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Panic, Authoritarians, and What History Keeps Repeating
21 Plays4 days ago
Snowstorm chaos had people wiping out grocery shelves like the apocalypse was scheduled for Sunday… but what if that panic is bigger than bread and toilet paper? In this episode of Unsolicited Perspectives, Bruce breaks down the psychology of fear—how stress shuts down rational thought, how herd mentality spreads, and why control becomes the drug we reach for when life feels uncertain. Then the conversation takes a hard turn: a history-based warning about how democracies don’t collapse overnight—they slide, slowly, while people argue about tone. Bruce draws a crucial line between methods vs outcomes (so nobody can bad-faith the point), and closes with a surprisingly emotional pivot into why the pandemic quietly stole something small but sacred from kids: the snow day. #politics #historyrepeats #psychologyoffear #democracy #authoritarian
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Chapters:
00:00:00 Fear, Control, and the Slippery Slope We Ignore 😶🛑📉
00:00:16 Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️✨📢
00:00:44 From Snowstorms to Authoritarianism: How Fear Takes Hold ❄️➡️⚠️🧠
00:01:30 Bread, Keto Confusion, and Toilet Paper Trauma 🍞🧻😂
00:05:01 Survival Mode: Fear, Control, and Panic Buying 🔥🧠🛒
00:07:00 When Rational Thought Goes Offline 🧠🚨❌
00:08:30 Herd Mentality and the Illusion of Shortages 🐑📉😳
00:10:56 Threat Bias: When Normal Storms Feel Apocalyptic 🌨️😱⚡
00:13:35 Panic Looks Irrational—Until You’re Inside It 🤯🫣💭
00:17:35 How to Break the Panic Cycle Before It Takes Over 🛑🧘🏽♂️💡
00:23:05 A Familiar Story of Fear, Power, and Control 🕰️📖😶
00:26:15 The Reveal: Wasn't Who You Thought it was⚠️📜
00:28:25 Allyship, Othering, and Modern Violence 🧍🏽♂️🚨🩸
00:33:20 Methods vs Outcomes: Clearing the Bad-Faith Fog 🔍⚖️🧠
00:35:15 Authoritarian Playbooks Don’t Change 📕🧨👀
00:39:45 Complacent vs Complicit: The Line That Breaks Democracies 🧱🗳️🔥
00:42:16 Snow Days, Childhood Joy, and a Lost Era ❄️📺🥹
00:45:00 How the Pandemic Stole Kids’ Innocence 🏫💻💔
00:53:41 No More Snow Days—And Why That Matters 😔❄️🧠
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Invitation
00:00:00
Speaker
chaos, and history. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.
00:00:16
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. so Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts.
00:00:29
Speaker
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcasts, YouTube exclusive content, and our YouTube membership. Rate, review, like, comment, share. Share it with your friends, share it with your family, hell, even share with your enemies.
Episode Preview: Snow Chaos and Nostalgia
00:00:42
Speaker
On today's episode, I'll be talking about the snow chaos, giving a history lesson, and talking about why being a kid back in the day is better than being a kid now.
00:00:53
Speaker
But that's enough of the intro.
Snowstorms and Panic Buying Behavior
00:00:55
Speaker
Let's get to the show.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yo, I often talk about how stupid we are collectively as a people, and I probably need to come off that. But let me tell you why I'm bringing this up.
00:01:14
Speaker
This snowstorm hit, and here in the DMV area, the DMV area is the District Maryland and Virginia. If y'all are new to the show and don't know where I'm located, I am in the Washington, D.C. area.
00:01:27
Speaker
Snow coming to this area, everybody starts to panic. And in several grocery stores but across Maryland, D.C., and Virginia,
00:01:39
Speaker
Shelves are empty. I'm talking about all the bread, all the meat, all the food, gone. Empty shelves. Now, my local Harris Teeter, shout out to Harris Teeter. not a sponsor of the show. would love for if you would want to be a sponsor of the show, as much money as I give y'all.
00:01:55
Speaker
Harris Teeter was fully stocked. I didn't have a problem getting anything. But I go to my local Aldi, also another show that i store that I shop at, one sponsor. I'm not upset because I give y'all a lot of money.
00:02:07
Speaker
I go to Aldi to get my keto bread because, you know, keto diet and trying to get ready for, you know, my 46th birthday, trying to get lean. And all the bread of at Aldi is gone.
00:02:20
Speaker
Like, there's no bread left, even the keto bread, which lets me know people was just panicking and grabbing anything because there is a dramatic difference between regular bread and keto bread. And I feel sorry for those people that got keto bread, expected regular bread. First of all, they should have realized that the cost of it was a lot higher, but maybe they weren't thinking in their mind that because everybody is in a panic, grabbing stuff off of shelves, maybe they're thinking inflation bread is just hot. No, it's keto bread, but they just snatched everything.
00:02:50
Speaker
It snatched all the toilet paper. And and this isn't the first time this has happened during COVID. We lost our minds. I don't know why people think. that whatever comes our way, whether it's a pandemic or if it's a snowstorm, that it's going to lead to diarrhea. It doesn't. And I was talking to a friend of mine and i was saying this, I'm not saying that This is solely white people doing this because it's not. It's
Psychology Behind Panic Buying
00:03:20
Speaker
everybody. But I will stay we'll say, generally speaking, in the Black household, one thing that we are going to buy in bulk on a regular basis are toilet paper,
00:03:33
Speaker
paper towels, trash bags, soap, body soap, and dish soap. And you might say to yourself, what about hand soap? We do buy that. We do. But dish soap can double as hand soap. And you know what else we're going to have?
