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Tracy Morgan, Forgiveness, and the Lie of “Do Your Own Research”
2 Playsin 4 hours
A viral moment involving Tracy Morgan and an unhoused man sparks a much bigger conversation. In this episode, Bruce Anthony breaks down forgiveness versus boundaries, why “do your own research” doesn’t mean what people think it does anymore, and how social media algorithms quietly shape our beliefs. From misinformation and confirmation bias to knockoffs, counterfeits, and why cheap isn’t always harmless, this episode connects culture, media literacy, and real-life ethics in a way the internet rarely does. Thought-provoking, uncomfortable, and necessary—this is Unsolicited Perspectives at full strength. #tracymorgan #forgiveness #research #podcast #knockoff #unsolicitedperspectives
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Chapters:
00:00:00 Tracy Morgan, “Do Your Research,” and Knockoffs Collide 🎭🧠🔥
00:00:18 Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️✨📢
00:00:46 Tracy Morgan, Misinformation, and Fake Brands Explained 🎭📰🧾
00:02:10 The Viral Tracy Morgan Encounter That Split the Internet 📱🎥💥
00:04:31 When Childhood Trauma Follows You Into Adulthood 🧠🧒🏽💔
00:06:05 Forgiveness Isn’t Access: Boundaries Can Still Stand 🚧🛑🧠
00:09:26 Why This Moment Isn’t Cleanly Right or Wrong 🌓🤔🔥
00:11:45 Grace That Hurts vs Grace That Heals 💔🕊️❓
00:16:24 Is Grace Optional—or the Price of Healing? 💭🧘🏽♂️⚖️
00:17:36 “Do Your Own Research” — What That Used to Mean 📚🔍🧠
00:20:00 Clickbait, Algorithms, and Fake Expertise Online 🖱️📱⚠️
00:22:35 Confirmation Bias: Searching for Proof You’re Already Right 🧠🔁❌
00:28:24 The Algorithm as an Invisible Co-Author of Reality 🤖🧩📲
00:31:56 Missing Voices and How Dehumanization Starts 🗣️🚫👤
00:35:45 Friction Builds Thinking—Certainty Makes Us Weak 🏋🏽♂️🧠💥
00:38:25 When Disagreement Becomes a Moral Line in the Sand ⚔️🧭🔥
00:47:16 Trying the Knockoff: When Price Beats Loyalty 🥣💸🤨
00:51:17 “Same Factory” Myth and the Truth About Quality 🏭❌🧐
00:54:00 When Cheaper Costs You More in the Long Run 💸➡️💀😬
00:56:35 Some Knockoffs Are Trash—Some Fool Everyone 🎭🤷🏽♂️🔥
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Tracy Morgan, doing your own research and knockoffs. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony, here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcasts, YouTube exclusive content, and our YouTube membership.
00:00:37
Speaker
Rate, review, like, comment, share. Share it with your friends, share it with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. On today's episode, I'm going to be talking about an incident involving Tracy Morgan and an unhoused person.
00:00:51
Speaker
We're going to talk about people doing their own research, and I'm going to give you guys a little breakdown on knockoffs. But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
Forgiveness and Grace: Complexities and Expectations
00:01:09
Speaker
At what point do you have to give forgiveness and grace? You know, I often talk on this show about forgiveness and grace, and I often talk about how we should do that because when we do that, we're really relieving ourselves from any of the anger, upset nature that we have holding inside of us. It's a way to let go. It's not for them. It's for us.
00:01:36
Speaker
But sometimes the pain is so strong that you can't. And the question is, should you have to?
00:01:47
Speaker
I mean, yes, it is the moral high ground to do that. But do you have to? i don't know. i I tend to believe this is a case by case situation. Some people say it's black and white that you always ways that you always must or that you'll never have to.
00:02:06
Speaker
There's reason why I'm bringing all this up. Recently, there was a viral video that happened with Tracy Morgan. You remember Tracy Morgan. He was 30 Rock. He's got a couple of different shows. He just came out with a new show or is getting ready to air. where He's a retired NFL player, and he's trying to redeem his image.
00:02:26
Speaker
I know him from Def Comedy Jam a Hustle Man. I go all the way back to the 90s with Tracy Morgan. But he was coming out of the Knit game. And, you know, he was coming out, addressing some of the fans that were out out there talking to him and saying what's up. And then one man comes up, says, hey, Tracy, or something to that effect. Tracy looks at him and says, I remember you.
00:02:48
Speaker
You weren't nice to me back in the day. And they kind of go back and forth. And the guy says, well, i'm oh he says I'm homeless. He's unhoused now.
00:03:00
Speaker
And Tracy says, what has that got to do with me? I didn't have anything to do with that. I'm sitting here taking care of my kids. And then continues on to greet the other fans and things of that nature. Now, there's been different stories about the history of Tracy Morgan and this man. Some people have said that they were ah childhood kids.
00:03:20
Speaker
partners or whatever and a dude used to bully him. Another story that I heard was that they came up in the comedy clubs together and this guy wasn't the greatest in general.
00:03:34
Speaker
Tracy Morgan isn't coming out saying what the history is. I don't think that he really needs to. And it probably doesn't matter. Me being messy, I kind of want to know. But it really doesn't matter. What matters is the question, do you always have to give grace and forgiveness? And the public reaction to this situation is split.
00:03:59
Speaker
polarly split. On one side, you got more Morgan, you know, Tracy Morgan doesn't owe anyone any forgiveness or any help, right? Because a lot of people were talking about, hey, this person is down on their luck. Tracy Morgan, you're a big star.
00:04:13
Speaker
You can let bygones be bygones you want. But Some people are saying, you know, just because i made i made it and became successful doesn't mean that what this person did to me still doesn't affect me to this day. You know, you hear stories of childhood bullies.
00:04:36
Speaker
Reconnecting with those people that they went to school with, not thinking that they absolutely terrorized them and changed ah their life. They thought it was playful or maybe they didn't. Maybe they were being mean. And then they reconnect years later, most of times after high school. Right.
