My Unapologetic Love Letter to America

Did you know that the United States produces 13 million barrels of crude oil every day, enough to fill 800 Olympic swimming pools?

Oil and natural gas are refined into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel and used to make unexpected everyday essentials like shoes, cell phones, even life-saving medicines.

People rely on oil and gas and on energy transfer to safely deliver it through an underground system of pipelines across the country.

Learn more at energytransfer.com.

America is a country for builders.

It is a land full of crazy sons of bitches who create, explore, and question the world in a way other countries can't relate to.

This is a feature, not a bug.

In America, all men and women are created equal.

However, they are not guaranteed an equal outcome.

America demands radical responsibility.

It falls to us, you and me, to fight for this country, not with violence or harsh language, but with our actions.

Work hard, love, be compassionate and understanding.

Listen in earnest.

Give without expectation of reciprocation.

Be present.

Get involved in your community.

Live healthy.

Build wealth.

America is advanced citizenship.

It's not supposed to be easy.

It is the difficulty that comes from living with such a diverse and dynamic population that we derive our great prosperity that we all enjoy.

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the show and happy 4th of July.

I gotta tell you, this is probably my favorite holiday, or like B.

There's something about Thanksgiving that I love, and probably because you're spending time with family, and 4th of July tends to be more like friends-related, but 4th of July is just absolutely amazing.

It's a wonderful time to celebrate our country, how lucky we are, what a jackpot we hit by being born in this country.

Or, you know, if you immigrated here legally, more power to you as well, right?

I mean, just the fact that you're here, that you're a citizen, it's a wonderful time to celebrate what this country is and what it tries to be on a day-to-day basis and how special a place it is.

And what a special time we are to be in this country.

As much as there's plenty of challenges, I just absolutely love it.

I love wearing red, white, and blue.

I love the ridiculous outfits and costumes that people put together for 4th of July.

I love the eating.

I love the drinking.

I love the water-related activities.

I love the games that you play.

You know, cornhole and ladder ball and can jam is one I was playing last year that I really kind of fell in love with.

And then I love how every year, you know, as the day progresses, all the dads start coming together and try doing physical challenges that would have been, you know, probably,

you know, coordinated in their 20s, but are completely uncoordinated and ridiculous looking in their 40s.

And everybody's laughing and and everyone's having a good time.

And the kids are running all over the place.

And you're talking and just, it's such a wonderful day.

And it's capstone with fireworks and explosions and just over-the-top ridiculousness that makes America exactly what it is.

It is, it's a country full of crazy motherfuckers who get to be exactly who they want to be if they choose so.

And there's no other country like it.

And there's no country that is better.

And the fact that we've built this thing in such a short amount of time, and by we, I mean all the people, all the citizens of this country that came before me, came before us.

And I just love it.

And, you know, I probably allow too much of the nonsense that happens in our world enter my brain space.

You know, if I were being dissected by some guru optimization specialist, then I'm sure they would say, you know, don't read all the news or don't spend so much time on X.

But I don't know.

One, I like it.

Two, it's my life, so I can do whatever the hell I want.

And three, you know, I am interested in the mentality, the psychology behind those who would live in this place and advocate tearing it down.

Like, how entitled, how silly, how trite, how childish

could you possibly be that you're advocating on a consistent basis for tearing down a structure that is single-handedly built the most successful civilization in the history of the world in the shortest amount of time.

Because, my friends, we have to live in reality.

If there's one theme that I'm going to focus this show on moving forward, focus my work moving forward, both here on the podcast, in our community at Finding Peak.

If you go to findingpeak.com, unreasonable people, searching for unreasonable outcomes, we're writing tips, tactics, ideas, strategies, case studies.

Go, it's free.

Check it out.

If you're interested in the paid membership, you can upgrade.

Lots of cool stuff comes with that as well as some personalization, some one-on-one stuff.

So check that out if you're interested.

But

there's something that there's, there's this concept that's been digging at me that I've wanted to share with you for a while.

And it's, it's like, why, how can I look at the idea of something like socialism, right?