00:03:48
Speaker
Plenty of lotion. I got lotion in every single room in my place, all over the place. It's at the bathroom sink. It's right next to my bed. It's right. It's at the kitchen sink.
00:03:59
Speaker
It's in the living room. I got it everywhere. And my place ain't really that big. So even if we do wash our hands with dish soap, we're going to be all right because we're going to lotion our body. Generally speaking, I know a couple of black folks out there that's ashy as hell.
00:04:12
Speaker
But these are things that we normally buy in bulk so we don't panic when storms hit. Generally speaking, and it's not just black folks. I know other races do it as well. I'm just speaking from my perspective.
00:04:28
Speaker
Life, this is what I see. So it just boggles my mind how people don't have how people just go to hysteria anytime something big is happening.
00:04:42
Speaker
And I tend to say, well, people generally are stupid, but it's a lot deeper than that. And I really need to stop saying that. I did a little research, did a little bit. Actually, for this show today, it was a lot of research that I did. But I did a little research on this particular topic and found out some really important information that explains why Most people, the majority of the population, respond this way.
00:05:07
Speaker
People tend to overreact in big events because our brains are wired to prioritize survival. copy the crowd, and grab for control when things feel uncertain or threatening.
00:05:20
Speaker
but That last part is kind of interesting, right? When things are uncertain uncertain or threatening, we tend to grab for control. I'm going to talk about that more in the second segment, but that's interesting.
00:05:33
Speaker
Core reasons why people panic by, right? What people did this week was panic by. What are some of the core reasons? Fear and uncertainty.
00:05:44
Speaker
When a crisis hits, a pandemic, storm, or attack, people feel a real or perceived threat and don't know how bad it would get. So they prepare for the worst case scenario.
00:05:55
Speaker
I'm one of those people that always prepares for a worst case scenario in my life. However, I don't panic by. panic. impulse buy, but not panic buy. There's also a need for control.
00:06:06
Speaker
In a situation where you can't control the virus or the weather, you can control how much food or toilet paper you have. So shopping becomes a coping mechanism.
00:06:16
Speaker
And then there's survival wiring, meeting basic psychological needs, physiological needs like food, water, toilet paper, warmth, is the first layer of Maslow's hierarchy. So under stress, people drop back to keep my body safe first.
00:06:36
Speaker
So that's all interesting, right? it's It's we're wired this way to survive. And that's really what it is. That's the reason why people are doing these panic buys.
00:06:47
Speaker
But what's specifically happening in the brain? Like under high stress, the rationale, the planning part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex goes offline and the emotional alarm system dominates, pushing quick defensive decisions instead of thoughtful ones.
00:07:06
Speaker
So when we get into survival mode, our prefrontal cortex, the things that create rational thought, it just goes offline. It just says, you know what?
00:07:17
Speaker
I'm out. And our body, our alarm system takes over. And it's just is like, look, we got to defend ourselves. This is what we need to do now. All rational thought goes out the window.
00:07:33
Speaker
Defend yourself becomes the preeminent emotion and driving force behind your actions. when ah When people are emotionally flooded, they literally see the last pack of toilet paper as survival, not just a household item, which makes grabbing it feel urgent and justified to them.
00:07:53
Speaker
So you see what we're going on here? It's it's our brain, our mind playing tricks on us, kind of like the ghetto boys. Prefrontal cortex thing that controls rationale thought just says overload, can't deal with this. And survival instincts are spider sense, quote unquote.
00:08:11
Speaker
And our body says, we need to survive. And that last little bit of toilet paper, that's what I need to survive. Even though I got a lot of packs at home.
00:08:23
Speaker
I need that one because I'm in survival mode. There's also social and horde behavior. Let me explain. Emotionally, fear spreads person to person. Seeing empty selves, long lines, or frantic posts online makes others feel the same urgency even if the actual risk has changed.
00:08:45
Speaker
So youre bomb but your body is already in this defense mode, right? Rational thought has gone out the window and everybody is panicking, right? Because it spreads from person to person. And then you're looking at the fact that, yo, the grocery stores are selling out.
00:09:02
Speaker
And then it becomes a sense of urgency, whether or not it's real or not, that you got to go and stock up your house for a snowstorm that's happening one day.
00:09:14
Speaker
It started Saturday night, snow through Sunday, stopping Monday. It's one day, but your body And your mind can't reconcile with that because that prefrontal cortex has gone offline.
00:09:28
Speaker
Let's talk about herd mentality. If everyone else is stocking up, people assume they must know something or that
Rational Thinking vs. Panic Buying
00:09:35
Speaker
shortages are coming. So they follow to avoid being the only one left out without supplies.
00:09:41
Speaker
Follow the leader. That's what that essentially is. If everybody else do it, I'm going do it. I mean, everybody getting toilet paper. I must need toilet paper. No, you got plenty of toilet paper at home.
00:09:54
Speaker
and I got to have bread milk because they say that you got to have bread milk. You don't eat bread and milk the majority of time in your life. But all of a sudden, a storm hit. And now you got to have bread and milk because all the bread and milk is going to be gone.
00:10:11
Speaker
Okay. availability cascade. What is that? Repeated scary messages, rumors, or images of chaos make a belief there will be no food or there will be no toilet paper.
00:10:25
Speaker
Feel more true just because it's repeated so often. So you see how this, once again, our mind is playing tricks on us. Rationale, out the window.
