In this week's episode, we're back to talking about the tenets and principles of Clean Thinking and we're doing so via our sixth and final discussion of a specific influence: our politics. As discussed in the episode, while religion may intuitively seem to be a more powerful influence on people's lives than politics, that may not be the case. As host Mike Marcella notes, politics has the potential to affect so many different aspects of our lives, and as a result, is a nearly omnipresent influence. And because of this, it's very powerful, especially when combined with religion. Also like religion, it is an influence made up of all our other influences, which synergistically combine to make it a force in our lives. Another similarity with religion is that this one also requires two episodes to cover, so today's episode will be part one of a two-part series. Enjoy, and please try not to get overly butthurt!

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Sources used in podcast:

• Self-defense motivations for gun ownership:
• https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/11/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/#:~:text=2Protection%20tops%20the%20list,8%25)%20are%20major%20reasons
• Your guns are more likely to be stolen than to be used in defense of your home:
• https://www.atf.gov/file/142186/download
• https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-15.xls
• Jim Jefferies:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rR9IaXH1M0
• Data on the danger of guns and the potential for tighter restrictions to reduce gun violence:
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801608/
• https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700838/