00:04:49
Speaker
And they're like, you know, you you absolutely ruined my life and caused serious emotional and mental pain to me. that I'm still affected with today. And that's a legitimate argument, right? Like some people will say, you don't owe that bully any forgiveness or any help. They made your life miserable to the point where it's still affected today. Then there's the other side.
00:05:12
Speaker
And, you know, people are saying it lacks compassion towards someone who's unhoused and vulnerable. And yes, I mean, there is that as well. Like Tracy Morgan is winning in life right now.
00:05:26
Speaker
And this man is unhoused and on hard times. Now, I will say from the clip that the guy threw out the unhoused thing almost as if to make Tracy feel bad about this interaction.
00:05:43
Speaker
But still, nevertheless, my man is on hard times. And and i I had so many different things rolling over in my head when I saw this clip. Because, you know, I like to i like to sit and thought, right? I love to sit and thought. So I had so many different things running over in my head.
00:06:00
Speaker
One of them was forgiveness versus boundaries, right? Like, yes, once again, like I said earlier, moreha moral high ground is to forgive, but also,
00:06:13
Speaker
You can forgive, let go, and still be like, I will never rock with you again. There are certain people in my life that I have forgiven for things that they have done to me, but I'll never rock with them again.
00:06:27
Speaker
And if they came up asking me for stuff, I'd be like, man, I can't. No, I don't even want you in my space because just because I've forgiven you doesn't mean I forget. Then there's trauma and memory, right? We don't know the specifics of their interaction back in the day.
00:06:45
Speaker
We don't know what this man did to Tracy to make Tracy still hold on to however long it's been this pain or anger or what have you. And then I started thinking about, you know, because this person is unhoused, you have power, class, and celebrity.
00:07:03
Speaker
And whether success changes moral expectations. Because you've made it, we are supposed to say that you have to be morally superior.
00:07:16
Speaker
Not morally superior, but always hold that moral high ground. When, why? Just because I've got power, class, and celebrity? I mean, there's the other side of that, right? you know There's our current president who has power class as celebrity and always been an asshole.
00:07:37
Speaker
But, and never morally on the right side, don't ever know that he ever has been. ah But just because he has those things, should we expect that from him?
00:07:49
Speaker
And then, like I said, there's a bunch of things that we still don't know, right? The video was very short. The interaction was very short. There was no big, there's no clear beginning of the interaction. We don't have the full context of their history. Like I said earlier, we don't know what this man did to Tracy and Tracy hasn't come out with a detailed statement. And I don't, I don't think he will. I don't think he should because he can't win for losing in this situation.
00:08:17
Speaker
Right. If he tries to explain himself, people might try to minimize his trauma and say, that's all it was. When I don't do this type of trauma comparison, it could have been you stepped on my sneakers, but maybe i had saved up years to get these special sneakers that I always wanted.
00:08:36
Speaker
And because it took me back to ah a memory that I had as a kid and I saved up every little last dime that I had to buy these shoes, I bought these shoes and you stuffed on them and ruined them.
00:08:51
Speaker
And you would be like, well, maybe was an accident. Maybe it wasn't an accident. Maybe that person was jealous and didn't know. See, the point I'm trying to say is, is there are reasons why,
00:09:04
Speaker
Tracy Morgan shouldn't come out and say anything because he can't win for lose, meaning that no matter what he does, people still look at him as a bad guy because of his power and celebrity.
00:09:20
Speaker
But this moment with Tracy Morgan isn't clean is what the point I'm trying to make. It doesn't fit neatly into a right or wrong. Even if you try to argue those points, they don't because it sits at an intersection of memory, pain, survival, and visibility.
Research and Algorithms: Truth or Echo Chamber?
00:09:39
Speaker
On one side, there's this idea that no one is owed forgiveness. If someone hurt you, embarrassed you, or bullied you when you were younger, time alone doesn't erase that.
00:09:53
Speaker
Healing doesn't automatically mean access. And success doesn't come with a moral text that requires you to reopen old wounds just for public approval.
00:10:05
Speaker
Boundaries can be a form of self-preservation, not cruelty. Let me give you an example. What if... a man had a sexually assaulted a woman and he felt real remorse for it.
00:10:25
Speaker
And he wanted to confront that woman and apologize. Should that woman be forced to be confronted by her abuser? to be victimized over again.
00:10:38
Speaker
I'm giving you not an extreme case, an extreme case in the nature of the action, but not an extreme case of something that isn't possible, right? It is absolutely possible that this would be a situation.
00:10:58
Speaker
Would y'all blame her for not wanting to help her? An inch of individual individual that victimized her?
00:11:10
Speaker
I mean, these are the type of questions that you have to ask yourself. And this is reason why I say it's a case-by-case basis. Once again, we don't know the shared history between these two.
00:11:22
Speaker
But I just gave you an example of which I believe most people would say, she doesn't owe her abuser, her attacker, anything.
00:11:34
Speaker
It's just a thought, just something to get you to think about for those people who feel that he absolutely should have helped my man out. But you got the other side and you got there's this belief that grace matters more when it's uncomfortable.
00:11:52
Speaker
A person's worst moments don't define their entire life and desperation changes people. When someone is unhoused and asking for help, the power imbalance is definitely real. And there's definitely a power imbalance between Tracy and this gentleman.
00:12:11
Speaker
Because Tracy is famous, wealthy, and he was surrounded by support. He was surrounded by people who love and adore him. Compassion in that view isn't about the past.
00:12:26
Speaker
It's about who you choose to be now. And there is some truth to that, right? There is some truth to giving that unhoused person some grace.
00:12:38
Speaker
Being the bigger man or what I like to do, being good petty, which is, yeah, I'm going help you out, give you a little money to go eat because I'm winning.
