Overcoming Addiction & Spreading Activation (Derrick Broze on Redacted)

Derrick Bros is on tour in the United States and he joins us in the studio today. Now, you know Derrick Brose from his many reports on, redacted, on, oh, fluoride in the water, corruption in Hollywood, the pyramids of power. So we wanted to get him into the studio, meet him in person and have a conversation about his tour, about how politics are really not the answer. Bipartisan politics is vomit. It's a lie. And we're so glad to have him in person. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Yeah, me too. So I'm really interested in talking to you about your new book, about your tour, and what your purpose is right now, because a lot of your voice is a narrative disrupting, which, you know, I appreciate, but it's also very bipartisan. You get very passionate when people, you know, pick a lane and stay there. So tell me about your tour and. And that mission specifically.

Yeah, so on the Activation Tour is what it's called. People can find it@activation tour.org and I did this in 2021 originally, this is actually the fourth US tour that I've done. But this, the last time was five years ago in 2021. So cast your mind back five years ago, 2021, fall of 2021, the shots were about to roll out everything related to Covid. People are concerned about vaccine, passports and all that. And at that time, it felt very much like I need to get on the road, I need to talk to people. I need to get people to not only see that these agendas are coming, but more importantly, to think, what are you going to do about it? Right. What? You know, because at that time, Biden's in office, people who had hopes of Trump coming back and saving the day had lost those hopes. A lot of people were concerned, of course, about where the shot mandates were going to go. We knew all that was coming, and I had a lot of good success. We toured 50 cities. Then we had hundreds of people, every city coming out, and people who are passionate about sort of solutions, not just about waiting around for politicians to save them, but most importantly, like, what can we do in our own communities? That's what a lot of my work does focus on. Besides my journalism. I've always been very much oriented towards localization and decentralization, starting with my activism back in Houston. And so the tour, every city we're visiting, we're doing what we call Community Action Day. So, for example, in Denver, we're doing community volunteering at a local local Garden. And so we're going to be doing all kinds of paving, building, rebuilding. In Albuquerque, we'll be going to a goat farm, we'll be doing different work. And the goal with that for me is that as I travel and I share my message, I want to also contribute to the places that I'm visiting. Not just say, hey, come look at me, I've got all the answers, but actually contribute to the places. And hopefully through that, the people who come out to the events that might just want to hear me speak, they learn about some new community garden or they like in San Diego, we're going to be doing a beach cleanup. You know, we're doing something to give and contribute to every place and hopefully through that, bring people out to learn more about their own community. And then in the evenings, I'm giving a presentation that is very much focused on the message that I call exit and build. You know, exiting from these systems that I don't think actually align with most of our values. And definitely the political system is one of those, but also we could talk about the economic system, the health care system, education and so on, and looking at the ways that these systems are not going to lead to long term liberty and privacy and freedom for us, for our kids, our future generations. And. And so if we know that, if we know that these systems don't align with our values, then rather than trying to just beat our head against the wall and thinking that politicians are going to reform them or save them, my focus is on, let's build new ones. Let's build parallel systems that are outside of these mainstream systems. And so my talk is going to be a bit about that and also again, a kind of a refresher of like, I talked about the same message five years ago. Many people got the message and some of them now have bought land or they're growing their own food or they're homeschooling their kids or things like that. Others maybe have kind of gone back to normal because unfortunately, when Covid was happening for. I say fortunately and unfortunately because that threat of COVID it did light a fire under some people. And so they're like, hey, you know what? Maybe I want to move from California to Texas, or yeah, move from one city to the other, or maybe it's time for me to get serious about growing my own food or prepping or whatever you want to say. But then as the world calmed down and went back to normal, a lot of people sort of like, okay, well, I don't need to worry about that anymore. Yeah, politics are going to jumps back or whatever. Right. And so part of the message this tour is to say, like, if you haven't done anything in the last five years, as these agendas have only moved forward, you know, everything that people like myself and I know you guys have been warning about is only progressed. You know, we're here now. 2026, 2030. Agenda 2030 has gotten a bit closer now. And so part of this tour is to say, look, even if there's not a pandemic staring you in the face, we've got the Iran war and inflation, we've got all this talk of UFOs and aliens, whatever car, now there's this hantavirus, whatever card they want to play next. The point is the same agendas are unfolding. And, and so my hope by doing this tour is to kind of get out in front of the people and try to inspire people to start taking action again. I mean, that's why it's called the activation tour. The whole goal is like trying to activate, motivate people to do something. You know, they can decide what is best for them. I've got some ideas, but they'll know what's best for you, your life and things like that. And so, you know, and also I do just love connecting with people face to face. I think there's something important to that. You know, the Internet and using these mediums is obviously valuable and you can reach millions and millions of people. But there's something special being face to face with people and making those real world connections.

Yes. So I guess one of the things that I find so challenging, and we see this here on Redacted, is the Biden years, I felt were a dystopic hell. And then because of that, people think, well, then the opposite must be better. And you get into these partisan tracks. And then now Trump, Trump has started a war. It's tanked the global economy. You know, there's a lot that's just horrid about the Trump administration. And I don't hate him personally. I don't have a strong opinion about who he is. I don't have Trump Derangement syndrome by any means. I'm just critical of the policy.

I think your commenters think you do.

They do. And so then now I'm being accused of, you know, I guess because it's very confusing to us because we're like, Trump derangement syndrome should not be a factor in the conversation. Let's just engage on the policies. And it's just so hard to Break this binary. Maybe the people who are going to your events are more prone to have already broken the binary. But like, how do you think we otherwise do it?

