Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, are we addicted to cynicism? Now, this is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal, but it's actually about something happening in Ohio, the state where I am, and that is that Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran recently for president in the recent, Republican presidential, campaign, actually now is running for governor in the state of Ohio. And he recently pledged in 2026 to quit Social media, which is a pretty significant pledge for, For a political candidate in this day and age. And he said that the reason why he was quitting is he wanted to focus on what he called real world voter engagement and policymaking. His argument was that social media presents a pretty warped view of the world, that the prevailing sentiment on Twitter, for example, is not actually the prevailing sentiment of the culture. He talks about how a lot of social media is bot driven. It's influenced by foreign, influences and lobbying agencies. He talked about the contrast as he campaigns between what he sees online and what he hears from actual people. He even gives an example of being, quote, unquote, canceled online. But, seeing large groups of people in a room giving him a standing ovation for saying the same kinds of things that got him canceled online. He's making the argument that true leadership is disconnecting from online noise and reconnecting with actual human experience. Now, I think he's saying a lot of things that I agree with, but actually, I don't want this to be about Ramaswamy or the Ohio governor race. Instead, I want this to be about social media because Jesus said something I think that clicks with what he's saying. Jesus said, if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. Jesus is saying that what you take in, if you're not careful, will completely warp how you m. