Confused on certain matters while open-minded on matters I hold a firm understanding of makes me susceptible to outside influences.

I, a current and aware individual who believes some communities within society are failing or are in declining (myself, a member of such a declining community) leads me to think:

“Okay, here are the facts as I know them: There’s this – and there’s that.

There’s the other somethings: Some within my control – others not within my control”.

Stay focused, Rick!  Keep reflecting; make sure to understand the incentives that align what I believe is ‘the right way’ so that what’s good for me at the moment is also good for my community, all 320+ million.

And don’t forgo the truth that what’s good for all within my community at the moment also needs to be good for my community in the long run.

Yet those outside influences, what makes them so powerful is the relationship of such: Family and friends with really awesome but opposing arguments.

So I recluse myself to reevaluate what I believe to be true rather than just submit.  Life would actually be (but would it feel?) easier if I just pretend to believe like the 90% that represents my family and friends.

Among us, all are toxic and harmful divisive whispers, to which I want to say – FUCK OFF!  Talk to me about what is practical, what is sensible, what is factual, what can I do.

It’s so much easier to attack and to blame instead of growing up; accepting the hardship that I helped cause.

So I continue in search of facts.  I’m getting better at fact-finding and at weeding out excuses to facts.

It’s the use of ambiguous language so as to conceal or avoid commitment that distracts me from a fact, a feeling of humor sometimes dumbness usually confirms I found an excuse.

But when I come across a thought that’s indisputable (free of personal emotions or prejudices), that vibrates within my psyche to cause a feeling of ache leading to hope, that’s when I’m assured I discovered a fact.