I do think that people who, so it's a combination. There's people who already know my work and know what my message is about, so they're showing up. And then there's people who might get, you know, dragged kicking and screaming by family and friends, like, come on, come to this event. And there's others who I think are just looking for solutions who are like that term that was pretty popular the last few years politically homeless. Right. People who maybe they were former Democrats or former Republicans and now they're not quite sure where they fit in. A lot of people went to Trump in 2024 because of this coalition of RFK and Tulsi Gabbard and the Bitcoin people and the Libertarians, this whole thing that was formed. And I would say most of those groups are probably having voters remorse now because their promises were not delivered. And maybe the exact opposite happened. Epstein files being a great example. So I think that that has created a great opportunity to not only for the message that I believe in, which is that politics ultimately won't save us, but for those who are looking for solutions to recognize, okay, well, if we, if we don't think we're going to be saved by the Democrats and now we thought Trump was going to come in and clean house and do all these things and he's not doing that, rather than waiting another two years for the next election and JD Vance or Marco Rubio, whoever other puppet they put up there, you know, AOC or whatever they throw out there, rather than, even if you believe that like let's say somebody here and this is like, look, I, I'm with you, but I still trust the politician. That's great, you got two years and then you can go vote. What are you doing in the meantime? You know, what are you doing to actually, and that's the thing I will say too is that it doesn't have to be an all or nothing strategy. I personally don't vote. I don't see any value in that. I mean, if anything, if I was to vote, it would be on the local level trying to fight these agendas because we've talked about this in past interviews. Agenda 2030, the Great Reset, that stuff starts on the World Economic Forum, United nations level, but it actually happens in your school board, in your town council and your city council. That's how those agendas move forward. So you, if you are going to vote, maybe focus your energy there. But even if you're going to vote in the national elections, that doesn't mean you should put all your eggs in that basket. What I'm saying is, okay, great, vote when you think the time is appropriate. But also vote with your actions, vote with the things that you're doing. Because if you do put all your faith in, well, Trump's going to save us or RFK or whoever else, and they break their promises, which would we be surprised? History has shown that's probably what's going to happen, then you might want to have a backup plan. So at the least consider some of these ideas that I propose. And I really try to talk about it in this holistic fashion of, you know, take what I call a holistic self assessment of your own life, of your own family situation. Where are the areas that you might have the most vulnerability? So some people are sitting with like, oh, we've got a whole warehouse of food storage, we've got water put away. You know, we're ready for the apocalypse. Great, that's not your, you know, you're good there. But what other areas are you still using? All the big banks that Jeffrey Epstein laundered his money through, Are you still using the big banks that robbed the American people in 2008? Maybe switch to a local credit union? Maybe consider privacy cryptos like Monero or something like that, there's still areas that you could sort of look at. And I think that my goal is to try to highlight these different areas that we saw these people attack us during COVID for example, the schools, the health care. If you are dependent on those systems, then those are vulnerabilities that they will exploit eventually and they will use them against you. And so the more dependent you're on their systems, when they roll out the CBDCs or the stable coins or the digital IDs, it's. If you're completely dependent on the systems, you're more than likely going to comply because you have no other option, even if you don't want to, Even if you're the most ardent, I'm awake, I'm a truth or whatever, but I don't have a backup plan. And we saw that with COVID where people were like, well, I don't want the shot, but I gotta work. And because they were dependent on those things, they had to make choices they didn't want to. And so my message is really to say, let's while we have this window and this time let's start trying to see which areas we can become more free. And it's not an overnight process, of course, like for me, I haven't used a Bank since 2008. I don't operate in certain systems. I don't talk to certain government agencies. I, you know, I live my life a certain way. That's not to say that's the way everybody needs to leave. I'm not advocating for that, but that's just what works for me. And it comes with its own challenges and its own, you know, navigating.

Right.

But I think that's key as well, is that in the world we're living in, whether it's another pandemic or whatever they may have planned, we should learn to be adaptable as well. Because you might live one way or have certain systems and then those systems no longer become available to you or the. Those systems now require facial recognition or things like that. So the main key part of the message is opt out of these systems where you can, while we have the opportunity and focus on building alternative systems, whether that's in the food area, learning about permaculture, learning about local farmers, supporting your local farmers. Even if you're not gonna go, be the farmer yourself, Support those who are doing the farming. Another area is in the area of technology. I'm not a technologist, but I know a lot of brilliant coders and software developers and friends who have their company selling de googled phones and laptop. So I want to support those people, right, because they're trying to build those parallel systems in that way. So even if you're not the one building it, support those who are making those efforts to build these systems.

Some of the things that we do with our children is we make them create a balance sheet. Every six months they have to check in, like, what do they owe, what do they own and where are the vulnerabilities there? So it's like, okay, you have this savings account, you have this Nintendo, you know, this kind of thing. Like, is there something there that you can take this and turn it into an asset that's protected in case of, Right? So like When I was 10, my dad made me do this and was like, I have a 10 speed bike and all of that. Like, can you turn this into an asset that makes money for you? And then think about like, what if, you know, what if the government collapsed currency, which they are currently doing. What if? And so like, it's just a regular exercise. I wouldn't say they love it, but you know, they have to sit down like, and Christmas break, thankful for it later. Well, it's what I had to do. So my, my father forced me to do it. So I could always see, like, what do I owe, what do I own and how can I optimize those things. And then since I've sort of been, I don't know, pilled, I don't know what color I'm on, I've been pilled. I wouldn't say red, I wouldn't say black. I'm more on the black pill because I'm mad all the time.

It's hard not to be.

