Why I Left the Left: My Political Awakening
Hey, love! Welcome to another episode of the Choose Abundance Podcast! Why I Left the Left: My Political Awakening. I’ve stayed quiet on this controversial topic since launching my business as I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers and turn anyone off who needed my help. But I have realized that in order for me to fully live out my mission of sharing my truth and inspiring you to do so as well, I need to, well, actually share what I truly believe.
So here it is: My political awakening that has completely changed my life and I hope it will change yours as well.
In this episode you will learn:
My story of political programming growing up in Portland, OR
How your upbringing informs your identity, values, and beliefs and creates a lens through which you then view the world
How confirmation bias works
What happened in my brain when I met my first Republicans
Who I voted for in the 2004 election and why
The exact moments that woke me up from a conditioned slumber
The powerful realization I had about our political system
3 controversial examples prove we are programmed to choose a political side
The shocking truth of how we are intentionally programmed by the media
The truth about the Biden/Trump, Vaccine mandates, & abortion narratives
How we are conditioned to fight the “other” and how to start working together
Then experience a guided energetic release and technique to manifest a new, beautiful reality moving forward.
We’ll also address:
Where to go from here? Two paths moving forward for a brighter future
Tangible suggestions on how to engage with the political system in an empowered, ethical way that actually helps the community
How to take your power back
A message of love and changing the world
Much love,
Eleena
Choose Abundance today and every day.
Apply for Private Mentorship with Eleena Katz
Episode Transcript
My Political Awakening: Why I Left the Leftoday we are diving into a very controversial topic that I have mostly stayed quiet on in the online space so as to not ruffle too many feathers, however, I am not interested in being a follower, and I am not going to embrace the true leader within me by hiding my beliefs, so, it’s time to tell the damn truth because I know this perspective needs to be heard.
And tomorrow is election day November 8, 2022, so an episode on my political awakening, why I left the left is perfect timing so fuck it.
Before I share why I left the left, I need to explain how I got there and came to this understanding of how our political system actually works and the realization that I was completely asleep and programmed into compliance.
I grew up in Portland, OR, which if you don’t know, is incredibly left-leaning and liberal so that is all I knew. Before the age of 7, children do not develop the ability to think critically, so everything they learn they take as truth. So essentially your identity, values, and beliefs are all stored in your subconscious mind and all information you take in after the age of 7 will be filtered through the lens of the programming that has been established. it’s essentially how confirmation bias works. So as I grew up with liberal values and a strong belief that blue is good and red is bad, my brain only took in the information that validated those beliefs and rejected everything else.
It wasn’t until I went to college at the University of Hawaii that I even met a republican my age, or maybe one at all. It was the 2004 presidential election and many of us in my freshman class was 18 and able to vote for the president for the first time. Outting my age here but moving along. I was shocked to learn that some of my friends were voting for Bush. I voted for Kerry not because I knew anything about his policies, but because Democrats were good, caring about people and Republicans were bad, taking rights away from people. Full Stop. I rejected my friend’s reasons for why Bush was a better candidate. It didn’t fit my programming at the time.
Fast forward to the 2016 election and something within me started to change. But before we get to that, at the time I was all in for Bernie Sanders, because, of course, he cares about people, unlike the other side. And this Trump guy was pure evil and going to destroy America, so when Bernie lost To Clinton, it was all hands on deck to make sure she won. Plus a female president! Wow, that would be awesome. Again, of course, I didn’t look into anything she had done or believed in, I just knew that her husband was president when I was a kid and he was a democrat that people really liked him, so she must be good and she’s a democrat so that’s all I need to know. Plus this evil Trump guy. On election night I distinctly remember being out with a few friends drinking margaritas and upon hearing the news, crying over our tacos when trump won. We’re fucked we’re fucked that’s all anyone could say and I believed it.
And then it changed, slow. I can’t recall the exact moment, as it was more of a series of moments that started to shift my perspective. Its as if there was this thick, plastic cover around my belief keeping it intact, protecting it from the outside world - which is what our mind actually does in order to keep us safe, validating what we already know to be true, but then it’s as if a pin came along and poked a small hole into the plastic, allowing a little bit of light in.
