Episode Transcript
Welcome to a new season of the collective perspective podcast. As we dive into this season, we're focusing on the pivotal upcoming election widely considered as one of the most important of our lifetime. Join us on this journey as we navigate through diverse perspectives, dissect key issues and explore the profound impact.
On our shared future, get ready for insightful discussion and thought provoking insights. Welcome to the collective perspective podcast season three.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the collective perspective podcast. This is Jeff. I have my buddy Jawad with me today. Say what's up Jawad. What's up. And today's kind of a special day. I have my daughter, who is a first time voter at 18 years old, Irene Orange. How you doing, Irene? Hi, I'm good. Thanks for coming.
Of course. She's a very special guest. The reason I wanted to have you on was because I feel that there is a large population of voters that not even the media is covering their perspective on things. We got new voters coming in every day. Somebody turns 18, right? They have this opportunity. Now, growing up, I didn't really talk to you about politics.
Maybe in some way you've caught on to maybe things I was telling other people or what, you know, now connects with. What you knew then as far as my political views But it's not anything that I think a lot of families Their children just grow up. They don't think outside of their political party but I think that's kind of where the core of everything starts is when you're young and Your parents influence are huge influences on you.
I would say that my political influence is probably not big with you, but you have a unique, well, maybe it's not unique anymore these days, but you have an experience where you lived with your grandparents for a while. So you had, and your mother, their influences on you as well as, uh, your uncle and your father.
Answer, whoever else was in that facade of the family. And then when you came to visit me, that was a whole different perspective. So you've been able to be more well rounded to know and have different experiences based on who you're with. Yeah. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, it does. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Yeah. I like painting and I like having a free schedule, being able to do the things that I like to do, having time to see my family and my friends and, you know, Just enjoy things. I like, exercise is important. Going to the beach. Those are the things I enjoy. You have free time by, because you're in online school?
Yeah, that and my work schedule allows for me to have free time. How do you feel about your first time voting? Are you nervous or are you a bit of both or you're excited? I wouldn't say I'm too nervous. I don't know exactly what to expect. I don't know, I don't know if it's like going to be a paper that I have to fill out.
Like, I don't really know. What i'm doing, but i'm not nervous per se are you excited? Yeah, i'm excited I'm excited to be able to put my beliefs go towards who gets elected What issues are the most important to you in this election? Are they specific policies or candidates that stand out to you? I know that's a double loaded question.
Well, I think for me I Really don't care about the gender or the race of the president I just care about their policies and what's going to be best for america So those those types of things about your skin color who you are. It doesn't really matter to me. It's more of like what your Policies are and what you want to put forth And so it should be I think that's a good way to think I don't think the person that can do the job The person that is qualified to do the job, somebody that has experience in doing the job, uh, are all important things.
And obviously their policies, what they, what they carry behind, what they stand behind. Yeah, I mean. It's special for you to even have that kind of mindset. I know that's not the conversation with everyone, your peers. Yeah, and it's not happening when y'all hanging out or whatever. Do you talk politics with your peers?
I would say I mean sometimes about certain things But most of the times we don't, that doesn't really come up in conversation naturally. We don't really talk about that. Like it's something that you wouldn't want to talk about, or it's just not a topic of interest? I'd say maybe a little bit of both.
With some friends I know that they have a little bit of different beliefs than I do, so I rather just not bring it up. But also, I guess not really a topic of interest somewhat. How did you learn about the issues? Was it through school, social media, or conversations with your friends and family? How, how did you, how did you learn?
Um, I think most of it for me and a lot of my generation is through social media. And I also talk mainly with my mom about politics, and me and her, we have pretty much the same exact views, I feel like. She'll tell me things that she sees, or I'll send her videos, mainly on TikTok, about people talking about things that are happening.
So yeah, I also think a lot of people in my generation, that's where they're getting all of their news from, probably like TikTok. And I guess somewhat the TV, But I'm never really watching like Fox News or CNN really. So mainly all through social media and then we have conversations, family. Is TikTok like the hot social media platform?
I would say so. Yeah. I would say TikTok and Instagram probably the most popular. You and your friends gravitate to that platform than, um, Instagram or Facebook. Yeah. Okay. I think the word politics scares off a lot of people. Again, a lot of people just don't mention it because they have difference in beliefs, but that's the whole idea of this podcast is to get everybody to tell you what your beliefs are so we can all get an understanding of what those are.