Yeah. You know, I've started to think about not just the balance sheet, but like, where are the vulnerabilities? You know, where can we turn that into an asset? Can we own something instead of cash that makes money for us rather than what the government?

You know, especially when the people that we are trying to expose say, you will own nothing and be happy. That might be a good idea to

own things, to own more things.

A big part of that would. Just one note on that, that, that so many people kind of don't notice. Like, even people who are aware of, like, oh, you know, own nothing and be happy.

Right?

Streaming of music, streaming of movies. If you're dependent on the Amazon, the Netflix, the Spotify, they can take that music down anytime. You don't actually own it, you're just paying, you know, this. So this idea of subscription model forever is, is the future that they want to create. Like where you don't actually own your home, you just rent it and somebody else uses it when you're not there. Like, this is the vision that the World Economic Forums described. And you know what I think it really comes down to, and I learned a lot of this from my own grandma, who is now 90 years old and has a farm in Kentucky. And this is probably the second season that she's not gardening because she's just getting older, of course. But our ancestors and our elders prepared for the winter. It's not a crazy thing to think ahead. You know, we've been conditioned to think doomsday prepper, you're some kind of nut job if you're prepping. And what does prepping mean? Preparing. And like, so we've been conditioned to think, preparing for the future, whether that's food wise. Because if, if the farmer doesn't bail hay to make sure that during the winter the cows have something to eat, then they die and then they die. Right. So I mean, it's not some far off idea for us to think a little bit ahead of the future and also to try to take appropriate steps. And then what you mentioned about the difficulty of not becoming black pilled. One thing that I've found is that the more steps you're taking in your life to try to be as free as possible, you're never going to get to a place that maybe is like perfection where you can plan for every possibility out there. But the more steps you are taking then at least in my experience it feels like there's less time to be worried or thinking that things are. Because you at least know I'm taking care of myself. I can't control what the world is going to do. And I'm watching and it's kind of been this weird experience for me where we're getting our land, we're building our house, we're building a community. I'm making all the steps that I like. Everything I'm talking about are things I'm doing in my own life.

Yeah.

And I'm having this beautiful kind of macro scale, like wonderful life. But then I'm looking, you know, at the or the micro scale, my personal life and I'm looking at the world and like, yeah, the world's getting crazier. But every time I see that, it also reinforces is why I'm doing these things like, okay, this is why we're working on our food security. This is why we're working on trying to be free from these systems because of those crazy things out there. So the more time you spend focusing on those solutions and again there's going to be different solutions for each family, each environment, each person. But whatever those are putting more of that energy because we spend so much time, I think we're all guilty of it in different degrees. And it's hard for people like us who are reporters and journalists because this is what we do. But if the people out there who are consuming this material, if all you're doing is watching redacted and watching this podcast and this podcast and you're not doing anything about it, like you might be awake and aware but you're still going to get swallowed up with the same systems because you didn't actually take any concrete steps, you just watched the world get worse like it's a TV show. And so my hope is that again to try to activate people like yes, these things are happening, let's be aware of them. And what can we actually do for ourselves? What are the steps we can do to empower our families?

Right. Have you been listening to Professor Chiang?

Yeah. With his Work.

He, he was saying recently, I forget which show he was. He's been on, redacted a few times. Like a third of the population will starve if this war continues. And you know, that's a terrifying number, the global population. So what are you gonna do about it? You know, and it's hard. I was talking to a someone in my neighborhood recently. They're like, you and Clayton are always smiling. We see you around walking the dog and being friendly to people, and then we watch your show and we're like, man, this is effed up stuff. How are they out here smiling? And I was like, well, it's because my real job is taking care of my family.

There you go.

Being a mom of three, and this is my side job and I can set it aside and then go back to my real job. I don't know how I do it, but I just do. And I feel like there is a real effort at social disruption. People who don't have a family to rely on don't see themselves as a part of, you know, a real family structure. Like that's been purposely broken down, especially through liberal policies, through feminism. You know, I think of how that's affected me more than anything else. This like, you know, faux feminism that tells you to be alone, you know, then I would go crazy if I didn't have them. What do you think about this disruption of the family?

