you can clarify that, you focus on it, you go, and it'll happen.

3:19:12 It's, I've, I've seen it, my friends have seen it, you're seeing it. It's, it's, uh, it's a crazy thing, but it's real. And that first phone call and the star opened the door for you, me and you to meet one day. You see what I'm saying? Absolutely. The universe, like, okay, you stepping out on faith. Okay, I'm going to open another door for you. And when you get there, realize the door will be open. And I'm saying there's another door and another door and another. And you look back like, wow, like, how the hell did I get here? But in a good way, it's like, how did I get here? So, no, we're not, we don't doom and gloom over here. So, if you thought that's what that, if you thought that's what this was, no, no, no, no.

3:19:55 So, we can go ahead and get into 30. The underlying principle of habit one: be proactive is to take responsibility. The concept is you and I have the capacity to choose our response. If you don't believe that you're capable of choosing your own response, if you don't have that vision of yourself, if you're deep into victimism, I'll just about guarantee you you will become disempowered. You will not begin with the end in mind with careful thinking about the future.

3:20:36 You'll be a function of the past. You will put second, third, fourth, and fifth things first. Yep. With your ladder leaning against the wrong wall. You'll think, win, lose, or lose, win. You'll always seek to be understood first rather than to understand. And you'll be constantly botching all kinds of relationships because both parties feel misunderstood. Ego battles will develop. At best, you'll end up with compromise instead of synergy. And you will not take the time to sharpen the saw because you simply don't have the time to get gas. You're too busy. You're buried in the thick of thin things.

3:21:18 Yeah. Yeah, this is such a good book. Life-changing. And the reason why it's life-changing is it doesn't cost you anything to practice the habits. It doesn't matter what your economic status is, your educational status, any of that. Anybody can start the seven habits today. And this is not a promotion of the. the seven habits per se, but it's the principles behind them of being proactive, thinking with the end, you're saying, beginning with the end in mind, and saying so on and so on. And it's one thing that he's saying, he talks about in there is, and I want to harp on this just for a second. I know I said reach out to people and talk to people,

3:22:03 but at the same time, look at the quality of people that you're talking to. Because if you're only talking to somebody that's going to be negative, that only sends you negative posts, that only wants to get into this complaining. Oh, you know, oh, look at this, another vaccine story, another vaccine story, another vaccine story. You might want to start vetting to say, are we building or are we going to just stay in, you know, saying wallow in victimization? Right. So I just want to, I just want to make that point because, yeah, because you can, you can have people to talk to, but it might put you in a worse situation because they don't bring, you know, saying they're not thinking with the value-adding mind.

3:22:49 And that, like I said, once again, I got to thank E-Class for that because his favorite line is, and he's going to laugh when I say this, what you going to do, cuz that's his favorite line after all the everything you go through. After all, man, you know, it's messed up. He's like, what you're going to do, cuz? What that means is that's a running line between him is with all that said, what's your next move? Yeah. That's right. And you know what I'm saying? Like, like I said, and that, and when he, that's that kind of friend you need to reality shit. You know what I'm saying? You got to switch a little bitch right now. Sound like a little Mitch right now. You know, hey,

3:23:29 you need to, you know what I'm saying, man up. And it's a time and place for that. Of course, it's a time and place, you know, to empathize with your friend. Like, yeah, that is messed up, you know, that kind of thing, but don't get in these pity parties either. It's a careful balance that we need to, you know what I'm saying, try to strike. So anything you want to say? No, I'm right there. I'm all with you. You're saying you're doing a beautiful job. So what you gonna do, cuz what I'm gonna do is gonna play number 31. You're too busy. You're buried in the thick of thin things.

3:24:08 That's why Habit One is so foundational, so basic. It is the vital, foundational component of every other habit. Again, let's define it as the capacity, the desire to subordinate impulses, moods, feelings, conditions to values based on principles to subordinate. Until little by little, our emotional life, which was once like this, gets ironed out. You still may have some ups and downs emotionally, but there is a steadiness, a constancy in your nature, to where you can make and keep promises to yourself and to others.

3:25:00 Where you can treat others with kindness without capitulating your convictions. In short, to where you can begin to practice the other habits which build on top of it. Yeah, and I'll add my personal recommendations for maintaining your emotions. Turn off the television and do not go on social media. Those two things are critical when you want to focus on something else. You don't want your emotions playing with you because the trickery is so deep. The world is geared to trigger your emotions 24-7.

3:25:41 Yes. And we tap into it as soon as we wake up. Oh, yeah. To the point, and I had a real, I mean, my alarm on my phone, it rings and it says the stories for the day. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is not healthy. I know. I'm just saying. I'm just saying, you know, it's a moment of transparency. You're saying just that what you're saying is very true. That they tell you what to worry about. At the point of waking up, it's like, this is stuff you have to be worried about today. And when I realized that, you know, I don't use it anymore. But yeah, it's real like that. So hopefully this introspective ride that I took you on

3:26:25 helped somebody. If it helped one person, it was worth it. I think it helped you and it helped me and it helped everyone who's listening. This was beautiful to. witness to see it all unfold. It definitely helped me. It definitely, right? And this, this was a good getting the toxin out kind of thing. And like I said, let people know where I'm at right now. I'm back on the seven habits. I never went away from them, but it's a refocusing. And now it's just being proactive and growing this thing until I don't think people really get how big the end is in my mind. Like, I'm beginning with the end in mind, and I don't, they'll see, they'll see eventually.

3:27:10 But I have an idea. I have ideas of how this you're from the future, so you're already there. You go, what can I say? Thank you for doing this, Moe. This was, I know it was personal for you. You put a lot into this, not just the work for the clips, but thinking about what you wanted to say. And I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot, as usual, but maybe a little extra more today. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And as I always say, pay attention to everything, and the truth will reveal itself. And again, in the show notes, we'll have the suicide prevention hotline along with the seven habits of the highly effective people and the video series Black Man Get You Some Therapy, which I'm going to watch.

3:27:52 I'm looking forward to it. We'll see y'all next time, everybody. I'm Mo Facts with Adam Curry. We're a winner, and never let anybody say why you can't make it. Cause a feeble mind is in your way. No more tears do we crap, and we have mightily drive our eyes. And we're moving on up. Move it on up. Lord have mercy, we're moving on. Moving on up. We're living through and all the learned. That we're two from the good black good. And we're a winner. And everybody knows the truth. We'll just keep on pushing

3:28:32 like your leaders tell you to. At last, that blessed day has come. And I don't care where you come from. We're all moving on. Moving on up. Lord and mercy, we're moving on up. Moving on up. Moving on up. Lord, have mercy. We're moving on. Moving on. I don't mind leaving here to show the world we have no fear.

3:29:15 Cause we're a winner. And everybody knows the truth. We'll just keep on pushing like your leaders tell you to. At last, that blessed day has come. And I don't care where you come from. We're just gonna move on up. Moving on up. Lord and mercy, we're moving on. Moving on. Just keep on pushing. Winner. Always thinking better. Everybody just keep on pushing.