I need to tell you about something that’s been breaking my heart.
Last summer, I took my kids, Hayden and Eve, on a two-week road trip across the heart of America. From South Dakota to Wyoming to Montana.
We fired guns at a range outside Cody. We camped in Yellowstone under stars so bright it felt like the sky was showing off. We sat at the famous Cody Rodeo while families around us waved American flags with a pride that made my chest tight with emotion.
The people we met were extraordinary.
At a local diner, the waitress gave us the warmest service and the best pie I’ve had in years. At the hotels we stayed in, we were treated with overwhelming kindness and sincerity.
I am not an American citizen. I was born in Malaysia. I run Mindvalley, an American company. But I’ve spent nearly three decades traveling across your country—from my college years in Michigan to speaking events in Florida; from tech conferences in San Francisco to quiet conversations in Ohio diners.
And here is what I know to be true:
The American people are not the problem.
The warmth I felt in Wyoming, I have felt in every corner of this nation. In so-called “red” America and so-called “blue” America. Among people who voted for Trump and people who voted for Biden. Among ranchers and professors, veterans and artists, churchgoers and skeptics.
Goodness is everywhere.
So why does it feel like you are at war with each other?
The rodeo speech that changed something in me
At the Cody Rodeo, the announcer stepped into the ring and gave a speech called “Why We Stand.”
He spoke of soldiers who never came home from Vietnam. From Iraq. From the beaches of Normandy. He spoke of sacrifice, of freedom, of a flag that represents something men and women were willing to die for.
The crowd went silent. Hats came off. Hands covered hearts.
And I thought: This is real. This love of country is real. This reverence is real.
These people are not hateful. These people are not ignorant. These people are not my enemies.
Then a second thought hit me hard:
Who the hell convinced Americans that they are enemies of each other?
I was manipulated too
I need to confess something.
For years, I consumed media that painted a certain picture of Trump supporters. I read the tweets. I watched the clips. I saw the worst moments replayed on loop until they seemed like the whole story.
I absorbed a caricature.
Then I went to Wyoming. And I met human beings.
They didn’t match the cartoon I’d been sold. Not even close. These were people worried about the same things everyone worries about:
Can I afford to get sick?
Will my children have a better life than I?
Why does it feel like the whole system is rigged against regular folks?
These aren’t Republican questions or Democratic questions. These are human questions. These are kitchen-table questions.
I realized I had allowed myself to see my fellow human beings as enemies—because it’s easier to hate a cartoon than to sit with complexity.
If I were manipulated, I suspect I’m not the only one.
The inclusion paradox
There is a hard question I had to ask myself—a question raised by philosopher Ken Wilber, whose course “Integral Life” is part of the Mindvalley curriculum.
He describes a strange paradox in our modern culture. We have a “leading edge” of society that prides itself on love, diversity, and inclusion. We fight for the environment. We fight for minorities. We fight for the oppressed.
But there is one group we often feel comfortable excluding.
Wilber calls this a “performative contradiction.” How can we claim to be the movement of diversity if we look down on half the country as “deplorables”?
We cannot claim to stand for “inclusion” if we hold contempt for diversity of thought.
If our tolerance stops the moment someone wears a red hat, it isn’t tolerance. It is just another form of tribalism wearing a nicer outfit.
We have to be better than that. True inclusivity means holding space even for those we vehemently disagree with, understanding that their pain is just as real as ours.
The machine that profits from your division
Here’s what I’ve come to believe.
There are forces that profit when Americans hate each other.
The equation is simple:
When you’re angry, you click. When you click, someone makes money.
When you’re afraid, you watch. When you watch, someone sells ads.
And when you are divided, you don’t notice that your wages haven’t kept pace with inflation while CEO pay has soared. You don’t notice that healthcare bankrupts half a million families a year. You don’t notice that the same corporations often fund both parties, ensuring they win no matter who is in the White House.
The platform owners know exactly what they’re doing.
A study from MIT found that falsehoods and outrage-driven content spread six times faster than the truth.
Internal Facebook files leaked in 2021 revealed that their algorithm privileged anger to such a degree that even Meta’s own engineers warned it was “ripping society apart.”
Ken Wilber calls this the “Culture of Post-Truth.”
It creates a state of “aperspectival madness”—where we lose our shared reality and retreat into warring tribes. When algorithms prioritize outrage over facts, truth vanishes. And when there is no truth, there is only power.
The division is not an accident. It is a business model.
And all of us—left and right, rural and urban, MAGA and progressive—we are the product being sold.
