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
Vishen, u think very much like you. America needs social Healthcare. It’s scary that not only am I ill but that normal doctors just keep the sick care going, masking symptoms instead of having a functional medicine lean as well. Capitalism is at play snd the all mighty dollar is what drives insurance companies. We should have a one system for medical care. That includes natural care as well.
On the hate issue, look at who drives it. Our leader is hateful and those who hate basically have his permit to hate through his example . Ive never heard such vile things and im saddened by it. It used to be you could agree to d disagree without bashing without name calling etc. I want to get back to that.
The inequality financially is also at play. Those who are millionaires and billionaire keep their money. Don’t give scholarships when thry know people would benefit if they had scholarships, yet they dont want to help and hoard the riches For What? You cant take it with you when you go. Why cant we all get along like we used to.
The truth is, both parties have folks who cross the line. The real danger isn’t loyalty or dissent; it’s when we only see corruption, violence, and lies in the other team, never in our own. Truth means calling it out everywhere, even when it’s uncomfortable. I encourage Vishen to be a thought leader who provides a balanced perspective without fear of calling out both sides. He is very good at calling out one, but not the other. Let’s all do better.
Thank you for making some sense out of all the craziness.
Although I was aware of many of the facts presented in Vishen’s letter, the heartfelt perspective brought tears to my eyes. The longing in my heart for a more truthful and compassionate culture is so heavy and grows daily as I watch the destructive influences continue to fester. I pray such a harmful trend will eventually lose strength.
Dear Vishen, Dear One,
I was so moved by the truth of the emailed letter of this that I came to this blog seeking permission to post it on my FB page. Being here I see a link.
Thank you for posting these lovely thoughts encouraging critical thinking skills. Millions of people are protesting the complete mockery of my people, some of these people wear red hats, some do not.
In deep gratitude, I thank you and I will post this link on my website, but I really want to post your entire emailed letter.
Have a blessed day!
Your letter carried truth and compassion. I felt compelled to respond—with clarity, unity, and the broader perspective The BoardRoom asked me to bring forward.”
Vishen,
Thank you for writing this with such sincerity and with the love you clearly hold for this country and its people. Your experience across Wyoming and the American heartland mirrors what so many of us see every day: that Americans are not each other’s enemies, and that the goodness here is real, deep, and alive across every community and every political stripe.
Before I offer a broader perspective, I want to introduce something foundational to my work — The BoardRoom. Their guidance shapes how I understand leadership, unity, and truth, and it provides the lens through which I’m responding to your message.
The BoardRoom is a channeled collective of master-level leaders, innovators, and visionaries — a frequency-based council of intelligence that offers clear, unfiltered guidance beyond ideology, beyond polarity, and beyond the noise of modern discourse. I am their voice and a participating member of this counsel, bringing forward their perspective to help leaders see without distortion and act from clarity, courage, and unity.
Their purpose is to help leaders see truth clearly so they can lead from alignment rather than fear or distortion.
I share that because The BoardRoom teaches that truth and unity can only meet where all realities—seen and unseen—are acknowledged. And when it comes to America’s current crisis, the truth requires more than compassion; it also requires comprehension.
A Vacation View Isn’t the Same as a Lived Reality
Your road trip offered a beautiful window into America’s spirit. But for those living inside the system every day—especially in border states, overwhelmed towns, and economically strained regions—the story is more complicated.
Many Americans are not fearful of immigrants.
They are fearful of broken systems.
They are watching:
• hospitals overwhelmed
• schools stretched beyond capacity
• social services unable to keep up
• local budgets collapsing
• towns absorbing more people than infrastructure can support
• and communities seeing sudden cultural, safety, and economic strain
This isn’t hatred.
It’s exhaustion.
It’s limits.
It’s reality.
Most Americans welcome legal immigration. Most believe in compassion. But they are also living with the consequences of policies that were not designed for the volume and velocity occurring today. And that truth belongs in this conversation.
Poorly Managed Immigration Hurts Everyone
You make a powerful and important point: immigrants contribute deeply to this country. That is true.
But poorly processed immigration, as it’s occurring now, puts both Americans and immigrants at risk.
