Episode 70: When Headlines Spread Panic, Not Facts

0:00 We are living in unprecedented times. If you are feeling overwhelmed, tired, frustrated with the constant noise that's happening in America right now, then this episode is for you. I mean, if anybody's feeling ready to walk out, I know we've seen quite a few walkouts, protests. I mean, all of many, I mean, felt like all of Minneapolis or Minnesota was out really trying to seek not just answers, but justice for things that we're seeing happening and the lack of really equality and just peace for all people. Absolutely. And, you know, it's interesting because here in Arizona, specifically this past week, we have been seeing the younger generation high schoolers that are taking it upon themselves to stand for what they believe in.

0:49 And it's interesting because I'm also hearing that even for the kids that may not feel it in their household or they're seeing it with their friends and their friends' families, and they're standing by them and saying, no, we will walk out with you. We are with you, and we are going to continue to support you in whatever ways we can. Because right now, let's be honest, I mean, it's emotionally heavy. I mean, the weight emotionally right now that we are all under uh it can seem overwhelming and overpowering at times. Uh, so do you think that we should keep helping people to know and understand what's going on?

1:30 Do you think that people have a good understanding of what's happening in America? Or is there too much noise with social media and again, fake news, right? Yeah, it's a I think it's a great question. I think there's a mix of both. So the media, having social media is powerful because when you think back to the 1970s or even before that, there were these huge movements happening like civil rights and things that you did not know if you weren't there. Correct. If you didn't physically see it or read the newspaper or word of mouth. Or word of mouth, you have no idea that this happened. But social media, you're able to see and almost be a fly on the wall to watch what's happening with ice in other cities. Yeah. I mean, I've been drone footage, for example, you're above and you're seeing the streets are packed with people.

2:15 But again, this brings us back to 2020 in Black Lives Matter movement that we had happen with the murder of George Floyd that kicked off this movement when we saw the protests happening in just nationwide. Yeah, and people are able to now see what's transpiring and what people are dealing with, and that it could have been mitigated. It wasn't supposed to happen where people are losing their lives and dying at the hand of ice. And I think to your point of it being two different perspectives, one perspective is they have a job to do, just like security, just like police, right? And there's okay, there's a job to do. And I understand that people are like, hey, we want to pull them out of cities because there may be a job to do, but people are wearing masks, they don't have body cam footage on, there's not necessarily accountability to the point of what you're seeing where police officers have more accountability and you're reporting in in different ways.

3:07 And again, your body cam has to stay on because now it's like, well, wait a minute, people are going rogue from what it looks like in a lot of these scenarios, or they're not trained, and they're here trying to enforce uh in communities and take people off the streets. And again, it's creating a very toxic environment right now where again, there's the protest, you're seeing these videos going viral, you're seeing the injustice kids being separated from families in Minnesota. I they they talked about I saw they had teachers in tears because at the kids' graduation, you know, I stormed in and uh uh uh um detained uh the parents.

3:48 Yes. And it's like, oh my gosh. I mean, think about how traumatizing that is for a kid. And then you have people that are on the other side saying, Well, hey, if they're not um legal to be in the United States, right, they're just doing their job and they're upholding. But it's how you do that, right? I think there's two things that can be true when it comes to someone can maybe be here illegally, but also everybody has should have rights, everybody should be treated fairly. And again, going through the process of how we deliver on that message, I think is a really big part of what people are talking about. There's got to be a better way. Absolutely. And it's interesting that you say the difference between also police officers and the checks and balances there compared to what we're seeing with ice.

4:29 We're not seeing any checks and balances, we're not hearing any checks and balances. And so there's a couple of things, right? With police officers on the side of their cars, it says to protect and serve. So you're protecting your people and you're serving your community. But we're not seeing that same philosophy when it comes to ICE and what they're doing storming into buildings in the middle of night. Remember when this first started in Chicago? Storming the streets and just busting down doors where you're now taking the human factor out of it. And for, like you mentioned before, with ice specifically, I right, I have a job to do. But unfortunately, what I'm also hearing is that when you specifically our government, they he is looking for people to come and join ice.

