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043 - Facts Don't Care About Your Feelings

October 4, 2018 45m 24s Full transcript available
043 - Facts Don't Care About Your Feelings
0:00 / 45m 24s
In this episode, we tackle the critical distinction between facts and feelings, especially in the context of the Kavanaugh hearings. It's time for conservative men to stand firm in truth and not be swayed by emotional narratives that lack evidence.
Transcript
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0:30 This is a Donaldson Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:45 Facts don't care about your feelings. I know a lot of you guys out there, you've heard that
0:49 quote before because I know a lot of you guys out there listen to Ben Shapiro. And so if you are a
0:53 Ben Shapiro guy or even if you're not, you know that that's a phrase that has been attributed to
0:58 him. Facts don't care about your feelings. So that was something that he started saying in
1:02 speeches a long time ago. It's something that he tweeted that's been retweeted I think a quarter
1:07 of a million times or favorited a quarter of a million times. And it's really become a mantra
1:12 for young conservatives and being a conservative myself mainly conservative on a lot of different
1:17 issues. I certainly align with this. And today we're going to be talking about kind of the dichotomy
1:23 between facts and feelings because there certainly is a dichotomy. Then you might be thinking like
1:28 why like what in the world would this attach to but believe it or not, we're going to kind of
1:33 continue last week's podcast. So on last week's podcast we were talking about the Me Too movement
1:38 and how it's been weaponized and how I really felt like it had kind of been run aground because
1:42 of the stuff going on with Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Blasey Ford. And you know from the time
1:48 that I recorded that I recorded that the Sunday before the Senate hearing that happened later on
1:55 in the week. And so so many things have happened since I recorded that and you know I didn't really
2:00 have time to really go back and record anything. And so I was just going to kind of let it ride
2:04 and see what the week will look like. And so I'm actually recording this the night before the release.
2:09 So this release is on Thursday. I'm recording this Wednesday night. So I wanted to get as much
2:13 of the information in as possible. And so in one quick thing for last week's podcast, I when I
2:18 live back and listen to it, I said Brett Weinstein twice. Whenever I was trying to refer to Harvey
2:24 Weinstein. And so obviously if any of you are familiar with the IDW or the intellectual dark
2:28 web, you know, Brett Weinstein's a part of that. So yes, it's just you know, faux pas misspoke.
2:33 So whoops, that's how it goes. But just to kind of get you all updated if you haven't really been
2:37 following the news on the Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the Dr. Blasey Ford situation. It looks like at
2:43 this point that the FBI investigation is going to be wrapping here soon. There were reports today
2:48 that it would be done and they're going to have a certain number of senators that are going to be
2:52 able to look at the report and everything. But essentially, this is the seventh FBI investigation
2:57 into the past of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. And for the seventh time, they're going to find nothing.
3:02 They have found nothing that would implicate him and any of these different things. And Judge
3:07 Kavanaugh obviously last week he had the votes in order to get out of the committee. It looks like
3:11 the Senate is going to be voting on him this week. And it looks like because of the confidence from
3:17 Mitch McConnell and some of the other folks in the Senate that they feel like they have the votes,
3:21 even if somebody peels off at the last second and it's 50 50, they obviously have the vice
3:25 president's vote Mike Pence as the tie break. So it looks like, you know, all the signs are pointing
3:30 to the fact that Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going to be confirmed. And you know, in the meantime,
3:36 there were two other sexual assault allegations that came out after Dr. Ford's allegations came
3:42 out. And each one was more ridiculous in the last one. The final one was that he was one of the
3:47 proponents or leaders of a gang rape club or something like that. And the evidence for this was even
3:54 more hilariously bad than what was what Dr. Ford brought forward. And it just, you know, basically,
3:59 you can see what this was, is that it was kind of a smear job, what they were just trying to delay
4:04 things, get it until after the election. But it's just kind of how it goes. And it sucks that we live
4:10 in a country right now that is doing this politically, but it's just that's where we live. So,
4:14 but let's go back to the testimony, because I think it's really important for us to talk about
4:18 what went on during the testimony. So unlike what Ford's team wanted, they actually made her go first.
4:26 So I remember, remember me talking about how they want to Kavanaugh to go first, which
4:30 made absolutely no sense. So luckily, they were able to get that all squared away.
4:33 And here's the thing. If you watched Dr. Ford's testimony, you know, she seemed very believable.
4:41 She seemed like she had honestly been moved by something that her life had been, you know,
4:47 irreconcilably altered that, you know, it's gone in a completely different direction. And she really
4:54 did seem like, like she was telling the truth. And I mean, she just seemed highly, highly believable.
5:00 And then you get to judge Brett Kavanaugh, and then we got to see a side of Kavanaugh that we
5:04 hadn't seen yet, because he seemed kind of like, you know, just kind of a ordinary kind of dorky
5:08 guy, right? You know, just unassuming and whatever. But he came out guns blazing.
5:13 Like he came out guns blazing from the beginning. He came out like a guy who wanted to fight.
5:17 Like, hey, these allegations are ridiculous. They've already stained my family name for forever.
5:24 But I'm not just going to sit here and let you just run rough shot over me, right?
5:27 So they were very different testimonies. I guess we could have guessed that force testimonies were
5:32 going to be very emotive in those types of things. And obviously the the Democratic senators were
5:39 making sure to be as emotive as possible with their questioning, because that certainly helped
5:44 their cause. Republicans were trying to be fact based while at the same time being empathetic.
