So I used to be a republican
my name is Evan Edinger and I used to be a
republican
And that’s not to say I’m a democrat by the way.
The 2 party system is inherently flawed.
So given the current climate I thought this would be a good topic to talk about.
Cause I feel like open discussion is quite possibly the best way for society to move
forward BUT I digress.
We as people grow and evolve over time.
I would hope that my opinions on everything wouldn’t be the same at 30 than at 20 cause
that shows a pretty stagnant unworldly, really close-minded person.
Or a perfect person who has never made a single mistake ever.
WHO DOESNT EXIST
But annoyingly so, discourse online from the left always has up this facade that they’re
accepting and if you grow as a person and apologise and whatnot, well that’s A ok.
But we all know that isn’t true.
Even me uploading this video at all which has a large possibility for good can cause
people to be offended at the very thought that 10 years ago while they were in diapers,
I voted in an election in a way they think they disagree with.
Can you believe Evan hasn’t ALWAYS agreed with popular leftist beliefs from the year
2020.
You mean like in 2010???
Even before that.
What a piece of shi
So I grew up in a red county within a blue state, but that doesn’t really mean anything.
Early childhood development, we all know where most of our political affiliations come from,
mummy and daddy.
My dad was always a staunch republican.
I don’t remember having too many in depth conversations about politics with him after
I got older, but I do distinctly remember a few when I was much younger.
There was one time he sat me down and told me about the tyranny… of…///
Seat belt laws.
Evan, Seat belt laws are unamerican and take away our freedom to choose.
-To choose to live?
No son, listen.
Does wearing a seat belt make us safer statistically?
-Yes So logically everyone should wear a seatbelt
to stay safe on the road.
-Yes!
So why’s the government forcing people to do it.
If it really is safest then people would do it freely.
-Okay…
And that’s why I don’t wear a seatbelt.
And this is the part that as an adult with logical faculties, really bends my mind a
bit.
Laws like that are clearly in place because of people that DONT seem to have the working
logical faculties to go “This makes me safer so I’ll do it” and instead have to do
it for fear of a fine.
And so while in early childhood when I don’t have as much ability to think for myself I
follow after my parents which I think we can ALL Agree is just what happens.
Like are you trying to tell me that 15 year old Huntley Chappington from Ascot Private
School developed his love for the Tory party on his own free will without influence.
Okay…
But my dad was a truck driver so he spent most of his day on the road listening to the
radio.
I’m gonna give you 3 seconds to guess who he was listening to… no rush….
It was Rush, Rush Limbaugh.
an incredibly outspoken conservative radio commentator.
He’s made many many claims over the years that have turned out to be false but that’s
clearly just a trend with people like this.
Do you know how the more you watch a certain youtuber or hang out with a certain friend,
the more you may… very subtley at first, pick up their mannerisms?
Maybe a certain funny voice or expression?
I do feel like long-term exposure to repetitively the same small group of people with the same
viewpoints can very subtley at first but then much moreso, begin to replace your line of
thinking to the point where, you don’t really notice or know that it’s even happened.
I feel like a lot of liberals myself included, get a bit overwhelmed at what we perceive
as a sheer lack of cognitive ability in the right.
You’ll see people spouting ant-vaccs rhetoric without a single reliable source and rather
than suffer the same mental hoops and bounds they have to go through you just write it
off as “well they’re just really stupid.
Well they didn’t go to college or even school”
I don’t think this is particularly helpful.
And in fact is probably more of a correlation than a causation.
So why is it that things that are clear as day to you require conspiracy theories and
wild baseless claims for others to believe?
Long term exposure to the same viewpoints slowly begin to replace your own.
I say this from experience and as someone who has seen this happen to so many people.
Wow the title of the video, I used to be a republican.
The other day while I was cleaning out my facebook I found an old facebook status I
had written in 2009.
I’ll be very honest with you.
I do not remember writing that status.
I do not remember watching that documentary.
I don’t remember anything about this which is a little bit odd.
Looking at the status, this is clearly a very strong worded opinion that must have been
heavily researched a fleshed out right? and I wouldnt forget this
No.
I see this status and I don’t see a stupid gullible republican who doesn’t ask questions
and just goes along with every unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that attacks the left trying
to change our way of life.
What I see is a young person who clearly thinks A: they’re smarter than everyone else.
Oh, everyone thinks that?
I don’t think that.
I know something you don’t.
Haven’t you seen this documentary that supports MY opinion?
Speaking of this documentary let’s just see what it looks like
Oh… my God…
IS that word art… and a normal speed clip slowed down poorly in the timeline.
I know high school students that have a higher production level than this documentary.