Like this, this mayor, a mayoral candidate who just won the Democrat primary in New York City, right?

Mondami.

Absolute socialist.

Calls himself Democratic socialist, which is, which is just, they put the word Democrat on front, just so you know, so that socialist doesn't sound as bad, but it's socialist, right?

And does not believe in Judeo-Christian values, is a pure socialist, wants to, you know, has said in interviews, wants to seize the methods of production, which is straight out of Marx, right?

And there are people in our country who are buying this, voted for him.

Now, granted, maybe you just hated Cuomo.

And I don't think Cuomo is good.

I mean, he was a pretty shitty governor and played a lot of games and is absolutely a, you know, a nepotistic inside political hack, you know, which is part of New York's history is just nepotism and, you know, unqualified individuals who played the political game right rising to power.

But so you can hate Cuomo.

I can get that.

But this guy's a socialist, straight up, wants to create government-run grocery stores.

Okay.

So getting back to our reality thing.

Okay.

So that all sounds great.

I get it.

And there's maybe some of you out there who've been infected with the toxic empathy that a lot of postmodern liberals and, you know, true blue Marxists have been infected by and seemingly pass along to others, but it doesn't work.

There's zero receipts.

Zero.

Don't and don't bring up Norway.

Norway is a tiny little country that produces nothing.

So if you want to be a tiny little country that produces nothing, maybe socialism in a skewed and dynamic sense with capitalism kind of injected in certain places does work.

But not in New York City, not in the epicenter of capitalism.

And not by a guy who doesn't believe in Judeo-Christian values, not by a guy who wants to defund the police, wants to replace police officers with social workers.

I mean, that's fucking bananas.

Like, there are bad people out there, sorry, that do bad things.

Social workers aren't going to stop that.

You need police to stop that.

People who don't do bad things don't want to live near people who do do bad things.

And if you aren't policing people who do bad things, then the people who don't do bad things leave and your city or town becomes a ghost town and becomes filled with people who are desperate and commit crimes to make up for the fact that there's no economy and no money and nothing happening.

And your entire ecosystem structure and community slash society falls apart.

And we've seen this in every socialist experiment that has happened thus far, every single single one.

Yet here we are again, trying to talk about, well, that wasn't real socialism.

Well, what?

That doesn't make any sense.

Socialism goes against all of human behavior, except for our desire to be victims, which socialism works perfectly for individuals who have been indoctrinated with the idea that it is always someone else's fault.

Okay,

so we have a system.

capitalism slash

the ideals upon which the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were written, mixed with Judeo-Christian values, that we know works incredibly well.

Incredibly well.

No matter where you start, you have an opportunity to finish above that position.

It may not be as high as others, but every human born in the United States has the opportunity to socially rise,

to financially rise, every single one, regardless of where they start.

Now, some start in really shitty positions, and that progress may not be as far as others.

And frankly, I think it's despicable how much time and attention we spend as a country overseas when there are so many people inside our country that are hungry, that can't pay their bills, that can't get a job.

I live near some of those communities in upstate New York.

And that to me is where we should be spending our time and our effort, not bombing other countries.

You know, people ask me all the time, why did you vote for Trump three times?

I'm a single issue voter.

When I look at the candidates, I do mental math, because obviously I don't know what's actually going to happen, to see who do I think, which one of, with, which of these candidates will less humans in the world die?

And for me, in all three cases, against Hillary Clinton, against Joe Biden, and ultimately against Kamala Harris, I believed that less humans in the world would die if Donald Trump was the president.

And I believe that I've been and would have been right in all those scenarios if Trump had won in 2020.

That's why I voted for him.

Now, there are other reasons that I think he's a better candidate as well.

I also am not so immature that his angry language or the way that he talks, you know, offends my coastal elitist sensibilities so much that, you know, I can't look below at what he's actually doing.

You know, as of the recording recording of this, just over 100 days in, the tariffs have brought in $127 billion in revenue to the United States.

So every talking head who said that this was crazy was wrong.

The markets are up, right?