It has created:
• overwhelmed courts and decades-long backlogs
• humanitarian crises at the border
• criminal networks exploiting migrants
• trafficking of children and women
• overwhelmed shelters and cities declaring emergencies
• and communities pitted against each other—not out of hate, but out of survival
The issue is not people.
The issue is process.
And that distinction matters.
We can hold compassion and boundaries at the same time.
We can love our neighbors without destroying the systems that keep everyone safe.
Americans Are Not Divided by Nature — They’re Divided by Neglect
You are right: Americans are good. Warm. Open. Giving.
But they are also:
• tired of being manipulated
• tired of systems that don’t work
• tired of leaders who avoid responsibility
• tired of footing the bill for failures they didn’t create
Your letter calls out the outrage machine—and it deserves to be called out. But Americans aren’t angry because they hate each other.
They’re angry because their lived experience doesn’t match the narratives being sold back to them.
The cultural divide isn’t ideological.
It’s experiential.
Those far from the border or from strained cities see an immigration narrative of opportunity and compassion.
Those living inside the strain experience something very different.
Both are true.
Both deserve to be acknowledged.
Both must be part of any healing.
Unity Cannot Be Built on Partial Truth
The BoardRoom teaches:
“Unity built on incomplete truth is a unity destined to fracture.”
Your call for compassion is essential.
Your call for not demonizing others is essential.
Your call for dialogue is essential.
But unity requires more than moral appeal.
It requires understanding the full picture—including the parts that are uncomfortable, complex, and emotionally charged.
The Desire for Partnership Must Include Protection
Americans have some of the most open hearts in the world.
Unfortunately, open hearts also attract those who see opportunity in vulnerability—whether cartels, traffickers, foreign bots, or political opportunists.
Americans are not wrong to want:
• secure borders
• efficient immigration systems
• vetted entry processes
• humane and lawful handling
• balanced economic impact
• and accountability for what is broken
This is not fear.
This is stewardship.
We Can Believe in Everything You Shared — and Still Call for Balance
We can honor:
• humanity
• compassion
• truth
• dignity
• diversity
• economic fairness
• and unity…
…and also honor:
• sovereignty
• safety
• functional systems
• accountability
• and the lived reality of millions of Americans
These values are not competing.
They are complementary.
What We Need Now
Not left vs. right.
Not citizen vs. immigrant.
Not urban vs. rural.
Not those who have seen suffering vs. those who live it daily.
What we need is:
• stronger systems
• real data
• dignity for all
• policies that reflect reality
• and leaders who stop weaponizing the pain of their people
The BoardRoom would say it this way:
“A nation divided is a nation that has forgotten to see itself.”
Thank you for seeing the goodness in America.
Thank you for calling for more love, more understanding, and more unity.
And thank you for being willing to listen to those whose daily experience shows another side of the truth.
Unity begins when all realities are welcomed to the table—
not just the ones that feel good, but the ones that demand courage.
With respect, clarity, and a desire for true unity,
Donna
Great article, I’ve asked myself these questions on and off for the last 30 yrs. I do believe people are waking up. Thankfully we do live in a time that people can research the topics you mentioned in your article, and may more though the internet. I’m someone who sees both sides of situations, so I am not an advocate for any particular party but the truth. I’ve been fortunate to have a small group of friends that feel the same and look at the injustices, not just in this country but around the world, not through the bought and paid for media but by doing research. Here is a good piece of information by someone who did a lot of research. Make sure you watch until the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSECFCuqJOI&rco=1
This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for being you and the world.
I love to see your shift in perspective. This is the 3rd time I’ve written to you. Please consider that immigrants are loved here and would be needed and allowed if they came here legally and could be vetted. This would provide protection to them, vs. Being abused, (think slavery, human trafficking & terrorism). Additionally it is our poorest Americans which are impacted the most. They compete for entry level jobs, low rent etc. It is the sudden large quantity of persons which has created the most damage. This is the neighborhoods where crime consolidates, perpetuating the poverty circle and hopelessness. Did you take your children to these areas? I believe in you & our president. I would love for you to reach out to him, and strive for safety net success + and fix whatever FBI crap u got tagged with during 911. It would be the grandest moonshot. Blessings and ❤️. Julie
Wise words and Thank You for sharing with us!
