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Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1300 in this podcast and be careful. Don't keep going unless you want to hear what I have to say. In this podcast, I'm going to talk to you about Taylor Swift.

Stay with us. This is the Elevate Construction Podcast, delivering remarkable content for workers, leaders, and companies in construction wanting to take their next step. Get ready to step out of your comfort zone with Jason Schroeder as he encourages you to do better, live a remarkable life, and expect more.

Let's go. All right, welcome everybody. I hope you're doing well.

If you're not already offended at me, you will definitely be offended at me after this episode or we will have an expanding mind moment where we connect and we help each other. There's been some things that have been on my mind for a while. There was a recent booing of Taylor Swift at the football game.

Ever since Donald Trump got elected, people have been negative. Obviously, Taylor Swift's getting done with the Heiress Tour has been monumental, like one of the biggest shows of all time, one of the most famous human beings of all time. Kate and the kids and I grew up with Taylor Swift.

We were Taylor Swift fans before it was even cool. I've been to concerts, seen the Heiress Tour, the whole nine. When I think about her, and I want you to know from an authentic standpoint, when I think of Taylor Swift, it's not an attraction or a sexual attraction at all.

It's literally like this person's family. When I think about her and how good of a human being she is, there's hope in the world. She is just a cool dude, like 100%.

I've just been thinking about the negativity and how there are some people who think it's cool to hate Taylor Swift or to be negative. They're pretty vocal about it, especially with Trump being elected to president, which I'm not going to comment on. Other than I super appreciate losing a shit ton of money from my investments in retirement, so I super appreciate his trade wars.

Hope that eventually works out. But here's the thing. There's been a lot of talk lately about anti-diversity equity and inclusion.

People are like, oh, that happened because of DEI. Oh, that happened because of DEI. I'm like, oh my God.

Everybody who's speaking up like that, every single person that's anti-DEI right now are literally, it's like they're out in public. For a moment, they think that it's cool to take your clothes off in front of everybody and dance around like a maniac, like an idiot. Then all of a sudden, there will come a day where they're looking around and they're like, oh my God, I feel so embarrassed.

Because being anti-DEI is stupid. It's really, really dumb. Now, if you're anti-radical DEI, if you're anti-hiring somebody just because they're a gender, I get that.

I think that's fair. But being anti the true nature of what diversity is, being anti-equity for what it truly is supposed to be and being anti-inclusive is just primitive to the point of embarrassment. There's a speech.

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie The American President and it's called the finale speech. It's a clip that I play often. I heard it when I was a kid and I was even inspired when I was a kid.

Let me read it here. A reporter says, will the president ever respond to Senator Rumsen's question about being a member of the American Civil Liberties Unit, the ACLU? And then this is where the speech begins. President Shepard, yes, he will.

Good morning. Members of the White House press corps begin to rise. It's all right.

Please keep your seats. Good morning. For the last couple of months, Senator Rumsen has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character.

And although I've not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I have been here three years and three days and I can tell you without hesitation, being president of this country is entirely about character. For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But more important question is, why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights.

So it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman, and a candidate for president choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now, if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship.

You've got to want it bad because it's going to put up a fight. It's going to say, you want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, whose standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this is the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag.

The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag and protest. Now, show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've known Bob Rumson for years and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it.

Bob's problem is that he can't sell it. We have serious problems to solve and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it.

He is interested in two things and two things only. Making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it, that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time and you talk to them about family and American values and character and you wave an old photo of the president's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism.

You tell them she's to blame for their lot in life and you go on television and you call her a whore. And this is from a movie, everybody. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob.

She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob, you better stick with me because Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league. I've loved two women in my life.

I lost one to cancer and I lost the other because I was so busy keeping my job that I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now. We've got serious problems and we need serious people.

And if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when and I'll show up.

This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your 15 minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepard and I am the president. This scene, wonderfully delivered, is a scene and it has Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, and Michael J. Fox.

Absolutely fantastic acting. And one of the things that stood out to me is people demonize things all the time, but then you ask the question, why aren't you? Why aren't you? And here's my question. People criticize me, Jason.

By the way, we have the largest library of instructional material and content for field leaders in construction of anyone, ever. We dedicate our time and our money, at least $25,000 a month of our own potential profit, not realized, to producing YouTube videos and content for the industry. We're always grinding and I am always criticized for liking and loving and adoring Taylor Swift.