Then comes the second wave: The Bots.
A 2024 USC study analyzed online traffic during political flashpoints. What they found was chilling.
Nearly half of the most viral, toxic conversations weren’t coming from humans.
They were generated by bots. In some cases, bot activity spiked from 20% to 43% of the total conversation.
These weren’t Americans. These were automated scripts originating from Russia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Macedonia.
Think about that.
When you see a comment that makes your blood boil, when you rage at “the other side”—half the time, you aren’t fighting a fellow citizen. You are fighting a line of code from a server farm halfway across the world.
It is a foreign algorithm wearing the mask of your neighbor.
The bots are designed to make you hate each other. The actual Americans I’ve met just want the same things.
Something doesn’t add up
I’m not an economist. I’m not a policy expert.
But I’m someone who has built a life on questioning assumptions—what I call “brules,” the bullshit rules society programs into us without evidence.
In a “Post-Truth” world, b-rules thrive. They fill the void where facts used to be. So I decided to look at the actual data. And the reality I found didn’t match the stories I’d been told.
Here are four ideas worth reexamining.
1. On the economy
I always heard that one party was better for business, better for the stock market, better for jobs. It seemed obvious. Everyone repeated it.
Then I looked at the record.
Since 1933, the stock market has performed more than twice as well under Democratic presidents (NYU / Stock Market Historical Review).
Job creation has nearly doubled.
And 10 of the last 11 recessions began under Republican administrations.
I’m not sharing this to score political points. I’m saying: the story I was told was a “brule”. It didn’t match reality.
2. On immigration
I was told immigrants were driving crime and draining resources.
But study after study shows the opposite.
Texas—a state at the center of the immigration debate—found that native-born Americans commit violent crimes at nearly twice the rate of undocumented immigrants (Texas Dept. of Public Safety, 2024).
And in 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes (ITEP, 2024).
They pay billions. They work in agriculture, construction, elder care, and childcare—industries that would collapse without them. Many can’t even claim refunds on the taxes they pay.
So if they’re not causing crime… and they’re not draining your taxes…
Why have we been taught to fear them?
Who benefits when we are afraid of the most vulnerable among us?
3. On healthcare: the freedom to fail
530,000.
That is the number of American families that go bankrupt every year due to medical bills.
In Canada: zero.
In Germany: zero.
In the U.K., France, Japan, Australia: virtually zero.
This isn’t because Americans are sicker. It’s because of policy choices made by people who benefit from the status quo.
But here is the brule we’ve been taught: safety nets make people lazy.
The data shows the exact opposite.
Countries with robust social safety nets—like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark—are hotbeds for entrepreneurship. Sweden produces more unicorn tech companies per capita than any region except Silicon Valley.
Why?
Because entrepreneurship requires risk. And risk requires security.
In America, “freedom” often means the freedom to fall through the cracks.
In social democracies, the government provides a trampoline.
When you don’t have to worry about losing your healthcare because you left your corporate job, you are free to be brave.
4. On the American dream: a personal warning
I was always told America has the highest upward mobility in the world—that this is the only place where anyone, from any background, can make it to the top.
It is a beautiful story. But I decided to look at the rankings.
The Global Social Mobility Index ranks countries on how easy it is for a person to start at zero and climb to the top.
The United States ranks 27th.
The top of the list? Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden.
The “American Dream” is now statistically more likely to happen in Scandinavia than in America.
So why do we resist the very policies that would fix this?
I believe it is because Americans have been manipulated into confusing “Social Democracy” with “Communism.”
And I need to make a distinction here that is deeply personal to me.
I am an entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurs. And I hate Communism with a fire that comes from my own blood.
The Estonian side of my family owned a farm on the Baltic island of Hiiumaa for hundreds of years. But when the Communists took control of Estonia in the 1940s, that legacy was shattered.
They sent a massive portion of the Estonian population to the gulags. My children’s great-grandparents were marched into a forest, lined up, and shot in the head. They were buried in unmarked graves.
Their sin? They were farmers who happened to own their own land.
This is a scar on my family’s history. That land was stolen, and it was only returned to us in the early 1990s when Estonia finally threw off the shackles of Communism and property ownership was legal again.
So you can imagine how I feel when I hear Americans screaming the word “Communism” at things that are clearly not Communism.
I know what Communism is. I know the smell of the graves it digs.
And I need you to know: A safety net is not Communism.
We need to understand the difference between three very different things:
- Communism: The government owns everything. They shoot you for owning a farm. (Think Soviet Estonia).