Interest rates are on hold and now have been signaled to go down in the next quarter.

Gas prices are at an all-time low for the last decade.

Look at what's actually happening.

Get past the fact that in your social group with your girlfriends, you can't talk about Trump because he's bad or you know, someone once called him racist and God forbid that label be applied to me, even though I don't think that there's any justification for that in any way, shape, or form.

You know, we have to live in reality.

You may not like the way Trump talks, but is he doing a good job?

And if he did a bad job, I would have to look at that too.

And I would be okay with that.

I honestly don't give a shit whether I vote for a Democrat or Republican.

I want to live in reality.

And I want to surround myself with people who live in reality.

Because if we can do that, then we can harness the system that this country has built to become the best version of ourselves with no throttles or anchors.

And I don't think that's possible anywhere else.

And it's why I love this country.

I can go as far as I'm willing to work and sacrifice to get to.

And when I decide I've had enough, I can downshift.

And if I do not get where I would like to be,

maybe I just wasn't good enough.

And see, that's the part that no one wants to say.

The hard part about the American system is you might not be good enough.

You may have

saved big during Labor Day at Lowe's.

Get up to 40% off.

Select major appliances.

Plus, buy more to get up to an additional 20% off.

Shop even more savings with three stay-green, one-cubic foot vegetable and flower garden soil bags for $10.

This Labor Day, take care of your home for less at Lowe's.

We help.

You save.

Valentine - Sorry Lawford excludes Alaska and Hawaii.

Selection varies by location.

Select locations only while supplies last.

See Lowe's.com for more details.

Pick the wrong career.

You may have picked the wrong skill to leverage.

You may not have put enough work in to be good enough for people to give a shit or for people to value what you do because you're just not that good.

And that's the hard part about this.

No one wants to hear that.

You know, when you're raised in, you know, what, the early 2000s?

And,

you know, you're looking at these Gen Zs and stuff, they've simply never heard that they're not good enough.

They've never heard it.

They have no idea how to handle it.

So when they, when they hit the reality, when they hit the real world and they're not getting hired for the job and they can't pay back their, their loans and they can't, you know, get the car that they want and they're living in a crappy apartment, they don't know how to handle that.

But that's reality.

But here's the good part of that.

When you get that feedback, if you're willing to be self-aware, if you're willing to consider why you're in the situation you're in and make the necessary changes, you can rise out of it and no one is stopping you.

If New York City is not working for you, you can go to Florida.

You can go to Texas.

You can go to Nashville.

You can go to Charlotte, North Carolina.

You can go to Bozeman, Montana.

You can go wherever you want.

No one is stopping you.

If you have a great idea for a new app to put on the App Store that makes millions of people use, no one is stopping you from do that.

If you want to write a book, no one is stopping you from do that.

If you want to live like a, like a, like a mountain man in the woods and live off the land, no one is stopping you from doing that.

With great freedom and the responsibility of that freedom comes the potential consequences of not being good enough.

And unfortunately, my friends, if you ever desire any type of meaning or purpose in your life, any type of sustained happiness, that's the game you have to play.

And in every society around the world that we've seen personal responsibility, which is a hallmark and core tenant of the American society, play a prominent role, those societies have flourished, flourished.

And in the societies, the egalitarian societies where intellectual elites stand there and tell you that we should all be equal and we should all have the same and, you know, those never work.

Because here's what happens.

You know what Mondami is really saying?

I get to choose who gets the money.

That's what he's saying.

That's what all socialists are saying.

That's what Bernie Sanders is saying.

That's what AOC is saying.

That's what Karl Marx was saying.

That's what Lenin was saying.

That's what Stalin was saying.

That's what all of them were saying.

You're all equal as long as I say that's okay.

This system works as long as I get to be in charge.

Don't worry, I'll do the right thing.

I'll make the decision for you.

I get to decide.

That's what socialists are saying.

And this is why we, as Americans, have to fight against this tooth and nail.

You cannot be quiet.

You cannot be quiet against the rise of socialism.