00:12:50
Speaker
Everything that you did to me didn't stop me from winning. And yeah, going to help you out. But low key, I'm rubbing it in your face. I mean, there that's also an option. and I mean, that's not having the moral high ground, but that's absolutely something that I would do because that's kind of who I am. Nice petty.
00:13:11
Speaker
But there is that viewpoint. And I understand when people were like, come on, man, you didn't want in life. Whatever he did to you, you winning. Give him a pass. Both perspectives, though, can be true at the same time.
00:13:26
Speaker
It's like i said earlier, I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer to this. And there's a lot of people on both extremes that said it's absolutely right answer and there's an absolutely wrong. And i don't I don't believe it, that that could be so, especially when we once again don't know the shared history.
00:13:45
Speaker
Some people will say that discomfort comes from the fact that this exchange happened in public, on camera, and without full context. viewers aren't just reacting to what happened, they're projecting their own experiences with bullies, forgiveness, poverty, and with being asked to be a bigger person.
00:14:09
Speaker
You know, that really was at the heart of this conflict of the ah polarizing sides. It's beyond Tracy and this individual.
00:14:21
Speaker
We put ourselves in it. And there's a lot of discomfort that comes from the fact that we're looking at this public display and we can't help but put ourselves in that situation and ask ourselves, what would we do?
00:14:36
Speaker
The question isn't really what should Tracy have done. It's not. It's what do we expect people to do when their past walks back into their present situation? I don't think this moment is about heroes or villains.
00:14:50
Speaker
It's not. It's not about right or wrong or heroes or villains. I think it's about how messy forgiveness actually is and how easy it is to demand grace when it costs us nothing.
00:15:04
Speaker
You see, when it's somebody else, of course you wanna say they should give grace. But when you're put into that situation, You want to say, well, I would hope that I would give grace.
00:15:18
Speaker
This is what I would do. But you don't know unless you're in that situation.
00:15:23
Speaker
And I think this situation to happen is a reflection of all of us. And it's an uncomfortable conversation to have, but a real one to have.
00:15:36
Speaker
So I want to know what you think, right? Is grace optional? Or Is it the price of healing?
00:15:48
Speaker
Shoot me down some comments and let me know what you guys think. I don't know what the answer is. I told you. I don't believe there's a right and wrong answer. I don't believe there's a hero or villain.
00:15:59
Speaker
We don't know the whole story. And even if we did know the whole story, I'm not going to trauma compare. Oh, that's not as bad. I did had had something worse. Doesn't matter. Two people can walk the same path.
00:16:13
Speaker
In the woods, right? They get stubbed their toe on the same log. That pain is not the same. The action is, but the pain isn't.
00:16:23
Speaker
I'm not going to say this isn't painful when you're in pain. There's a lot of people that's been cheating on. Hell, I've been cheating on in my life. I told that store. Some people never recover.
00:16:34
Speaker
Some people, it ruins their life. Some people go on the next day like it ain't no thing.
00:16:42
Speaker
The pain is different. Action the same, pain the different. Pain is different. So even if we had the full shared history between these two, we couldn't give it a fair cap comparison because once again, I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer in this situation.
00:17:02
Speaker
There is no hero. There is no villain. What there is is a celebrity and an unhoused person that have a history that we know nothing about.
00:17:13
Speaker
And so ah I give it to you again. Is grace optional? Or is it the price of healing past trauma?
00:17:31
Speaker
I often get on here and I talk about researching. And i got the benefit. And I know was a privilege.
00:17:44
Speaker
of one, going to college, right? Like that in and of itself is a privilege. And I'm not saying that people that didn't go to college can't learn these things, what I'm about to describe, because that would be ridiculous. You can.
00:17:58
Speaker
Just college helps you, all right? Gives you guidance, whereas you might not have it if you don't go to college. And I'm talking about researching. All of us in college,
00:18:11
Speaker
Even when we took English 101, had to write a research paper. Because i was a double major in secondary education and in history. History alone, all you're doing is researching and doing papers.
00:18:26
Speaker
I mean, very rarely do I remember taking a whole lot of midterms and finals where it's actually like taking a test. Most of the time, it was papers, especially when I got into my upper level history courses. I don't remember and in the 300 or 400 level history courses taking tests.
00:18:42
Speaker
Right. I remember writing papers and I know because I didn't do a good job of setting up my schedule that my last year at the University of Maryland to get that history degree, I had to take off all my 400 level classes. Right. In history. And all of them were 30 page papers. I wrote, no lie, five or six 30 page papers in my last year college. That's a lot of research.
00:19:11
Speaker
That's a lot of going in McKeldon Library and and and and doing research. Right. And it had to be on point. Because I'm writing a 30 page paper. I have a thesis statement.
00:19:25
Speaker
I have to prove why my thesis statement is correct. And in proving why my thesis statement is correct, I have to give the counter argument and disprove the counter argument. But it has to be cited.
00:19:39
Speaker
It has to be researched. And i got that i got it I got that gift, I believe is a gift, of researching from all the work that I did in college.
00:19:53
Speaker
In today's day and age, with social media and technology, so many people are not doing research. So many people are falling for the clickbait.
00:20:05
Speaker
I have more than a few people in my life that send me stuff. And I'm like, so you think this is true? Yeah. Or yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Did you do even a little bit of research to find out? I mean, just yeah, I did my own research. what What'd you do with your research? Simple Google searches half the time.
00:20:26
Speaker
No, more than half the time. 85 95% of the time. A simple, quick Google search disproves the entire thing. I had somebody tell me that there was a report or a study that that said that Dairy Cream ice cream was a good after workout, like protein shake if you had some Dairy Queen ice cream.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I said, that's not true. I've been a fitness professional for over 20 years. That's not true. Not at all. I don't know, i saw it. I saw a couple of different times. Said, where'd you get your information?
00:21:06
Speaker
I saw it. Did a quick Google search. And you know what else wouldn know what I found? A whole bunch of Instagram and Facebook posts, not one study, said in those Instagram and Facebook posts that it came from the Mayo Clinic.
