So I used to believe that there were people who had selective hearing, meaning that they knew the truth but only decided to remember parts of it.
Our brains are incredible instruments and wonderful tools of learning. We are not even using the power nor have reached the full potential of our brains. But we have found ways to full it.
A recent study out of Brandeis University holds that we believe the lies we tell are the truth in as little as 45 minutes. Now, before you dismiss this study and start talking about flaws in the research you don’t know about, hear me out.
Researchers used this thing called an electroencephalogrphy (EEG) to monitor the brain activities of both older and younger study subjects while they gave truthful and false answers to questions. The study found that the older ages (60 to 90) were way more likely to accept a lie they told as the truth than the younger ages 18 to 24.
Psychology professor Laura Paige said of the findings: “Once they’ve committed to a lie, it’s going to alter whether they remember doing something.”
The EEG data revealed that a lie disrupts the brain processes responsible for working memory and embeds itself in memory and comes to feel as real as the truth.
“Lying alters memory … it creates a new memory for something that didn’t happen,” said Paige.
I guess this may be the reason the Bible condemns lying.
We seem to have a problem in our country with making sense, and it has nothing to do, per se, with not knowing. It I wrapped in the choices we make.
You have to actually work harder to not make sense. Making sense entails processing truth in a way that demonstrates you understand it. Then, you can actualize with it or apply that truth to life. There are several things that hinder this process. Jealousy, envy, bias, hatred, prejudice, misunderstanding, revenge, and strife are some of the catalysts that prevent us from making sense.
In recent years, we have struggled to make sense of the “me too” movement. Although it was horrible how women have been treated in our country and how they have been used as sex symbols, in pornography and in other ways to pleasure men, we took no responsibility for that. In a time when many women gave in and used sex to get what they wanted, men could not tell them a part from their counterparts who had were not will to play. Then, men decided that it was just easier to drug the woman and get what you wanted from her.
It said that in this country, women were still treated like chattel, and many allowed themselves to be. It’s as if women liberation hadn’t existed. Women’s lib made the same mistake the Civil Rights Movement did, and the Gay Rights Movement is making. All three should have not been asking for equality, but a seat at the table. They needed to get on the ground floor of decision-making so that their interest could be guaranteed. All they did was trust that their oppressors would start “acting right” because of the movements — senseless.
So all three groups are still fighting for the promise of equality they are already supposed to have. Had they gotten a seat at the table – meaning then needed representation in government. And they would have to be placed there because a biased country wouldn’t vote them there. We may have even had to expand Congress to 535 members, but those spots could have been reserved for these interests groups. Clearly, it makes know sense to trust your oppressor with fairness. If that were in them, they would have stopped on their own.
Trust needs to make sense. Do you trust a rabid dog? Do you trust a fox not bother any eggs while he’s hanging out in the hen house? Would you let a pedophile watch you kids? Would you let a stranger hold your purse or wallet?
Can you see and understand the truth when it comes your way? Water is always wet. Boulders will always be heavy. Fresh coffee is hot. Humans are flawed. Greed greatly hinders many good things in America from happening.
Throughout my life, I have heard of White Fear, and I wondered what it was and was there really any validity to it.
You see, there are some in America who fear the inevitable time when white people will lose their numerical majority. The fear is that they will be paid back for all the wrong they have done from slavery to Jim Crow to denying civil rights to police brutality to income disparities to incarceration. White guilt leads to white fear, and so since the 80s (or probably before that), there have been measures taken to slow the process. I thought it sounded too far-fetched, but then I started looking at some facts.
In the late 80s, there was a book written by Ben Wattenberg called The Birth Dearth. I had learned of this book through some volunteers who were working with me during Jessie Jackson’s presidential run in 1988. This book outlined America’s problem, which was that white people were not having enough children. Whites were definitely not producing the number of children to equal the children of color who were being born.
Back then, it was predicted that by 2035, White’s would lose their numerical majority. This prediction was also fueling the undercurrent of people who are hoping for another Civil War and are stockpiling assault weapons and ammo in anticipation of the opportunity to fight.