Diverse people, diverse organizations, diverse teams are ones that are winning, not, you Those that are just one sided and don't have the opinion, altering them, even if it's just an argument and they'll never agree to, to agree or disagree. So there are so many different, there's like 10 different levels or different categories of what defines politics.
And it's not just who's the president of the United States. It's social issues like healthcare and education. And so these topics most commonly come up. Just in daily conversation. You don't even really think you're even social stuff is, you know, you're not even really thinking you're talking about politics, but you are, we're not just talking about foreign policy and war and stuff like that.
We're talking about homelessness and civil liberties and education. Uh, I just wanted to put that out there that. It is such a large part of our life. It's hard not to talk about it to some degree How much do social media platforms influence your political views? You said you get most of your political information from Yeah, I would say that it probably influences my views completely and i'd say the same for the rest of my generation Yeah, I feel like most of it comes from, like I said, my family telling me new things and just from things that I see mainly on TikTok.
That's probably, you're probably right. That is probably the most common way that most people get theirs. I personally don't listen to the news, but if you find a news story and you want to pass it along or you want to talk about it further, do you anything, do you do anything further than just, uh, pass on the information or do you look into it to see if it's actual?
Honestly, I think that's like a really scary part of people finding their information off the internet because there's so much like propaganda and lies, just straight up lies that people are telling and they just see a video and they're like, Oh, well, yeah, that that's right. And then they share that with people and then other people don't look into it.
And I. I'm kind of like victim of the same thing because I'll kind of just see a video and then I don't really look into it. I do sometimes wonder i'm like is this really the truth? But most of the time I don't really dig deeper. You're right. There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation out there The difference being is that misinformation is like you were saying You saw the information you passed it along.
You reposted it. You didn't look into it You didn't intentionally try to give it to me because you wanted me to think this certain or certain way or but that's the difference Disinformation is I created this or my intent on this is to give you false information to hurt you
The woodpecker next door is named Louis Yes That's our pet woodpecker If anybody was wondering, Irie, what is your stance? So there's a lot of key issues that we're talking about in social media today on media outlets and everything like that. What key issues are you, what do you know most about and what do you care about?
The most like climate control, education, healthcare, and the economy. Again, those are all political topics, but do you know anything about any of those doing are alarming to you? Well, I feel like the one that I'm most concerned about is the economy because I feel like at the rate it's at right now, it's just going to keep getting worse.
And as a young adult that is probably going to live on their own in the future and have to pay rent and buy my own food, pay for all these bills on my own. It's like, how am I going to do it? I can't pay for gas or just the basic necessities are really expensive. So that's concerning. And who do you think is responsible for that?
I feel like a lot of people would say like Biden's at fault for the gas prices, but I don't think that that really makes sense. And I guess I'm kind of, I don't really understand who's at fault for that really. Do you want the answer? Yes. The greedy ass. CEOs of corporate America is the answer. There's a group of them.
There's nine companies that control all the food that we consume and they are making record profits, million dollar extra profits. Like I'm not even talking like 1 million. I'm talking like, what was it? 93 million. Something just like, what? Where all is this money going? Incredible profits. And I think if we didn't spend so much money on war and billions of money on other countries, maybe we can take care of our homeless and those that are stricken with.
Drug addiction people that really need the help. Mm hmm. You know, we have a lot of foreign interests. So do you? Is there anything else that's important to you like education health care climate change? I would also say with education back in the day you for example, you'd go to school and you'd make, obviously going to college is an investment.
So you'd go to school and get your degree and then you'd gain back the money and you wouldn't be in debt forever. But now you have people going to school for a large amount of money and they're for a really long time. So I feel like that also as someone, you know, who wants to go get a degree, I feel like that's concerning as well.
You have every right to feel that way because we got to get the right person in office, right? You were talking about getting most of your. Information from the internet. Can you talk about who influences you? What type of things online? Do you are you in discussion groups or special groups and do you know about yeah, I'm sure you know about algorithm.
Mm hmm Yeah, I'm not like any discussion group or anything. I feel like For me, I'm not super into politics in the sense that I'm not like watching podcast or listening. Oh, you're not listening to my podcast? Okay, I'm listening to yours. You are? Okay, cool. Okay, but I'm not listening to like other ones.