I think it's definitely a key part of the agenda. And you mentioned this concern about starvation and things like this. I mean, we have to remember that this is something I explore in the Pyramid of Power series, that we're ultimately facing a eugenics agenda. These people do believe in depopulation. And so they're going to use whatever method that means, if that means blocking the Strait of Hormuz or trying to raise gas prices or messing up farmers, crops, whatever methods they can. That is their ultimate goal. And it's important to recognize that. I think again, the solution is community. And community can come in the form of a tight knit family. It can come with a church, it can come with just local neighbors. It can be like the situation we're doing where we found like minded people who have same values. We bought some land together. We're going to build, you know, a little community village and, and try to have that balance of our own independence with that kind of community dependence. I think that is really what we need more than ever. And you know, to what I was saying earlier, the Internet is such a valuable, useful tool. But the reason I'm Going on tour. The reason I'm doing these kind of things is to again, encourage people like, come out from behind the screen, come meet some other people, because it, you will find that connection. Because so many people, in my experience, I mean, I started hosting activist meetings back in 2010 in Houston. And for about eight years that was my life. And every single month of those eight years we would have people show up who say, I never, I didn't realize it was other people. I felt alone. I felt alone this entire time. So many people even who are watching your program, even though they might be in a chat with, you know, thousands and thousands of other people in their house, in their community, they feel alone, they feel isolated. They might not know anybody in their day to day that they can actually be their real selves. They might be going to work and putting on, you know, a metaphorical mask of having to hide their opinions because they're afraid of, you know, being ousted or called crazy or conspiracy theorists. And then they come to an event, whether it's like a small local event like I'm doing with this tour, or big conferences, and they're like, oh my God, there's other people like me, all ages, all backgrounds. I don't, I can be free. And you know, that's that alone, I think is a big step because then you can kind of breathe a big sigh of relief. Oh, okay, I don't have to BS everybody. I can just be myself and talk about the wildest conspiracy theories that are on my mind or whatever. And I think that is a huge step. So whether it's just like minded people in your own neighborhood that you're building community with, or it's a tight knit family like you're describing, I think that is going to be crucial because ultimately, unless you're just some independently wealthy billionaire and maybe even if you are, that you're going to need other people. I don't think any of us, I have no, you know, false beliefs that I can do this on my own. I mean, if I did, I would have just gone and got the land by myself and moved off into the woods and just been like Thoreau, you know, said goodbye to you. And Thoreau is a huge influence, you know, But I do think community is going to be important for that. I mean, because I don't have all the skills that I think are necessary. I don't have all the ideas I don't claim to. And even again, within a tight knit family, that's something that people can, can lean on. And I think that's why they are trying to work to break down that structure. Whether it is the family, the nuclear family structure, or even not to say that we all need to live in communes and like share resources. That's not really what we're trying to do. But even just having strong bonds, because for the most part, most people, even if they say hi to their neighbors on a, you know, a dog walk or anything, we don't really know them. You know, we live in neighborhoods where we're surrounded by other people that we have no idea who they are for the most part. There's other people who do have quite tight, you know, knit close neighborhoods and they're, you know, they're working on projects or they at least, you know, they know who they are. But there's plenty of people who live in apartment complexes or neighborhoods and they've never said a single word to their family. Yeah, how is that going to play out if and when things do hit the fan, you know, how are those relationships? There's not going to be any relationships, but if you've got this tight knit bond with a family or with the community, you're going to be in a better off position.

Have you ever read the book Crazy Like Us?

I haven't.

It's a fantastic book about how the United States sells mental illness around the world. And so there's this anecdote about, I think it was Indonesia, there was a massive typhoon or hurricane, I can't remember the year. And all these mental health experts flooded the area and said to these people, this was so devastating, you lost all, you lost your house, you lost your family, let's have some therapy sessions. And inevitably what follows is pharmaceuticals. And they were kind of like, I don't feel like we need this because tragedy is a part of life and the way that we are supposed to cope with it is our community and our family. So we're gonna do that. And all of these unlicensed western therapists are like, absolutely not. You're just traumatized. You don't understand. And they put this generation of people on pharmaceuticals and now a lot of them are alcoholics and they've totally disrupted, I can't remember which Southeast Asian nation this is. I apologize. But you see how the disruption of community inevitably helps the pharmaceutical companies because like, you don't have that structure to hold on to. So, oh, you need the pills, right? And so we are supposed to be able to cope inside of these social structures. That is natural. There's also chaos. Research about how big pharma Sold anorexia and eating disorders to Japan, where they did not have it before. Read the book. It's fantastic.

Crazy Like Us.

Yeah, Crazy Like Us. And it's from a. Like, I think it's a San Francisco therapist who just did this research and realized it really helped me to see how there is a social component to all mental conditions. All of them. Like, the minute Princess Diana said she was bulimic, all of these women who were feeling helpless were like, oh, that's the tool. That's how you get attention. That's what I'm gonna do.

It's that social contagion effect that we've also seen with the. The transgender issue over the last decade or so, that it is a real phenomenon. And social media is a great way to export those kind of things.

Exactly. You know, you do a great job in your work exposing media agendas. And I found it so interesting when I read your book. The part where you're like, oh, my girlfriend and I, we're watching was a Johnny Depp movie.

Yeah, blow, Blow.

And he's like, you're like, I'm gonna sell drugs. And I was like, what? It's. It's kind of. It's almost comical the way you write it. Cause you're watching this totally destructive movie, and you're like, great idea. And I was like, wait, what? Who would have that reaction? But you were a vulnerable person. You were searching for power in your world where you had nothing yet, no father figure, no money, no upward trajectory in education. And so this is what you thought. Can you tell that story maybe better than I?

Yeah. So it's from my book, my memoir. I don't know if we mentioned this yet, but it's called A Man of My Word, if anybody wants to find it, at man My Word.com. and this is, like, towards the end of my high school career, going right into college, and this is 2003, so Iraq wars just started. That's kind of things going on. And I had dealt with my father being a drug addict my entire life up to that point. So I'd seen him a handful of times up to that point. And you would think with that experience, going into selling drugs would be the opposite direction I'd want to go. But unfortunately, that is not always how things work, you know, unfortunately, that I think, in some ways made me more curious about that lifestyle, because I'd grown up hearing that my dad had been addicted to drugs and had been. But I didn't even. I heard the word drugs at, like, 5 or 6 years old, before I even knew what it was. And nobody really did a good job not to blame my mom or family or any. It just. They didn't really have the tools. And so there wasn't a lot of communication of what was going on. And I remember getting into junior high and, like, I think the first health class where they start talking to you about drugs. And it just made me so curious because I had this thought of, like, okay, my father's in prison for drugs. I keep hearing about this thing called drugs. My mom's like, he's choosing drugs over you. And. But without any really deep understanding. By the time I got into high, out of high school, and I was kind of at the stage of starting a party, I was basically in my apartment, and I'm watching that movie Blow with Johnny Depp, which, as you said, definitely does show the downside of drug abuse. But they also glorify the heck out of it. I mean, like, as Hollywood does, right? This is a Hollywood movie. So there's the money, there's the sex, there's the, you know, party and all that sort of stuff. And my young mind, like, immediately, yeah, I mean, I. That's why I put the story in there, because I remember it clear as day that by the end of that movie, I looked to my girlfriend at the time. I was like, I'm gonna sell drugs. Because I remember that. Just that excitement that I felt from watching him with all this cash and just those sort of things. And I think it kind of tickled a part of my brain that now has been transformed into journalism that enjoyed this sort of hustle, this kind of, like. And it wasn't even about, like, oh, I'm gonna try to be a millionaire. It was that I enjoyed sort of the business aspect of it. Like, I'm gonna buy some. At the time, it was just buying some cannabis. And let me see, how many, you know, how many sacks can I sell? And this will make me this money, and I can reinvest it. Like, I enjoyed the business side of it, which, of course, later on, I realized, okay, I can do business without having to go into that world, right? But in my young mind, it kind of, I think, just excited that part of me that wanted to sort of replicate this hustling that I was seeing in the movie. And I think in some strange way, like, felt like a way to connect to my father as well, because I knew that he had been dealing drugs and addicted drugs and stuff like that. Obviously, like, at that time, I wasn't kind of aware of like these sort of thoughts.

