A woman named Jenny Holland posted a video recently. She runs a Substack called "Saving Culture From Itself." She's GenX, used to be liberal, used to read The Atlantic on the train and drink cheap beer at Brooklyn dive bars before they all became cannabis dispensaries. Now she says she can only be honest about her politics with four people from her old life.

She calls herself an apostate. Someone who left the faith.

She's not alone. Bill Maher keeps saying he didn't leave the left, the left left him. Elon Musk went from climate hero to villain overnight. Joe Rogan went from Bernie supporter to dangerous misinformation. Glenn Greenwald went from civil liberties hero to useful idiot. Matt Taibbi went from Rolling Stone muckraker to right-wing grifter. Tulsi Gabbard went from Democratic presidential candidate to Russian asset.

The list grows every month. And they all frame it the same way: switching sides. Finding a new tribe. Trading Brooklyn rooftops for rednecks and Christians and lifelong anti-commies.

I want to offer a different frame.

I was the Christian kid in the 90s. I had a gay roommate. We didn't agree about everything. We didn't have to. We were friends anyway. That used to be normal. It used to be so normal nobody even talked about it.

This episode is a letter to the apostates. To everyone who's gotten the "what happened to you?" question from people who used to be friends. The answer isn't that you switched sides. The answer is that you remembered something - that you're a person, not a tribal membership card. Not a collection of approved opinions. Not a performance for an audience that's always evaluating.

There's a small group of us who never bought the sorting. Who held the space. Who kept our hands extended across the aisle even when nobody was reaching back.

We missed you. But I'm afraid we're small.

GenX is a small generation. Sandwiched between Boomers and Millennials. Easy to forget. But we remember something the younger generations don't - we remember before. Before the algorithm. Before the sorting. Before disagreement meant exile. Before you had to perform your tribal loyalty constantly or lose your friends.

That memory is worth something. Not because the past was perfect. But because we had space. Room to think without being watched. Room to be wrong without it being archived forever. Room to change your mind without someone digging up old posts to prove you're a hypocrite.

That space is gone now. And most people don't even know it's missing because they never had it.

The apostates aren't switching sides. They're mourning that space. And then, because humans need belonging, they're finding new tribes to take them in. Understandable. But the new tribe has membership requirements too. It always does.

That's not escape. That's just a different cage.

There's another option. It's small and it's lonely sometimes. But the door is open. It always was.

Come on in.

Referenced in this episode: Jenny Holland - "What Happened to You, Man?" (Feb 1, 2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9-f-Ps56E

This is TrapThink. Stay skeptical. Stay curious. Stay free.

What's Happening in Minneapolis and Why You're Being Played

Two U.S. citizens are dead. Thousands of federal agents are on the ground in Minneapolis. Millions of people have already picked a side and most of them have no idea they just walked into a trap.

This episode, we're pulling back the curtain on something called a color revolution — a sophisticated, coordinated playbook for political destabilization that's been used to overthrow governments across the globe for the past 25 years. We're talking about how it works, who funds it, and... here's where it gets uncomfortable, how the exact same pattern is playing out in Minneapolis right now.

But here's the thing: this isn't a "side" episode. We're not here to tell you ICE is good or bad. We're not here to tell you the protesters are heroes or villains. We're here to show you how the framework itself — regardless of which side you're on — is designed to shut down your ability to think independently.

Because that's the real play. Not the shootings. Not the protests. Not the funding. The real play is capturing YOUR mind and turning you into a tribal soldier defending a position you never actually chose.

We break down the seven-stage color revolution playbook. We map it directly onto what's happening in Minneapolis... the coordinated tracking networks, the pre-positioned infrastructure, the funding from some of the biggest foundations on the planet, the rapid mobilization, the unified messaging. All documented. All on the record.

Then we get into the uncomfortable part: how you're being manipulated by the algorithm, by the media, by your own emotions... into picking a side and defending it like your life depends on it.

It doesn't. But someone's engagement metrics do.

This is TrapThink. And this episode is a test. Are you thinking... or are you just reacting?

Find out.

This is TrapThink. Stay skeptical. Stay curious. Stay free.

You may or may not know it, but you are trapped. Every piece of media you consume—cable news, social media, podcasts, even your search results—is designed to pull you into a specific way of thinking. Not to inform you. To capture you.

This is the first episode of TrapThink, and we're starting with the most important question: How much of what you believe is actually yours?

In this episode, we break down how the trap works using real examples—from the marriage debate to COVID-19. We examine how we've been trained to argue within boundaries we never questioned, how we drifted into tribes without realizing it, and why disagreement has been weaponized into moral warfare.

You'll hear about:

• The marriage debate trap: Why we're fighting over government benefits instead of asking why the state controls the definition in the first place
• How COVID turned philosophical disagreements into tribal warfare in real time
• Why most people don't watch both CNN and Fox News—and what that reveals about how we seek truth
• The algorithm's role in curating your reality and keeping you engaged through outrage
• Why belonging became confused with believing, and what it costs you to stay in the script your tribe handed you

This isn't about picking a new side or joining a different tribe. It's about recognizing where the traps are—and realizing the door was never actually locked.

If you're tired of performing. Tired of pretending. Tired of defending positions you inherited instead of chose. If you want to ask real questions and have real conversations, even when it's uncomfortable—you're in the right place.

Truth doesn't need your tribe. It doesn't need your defense. It doesn't care about your talking points.

Truth just is.

And if we want to find it, we have to stop performing for our tribes and start asking harder questions.

You are trapped. But you don't have to stay that way.

The question is: are you ready to find out what's on the other side?

This is TrapThink. Stay skeptical. Stay curious. Stay free.