00:10:36
Speaker
Images, floodiness, spidey sets, taking over. We need to survive. That's what our body is telling us. And so these are the reasons why we act this way.
00:10:49
Speaker
What about something else? Biases. and overreaction. There's a threat bias. Under anxiety, we interpret ambiguous situations as dangerous.
00:11:02
Speaker
So a normal storm becomes this could shut down everything for weeks. Kind of like the pandemic. With a pandemic, people were back and forth. I'll even admit that I was like, man, it's not gonna be no big deal.
00:11:14
Speaker
I was saying that because I thought my work was going to be affected. I was afraid financially what shutting down would do. Little did I know I'd be just fine and actually flourish.
00:11:25
Speaker
But when you don't know what something is going to be, or even if it's something that is normal like a snowstorm, You tend to think, well, even though this is ambiguous, I've got all these images flashing in my head. Once again, that prefrontal cortex shut down.
00:11:46
Speaker
That means this storm is going to last for weeks. And even the newscasters were saying in certain areas, you might get three inches of ice, which will shut down power.
00:11:57
Speaker
And we could have a repeat for Texas. Now, Texas was an anomaly here in the States. That doesn't typically happen. People aren't without power for a full month. That is something specific to Texas and everything like that. But because it happened, even though this is a normal storm now, people panic.
00:12:16
Speaker
And they say, we could lose power. What are we going to do? I talked about the last episode how I don't know how to handle not having power. What am I going to do? Life is boring without my electronics.
00:12:30
Speaker
So you panic. And something that's a normal snowstorm, which probably won't even knock out your power, which is only going to be a day. We're going to be back on the streets on Monday, right? Monday night, Tuesday by the latest.
00:12:43
Speaker
You tend to think, well, this is going to happen over a week. this This is the threat bias. Then there's a confirmation bias. People latch on posts or news that support their fears.
00:12:56
Speaker
And then they see shelves are empty, stores closing, and ignore calmer, corrective information. And then there's overconfidence and rumor.
00:13:08
Speaker
Some are sure their prediction of disaster is right. Share it loudly and unintentionally amplify group panic. So you see how all these factors turn into this big swirl of things that can cause us to panic over something as simple as a snowstorm.
Historical Patterns and Authoritarianism
00:13:35
Speaker
Why it looks irrational from the outside, right? Most people aren't thinking, let me be dramatic. They are trying to reduce the fear with the tools that they have, their wallet, their cart, their pantry, even if it creates their very shortages that they're afraid of.
00:13:52
Speaker
So people aren't thinking, let me be dramatic. They're just trying to deal with the fear and anxiety that they have. the fear and anxiety that they'll be without.
00:14:03
Speaker
So they rush to the stores to stack up their pantries, to stack up their fridge, thus creating the very thing that they're afraid of, which is empty shelves. You see this? This is crazy when you think about it.
00:14:17
Speaker
From a distance, it looks like hysteria. But on the inside, it often feels like I'm just protecting my family. In a system that has taught people not to trust institutions to take care of them in a crisis.
00:14:31
Speaker
Now, that all sounds pretty reasonable, right? Because we've seen going all the way back to Hurricane and Katrina, the institutions that are in place, they'll take care of the people. We saw that in Texas. but ah Florida has done a really good job of taking care of the people through hurricanes, but that's because they've consistently had them for years. It was trial and error. But our systems have failed to protect us from these issues.
00:14:57
Speaker
things that are either normal storms or pandemics. Say what you want about the CDC, but trying to figure out a virus and keep people in check where they aren't alarmed is a tricky thing.
00:15:15
Speaker
Do you tell people the absolute dangers and what could be the worst case scenario? If you're the government.
00:15:25
Speaker
Maybe not. Because why? People will tend to act in this way, right? They've been doing drips and drabs and letting us know that we're not alone, that we are not alone in the universe.
00:15:39
Speaker
I just saw a video. It was ah State Department released it, and it's legitimate. They're having hearings. There was an unidentified spacecraft that was hit by a missile.
00:15:54
Speaker
a missile was shot at it. The missile touched the unidentified spacecraft. It shook a little bit and it kept on with its trajectory while the missile kept going past it.
00:16:07
Speaker
The missile didn't even blow up. We're not alone. We are not alone. But I would understand the government slow rolling this information out, drop it in on ah on a busy news week so it kind of misses us because could you imagine Could you imagine if it was completely confirmed? We got little green people because that's what they always say in the movies. Little green people touching down. People would go nuts.
00:16:34
Speaker
Would go nuts. So then becomes when you know people react this way, people will lose their minds in the crisis. Do you give them that information?
00:16:46
Speaker
Because they're thinking I need to protect my family, but they're not thinking rationally. Right? They're not thinking rationally.
00:16:56
Speaker
Anyway, I understand why all the information doesn't need to be presented to us. People, a person can be intelligent.
00:17:08
Speaker
People panic. A person can be rational. People are irrational.
00:17:19
Speaker
And this is the reason why we act this way. Now, I've explained to you that it's not this crazy thing. It's chaos, but that we're not crazy. It's a survival instinct. How irrational it is, it's a survival instinct.
00:17:35
Speaker
So what should you do?
00:17:38
Speaker
When something like this happens again, pause. All right, pause. And your first crash question to be to yourself, what's my body doing?
00:17:50
Speaker
Am I breathing fast? Is my heart racing? Are my muscles tight? If they are, take 10 slow breaths. Shake this off before you go into the grocery store and grab a cart.