In the book, Wattenberg cites three ways other countries have dealt with the population problem. In Finland, Japan, and Australia, they paid women to have children to increase their population. This would not work in America for two reasons: It costs far too much to raise children here as compared to these other countries, and America could not discriminate and only offer this option to whites.
A second option would be to open the borders around the country. You will notice that in America, there is no talk of closing the Northern border because Canada is there. They want to close the southern border, build a wall, and all that jazz to keep out the Mexicans. A former president said it was because they had rapist, murderers and thieves coming from there, but what, in actuality, it was just people of color.
Sadly, no matter what political party has the white house, the same is true. The Biden Administration put a policy in place last year to offer social security to Ukrainian refugees so they could stay here comfortably. However, this same administration sent Haitian refugees back home.
The last solution listed in the book to solve the population problem is to eliminate abortion. We were told that this had something to do with Christianity, but it had more to do with the fact that 60 percent of all abortions in America are white babies. Therefore, ending abortion would preserve that number. All of this is an attempt to stop the growth of the minority populations while increasing the white population.
Over the last five years, there has been increasing legislation to allow children to change their gender. Hormones can be prescribed without parents’ consent, and irreversible surgeries are taken place so that these young, confused kids can have their way and ruin who God created them to be. How can you increase the population by allowing same sex relationships?
It looks like the “powers that be” have found another solution to solving their problem. Consequently, Wattenberg’s book will now cost you over $1,000 on Amazon. I wonder why?
We are being grossly short-changed in our fruit consumption. We pay more for produce than any other nation in the world. Much like healthcare, we are charged the highest price possible, and the purchase is nowhere near the quality.
We are told that fresh produce costs more to farm than processed foods. So for that reason we are paying a little more for our fresh produce. The problem with this is that 70 percent of our produce comes from California. Arizona and Washington are second and third, respectively, but why? There is a huge difference in living in the South than the North when it comes to produce.
Although some produce is imported, most of the in-season fruit is grown in the South but not shared across the country. South Carolina and Florida grow very nice watermelon, but if you live in Michigan, you can only get what is shipped from Mexico. You have to really search the farmer’s markets to get something more fresh, but all the commercial grocers have horrible fruit.
When fruit ripens, the sugar to liquid ratio increases, which is what makes it sweet. Because our government has chosen to ship our fruit from overseas, our fruit has to be picked well before it ripens so that it is more solid and hard so it can make the trip over here. By the time you are washing it off at home, all you have is some strawberry imposter that can’t get any sweeter.
This placebo effect for produce does not have the nutrients, taste, smell, or vibrance that it had in the 70s.
You really don’t know how bad this is until you travel outside of the country. Jamaica has more than 30 fruits grown there. Some I had never heard of, but all were absolutely delicious! Not only was the taste amazing but the cost was ridiculous! On welfare, I would be able to afford a bounty of it all.
In totalitarian regimes, people eat what they are told they can eat. In a democracy, “we the people” are supposed to decide what they consume. I don’t know what to call what we have in America – I just not that it is worse than the other two.
One of the many mass shooters in America recently went through sentencing for shooting up a Walmart, killing 20 plus people and wounding many others. We were outraged when we heard about it, and the usual things were said, like, is the shooter dead? Did they identify the dead? What type of weapon was used? Was he a formal employee of Walmart?
Prayers and thoughts were sent out by millions who heard about the deaths and conversations began around the country regarding whether the death penalty should be brought back and when we would get stiffer gun laws.
Chatter, then begins to die down until the next shooting kindles it back up. Finally, the El Paso shooter gets sentenced, and it took multiple days to do it. Our country is so juvenile when it comes to things like this. Although his court days are far from over, he was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences. Why? It’s almost like each sentence was a shot to his head, and the person with the trigger just kept pulling it to the tune of 90 consecutive life sentences.
What is the purpose of this? It won’t bring anyone back to life. It is not even equal punishment. And rehabilitation is definitely not an agenda item here. We’ll just toss out life sentences like coupons and hope that they satisfy the families of the deceased.
This is madness. Of course, we need tougher gun laws. In fact, we need to eliminate guns from our society, but that won’t happen because there is money to be made selling guns.
