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How viral kindness is changing America: The rise of influencers who give back · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:10
  You are listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:15
  As we close the week, we're gonna close with good news.
• 0:19
  And I want to talk about a couple different things, but one kind of mainly social media influencers who are doing big acts of kindness.
• 0:29
  I already shared one warming story this week about uh the help that an 88-year-old army veteran received.
• 0:38
  He received nearly two million dollars, and he was working full time at a at a mire in Michigan, standing on his feet for eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, and boy oh boy did Americans deliver.
• 0:54
  And these kinds of stories are not they're not limited, they're not one-offs.
• 1:01
  This is happening, it's a growing trend, and it's happening all over the place.
• 1:06
  And I'm gonna share these kinds of stories because as we get near Christmas, uh, this typically happens, and it's it's been happening for me, and I gotta be honest.
• 1:17
  My compassion fatigue is uh kind of pressing the limits right now.
• 1:24
  And that doesn't mean that I'm not compassionate.
• 1:27
  Compassion fatigue is when you get worn out from the number of uh people who are essentially reaching out to you who are desperate for help.
• 1:38
  And uh I I can't even begin to tell you the amount of tragedies that we've walked through this past week.
• 1:47
  And yeah, it's hard enough for one trauma event, but when you experience them over and over and over again, you get to a point where it's called it's a real thing, it's called compassion fatigue, and you literally get exhausted from being compassionate towards people, and uh it's it's not that you're tired out from being compassionate, it's that you you get emotionally spent because you see the struggles that people have, and there are only so many things that you can do, there are only so many hours in the day.
• 2:26
  Um, I I have multiple messages that I haven't even been able to get back to people.
• 2:32
  I mean, for days now, and it's really really challenging.
• 2:37
  This time of year is really hard for people.
• 2:40
  But there's another side of that, and it's one that the media doesn't talk about, and it really really frustrates me to no end.
• 2:48
  And I'm gonna keep the tone of this positive because it is the hidden lightness, and we're sharing positive stories.
• 2:56
  But when I look at the news, and I think it's worth mentioning, when I look at the news, and when you look at the news, look at what stupid stories there are, and how negative the stories are, and it's endless.
• 3:12
  It never stops.
• 3:14
  And I'm just gonna pull up uh right now.
• 3:17
  I'll pull up on a couple different websites.
• 3:20
  Here we go.
• 3:21
  Um Minnesota law enforcement exodus grows as fraud scandal drains hundreds of millions from state.
• 3:31
  Um tons of stories about school teachers uh having sex with minor students, uh, and and I am I'm glad it's in the news.
• 3:43
  I mean, I'm I'm I'm glad that we're highlighting this kind of stuff.
• 3:47
  Um it needs to be talked about.
• 3:50
  People need to be whistleblowers, that sort of thing.
• 3:53
  But these stories dominate the news to where there's no room for positive stories.
• 4:00
  Uh, there's all kinds of stuff, every single news cycle.
• 4:03
  I mean, every day, it's all about Trump this, Trump that, Trump this, Trump that.
• 4:08
  It's just I don't know if I don't know if these reporters have a crush on him.
• 4:15
  I like it's bizarre, it's weird.
• 4:19
  Just over and over and over that the stories never stop.
• 4:25
  Like it's creepy.
• 4:27
  Uh, I get that you gotta cover you gotta cover national news.
• 4:31
  I get it.
• 4:33
  But my goodness, you know, here's one.
• 4:35
  Oh, Jewel, the the musician.
• 4:37
  Jewel posts bikini photos from a beach vacation.
• 4:41
  Who cares?
• 4:44
  I mean, come on.
• 4:45
  Like, you want to talk about clickbait.
• 4:49
  Uh these are the kinds of stories that that are dominating.
• 4:54
  And the good stories get overshadowed.
• 4:58
  So Jimmy Darts, I I want to talk about him.
• 5:02
  Uh, I want to talk about the good news.
• 5:04
  We're gonna talk about it here because if the media refuses to, then we're gonna cover it here.
• 5:10
  We're gonna talk about the good that people are doing.
• 5:13
  So I saw this video of Jimmy Darts.
• 5:16
  And uh Jimmy's just fantastic.
• 5:19
  I absolutely love Jimmy Darts.
• 5:23
  And he did a real, I think it was a real.
• 5:29
  Um it was a short video, but uh I'm pretty sure it was a real and he goes into a store and it's kind of his MO.
• 5:37
  You know, he goes into a store and he's like, hey, I you know, this time of year, he it's kind of the same same routine that he does.
• 5:45
  Um, but it's really cool.
• 5:47
  You know, so he's like, hey, I have at this box here, and I'm really terrible at at rapping.
• 5:53
  Can you wrap this present for me?
• 5:57
  And to the people who wrap, he says, okay, what's your name?
• 6:04
  And then he writes their name on the present that they just wrapped.
• 6:08
  And he says, This actually is for you.
• 6:11
  I I had you wrap it for you.
• 6:14
  Go ahead and open it up.
• 6:17
  And in this case, they opened it up and there was a box with $500 cash in it.
• 6:23
  And this elderly couple, they just break down crying.
• 6:27
  And uh, you know, when when he handed the box to to the woman to the wife, he asked her if she would wrap it.
• 6:35
  And she's disabled, she was in one of those motorized carts, but she was able to stand up, and she didn't even hesitate.
• 6:42
  And he said, How's how's your how's your day going?
• 6:46
  And she said, Well, not good.