I do distinctly remember making a facebook fan page for the climate change scientist
quoted in this video.
He was like the only scientist that disagreed with global warming so he was a HERO.
Cause he was different.
He took the path less traveled.
He didn’t just go along with what was popular.
I don’t know what it’s like for you fellow Americans watching this video, but as someone
who has mostly been out of the states, for 8 years, you’d think maybe I’ve been out
too long and I don’t know how it really is over there.
I say this because I have seen some comments like that.
I stay very clued in to what’s going on in my home country and I’m from there.
I still have a LOT of connections on BOTH sides of the political spectrum which is what
makes it so stressful.
I feel like a lot of people from Europe will see something on the news about the far right
extremist cult that’s been growing in the US and have comfortable position.
They’re very far removed from it and almost have a hard time believing it’s true because
they themselves live in their bubble well outside the US.
Sadly I can tell you, it’s worse than you think.
I visited my family I wanna say a year and a half ago now and while I was there, some
country music was on.
Of course.
Upon hearing a song from Garth Brooks, one of my brothers stated so matter of factly,
turn this trash off, Garth Brooks recently joined the liberal elites in California who
kidnap children and drink their blood to harvest their adrenechrome.
Now, when you hear something like this online, you can laugh.
You can close the tab and be like lol isn’t that crazy… it’s a little bit different
when it’s in your family home.
Now the conversation went on about these satanic cults of celebrities trying to lengthen their
life and I got upset because here’s the thing…
I’m pretty left-leaning… and Personally, as someone with over 600,000 subscribers,
I’m pretty offended I haven’t been invited into these crazy satanic parties.
Where’s my invite, Obama?
But for me, this was the tip of the iceberg.
I had not heard of ANY of this online or anywhere in the UK but it goes so much deeper.
And it was terrifying.
Not the spooky devil blood drinking nonsense, but that so many people, my brother included,
had had their critical thinking abilities eroded away to the point where for them, this
was reality.
I got a text from a friend 4 or 5 years ago where she told me that there’s a hidden
planet in between the earth and the sun… and that obama was putting up chemtrails making
it cloudier so we couldn’t see the truth.
This was their reasoning for why it was so cloudy.
And they asked me, haven’t YOU noticed it’s been cloudier?
And whenever this happens, I would strongly recommend, ask for a source… which I did,
but instead I was sent a video of a guy looking at a timelapse of the sun and not understanding
the complexities of camera lens curvature and instead explaining this with secret planet.
Now I don’t FULLY understand wireless technology, so I could say every time I push this button
on my remote, the tiny beings living in the light all DIE and when I push it back on I
bring them back to life.
And hey as a YouTube video, it seems I’m a valid source to some people.
Annoyingly, they always have a counter to everything so if you say this is a youtube
video, not a valid peer reviewed source, you’ll get met with well of course, the main stream
media is corrupt.
They’re not gonna report on it.
All the scientists everyone in the world is also on it.
In every country.
Except for this one scientist.
He agrees with me.
I like him.
Cause he was different.
He took the path less traveled.
He didn’t just go along with what was popular.
Which sounds… just like I did at the beginning of this story.
I could’ve very well been this far gone.
That’s what’s scary about this.
I was right there, one foot in the rabbit hole of literally regurgitating information
from conspiracy theory videos and thinking daftly that they were my own thoughts because
they helped me buy into the illusion that I was smarter than everyone else.
But then how did I get to where I am today?
Why am I NOT a conspiracy theorist thinking everything and everyone is out to get me?
Just talking to people and listening to people from outside of my personal bubble.
I am incredibly lucky I got a chance to experience life outside my small bubble.
I’d say going to college affected it a little bit.
Because there I was mingling with other people from yes the same state, but much bluer counties.
And sometimes you just need someone to say no.
And to challenge you on your belief structures in order for you to be more critical of why
you think certain things and start being more open minded.
A lot of times you hear rhetoric from the right that colleges are breeding grounds for
liberals where professors push their liberal agendas when it’s so clearly just people
meeting and talking to other people from other walks of life.
Do you really think I got radicalized as a math major.
The math doesn’t add up.
I made friends and lost friends in college for my beliefs.
That causes introspection.
That causes critical thought.
Everyone is capable of growing and changing as a person.
Just like a muscle breaking down on a workout and growing back stronger, every time you’re
wrong and you take in that information and learn from it, you are a stronger and smarter
person.
Ignoring evidence of things that directly contrast your worldview BECAUSE it contradicts
your worldview is by definition close minded.
And I can only hope that is something you don’t want to be.
Listen to people.
Be okay with being wrong and share this video with someone you know if you liked it.
I’ll see you on Thursday
and Sunday.
Bye.