5:21 And we've even seen some billboards out here as well that are aggressive hiring at aggressive hiring. But one thing we, and if you don't know, this also happens in the in the police academy as well. We're trying to get people on the street so fast, we're not truly training them. So, where is the training for unconscious bias? Where is the training for implicit bias? Where is the training for the humanity of people and how to go about it detaining them or, you know, the use of excessive force? Because that's what we're seeing at a high level is that there's a significant use of excessive force that has not been let up yet.

6:06 We're seeing it constantly with the murders that we've seen in Minnesota. We've also been seeing out here in Arizona, we're starting to see that communities are coming out on community forums and saying, hey, ice is over here in Chandler. Hey, ICE is over here in this place, because it's getting to a point now where if you almost if you encounter ice, you don't know if you're going to live. Which that sometimes comes down to what we also were hearing back in 2020. And what we've also been seeing, too, is that if you were black and you encountered the police, you may or may not live. I mean, that's what was starting to happen. That's why I say my say their names. And we started seeing the protests happening because people are dying at alarming rates for simply calling the police because I needed somebody to come and help me.

6:54 And then you come into my home and you kill me. The b you know what I'm talking about, the incident that happened in um Chicago, I believe it was. Yeah, no, it's it's it's very right now. I think it's also so sad because from a media standpoint, uh the conversation is we need to essentially we need to make sure that those that are in the US illegally are no longer here and that they are deported, right? Is what the messaging is. And the fear or the concern is that people are you know committing crimes, they are doing different things here in the United States, and it's about protecting the country, which I can understand, and I do understand that there are people everywhere that everybody's not here to do good, and some people are doing the wrong things, right?

7:45 But I think the challenge that also happens is that if you are ICE, if you are, you know, now on patrol, what is the person that you're looking for that registers to you as somebody that shouldn't be here? Bias. Correct. Absolutely and so you start leaning into the implicit bias. Minority specifically that were being stopped because of simply your skin color. There's a reason why we say, you know, DWB, driving while black. That is a real and very true thing. And now we're seeing that's also for our our our Latino community as well happening.

8:28 But I want you to speak to stop and frisk because Alien, for the audience, some people are listening and don't know what stop and frisk means and how things from a timing perspective are coming full circle. But the idea of stop and frisk is hey, you look like you could have committed a committed this crime. We got a tip. You fit the fit the description. We had a tip that someone was wearing black a hoodie, but you're also black, you're wearing a hoodie. Let's stop you. I'm gonna search the car. It gives me grounds to do all of those things. And now naturally, you are picking out and taking more people in that look and are a certain skin color or a certain race. And I think it's just it's so unfortunate because that can't be the only approach to get to the end outcome that we're looking for, which again is to protect and serve, is to have a safe community, it is to have the streets be able to be a place where everyone can feel safe and at home, and then also people going through the proper channels, right?

9:25 Because I think if we can make it more clearly, and I know there's things about you know, you can spend a million dollars and now purchase, you know, a gold, not a green card, but a gold card, a golden immigration card. And it's about Nicki Minaj just came out with she got one of the gold immigration cards. Yeah, I didn't hear about that. Oh, you didn't hear about that? She went on stage talking about I'm Trump's number one fan. And uh you could tell though, as she was speaking, she didn't believe what she was saying. I think she has some some ulterior motives in that sense. But um, I think that also what we're also trying to do is normalize the confusion, the anger, fatigue right now, uh, and fear. I mean, if you think about it right, since 2020, in my opinion, we've seen a very big uptick in fear-based media.

10:15 Yeah. And so something else that we're also seeing is that those fear-based pieces of content that are going out are traveling much faster than the facts are. And unfortunately, we're in a stage right now where we don't know as Americans what's real and what's not. Simply just AI, right? You go on Instagram now and you're seeing these uh artificial intelligence reels, and some people don't know if it's real or if it's not. And so is that a real bear that just ran up to the porch? I don't it looks like it. But you're seeing when you look at the analytics, you're seeing the sends, the shares, the retweets, you're seeing this is clearly traveling faster than some of the other pieces of content.

10:56 And so No, I was just gonna say, and just to echo that, we're now seeing, and also people because the narrative of mainstream media, that there's the mindset of if I listen to a certain news channel, it's gonna be the Democratic approach. Or if I listen to another news channel, it's gonna be the Republican approach. Like everyone has got a narrative, so people are like, well, man, where can I go to get the facts and actually get more non-narrative and just like, hey, what's actually going on? And that empowers social media to your point. But now when you go to Twitter or X, you see people under the video or under the statistic or whatever asking Gronk, right?