• 6:47
  He said, Are you looking forward to Christmas?
• 6:49
  Not really.
• 6:52
  He said, Oh, what's the matter?
• 6:54
  Well, I'm homeless.
• 6:56
  My husband and I are homeless.
• 6:57
  We've been homeless since February of this year.
• 7:01
  And so Jimmy Darts is talking.
• 7:03
  His real name is Jimmy Kellogg, but uh Jimmy Darts is his influencer name.
• 7:09
  So he's talking to her, and it just it was a really, really sad story.
• 7:14
  And uh their whole story was really heartbreaking, and the husband said, Hey, um I'm willing to work.
• 7:22
  You know, Jimmy said, Well, what do you do?
• 7:24
  Well, I do maintenance, you know.
• 7:26
  I I put floors in, like the one that we're standing on, and I do all kinds of maintenance.
• 7:31
  He said, I'm a Johnny on the spot.
• 7:34
  You call me up, I'll be there.
• 7:36
  And uh Jimmy, you again know where this story is going.
• 7:42
  He starts a fundraiser.
• 7:44
  Now, this video just posted a couple days ago, so he hasn't given this couple, he hasn't given them the fundraiser yet.
• 7:51
  I don't think they know about it.
• 7:53
  That's typically the way he does it.
• 7:55
  So he'll show the part one of the video, and he'll do the fundraiser, raise a whole bunch of money, and then he tracks the people down and he gives them the money, and it's like life-changing amounts.
• 8:06
  So Jimmy Darts has over five million followers on Facebook.
• 8:10
  Uh, that doesn't include TikTok and YouTube.
• 8:13
  I mean, he's got millions of followers, and he's just a super humble dude.
• 8:18
  And uh, I looked at the fundraiser.
• 8:20
  I'll I'll post this on the on the show notes here, but I'm gonna read it.
• 8:25
  So it's a GoFundMe.
• 8:27
  And he set a goal of 50,000, and that it was not 50,000 when I first look, I I looked the other day and it was 20,000, then he bumped it up to 50,000.
• 8:36
  He's probably gonna bump it again to 100,000, you know, and this just keeps going.
• 8:41
  And I mean, this was he literally just posted this and instantly meets the goal of 50,000.
• 8:50
  You know, like shot past 20,000, then he bumped it up.
• 8:54
  And uh, you know, 50,000, it's like hold my beer, let's see what we can do.
• 8:59
  And the donations just keep coming in, and it's beautiful, it's such a beautiful thing, and people aren't talking about this.
• 9:07
  You know, the news that's you just don't see social media influencers in the news when they're doing this kind of stuff, and they do it all the time.
• 9:18
  But I think these are such heartwarming stories, and you see that they go viral.
• 9:22
  I mean, look at the one of the the the army vet, you know, Ed.
• 9:28
  It went absolutely viral, and the media is kind of silent on it.
• 9:37
  Like they did they did a couple stories on that one, but they're not doing stories on Jimmy Dart.
• 9:42
  Maybe it's uh, you know, maybe it's because Jimmy Darts does this all the time.
• 9:46
  I don't know.
• 9:48
  But why is the media not covering things like this?
• 9:53
  It's all about Trump and corruption and the economy and how bad it is, or how good it is, and you know, you're gonna see.
• 10:00
  Both sides of that.
• 10:01
  One side's going to talk about how great the economy's never been stronger.
• 10:05
  Then you have the other side.
• 10:06
  The economy's never been as bad as what it is.
• 10:10
  It's exhausting.
• 10:12
  I think I have media fatigue.
• 10:17
  You know, like I really had to search this time.
• 10:19
  And a lot of times I don't.
• 10:20
  I mean, usually I don't have to search that hard to look for positive stories.
• 10:24
  But the irony is that as we're going into Christmas, I have to search really extra hard in December.
• 10:31
  December is always a hard month.
• 10:34
  And I'm like, this ought to be the month where stories just abound.
• 10:39
  They're everywhere.
• 10:42
  It's not that people turn selfish in December and they're not helping people out.
• 10:47
  In fact, I think it's the exact opposite.
• 10:51
  I think people are more giving in December than they ever are any other time of the year.
• 10:58
  And the media is silent.
• 11:03
  Absolutely.
• 11:07
  Alright, so here is what Jimmy Darts wrote on the GoFundMe page.
• 11:11
  He said the other day I walked into a discount store, and I saw these grandparents shopping for their grandkids who live across the country.
• 11:20
  I asked them for help wrapping a gift, and they helped without hesitation.
• 11:26
  I then told them the gift was for them and surprised them with $500.
• 11:32
  They were so thankful and began to cry as I discovered they were on the street, experiencing homelessness, living in their car and navigating surgeries.
• 11:43
  Even in the midst of such a hard time, they still wanted to help their grandkids have a special Christmas.
• 11:48
  Let's get these beautiful grandparents off the streets and give them an amazing Christmas.
• 11:54
  I absolutely love this.
• 12:07
  And I think it's worth mentioning because they're they're naysayers, and they're like, well, you know, this kind of border borderlines taking advantage of vulnerable people.
• 12:20
  You know, it's this performative or is it altruistic?
• 12:28
  All right, when generating positive change, the trend that's happening with social media influencers.
• 12:35
  This trend is widely criticized as being uh exploitative.
• 12:41
  You know, you're exploiting people.
• 12:44
  You blur the lines between philanthropy and entertainment.
• 12:49
  And I'm I'm not going to point fingers and say people are completely wrong by saying that, because there are some that I just think are absolutely um slimy.