5:48 You had the prosecutor that they brought in, I believe is from Arizona or New Mexico.
5:54 Gosh, that was not a great performance by her. Obviously they needed someone up there that could
5:58 do a little bit more cross examination, not just the process, you know, the prosecutor doing
6:03 going up there and doing her thing, even though in hindsight, she wrote a report saying that,
6:07 you know, there was so little in this case that Dr. Ford brought forward that she could even she
6:12 couldn't even get a warrant to search anything because of the evidence that was presented. Just
6:16 nothing would have been able to get through her normal matrix of things that would get her to that
6:21 point. But but guys, at the end of the day, we have to look at this from a couple of different
6:26 standpoints. So today we're talking about feelings versus facts, right? So from a feelings standpoint,
6:32 like I already said, Ford seems believable. And to be honest, if they had held the vote
6:37 right after her testimony and not given Judge Kavanaugh a chance to come out,
6:41 it's very likely that Kavanaugh would not have been confirmed. I think that's that's really fair
6:47 to say is that Ford seemed very, very believable. These allegations seemed very, very credible,
6:52 even in the it almost made you forget that there's essentially zero evidence aside from
6:57 from her allegations that this ever happened. And then again, from a feeling standpoint,
7:01 is just Kavanaugh seemed believable. I mean, he was so emotional with his denial, how this
7:08 couldn't possibly have happened, that he would never do something like that. You know, talking
7:12 about how his daughter, his 10 year old daughter, you know, was actually praying for Dr. Ford. And
7:17 you could see Judge Kavanaugh's wife over his right shoulder in the frame. And she was trying to
7:22 hold together and being trying to be tough. And so from a feelings standpoint, both of them seem
7:28 believable. So what do we do? If the way we feel doesn't doesn't match reality, like, how do we
7:35 reconcile that? Well, luckily, we don't just look at things from a feelings standpoint, or we shouldn't,
7:41 there's also the facts standpoint, right? And follow me on this dichotomy, because this is going to be
7:46 a little bit of a review of things we've already said or things that you've already heard. But
7:49 from a fact standpoint, this is what Ford has in her favor. Well, it's not really in her favor.
7:54 This is just essentially what we do know is that she can't remember when the alleged assault happened.
7:59 She can't remember where the alleged assault happened. She can't remember how many people were
8:05 in the room when it happened. She said it was two, and then it was four, and then it was three,
8:09 and now it's four again, right? She's kind of been all over the place. And then one, one thing
8:13 that I find to be really, really huge is this, uh, uh, Blasey Ford, who was 15 at the time of the
8:20 assault, she couldn't drive herself. And apparently the, the area of town where this assault took place
8:25 was, was kind of outs on the outskirts, like, oh, not close to her house. So the thing that's
8:31 really important is she can't remember how she got to this party, where the alleged assault happened,
8:36 and she can't remember how she got home. So if we're looking at this geographically,
8:42 we can assume she didn't walk home, right? She claims that she ran out of the house,
8:46 fearing for her life. We can assume that somebody picked her up from this party if she was ever
8:51 there. And just to be honest, if you're 15 years old and you were just, you know, scared within an
8:56 inch of your life, according to you and almost raped, don't you think if it was your mom or your
9:01 dad or another friend that was picking you up or an older sibling that perhaps they would have
9:06 noticed something was a rye, especially if you, you just, you know, had this horrible life-defining
9:12 moment. I mean, wouldn't that be logical? But she can't remember that. She can't remember how
9:16 she got home. Um, the only things that she could actually remember with any certainty or clarity
9:21 was one that she was sexually assaulted to the perpetrator was 100% Brett Kavanaugh.
9:27 And three, she only had one beer that night. So those are like the only details she actually
9:32 can remember, keeping the facts going on, Dr. Ford, all four people that she said were witnesses
9:38 of this assault have refuted her story publicly. Um, the psychiatrist, so back in 2012, she apparently
9:44 told a psychiatrist about during, you know, a couple's therapy session about this assault.
9:49 But unfortunately, the notes from Dr. Ford's session, uh, don't mention Kavanaugh at all.
9:57 So, and if you compare the psychiatrist's notes to the notes, uh, from any of her times that she
10:03 has spoken about this, even through her lawyers, they don't really match up. Uh, and then there was
10:07 some more damning evidence that really came out this week, which was that one of her exes. Um,
10:11 one of Blasey Ford's exes came out and testified that Ford knows how to beat polygraph exams. So
10:17 Dr. Ford is a clinical psychologist and, uh, that she had actually taught other people to do so.
10:24 Like she taught other individuals how to beat a polygraph exam. So if you don't know why this
10:29 is important, it's because her lawyers had her take a polygraph exam. Um, right after these
10:34 allegations were kind of coming out and apparently she passed a polygraph exam, but, but guys, you
10:38 have to understand something about a polygraph test. Everyone calls it a lie detector test,
10:42 which is a misnomer because it doesn't test whether or not you're lying. It tests whether or not you
10:48 believe what you're saying is true. So that might seem like we're splitting hairs, but the thing is
10:53 is like, uh, if, if I think something is true and I say it, even if it's not true, I can pass a
10:59 polygraph because I believe that it's true. I mean, guys, there, there's a reason why polygraph tests
11:04 aren't admissible in court. I mean, it's because there's too easy to game. I mean, you can read a
11:08 couple of blogs and watch a YouTube video and pass a polygraph test. Like this isn't like a
11:12 really, really hard thing. And, and unfortunately for Dr. Ford, well, maybe not unfortunately because
11:17 this would be the justice system. She, she may have perjured herself while she was under oath
11:22 because her ex, her ex boyfriend or ex husband, I can't remember, but he came out and under,
11:27 under threat of perjury himself. He was under oath whenever he gave this testimony that she
11:31 knew how to pass polygraph exams. So there's a lot of really damning stuff out there about Dr.