Like if it wasn't you, I wouldn't be listening. You know what I mean? Oh yeah, thanks. Like I'm not like I'll take it. I'm not looking for information. I'm just taking what I see. You know, as far as internet and influences and stuff. I believe that they heavily influence us to whatever our T is, you know, uh, or whatever we, uh, focus on the most, I guess is the best way to put it.
Cause I can be scrolling and if I stop and look at one picture for a second, it recognized that I stopped and now I get a whole bunch of other things about that same type of topic or you don't have your microphone turned off. On your phone. Most people think that's a trick, but there's some apps that it's nice to use.
I use Siri for my voice, but I definitely don't want those companies listening to me, uh, especially Tik TOK. Do you are aware of, uh, who owns Tik TOK? I mean, it's China, right? Yeah. Do you know the difference between our Tik TOK and their Tik TOK? Their Tik TOK, Tik TOK. That wasn't racist. No, it's all in fun.
Yeah. Was that a real question or are you just telling a joke? Well, isn't there tick tock like censored and they can't see certain things it's just the content is different We're out there doing silly stupid things for the most part of what I see I guess some of it could be sports related and serious.
There are those but For the most part, it's completely different. Yeah, I would say it's regulated. I mean, they have social credit scores, so I'm pretty sure there's no arguing on their internet. As a matter of fact, Travis has a relative that still lives over in that area, not China, and they can't really openly talk against their government on the internet.
It's a no, no. It is a privilege for us to be able to do that, even though they're listening too. They can't listen now, unless they have my phone tapped, but Can you hear me? I don't think so. Hopefully not. How often do politics come in conversation with your family? Are the discussions generally positive or tense?
Do you have anybody in your family that thinks the opposite of everybody else, or are they all? I feel like it's all generally the same, at least as of recently. I remember, and also it doesn't really come up often, maybe every once in a while we talk about it. The conversation is never tense or uncomfortable and we usually have the same opinions.
I will say closer to like 2020, last election, I think, I think my grandpa, my grandma was like, she'd get annoyed at him for, you know, talking about certain things. I honestly can't even remember then. And I also remember that was when COVID happened and stuff. So I think my uncle really thought that it was fake and not real.
And I think that pissed my grandma off a little bit. But, um, I think now we really have the same views and obviously COVID isn't really as much of a discussion anymore, nor is it a problem. The joke is, and I won't tell you what sides are, but the difference between COVID between the two political parties is how long you wore your mask.
I don't think your uncle was too far off. Yeah. Well, I took mine off as soon as I could. I don't want to wear that thing. And most of the kids your age, they were like, This is mad. I don't want to wear this mask. What are the impacts your family have on your beliefs and on political views? And how do you handle disagreements?
How did your grandmother and your uncle handle that disagreement? Honestly, just fight with each other. And then just start talking about something different. It never became a big thing. Never got too big. Extremely mad at each other. It was just like well, you're not right. Whatever, you know, I just kind of let it go I feel like for me if my views don't align with someone else.
I don't really care to Make them change their mind because I feel like people are gonna believe what they want to believe and that's okay I don't feel the need to change someone's mind and make them believe what I believe Politics is not a new future Do you feel confident in your ability to make your own decisions, even if they differ from those of your family?
I think I'm, I feel confident in making my own decisions. Like I said, like people believe different things. So if someone didn't believe in what I believed, I would still feel confident in what I was voting for and doing. What are you most looking forward about voting for the first time? Uh, probably being able to have a say in what I think is best for the country.
Because before, when I was younger, I didn't get to put a vote towards the candidate that I believe to be best. So, I feel like maybe that can be a little bit scary. Because I feel like everyone probably wants to put a say in what they believe is right. So, this is your first time voting. Other than what your family's said or what their influence is, have you done any research on your own to see if it's something different?
Because unfortunately you can't really rely on Travis will send me things, for example, and I'll evaluate it. I'll look around. And what I do is I find maybe five or three different things that are kind of Kind of the people trying to say the same I think of CNN and Fox and everybody is talking about it And they're saying the same thing I don't know how common that is But that's probably an indication that it's somewhat real or that it's a real fact all media is controlled by 16 billionaires so 16 people decide what we Listen to and watch every day, unless you're on Spotify where you can watch podcasts.