00:18:06
Speaker
Just take a couple deep breaths, right? Before you do one the panic buys. Second, what am I actually feeling? Ask yourself that question. I'm not just shopping.
00:18:17
Speaker
I'm scared. I'm anxious. I'm worried about my people.
00:18:23
Speaker
Name it so that it doesn't quietly drive the bus. Own what you're feeling. Take control so that chaos doesn't overwhelm you.
00:18:37
Speaker
Third, ask yourself, what are the facts, not the vibes? What do credible sources say is happening? And what do they say I really need on hand?
00:18:50
Speaker
Also, do I already have some of that stuff at home? These are questions that you need to ask yourself when you are bombarded by the next storm or pandemic or anything like that.
00:19:03
Speaker
The fourth question, am I thinking for myself or am I following the herd? If the shelves were full and nobody was freaking out, would I still feel like I need this much stuff?
00:19:16
Speaker
That's an important question. Take a step back. If everybody else wasn't doing it, would you be doing it?
00:19:25
Speaker
That's an important question to ask yourself. Fifth, what's your plan? Not my panic. Instead of clearing a shelf today, can I focus on a simple routine?
00:19:38
Speaker
Keeping a small stash of basics I actually use all the time. This is what I said at the beginning. I always got some toilet paper, paper towels, lotion, body soap, hand soap up in the house.
00:19:51
Speaker
Always. Oh, and also cleaner supplies. Got to always have fully stocked cleaning supplies. Always in the house. Also, got some meat in the fridge. Always got some meat in the fridge. Don't got no vegetables in the fridge, but got some meat in the fridge.
00:20:04
Speaker
Got always have that. Sixth. Who can I help me think straight? Before I overdo it, can I call a text somebody who's a calm person and ask, what are you actually doing about this?
00:20:20
Speaker
Talk to somebody, right? Try to get ahead of that anxiety. Last one. What's one small move, not a dramatic one, that you could do?
00:20:32
Speaker
Charge your phone, get gas, pull your meds together, check on a neighbor. Then step away from the news for a bit and let your nervous system calm down. If you still want to buy, buy normal human amounts, not the end of the world amounts. That's that's all you got to do is take a step back, get control of your emotions and let your prefrontal cortex take the charge.
00:21:01
Speaker
Let that rationale take charge because real preparedness is calm, boring, and consistent. Not a viral video chaos in aisle five.
00:21:23
Speaker
I don't normally do this. I haven't done in a while. I wrote something and I'm going to read it. So for those people that are watching, yes, my eyes are going to be darted down because I'm going to be reading not a script, but just something that I wrote. Every now and then something will happen in society that will make me put on my writer's cap and start writing.
00:21:48
Speaker
And I don't pride myself on being this great writer. I'm not some literary masterful writer. ah It's something that I used to really, really enjoy.
00:22:00
Speaker
ah think it brings out a lot of my personality. um And I actually tied in my ah coming in and out of love for writing and my absolute love for history.
00:22:15
Speaker
And this thing that I wrote is essentially a history lesson, because if you're paying attention to what they're doing to the education system in America, you realize that they're stripping away a lot of the true history facts, historical events that cannot be denied. These things happened.
00:22:36
Speaker
And they're either downplaying them or saying that they didn't exist. And there people who actually are deniers of things that truly, truly happened.
00:22:48
Speaker
So I wrote this and um I think it's fitting for what happened recently. And I'll explain all of it at the end when I'm done reading.
00:23:00
Speaker
But this is what I wrote. Let me tell you a story. It starts in a country that was tired, tired of losing, tired of being embarrassed on the world stage, tired of politicians who talked a lot, promised everything, and fixed nothing.
00:23:17
Speaker
The people felt humiliated, economically stressed, culturally anxious. They were told the system was broken, and honestly, it didn't feel like a lie.
00:23:29
Speaker
Then comes a man, not polished, not traditional, not presidential, but loud, confident, certain. He tells the people, i alone can fix this.
00:23:42
Speaker
He says, the media is lying to you. He says, judges are corrupt. He says, the elites hate you. He says, minorities, outsiders, and undesirables are the reason things don't work anymore.
00:23:56
Speaker
And for a lot of people, that explanation feels good. because it gives their pain a target. At first, everything looks normal. There are still elections.
00:24:09
Speaker
Courts still exist. The press is still publishing. But something starts to change. Opposition parties aren't debated. They're branded as enemies.
00:24:21
Speaker
Journalists aren't criticized. They're declared traitors. Laws are so aren't sacred. They're obstacles. The leader doesn't say abolish democracy.
00:24:34
Speaker
He says the system is rigged. He doesn't say silence dissent. He says they're dangerous. He doesn't say i want total power.
00:24:46
Speaker
He says I need loyalty. And slowly institutions bend, not because they're forced to at first, but
Current Events and Societal Reflections
00:24:55
Speaker
because they are scared or ambitious or tired.
00:25:01
Speaker
Then comes the normalization. People get arrested for security. p Courts begin ruling differently depending on who you are. Entire groups of citizens are described as less than human.
00:25:15
Speaker
Criminals. Parasites. Threats. Violence doesn't start all at once. It starts with rhetoric. Then intimidation. Then exceptions.
00:25:27
Speaker
Then policy. By the time things turn openly brutal, half the country is already explaining why it's necessary. And the other half is asking, how did it happen so fast?
00:25:42
Speaker
Here's the important part. None of this required the people to be stupid. None of it required them to be evil. It required them to believe it couldn't happen here.