Until we begin to look at our crimes as a mirror and see who we truly are instead of acting as if those criminals are just “bad apples,” we will continue to lack the compassion it takes to heal and rehabilitate the under belly of our society. These shooters did not plan to be mass shooters in kindergarten. It’s not an excuse, but circumstances happened, and we could trace back through the lives of the shooters and find the points of trouble.
Stricter penalties like death have proven to be abusive, and many die who are innocent, especially those of color. We need to change the narrative in America by acknowledging our sins and fighting injustice where it occurs. If not, eventually, we will all be killed in a mass shooter attack or be in jail for 90 consecutive life sentences as the shooter.
Life constantly proves that we are flawed. As a part of our moral development, we should seek to excel in integrity, goodness, truth, and character, but we have lost our way.
If we can no longer expect our Supreme Court justices to be honest, how can we expect it in other courts? It seems that there is always a problem when people don’t speak out against injustice. We made that a habit in our country, and it still hinders us today.
The only thing needed to start a revolution after slavery ended would have been for whites to stand up and acknowledge wrongdoing. If some would have just called it as they saw it because never is it ok to make people property.
During the Civil Rights movement, our legislative, judicial, and executive branches had a golden opportunity to move our country light years ahead by simply speaking up for what is right! Today, there are horrible police practices that many police, if they were not guilty themselves, could denounce as evil, but they stand silent. Some of the districts that our children are supposed to be educated in are failing. Some of that failure is “teacher failure,” but no one is saying that. Prison conditions in America are deplorable, and very little is being done to change it. Veterans still don’t have all of their promised benefits, but again, we are quiet.
It’s hard to name an area of interest that isn’t corrupt. Pastors in churches are taking advantage, and some are even getting paid to sell a bad version of hope. And even in the presidency — from Trump to Biden — there are major struggles with integrity and truthfulness.
Sadly, it seems that we declared independence from the wrong things. Where we should have set ourselves free from lies, laziness, selfishness, and bigotry, we embraced these and would go on to forsake fairness, honor, moral virtue, and serving others. Our freedoms are not for the better but the worse in America. We are free to dishonor our constitution and look out for number one — self!
There are more justices guilty. We will see more police brutality, bad teachers, and corrupt politicians. And unless there is accountability being enforced, America will implode from within. We won’t have to worry about foreign enemies destroying us. We’re killing ourselves.
What if we were all born with severe handicaps? I mean, literally, each person born was blind, mute, and lame and as you grew older, you had to prove to God that you were worthy of being healed.
Sounds crazy, right? To think that you could earn such things from the Almight God is absurd given that he never worked that way. But it does place a unique value on your right to live, doesn’t it?
It seems people here have such a sense of entitlement and walk around like they own the planet. We don’t take care of it, but expect it to function normally despite our abuse. We allow dysfunction in such an unhealthy way. What makes it unhealthy is that we are not ignorant of the dysfunction. Instead, we allow it.
Injustice is another allowance. We allow it until it happens to us. Things are unfair on purpose, and greed is way out of control. So, it would be interesting if we had a scenario of proving our worth. The handicaps would make us accountable to our abilities. I would have to be worthy of sight. Simply put, if all I’m going to be with sight is greedy, then I’m not worthy. If all I would do with my voice is cause mischief, teardown people, talk hate, and be rude, then I am not worthy of a voice.
And then if I gain these items, at any time I could lose them again in folly. I thought of all this because I wanted to see if there was a scenario that would make the world a better place. The thought was that losing these precious things would bring our attention to our wrongdoing and would rehabilitate us. I thought this would be the proper motivation and would deter evildoers.
Well, this year, in February, three Sudanese men were sentenced to hand amputation for stealing. This was the first time in almost a decade that the country’s courts handed down such a sentence. They do the same thing in Somalia and other countries, yet stealing still takes place.
It would seem that God giving us intellect was for the purpose of giving him glory as a faithful creator. Instead, we have squandered our gift, and we’re set on a course to destroy ourselves.