• 12:59
  But then you have other social media influencers who are really careful about they'll actually ask on camera and be like, hey, is it okay?
• 13:07
  Is it okay if we film this?
• 13:10
  Or they'll come back later and they'll ask people and they'll say, hey, we're recording this.
• 13:15
  Is it is it okay if we use this for a video?
• 13:20
  So the arguments against our exploitation and it's called poverty porn.
• 13:28
  Uh people have dubbed it nicknamed it poverty porn.
• 13:32
  So the critics argue that these acts are often performative activism or poverty porn, you know, where vulnerable people, and especially homeless, they're the most vulnerable people.
• 13:46
  People with disabilities or people in distress.
• 13:49
  They're objectified and used as props to generate viral content and financial profit.
• 13:56
  So there is no question that the social media influencers are profiting off of this.
• 14:01
  There's not a question about that.
• 14:04
  And profiting well.
• 14:06
  You know, you look at uh you look at their net worth.
• 14:10
  In fact, I'll look up uh it might not stay, and a lot of times these are um, you know, wild guesses, but just for reference.
• 14:19
  So actually, for Jimmy Darts, it's not that high.
• 14:23
  It's not as high as what I thought it would be.
• 14:25
  So his net worth um annual income.
• 14:29
  Actually, it's not net worth.
• 14:30
  His annual income is approximately 762 and some change thousand to just a little over 1.1 million across all possible revenue streams.
• 14:43
  So I mean, still a lot of money, right?
• 14:46
  Still a lot of money.
• 14:48
  And so that's one of the big criticisms is oh my goodness, like they're they're making money and they're exploiting these people.
• 14:56
  They're they're they're using people as props in order to in order to gain.
• 15:03
  Now, I would argue that Jimmy Darts doesn't fall into that category, at least not very cleanly.
• 15:12
  Because I've heard plenty of interviews with him, and he's a super humble dude.
• 15:16
  He's a Christian.
• 15:18
  Uh, he wants to or wanted to at one point.
• 15:21
  I don't know if he ever did, but he wanted to start a uh a church.
• 15:25
  And I gotta tell you, ministry is not easy.
• 15:29
  Uh, for anybody to want to go into ministry voluntarily, uh, they deserve a gold star.
• 15:37
  It's not easy work.
• 15:40
  Uh it's tough.
• 15:42
  But that's what he wanted to do.
• 15:43
  That was like his life dream was to start a church.
• 15:48
  And to be able to be able to think outside the box and do exactly what he's doing right now, to just bless people, to help people.
• 15:57
  All right, so that's one of the arguments.
• 15:59
  They're exploiting people, it's poverty porn.
• 16:02
  Uh, another argument is about consent and privacy.
• 16:06
  Concerns exist regarding whether the subjects, especially the vulnerable ones, can truly give informed consent when a camera's involved.
• 16:14
  Uh, or if they consent to having their private struggles broadcast to millions of strangers for the benefit of a content creator's brand.
• 16:23
  And then finally, the motivation behind it is a big controversy.
• 16:29
  So the debate revolves around whether the influence influencers motivation is altruistic or primarily driven by the need for clout and platform growth.
• 16:42
  However, uh, a lot of viewers and experts argue that as long as real money is reaching the people in need and it inspires others, the net result remains positive.
• 16:56
  All right, we'll talk about those after the break.
• 16:58
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• 16:59
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  My fellow America outmaw.
• 20:00
  Lot of people in a positive way.
• 20:02
  And I'm talking about the good people, you know, the the good ones, not the ones that do pranks on people and and you know, some of those just really get out of control.
• 20:11
  They get out of hand and they're really offensive.
• 20:14
  But I'm talking about people who do kind things for others.
• 20:17
  They give cash to people and then they do fundraisers for people, like life-changing events.
• 20:25
  And it's really interesting that there's there's a big debate about this because do you remember the show?
• 20:31
  Um, oh, what was it called?
• 20:34
  Oh, it was uh extreme home uh or extreme makeover home edition, that's what it was.
• 20:42
  You remember that show, there were 11 seasons of it.
• 20:46
  And I remember that like I used to watch that show.
• 20:49
  I loved that show.
• 20:52
  And I never heard too many people barking about that about how these people are being exploited, and it was for you know, Ty was getting rich off of this, and all these other people were just getting extremely wealthy.
• 21:03
  I didn't really hear criticism about that, but now that social media has been popularized, um, people are really complaining about that, and I think part of that's driven by jealousy more than anything else, because when you actually when you actually read the comments from people and you see how people raise money with with these fundraisers, people are willing to give.
• 21:25
  And that's the point.
• 21:28
  You know, so uh I think as long as people do it ethically, and they're not just looking to gain for themselves, right?
• 21:39
  If somebody was making millions off of um of putting pointing a camera at somebody's face who's living in homelessness, like if that's their goal is to get followers and to get paid and get sponsors, I would have a big problem with that.
• 21:55
  But I happen to agree with this part where you know you have viewers and experts arguing that as long as real money reaches real people in need, and it inspires other people to do likewise, the net result is positive.
• 22:10
  You know, so there are, I mean, obviously there are issues with vulnerability and things like that.
• 22:18
  You know, it really does put somebody out there, and some people are just very private people, and especially when your life is you're you're living homeless, uh living that lifestyle when you're just really struggling.
• 22:31
  A lot of people just want to remain private, they don't really want their whole vulnerable life broadcast to the world.