Coming all the way back, and I know I'm a little preachy today, but I don't know.

I guess this episode's been coming for a while.

I want to pull this all the way back to what I truly want this to be.

We live in a world that has real, there's repercussions for the things we do and say, right?

And unfortunately, I think far too often we are sold a bill of goods in which it's what we hope would happen.

You know, we hope that everybody ends up in an equal spot.

I don't actually hope for that because I like when people, you know, when all things are measured and weighed, if there are people ahead of me, I'm okay with that because that pushes me to become a better version of myself.

If we all end up equal all the time, how the fuck do I know how good I can be?

I don't.

I don't have any clue of how good I can be if I'm constantly ending up equal to everybody else.

Doesn't make any sense.

And there's zero receipts to back up a lot of these thought processes.

So I guess, you know, know, what I love about America is in its purest sense, I know there are plenty of imperfections.

There's plenty of stuff that I don't like.

You know, like when people do racist shit, like truly racist shit, that that's fucking horrible.

That should not be part of our world.

There should be one filter.

Are you an American?

Are you not an American?

If you're not an American, sorry, you get shuffled to the side.

It doesn't mean you can't be here.

If you're here legally, that's awesome, but sorry, you're second fiddle to the Americans.

And if you're an American, we should step up and support each other and take care of each other, regardless what fucking God

we pray to or what color we are or what gender we are.

And look, that blue-haired 17 nose ring girl who wears clothes that doesn't fit and can't figure out why a guy doesn't want to date her, she's an American.

Fuck, she's part of the club too.

And we're going to take care of her as best we can.

So I want to read you something.

I want to read you, and you can go, if you want to read this, go to findingpeak.com.

It's out today.

If you're on the email list, you would have gotten this.

You can read it.

But I want to read this to you because it may take all this incoherent babbling that I have just done for 20 some odd minutes and it may put it into a little construct.

This is my unapologetic love letter to America.

America is the greatest country on earth.

Full stop.

The American dream that all men are created equal.

The American promise that a free market provides for the uninhibited pursuit of happiness.

The American ideal that life and liberty are our birthrights.

These are the worthiest of aspirations.

The Declaration of Independence states, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This is our heritage.

The Declaration of Independence defines the American spirit.

It was the flint spark of

American patriotism.

A king didn't conscript American colonials and order us into battle.

We took our freedom as a militia.

Hard men left their homes and families to forge a better future, enduring pain and suffering on levels we modern Americans couldn't fathom.

Strong, determined women ran households and businesses, never knowing if their husbands would ever return or what their children's future would look like if the rebellion were unsuccessful.

Strong Americans create easy times.

These men and women set the standard for the cultural norms of freedom, independence, and entrepreneurship that define our great country.

Our prosperity is built upon their sacrifice.

Today, centuries removed from those sacrifices, honor and appreciation for our founding fathers has devolved into entitlement, victimhood, and apathy.

We're forced to endure anti-American sentiment from generations of weak men and women.

We have the gall to look back at the founding fathers as racists, murderers, and criminals.

And to live in a time so free and prosperous, you're allowed to distort your own insecurity and selfishness into hatred for for the very system that gave you that freedom in the first place.

Weak Americans create hard times.

Unfortunately, the prosperity created by the combination of capitalism and Judeo-Christian values has given space for Marxism and authoritarianism to once again take root.

We have a panic attack when the Wi-Fi is spotty.

We're offended by words, and even some of us believe words are violence.

We complain about living in the freest, most inclusive, and prosperous nation the world has ever known.

The self-righteous weakness it takes to disrespect America is astounding.

This sentiment was captured in a recent Wall Street Journal study.

America pulls back from the values that once defined it: patriotism, religion, hard work hold less importance.

In this study,

the proportion of respondents who consider patriotism very important decreased from 70% in 1998 to 38% in 2023.

We also saw dramatic drops in couples having children, in community involvement, in religion.

This drop in patriotism is more likely a derivative of the precipitous decline in core values such as religion, child rearing, and community involvement as seen in the charts above.