Yeah.

The beauty of hindsight is I can look back and like, oh, well, I think that's what I was doing with it, you know, at the time though, it was just like, oh, cool, I want to sell drugs. And that is exactly what I started to do. And it kind of pulled me into a whole world that I really wasn't prepared for.

Right. I mean, if you read the book, it's really tough to get through because you just keep making self destructive choice after self destructive choice and you don't need to understand the different types of drugs to know that you went on a gateway path and then back again and then, you know, you were up and down the whole time. And I wonder, you know, as I read this, most people die after a life like that. And you know, what do you think are the forces that pull somebody into that that are just not addressed in our society?

That's a great question. And you know, to your point, you're right. Most people do die. And I can count on both hands the number of friends that I've had that have died. Both good friends I knew before then who, when I started partying, they went into it as well and they just never got out. And then other people I met after getting locked up who just were never able to pull themselves out of it. And then my own father died of a drug overdose in 2018. 18. So it's definitely something that I know well. And I think that the root of this kind of going to your point about, you know, the, the psychotropics and eating disorders and things like that, I believe that there's always some sort of underlying trauma that is the root cause of this. And in my life and in my book, I talk about my own experiences, my lack of relationship with my father and just how that translated to me looking for things. And you start seeking it. Whether it's seeking it through sex or drugs or whatever things. I mean, that's the thing is, as I've shared this story not only in the book, but prior to this, I've always had people come up to me and say, Derek, I've never touched drugs a day in my life, but this is the way I've struggled. I have a gambling issue or I'm addicted to shopping, or I just scroll on social media to avoid things. And the end of the day it's all hitting those same dopamine receptors and it's kind of triggering the same things. And I think it's because they're, you know, maybe Even species wide, because of so much trauma that has been in humanity's existence. No matter what skin color you are, what place of birth, there's trauma, there's war, there's violence, there's death, there's rape, there's murder. That is like a big part of humanity's history. I think there's those underlying things. But then even more on an individual, personal level, if and when people experience different types of traumas, and some of them may be way worse than some of the things I expressed, or they might seem much smaller, it doesn't really matter. We all have our challenges, right? Our doubts, fears, insecurities, limiting beliefs that are based on our own experiences and our environment and our upbringing. I believe that if we don't address those root causes, they then later translate into drug abuse, alcoholism. I also talk about in the book, like how I had a real problem with sex and with being dishonest in my sexual relationships and just that that was another escape mechanism. So it can manifest itself in any number of ways. But I do think the root of that is different underlying traumas. And until those things are addressed, and particularly with drugs, you can try to give somebody all the help that you think. You can give them money, you can give them a nice home, you can buy them clothes. And I've seen this with my father, with my grandmother trying everything she could do to save her son. Ultimately people have to want to help themselves, whether that's a drug addiction or any other type of addiction or any other sort of self destructive behavior. And until that, like, there's really nothing you can do. I mean, obviously you can be there as a friend, you can be supportive. But if somebody's not ready to make that change, they're not ready to get to that root cause, then there's really nothing that's going to change. And I think that is one of the other things that I'm hoping that will come out of. Now that I'm sharing this book and kind of sharing my story, is to start more of a conversation about how we address these things. Because this might not like, for some people hearing this, they might be like, what does this have to do with, you know, the bigger picture of the world? But I believe that if humanity is suffering from these individual traumas, we are a lot easier to prey upon by these technocrats, by these psychopaths.

Yeah.

If we're stuck in addictions, if we're stuck in like our own trauma and we're just looking for escape mechanisms and distractions that makes their job A lot easier, you know.

Well, also, I don't think we're too far off. We will see it in Canada soon. From someone like you just being euthanized, like, oh, can't deal with you. You keep reoffending, recommitting. What is the word? Like, yeah, you kept, you know, failing your drug tests and going back, getting sent back to prison. And like, yeah, soon we'll just put people like you down like dogs.

And who knows? I mean, if those programs like we're seeing with the maid program in Canada had been around when I was a young depressed teenager who had several of my own suicide attempts, maybe I would have taken it because it was just there.

And they would say, oh, that's terrifying.

Well, that's. And that's the reality, though.

Have you ever thought of that before?