11:35 Ford right now. And then in terms of the fact side on Kavanaugh, like I mentioned earlier,
11:39 he had already been through six FBI investigations. Like when he worked for the Bush administration,
11:45 he had the highest top level of clearance. Like he had access to, um, you know,
11:50 our nuclear codes and every bit of intelligence that he could have wanted to get his hands on.
11:55 And so they don't just give anybody that type of clearance. I mean, they talk to everyone. I
12:01 remember whenever I got interviewed, um, because my buddy was going to be joining. I don't know if
12:06 I could really even talk about this, but I mean, I guess I'm going for it. He was in the Air Force
12:10 and he was going to be doing some reconnaissance, uh, in language study of, you know, a country that
12:14 we like to keep an eye on. We'll, we'll call it that. And I got interviewed by the military and the
12:19 FBI, like for my buddy, just to get a job with the government, right? And this is a guy that you
12:24 will never know. You will never meet. He will likely never make the newspapers, but I was even
12:29 interviewed for that. And I was just a childhood friend of his. So you would think if someone was
12:33 going to be working directly for the president, that the, the investigations would have been thorough
12:37 and he gone through six of them. And then this week would have been his seventh. And so we can
12:41 assume they've all been thorough and we can assume also that they haven't found anything.
12:45 And I guess the other facts based thing with Judge Kavanaugh would be that we supposedly,
12:50 uh, are supposed to live in a country that still has the presumption of innocence.
12:55 And guys, I know it's going to seem like I'm going on a little bit of a political rant here,
13:00 but, but there's still supposed to be that presumption of innocence, but it seems like the
13:04 feelings based culture has flipped that towards like, no, no, I feel like this is true. So it must
13:10 be true. And you have to prove it wrong, which, I mean, this is, this is, you know, 101 stuff.
13:15 You can't prove a negative, right? I mean, it's, it's impossible to do. You can't prove that.
13:21 And so it's just, again, guys, we get to this whole facts versus feelings thing. And I'm wanting
13:26 to keep the theme of this podcast on that side. But the thing that I find really, really interesting
13:31 is when we do look at politics, and again, this isn't a political podcast, but yeah, you know,
13:35 forgive me, we're going to get a little bit political today. It seems like the political left
13:40 and the political right are in those two camps. So it seems like the political left is very
13:46 feelings driven. And the political right is very facts driven. And so one way that I think is easy
13:52 for us to kind of talk through that, because you might disagree with that. And you know,
13:55 people on the political left think they have it both ways, people on the political right think
13:58 they have it both ways. But you know, as someone who tries to be neutral and intellectually honest,
14:02 I think people on the left are very feelings based, people on the right are very facts based.
14:06 But the thing that we know about bad ideas, so let's pull this back even one more level,
14:11 even a little bit more macro, bad ideas can only be enacted by force.
14:15 So when we're looking at this politically or governmentally, if it's a bad idea, you have to
14:22 enforce it because people otherwise would not vote for it, especially in a country like the United
14:26 States, where we have open elections, where we are democracy, to a certain degree, we have liberty
14:32 in voting, those types of things. And the thing is, is with these bad ideas, is they have to be
14:38 enacted by force, because nobody would support them otherwise. So you see some different pockets
14:45 of socialism here in the United States right now. And the reason why you don't see these national
14:51 candidates right now that currently support socialism is because it's pretty easy to debunk
14:55 socialism as a horrifically bad idea in every stretch of the imagination. And this is not a
15:02 podcast about socialism, but obviously socialism has never worked on large scale. And essentially,
15:07 people that love socialism and want it to be in the United States, these are people that it's
15:12 constantly a moving goalpost for these people, like they loved Venezuela until people, you know,
15:16 pretty much had to start eating dogs down there because they can't even get food. They can't even
15:20 get toilet paper down there. And then it's like, Oh, well, they were never really socialists. So
15:24 it's just a bad idea. And so what we see is we see people in the political left right now fighting
15:29 to take over the court system, as opposed to getting people elected. So it's not that they're
15:34 not trying to get people elected. But when you get people elected, they still technically are
15:39 beholden to, you know, their interest holders, or they're constituents, right? And so they still
15:44 have to do things to please those individuals so they can get reelected. These these court appointees
15:49 don't really have that, especially to an office like the Supreme Court, which is exactly why I think
15:55 that this entire stink has happened to begin with. Like these allegations, which again,
16:01 could be true, but that would fly in the face of everything that we see now in terms of what
16:07 what evidence is out there. But these courts, if if the Democrats can win here, if they can get
16:14 Kavanaugh's nomination, you know, negated or something like that, which doesn't look like it's
16:18 going to happen. And they can get get one of their people on the Supreme Court at some point,
16:22 then basically they can legislate these really, really bad ideas into real life and into law,
16:28 right? And so again, guys, I know I'm going a lot of different areas in this podcast, but I just
16:33 want you to understand the enormity of what we're seeing. I mean, I don't normally talk about the
16:37 same subject two weeks in a row. But to be honest, I really feel like this, this was a watershed
16:43 moment for our country. Like, and I don't want to be hyperbolic and exaggerative and make it seem
16:48 like it was something more than it was. But man, this this is one of the craziest things that I feel
16:53 like I've seen in a while. Like it was just nuts. And just, you know, initially, because you're like,
16:59 Oh man, what if this is true? How how terrifying is this? How could this guy have accidentally
17:03 got onto the Supreme Court with all these allegations? And then you start seeing the evidence or the
17:07 lack thereof. And you're just like, man, this feels like a witch hunt, but they wouldn't do that,
17:11 would they? But I guess the one big thing that this has really helped me think about because,
17:17 you know, we've had two weeks to start really digesting all this is it's kind of made me think
17:22 about Christianity and Christians in particular, and conservatives and how essentially these groups
17:28 of people don't really know how to fight and don't typically know how to fight back or they won't,
17:34 right? And I was listening to a podcast earlier this week where they talked about it briefly,
17:39 it was on the cross politic podcast. And you know, I had the idea before that podcast even came out,
17:45 but that that podcast really helped me solidify in my head. So I'm super appreciative of it. But
17:50 the thing about it with Christians and conservatives is we typically have facts on our side, but we're
17:55 not willing to step up and be loud enough to be heard. You know, it's some it's, you know,
18:00 speaks softly and carry a big stick. And we have this idea where, you know, we don't have to be
18:03 out there and boisterous and scream about it. That's what the other people do or people on the other
18:07 side do in that type of a thing. But I think we saw an incredibly good example of a Christian
18:13 conservative come out, you know, full gangster and really show everybody what it's like to fight.