00:25:54
Speaker
That belief is the real danger because history doesn't repeat itself by announcing, hello, I am history. It repeats itself by sounding reasonable, familiar, protective, patriotic.
00:26:12
Speaker
Now, let me tell you what I just described. I wasn't talking about modern America. I wasn't talking about Donald Trump. I wasn't talking about MAGA. I wasn't talking about Republicans or Democrats.
00:26:25
Speaker
I was talking about Germany in the 1930s. I was talking about the rise of Adolf Hitler. That's not a metaphor. It's not hyperperbole. That's documented history.
00:26:36
Speaker
And before anyone loses their mind, no, I'm not saying America is Nazi Germany. No, this is not saying Trump equals Hitler. Scales matter.
00:26:48
Speaker
Outcomes matter. Context matters. But patterns matter, too, because genocide doesn't start with gas chambers. It starts with contempt for the truth, with attacks on institution, with demonizing, demoralizing of the other.
00:27:11
Speaker
with loyalty tests replacing law. History doesn't ask, are you as bad as the Nazis yet? History asks, did you stop it while you still could?
00:27:24
Speaker
If you're listening to this thinking, that could never happen here. ah she was like That's exactly what people said right before it did. Democracy doesn't collapse in one dramatic moment.
00:27:38
Speaker
It erodes while people argue about tone. So the lesson isn't fear. The lesson is vigilance because history isn't warning us about the past.
00:27:49
Speaker
It's warning us about complacency. And if that story felt a little too familiar, good. That's the point.
00:28:02
Speaker
The other day, Yet another American citizen, a citizen, excuse me, American citizen was gunned down by ICE.
00:28:16
Speaker
Out there, peacefully protesting, gunned down.
00:28:23
Speaker
And me and my sister talked about, because it was a white person, it was another white person that was gunned down. Me and my sister talked about allyship. and how when white people lend allyship to causes that they aren't directly affected, civil rights, human rights, mass deportation, inhumane immigration tactics, you lose your whiteness.
00:28:54
Speaker
In the process of losing your whiteness and losing your privilege, you become other. They describe you as that. There are already people saying it was self-defense.
00:29:04
Speaker
When you watch the video, the graphic video, you see this wasn't self-defense. This was another execution. And there are going to be people that are going to be on the defense of the ICE agents.
00:29:23
Speaker
This is what I was talking about and what I wrote. The complacency. The normalization of these type of actions are literally the fall of democracy.
00:29:38
Speaker
No, no. We are not Nazi Germany. Trump is not Hitler. I'm going to get to that in a minute. But I want to focus so on right now what happened the other day with another person who was a nurse that worked with Army veterans.
00:29:58
Speaker
because everybody talks about supporting military, but they don't really mean it because supporting military would be supporting veterans. I've often said it all the time. What people often say when they so say support the military is support defense.
00:30:12
Speaker
I actually believe in supporting the people no matter what their politics are because there's a lot of veterans who are MAGA. I don't care. Those are the only MAGA people that I give a pass for because you know what they did?
00:30:26
Speaker
especially if they're wounded or disabled, they gave up their body for my freedoms. So on that, even if we absolutely disagree on every political social issue because you did that for me, going stand down most of the time.
00:30:48
Speaker
Make sure that you get everything that you need so that you have a better life. Because you gave up so much so I could have freedoms that are slowly trying to be eroded.
00:31:03
Speaker
But this this this man was a nurse helping veterans execute it Shot over 10 times. He was dead. They kept pumping holes in his body. Because who are these people? We don't know.
00:31:16
Speaker
When your cop pulls you over, your local cop, your state police pulls over, there's a badge number. You can see their face, you can get their badge number, you can find out who they are. We don't know these people.
00:31:29
Speaker
We don't know the background checks for these people. And fraud and waste, that's what Doge was responsible for, right? We're in a struggling economy, job creation is at a low, right? Lower than the previous administration.
00:31:44
Speaker
But yet they find all types of money to fund ICE. Signing bonus, six figures a year. we can pay the kit and We can't pay the teachers. Can't feed the kids.
00:31:55
Speaker
But we can fund ICE.
00:32:00
Speaker
You know, there's a line that Samuel Jackson says, and do the right thing. Wake up. That's all I can say is wake up.
00:32:12
Speaker
Because, no. We're not in Nazi Germany right now. Literally, we're not. And I get tired of people saying that, that Trump is Hitler. Trump, not by any means, even a decent man.
00:32:29
Speaker
I think he's evil. Hitler is a different ballgame. What Hitler did and what Trump is doing is two different things. You can't literally compare him. you You might say Hitler-like. But you can't say that he's Hitler. You can't say this is Nazi Germany because we still out here. We still have elections.
00:32:45
Speaker
For the time being. But you need to pay attention. Because everybody thought when I was reading that, that I was talking about modern day America, Trump and MAGA. And I wasn't. it was giving you a history lesson of the very things that are happening now that happened less than 100 years ago that led to a world war.
00:33:09
Speaker
that led to the loss of so many lives. You need to wake up. All right. Before somebody clips 30 seconds of what I just said and runs to the internet screaming, he called Trump Hitler.
00:33:26
Speaker
Let's slow down and be very clear because clarity is the enemy of bad faith arguments. What we are talking about is methods, not outcomes.
00:33:38
Speaker
Those are not the same thing. OK, what outcomes are. And why they matter. I'm going give you the reasons. Outcomes are what actually happened in Nazi Germany. The outcome was a one party totalitarian state.