Podcasts are really the only thing that's not censored. There are censored podcasts, I guess they censor themselves, but there's not anybody stating that you can't say that. Not yet. And that, you know, when you think about it, 16, if you fit 16 people in one room, they control the narrative of how you perceive life as we know it.
As far as information, they control that. That is extremely wild to think of. But the biggest, the big conglomerates are Viacom. You have Warner, you have like these huge, and they have subsidiaries under those massive companies. And I think they have the big hub in Mexico, the one in America, which is Viacom.
And you have, but Rupert Murdoch, I think he owns, he controls most of the news outlets. Paper and TV, not only in America, but across the pond. He's huge bro. Do you think you'll continue to engage in politics after this election? Like, will you be kind of intrigued or interested to learn more? Probably won't.
I'll probably just continue to see the things that come across my feed. I like to stay more involved in politics during near to the election so that I can know who I want to vote for and what's going on, but yeah, I'll probably be less engaged afterwards. Cause I remember. Last election, I was more engaged and interested in what was happening, and then after that, I kind of didn't pay attention as much.
Why is that? Um, well, I feel like the person who, either I wanted them to be elected or I didn't, got elected, so it's like, why would I, you know, in my opinion, but I, you know, I was younger than obviously, but then I was like, Oh, well, why would I care if the president's already elected? But I feel like that's kind of a bad misconception.
Cause I feel like a lot of the issues that I care about are more things that you have to vote for in your state individually. And I feel like a lot of people my age too, they think of just the president. when it comes to certain matters, but really it's more so a state governed issue. If you're not voting for local government, which has direct influence on you, then you're kind of missing the game.
The influence of the president definitely seems to be that, but who knows? if they're actually the ones controlling it, right? Yeah. I think that in this discussion, like in your generation, you say y'all really truly depend on like TikTok for most of the important information that you get from a government perspective or from any kind of like Uh, current events in the world and there's nothing else, there's no other platform that you depend on.
Yeah. That is interesting. I didn't know that. That's really the only place that, when I really think about it, that's the only place that I get information from. And it's not like you're going to find this information, it's just you're seeing it on the feed. As you kind of go through your day. Interesting.
That is awesome. It gives me a different perspective on how important it is to just be conscious of what your children are looking at. When they're surfing the net or when they're looking at information and it's just and it's not like you're being exposed to it without you even asking. That doesn't change the game, huh?
Wow, interesting. It is. So, you know, I would strongly encourage you that if you did have some interest or you saw something on the internet, that if it was a little quirky. Yeah. I think it's pretty cool because she's, she's around well rounded people. She's around her grandparents. She's around you. You're welcome.
She's around her mom. She's around her uncle. These people all, all of you are keeping her grounded. And she's conscious of, like you said, the, the garbage and, and, and what's right, like the right information. And she's, she's having these discussions with you all, which is awesome. Have you ever heard of the term awake?
Of course you've heard of the term woke. Yeah, well. But awake refers to people that are open and see what's going on in the world. And once you're awake, you can't go back to sleep. Yeah. I'd say I'm awake. All right. I want to be awake. I tried to be. Thank you, Jesus. Uh, being awake is the way to be. Because there's a lot of people that unfortunately don't care.
It seems like you obviously you don't want to create anxiety and worry and discontent. And it's a somewhat negative thing to think about. It's a negative thing to think about at times because, uh, I mean, let's face it, it gives me anxiety to, uh, what the future is. And that's kind of what thinking about the future is.
And that's why it's important to live in the present. Well, I definitely think that being woke, for example, definitely blinds you to a lot of things. And I feel like talking about social media, a lot of people on social media. And I feel like people feel like maybe they have to tiptoe around that or something so they can't really be awake, like you said, and see full perspectives of things and what's really the reality.
Right. And that would be called taking away your First Amendment, right? Freedom of speech. You shouldn't be doing that. Punished for having a different viewpoint. Yeah, and it agreed to disagree and you shouldn't be banned or Criticized for having a different opinion. I agree Just to let you know when you go in there and vote.
Mm hmm. It's not really all that hyped up, right? It's chill. You're gonna go in there. Hopefully they'll require an ID Yeah. And, uh, you go in there, you show your ID, you go in like a little, it may not be an enclosed thing, it may be somewhat enclosed. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, and you go in there, and there's either some type of digital form, or usually it's paper form, in person, and you fill the dots, like you do on the tests.