If I had would. No, I mean, I, I only just that I know as I talk on the book, I tried to kill myself several times, and thankfully I did not succeed. And I, you know, I pushed through to be where I am today. But I do think about that, that the people who are maybe like I was, that are currently struggling, that we even. There was a recent case in Europe, I think maybe in Spain, where a young woman was euthanized and her family was fighting it and trying to prevent it. She had been raped and she was traumatized by the rape and. But her family was trying to help her, like with, you know, psychologists and, like, you're going to make it through this. But she was convinced that there was no reason to live anymore. And ultimately the law allowed her to kill herself. And maybe that was the right decision for her. Who am I to judge? But maybe given time, she would heal from those things and she would become a stronger, you know, we don't know. Right. But if you give somebody that opportunity. Yeah, I was in some pretty low places. You know, I talk about in the book, like, walking out into traffic and overdosing on pills and all. You know, I had a cutting problem. Like, you know, I got major stitches on this arm from trying to kill myself. Different things like that. If there had been a medical program that was telling me, here's a way you can just end it all because you're so depressed, you know, here's a way out. Maybe I would have taken that, you know, and that's a sad thing to consider because obviously I wouldn't be here today doing the things that I'm doing now.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, I think that that's. That's kind of the. The big Picture of why I'm sharing the story. Now, as I said, I've shared it in bits and pieces over the years, but this is the first time kind of telling the full story, warts and all, you know, all the. I don't shy away, as you saw, from reading the book, from telling my. My ugly truths because I hope that by sharing that it will help anybody else who is struggling. And the cool thing is since it's come out, I've already had people reach out and telling me that it's been helpful for them. And my, my big goal is that I would like to in the coming years form some type of foundation. I don't know what it's going to be per se. Maybe a non profit, not necessarily a non profit, but something in that realm, maybe a PMA or something that more than likely will be called the Troy Bros. Foundation for my father. And I want it to be a resource. I don't know if it'll end up being a physical treatment center, but basically a resource for people who are looking for help. And there's a lot of other people working on these ideas. But the problem that I see and the problem that I experienced once I started to get locked up and I started to get cycled in and out of these institutions is that I believe that they reinforce a very damaging mentality, which is that you have a disease and you're an addict for the rest of your life. And that may be helpful for some people. And I'm not here to down anybody who feels like that was useful for them, but I find that to be incredibly damaging. And I know that when I was going through my path being told like, hey, you're an addict now, come to this a n a meeting, say hey, my name's Derek, I'm an addict. And just commiserating with other people who are convinced that this is the way they are, they're going to be this way forever. And so I need to kind of always be on edge that I might crack and turn back into an addict. I don't think that's helpful. I think that we need to find ways. Just like I'm trying to exit and build from these other systems is how do we create new systems? And because the reality is drug addiction is a problem all around the world. And again, I think it goes back to these deeper traumas. But until we fix that, how do we help people who are looking for serious help that doesn't just kind of cycle them back into prisons or probations and paroles like I had to deal with or a system that's telling them, well, this is just the way you are and you're going to be that way forever.

Yeah, I felt like that about drinking because when you become a mom, there's all this media about how you need your glass of wine. You can't take your own kids unless you drink at the end of the day, day onesies, you know, like, mommy needs her bottle too kind of thing. And so, you know, I drink wine. When I first became a mom, and then during the pandemic, I was like, I feel like shit all the time. And, you know, you get to a certain age and you're like, who benefits if I feel terrible all the time? And so I started to read some of the literature around addiction and I really appreciate the idea that, you know, nobody's body really likes alcohol. There's this idea that some people have a problem with it and other people are fine. Nobody's body likes that. Nobody's fine. There's just this idea that, like, if you can function otherwise, then you're okay. And the, the rest of them, it allows you to put it away from yourself, what it actually does to you. And so I talk about this a little bit and I'd have a social drink, you know, maybe once a month or something like that, but I just don't like to feel crappy the next day. And so I, I just was like, I'm done with this lifestyle, this like mommy wino lifestyle. And it was pretty easy for me to put it away and just stop, you know, other than, like I said, a social. But I realize how much of the media tells you you need it.

I'm not a mom and I.

You're not, right? You're not okay without it. You can't handle your children. And so, yeah, I really reject the idea that some people can take it, you know, turn 45 and you'll see how much you can take it.

Well, I mean, it's just, it's because that's, I think, a big issue too. Not only just in terms of moms, but alcohol is so normalized. I mean, just like that all the drugs that are available to us, sugar, coffee, caffeine, etc, and that's not to be critical of anybody. It's just the reality of like, people might look down on like, oh, this person's addicted to crack. This per. I was addicted to crystal methods. But the reality is we're surrounded by drugs. Whether those are legal pharmaceuticals, whether it's the sugar and all the products that you're eating or these other things. And those are huge addictions. Well, they might not cause you to, you know, lose your job or to fail a drug test or to sell your body on the streets, but it doesn't mean it's not damaging to you in other ways. And that it's also not a form of dependence itself. And, you know, since I've gotten through my own addiction, you know, I. Like you said, I have a. So I'm not completely sober or anything like that. I have a drink here from time to time. I enjoy cannabis from time to time. But I've learned to navigate how I handle those things. I learned where my limits were, too. And like, that, I. I turned my addictive personality into being addicted to my work and to be just as passionate about those things. And like I was saying earlier, with that sort of hustling mentality that I think I was seeking, I learned later on, once I got out of prison and I started to wake up and get into activism, that that was like, okay, this is another way for me to channel that same energy that I'm just like, I get just as excited about chasing politicians down or.

Yeah.

You know, confronting them and things like that.

Oh, that reminds me.