But here's my question. What is likely here that an intelligent human being who has a great family, who has a wonderful wife and has been married for multiple decades with 11 successful children, multiple businesses, a successful career, and that you know personally on this podcast that all of a sudden out of nowhere I'm wrong about Taylor Swift? Or could it be the more simple answer that maybe we haven't dug deep enough? I'm going to type in a chat GPT. What does Taylor Swift stand for? And I'll go ahead and let it proceed.

Let me go ahead and read these to you. Number one, self-expression and vulnerability. Her songs talk more about what it's like to be alive and be in relationships and the reality of our society than anything that I have ever heard of or listened to or seen.

Number two, empowerment and resilience. She talks continuously about not only herself but other people overcoming adversity. Talks about personal growth, standing up for oneself and doing the right thing.

Number three, feminism. Swift has openly supported feminism, advocating for gender equality in both her personal life and career. She's been vocal about the importance of women having a voice and being treated with respect.

Number four, support for LGBTQ plus rights. Why would any of us not want a certain group of people in the United States to have rights? Number five, philanthropy and activism. Taylor Swift has been involved in various charitable causes throughout her career including education, disaster relief, and LGBTQ plus rights.

She also frequently encourages her fans to get involved in support causes that matter. Creative control and independence. Over the years Taylor Swift has fought for control over her music and the rights of her own work.

I can't find anything here that I wouldn't believe in. So here's the question. Jason Schroeder is a Taylor Swift fan.

Elevate and Lean Tacked and Lean Built are Taylor's version company. Companies meaning like we have definitely a Taylor Swift vibe here. Why aren't you? Why don't you believe in self-expression and vulnerability? Why don't you believe in empowerment and resilience? Why don't you believe in feminism? Why don't you support people's rights? Why don't you engage in philanthropy? Why don't you believe in content creators being independent and having control of their content? Why not? Here's the deal.

Here's the deal. When I read this speech from an American president or the American president, this is what I believe is happening. The people in politics today, and this includes Donald Trump.

By the way, I want everybody to know. I voted for him the first time. I did not the second time.

I don't think it's really hard to understand that it's probably not a great idea to put a semi-fascist convicted felon that's trying to disrupt the world order and tax the American people through tariffs that's xenophobic and hateful about Mexicans that is supporting Project 2025 and against women and against people's rights. It just really isn't a hard decision to say, hey, maybe that's not a bad idea. If you want to tally up all of the actual data, Trump spent more than Obama from a deficit standpoint and didn't do much better on immigration.

All of the things that Republicans promise, which is within the MAGA category, is complete and utter bullshit. None of it is actually happening. Now I'm losing money off of my retirement and they're cutting the government and women are dying in cars because they cannot get abortions and we're erasing women from history.

I think not. I really question. Again, if you say, hey, I voted for Trump because of the economy, then show me.

Tell me why in the last 10 days I've lost so much money. So this is what Trump, and that's probably why people hate Taylor Swift is because she's anti-Trump. This is what he's doing.

You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing and easier time and you talk to them about family and American values and character and you wave photos and you wave disinformation about countries hurting you and you wave disinformation about DEI and you tell them that Mexicans and Canadians and everyone else is responsible for their lot in life and you go on television and you bad-mouth everybody and you claim that Taylor Swift is your enemy. It's just not a thing. Donald Trump and most politicians, I'll loop them all together, are only interested in two things.

Making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. Now here's my point. If you want to live a fearful life, if you want to live a life that's putting down women, if you want to live a life that, even if it's part of your religious beliefs, tries to take away the rights of others, if you want to live a life that disrespects people, if you want to live a life that abandons the Constitution of the United States, if you want to live a life where you actually hate Canadians and Mexicans and the European Union, if you feel like it would be better to be buddies with Russia, if you think that the best idea is to take care of billionaires and to make even the middle class struggle, and if you think it's wrong to fight for women's rights, if you think it's wrong to fight for diversity, if you think it's wrong to fight for inclusion, if you think it's wrong to fight for equity, if you think it's wrong to stand up and have a voice, and if you think it's wrong for a woman, Taylor Swift, to be successful, and to speak out and to have an opinion, then why are you on this podcast? Why are you here? This doesn't make any sense.