11:37 Or Gronk, like essentially asking AI, is this true? Like, hey, is this the above actually what's happening? And then you got to wait for that to validate if what you just saw is actually what's what's happening or is it factual? So there is this twist of what's the actual issue? Is what I'm seeing what's actually transpiring, and then what's the narrative of the message that's being pushed out to us as the consumers or us as the people? Correct. And if you look back at the film of the journalist that was in Minnesota, one of the two people that was that was murdered, you're seeing that what you're what's happening in real time and from the cameras that are outside, not the body cams, but the cameras of people that are recording on the outside of looking into the situation compared to what the government is saying happened, they're contradicting.

12:39 And so that's why there was the major protest that's happening now, amongst other things that have been happening, is there's just lies that are coming from within the government, which is also why a lot of us as Americans feel as if we cannot trust what the government is saying right now. Um, and it's it's really interesting because what we're seeing is that the unrest is not just what is happening socially or politically, but it's also economically and emotionally. I mean, we are all taking a major toll. If you think about it, we have not had a true rest since 2020. We're in 2026. And so we're seeing that there is an over there's overlapping pressures that are happening, and it's not just a single issue.

13:28 And so when you think about what's happening on an economic level, right? Inflation, not being a lot of Americans eggs and just some of the very basic things that you buy and eat every day that you use are up 30, 40, 50. And I and I see that when I'm doing the grocery shopping, and again, we're very repetitive on what we order, we don't really order too much outside of that. So I know how much these items should be and what the total of our basket should be. I mean, it's another$40,$50. So I was just gonna say, and mix that with the max the layoffs that we've been seeing. Yes, mass layoffs where I mean they're announcing 20,000, 40,000 employees that are now laid off.

14:10 And this isn't just a situation where it's only AI automation inside of warehouses and like production or manufacturing. They're laying off corporate employees as well as you know, uh manual hourly import. Like it's it's it's a a almost like a domino effect that we're seeing across so many different industries right now. And that's mixed with, like you said, this additional unrest that we're seeing. Correct. It's the yeah, the racial and social justice unrest. We're seeing there's a mass in misinformation and 24-7 news cycles that we're seeing. It's constant when you look at news on your phone, let's just say you're looking on your phone, I know I do.

14:54 It is constant where I feel like not only is it a new story that's coming out every day, but then there's also all the substories, right? Where it's, oh, well, I'm gonna take this over here and I'm gonna run with it. There's the clickbait where there are journalists or even bloggers that are specifically creating this headline because they know that you're going to click on it, but it's not valid and it's not true. But we're just seeing that there is a lot of stress, and it's interesting because over 70% of Americans report feeling stressed about the country's future. So seven out of 10 Americans are feeling stressed. We saw, and if we think about the stress, right? One of the biggest factors to that is obviously financial, which we talked about inflation.

15:37 We talked about the amount of mass layoffs that are happening. And that's happening at, you know, kind of your community local level, right? Because then some of the things we're talking about are happening on the national level. Correct. And then you you stack that with unaffordable housing. Yes. Because the affordability is through the roof, where now though, and it's such in it, we're in such a precarious situation right now as well, because you have the people that have owned their houses and they're they were at a point where they could sell it, and you name the price, and the house is gonna sell, which was good for the seller, bad for the buyer. Now buyers are like, man, interest rates are so high, I'm not gonna jump in the game, and also I'm gonna be more picky. So now sellers aren't making what they were making, buyers are sitting on the sidelines, and renters thought, or or the the the um rental housing thought they were gonna have all of these people flooding in, and we're just seeing the downstream effects of everything that's happening right now.

16:31 And I think to your point, just from a media standpoint and the the divisiveness, it's not helping move us forward. No, and a lot of Americans right now are feeling unseen, unheard, and undervalued. And really, let's take it a step further. A lot of people are not feeling safe. Yeah, they're not feeling I'm not feeling safe just walking down the street or being in my community. And that's where we consider home, not just your home where you live, but then your community, where you go and where you shop and where you interact and where you engage. And people are just not feeling safe walking down the streets. And so that's really what's what's upsetting. So this doesn't mean that your voice doesn't matter.