00:21:20
Speaker
So what do I do as a researcher? Go to the Mayo Clinic. Hey, do the research. Is there any such thing? Not one article. As a matter of fact, it says the opposite in one of the studies.
00:21:34
Speaker
Said one of the studies, excessive red meat and dairy is bad for your health benefits. I pointed to them and I said, this took me five minutes to prove to you that this is not correct.
00:21:48
Speaker
Still didn't want to believe me. Still said to me, well, going my own research. I just did the research right the hell in front of you. I'm go do my own research. Okay.
00:22:00
Speaker
Haven't heard that person bring it up again. And I know I won't because they're obviously wrong. People think they're independent thinkers because they did their own research.
00:22:13
Speaker
But most of the research is happening inside of an algorithm curated environment that already agrees with them. Are people misinformed because they're lazy or because the system rewards certainality, not curiosity?
00:22:33
Speaker
And that's a very important question. As I have not just people that are cursory, people that are in my life that are important in my life that send me stuff. And I say, you have got to get out of this algorithm.
00:22:49
Speaker
Not everything that you get is true.
00:22:53
Speaker
And you're getting too much of this negative information. You don't need to be bombarded. To be woke.
00:23:04
Speaker
The true definition of woke. is to be aggravated because you see the truth, not this curated truth that only backs up your arguments, the truth, truth.
00:23:19
Speaker
And it's aggravating. And if you're constantly seeing that, it's only going to put you in a bad mood. But it it just, it bothers me. Because do your own research used to mean reading books, multiple news sources, experts who disagreed with each other.
00:23:40
Speaker
That's what it meant to do your own research. Now what it means is TikTok trends, YouTube clip clips, Twitter screenshots, and someone confidently saying they don't want you to know this.
00:23:52
Speaker
Most people aren't researching. They're collecting evidence to support what they already believe. And I'm not just talking about other people. Sometimes I do that and I catch myself.
00:24:06
Speaker
I'm a natural contrarian. I naturally want to see what the other side of the story is, but sometimes I'm so entrenched in my position and I don't even want to hear the other side. I have to check myself.
00:24:18
Speaker
I have to see, okay, what are they talking about? Do they have any point or are they absolute idiots? Nine times out of 10, they're absolute idiots. But I still have to check myself because I don't want to become the people that I'm accusing of being ignorant.
00:24:38
Speaker
And then when did doing your own research turn into watching someone else's summary? There are people listening and watching this.
00:24:49
Speaker
Y'all know I do my research. Y'all know I absolutely believe in what I say, even when I fumble my words. Y'all know what I mean. But that doesn't mean that you should take my absolute word for it.
00:25:04
Speaker
You need to do your own resource research. And that means you got to read books,
00:25:15
Speaker
You gotta go to multiple news sources and you gotta see those people, those experts that disagree. And then why do people say the phrase after they already made up their mind, doing their own research?
00:25:32
Speaker
They've already made up their mind. They're not doing their own research. What they're looking for is confirmation bias. Generally speaking, we search for, believe, and remember information that supports what we already think.
00:25:48
Speaker
We search questions like, is this true?
00:25:53
Speaker
That's what we should be doing. But instead of putting that in the search, we do, why is this true? We ignore sources that complicate the narrative.
00:26:05
Speaker
We treat disagreement as corruption. not information. But there's an important distinction because just because someone has a bias doesn't mean that they're dumb.
00:26:23
Speaker
Biases mean the brain wants comfort and certainty. And I got to point this out there to the audience. Have you ever caught yourself Googling something in a way that guaranteed the answer her you want it?
00:26:39
Speaker
Maybe you didn't realize you were doing it, but if you look back and you see the words in there the way they're formed into that sentence, you may have phrased that question in Google or that search in Google to guarantee that you get the answer that you wanted.
00:27:00
Speaker
And is confidence mistaken for intelligence online? Yeah. There's a lot of people that speak with such great confidence.
00:27:13
Speaker
lot of confident fools out there. A lot of them. People that are against a lot of the things that they that I say will say that I'm a confident fool. I'm not.
00:27:25
Speaker
I'm not. I'm a confident, intelligent person. But people will say that. and And people will speak with such command and such authority that they like.
00:27:38
Speaker
How do you think Trump got in office? How do you think he got in office? Even if you don't like the way he speaks, even if you think he's using adjectives, a third grader would use.
00:27:53
Speaker
He speaks with confidence. He believes. delusionally in his head, everything that he says. And that comes through the camera to somebody who wants to support him, who wants to believe in what he's saying, because he's saying it so confidently.
00:28:11
Speaker
But you got to be careful about the algorithm because the algorithm is an invisible co-author. Your feed is not neutral. It's trained. And we all know this and we still all fall for the example. It's not neutral.
00:28:27
Speaker
We are training the algorithm to give us what it thinks we want. The algorithm doesn't care about truth. The algorithm cares about watch time, engagement, and emotional reaction.
00:28:42
Speaker
The algorithm learns what makes you pause, what makes you angry, and what keeps you scrolling.
00:28:49
Speaker
You click on a topic. Platforms assume that there's an interest or agreement to that topic. It shows you more extreme versions of that topic.
00:29:01
Speaker
Because of that, your worldview starts to tighten. And opposing views start to disappear in this algorithm.
Polarization and Perception: A Modern Dilemma
00:29:11
Speaker
Two people can watch the same event unfold and get entirely different explanations, villains, and facts.
00:29:19
Speaker
We see this every day. We saw with the killings of the two people in Memphis. We saw it with George Floyd.
00:29:30
Speaker
We so really saw it with Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Everybody saw the videos. It was right there. But what we got from it was different.
00:29:45
Speaker
what we What each person got from it only confirmed their own biases. And the algorithm kept feeding us that. Each TikTok that you saw on the subject, each YouTube reel you saw on the subject, each Twitter post you saw on the subject, you click on it, you like it, you dislike it. The algorithm is going to give you more of that heightened. It's your co-author.