Thank you for helping us open our eyes and minds!!
Definitely a blessing having a group circle like this one 🙏🙏🙏💕
This one got my eyes leaking Vishen!
This has been hurting my heart as well. Like it’s just not OK to disagree. Many relationships, long dear ones, have broken. It literally feels like people are afraid to engage with each other when I’m out walking in my neighborhood. It feels terrible. So I am heartfelt grateful to hear you calling for more compassion, more remembering that we’re all in this together on the same magical mud ball hurtling through space. You still laid out the way that you interpret the data but she made it a conversation and the opportunity to respectfully agree or disagree and that is beautiful and sort of surprisingly so nourishing.
Thank you, thank you, Vishon, for offering such a perfect perspective.
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to canvas in Washington on several topics that were important to my family. In meeting various officials, presenting information, asking for their perspectives, and truly getting to know them, I quickly learned that they are nothing like the way the media portrays them.
As a Christian, I’ve seen this pattern many times. To put it simply: what do you call it when people just believe whatever they’re told? The media presents a constant stream of whatever sells—often fear and conflict. Many people absorb that without question.
But as Christians, we learn to step back and examine that moment of thought. We reflect on what it does to us—on how it differs from our deeper ability to truly think.
As an artist, I’m often inspired by an idea or a vision, and from that inspiration I create something new. As an engineer and computer scientist, I can be working on a technical problem, and in the middle of it an idea comes—something beyond the mechanics of the work itself. I take that idea and turn it into something real. I consider those moments inspiration, and I attribute that inspiration to God, to the divine spark.
When my boss says, “Oh my God, you’re a genius,” I just think, Not really—I was simply inspired.
I love what I do, and I’d love to talk more, but I think you really hit the nail on the head. The general population, as a whole, is often brainwashed—sitting, absorbing a constant stream of whatever they’re told, and shaping their motivations, actions, and even their lives around those ideas.
Very few people step back to consider the difference between their thoughts and their ability to think, or the purpose of their heart.
I enjoy being part of Mindvalley and have been a member for a little while now. I see how closely it aligns with what I’ve always understood as prayer and meditation: we pray for God’s help, and then we “dress for success”—we believe it, walk it, and live it, like a light upon a hill.
I’d love to talk more, but I need to go take care of Vishal. Thank you so much for what you all are doing.
Sincerely;
LeRoy Grubbs
Amazing! Finally someone calling it out as it is, well done. Its sickening what we are doing to our society for profit, it will be the end of humanity! Selfishness is unbelievable in this world, scams, lies, chaos is what runs our world now!
I wish that this piece turns viral.
I wish that this words spread all over the world…
Thank you Vishen.
Thank you for this thoughtful and loving report.
Thank you for clear loving thought about one of our largest, youngest democracy’s – may you thrive for thousands of years. And may you give health care to your people. Fantasy, dreams and culture beyond our wildest imagination! / a swede with a social safety net that is slowly being ripped apart when politicians whant to do what America does…
Thank you very much Vishen for sharing your story. I know that a lot of people aren’t ready to hear it but as long as we keep pointing at the truth little by little more people will start finding it. One thing I don’t agree with what you’re saying is that communism shoots people in the forest. Of course I understand that that has happened but that was authoritarianism and fascism and violence. None of those are a default of communism.
Thank you again for using your voice for expressing values 🙏
This is the best thing u have read in ages. Thank you
I didn’t read all of it, but got the meaning. People need to wake up and see the truth. Unfortunately to them it would mean they would need to do something. The American people (worker bees) are kept over worked, under paid and too sick and tired to try to take a stand. I would love to see the world unite as the collective it is and create a better world not just a better America.
Outstanding piece, Vishen. Thank you for this. I’m a Midwesterner by birth, raised in rural Nebraska, and have lived all over the US and now live in Portland, Oregon. Good people are everywhere. I appreciate the thoughtful way you put this together and the questions you’ve raised. I appreciate you and your perspective. Thank you for using your platform in this way.