18:19 And so I think all of you know who I'm going to talk about. This is Senator Lindsey Graham,
18:24 who's a Republican senator out of South Carolina. He shocked the world last week.
18:31 Whenever he addressed the Senate panel, this was when Judge Kavanaugh was giving his his hearing
18:37 and talking to everybody and answering questions and giving a statement. And you know, Lindsey Graham
18:42 started talking to him a little bit and then all of a sudden Lindsey Graham just went off. He went
18:47 half cocked man. He just it was just it was such a powerful moment from a guy to be honest with you.
18:52 I was not a huge fan of this guy was kind of a paper tiger. Like, you know, sometimes he was
18:58 super Republican. Sometimes he was conservative. Other times it seemed like he would just, you know,
19:02 lick his finger, stick it in the air and see which way the wind was blowing. He was just kind of all
19:06 over the place. But he's really made himself out to be a hero in the last week. And to be honest
19:10 with you, if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, I think he owes a debt of gratitude to Lindsey Graham.
19:15 Because Lindsey Graham basically called out what was happening in the Senate chambers and what
19:20 was happening in this committee. He was pointing it out for what it was, which was a farce. And so
19:25 as opposed to describing it, and I know some of you don't even know what I'm talking about,
19:28 I want you guys to actually hear the audio of what he said. So I found the audio of it. And
19:35 because I, you know, I saw some places online where they had cut it into like 30 second little clips
19:39 or one minute clips or something like that. But I want you to get the full accounting of the things
19:44 that he said and the tone and tenor. And I'll put the the link to the video in the show notes so you
19:50 can actually watch it because he got very, very animated. So here we're gonna we're gonna stop
19:54 the podcast right here. And I'm gonna go ahead and let you listen to the audio. So here we go.
19:58 FBI reports in the past in the 38 years I've been the Senate. Senator Graham.
20:05 Are you aware that at 9/23 on the night of July the 9th, the day you were nominated to the Supreme
20:16 Court by President Trump, Senator Schumer said 23 minutes after your nomination. I will oppose
20:23 Judge Kavanaugh's nomination with everything I have. I have a bipartisan, I hope a bipartisan
20:29 majority will do the same. The stakes are simply too high for anything less. Well, if you weren't
20:35 aware of it, you are now. Did you meet with Senator Dianne Feinstein on August 20th? I did meet with
20:41 Senator Feinstein. Did you know that her staff had already recommended a lawyer to Dr. Ford? I did
20:47 not know that. Did you know that her and her staff had this allegations for over 20 days?
20:54 I did not know that at the time. If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us.
21:01 What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020.
21:07 You've said that, not me. You've got nothing to apologize for. When you see Sotomayor and
21:15 Kagan, tell him that Lindsey said hello, because I voted for them. I would never do to them what
21:21 you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics.
21:29 And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to
21:34 this guy? Are you a gang rapist? No. I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through.
21:46 Boy, you all want power. God, I hope you never get it. I hope the American people can see through
21:52 this sham that you knew about it and you held it. You had no intention of protecting Dr. Ford.
21:59 None. She's as much of a victim as you are. God, I hate to say that because these have been my
22:06 friends. But let me tell you, when it comes to this, you're looking for a fair process.
22:12 You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend. Do you consider this a job interview?
22:20 The advice and consent role is like a job. You consider that you've been through a job interview.
22:28 I've been through a process of advice and consent under the Constitution. Would you say you've been
22:32 through hell? I've been through hell and then some. This is not a job interview. Yeah. This is hell.
22:41 This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap.
22:49 Your high school yearbook. You have interacted with professional women all your life. Not one
22:57 accusation. You're supposed to be Bill Cosby when you're a junior and senior in high school.
23:03 And all of a sudden you got over it. Spend my understanding
23:08 that if you drug women and rape them for two years in high school, you probably don't stop.