00:30:13
Speaker
And I got to ask you, do you think that your fee challenges you or flatters you? Because this is giving you more of what you want.
00:30:24
Speaker
And if you keep going down those paths of only choosing the stuff that you want to see, well, don't the opposing voices disappear?
00:30:38
Speaker
I know there's a lot of situations where there is no other side. There's a lot of situations where it's clear, black and white, what's right and what's wrong.
00:30:51
Speaker
However, a way of listening to other people is about learning how they got to that wrong.
00:31:03
Speaker
And in the process of learning how they got to them wrong, you can decide to give them grace or not, depending on how they got there. You know, I'm not telling anybody what they got to forgive or or give grace to. but it gives you a clearer context of how people get to where they start to think.
00:31:19
Speaker
That's the reason why I always ask people questions about, you know, how'd you get to that? What made you come up with that rationale or ideal? You can learn.
00:31:31
Speaker
You can learn what they're doing.
00:31:35
Speaker
I got another question for you. If someone only watched your algorithm what version of reality would they think exists?
00:31:47
Speaker
But it goes back to these missing voices. When you don't hear opposing voices, the issues feel simpler than what they really are.
00:32:02
Speaker
Your moral certainty increases. Dehumanization becomes easier. That's the reason why you see a lot, like so many people can't understand how you can see the images of what ICE is doing to these people and not feel some type of way about it.
00:32:27
Speaker
How you can immediately just say, well, they're here illegally. How you can see these people treated as animals and not have any empathy whatsoever. Right? You trained your algorithm to tell you that these people weren't human.
00:32:45
Speaker
That they weren't worthy of empathy or respect.
00:32:50
Speaker
You've dehumanized them. And we've done it. We've done it all the time. Every war that we've ever been in in the United States, we always dehumanize the other side.
00:33:02
Speaker
That's the reason why it's so easy ah easy for us to see the massacres. And think nothing of it. We dropped bombs, atomic bombs.
00:33:14
Speaker
Billions of people killed. We had no choice. Okay. Was Japan going to give up? Hell no. but There were other options.
00:33:26
Speaker
But we didn't think of them as people. They were dehumanized.
00:33:32
Speaker
And the algorithm keeps pushing us. Keeps pushing us in that direction. People think everyone agrees with me. Why? Because that's what I'm getting in the algorithm.
00:33:46
Speaker
Anybody who doesn't is evil or stupid. They must be the minority. Why? Because everybody does in my algorithm. Nuance disappears.
00:33:58
Speaker
Why? Because everybody's saying the same thing in my algorithm. And complex issues turn into team sports.
00:34:09
Speaker
That's how our political landscape has turned into what it is today. People say, oh, you're a Republican. ah You're a liberal. ah You're a conservative. ah
00:34:21
Speaker
Everybody's joined, picked their team.
00:34:25
Speaker
And everybody that's against your team is the enemy.
00:34:29
Speaker
You don't think the algorithm has done that, whether it was on purpose or not, it was a man-made creation. We created that.
00:34:41
Speaker
But that's that's what it's done. That's what it's doing. That's what it's continued to do.
00:34:48
Speaker
But this is how major situations become fractured. Same protests could equal freedom movement or a riot. Same medical issue could equal public health or its control.
00:35:04
Speaker
Same political condition decision could be democracy or tyrancy or tyrannic. yeah Y'all know the word I'm and trying to be.
00:35:16
Speaker
Y'all know. Tyrannical, okay? Democracy or tyrannical. in ah Authoritarian. yaall Y'all know. Speech impediment. Let it slide, okay? If the algorithm never introduces you to friction, now think about this. If the algorithm never introduces you to friction,
00:35:34
Speaker
Your thinking never develops muscle.
00:35:38
Speaker
m What happens when you push weights around? You're training your muscle. Your muscle grows.
00:35:49
Speaker
If you are not giving your brain friction because the algorithm is only giving you certainty and you're not developing your thinking,
00:36:03
Speaker
I'm just saying, you're not. So I got to ask you, when was the last time your mind actually changed about something? Was the last time that you were steadfast in a belief someone confronted you with an opposing view and you were like, you know what?
00:36:20
Speaker
You make a damn good point. Mine happened when I was 10.
00:36:25
Speaker
I am not bullshitting you. It happened when I was 10. It was during the 19, no, excuse me, happened when I was eight. It was during the 1988 presidential election.
00:36:38
Speaker
Abortion was a big issue. And I said, you know, I'm not for killing babies. And my dad, that look, my dad's a genius. Both my mom and dad are geniuses. They always forced us to think.
00:36:53
Speaker
They always gave us friction. So we worked that muscle thinking. And he said, okay, son, what if your mom or your sister were assaulted and got pregnant?
00:37:07
Speaker
What do you think then about abortion? Now i'm eight. And he had produced some friction. And I had to sit back and think about that. And I said, oh, maybe I'm not pro-life.
00:37:20
Speaker
Maybe I'm pro-choice. Maybe the situations dictate the actions. So I ask you, was the last time your mind actually changed about something?
00:37:35
Speaker
oh And here's another thing that people don't think about. Is disagreement still seen as growth or as a betrayal? Now, in some instances, both things can be true.
00:37:50
Speaker
discor Disagreement can be seen as growth. Because when you have friction, once again, you work out your thinking, which is so very, very important.
00:38:03
Speaker
However, there have been some people that have been close to my life that I disagree with because they support President Trump.
00:38:15
Speaker
And the first time I gave him a pass, second time I said, I can't rock with you. This third time, after not rocking with him, I said, I'm never going to deal with you again. Because this isn't a disagreement on political issues.
00:38:29
Speaker
This is a disagreement on moral issues. And I just choose to not have you in my life. So disagreement can be seen as growth or betrayal.
00:38:42
Speaker
But your social media doesn't just reflect belief. It rewards certain beliefs. Certainty over curiosity, I said earlier. Outrage over explanation.