00:33:59
Speaker
The complete destruction of democratic institutions. state-run terror, and ultimately industrialized genocide with millions of people being murdered.
00:34:11
Speaker
Okay. That is a historical fact, even though there are Holocaust deniers. That scale of horror matters. And nothing happening in the U.S. today matches that outcome.
00:34:28
Speaker
Full stop. If someone tells you America is literally Nazi Germany, they are wrong. That's not an argument. That's not history.
00:34:39
Speaker
That's not what I'm saying. Okay. What methods are and why they're dangerous?
00:34:49
Speaker
Methods are how power is pursued and protected. They are tactics leaders use before outcomes are fully visible. And here's the uncomfortable truth.
00:35:02
Speaker
Authoritarian systems don't invent new methods every time. They reuse the same ones over and over because they work. Let me break this down for you.
00:35:15
Speaker
Authoritarian leaders don't start by banning media. They start by telling supporters you can't trust them. They hate you. They're enemies of the people.
00:35:27
Speaker
Once the audience stopped believing independent reporting, truth becomes whatever the leader says it is. That method showed up before total control ever existed, right?
00:35:41
Speaker
Method two, attack the rule of law. The courts don't get abolished immediately. Instead, leaders attack judges personally.
00:35:53
Speaker
claim rulings are political, suggest legal accountability is persecution. The goal isn't to end the courts. The goal is to make people believe law only counts when it helps their side.
00:36:10
Speaker
Once that happens, democracy is already limping.
00:36:17
Speaker
Method three, and this is important. demonizing the other. This is a big one. And it's always framed as security. Not these people are human beings, but that they are criminals.
00:36:34
Speaker
They're invaders. They're poisoning the nation. History shows this language always comes before rights are stripped away. Always.
00:36:45
Speaker
You don't start with camps. You start with contempt. Method four, undermining elections. No authoritarian leader says, I lost fair and square.
00:37:00
Speaker
They say the election was rigged. The system is corrupt. Only fraud could explain the defeat. This isn't about winning. It's about convincing supporters that any outcomes except victory is illegitimate.
00:37:18
Speaker
Once that belief sets in, Democracy becomes optional.
00:37:25
Speaker
Here's why outcomes don't appear overnight.
00:37:30
Speaker
Here's where people get confused. They say, well, where are all the camps? Where's the dictatorship? Where's the genocide? Those are endpoints.
00:37:41
Speaker
not the starting of the lines. History doesn't jump from democracy to autocracy in one move. It slides slowly while people argue about tone and intent.
00:37:54
Speaker
The danger isn't that America is Nazi Germany. The danger is believing patterns don't matter until it's too late.
00:38:03
Speaker
Then there's a key distinction. So let's say this plainly.
00:38:10
Speaker
Comparing methods is not the same as equating outcomes, right? You can say these behaviors look familiar and historically dangerous without saying these two governments are morally and ma materially identical.
00:38:29
Speaker
That's not propaganda. That's historical literacy, right? And dismissing that conversation doesn't make this democracy safer. It makes it more fragile.
00:38:42
Speaker
But why does this conversation matter so much? The Nazi example isn't useful because it's extreme. It's useful because it shows how normal people, normal institutions, and normal politics fail when they assume someone else will stop this.
00:39:03
Speaker
It's not that serious. It can't happen here. Democracy doesn't die screaming. It dies while people roll their eyes.
00:39:17
Speaker
And here's the final word on all of this, because ah I hope i'm I'm hitting my point that for people that are watching these videos and seeing their atrocities,
00:39:31
Speaker
And they might make a post or they might make a repost, but there's no action behind it. That's how you lose democracy.
00:39:44
Speaker
That's how you get to an authoritative dictatorship, totalitarianism. that's That's how that happens. When there's no action, when they're just like, man, this is crazy what's going on.
00:39:56
Speaker
Or when people make excuses. Not solely complacency, but being complicit. Two different things. I know I'm throwing SAT words at you, but one is, well, you know, I mean, it's not going happen here. That could never happen to me.
00:40:15
Speaker
One is, well, they are invading and making our country unsafe. They are child so attackers and and traffickers.
00:40:29
Speaker
They're not like you and me. We got to get rid of them. One's complacency.
00:40:36
Speaker
One's complicit. So, no. This is not about calling anyone Hitler. It's not about recognizing that authoritarianism has a playbook.
00:40:49
Speaker
And history isn't asking us to panic. his History is asking us to pay attention. Because the question isn't, are we as bad as the past?
00:40:59
Speaker
The question is, are we stopping the patterns before the outcomes appear?
Childhood Nostalgia: Snow Days Then and Now
00:41:06
Speaker
That's it. That's the argument. And if someone still doesn't understand the difference, they don't want clarity.
00:41:15
Speaker
What they want is cover.
00:41:27
Speaker
Hey, for all my Gen Xers, millennials, and some Gen Z, some older Gen Z, do y'all remember snow days like in elementary, middle, and high school?
00:41:39
Speaker
You know, like right now we're having a snowstorm. And back in the day, we used to get snow all the time, right? We still get snow all the time. But you remember being a kid, getting snowing all the time.
00:41:53
Speaker
And it might actually fall on a day that you're supposed to go to school. So you would wake up in the morning, look outside. Maybe it's a dusting. Maybe it's a full snow.
00:42:04
Speaker
And then you would turn on the news to see the school closings. You'd be up early as hell to see the school closings. And when you saw your school district was closed, It was party time. You had the whole day to plan whatever you wanted to play.