What have we used to replace the moral values that have guided flourishing human societies for millennia?

including our own for over 200 plus years?

Victimhood.

Victimhood and its cousins, consumerism, secularism, and narcissism now reign supreme.

If you're not getting yours, it's America's fault.

Specifically, whatever polar opposite viewpoint your side has told you to hate and blame for all your problems.

Do you know what will make you feel better?

Blame someone else and buy more stuff.

And you don't have money?

It's their fault.

We'll give you some money so you can buy more stuff.

Instead of understanding, we criticize.

Instead of compromising, we accuse.

Instead of listening, we shout the other side down with louder and louder rhetoric that makes increasingly less sense.

Feeling a little depressed?

Blame someone else and buy more stuff.

No meaning in your life because you never started a family?

Blame someone else and buy more stuff.

Anxiety because the world is going to overheat and kill everybody?

Blame someone else and buy more stuff.

Don't worry about that debt.

We'll forgive it.

You sit on the couch, eat more chips, watch more Netflix, and buy more stuff.

Oh, and if something happens that doesn't make you feel good, don't worry.

It's someone else's fault.

Slowly, little by little, we lose touch with the American dream, the American promise, and the American ideal.

We get fat, lazy, and depressed.

All we want is someone to blame for the nagging pain we live with daily.

It must be their fault.

And when all hope feels lost, we turn on the very institution of America itself.

We curse America.

We denigrate the flag that represents its values and honors its heroes.

We become so hollow inside from years of selfishness and secularism that the promises of socialists, socialists, begin to make sense.

We stop living in reality.

America and a more perfect union.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,

ensure domestic

tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.

We the people is important,

but the brilliance of the opening line to the Constitution is to form a more perfect union.

More perfect, not perfect.

America is not perfect, far from it.

But then perfection was never the goal.

For in the brilliance of our founding fathers, was the understanding that America is a set of aspirational ideas and experiments that would take centuries or longer to work to achieve.

Ideals such as individualism, the idea that each person has the right to make their own decisions and to express their own opinions, freedom, the belief that in personal, political, and economic liberties and the protection of these rights from governmental interference.

Equality, the idea that all people are created equal and should have equal opportunities.

Democracy, the United States was founded as a representative democracy, a republic, and the value of democratic governance runs deep in American culture.

Capitalism, the belief that anyone, regardless of their background, can

succeed if they work hard.

This is often associated with the opportunity for economic advancement and upward mobility, also known as the American dream.

Patriotism, a sense of pride and loyalty to the country and its ideals is a strong value in American culture.

Rule of law, the principle that the law applies equally to all citizens and that no one is above the law.

Respect for diversity.

While there has been and continues to be significant struggle and conflict over this value, the ideal of America as a melting pot of different cultures, races, and religions is a key part of our identity and one I truly love.

Self-reliance.

Many Americans value the ability to take care of oneself without relying on external assistance.

This ties into the value of individual philanthropy.

Americans are known for their charitable giving and willingness to volunteer their time and resources.

We give more to the world than any other country.

Higher authority, in God we trust, is not simply an homage to Jesus or the Christian God.

It's a reminder that we all serve a higher authority bigger than ourselves.

The humility of the founding fathers, the humility our founding fathers had to write a more perfect union instead of a perfect union.

It cannot be understated because America is highly imperfect.

Slavery was horrific.

Racism still exists.

Elitism and class warfare are predominant.

Corruption is widespread.

Violence is increasingly unchecked.

And socialism survives.

That on this day of January in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be then in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free.

Emancipation Proclamation, January 1st, 1863.

We have people willing to fight, willing to die to cure these injustices.

Not by tearing everything down, not by destroying, not by building, but by building a more perfect union.

The world is full of small-minded shit people who believe their heritage, economic status, or skin color defines their value.

We have people willing to fight, willing to die to cure these injustices.

Not by tearing everything down, not by destroying, but by building a more perfect union.

The world is full of small-minded people who believe your heritage, economic status, or skin color define your value.