00:38:55
Speaker
Confidence over accuracy. Speed over reflection. And here's why wrong ideas spread so fast. Emotional content travels further.
00:39:10
Speaker
Calm corrections don't go viral. The most extreme version of a belief gets the most attention. We know that. Look, very rarely do I get extreme on here.
00:39:24
Speaker
Now, maybe that's an ex exact exaggeration. But most of the time, I'm trying to calmly give corrections to what I believe people are wrong on. But that's not clickbait.
00:39:37
Speaker
It's not. And yes, you're listening to a Watch The Show because... You think what I have to say is at least well researched and well thought out.
00:39:51
Speaker
Or you agree with it. Or maybe you hate watch. Right. Maybe it's those things. But we are not going to blow up off of a viral moment because i don't talk that way.
00:40:07
Speaker
I won't be disingenuous. So calm will never get the attention. Extreme gets the attention. But how is this all connected? Because I was talking about research. How is this all connected to research? People respect ah people mistake repetition for validation.
00:40:27
Speaker
Seeing the same claim everywhere feels like proof. If misinformation spreads faster than corrections, how do we even keep up?
00:40:39
Speaker
And does truth even matter? Or just your truth? When people stop seeking other views, when they stop doing research, and they start speaking in a dominant tone, they begin to speak against those that are opposed to them.
00:41:05
Speaker
They pile on. They do mockery. They do misinterpretations. And they do this so people stay quiet, self-censor, and retreat to safe communities.
00:41:22
Speaker
I got a friend. Anytime we usually get into debates, we would go back and forth. And I knew I always had him. And I wanted to debate whether he would admit it or not because he would start to personally attack me.
00:41:35
Speaker
If we were having a basketball debate, and and And he knew that I was winning the debate and what I was saying was actually right, but he didn't want to admit it. He would say, what do you even talk about basketball for? You never played in the NBA. You wasn't good enough to play in the NBA. I mean, you was all right, but you wasn't good.
00:41:52
Speaker
he would do personal attacks. That's what people do. When they don't want to hear your arguments, they would try to pile on, mock you, and misrepresent you so as you stay quiet, self-centered, retreat to safe communities. And a lot of people do that.
00:42:09
Speaker
And what this does is it creates louder extremes, silent moderates, and a warped sense of public opinion. When silence feels safer than curiosity, the loudest voices define what is reality. And we see that right now.
00:42:29
Speaker
And I got to ask you, have you ever posted, had not posted something because you didn't want to smoke? I could tell you for a fact that there have been times where I did not post certain clips because I was just like, I don't feel like hearing the backlash from this.
00:42:44
Speaker
So there are times where the negative mocking will have you self-censor. And I'm realizing that right now as I speak to you guys, and I'm not going to do it anymore.
00:43:00
Speaker
don't give a damn.
00:43:03
Speaker
It's the reason why our Charlie Kirk tape is behind a paywall. I should just put that bad boy for everybody to hear because I'm not backing off of my stance on that situation.
00:43:17
Speaker
So these are the things that social media algorithm and not doing your own research can cause. But you got to break that loop. You got to follow credible people that you disagree with.
00:43:31
Speaker
You got to read past the headlines. You got to read the entire article and you got to ask who benefits from this framing? What voices am I missing? You got to slow down your engagement.
00:43:44
Speaker
Don't instantly like and share outrage content. Search outside your feed intentionally. Your clicks are training data.
00:43:56
Speaker
You are teaching the algorithm who you are. And do you think people actually want more of a challenging fee?
00:44:07
Speaker
If there was a diversity slider, you think folks would use it or would they turn it off? I'm just leave you guys with this.
00:44:19
Speaker
Real research is uncomfortable. Real thinking involves friction.
00:44:27
Speaker
Certainty feels good, but curiosity makes you smarter.
00:44:32
Speaker
If your feed disappeared tomorrow, how much of your opinion would still exist? You got to ask yourself that.
00:44:43
Speaker
Are your opinions formed by your thoughts and research or are by the algorithm?
00:44:52
Speaker
Do a one-week feed audit, you know? What topics dominated? What viewpoints were repeated? What's missing? what's missing
00:45:03
Speaker
You got to intentionally follow one credible voice outside of your lane.
00:45:10
Speaker
And by the love of God, when you say you're doing your own research, don't let the algorithm do the research for you.
00:45:24
Speaker
You do truly your own research.
00:45:36
Speaker
I was sick right around Thanksgiving. And I have this routine every time that I get sick that there certain things that I buy, i eat, just because they make me feel better. They don't really make me get better as far as the sickness is concerned, but it's like...
Knockoffs and Counterfeits: A Matter of Ethics
00:45:52
Speaker
Comfort food, right? And in that comfort food is always Chinese food because, look, let me get some combination lo mein. Always my comfort food. Of course, ginger ale. I take ginger ale and mix it with orange juices because, you know, I'm getting vitamin C plus ginger ale because it cures everything. And I take my medicine.
00:46:12
Speaker
And then I get cereal. And it's always Captain Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Love those two cereals. And i also like... um ah can't even think of the name of right now. It's crunchy.
00:46:26
Speaker
It's got almonds in it. Y'all no what I'm talking about. But most of the time, as Captain Crunch is my favorite cereal. And Cinnamon Toast Crunch, my favorite cereal. Like, 1A and 1B.
00:46:37
Speaker
And so I will buy both of them. So I was sick and I really didn't want to walk to the store because I didn't want to leave the house because I was sick. So I was like, let me just order some stuff off of Amazon. And sometimes ordering stuff off of Amazon is cheaper.
00:46:52
Speaker
Sometimes it isn't. There are no knockoffs. It's only name brand stuff.
00:47:00
Speaker
And I'm okay with that because most of the time I prefer name brand stuff. So I get my Captain Crunch cereal and i'm I'm eating it. I go through the box within a couple of days. So I got to go get some more Captain Crunch.