The bottom line is whether if you've got a bunch of white females or not, religious white females or not in this country that are going along with all this madness, I can tell you for a fact that women don't like being put down, women don't like being controlled, and how can you imagine doing that to your daughter? Like when I see Taylor Swift, I think to myself, wow, that's awesome. My girls can make it. And then I hear her being booed for being successful, for speaking out, for having a voice, and for fighting for good things, and I'm like, damn.

This world isn't quite yet ready for my girls. It's not good enough. And whether you're religious or you're an atheist, we have got to improve our conditions, because I promise you for a fact, there is no heaven where we rule over women.

There is no heaven where you're going to have 30 virgins. Those are all mistranslations. It's not accurate.

The only heaven that anybody will be a part of is one where there's equity, diversity, and inclusion. And if there is no heaven, then the only chance that our species has is to wake up and to get smarter about these things and to figure out how to either protect this planet or get off this planet whole as an evolved species. And you don't become an evolved species by being fearful.

You don't become an evolved species by becoming selfish. You don't become an evolved species by taking away the rights of women. You don't become an evolved species by hating on the LGBTQ plus community.

So here, let me check this out. This is where I'm really going to offend some people. If in evolution, if let's say that we're in the atheist perspective, in evolution, genetic mutation is the thing.

And there is evidence in every single class of species of homosexuality. That is a fact. And if God made the universe, what in the world is he doing creating gay people and then teaching people to hate gay people? It makes no sense.

If there is something wrong with being gay, then either God or the universe is clearly incompetent or an absolute maniac. And I've been through the religious doctrine and the teachings that talk about why in some stretch of the imagination that would be okay. People say, well, God created us perfect, but then the fall of man, Adam and Eve fell, and now this world is a fallen world.

Yep, doesn't give you the right to throw people away. And if this was a part of God's plan, it just doesn't make any sense. And so there's a lot to explain here.

We have got to get smarter about these things. How can you be lean at work and then go and do these stupid, ignorant things at home from a political standpoint? It doesn't make any sense. Jason, you should talk about work and don't talk about politics.

They are not disconnected. If you disrespect women from a political standpoint, how are you ever going to respect workers on the job? If you voted for Donald Trump based on hating Mexicans and wanting to build a wall, how in the hell are you going to go be respectful of Mexicans at work on your construction project? Because I can bet you there's Mexican labor at work. You get my point.

How are you going to go be fearful and negative and dishonest and ignorant and not realize the truth of your environment at home and then magically be able to go to work and see and hear and understand truth and see real problems at work from a lean standpoint? The bottom line is you can't do it. If you can see a constraint or a bottleneck or a problem on a construction site, then you can see that not allowing women to have rights over their own bodies, that unequal pay, and that the myth of merit-based reward systems, which is complete horseshit, that these things are wrong and that there are problems. You can see that tariffs are simply attacks on the American people, and you can see that pissing off your neighbors in North America is not a really smart move from a global standpoint.

It's just not done. If you can at work respect the workers around you, then you can go home and realize that a bunch of rapists and murderers like leaping over the border wall from Mexico is not the problem. Don't call Mexicans and Mexico rapists and murderers.

That's just stupid. And if you've ever heard of a Canadian taking advantage of a United Statesian, show me. I've never heard of it in my entire life.

These are all lies. Donald Trump is simply trying to make you afraid. He is simply trying to win elections, like it was said in this speech, by making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it.

You cannot be ignorant and fearful in your personal life and then be lean and successful in your professional life. It's not a thing. And so if you're an atheist, you should know that there's no way our species is going to make it without being kind to humanity and being inclusive.

And if you're religious, you cannot operate under the assumption that God loves everybody. But if they don't love him, he's going to send them to hell. What a stupid and primitive thought that is absolutely ridiculous.

If you're religious, you have to believe that there is a heaven somewhere where men and women are equal and where everybody matters and where everybody gets a chance, regardless of where they were born, regardless of what religion they're a part of, and regardless of whether or not they died in infancy and were baptized or not. We have got to start thinking again. We have got to start being reasonable again.

We have got to start being intelligent again. Even when I was steeped in religious doctrine and dogma, I didn't believe in these stupid things. So every time I hear Taylor Swift sing or talk about equality, every time I hear her talk about women's rights, about voting for politicians that will get rid of laws where it's legal to abuse and rape your own wife, which it's still legal in some places, every time I hear her talk about relationships, every time I hear her talk about feminism, every time I hear her talk about progressive ideologies, every time I hear her talk about independence, about passion, about creative license, every time I hear her talk about loving somebody and being supportive of the LGTBQ plus community, I am going to rejoice.