23:16 Here's my understanding. If you lived a good life, people would recognize it like the American
23:24 Bar Association has the gold standard. His integrity is absolutely unquestioned.
23:30 He is the very circumspect in his personal conduct, harbors, no biases or prejudices.
23:37 He's entirely ethical. He's a really decent person. He is warm, friendly, unassuming.
23:44 He's the nicest person. The ABA. And one thing I can tell you, you should be proud of.
23:52 Ashley, you should be proud of this. That you raised a daughter who had the good character
23:58 to pray for Dr. Ford to my Republican colleagues. If you vote no, you're legitimizing the most
24:08 despicable thing I have seen in my time in politics. You want to see it? I hope you never get it.
24:17 I hope you're on the Supreme Court. That's exactly where you should be. And I hope that
24:23 the American people will see through this charade. And I wish you well, and I intend to vote for you,
24:31 and I hope everybody who's fair-minded will. So there you have it, guys. I mean,
24:39 I wasn't kidding. Like, if you didn't know who Lindsey Graham was before this, you don't really
24:44 realize how much this was out of character for this guy. And man, he just brought up a lot of
24:50 different things there. I think some of the most powerful things he brought up was Sotomayor and
24:54 Kagan. Those were two of the guys or two of one guy, one gal that were put on the Supreme Court
25:00 that are very, very, very liberal, like incredibly liberal, like dangerously liberal that they're
25:05 on that court, liberal, right? And he voted for both of them. So he went against, you know, what
25:12 maybe most Republicans would want to do now. And he voted for both of those people. So when he said,
25:16 say, hi to Sotomayor and Kagan, tell him I said, hello, you know, for me, I thought that was a very,
25:21 you know, apropos moment that he wouldn't have treated somebody like that based on these baseless
25:26 allegations, right? Just just seeing some of the things that he talked about, like,
25:31 he showed me that even a guy like that, and I'm assuming somewhat soft-spoken senator from the
25:37 south that he can do that. But you can fight back when you need to, that when justice is on the line,
25:44 when the right thing is on the line, that it's okay to get loud. It's okay to fight and defend
25:49 yourself. Like, I just feel like conservatives and Christians, and yes, I'm talking to people
25:54 that are like me. I know there's a lot of conservatives and Christians that listen to this. And if you're
25:57 an atheist and liberal, I don't care, that's great. I'm glad you're here. So listen up, you'll get a
26:02 little bit more of our mindset. But we've got to be able to fight back. And I don't mean with our
26:05 fist guys. I don't mean we need to go and, you know, throw, you know, Molotov cocktails through
26:10 people's windows and, you know, screaming at people in restaurants with all these morons
26:14 that are doing all over the place now. Like, that's not how we should act. But when people
26:19 criticize Judge Kavanaugh for reacting angrily, you have to ask yourself, would you not have reacted
26:26 the same way if you had been accused of something incredibly heinous, regardless of what job you
26:34 might get on the back end. But if somebody just said, oh, yeah, you kill kittens in your living room,
26:40 or, yeah, I, you know, you basically go out and you make sure you shoot animals in the woods,
26:45 but don't kill them. You just wound them. Like, if someone just said said something like that,
26:50 like, that was so out out of this world, they had no substantiation for it. Wouldn't that make you
26:54 angry? Because essentially, this is what people are wanting to do. A lot of people in the mainstream
26:58 media, a lot of people align on the political left or on the liberal side of the aisle. They
27:03 want to end Judge Kavanaugh's life. I don't mean literally, but in like his professional life,
27:08 and keep him from getting the Supreme Court based on one woman's accusations that can't be
27:12 substantiated by literally anything else than her words. So does that mean it didn't happen?
27:18 Not saying it didn't happen. But we have no evidence to believe that it did. And they want us to
27:24 basically take her opinion, or not her opinion, excuse me, but they want to take what she said,
27:29 what she feels like she remembers, what she feels like happened. And just go with that.
27:34 Guys, we can't stand for stuff like that. Inside the political realm or outside the political
27:39 realm, we shouldn't stand for stuff like that in our churches. Like, like, we shouldn't allow
27:43 our pastors or the people that that teach us on Sundays to misquote the Bible,
27:48 or to use things out of context. Like, that doesn't mean you need to stand up and
27:52 necessarily interrupt them in the middle of the sermon. Although that would be pretty awesome,
27:56 and I don't want to watch it. But the guys, guys, we have facts on our side on so many of these
28:00 different things. I mean, look at, look at all these different things that are that are going on
28:03 in our culture right now. We got the transgender debate. I mean, that's completely based on feelings,
28:08 right? Has nothing to do with science. There's no scientific basis or backing for the idea that
28:14 somebody can be gender fluid, that they can float in and out of certain genders that certain days,
28:20 they're non binary, that they're not even a gender. Like, come on, facts would need to come into that
28:27 situation. How about rape culture? You know, that's something that's debated. You know, there's this
28:31 stat going around. And man, I'm even going to call him out on this. But Stephen Mansfield,
28:35 that's my boy. But he even parroted this on his podcast this week that 20% of college females are
28:43 sexually assaulted. Like that stat has been so ceremoniously debunked that it's not even funny.
