Kat Timpf - I Used to Like You Until...: (How Binary Thinking Divides Us)

you are listening to I am refocused radio with your host shamaya Reed this show is designed to inspire you to live your purpose and regain your focus and now here's your host shmaya Reed hey welcome to AM fuus radio once again we have a true honor we have a special guest man we going to have to have a good laugh today cuz we have a comedian and she is also the gutfield co-host her name cat T she is going to share with us her new book I used to like you until man let's jump right into this good morning how you doing cat I'm doing great how are you doing awesome so this book I think uh I feel like people would appreciate it if they try not to judge before they uh pick it up so for the audience kind of explain why you want to write this book and it's not just funny but it kind of tackles so important uh top ISS to discuss yeah right I mean it's the reason I wrote the book is because people will judge it before they pick it up and I feel like we're all judging each other based on a single perhaps difference in Viewpoint or Association or one single thing I think we're being conditioned to believe that just because someone has a different viewpoint on something or is in a different political party we're not going to agree with them on anything and that's just not true and this book is really a guide for people to connect and I am in a unique position because I work at Fox News um but my first chapter is called I work in pornography in this book because but if I'm at a party and people ask what I do is it easier for me to just say I work in porn or no thank you than to say I work at Fox because that's the most controversial thing I could say but I'm also independent politically so I'm not a republican so I get it from Fox viewers for you know maybe saying things that they'll disagree with there and then I'll get it from people on the other side just because I work there in the first place and I'm in I'm in kind of this unique position to perceive all this manipulation happening and all this division that's happening and just how far it is from the reality of the people that I know in my real life and speaking of uh people have their own biasness like people can assume anything just by looking at where you work or if you happen to say something about particular person we drop names on this episode but it's always do or die if you choose the wrong side you're going to catch heat no matter what how do you navigate that uh knowing that hey you got to live put roof over your head and you got to eat too yeah absolutely you know I think it's it is it is a concern it definitely is but I think that for me it is also what I do in this book um I'm I'm very vulnerable in this book and I think that vulnerability is going to be a huge way out of this mess for us because I do that kind of in the hopes other people will do that too you know being vulnerable makes it more likely someone's gonna have compassion for you if you want to be seen as a human you gotta be willing to show that you are a human also the stories that I tell in the book make it an entertaining read it makes it a fun read I kind of spill a lot of tea on myself but I think that really you know now with social media it's it takes the humanity away from who we're talking to and also you look at someone's Instagram you'll think that that person's life is perfect and everything's great but that's not the case for any of us I know this is a random question but uh it just popped in my head and I'm 35 that kind of shows you my Millennial type of vibe but uh have you ever seen the video that always goes viral uh the two dogs that kind of just they're mad at each other and then the gate opens um all of a sudden they're like real chill and just like oh no problem yeah I have and I'm I'm exactly 35 myself that's how I feel with like you know what goes on in in this country some times uh so my next question for you is uh on the scale one to the popsicle incident how bad the song has to be to mess up and have you write them off I mean the popsicle is in my book yes um probably a 10 I mean listen I'm always I'm I'm willing to to forgive and I'm I'm I I'm not saying that there's never a reason to write someone off but what's not a good reason is being a pawn a part of this you know partisan political power scheme that we're being subjected to because both sides do it and both sides kind of manipulate you for the sake of their own power and their own control and this book is really helps you kind of wise up to that in a fun and entertaining way but it also shows you how to maybe connect with people who you may have lost unnecessarily in your life because politics when you break it down it makes us often fight with the people we know in our real life on behalf of people who sadly don't even know we exist and it's pathetic when you look at it that way but that's also the reality of the situation in the bug you talk about how binary thinking is being the enemy of critical thinking how in what ways can people uh after they read a book kind of say like hey you know maybe I can actually look in the mirror and and see how I treat people yeah I think I mean I also call myself out in the book I begin the book by calling myself out everybody has their own biases and their own I mean it's human to draw to notice patterns draw connections that kind of a thing but this book really shows you why it's worth it to actively work against that conditioning and actively work against that because if you have this binary thinking you're not thinking really because once you pick a side you don't have to think all the thinking's already been done for you and the problem with that is you're missing out on thinking for yourself and you're also missing out on not thinking just critically but also creatively and you know it it really I I I show because I'm independent politically I have kind of a I'm in a unique position to perceive a lot of these things and I show a lot of the ways a lot of the the tricks that people use in media in politics a lot of it is the same Playbook with various issues over and over again so I expose a lot of those things on both sides and give people those tools but also examples to my own life that make it an entertaining read along the way we're talking to a comedian and gutfield co-host cat of Fox News author of I used to like you until how binary thinking divides us and speaking dividing us uh I don't know if you had a chance to watch a little bit of last night's debate and we're not going to make you choose a side I'm not going to choose a side but in just uh in all fun and games how did you enjoy the the microphone muting and the interrupting and just the faces that were made throughout the night you know yeah and again I I'm I'm also I'm pregnant so I had trouble staying awake through the whole thing what then I caught up on what I missed this morning earlier but I honestly think that we set the both candidates the bar was set so low for both of them you know people were saying that Trump was going to just basically be like screaming at her the whole time but then people were saying that she wasn't be able to form a full sentence so the bar was set so low for both of them that it almost seemed boring I think in comparison what actually happened to compared to what we were kind of told we were going to be watching once again I just want to say thanks for you be on today I know you swamp busy you took time and you're pregnant congratulations to that thank you hope you have a healthy baby uh if ask one more last question if you hope there could be some kind of way we can find common ground on both sides in America what would you hope people can appreciate after they finish reading your book I hope people can see that we want a lot of the same things and there's that's that's my opinion from being somebody who's toured all around the country and who's going back on tour and has all these various friends but also based on Research we want a lot of the same things but we just have different ideas of how to get there and having a different way you know opinion on how to solve a problem doesn't mean we don't care about the same problem and want the same things for our lives appreciate opportunity talking to Cat 10 of Fox news this morning talking about her book I used to like you and tell how binary thinking devid us once again thank you for your time thank you so much for having me [Music]