I'm going to enjoy the moment, and I'm going to keep doing what I do now, even though she doesn't know me thinking that she's one of my best friends, because she stands for what is good, and she gives me hope, because there is no hope in fighting with other countries. There is no hope in a future in trade wars. There is no hope in a future in putting down women.

There is no hope in a future in taking away people's rights. There is no hope in happiness in criticizing Mexicans. There is no hope in happiness in any of these things.

It's disgusting behavior, and I for one will not be victim to fear, and I don't care if I lose every single podcast listener that I've ever had. I love Taylor Swift. I think she stands for what is good, and why don't you? It doesn't make any sense to me.

All this amounts to is a bunch of white people. I'm one of them, and I don't have any problem with being white, but it's a bunch of white people trying to keep their money. That's it.

It's time for us to get smart enough, good enough, and intelligent enough to where everybody can succeed in their life. Can you imagine Jason Schroeder, a trainer who's trained thousands of people, all of a sudden getting to a perspective where I'm like, I'm a white dude. I just want all the money, and I'm not going to help anybody else.

It's not a thing. It's not a thing. And why would you want to do the same thing? Now that you have money, give.

That's the law of the universe. If you're religious, give. That's the law of religion.

That's what you should be doing. And let me just make this final point. I've been around racist people.

I've been around really horrific comments. I've been around extended family members that use the N-word. And I'll tell you, none of those chickenship motherfuckers have ever been in front of a black person and said the N-word.

None of them have been in front of a Mexican and done anything but be grateful. None of them have ever done anything but be in front of a woman and be respectful and protective. So what the hell are we fighting for? When you strip this all down, the only reason we have these disparate and disgusting opinions is because social media actually isn't social.

It lacks human connection. And let me say this. Let me say this.

If you're going to take away women's rights, if you're going to criticize the LGBTQ plus community, if you're going to use the N-word, and if you're going to want that wall between us and Mexico, and if you want to hate Mexicans, and if you want to disempower women, I dare you. I dare you to do it in front of their faces, in front of somebody you care about. And the answer is, you never will.

Because it's not real. You know it's bullshit. You know it's just your ego trying to reinforce false concepts.

And you know that we can do better. And so for me, I am proud. I am proud that I love Mexicans.

I am proud that I love Canadians. I am proud that I want women and my daughters and my wife to have equal rights. I am proud that nature, or either a nature who evolved homosexuals or God who created them, I am proud to support them and to make sure they have rights.

And I know for a fact that merit-based systems are only merit-based in favor of people that they are like. And that if you really want good teams, you will have diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I am proud to stand against many of the stupid things that are being done by this administration, even though I voted for them the first time.

So, where do you stand? Would you stand? Would you be on a podcast and say, I'm against women's rights? Would you be on a podcast and say the N-word? Would you be on a podcast or on stage and say you're against Mexicans? Oh, I just believe in legal ima... Oh, really? Really? Okay. Well, could you imagine a day without Mexicans? Because I couldn't. At least the entire Southwest of the United States has been built, influenced, and benefited by Mexican people.

So, if you're not going to say that shit in front of people and your close friends who are in those classes, if you're not willing to verbally and visually in-person berate your daughter or your son for being gay, if you're not willing to literally criticize your Mexican labourers on the job site face-to-face, then shut up. This is ridiculous behavior. And I love Taylor Swift.

Why don't you? She's absolutely a fantastic human being. And if your role model is a convicted felon that's pissing off our neighbours, that's disrupting the world order and gonna take the United States down in the view of the world and make us less safe and make everything cost more and ruin my retirement and our investments and make it harder for people and protect all the billionaires out there, then great. Just stand by it. But I still don't know what you're doing here. 

Because Elevate Construction has always been and will always be about people. It will always be about elevating, and you can't elevate somebody by putting them down. I'll see you on the next podcast. On we go. 

Please join us next time in elevating the entire construction experience for workers, leaders, and companies coast to coast. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to share with your construction colleagues, and help us spread the word by rating, subscribing, and leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate it. We'll catch you next time on the Elevate Construction Podcast.