28:49 Because guys, if that was true, if that was really true, if that wasn't based on feelings, if that
28:53 was based on facts, would anybody send their girls to college? I mean, really guys out there with
28:59 daughters, maybe you have daughters in high school or junior high elementary school, maybe you have
29:03 daughters in college, if there was a one in five chance of them getting sexually assaulted,
29:06 would you send them? Come on. Like the stats are somewhere like, you know, one in a thousand women
29:13 are raped, which is too many, but it's like one in a thousand. And on a college campus, it's more
29:17 like one in 50 something, which again, is insanely too many. But to say that it's 20%, that's absurd,
29:24 it's ridiculous. It doesn't matter what you feel about the situation, it matters what the reality is.
29:30 And that gets us into the whole, you know, triggered culture where it's like somebody says
29:34 something that you disagree with, and you feel like you get to scream and holler and disrupt
29:38 or cry or go to your safe space or something like that. All those things are based on feelings.
29:44 It's not based on facts. Like, that's what we really need to think about this. This isn't just a
29:48 political thing. I mean, the majority of this podcast content has been political, but that's not the
29:53 realm that we're dealing with right now. Like we're dealing with all of it. Like, we've got to be
29:57 able to be realistic. And so I understand, and don't get me wrong, it's not like, okay, we can't
30:02 do anything based on feelings. But if we only base things on facts, that's a pretty good standard.
30:09 But if we only base things on feelings, that's a pretty crappy standard. It doesn't take some sort
30:15 of advanced, you know, thinker to really come up to come to that conclusion either. You don't need
30:20 to be a philosophical genius to think that that's a good way of doing things. But guys, as I was
30:24 thinking through this podcast, and I was thinking through, you know, how I went to frame this, that
30:28 would be most helpful. I went to kind of go through some things that I've felt myself, some things that
30:34 I've that I've believed myself, some things that I've had other people tell me about, that kind of
30:39 go into this whole facts versus feelings things, but on the Christian side. So whenever I've shared
30:44 Jesus with people, whenever I've talked to people about what they believe, you know, there's this
30:48 feeling amongst these people that they need to be clean before they come to God versus, you know,
30:54 the fact of just going to him in the first place, right? You know, maybe this is your story, but
30:59 certainly the story of a lot of my friends where it's just like, you know, they would probably
31:03 consider Jesus, but they'd have to make too many life changes before you would accept them.
31:08 You know, they're just too dirty right now, too sinful. You know, they've done too many bad
31:12 things like that kind of stuff. And at the end of the day, that's a facts versus feelings things
31:17 because they feel like they need to be cleaned up before they get there, as opposed to just going
31:20 to them. Like, like, I've seen that come up quite a bit, actually. It's it's really, I mean, Satan's
31:27 working there, man. That's a great that's a great lie. Not a good lie. That's a great lie. And another
31:32 facts versus feelings thing on the Christian side is I guess the feeling of being saved
31:38 versus the reality of being saved. And so I'll tell a story about me. So again, for any of you
31:44 that know me or have listened to this podcast for any length of time, I didn't grow up in church.
31:48 You know, knowing in my family is very religious. You know, they're just kind of religious in name
31:52 only. Like, if you ask them, do you believe in God, they'd say, yeah, but they pretty much live as if
31:56 he doesn't exist. That that's kind of my family. A lot of parts of my family, especially my media
32:00 immediate family. But when I became a Christian in 10th grade, whenever I was saved or whatever
32:06 language you use in your denomination, because apparently not everyone just uses saved or accepted
32:12 Jesus into my heart, you know, the feeling was incredible, right? You had that focus feeling and
32:19 I got baptized and I really felt like something happened. And I started reading the New Testament
32:23 and kind of going through and everything was just like making sense. And it was just one of those
32:27 things where the feeling was crazy big, y'all. I mean, you get it. And because I didn't have that
32:33 crazy, like I was coked out of my mind and I almost died. And then Jesus like pulled me up right
32:37 before I died. And you know, this crazy conversion experience, there's just kind of regular old
32:40 Sunday night service, you know what I mean? But then the feeling waned, right? It waned right about
32:46 the time I got into Deuteronomy, right? So I start reading the Old Testament. I was like, this is
32:51 different than the New Testament, right? And I didn't really know I didn't have the maturity to know
32:57 the difference and why it was important and all those, the messianic prophecies that just didn't,
33:02 didn't really land with me, right? It was in 10th grade. But the feeling of being saved,
33:07 it started to wane, right? I shouldn't have that same feeling. I mean, just think about like any
33:13 of you guys that have gone to church camps. So there's big ones here in Oklahoma, like Falls Creek,
33:18 I know some of y'all have gone out to, you know, I think it's Gloriaetta out in New Mexico. There's
33:22 a bunch of these really, really big camps. And when you're there, you're going to like worship,
33:26 you know, two or three times a day and, and you're praying and, and you're, you're hanging out with
33:31 your friends and you're admitting crap that you've done wrong. And like, you know, you're crying and
33:35 you're doing all this other crazy stuff and you're having a ton of fun and, you know, everything's
33:38 just so, so elevated and so nuts. Like it just everything feels so awesome. But then you get home
33:45 and you promise yourself you're going to talk to all your friends about Jesus and you're going to,
33:50 you know, increase the, the size of your youth group 10 fold and all those different things. But,
33:55 you know, then it's Monday and, you know, your back's normal thing. You gotta go to practice.
34:00 You gotta go to school. And then it's, you know, a week or two goes by and then you kind of forget
34:05 even the words to some of the songs that you sang back at camp and, you know, you, you
34:09 stopped texting the, the people that you went to camp with more regularly or stopped writing them
34:13 letters or call them or whatever you did at that time. You got, you guys kind of get where I'm going.