The first moment I remember was in 2016 watching Sam Harris and Ben Affleck on Real Time with Bill Maher. Sam Harris was sharing information about Islam and the different levels of belief among the Muslim people and Ben Affleck interrupted him with YOU ARE RACIST. It was a shocking moment and I remember thinking to myself: wait, wasn’t he just sharing information about belief? how does that make you racist? But every news article I looked up confirmed that Affleck was right. But that felt off to me. A tiny hole opened up in that protective later.
A couple of years later in 2018, I was at the river with some friends, enjoying a relaxing day in the water, and someone brought up how trump is taking away Americans’ rights. These were the types of conversations everyone was having at this time. I, with full curiosity at this point asked: what rights has he taken away? and instead of my friend listing out the rights taken away, the response I got was: “Oh you wouldn’t understand because you’re a white woman.“
So I am not allowed to ask a question about a fact because of the color of my skin and my gender. Huh.
Another pin poke.
Months later, I was at a group dinner, and when the server asked if there are any allergies, this guy I only met that evening responded: only republicans. Allergic to half the population? Another poke. I somehow found myself in a conversation with him and shared my experience at the beach repeating: When I asked what rights he had taken away, my friend responded with “you wouldn’t know, you’re a white woman” and this man, sitting at the table facing me said: She’s right.
The hole started to get bigger, faster.
I still watched CNN, as that was programmed into me to be the only reputable source of information, I was noticing how they took everything Trump said or did and made it seem so evil. But something inside of me didn’t resonate. I stopped believing them.
So I decided to look into the other side, what were they saying? I noticed myself starting to agree with the conservative perspectives I once thought were evil. I was actually enjoying listening to conservative voices and to my surprise, my values around freedom, personal and fiscal responsibility, getting your own house in order first, and then helping others, which I originally thought were democratic values, all aligned more with them. My whole worldview shifted during that time. it was a mindfuck, honestly.
I noticed in conversations with friends and family that as I shared my new perspectives, I was shunned. I was told I was a bad person. Which was hard and confusing to hear, as I didn’t change who I was at all, none of my values were different, I simply opened my mind to hearing other people’s perspectives and realized I agreed with some of them. That’s it.
This was a really confusing time for me. Not only did I realize that the beliefs that I’d had for 30 years were no longer my beliefs, but it really sunk in experiencing firsthand being told I was a bad person for simply disagreeing.
This is when I truly woke up.
As you know, we have a two-party system here in the US, alright and for 30 years of my life, I was on one side. Then I expanded my mind and realized I actually aligned with some beliefs on the other side and as a result was immediately criticized and labeled as being a bad person by my original “side”.
Huh.
What I discovered from this experience is that there are no real two sides. We are all humans with the same desire to live a good life and help others do the same. To be healthy and wealthy and free. People on both SIDES want the same damn thing at the root of it. Now, of course, there are some true ways in which each side believes we can achieve the result of living a good life, however, on a deeper, more fundamental level and what I woke up to is the realization that the two sides were created, manufactured on purpose simply to divide the people and give each side an enemy to hate. And from this division, those in power can and will stay in power because we gave our power away to them.
We are told to vote for our side for the sake of democracy.
Ok, think about it. For a few examples, we were told to vote for Biden not because he’s a great candidate, but because having trump in the office is just too dangerous to democracy. divide.
We were told those who do not get vaccinated during the pandemic will kill themselves and other people. Divide. We were told that people in support of the supreme court's decision to overturn roe v wade are bigots who do not want women to have rights to their own bodies. divide.
But here’s the truth regarding those three examples:
1. The democrats want to be in power, they literally promote big government as THE way to help the people. So they need to be in power to live out that mission. Biden was the option they chose, and they did everything they could to smear Trump as evil and program it into the public’s mind that having him in office would literally end democracy as we know it. Now, this is not to say that trump is this amazing human, that is not the point. The point is that the media intentionally programmed it into our minds that he is evil, not because they wanted to get the truth out about his character, but because they wanted to win. They wanted to be back in power. Divide and conquer.
2. When the vaccines came out, many people were excited to get them because they were scared of this virus and they trust the government to help keep them safe. Other people decided not to get it because either they don’t trust the government to tell them the truth and keep them safe, OR they simply weren’t interested in putting a super experimental drug into their bodies. full stop. But someone or someone decided that they want everyone vaccinated, so the government and media pushed the narrative that people who don’t get the vaccine are bad, and evil and want to kill their grandmother. Divide.