• 22:40
  Um, but you know, again, I think that they all have to get consent.
• 22:46
  I think YouTube is pretty strict about that, and Facebook, all these platforms, like you have to have consent.
• 22:53
  Um there's got to be some form of consent.
• 22:56
  So at any rate, I like that they're actually putting real money into the into the hands of people, and I'm all for it.
• 23:06
  You know, it it used to be these were social experiments.
• 23:10
  You remember that movement, and there's still some of that, but it was like the social experiment.
• 23:15
  We're just gonna see if somebody reacts a certain way.
• 23:18
  Well, then there was there was no monetary benefit to the person who was being experimented upon.
• 23:25
  And uh, you know, I I didn't really like the social experiments.
• 23:29
  Some of them were okay, uh, but some of them were just they were really tacky.
• 23:36
  All right, so I I like how Jimmy Darts does it.
• 23:39
  I think he's super humble.
• 23:41
  I think he's really respectful, and that's the key difference.
• 23:46
  So Jimmy Darts did this, and let's see, who else?
• 23:50
  Oh, there's the MD motivator, and he actually has a couple different channels, but it's Zachary I don't know how you pronounce it.
• 24:00
  Darren Nowski.
• 24:03
  So Zachary has the MD motivator channel, and he actually has a couple channels, which that's a smart thing that social media influencers do.
• 24:13
  They typically have multiple channels because when you're monetizing, it just you know, they they slap a different name on it and change up some of the videos, and it's just a you know, more economic way, I guess, to bring in revenue stream.
• 24:31
  But Zachary's a pretty cool dude too, and I think he's really humble.
• 24:35
  But he did a uh gas giveaway earlier this month.
• 24:41
  Uh he collaborated with Detroit rapper Big Sean to host a large-scale act of kindness and surprise people by running a free gas station in a local neighborhood.
• 24:55
  And it provided significant immediate financial relief to community members.
• 25:02
  You know, that's that's a big deal.
• 25:04
  Gas is hard.
• 25:07
  Especially you get into poor neighborhoods, and people have to rely on on cars to get to work.
• 25:14
  That's a big deal.
• 25:16
  Uh he also rewards strangers for uh diligence and honesty.
• 25:22
  Posted a video on December 6th.
• 25:25
  He rewarded a stranger who had demonstrated uh honesty and a pretty tough situation.
• 25:33
  So he turned that into a pretty big cash prize.
• 25:36
  Um turning one dollar into into a thousand dollars with the help of viewer donations.
• 25:43
  And he does this a lot.
• 25:45
  Like he'll say things like um, hey, I really need help getting a bus ticket.
• 25:52
  I can't afford it, and anything helps.
• 25:54
  And if if if you have a dollar, that would just help me out so much.
• 25:59
  And almost always it's the people who are homeless who give the money.
• 26:05
  And uh, you know, then he says, why were you kind to me?
• 26:09
  Why were you nice to me?
• 26:12
  And almost always the people say something like, 'Well, because I know I know what it's like to struggle.
• 26:18
  I know what it's like to struggle.
• 26:20
  And I'll say, 'Well, I'm not actually homeless.
• 26:24
  I don't actually need your money here.
• 26:26
  Take the dollar back.
• 26:27
  And usually the people are like, 'No, no, no, you keep it, you keep it.
• 26:30
  Even when they find out that he's not homeless, they're still trying to give them the money.
• 26:36
  And that that always warms my heart.
• 26:38
  Because I'm like, you know, it's it's the homeless people who are the most giving.
• 26:43
  So then Zach will uh he'll pull out a thousand dollars, usually it's a thousand dollars, and it'll be like, here, I I want to bless you with this.
• 26:52
  All right, so I've seen him do the same thing where certain people he'll start a go-fund me, and he'll give life-changing amounts to people.
• 27:03
  He's gotten a lot of homeless people off the street.
• 27:05
  He also partners with uh with he collaborates with brand names.
• 27:11
  So companies will donate tens of thousands of dollars.
• 27:18
  And I, you know, that's where partnerships are pretty cool, and they're pretty helpful.
• 27:23
  But my point is this this stuff happens all the time.
• 27:27
  This is happening right now, as we're speaking.
• 27:31
  Social media influencers are doing these things, and it's not just social media influencers.
• 27:39
  Now, I want to talk about Minneapolis.
• 27:42
  Let's talk about Minneapolis because all you ever hear is how terrible it is, what a cesspool it is.
• 27:48
  There, of course, is the Somali um whatever scandal with with taking COVID money, I don't even know what it is.
• 27:58
  I just I I see these stories, and I I just I shy away from them because I'm like it's usually embellished, embellished.
• 28:09
  There's usually some political twist to it, where a politician is the one controlling the narrative.
• 28:15
  Yeah, President Trump, which just made me made me cringe.
• 28:22
  He was talking about Somalia, and it's just it's garbage.
• 28:25
  He's like, you have people coming from a garbage country, and all of them, they're all garbage.
• 28:33
  What a crappy thing to say.
• 28:37
  You know, the implication is that everybody who's smaling is is a terrible person.
• 28:43
  They're all garbage.
• 28:45
  And we're gonna get them out of here.
• 28:49
  It's just a horrible thing to say.
• 28:52
  And it's not true.
• 28:55
  You know, or there's some who are who are criminals, absolutely.
• 29:01
  But to make a blanket statement to say that every Somaliaan is is they're all garbage.
• 29:08
  It's just a horrible, horrible thing to say.