Learning how to navigate, you know, my own mind in the world in a different way. But it's just about giving yourself better tools. And that's so, again, like, I'm hoping that my book, my story and all the. The dark and scary parts. It's funny, you mentioned about, like, the ups and downs, and you had told me this before, that if you didn't know me, it'd be hard to read it. My mom's reading it right now. My mom actually just called me yesterday. She's like, I'm on page 50. And she's like, obviously she lived through this, but she didn't know my internal thoughts as I was going through this. And so she's like, it's pretty hard for me to struggle through this, but I know you get through, so I can. I can make it through that. But my hope is that it'll be useful to somebody. And I do. In addition to what I was saying about the Troy Rose Foundation, I'm also, in the coming months, probably after this tour, gonna be launching, like, a crowdfunding campaign or something. We're working on some ideas to try to get about a thousand copies into as many treatment centers or jails and prisons that will accept it and have it, just because I just want it to be available to anybody who might need a little bit of a reminder that, hey, there is a way through, There is hope on the other side, which is ultimately what this story is about.

I forgot to ask you. You went to CPAC and talked to Trump loyalists about the war in Iran. What came. What became of that? I'm sorry, I didn't remember.

No, it's fine. That was, that was an interesting experience. So I did do a few man on the street kind of style interviews with some, some of, like, I tried to choose a diverse audience. So there was a lot of Iranian folks there. It was actually a really interesting mix. These are all pro, like, Prince Reason. Yeah, Yeah. I can't remember his name right now, who I believe is definitely a Western puppet. And, you know, his father was. And they. They definitely do not believe that. And I had some interesting conversations, I will say, because I don't claim I'm not Iranian, so I don't claim to be an expert. So I was like, okay, well, here's some Iranian women, here's some Iranian men. Let me actually ask you your perspective. And so it was insightful in that way. But ultimately everything they said just came back to, like, the US Must intervene. And I kept trying to tell them, like, look, I'm sort of representing here to you Americans who say, we feel for you, we understand for you. I'm sorry, that you say you still have family that are there and that they're struggling under the current government. I'm not here proclaiming the Iranian government's perfect or anything like that, or I support them. And I can also say we don't think it's our job. We don't think it's our responsibility. We don't want our tax dollars going towards it. And they, they seem to have real issues with that, that their sort of mindset was just that, like, the US should be the policeman of the world. And where I'm like, you don't understand. We, those of us who've watched this for Generation, generation, you might think it

won't go well for you.

Yeah, you might think it's going to help you. But in the end. And so, you know, of course, hey, look at Iraq, look at Afghanistan. They're like, iran is different. Iran is different. So ultimately, you know, I had to shake hands and say, you know, I wish you well. But it was really insightful because there was definitely different factions of Iranians there. There was those who were pro, like, for the Prince and, you know, the print crown prince and who wanted him to take over. There were others who were against the current regime, but who supported a different. There's this other woman, Marianne. I can't remember her last name, who's been a big kind of resistance leader as well. And both sides accuse each other of being funded by the government. And it's just like, okay, this is a lot more complicated than I think some people might understand. Again, I don't claim to be an expert on it, but it was insightful to understand. Like, so even among the resistance to the government, there's factions, there's people who are like, no, we want this person to replace. No, we want the crown Prince. And of course, there are the people who are like, stay out of our country. You know, things are running okay. And I'm sure that there are Iranians that we're not able to hear from, who are on the ground, who have their issues with the government and also don't want the US to intervene, you know, because it's a complex situation.

The majority of them.

Yeah, it's not to say that they're, like, celebrating their government per se. There's definitely loyalists who are loyal to the government for one reason or another, and we can, you know, critique that. But there are absolutely people who, like. Like the US who would say, I have problems with our current government, but I don't want China to come in here and solve it.

Right.

You know, so it's. It's not like the US Wants us to believe that every Iranian is out there parading around and just please come bomb us and save us. And. And, yeah, there was a lot of disconnects. I also will say that CPAC this year, this is my first year going, but it's definitely typically been, like, this big. You know, Trump's gone since 2015. This year, they had RFK there. They had a few other kind of, you know, cabinet members, but J.D. vance didn't show up. Trump's. None of the suns showed up anything like that. So that was a bit of a change. And there was definitely a heavy pro Zionist kind of contingent there, which I think is probably normal. And they had their own straw poll. Now, who knows if these numbers were accurate, but they claim that of the. I think it was 2,000 attendees that showed up, that 90% of them approved of the job Trump's doing and that 90% of them supported Israel still. So that's at least the propaganda, but

that's a structural poll built in. You wouldn't go to CPAC to go vote again.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

But even then, I was 10 to believe that, because I'm like, maybe that Isn't it could be that. I mean, I talk to a lot of people, and I definitely would say that is probably accurate. But it's also a helpful way. Those sort of polls, you know, as, you know, polls can be used for propaganda.

Sure.

And it's a helpful way to reinforce anybody who might be questioning. This is the message support Israel. You know, only that weird 10% support it. And there was a couple of speakers that kind of paid lip service or talked about the MAGA civil war and sort of like how, you know, some people are trying to divide us and turn us against Israel. But overall, the message was like, we need to stay united behind Trump. Don't let anybody deter you from that.

Yeah.

And. And even with the younger attendees who I expected to be more resistant, you know, some of them were like, yeah, I don't really support the war, but party loyalty, you know, we got to support Trump and Israel was our. Our. What is their favorite phrase? Israel's our greatest.

Our model ally.

Yeah, things like that. So there was a lot of that going on. So it was instructive and insightful in those ways. But overall, it was exactly what I would have expected from TBAC type event.