- Socialism: The government owns the means of production.
- Social Democracy: The government provides a floor so that capitalism can thrive. (Think modern Europe).
The tragedy is that by fearing the ghost of Communism, Americans have rejected the very systems that would make their capitalism stronger.
You can’t take big risks if the system is designed to crush you for stumbling.
When I look at my family’s history, I know that Communism destroys the human spirit. But I also know that unbridled capitalism, without a safety net, breaks the human body.
Real freedom requires a floor you can’t fall through.
The scripture I can’t stop thinking about
After Wyoming, I took Hayden to Ellis Island.
We stood at the base of the Statue of Liberty and read the famous inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
I thought about my own family—immigrants who came to Malaysia with nothing. I thought about the families at the rodeo, many of whose ancestors arrived the same way, chasing the same dream.
Then I remembered these words from Jesus:
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)
“Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
I’m not a theologian. But those verses haunted me on that island.
I started wondering: What would it mean to take them seriously—not as a political slogan, but as a genuine challenge to how we treat the desperate?
Christ didn’t say: Fear the foreigner. Blame the stranger. Build walls and turn the desperate into demons.
So how did so many good people of faith end up cheering for rhetoric that seems to contradict the teacher they follow?
I don’t ask this to judge. I ask because the contradiction breaks my heart.
The real enemies are not each other
If I could share one insight from an outsider looking in with love, it would be this:
The veteran in Wyoming and the activist in Oakland are not enemies. They are prisoners in the same cell, fighting over crumbs while the warden laughs.
The immigrant picking strawberries didn’t move your factory overseas.
The college student protesting injustice didn’t write the tax code that lets billionaires pay lower rates than nurses.
The single mother on food stamps didn’t create a healthcare system that charges $800 for insulin that costs $8 to make.
Your frustration is real.
But the target you’ve been given is wrong.
And while you are fighting your neighbor, the systems that squeeze you keep squeezing.
What I’m asking
I’m not asking you to change your vote.
I’m not asking you to abandon your values.
I’m not asking you to agree with me.
I’m asking something simpler:
Be suspicious of anyone who tells you to hate.
Be suspicious of the media that makes you angry every single day—because anger is profitable, and you are the product.
Be suspicious of leaders who need enemies more than they need solutions.
And ask yourself, honestly:
Is my life actually better under the policies I support?
Are my bills lower?
Is my healthcare more affordable?
Are my wages keeping up?
Do my children have more opportunity than I did?
If the answer is no, then maybe, just maybe, you’ve been convinced to fight the wrong battles.
I dream of an America that finally lives up to its own giant story.
That dream doesn’t belong to the left or the right.
It belongs to anyone willing to fight for it.
Not fight each other.
Fight for each other.
PS: If this article stirred something in you—agreement, discomfort, clarity, anything—leave a comment below. Honest dialogue is how we start healing what’s been broken. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
334 Responses
Thank you for this so very welcome message. My heart sang at the truth it felt. Most times, greeting someone warmly almost always results in reciprocation. It makes for a nicer life and I am so hoping this message manifests as our new way of being, now we’ve seen the division and hatred at the other end of the spectrum. But I did have one challenge, and that is about the up/down markets by party … I’ve worked with economists who say that what happens is the liberal/democrats spend and the money in the economy drives stocks up … whereas the party ends with the conservatives/repubs who initiate austerity to counter bubbles balance the budget which drives stocks to retreat. But still, this doesn’t dilute the message.
Goodness and Truth is so often hard to find. Thank you Vishen, for you efforts to help us to understand the real challenges we face today.
From reading all this I am reminded of Mother Theresa’s words and have copied the following from my google search.
Mother Theresa is widely quoted as saying, “I will never attend an anti-war rally; if you have a peace rally, invite me”. This quote highlights her belief that true peace comes from positive action and love, rather than from protesting against war. It reflects her philosophy that “Peace starts with a smile” and that peace-building should be a constructive and loving endeavor, rather than a reactive or negative one.
I would like to see us replace the word fight with something more loving, and peace filled that urges us to stand up for goodness, peace and unity.
Thank you again Vishen, for reminding me of our need to place love rather than fear at the centre of our thoughts, words and actions.
Modern cyber warfare! It’s been a method used for a long while now e.g. was used during the vote for UK to leave the European Union. This technique is especially used currently to brain rot next generation kids to lower intelligence. I saw hypnotic manipulation when in Amsterdam this Summer. Red vibes & migraines…Stay safe intuitively!