00:47:12
Speaker
But I'm feeling better. So I decided to walk to the grocery store. And as I walked to the grocery store, grabbed a bag of Captain Crunch. And I looked down right below it. It's the knockoff version of Captain Crunch for $4 less.
00:47:27
Speaker
I'm like, you know what? Let me try it. Looks the same. Probably tastes the same. Let me try it. Now, a lot of people grew up and your parents might buy you knockoff fruit snacks.
00:47:43
Speaker
We didn't have fruit roll up. We had fruit by the foot. Okay. We didn't have Welchers chews. We had juicy chews.
00:47:54
Speaker
Right. To us as kids, they taste dramatically different. As adults, eh, So I decided to grab this knockoff brand of Captain Crunch. Took it home.
00:48:06
Speaker
What do y'all think I thought about that knockoff brand of Captain Crunch? Well, I'm going tell you. Poured myself big-ass bowl of it. Sat down on the couch. Started watching whatever whatever thing that I was streaming.
00:48:20
Speaker
I was binging something. I don't remember what it was. Took that first bite and said, Mmm! This tastes just like Captain Crunch. that wrote That moment right there is how knockoffs work.
00:48:33
Speaker
not just in Captain Crunch and cereal, but in soap, fashion, beauty, tech, everything. That's how it works. And today, I'm going to be talking about knockoffs because knockoffs are everywhere.
00:48:47
Speaker
And people think what's happening behind the scenes is one way, but I'm going give y'all what's actually true about these knockoffs. As soon as brands become an identity, a status,
00:49:02
Speaker
Copying became inevitable. Logos turned products into symbols. Nike with the swoosh. You know, Adidas tracksuits. And I'm only going in my lifetime, right?
00:49:14
Speaker
Guess jeans. You had that little triangle on the ass. You was doing something with yourself. You had a triangle on the ass. It's like, those ain't no guest jeans. Those bugle boy. I know the difference.
00:49:25
Speaker
And you got the triangle and that triangle got to be right. I know a couple of cats to try to rock ah fake Tim's. I know a cat that bought Tim's. And because the tree outline was kind of shadowed in, they took a black pen and colored in that tree to show that nobody could question whether they were real Tim's or not.
00:49:45
Speaker
They're a status symbol. Once something signals who you are, people want access to that look. Knockoffs didn't start because people are cheap. They started because brands stopped selling just quality and started selling meaning.
00:50:02
Speaker
The second a brand became a flex, somebody was going to fake it. So a lot of times people want to do a catch-all when they talk about knockoffs. And there is a difference. There is three different things that describe what a knockoff is. First, you have what actually is a knockoff. It's inspired by a look. and It's not pretending to be the real brand. It has a legal gray area, right?
00:50:29
Speaker
Then there are counterfeits. They use the logo and the name. They're meant to fool you. And they're flat out illegal. Then there are dupes, okay? And these are rebranded knockoffs sold as a smart hack framed as consumer savvy and not fraud.
00:50:49
Speaker
We use knockoff like it's one thing, but it's really three different situations. And people think they they know what's going on with these knockoffs, right?
00:51:00
Speaker
It's made in the same factory. It's literally the same product ah without the logo. No, sometimes it's from the same region. Rarely the same standards.
00:51:13
Speaker
Real brands have quality control, material specs, legal contracts. Unauthorized, not the same product. Okay?
00:51:25
Speaker
This leads me to another thing that I bought recently. Knock off. I love Dove body soap. It gives me a great lather when i'm lathering up in the washcloth or the loofah. And if I can't get a great lather, I don't think I'm really clean.
00:51:43
Speaker
ah Y'all know because y'all listen and watch the show, I'm very particular about germs and cleanliness and all this type of stuff. Look, if I don't have, if my whole body doesn't look like soap, I don't think I'm clean.
00:51:54
Speaker
I do not like these soaps where you can barely see the the the lather. I need a super lather. Dove gives me that. It gives me a fresh feeling. I rinse it off. There's no residue. Always smells good.
00:52:08
Speaker
Does what it's supposed to do. My skin feels good. Go ahead and add some lotion to it. Skin feels soft, it except for my heels on my feet. And that's the reason why I need a pedicure. But that's a different story.
00:52:21
Speaker
I needed to buy soap the other day. I wanted to order from Amazon, but this was during the snowstorm and I need soap now because I didn't ran out of body soap. You would think that I have loads of body soap around and I did. I just ran out of them.
00:52:35
Speaker
and Okay. So Amazon wasn't going to get it to me for a couple of days. And you're thinking to yourself, but Bruce, you didn't leave the house. Yeah, but you still know that I take two showers a day.
00:52:47
Speaker
One in the afternoon, one in at one night before I go to bed. That's just the way I do it. So I needed to go get some soap. So I go over to the local grocery store. Not going to say the name of the grocery store, but I go over to the local grocery store.
00:53:01
Speaker
Going to go buy my soap. There's a knockoff version of the soap. And it's half the price. Looks the same. I've got knockoff versions of Dove from other stores.
00:53:16
Speaker
And they were cool. I'm going to save $5. Let me do that. So I get the soap, jump in shower that night, pour the soap in my loofah, doing my normal rubbing it together to get that lather going like I do with any time I'm doing with the dove soap.
00:53:35
Speaker
The lather isn't lathering. Not the way I want it. It almost feels like the soap disappeared. Where the hell is the soap? So I'm like, ah maybe I just need to start rubbing on my body.
00:53:49
Speaker
And then that lather would kick up. So I'm rubbing on my body. And it feels like I'm rubbing Vaseline on my body. Because it's rinsing off, but it ain't rinsing off.
00:54:02
Speaker
And it's definitely not lathering up. So I said, OK, ah maybe I just need to add more soap because this is a knockoff. Maybe I just need to add more soap. So I squeeze the hell out of the bottle and pour handful of soap in this loofah.
00:54:20
Speaker
And I'm lathering up, lathering up, lathering It's still not getting lathered. It takes me three times to put soap on this loofah to get the lather that's half of what Dove would do.