• 29:12
  So people hear these things, and they take them and run with them.
• 29:17
  And they begin to harass people.
• 29:20
  And there was just an incident.
• 29:23
  Remember, there was an incident of the uh the the lady who worked at Cinnabon, and she was harassing Somallians, flipping the finger, calling them the N-word, uh, just being a complete idiot.
• 29:40
  She gets fired, and she should have been fired.
• 29:45
  And then people do a fundraiser for her.
• 29:48
  She raised like over over a hundred thousand dollars, and I'm like, this it's just crazy.
• 29:53
  So this kind of stuff goes on, and it it really makes you lose your your hope in humanity, but I think that's the point.
• 30:00
  I think the point is you get people divided, you get people angry, and man, look at all the views that we're getting.
• 30:08
  Like the very fact that I'm worked up talking about it, and like I literally read one news story, and I'm all I'm all fired up.
• 30:17
  And that's what they want.
• 30:18
  They want us to be angry.
• 30:20
  They want us to be fired up.
• 30:21
  They want us to be like, yeah, we're we're gonna we're gonna get our pound of flesh.
• 30:27
  You know, and then you come back and you're like, Minneapolis is it's it's in the gutter.
• 30:33
  You know, Minneapolis is crap.
• 30:36
  Well, let me give you a story out of Minneapolis here.
• 30:40
  Nonprofit influencer collaboration on a mass kindness event on December 8th.
• 30:48
  This already happened.
• 30:50
  A large scale 3,000 acts of kindness event was held in Minneapolis, organized by the nonprofit coded in love.
• 31:01
  The event which provided winter essentials, haircuts, and meals, and there's a lot more, I'll talk about it here, to five thousand people experiencing homelessness.
• 31:14
  Utilized the founders and associated creators, social media platforms to mobilize volunteers, donations, and drive public awareness, demonstrating that the power of influencers, demonstrating the power of influencers to amplify organized charities efforts.
• 31:34
  All right, I watched the video.
• 31:35
  I'm gonna link to this video in the show notes, and guys, I looked and looked and looked.
• 31:42
  I'm like, man, how many, how many news articles are covering us?
• 31:46
  Where is this in in this in the uh national news?
• 31:50
  Because to me, this is a huge deal.
• 31:52
  The very fact that we have 5,000 people trying to survive in Minneapolis, and I say survive, and that's not an exaggeration.
• 32:00
  I'm not I'm not being silly here.
• 32:02
  When it's this cold out in Minneapolis, in fact, let me look at the temperature.
• 32:07
  Let's let's just look this up.
• 32:08
  This is important.
• 32:09
  Very, very important to prove my point.
• 32:13
  All right, here we go.
• 32:14
  Yeah, right here.
• 32:15
  Today's temperature in Minneapolis, the high of 17, the low, minus five.
• 32:21
  How about tomorrow, Saturday?
• 32:23
  Uh, a high of one degree, a low of minus 15 Fahrenheit.
• 32:30
  When I talk about surviving, 5,000 homeless people that are being served in Minneapolis by this nonprofit organization.
• 32:38
  That ought to be in the news everywhere.
• 32:41
  And we ought to be covering this saying, hey, there are people.
• 32:45
  There's an organization that is literally helping 5,000 people to survive the Minneapolis winter.
• 32:53
  The very fact that there are 5,000 people who are homeless is absolutely that ought to wreck us.
• 33:01
  This is Christmas.
• 33:02
  Christmas is coming up.
• 33:04
  There are 5,000 people.
• 33:08
  And that's not even all the homeless, by the way.
• 33:10
  That's just that it's estimated 5,000 homeless people are going to be served or were served at this event.
• 33:18
  That's what they were estimating.
• 33:20
  I don't know how many were actually there.
• 33:22
  Um, because I'm having a hard time finding stories.
• 33:25
  There's a YouTube video by a news source.
• 33:32
  And let me look here.
• 33:34
  How many?
• 33:35
  How many views?
• 33:38
  Um, sorry, give me a second here.
• 33:41
  Uh it was not a lot, but trying to find it here.
• 33:47
  It's so hard to find the metrics.
• 33:51
  It was something like 18 views.
• 33:54
  Oh, 19, because I I made another view.
• 33:59
  Nineteen views.
• 34:01
  And this is new.
• 34:02
  This is ABC 5 News.
• 34:06
  Five views.
• 34:07
  Or fit, sorry, uh 18 views.
• 34:11
  Oh no, 16.
• 34:12
  Here it is.
• 34:13
  There, I had to expand it.
• 34:15
  16 views.
• 34:20
  16,000 people were served.
• 34:24
  You know, they had 500 pounds of meat to make chili for everybody.
• 34:30
  They had they had people there doing foot washings, foot washings.
• 34:38
  They were giving people pedicures, haircuts.
• 34:43
  They had chiropractors there.
• 34:46
  They had uh a bunch of chiropractors who volunteered their time and their talent to come and adjust people.
• 34:56
  They had clothing.
• 34:57
  They had, I mean, just this convention center was full of brand new clothing, winter boots, hats, gloves, coats, you know, on and on and on.
• 35:08
  Just as far as the eye could see, tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothing.
• 35:16
  Not a whisper in the news.
• 35:21
  You have our president running his mouth about all these trash people, all these garbage people in in uh, you know, Minnesota, these Somalians, they're garbage people.
• 35:33
  Not a whisper about this kind of stuff.
• 35:35
  It's it's it's insanity.
• 35:38
  That's why I got frustrated.