17:13 And I feel like that's something that we need to reiterate. We have to continue to vote no matter how hard it is for some of us to be able to vote right now. And and a lot of on the back end on the political side, we're seeing a lot of interesting things happening there. Um, but we're also seeing that community action, and that's what with the protests, we're seeing community action often rises during these moments. And it's something that's so critical because we're coming, you have to think, we're in we're essentially in a civil war with each other, but at the same time, we're trying to be united.

17:55 So it's really interesting the dynamics that are happening right now. And I think the more that we're able to again come back to the similarities of although this may not directly be affecting you, you may know somebody, you may just see it on the news, and that affects you. You are feeling it just in the every day-to-day and the news cycles that you're seeing. And so we're all just really trying to feel heard and feel seen, and ultimately we want to feel safe. Yeah, and and I always just recommend not just treating people how you want to be treated, but treating people how they want to be treated. So when you think about the situation of regardless of where someone's from, where they originated, where they're at now, let's have more respect for others, more peace and positivity towards others, regardless of the situation.

18:48 Because if we can come to it with that standpoint that we see our spouse or our friend or our loved one or just another human being, not just, hey, I've got a job to do, and I'm not seeing a person here. I'm just seeing this is how I execute on my job. Correct. Well, you can there, there's two things, it can it can exist with having both positivity, doing your job, but also finding a way as well, right? To make sure that uh we keep, you know, human, you know, we keep just human people at the core and you know, the the respective human-centric. Yeah, I love that. So how do we stay calm and grounded during this time? First, I would say, you know, limit news intake, set your boundaries.

19:30 I mean, just a per perfect example of that. When I go when we go into the gym, one of the first things that we do, you know, you can change the the TV station, but it's like Fox News off, you know, local news off. Just because a lot of news off. Off. Like, and it's not that I always like need to be watching sports, but the very least, sports is giving you like there's no, for the most part, no negative news. Sometimes people are arguing, but like there's not that negative cycle of seeing it just flash up on the on television. Also, fear, right? You're not getting hit with all of this fear-based media. So I absolutely understand what you're saying. I would also say verify before you share. Yes. Right? We don't want to keep sp uh spreading the fake quote unquote fake news or the news that's not verified.

20:16 Verify it as much as you can before you share it. And if anything, stay connected to real people and not just a screen. So get into your community, talk with people, get into community forums. If there's a town hall that's happening, get your get your voice in there. Be able to say something and feel heard, even if it's not something that can change at the national level right now. If you can change something within your community, your voice matters, your vote matters, and being able to get into those um spaces for yourself. But then also, we know you have to regulate your body because right now our nervous systems are overstimulated.

20:56 We are not coming down from the anxiety, the anger, the fear, and the frustration. We're just stacking on top of it right now. So, what are we supposed to do to help regulate our bodies? And I would say it would be something like Swan would be a great example of being able to do that, um, which is sleep, water, activity, nutrition, focusing on your taking those breaks from media, I think is gonna be key. Making sure you're drinking water, staying active, go out there and get a walk-in, right? Just get some fresh air going and then focusing on your nutrition as well, making sure that you're having healthy meals that can help you, your mind stay at its peak and you can have your performance still continue to be, you know, where you are now currently and and not have to worry about so much of taking this big dip down, which you know can happen, which is understandable at this time.

21:49 Yeah. And I also think you should find that accountability and connection of someone else that can help you if you're feeling down, someone that can pour back in and lift you up. Can give you a positive perspective or just some good news. And sometimes that comes from a small focus group of maybe folks from your church or uh you know the gym, whatever that may be, whatever that is, but finding some other people that are positive and upbeat and uplifting that can keep your spirits up as you know, because again, some days are tougher than others. Absolutely. So, how can you take meaningful action? We mentioned before, vote, register, help people understand the process. If you're very knowledgeable, there's a lot of people that don't necessarily know what's going on, especially the younger generation.