That's so frustrating because, you know, conservatives fashioned themselves independent thinkers during the Biden years, and it's easy to play that

role when you're not in power and you see how the Democrats are trying to do the same thing.

I was frustrated with the Democrats during the Biden years for the same reason. Like, wait, aren't you guys anti war?

Aren't you free speech, anti war? Let's get the Epstein files out. Let's do all this stuff, which is great. Right. But were they saying that before? Will they say that if they get back in power? Most likely not. I mean, that's. That's again, back to where we started the conversation. Why? I mean, I'm only 41 years old, so I don't claim to be an expert on the world or anything like that, but it didn't take me long to realize that both sides just. I call it the baton of tyranny. They just seem to pass it back and forth. Right. I voted one time at 18 years old because I hated George Bush because of the Iraq War. And, well, I thought, well, if he's a bad guy, then the other side must be the answer. So I voted for his cousin, John Kerry. And then shortly after that, realized, maybe this isn't the way to actually solve things. And so I've been skeptical of playing that game the whole time. I empathize with why people do that. But I am hopeful that in the coming election that people don't just fall right back. Because I'm seeing, for example, with the midterms coming up, there's some people online who are like, oh, my God, Trump and the Republicans, they're completely selling us out. Let's punish them by voting for the Democrats. Like they really give a crap. Like, that's just. The system is gonna keep going on. You're not.

Nick Fuentes recently tweeted that and I'm

like, you're not proving any kind of point.

What do you mean?

Yeah, you're just playing into that same two party system. And we know that both parties agree on Zionism, surveillance, advancing technocracy. It might look different, sure, they might say different things about transgender or abortion and not say that those issues don't matter.

Right.

But those are the sort of wedge issues that they use to convince people that they're so completely different when we know with the overall agendas it's marching forward. I mean, even right now, I saw, I'm sure you guys have been talking about this like that Trump's making a trip to China with Elon Musk, the head of Blackrock, Goldman, Cook, all these big technocrats. Like those are, that's the New World Order. These are the World Economic Forum. Great reset people. I thought we were all against. And he's like, let's bring them all to China for business. And I thought also we're against. You know, it's just the, the signs are all there to me, if you really want to be honest. And that's why it's been. We did the recent report about Melania and this whole Zanpoli thing and I did scroll through some of the comments. I made the mistake of doing so. And I see how many people are giving you guys crap for it, for even just entertaining a story that to them is, you now have tds. You guys, you used to be good, right? Wrote, happened, redacted, because you're just following where the story goes. And I think that's the big problem, is that people don't have their own values or principles. They have party loyalty, or they have loyalty in this case, not even to the party, to Trump himself. And so you clearly have tds because now you're not just kissing Trump's butt. You're not just telling us how great he is. Now you're asking questions and we would rather ignore that. So you must be the problem. That is a big problem in this country that People have that kind of loyalty that they're not willing to say, you know what? I'm not going to sway with the wind every four years. I'm going to know what my principles are and what my values are. I'm going to be deeply rooted in them.

Yeah.

And then if there's a politician that aligns with that, okay, maybe consider supporting them. But also, look at their record. Are they just saying what you want to hear? Because it's election time, which is usually what they do, and if they turn out to be a liar, which I don't think you'll be surprised if they are, then maybe reconsider falling for politicians

every two to four years and putting aside resources in your own hometown. Like, I won't talk to this person because they had a Trump sticker. They had a Biden sticker. You know, like, you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater there, and you

probably have more in common with each other than you might realize.

Right. Glenn Greenwald calls it villain rotation.

Yeah.

Is like, you know, Biden was the villain, and now Trump is the villain. Like, they're not that far apart on their foreign policy. You know, it's just that we're not so, you know, raked in on the transgender issue anymore.

And again, that's not to say that. I mean, this is, I think, a problem a lot of people have who are stuck in that the partisan politics is that, sure, we could name a handful of things that maybe Trump has done that we could put in the category of more positive than negative, and we could do the exact same thing with Biden. But people, I think, are more resistant to that because Biden is supposed to be this ultimate evil. And there was a lot of evil things done. But just as one example, and I don't know if it was actually Biden, of course, who knows who was actually doing it, But Biden's administration and whoever his handlers were, that one of the things they did right before he left office was to try to put in some protections for forever chemicals, pfas. And what did Trump come in? Reverse it, undo it. Right. So, like, that's one good thing that happened, and there could be a handful of others, and Trump is undoing any potential good that you might say. But I think that's what happens is that one party will kind of come in and they'll play the role of, hey, we're going to do this thing, and then the other party comes in quietly and undoes it and reverses it, and they both are moving the ball down the field towards technical technocracy, towards less freedom. They're just doing it in different ways. And meanwhile, they often get us focused on fighting about the culture war issues. And not to say again that there's not a time and a place where those things should be discussed. Protect your children, you know, think about these things. But are those issues being used to distract you or divide you while the rest of the machine is moving forward, you know, while you argue about Biden and Trump and whoever else? I think so, yeah.

All right. Well, where can people find more information about your tour?

Thank you so much for having me, Natalie. So the tour, if anybody wants to find out. So we're going right now. We're doing west coast and Southwest in July. I'm going to be doing Midwest, east coast and Florida and Texas. People can go to activation tour.org and if you want to learn more about my memoir, it's called A Man of My Word, How I Overcame Addiction, Depression, and Mental and Physical Prisons. The website is A Man ofmyword.com.

fantastic. Well, it was so nice to meet you in person because I really enjoy working with you. I consider you a contemporary. I hope you'll allow me that term.

Thank you.

Yeah. So come back anytime.

I would love to. Thank you.