• 35:40
  You know, but I'm not gonna focus on the frustrated part of Jimmy here.
• 35:44
  Uh I'm gonna focus on the positive because the fact that this stuff is happening, and the fact that people are are donating their time and energy and effort and resources, and uh people are using social media for good.
• 35:57
  This was a social media event that uh that propelled it and turned it into what it is.
• 36:04
  Do you know this is the third year that they've been doing it?
• 36:08
  Their first year, they had 900 people.
• 36:13
  Last year, they had three thousand people.
• 36:17
  This year, they estimated between four and five thousand people would show up.
• 36:23
  That's incredible.
• 36:24
  That is absolutely marvelous and fantastic and great, and this is God shining down on people, using his people to bless other people.
• 36:36
  Where is the media?
• 36:39
  Where are they?
• 36:40
  I looked on religion news.
• 36:44
  Religion news, it's it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest religion papers.
• 36:50
  I know I know people there, I know the editors.
• 36:54
  I know people at religion news, not a whisper.
• 36:58
  It's all about like negative stories and political stories and not a whisper about this event that just happened in Minneapolis.
• 37:09
  I can't believe it.
• 37:10
  I literally'm in shock.
• 37:13
  Not much shocks me anymore, but I'm in shock.
• 37:16
  So we're gonna talk about the good things that people are doing.
• 37:19
  These things are incredible.
• 37:21
  Don't ever forget that we have good people in every city and every town, uh, big or small, all across America.
• 37:34
  This stuff is happening every single day.
• 37:37
  The media's just not covering it.
• 37:38
  They want us to be divided.
• 37:41
  We're coming up on a break here.
• 37:43
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcasts heard on talk radio.
• 37:48
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• 37:51
  Check out America Out Loud, check out that app.
• 37:54
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• 37:55
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• 37:56
  And visit AmericaOutloud.news, browse the store, and use the code Out Loud for 20% off, and we'll be right back.
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• 39:18
  There is a growing movement right now, and it's not just a growing movement locally or uh even nationally.
• 39:26
  I mean, it's literally everywhere.
• 39:27
  It is everywhere.
• 39:28
  There's a growing movement, and it's being driven by social media influencers.
• 39:34
  I mean, mainly.
• 39:35
  They're the ones driving this movement to inspire other people towards compassion, doing acts of kindness.
• 39:43
  And there was just a big event in Minneapolis, and I was getting all fired up, and you can tell right before the break, I got my heart rate up, and I am fired up.
• 39:52
  Um, as they say in the South, fit to be tied.
• 39:56
  And uh, it's because this was
• 40:00
  An incredible event.
• 40:02
  Incredible event that just happened in Minneapolis, and there's not a whisper online.
• 40:09
  And I had to search.
• 40:10
  I literally had to search to find this to see if I'm crazy.
• 40:15
  Because I'm like, well, I don't know how I missed the news sources on this.
• 40:20
  Like, there's literally nobody covering this.
• 40:24
  So I did a search.
• 40:26
  I did a search, and I just happened to find this by doing another search on something, and I happened to find this.
• 40:32
  It was kind of an accident that I found it, to be quite honest.
• 40:35
  But it was this event that just happened in Minneapolis where it's called 3,000 Acts of Kindness event where 5,000 homeless people were served, and they were given coats and blankets and hats and gloves and boots.
• 40:54
  They cooked 500 pounds of beef and made chili.
• 40:57
  Everybody was fed.
• 40:58
  They had foot washings, they had chiropractors, they had uh they had people cutting people's hair and grooming them.
• 41:07
  I mean, this was absolutely incredible.
• 41:09
  And they did it at a convention center in Minneapolis, and there's not a whisper in the news.
• 41:15
  And so I did a search, and I'm like, maybe I just missed it.
• 41:19
  You know, I've I've been a dum dumb before, and I've I've missed things that are right in front of me.
• 41:24
  My wife always laughs at me because I'll be looking for something in the house, and I'll holler in the other room, and I'll be like, honey, where's the um, you know, where's the beef?
• 41:37
  I'm looking in the fridge and I'm like frantically trying to find the beef that she said to pull out and uh, you know, to cook for dinner, and she'll holler back.
• 41:48
  She'll say, it's right in front of your face.
• 41:51
  That's almost always her response.
• 41:53
  It's right in front of your face, and I'm looking and looking, and finally I give up, and I'm like, I must just be blind.
• 42:00
  And then she'll walk in, she'll open up the fridge, and she literally just reaches in and pulls it out.
• 42:06
  She goes, right in front of your face, honey.
• 42:11
  So sometimes I miss things.
• 42:14
  In fact, often I miss things that are literally right in front of my face.
• 42:17
  So I was like, maybe I just missed the stories here.
• 42:21
  And I'm looking and looking and looking, so I did a search.
• 42:25
  I literally did a Google search for this, coded in love, 3,000 acts of kindness event.
• 42:34
  I see a YouTube.
• 42:38
  It's the video that I found that had 16 views.
• 42:41
  That was the first one that came up.
• 42:45
  Uh the organization came up.
• 42:49
  Coded in love, and I'll link to that, coded in love.org.
• 42:54
  There's a CBS News YouTube video that came up.
• 42:59
  It's not even a it's not even an actual story, it's just a YouTube video.
• 43:09
  Um it doesn't tell you because it brings you to it's like their website, CBSnews.com.
• 43:18
  It showed it kind of as a YouTube video in the thumbnail, but it's not unless they just have it embedded here, but uh it's not gonna tell me the views.