Postmodern liberalism and its brokey cousin, Marxism, perpetuate these authoritarian belief systems.

This will likely always be the case.

American freedom comes with the price of having to suffer fools.

There are shitty shitty people, narcissistic, selfish, insecure, small-minded people who cannot get ahead without pushing others down.

Never trust someone whose first suggestion is to tear everything down.

America is worth the fight.

America is a country for builders.

It is a land full of crazy sons of bitches who create, explore, and question the world in a way other countries can't relate to.

This is a feature, not a bug.

In America, all men and women are created equal.

However, they are not guaranteed an equal outcome.

America demands radical responsibility.

It falls to us, you and me, to fight for this country, not with violence or harsh language, but with our actions.

Work hard.

Love.

Be compassionate and understanding.

Listen in earnest.

Give with the expectation.

Give without expectation of reciprocation.

Be present.

Get involved in your community.

Live healthy.

Build wealth.

America is advanced citizenship.

It's not supposed to be easy.

It is the difficulty that comes from living with such a diverse and dynamic population that we derive our great prosperity that we all enjoy.

The responsibility to perpetuate America's greatness falls not just on the shoulders of politicians, CEOs, or community leaders, but every citizen.

Personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion.

Andy Fursella.

And here's the rub, my friends.

You can also do nothing.

You can put your head in the sand, close the gate to your community, and complain about whatever hardship of the day allows you to signal to your peer group.

This is certainly the easy path.

And there are so many easy targets.

If you're looking for a way to mask your self-pity, self-loathing, and self-righteousness, just blame one of the following.

Blame Trump.

Blame white people.

Billionaires, corporations, racism, sexism, or any of the other isms.

A god, specifically Jews or Christians.

The founding fathers, you can blame traditional values.

I'm sure there are more.

But this list will get you, I'm sure there are more, but this list will get you the attention you're looking for.

But then this is the path of the weak man.

If you've made it this far, I'll assume you do not aspire to be weak.

So here's my challenge to you.

Take one action every day that embodies the dream, promise, and ideals of America.

Not for yourself.

This doesn't work if your actions are self-serving.

Do it for your kids or your future kids.

Do it to honor your parents.

Do it to improve your community.

America will never reach its full potential because of an individual political leader or social movement.

America is at its best when individual citizens take responsibility for their personal agency.

Nowhere on earth is personal agency more celebrated than in America.

And if you want to read maybe the greatest article I have ever

read myself on the idea of personal agency.

And in this case, high agency in the article, and I'll have it linked up in the show notes if you're watching on YouTube or listening to this.

There's an article written by George Mack, high agency in 30 Minutes.

It is absolutely phenomenal.

One of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever read.

I've printed it out.

I have it on, you know, and stapled, you know, marked up behind me on the bookshelf.

It's just absolutely tremendous article.

Nowhere on earth is personal agency more celebrated than in America.

You can hate America.

You can blame America for your failure and pain.

You can try to tear it down, but you will fail.

You will fail for all the same reasons you used to blame America instead of yourself.

I love this country.

I love the values it was built on and what it aspires to become.

I love the people, even the dipshit socialists and lefties.

We're a melting pot of crazy motherfuckers trying to carve out our piece of prosperity, and I'd have it no other way.

Happy 4th of July.

This is the way.

I love you.

Let's go.

Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look easy.

Thank you for listening to the Ryan Hanley show.

Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts.

At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone.

You'll get support from people who care about your success, like your enrollment specialist who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve.

You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program.

Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals.

A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

Learn more at capella.edu.

Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach?

Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families.

With Greenlight, you can set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.

Kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely, and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place.

Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com slash podcast.

Riley Herps from 2311 Racing checking in.

Got a break in between team meetings?

Sounds like the perfect time for some fast-paced fun at Chumba Casino.

No waiting, just instant action to keep you going.

So, next time you need a pick-me-up, fire it up and take a spin.

Play now at chumbacasino.com.

Let's chumba.

No purchase necessary.

VGW Group Void where prohibited by law.

CTNC's 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino.