The past two weeks have been pretty interesting in America. As an independent voter, I’ve been lambasted for any manner of things that those doing the screaming have no evidence for. In the last week alone I’ve been accused of:

I walk away from anyone, even “leaders” that can’t communicate without screaming, backing up their argument with citations and facts, and slanderous ways.

Needless to say, at first I thought it was amusing — especially the white nationalist one as I have dual citizenship with England. Now I just find it all offensive because these comments are made not by people who know me, but by people who are being judgemental about certain features of Insanitek’s business, me as a person, and the location in which both myself and Insanitek are. These people are not just online, but also in person. A lot of these people are just making sweeping statements based on how hurt and betrayed they feel.

I’m not going to call anyone out, I’m sure you can figure it out yourself who might be making these unjust and overly biased sweeping statements. And, while this is all a shameful, irresponsible, infantile way to any adult to react, it got me thinking about what happens when different scenarios can impact your business or life. I’m thankful I hadn’t had to deal with any violence here in Indiana related to the protests.

It also got me thinking about how I want to approach the world as it is on any given day, with any given circumstance.

We all get to choose how we react to a comment, a situation, a circumstance. Most of us react positively to a positive comment. We’ll get giddy over situation that makes us shine. And if there is a circumstance that gives us a leg up? Time to break out the celebration hats.

It’s also just as much of a knee-jerk reaction to act negatively when things aren’t lookin’ nearly as rosey. We can’t help it, the emotions are overwhelming, even when we are just slighted, and we tend to react in accordance. Only with willpower that comes with a fully developed prefrontal cortex, do we overcome the urge to fire off angry emails — or kill innocent people in protest of something we didn’t like.

We all have the ability to try to deescalate things that could go wrong, as well as try to elevate things that help the world shine.

And that’s just what I plan to do with Insanitek.

〉 I am not going to react to threats that come at me from a place of fear. My ego is not that large, so I’m willing to sit down to talk with people about their fears, listen to them, and actually hear what they are saying. My students have already asked many questions since they come from a diverse background — LGBTQ, black, Hispanic, Native American, white, and even transexual. So, the students and teachers (myself included) talked it all out.

Love and respect are two principles we practise at Insanitek. Debate, back it up with citations, research and facts, but never stop respecting your fellow humans.

〉 There are no safe spaces here at Insanitek; we value intelligent conversation over all. We believe in mutual respect for our fellow human beings, regardless of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Thus, we had a productive talk with the students, noted that we will do whatever we can to protect them if anything should happen. Note: I do not believe that anything will happen under Trump’s presidency. Even the LGBTQ, trans, and ladies know nothing will happen to them since we do live in Indiana, and nothing bad happened with Pence as our governor.

〉 Other concerns that have been voiced have been about the standard of science. Some people across the nation and the world believe that they will die of climate change because Trump, a global warming skeptic, is now president-elect and he’s putting in Myron Ebell. Honestly, after reading a couple (pdf) of Ebell’s writings and thoughts, it seems that he’s not as bad as I feared. Ebell appears to want clean energy and all the infrastructure to go with it, just in the form of nuclear power since it is the most efficient option. And until then, using what we have, especially natural gas. His thoughts on the carbon tax seem somewhat fair to me since he notes that it doesn’t do as much as we hoped for as much of a problem as it causes for business.

I want him to raise the bar on businesses, not lower it at a bare minimum. I’m hoping that the indications of his thoughts on going to space indicate that he’s a futurist, not a dunce.

In response, Insanitek and anyone affiliated with Insanitek, will likely start holding the torch to citations. The more we force people to defend their warped beliefs, the better. Maybe, just maybe, it will raise the bar across social media as well.

You have power. I have power. We all have power. That power is in our art.

〉 And, the last thing that I’m considering doing with the help of my students, is a video series on Insanitek’s YouTube channel where we dismantle a piece of research in various areas to explain it and critique it. If possible, we’d also like to work with the researchers to explain the research and a little more of the human aspect behind it. But… that’s a huge project and we want to have a lot of videos done before we start uploading them on a schedule to YouTube.

You see, thoughtful reactions to a difficult situation is what will make the world go forward. Not throwing tantrums, calling each other names, and denigrating another human being for a perception — or even a truth. It is time to hold everyone, including ourselves, to a higher standard.