• 43:28
  But anyway, you know, um, I'm looking here, and yep, Stevie CBS News Minnesota.
• 43:35
  There's another YouTube video.
• 43:38
  Three YouTube videos.
• 43:41
  This one has 52 views, the other one has 16.
• 43:46
  That's it.
• 43:48
  Literally, not one news story, not one.
• 43:53
  This blows my mind.
• 43:55
  And you're hearing about Somalis, and they're they're taking over Minneapolis, and it's so crooked, and there's all these evil acts, and uh, you know, Tim Waltz is doing all this other stuff.
• 44:08
  Uh that's he's all over the news.
• 44:10
  Gavin Newsom all over the news.
• 44:13
  Uh Trump is all over the news, RFK doing pull-ups in an airport is all over the news.
• 44:20
  5,000 homeless people.
• 44:22
  Like, do you know what it takes to organize an event like this?
• 44:25
  Do you know how much money was involved in this?
• 44:29
  Not a whisper.
• 44:31
  Nothing, not a zip zero zilch.
• 44:36
  A couple of YouTube videos with 16 views and 52 views, that's it.
• 44:45
  Unstinkin believable.
• 44:49
  And these kinds of acts are happening all over the place.
• 44:52
  So here's the hopeful part, and there are pictures.
• 44:55
  I'm gonna link to the coded in love website.
• 44:58
  They have pictures of this event.
• 45:00
  It's so inspiring, it's so cool, uh, so incredible.
• 45:05
  But do you know that all this stuff was donated?
• 45:07
  People donated coats and all kinds of things for 5,000 homeless people or people in need, vulnerable people.
• 45:18
  Five thousand of them.
• 45:19
  And people came together and they delivered.
• 45:24
  I mean, this is so stinking cool.
• 45:27
  Here's here's here's what coded in love says.
• 45:30
  Guests who attend our annual 3,000 acts of kindness event at the Minneapolis Convention Center are treated to lunch, couple complimentary haircuts, new coats, hats, boots, toiletry kits, access to over 80 social service agencies, and so much more.
• 45:49
  Community organizations provide resources and information to help guests potentially find housing, staffing or rehabilitation solutions.
• 46:01
  Not one whisper online.
• 46:05
  All we hear about is how awful Minneapolis is people in Minneapolis are are pelting snowballs at ice agents as they're driving through the city, you know, like those stories are everywhere, everywhere.
• 46:20
  Not a whisper about this event.
• 46:22
  It's it's embarrassing.
• 46:23
  This is if I was if I was a reporter, I'd be embarrassed.
• 46:28
  I would absolutely be embarrassed, and I think I don't know.
• 46:34
  It's just so that's the frustrated part of me.
• 46:37
  The hopeful part of me, and the part that I want to focus on here, is that this stuff is happening everywhere.
• 46:45
  I guarantee you that this is happening in other cities, that social media influencers are partnering with organizations like this, nonprofits like this, and they're helping get the word out, and that's why I tell people turn the news off.
• 47:06
  Forget about what the news is telling you for a second.
• 47:08
  Stop falling into that trap like I did this morning, and stop getting your blood pressure up because a bunch of reporters wrote a bunch of crappy stories, or they're talking about people in their bikini at you know, they're talking about Jewel being in her bikini on on vacation.
• 47:31
  Or they're talking about ice agents that are spraying mace because people are blocking the roads in front of them in Minneapolis.
• 47:39
  That was a news story that I saw, came across my feed.
• 47:44
  And I'm like, it is it's December, it's Christmas.
• 47:49
  There are these small acts of chaos.
• 47:55
  That's what they are.
• 47:56
  There's not widespread, we don't have widespread riots, we don't have widespread chaos everywhere.
• 48:03
  We don't have people burning the streets.
• 48:06
  There are like these tiny random acts of of chaos.
• 48:12
  And the media just zeroes in on that and makes it sound like this is happening all over America, and oh my goodness, and you know, people are kidnapping people all over the place, and it's frustrating.
• 48:33
  Let's flip that around.
• 48:36
  And let's demonstrate, let's show people what people are capable of, and it is mind-blowing.
• 48:45
  It's incredible, it's amazing.
• 48:48
  I've covered so many stories about social media influencers, Mr.
• 48:52
  Beast, also whose name is Jimmy, all these social media guys that have the name Jimmy, what a good name.
• 48:59
  I'm just putting that out there.
• 49:01
  But Mr.
• 49:02
  Beast, what an incredible story.
• 49:07
  Look at all the wells that he did this massive project this year.
• 49:13
  Put wells all over the place, all over the world.
• 49:18
  So Mr.
• 49:18
  Beast raised 40 million dollars.
• 49:23
  It's the 100 wells campaign to provide clean water all over the world, uh, mostly in Africa.
• 49:29
  And what happens?
• 49:31
  People start to criticize.
• 49:34
  Right, and by people, I mean the media, right?
• 49:37
  They're they're the ones covering that.
• 49:40
  So he hits back with this uh campaign backlash with a video at well sites showing like okay, everybody's saying that there are all these issues with the wells.
• 49:52
  Here they are.
• 49:54
  And he's literally with a camera on the ground showing people.
• 50:00
  And I don't know how he kept us cool, but he's actually a pretty humble dude too.
• 50:04
  And uh he's worth over a billion dollars at this point, though he takes a small income and he just reinvests all that money back into helping people, which I think is incredible.
• 50:16
  Super, super humble dude.