34:18 It's like the feeling subsided. And so when I was in college, I had this buddy, buddy of mine named
34:24 Tyler and he worked in, in my building and he kind of was, you know, kind of my boss. And then, you
34:31 know, my boss's boss was above him. And so it was kind of like a mentor. It was a couple of years
34:35 older than I was. And, you know, one point I was like, you know, hey, I need your help on some stuff.
34:39 Like I just, I want to do some mentoring type thing. And I knew he was a good Christian guy,
34:43 played in a worship band and, and seemed to have some wisdom even for being, being a younger guy.
34:47 And, you know, he, he said some so profound to me that I've, that never forgotten up to this,
34:53 up to this day. And it was that, do I really want to base the biggest decision of my life on a feeling?
35:00 And I was like, like, what are you talking about? Because leading up to that comment,
35:04 I was telling him like, man, I don't know if I'm saved. And he's like, well, what do you mean?
35:08 I was like, well, I just don't feel saved. Like the feeling's not there. You know, that feeling of,
35:13 of Jesus being right there. And, you know, the feeling like I should raise my hands during worship
35:18 or whatever it is that y'all do or something like that. Just don't have that feeling. He's like,
35:22 Kyle, like, why would you base that on a feeling? He's like, feelings go up and down,
35:26 happiness, sadness, like, it's kind of all over the place. Why would you want to base your
35:30 eternity on a feeling? And that's stuck with me ever since. It's like, there's the feeling of being
35:36 saved. And then there's the reality of if you are not, if you've actually accepted Jesus.
35:41 And I guess the last thing I want to talk about here on the facts versus feeling part,
35:45 which is, you know, the feeling of distance from God versus the reality of God's presence.
35:52 I mean, there's the feeling that, you know, maybe I feel close to God or maybe I feel far away from
35:57 God, you know, something like that. But in reality, he's always here. Like that, that's my encouragement
36:03 to you guys. Like, this isn't my Joel Osteen moment, y'all. But it's just like, he's here all the time.
36:08 Like, I talk to Christians all the time. It's just like, man, God just feels so distant.
36:12 He feels so distant for me. It's like, well, have you tried talking to him?
36:16 Like, this isn't a hard equation. Like, everything around us was created by him.
36:21 Like, he's here, omniscient, omnipresent, all the other omni words that no one knows how to pronounce.
36:26 Like, guys, he's here. But again, it's facts versus feelings. And when we lean on the feeling,
36:32 we might drift even further away from God. Like, we might even distance ourselves a little bit more
36:38 inadvertently. Like, it's not something that we wanted to do, but it's something that happened
36:42 as opposed to resting in the reality, in the fact that God's presence is here. He's here now.
36:52 He's in this moment that we are saved, that we are his sons, that we are his daughters. Like,
36:58 that we are loved by him, that we are made in his image. Those things are different.
37:03 And man, I'm so glad those things are based on feelings, y'all.
37:07 I mean, just think about how many things do you not feel like doing, but you do them anyway,
37:11 because you're disciplined. Or because you know, the fact of you not doing that thing is worse
37:16 than the fact of you doing that thing, right? I mean, guys, I hope you're, I hope you're getting
37:24 the point here because this again, this isn't just a political podcast from a guy who aligns
37:28 on the on the political right. This is just one of those things we have to have facts in our lives.
37:33 We have to study the Bible and look for facts. We have to be able to stand up and defend ourselves.
37:38 We have to be able to give an apology. We have to be able to give an apologetic
37:42 for why we believe what we believe. We shouldn't, you know, feel intimidated when people challenge
37:47 our belief system, because we have facts on our side guys, because here's the thing. If Jesus
37:52 never lived, it creates more questions that can be answered. If Jesus didn't actually
37:59 die on the cross and then was resurrected three days later, it causes more questions than it answers.
38:04 Everything needs an answer. Do you have the answers?
38:10 And this isn't my plea to you to, you know, drop what you're doing and go to seminary and study
38:13 apologetics and go debate people and try to be a part of Ravi Zacharias's crew or something like
38:18 that. But guys, to a certain degree, we should be able to give a reason why we believe what we believe.
38:22 And it can't be, well, I'm from Texas. And so I guess I'm a Christian. Like, you can't do that.
38:28 Like guys, I mean, dude, I live in the bellbuckle, the Bible belt. I'm in Oklahoma, but it's just like,
38:33 come on. That doesn't make you a Christian. I hear that nonsense all the time. Are you a Christian?
38:39 Well, I am from the south. What does that mean? What does that mean?
38:43 And guys, we just have to be facts based in what we're doing. I'm going to drive that point home
38:50 over and over. We have to be facts based on the things that we're talking about. It doesn't mean
38:54 we can't show emotion. It doesn't mean we can't have feelings. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit
38:58 can't move none of those things. But if our foundation is in fact, it's going to help us overall.