Vishen – I love your writing as it always feels it comes from your heart. I am not an American but this article brought me close to tears. Why? Because this is a global phenomenon right now and its a legacy of outdated patriarchal systems that breed a belief that some men should have more power and rights than the rest of humanity. I did a course in MindValley earlier this year on becoming an unstoppable brand and I love the concept of brules – mine is “That I call bullshit on the notion that patriarchy rules because it is the best model for the future success of the planet.” Now to get ahead of this horrible curse of hatred, before we lose the chance to create AI for the good of all humanity.
I agree with most what you are saying. But an unconfortable truth remains that due to unvetted mass migration into the United States quite a lot of questionable individuals have entered the United States with the devastating results. We cannot hide this fact under the carpet just to be political correct. The local people have a right to live in a safe way as always and should not have to look over their shoulders the whole time trying to keep their children safe at the same time. There is a movie that came out something like American dream. I suggest you watch this movie to see the reality. Many migrant children have been abused. You have no idea what kind of atrocities have happended to them their parents being sold diversity inclusion and the American dream while they have been lured into their darkest nightmare. They were better of staying in their own country to tell the truth. Investigate what happenend to the Guatemala kids. So horrible. And not to speak about the national threat that has no infiltrated. Thousands of radicalized individuals have entered the United States with a dangerous believe system threathening Western values.
I agree that refugees and migrants need to be welcomed. But should have been done in a responsable manner. The way it had been done has now endangered everybody unfortunately. I agree that not all migrants should just be deported the already contributing migrants and those with high skills with good values should stay. They are needed. Those who dont apreciate the United States and cause mayor problems and commit crimes just need to be deported for national security and safety of the rest of the population. The thing is that human rights are for all not only for migrants. And as long we have large transnational terrorists groups operating throughout the world we are not ready to go borderless I am sorry but it is just not a responsable and safe thing to do. Solve the terrorist issue first and then we van talk again about going borderless.
I love this. It is a beautiful sentiment and well-written which is, of course, no surprise. Thank you for reminding us all what it seems we have forgotten, and providing context that I’m sure many of us did not know. I too am an immigrant living in the US (from Canada). Politically I would consider myself an independent (if I were able to vote). Shouldn’t we all be independents, able to think about each issue on its own merits rather than feeling the need to side with one’s own “team” regardless of the issue itself? I believe in the merits of immigration, and I have a great deal of sympathy for those coming to the US in search of a better life and opportunities, however I do not support open borders. Those coming into the country need to be vetted. I think it’s important to reform the system to both protect US citizens from those who do not share our values while at the same time providing an easier system to navigate to bring in those who simply want to work hard and build something for themselves and their families. As to your point on crime, while it may be true that more US citizens commit crimes than illegal immigrants, unfortunately you can’t deport bad apples who were born here but you can avoid importing more. We went through intense scrutiny prior to being admitted to the US and are very much aware of the fact that we are here as guests until such time as we become citizens.
I’ve long thought and shared my thoughts that we as humans have more in common than we have differences, as to the basics that we desire. Good health, safety, security, opportunities to pursue our passions, and explore our world.
The distractions and divisions are intentional. The answer lies not in choosing a side, but in opting out of systems most of us were never given an option to participate in. Governments, generally speaking, are in place for the few to control the many.
The individual living in peace, love, joy, gratitude, and bliss possesses the innate power to cooperate in communities to create a better world.
Statism is the problem, not the solution.
Hi Vishen, thank you for sharing this message with such a broad, evolved, and questioning perspective about what is often presented in the media as unquestionable “truth.”
I believe evil prevails when good does not move enough. And I also believe that arrogance and the hunger for power are forces that lead humanity to create tools at great speed that later become weapons against ourselves — forces that leave love out of the equation.
The Bible says “God is Love.” Erich Fromm, in The Art of Loving, says love is not just a spontaneous feeling — it is an act, an attitude, and an art that requires growth and practice. When we act from love, we can become a blessing to this and many worlds. But when we act only from ego and domination, we create the chaos we are experiencing today.
I live in Argentina, where our president promotes hate, division, and discrimination daily. Yes, economic management has always been a challenge here, and many people have become dependent on the state. But the real path to growth would be leading with love for our nation: knowing our people, caring for our resources, respecting every citizen, and taking responsibility for one another. And what is happening in the U.S. is also happening across the world.
I am convinced we must “intervene” in the system (the matrix) so that love becomes the dominant force — and the only way is unity among those who believe in it. We need to spread what love truly is, create solutions faster, and use every tool available — including AI — to build public policies and projects that can create effective change quickly.