Maybe you don't. Your school, but the paper test with the bubble, you just fill in the bubble and that's who you vote for. And then you put it in the slot and then it's read mechanically and then you leave. There's no pressure. Nobody watching over you. Yeah. It's like little cubicles within sections or like, what is it?
What does it look like? Yeah, it's sections. Well, I mean like on the paper. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll guide you to who you can vote for. It'll give you the little sections. You can. Look, and most of them, you're going to be like, okay, I don't know who this is. I don't know who this judge is. Who is this? Now the propositions.
Florida's voting on three. Do you know what three is about? Oh, okay. That's a marijuana. You are? Yeah. I've had people telling me to vote yes for that. Yeah. Sure. Vote yes. I honestly don't even know what it is either. I gotta look it up, but apparently I'm supposed to vote yes. Usually if it's bad people are gonna go out there and say vote no, but then it's I mean we want to Push things along but to summarize what we talked about here.
Irie is a first time voter She's now armed and ready with the knowledge of knowing what to physically do when she goes in to vote Who are you gonna vote for and why well, I definitely don't want to vote for Kamala Harris because I don't I don't like what, I don't like anything that she's running for.
I don't. I think a lot of issues with her, a lot of things relating to, I suppose, the economy. I just feel like she's going to like ruin the economy more. And I don't like how her inviting, I mean, not inviting, but like giving migrants the, the place to stay and giving them money. I feel like that's just hurting the economy even more.
And. I could go on about that, but, um What do you like about Donald Trump? Well, not that I necessarily Or what do you dislike about him? I don't know, I don't think I necessarily I don't really like either of them. I think it's just, I know I don't want to vote for Kamala. That's right, you're not voting on the Yeah.
who are the popularities, it's who can do the job. Right, yeah. Right, I remember, sorry. But, um Like you're actually supposed to. Like you're actually supposed to. Yeah, that's what you said, actually supposed to do. Just think about who's more qualified and it's going to help us navigate this country to a better, better place.
I mean, I also feel like I more so know the things that I don't like about Kamala, but I don't really know like what Trump's doing either, but I kind of just feel like he's the only option. There are other options, but the thing is, is that they're not allowed to be in the public eye as much as the two.
So it's a two party system. And then it feels like my vote went to waste because, you know, obviously I feel like if I voted for someone else, they're not going to get elected. If it's not the two main candidates, so. There was a lot of people, millions and millions of people were going to go for Kennedy. I was one of them.
It's kind of scary to think, yeah. But now that the Kennedy votes are gone, because Kennedy dropped out, they've all gone to, all of them have gone to Trump. All of the numbers in the polls and everything like that. Well, I re It was great having you on the show. I encourage the listeners to, especially young adults, to get informed and, and exercise your right to vote in 2024 election.
Like I already said, this is a really important election and I would encourage you to not add politics to cause stress in your life, but have more conversations, be a disciple for what you believe in. And not all of us are introverts. So I would imagine you're. Introvert not extrovert. Maybe like a little bit of both a little bit of both As you could tell your dad is an extrovert.
I think it's important to have these conversations I understand why you wouldn't have a conversation with your friends because you don't want to argue about it But yeah, I almost wonder what it would be like if you just tried They wouldn't be down for it. Well, I mean, I know my best friend, Maggie, me and her have the same views because I talked to her about going on to this podcast and I was like, well, do we have the same views?
And me and her pretty much do have the same political views. So I guess I can say me and my best friend have the same views, but maybe a few of my other friends definitely lean, maybe. I wouldn't really say that I lean left or right. I kind of care for both matters. But I'd say they lean more right and possibly are more woke.
So, you know, I'd be scared to have a conversation with them about politics. Why would you be scared? Well, like I said, woke, I feel like sometimes it can be stepping on eggshells, and I don't want to mess up a friendship over politics, and I, I bet a lot of people have that same, those same feelings, sometimes even with their family members.
Yeah, unfortunately, true friends wouldn't let that come in between you. I understand why you wouldn't want to upset someone that maybe you come across daily or frequently, or you spend time with, and you like them as a person. Again, thank you, Irie, for being on the show. You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
Peace out. Thank you so much.