00:54:34
Speaker
I said, I'm never doing this again. I'm never getting that soap ever again. Captain Crunch was successful. This grocery store fake Dove, not successful.
00:54:46
Speaker
Looked the same, but it's clear. Didn't have the quality controls as Dove. Didn't have the material specs as Dove. Damn sure didn't have the legal contracts as Dove, which means it was not the same product.
00:55:00
Speaker
Looked like the same product. Was not the same product. Another myth from these knockoffs that people love to say is nobody gets hurt. It's just rich companies losing money.
00:55:13
Speaker
Well, here's the reality. Consumers get hurt when fake cosmetic cause reactions, fake electronics fail or catch fire, or brands get blamed for declining quality when the product was never real.
00:55:30
Speaker
That's the reality. Counterfeits are often tied to bad labor conditions and crime networks. Instead of that Gucci, you got that hoochie.
00:55:41
Speaker
And that Hoochie was cheap, looked like Gucci, but what you did was fund a crime syndicate.
00:55:50
Speaker
And those people that put that Hoochie bag together for you, they working in horrible conditions, but you got you a fake Gucci. It's a whole Hoochie bag scenario.
00:56:03
Speaker
All right. But if fake products hurt you, is it still harmless because you saved money? You see what i'm saying here?
00:56:16
Speaker
Here's another thing people always say. Knockoffs are always trash. Here's a reality check. Some are garbage, like that soap. Some are good enough to fool people, like that Captain Crunch cereal.
00:56:30
Speaker
That's why authenticity exists now. Look, Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. You take your choices. Take your choices.
00:56:42
Speaker
Pick your choices. You live with the scenario. I wasted money on that half-priced soap. even when I use it, three handfuls on the loofah still don't give me the lather that I need. I got my dove.
00:56:59
Speaker
I got my dove in there now. So I'm good to go. But I also know Captain Crush don't necessarily have to ever get my money again. Because that had knockoff brand at the at the grocery store tastes the exact damn same. And you know, I did dayday day day by day comparisons.
00:57:19
Speaker
Tastes the same. Cannot decline that. So here's another one. Another myth that people like to say about knockoffs.
00:57:31
Speaker
Big brands don't copy. Here's the truth. Big brands copy too, especially smaller designers and street culture. The only difference between the two is lawyers and power.
00:57:47
Speaker
The same industry yelling about fakes quietly borrow from people who can't fight back. So even the brands that you love are stealing and copying.
00:58:02
Speaker
I'm just saying sometimes those big brands have knockoffs, too.
00:58:07
Speaker
Why are knockoffs so popular? Well, that's simple. People want to look without the price. If you can get a deal, you can get a deal. Right. Speed also.
00:58:17
Speaker
Trends die fast. You don't want to invest in something that's going to just be out of style within within the next season. And then there's also rebellion. People love sticking the middle finger up to the luxury gatekeepers. I think that's the reason why Nike and Jordan brand are starting to fall off. These young kids are just like, don't need to wear those shoes where my generation will kill, literally have killed for those shoes.
00:58:41
Speaker
Dupe culture is something completely different. It's framed as smart and not shady. Why pay more when this is basically the same? But back to my soap.
00:58:52
Speaker
I paid less and it was nowhere near the same. I would rather pay double for my dove that gives me that extra leather that I so desperately love.
00:59:04
Speaker
But let me just frame it all with a couple of questions that wanna direct to you guys.
00:59:15
Speaker
Have you ever bought a knockoff or a dupe and felt justified? And where do you draw the line? Is it price? Is it quality? Is it ethics or vibes?
00:59:28
Speaker
For me, Costco's Kirkland brand tequila is one of the best tequilas. And I'm a tequila connoisseur. One of the best tequilas that you could buy.
00:59:39
Speaker
You can get a 1.75 liter for under $30. That's one hell of deal. that's one hell of a deal And I put that tequila and have done blind taste tests with friends up against the name brands.
00:59:54
Speaker
That Captain Crunch was delicious. Once again, that grocery store soap was the shits. Okay. But where would I draw the line for me? It's always price.
01:00:06
Speaker
If there isn't a big price difference, I'm gonna go ahead and get that name brand. But if there's a huge price difference like it was for that soap, I'm at least give it a try.
01:00:18
Speaker
If your favorite brand was caught copying a smaller creator, would that change how you feel about fakes? Yeah, you think fakes are just those knockoffs. But as I said, they come with big brands.
01:00:31
Speaker
Big brands do that stuff too, I told you. Sometimes knockoffs expose how much we're paying for the story. and not the product.
01:00:43
Speaker
Just think about that. And if y'all want to hear which ah store I bought that soap from, it it'll be in ah it'll be in the After Hours Uncensored.
Conclusion and Patreon Promotion
01:00:54
Speaker
going talk about it there. Y'all can check check it out on our Patreon or YouTube membership. I'm not going to throw that company under the bus. Even though it was the same store that I bought that knockoff Captain Crunch. It's just sometimes you just never know.
01:01:10
Speaker
You just never know. But I do know there is no way in hell I'm ever buying that knockoff soap again. I had to damn near pour the whole bottle just to get a decent leather. It was ridiculous.
01:01:26
Speaker
But anyway, on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for watching. And until next time, as always, I'll holler.
01:01:40
Speaker
That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise.
01:02:03
Speaker
And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our video podcast and YouTube exclusive content.
01:02:15
Speaker
But the real party is on our Patreon page. After Hours Uncensored and Talking Straight-ish. After Hours Uncensored is another show with my sister. And once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those are exclusively on our Patreon page. jump on our website at unsolicitedperspective.com for all things us that's where you can get all of our audio video our blogs and even buy our merch and if you really feel generous and want to help us out you can donate on our donations paid donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listened to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciated. Most importantly, I want to say thank you.
01:02:57
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for listening and watching and supporting us. And I'll catch you next time. Audi 5000. Peace.