And the third example: Abortion. Some people on one side, want to keep abortion legal at the federal level so all women have access no matter where they live, and they think the other side wants to take away the rights of women over their bodies. Other people, on the other side, would prefer the states choose how they handle this issue instead of the federal government having full power, and they want to protect the rights of unborn children.
Now I know this subject is very heated and delicate, however, if you break it down simply: one side wants to protect the mother’s rights to her body, and the other side wants to protect the unborn baby’s rights. There are no bad people here. Yet, they created a narrative to give people a reason to hate the other side. divide.
Sigh. These are only three of many examples I could talk about to illustrate how the two sides are manufactured and are reinforced by the media’s programming. TV television .tell a vision.
Think about it, every time you turn on the news, no matter which new source, you are reminded of what to be afraid of and hate the other side.
Okay, so if you are still here with me, this is the part where we talk about what to do about this. Where do you go from here?
First, I want you to imagine all the fighting and all the division and all the anger, take it, and just set it all down. Let it leave your body now. Okay. Now I want you to imagine for a moment how our society might look different if we listened to one another instead of immediately assuming they are to blame.
I suspect, and of course, I don’t have all the answers, but I suspect that instead of fighting over our problems we would start to find solutions. Right now we are conditioned to expend our energy fighting the “other”. What if we spent our energy working together?
Just imagine what that would look like. imagine the news anchors bringing people on with different opinions not to argue with them and prove who’s right, but to talk about their common ground, where they differ, and how they can work together to come up with solutions to solve big problems.
What if at the dinner table the person who didn’t get vaccinated or who got an abortion isn’t alienated and shamed for what they chose to do with their body, but instead embraced and loved fully?
What if we all just loved one another no matter what? Really imagine it. How does your body feel differently now?
If we want to create this future, we have to feel it in our bodies and believe it’s possible first.
alright and if you want to know what to do moving forward, here is what I suggest.
There are really only two paths you can take moving forward, depending on how you choose to relate to politics now.
You can choose to just turn off the news and go live your life pursuing your purpose and passions and providing a good life for yourself, your family, and your community no matter what is going on in the world aka no matter what the media is telling you to be afraid of today. This is primarily how I live my life now. I know that whatever I learn on the news is simply what they have decided to tell me in order to try to manipulate me into picking a side and sticking to it, hating everyone else. I am not interested in playing that game, because also here’s the truth. It’s not that I don’t care about horrible things happening around the world. It’s that if I cannot control what happens, getting upset about it is only harming my own life, decreasing my vibration, and it does no good to anyone else. So I stay out of it. Of course, I learn about stuff that’s happening and find humor in the attempts of manipulation when it’s obvious and pathetic, but mostly, I know it’s a game and I am not interested in playing it. I am interested in focusing on my own life and effecting positive change where I can.
or 2. However, If you don’t resonate with simply turning it all off and exiting the system, and want to continue engaging in politics because you actually do believe you can effect change, then I would encourage you to consider how you can best accomplish this. Notice where you get upset and angry toward another side and ask yourself if you put yourself in their position from their side, how might you feel differently? question your beliefs and change the ones that are limiting you from having a happy life. And consider, if you know politics is a game of divide and conquer for power, how might you want to get involved in an ethical way that actually helps your community? Do you want to run for office and do things differently from within? Do you want to start organizing community support in an area that you feel strongly about? Instead of being upset with the other side, it’s time for you to take action in a way that will actually make a difference.
Politics, as we know it today, is simply a game of divide and conquer so we keep hating each other, and they stay in power. Regardless of which option you choose moving forward, either way, it’s time for you to take your power back. It’s time for us all to stop hating other people and to focus on how we can best help humanity. It starts with each and every one of us going within and doing our own healing work. That is how we affect the most change. Because as we are healing, we can help others heal and awaken to their power.
So that is my message for you today. Do not let anyone, friends, family, media, politicians, or anyone tell you how to live your life, or who you should hate, and instead love yourself, and love your neighbor no matter what they have been programmed into believing. And from this love, as corny as it sounds, this is how we change the world.
Alright, I know this one is going to ruffle some feathers, so if anyone would like to continue the conversation, reach out to me, DM me on Instagram and we can chat more.
So much love to you,
I’ll see you in the next episode.