• 50:19
  And uh, you know, that's the kind of stuff people get people get jealous, and people they want to focus on the backlash, like, oh my goodness, these wells aren't working.
• 50:28
  He took all that money from people, and the wells aren't working.
• 50:30
  Well, it turns out it's not true.
• 50:33
  Absolutely 100% false.
• 50:35
  It's not true.
• 50:38
  So that's the kind of stuff.
• 50:40
  You know, we have to fight back against this stuff with truth.
• 50:44
  We have to say, look, here's the truth.
• 50:47
  Here's what's really going on.
• 50:49
  And it's a shame you have to even defend yourself whenever you're doing good for people.
• 50:55
  But I love that social media influencers are influencing other people and inspiring other people to give.
• 51:03
  I mean, what was it?
• 51:05
  How many million did I say?
• 51:07
  40 million dollars was raised.
• 51:11
  I covered the story of Ryan Trahan going across the country with his wife, Haley.
• 51:18
  Their goal was to raise one million dollars for St.
• 51:21
  Jude's Hospital research.
• 51:24
  They raised over 11 million.
• 51:27
  It was absolutely incredible.
• 51:29
  It was so inspiring to see how many people he influenced just by using his platform, he influenced people for good.
• 51:38
  That's the story here in America.
• 51:41
  That's who we are as Americans.
• 51:44
  And you don't hear about these stories.
• 51:46
  You just rarely hear about this in the news.
• 51:49
  It's this endless cycle of you want to talk about garbage.
• 51:54
  The things they write about in the news, that's garbage.
• 51:59
  You know, and then you have.
• 52:10
  So it's not just the social media influencers who are who are impacting other people, um, but it's the people actually stepping into action and doing stuff, and it's the stuff we will never hear about.
• 52:23
  I'll take my small tiny little church in the middle of nowhere as a prime example.
• 52:30
  We just a couple months ago raised, we raised money, $15,000.
• 52:38
  And I'm talking when I say we're a poor, poor church, I mean the the majority of our church members are living well below poverty, well below poverty.
• 52:52
  We have plenty of people living in in Section 8 housing, they're just they really, really struggle.
• 52:58
  We raised $15,000 by harnessing social media and getting other people involved, and people delivered.
• 53:08
  It was absolutely incredible.
• 53:10
  That was our ninth well that we just raised money for.
• 53:17
  Before we raised money for these two wells, we were already already servicing over 10,000 people every single day, get fresh water all across the globe.
• 53:28
  Most of our wells are in Africa.
• 53:32
  But over 10,000 people receive fresh, clean drinking water every single day.
• 53:41
  Because one tiny little church, my congregation, in the middle of nowhere, they step up year after year, and they say, let's just do this, let's make it work.
• 53:51
  Let's see how God provides, how God blesses us.
• 53:55
  That's one example.
• 53:57
  Multiply that by tens, if not hundreds of thousands of times.
• 54:01
  This is happening all across America.
• 54:04
  People are contributing, people are giving, people are generous, they're helping people in need, and the media's not covering it.
• 54:12
  I don't think the media will ever cover.
• 54:14
  In fact, I put out a thing for the media to cover the well project that we were doing, just on a whim.
• 54:22
  I was like, you know what?
• 54:24
  Well, not really on a whim.
• 54:25
  I mean, I I did it way in advance before it happened.
• 54:29
  I was like, because I know media, it's they get busy and whatnot.
• 54:35
  So I send several messages out to several different local news agencies.
• 54:41
  Do you know not one camera was there, not one reporter was there.
• 54:47
  We had we had drill rigs from a local, a local uh well drilling company.
• 54:53
  They had two trucks there.
• 54:56
  They had a flat truck, they had a uh a well, like an actual boom.
• 55:03
  They had a drill there.
• 55:04
  I mean, this was a huge deal for our tiny little local community.
• 55:09
  Not one reporter showed up.
• 55:13
  Not one.
• 55:17
  I don't know.
• 55:19
  If our church building would have burned down, if lightning would have struck it and it burned down, I guarantee every reporter would have been there within a 30 to 50 mile radius.
• 55:32
  Or if somebody would have vandalized the church, every news reporter would have been on that.
• 55:37
  So what we see in the news is not a reflection of reality.
• 55:41
  It's not really what's going on in the world, and we need to remember that.
• 55:45
  We need to never forget that we're getting a very, very skewed picture of what's actually happening here in America.
• 55:53
  And if we step back and we look, if we look with our own eyes and we listen with our own ears, what we find is this beautiful, beautiful picture emerging in this great nation where people are blessing other people.
• 56:07
  They're blessing people in need.
• 56:09
  Social media influencers are inspiring other people to give.
• 56:15
  And to give more.
• 56:16
  I mean, I'm constantly I watch these videos a lot.
• 56:20
  I'm not gonna lie.
• 56:21
  I watch them a lot, and that influences how I lead my congregation.
• 56:28
  You know, we're very, very generous, and we do kind things all the time because I'm influenced by people like Mr.
• 56:34
  Beast and Jimmy Darts and Zachary, you know, like uh it it's awesome.
• 56:42
  So, yay, America, yay, Minneapolis.
• 56:46
  Kudos to you.
• 56:48
  Uh, great, great things are going on in this country.
• 56:50
  Never forget that.
• 56:51
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:59
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of every single one of us.
• 57:02
  When there's all this darkness and all this bad news that's going on, don't forget that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 57:11
  That's our goal.
• 57:12
  And join me in being a light.