Two people can listen to an entire speech – the exact SAME speech – and hear two completely different things, and get completely different messages from it. The author took a speech from one candidate and asked his friend to read it, saying it was a speech from the other candidate, and his interpretation and feedback was totally opposite of what it was for people who read it and knew who the speech was really from. And those interpretations were totally different depending on which candidate a particular reader supported when they read it. Without even realizing it, when we follow a particular party and know it’s general beliefs, then read something from the opposite party, we automatically read and interpret it differently, instead of with an open mind. There is proof all throughout the book.

Thinking about this, I keep recalling a commercial that the Trump campaign constantly runs – The one where Biden says “If you elect me, your taxes are going to be raised, not lowered.” It’s pretty easy to recall, because it’s been running on commercial television probably 3 or 4 times per 30 minutes these days – I can’t seem to miss it! I, and hopefully millions of Americans, see that this obviously can’t be true, but it’s right there, coming from Biden’s voice. I’m sure most Biden supporters have already done the research and most Trump supporters probably have not. Those Trump supporters probably figure it’s not worth their time. I’m sure the situation would be the same if it were reversed. And it often is.

We hear what we want to hear and believe what we want to believe. In trying to keep an open mind, I decided to do the research. I easily (within a few seconds google searching) found the original speech that the clip was from, and listened and watched closely. Take a look for yourself:

You only need to watch the video starting from about 10 minutes 50 seconds forward. Biden asked the crowd how many people benefitted from the 1.9 Trillion Dollar tax cut. When one person raised their hand, he told that person that his or her taxes are going to be raised, not lowered, if they elect him. He was saying, based on that person’s high income, which would presumably be over $400,000 per year, his taxes would go up, just as he’s been saying all along, and is still saying.

Sure, every politician who promises all the big tax cuts is lying, we know that. It’s all exaggeration, to some extent, to get elected and they all do it. Then, when they do get elected, they may even try to keep their promises and all of the red tape and hurdles come up, compromises are made, things get very very complicated, and in the end there’s people who understand, people who don’t, and those that just go with what their party says about the sitting president.

I just hope everyone (or enough people) can just keep an open mind and try to look at everything, and not just blindly follow someone. Look at all sides. Deeply. Try to understand where they’re coming from and where they got their information. Do the research. Please. There isn’t just two “sides” either. There are also “independents” and other parties. They just don’t get enough sheep behind them to make it very far. Do the research. Do it for us. Do it for ‘Merica, dammit! Our future is at stake.