There has been much discussion over the last few years regarding reparations, and as more people begin to understand the necessity of giving reparations, how to administer it will be the next conversation.
What I have learned over the years is that nobody believes Blacks have been treated fairly, but nobody takes responsibility for the infractions. We have definitely turned a blind eye on the injustices and disparities created in our society.
Also, people are still debating about slavery being the main reason for reparations, but I don’t believe anyone should be getting reparations for slavery. The reason is because there are at least 10 other reasons to do it.
I won’t take the time to go through all of them, but we’ll look at a few just for kicks and grins!
First, the Federal Housing Administration (FDA) was supposed to help all Americans get loans for housing. They had many payouts over the years but didn’t make their first payment to a minority until 1971 – that’s a 41-year problem because the FHA was established in 1930.
Second, the police all across America have been predatory to Black males. This is easily proven by the unfair number of tickets, arrests, and conviction rates compared to other groups.
Third, the real estate market has done an outstanding job limiting where minorities can move and making them live it areas where the property value is horrible. Moreover, they were extremely unfair in granting loans. They were biased when it came to loans, interest rates, amount of loans, credit criteria, and length of loans.
Fourth, you would think that a person with the same experience, same education, and same ambition would get the same pay. Well, in America, white men have always gotten at least 38 percent more than anyone else for the same job with the same specs. This still happens today.
Five, there have been laws created to expressly suppress, oppress, and stiffle the financial and educational wealth of minorities in this country.
So, if we were to simply get the math wizards to calculate the damage of just these 5 things, we would get an idea of the true offense. It’s not a matter of just writing a check, either. You can not make up time and development, and something has to happen to ensure we never go backward.
We have spent more than 75 billion dollars helping Ukraine in their fight with Russia. What about the fight we have here at home?
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was either brilliant or crazy when she quickly built her start-up company on a lie, raised billions, and now owes more than 450 million in damages and is serving 11 years.
Her vivid imagination fooled thousands, and she went further than she should have. Why? Because of two things: White Privilege and greed.
Nothing about her story was impressive. In fact, her claims were so outrageous that if you could imagine any other race saying the same thing to the same investors, you would quickly see how unextraordinary they were.
College dropout. Discovered what? What about this quitter would have made wealthy investors not vet her and trust that she must be on the cutting edge of something that would revolutionize an industry? She had absolutely zero knowledge of this field and no skill. What an insult to the egg heads currently spending years trying to do the same thing.
She was the unicorn every greedy, wealthy person dreams about. Ground-floor level of new technology. And her whiteness made her believable!
The bottom line is that on paper, she was a complete fraud who had done absolutely nothing to get the trust given to her, except she was the right color. Greed was also a contributing factor and works as a blinder – the men she hustled were fools, and the old saying is true: A fool and his money are soon parted.
I believe the single greatest thing we need in our country is compassion. We all go through things, and we tend to forget when we see someone else going through things that we’ve been there or have had similar problems.
If we were more compassionate, we would see laws and policies that would help individuals recover from mistakes instead of just allowing us to waddle in them. What if we did have a country that was set up for everyone to succeed?
Currently, we have political parties who either want to forget the past as if it didn’t greatly affect our present day and another group that wants to keep those struggling handicapped by offering them a little something for their troubles but not enough to solve anything.
Compassion has two parts to it. The first is to have a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress. Then, allow that to motivate your desire to alleviate it. Empathy stops at the first part.
It is a sad commentary when we have to plead to the world for compassion, but that is the case. We have some people who are really on hard times – some are dealing with self-inflicted wounds, and others were victims of circumstance. To change this, it has to be done individually because the collective republic doesn’t give a damn. So, what can we do to show compassion?
1) Be a resource to the people around you. People don’t know what they don’t know.
2) Decide on a certain amount of money you will give away each week and don’t exceed it, but give liberally with it.
3) Make sure that the people who are closest to you are doing well to the best of your ability. Make sure you are doing well first, then them.
4) Use your influence to gather partners with you in this crusade. A group of successful people can really make a difference in a community.
5) Commit to being the voice and an ally for the less fortunate, especially when dealing with the powers that be.
ClydeStyle 