If Mindvalley ever expands to Latin America, please consider me to be part of the team. Thank you for showing that a different world is possible and for creating real impact
Thank you for speaking out and making us think. I totally agree with you and know it is time for the all of us to unite in a positive way. TIME TO OPEN OUR HEARTS AND LISTEN TO THEM!
Vishen, such a well written article and backed up by research and facts. It can be such a challenge to educate when we live in an age of sound bite news coverage which explodes because of how everyone of us seems so want to have our opinion, heard. I is easy to get caught up because we label the other side as a “conservative” or a “liberal” a democrat or a republican. Demonizing groups is easier than demonizing someone we meet, talk with and get to know. I learned so much from a trip to China last year too, people are people everywhere. People with hopes, dreams and a desire to live a peaceful life. I often have to remind myself to skip the news as most of what I see online already lines up with things I have read and generally lean toward. The true challenge to be better is not to limit ourselves to interactions online.
YES. 🙌 This is why I believe in fighting FOR LOVE, not fighting one another in hate and anger. The war on love is real, we must love one another (Neighbor and enemy alike) even when it’s difficult, even when we’re hurt and in pain. I believe the Force of Love can create Miracles in the current affairs of this world and make Peace more plausible than war and violence.
This is so important. Thank you for fighting back and giving such a well phrased and actionable post.
What you wrote is both inspiring and frightening. Hate is never the answer. Someone makes money from it. It is easier not to think and not to take responsibility. It is a trap: dead end. I choose to make my own destiny. If I am wrong, I will know I have tried, learn from it and continue in better direction.
Thanks for this thoughtful article. I’m an American who has traveled to more than 40 countries and lived in eight of them for a year or more. I first learned about social democracy when I started traveling as a young woman, and I’ve supported it ever since. I especially am behind equitable education and healthcare for all!
Whenever I bring it up at home, friends and loved ones tell me, “That works in smaller countries like Sweden, but it would never work in the U.S. with 350 million people.” I’ve always felt that was a “brule,” but I’ve never had the data to push back.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, Vishen.
Wow. Your words did make me cry. They made me long for a country that I feel is disappearing and at the same time, gave me hope that it can and will do better — be better. Beautifully said and much appreciated. I would only add, as a way to keep things in perspective, deal with the big things — all the things you mentioned. Don’t give so much attention to whether someone used exactly the right word or is in touch with your idea of “contemporary” communication. When you put your focus on calling people out for the “little” things, you diminish the importance of the big things – they get lost in a cloud of pettiness. Thank you again Vishen, for being such a great ambassador for our country. We are so glad you and your business are here!
I’m so relieved to hear you finally speak like this Vishen.
This is the message that needs to be spread far and wide.
Great article, but your point about “Dems have presided over the healthiest economies in US history” vs “Repubs have presided over the last 10/11 recessions” misses something crucial: Both are responsible for ginning up the hate. Both are responsible for growing the administrative/bureaucratic state. Both are responsible for the endless wars abroad. Both benefit from cultivating a polarized, ill-educated, fearful populace. I understand your upshot, but some of your premises are woefully ill-informed.
From Trudi J. Jones, a first generation Canadian, a quote to fall in love with and share widely, from S. Frederick-Gray in 2017, “No One Is Outside the Circle of LOVE.”
Vishen –
Thank you for sharing this on your blog. Much of what you wrote are things that I have been thinking about. Thank you for giving me a reminder in a way that puts all my thoughts in one place and pushing me out of my comfort zone.
Being intentionally curious will always reveal that there is more good than evil, that we are more like each other than we choose to believe, and if we practice mindfulness, with a dash of kindness, compassion, and tolerance, we can all start supporting each other in ways that many will believe are impossible. As the cliche says, “we are better together than apart”. Vishen, your company is amazing!!! I’m soon going to go through divorce and doing some of your programs has let me rewire my brain so that I can genuinely think more positive thoughts of my soon to be x-husband than negative ones. I also trust that the universe has great things happening for us in the present and the future if we choose to focus on life’s glimmers and can have gratitude for this amazing life. It’s always challenging for me, but I continue pushing my brain into a path of peace with intention. Abundant blessings to you!
Wonderful questions! The hardest thing to do is to remember that the person who spreads hate or attacks you is still a person, that they are not really hating you, but they are projecting on you their own shadow. I agree, we can only fight this with the knowledge that we are all one. Being among the people who know this, it’s our responsibility to act on this.