00:42:18
Speaker
Look, we don't play video games. We go go outside play in the snow. I was never one to go outside and play in snow. I don't like the cold. I don't like snow. I hate snow. I hate the cold. And that's a young man originally from Illinois. I hate it.
00:42:30
Speaker
I don't like it. So I wasn't going outside to play in the snow. I don't be, I don't like being cold and wet. So I'd be inside playing video games. I was ah still in elementary school, also a little bit of middle school, playing with my wrestling men or my action figures, just having a grand old time.
00:42:46
Speaker
That nothing was better than a snow day. And if you got a couple of snow days, Oh, then I would actually go outside. Because, I mean, a couple of snow days, everybody outside, you play football in the snow. It was a good time. It was great to be a kid in the 80s.
00:43:03
Speaker
Well, let's go 70s. Let's go 70s, because I said the Gen X people. It was great to be a kid in the 80s, 90s, even 2010s, right? Even 2010s. It ain't that great no more. often talk about how pandemic sucked.
00:43:15
Speaker
it ain't that great no more look i often talk about how the pandemic sucked because we lost some your lives. But I flourished personally and professionally. It was the greatest time. Somebody who was a hermit who is an introvert, extrovert that can only take dealing with people so so much and doesn't really want to leave the house, right? The pandemic was fantastic. I would order food. I don't even need to talk to the delivery person. They just leave it at my front doorstep. I don't even have to say a word. It was fantastic. I was getting things delivered. Amazon, look, Amazon made so much money off of me.
00:43:51
Speaker
It was ridiculous. And when I couldn't get it from Amazon, you damn sure was ordering it from Target and Walmart. Right. I had my liquor in my house. I got to had a fully stocked bar going out on dates. Didn't have to go out.
00:44:03
Speaker
Going out on dates was FaceTime. And then we go over each other's house. Oh, man, because let me tell you something. To be out here dating in this time, that's an expense. That's expensive. OK, I went through and did my finances for 2025 to start seeing, you know, where's my money going?
00:44:22
Speaker
Right. dates. I didn't even date that much in 2025. I didn't even date that much. But dates is expensive, right? So pandemic, you didn't have to do all that. You ordered some food from Uber Eats. You had some alcohol, watch a movie or something like that. It was a good time. it The pandemic was beautiful.
00:44:41
Speaker
Pandemic was beautiful because it also taught companies, hey, people don't need to come into the office. Remote work became a thing. It completely changed our society for adults.
00:44:53
Speaker
You know what it also did for the kids? Take away their damn snow days. School districts have replaced snow days with online classes. That is some bull.
00:45:04
Speaker
There is a whole generation and for adults, you know, for some adults. The pandemic was, ah you know, a time of ah flourishing and, you know, we didn't have to go to work and, you know, we figured out how good life could be when you minimize commuting times, right? You mean minimize commute. the everyday struggle of just getting back and forth to work, figuring out what you're going to eat. Some people became healthier. They joined. They got in into fitness. What kids actually experienced sucked.
00:45:37
Speaker
Some kids in high school didn't get to do their prom, didn't get to do their homecoming. They missed those important social interacting times. Not like these kids really had our turn socially like we did anyway because they're all on their phone. But nevertheless, they missed those social interacting times and just being with your crew.
00:45:55
Speaker
Man, not I was talking to a friend of mine who is is early 40s, and they were saying, i don't know why in high school I stayed after school and just hung out because my friends was doing stuff. So I just stayed after school and hung out. Yeah, that's what we all did. who Who went home right away from school and high school and middle school? You you tend to stick around. You play sports or joining clubs or whatever your friends is doing. That's what you was doing.
00:46:24
Speaker
Call it FOMO or or whatever, but that's what you was doing. So there was social interaction and these kids didn't get that during the pandemic. And people would to say, well, the pandemic wasn't that long. Bullshit. Like it was a long time for these kids.
00:46:36
Speaker
Two years, three years is a long time when you're, when you go from eight to 11, 11 to 14, 14 17. Yeah.
00:46:45
Speaker
That's a long time. And they still had to go to school. They did the online classes. And i don't know. i would like to get some studies of probably the dork in me is going to research this or how this has affected, you know, things like IQ test, test score, iq test.
00:47:05
Speaker
And then standardized tests. Not the same thing. They're two different things. IQ tests are standardized tests to see like how online as opposed to in person for the youth, I'm talking about for young people, was affected. When you get to like college age and adult, I'm sure it has some effect as well.
00:47:22
Speaker
But you're responsible for your own like studying when you get to college. I'm talking about like elementary, middle, and high school. So i but they were affected. But not only that, they don't get the pleasure because these school systems realize now online classes can work.
00:47:41
Speaker
They don't even get the pleasure of snow days. They still got to go to school. Now, if you had told me back in 1992, I'm in the seventh grade, that I lost my snow day.
00:47:58
Speaker
and I got to do online classes, let's go to 95. Because that's when AOL popped. That's when I am popped. Let's say that you were able to do classes in 95. That puts me in like sophomore, junior year high school. If you told me that I got a snow day,
00:48:13
Speaker
But I still got to go to school. I'm throwing a complete fit. I remember one time there was a snow day. School was canceled, but it was during the basketball season. And coach was like, we're still going to have practice practice. I'm like, bruh, that's like six six inches of snow.