39:03 So I'll leave the point there because I think I've beaten it completely to death. But hopefully
39:07 that landed with you guys. All right, guys, before we let you out of here, we're going to do a quick
39:10 resilience boost. As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and our mission is cultivating
39:14 manly resilience. And we do that by providing content that forges spiritual, mental and physical
39:20 toughness. So today, we're going to work on that mental resilience. So a few videos that I wanted
39:24 to shoot out to you guys. One is obviously the video of Senator Lindsey Graham just eviscerating
39:29 the Senate panel. And so I know whenever you're listening to that audio, sometimes you didn't
39:33 know exactly who was talking to you. He's like, whoa, is he mad at Judge Kavanaugh? But he was
39:37 literally turning to his Democrat colleagues to his left and just going in on him. So it's worth
39:43 your time. It's absolutely worth your time to watch that. But there were a couple of other videos
39:47 that I thought would be important for you all to watch. The first is a video called Facts Don't
39:51 Care About Your Feelings. It's a Prager You video by Ben Shapiro. And you know, here's the thing
39:56 about Ben Shapiro and the next guy I'm going to talk about. I don't agree with everything that
40:00 they say or their tactics on everything. But I think a lot of the things that he brings up in
40:04 this very short video are very true in terms of the dichotomy between facts and feelings and how
40:09 important it is for us to operate in the realm of facts. So I thought that'd be important for you
40:13 all. And then a video that literally just came out yesterday is a video called rape culture is a myth
40:19 changed my mind. And so this is from the change my mind segment of the louder with Crowder Show
40:24 by Stephen Crowder. And let me go and say this right from the outset. I understand that Stephen
40:28 Crowder has done some controversial things. You know, he's kind of one of those guys that,
40:32 you know, he's a comedian. He's a right leaning comedian. And so sometimes he does the thing that
40:38 he says he detests, which is like, Oh, I'm going to put the clown mask on. And then I'm going to
40:42 take the clown mask off whenever I need to be serious. Like, you know, that type of thing,
40:46 which I don't really agree with. And there's been several things that he said that I don't really
40:49 agree with. There's several things that videos he's made that I don't necessarily agree with
40:53 the tone or the tenor. But that's not really the point about this one. The change my mind
40:57 segment that he did is something that started I think it may have been last year. But it's basically
41:02 long form discussions with people that completely disagree with his point of view on certain things.
41:07 So it'll it'll be on incredibly controversial topics. So it'll be about transgenderism or gun
41:14 by gun rights or something like that. But this one was actually about rape culture. And he did it
41:18 on the TCU campus. It's the second time I believe he was on the TCU campus. And I just I think it's
41:24 important for you to watch this video. It's fairly lengthy. So and you can bump up the speed to like
41:29 one and a half or two times speed. But just watch some of the people that sit down next to him. These
41:35 are college students and some of them just literally cannot handle their feelings. Like their feelings
41:40 and their emotions have completely overridden the parts of their brain that would help them be logical.
41:44 And just just look at how Stephen Crowder reacts to these people. And how he tries to have a civil
41:52 conversation trying to find some level of understanding or some common ground. And because
41:58 the thing is, is these videos should be the wave of the future. And I think to a certain degree,
42:03 they will be. I mean, look at podcasts, these long form discussions. I mean, three hour long
42:07 Jaco Willink and and Joe Rogan podcasts that people are just like eating up like candy. Like,
42:13 that's the way of the future because these these like 30 second or two minute long things on Fox
42:18 news or CNN or whatever. Like that's just not gonna work anymore. Because you try to say the most
42:22 extreme thing possible. So you can get clickbait later. Like it doesn't really help with a conversation.
42:27 So I think that would be an interesting thing for y'all to look at whenever we're looking at this
42:31 dichotomy between facts and feelings. And guys, one last thing real quick, do yourselves a favor
42:37 and be a good American and watch you some playoff baseball guys. It's the best time of the year.
42:42 It's October. It's the postseason. We've already had two game one 63s. We've had one wild card game
42:50 two couple of days ago, we got the Yankees and athletics literally playing as I'm recording
42:54 this right now. So I gotta go check that score. Guys, the playoffs are gonna be great. The American
42:58 League playoffs this year, it's gonna be a bloodbath. I mean, you got the Indians facing the Astros.
43:02 And then you got the winner of the Yankees and athletics playing the Red Sox. It's gonna be a
43:06 really, really incredible October. I mean, I just, this is the part where I kind of clear out my
43:11 evenings because I want to get there and watch these baseball games. So do yourself a big favor
43:16 here. Don't be a communist and actually watch yourself some baseball. All right. All right, guys,
43:19 thanks as always for listening to this part of the podcast. We really appreciate you. If you would,
43:24 please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud or Google Play and refer your friends to listen and share
43:28 this on social media. If you use the hashtag on daunted life, we'll be sure to find the post and
43:32 give it a thumbs up. Guys, if we deserve a five star review, please leave us those. We're still
43:36 currently five star reviewed. So please give us five stars and leave us a few sentences to tell us
43:41 why you like the podcast. All right. I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the remainder of
43:45 2018 in the beginning part of 2019. So if you want me to come speak to your men's group,
43:50 to your Sunday school, to your church, to your team, whatever, hit me up info@undaunted.life,
43:55 info@undaunted.life. Our website is www.undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @undauntedlife
44:03 or facebook.com/undauntedlife. Check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible app.
44:08 Just search undaunted life under plans. And as always, we want to thank the band,
44:11 August Burns Red, for allowing us to use their music library for our content. The intro outro
44:16 track on this podcast is our song King of Sorrow, which is off their latest record entitled Phantom
44:21 Anthem. The links to all of this are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
44:25 Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual mental and physical toughness,
44:32 keep seeking the Lion of Judah.
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Kyle Thompson
We have to be able to fight back. And I don't mean with our fist guys. I don't mean we need to go and throw Molotov cocktails through people's windows.
Kyle Thompson
If the way we feel doesn't match reality, like, how do we reconcile that?
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