22:31 They know what's going on, but let's take them maybe a step further into the process. This is what's happening on at the political level, this is what's happening at the economic level, right? Taking it that step further. Suppose local organizations that are doing real on the ground work. I think that's very important when you talk about community-led initiatives. Uh, you want to make sure that you're modeling empathy in your home, workplace, and online spaces. It's big. I mean, the online spaces can get so negative. And I mean, you even look in the comments on different posts, you have total different sides of the spectrum on most posts. You got people like, oh yeah, this is crazy. Other people like, hey, they should have just complied and that should have never happened.

23:13 And a lot of times it's it's not either extreme, it's finding understanding, finding a way to be able to get to common ground and make sure that these tragedies, these situations aren't continuing to escalate and aren't happening in more cities like Minneapolis and other places. We want them to happen less. And even for those that are doing their job, because every person, it's some not all. It's not every person that works for ISIS not trying to, you know, um uh just do their job and and do it the right way, but it is being able to hold people accountable, yes, but then make sure that we're moving in the right direction in totality as a people. Absolutely, right? Where are the guardrails? Where are the checks and balances?

23:53 That's something that needs to be enforced and put that would be preferred from the top down, but um, I've unfortunately I think we're not seeing that. And so I know a lot of people are talking about reform right now. Some people are saying we're we we're past reform, some saying that we need to reform. So it's really interesting, uh, just people's opinions that you were mentioning. So I would also say volunteer locally. That's something too, where again, if you're not able to change something on the national scale right now and you're seeing things that are happening across the country, think about what I can do in my backyard, what can I do locally for my community for us to be able to feel safe, to feel heard, to feel valued, and to feel seen.

24:33 Uh, share resources, not rumors, right? We want to be able to again go back to that, verify what you're sharing so that you're not helping to spread the fear-based media potentially or misinformation. And I think a great example of that, like you said, is yes, using your right to vote. Also, there are potential uh petitions, there are peaceful protests. There's a lot of things that you can do that fall in line with being able to support the right causes without it having to be, again, on an extreme where it's it's it's having a negative impact, but you're actually supporting and causing change. Yes. Also, we all, if you're on social media, you have a platform.

25:15 Even if you think that you're not this mega influencer, you have people within your circle that look to you for the right information, that look to you to be the one that is empathetic, that is spreading the positive messages. So use your platform to build, not divide. I think that's something that's very key in this day and age when we talk about social media. We almost say everybody is one piece away, one piece of content away from going viral. So, what do you want that piece of content to be that goes viral? Do you want it to be misinformation or do you want it to be something that is uniting and bringing people together? So let's talk about forward movement, right?

25:56 Where do we go from here? So, change is built through people who stay grounded. So staying right, we talked about Swan, staying grounded there, sleepwater activity, nutrition, focusing on your health and wellness, also your mental health. If you notice that you're getting too anxious or too angry by looking at the new cycle so often, start pulling it back, turn it off. Start also interacting, like we mentioned, with your community, interacting with your family and getting outside and having fun and playing, if you can, just to be able to take your mind off of what's happening currently in America. Um, hope is an action and not a feeling, right?

26:36 When we think about hope, we think about how are we able to act on this in a way that is going to keep us unified rather than divide. And then we're navigating, well, we've navigated hard seasons before, especially uh when we talk about, you know, the early 1900s, you mentioned uh the uh boycotts, right? We had the Montgomery bus boycott. We had there's so many things that we have have that have happened previously in history that at when it's happening, you don't think that you're gonna necessarily see the other side. But there is a rainbow in the clouds. And I do feel like the more that we can focus on trying to move those clouds out of the way so that we can see the rainbow, I think the better off that we're gonna be.

27:24 But it's not that it's going to be easy. It's very, it's difficult for everybody right now. But the more that we can talk about also where we are as humans, right? Where we are feeling this stress, we are feeling this strain, and you're not alone. And hopefully this can, you know, bless you and bless somebody else. But I is there anything else you want to add? Yeah, I I think you you closed it out perfectly. Continue to pour in, continue to find ways to be able to find that peace, but also creating more of that peace. And, you know, just by listening to this, sharing this with somebody is another way just to get a positive message out. Yes. So thank you so much for listening to this episode, Coupley Fit Fam.

28:05 We appreciate you all so much. If you are watching us on YouTube, please like and subscribe. If you are following us on social media, it's at Coupley Fit C O U P L E Y F I T. As always, keep growing, glowing, and feeling better together. Bye.