00:48:31
Speaker
there's no way for me to get out of my driveway. I still got to shovel the driveway. My dad is about to make me show this driveway and it's not no short driveway. It could fit four cars. Okay. This ain't no short driveway. So I already go get it. Don't worry. Your, your teammate who lives down the road is all is going be on the way. It's going to pick you up.
00:48:51
Speaker
You just got to meet him in the street. Damn it. And I live right off of main road. We had to go to practice. We was in practice. We was in practice and I was pissed because you know what I wanted to do that day? Sit up there and play NBA live.
00:49:04
Speaker
And now these kids don't even get that. They got to go to school. Look, this sucks. For all my parents out there, y'all know this sucks. Y'all because what? Nothing like remember. Hey, remember.
00:49:17
Speaker
A snow day, you knew there was a chance of snow and there was a test or a project or a quiz or something that was due on that exact day where there was a chance of snow.
00:49:30
Speaker
Now, if you was like me who loved to gamble, you'd be like, I know we're going to get a snow day. I'm not going to do the work because I'm going to have an extra day to do it.
00:49:42
Speaker
I'm going to chill and play video games because you know what what I did as a person who had severe generalized anxiety that didn't know it at that time, playing video games was a coping mechanism.
00:49:55
Speaker
That's a coping mechanism for a lot of people, by the way. If your man is out there yelling at the games, let that man yell at the games. He's dealing with something and that's his release. But I was like, no, this is my opportunity to play video games because I know that i'm gonna get a snow day. When them snow days didn't happen, was screwed. And trust me, there's a lot of times I was screwed.
00:50:14
Speaker
But these kids are screwed Daily because they don't even get no damn snow days. And I feel bad for the teachers because remember, I went school to be a teacher. My degree is in secondary education andd and my other degree is in history, right?
00:50:31
Speaker
I was studying to be a teacher. I have friends who are teachers and he just like, I got to work. There's some bull. I don't even get a snow day. Sometimes they would make teachers still come in to work on snow days, which I thought was bull.
00:50:43
Speaker
but they don't even get to stay at home and just chill. They got to log in online and teach these kids. Now, as an educator, I'm all for educating the kids.
00:50:55
Speaker
I believe we work the kids too hard already. That's the reason why a lot of people don't become well-developed human beings. We need to streamline what we're teaching the kids and then also teach them important things that they need to have for the future.
00:51:14
Speaker
Financial literacy is not taught ever. Maybe if you take college, or maybe you take a college course or something like that. Accounting is not given to us.
00:51:26
Speaker
We don't understand credit unless our parents do it to us. These are things that's important in life, but they don't want you to know that stuff. They want you in debt. I got a letter about my student loans the other day. i was like, you know what? Y'all kiss my ass on these student loans. I'm to pay them, but I'm pissed off that it is double what I actually took out. I think it might be triple what I actually took out now. and need to look at that number. Um, And I've been out of school for 20 years. That's another side point. We're talking about these kids right now. Parents, do something nice for your kids because you remember you got a snow day.
00:52:01
Speaker
And these kids have to go to class. Now, even though you're a parent, you have work, you got your other responsibility, you raising these little kids.
00:52:16
Speaker
You remember the joy that you got from those snow days. And that's been stripped from these kids. Personally, these kids need to go out and protest because that's what I would personally do. I would protest.
00:52:30
Speaker
ah But do something good for these kids because the snow day is taken away from them. That joy is gone. And no generation is ever going to get that back.
00:52:43
Speaker
It's gone completely now. It's gone by the way of Blockbuster, right? It's gone by the way of Netflix mail-in DVDs, right? Like certain things, technology just passes it by and there is no going back.
00:53:02
Speaker
And this is a situation where those kids will never get a snow day. They're kids that won't even imagine having a snow day. you'll tell You'll tell your grandkids, I remember when it snowed and we just went outside and played and and we didn't have to go to school.
00:53:21
Speaker
I don't know what that sounded like. a old bang. But y'all y'all know what was eating the him before. These kids won't understand that. They won't get it. Because they will have never seen anything like that.
00:53:34
Speaker
So, for them and to hold on to that innocence because things get real. These kids have to grow up early and we as adults really miss our childhood. One day we wake up and we're just responsible for stuff.
00:53:52
Speaker
Give these kids that childlike adventure for as long as you can, because ain't no going back and ain't no going back for snow days.
00:54:05
Speaker
And I feel sorry for Gen Alpha. I really do. Y'all, yll from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry.
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
00:54:14
Speaker
I'm sorry that grownups ruin every damn thing. And we do.
00:54:18
Speaker
Y'all should get your snow days and they're gone. Guess what? I'm going to have a snow day for you. I'm to sit in the house and do nothing. And that's what I plan on doing. But on that note, ladies and gentlemen, think about what I've said.
00:54:34
Speaker
Think about growing, learning complacency and being complicit. Think about taking control when that prefrontal cortex shuts down and all rational thought goes out the window.
00:54:49
Speaker
Take a breath. That's all you got to do in life. Things get stressful. Take a breath. Take a couple of them. Deep, deep breaths. Center yourself.
00:55:01
Speaker
Let that rational thought take place.
00:55:05
Speaker
Don't be bombarded by everything going on. But don't be complacent either. I know I'm throwing a lot at you, but basically I'm saying let's all be better.
00:55:16
Speaker
And on that note, I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for watching. And until next time, as always, I'll holler.
00:55:28
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.
00:55:51
Speaker
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00:56:16
Speaker
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00:56:52
Speaker
Audi 5000. Peace.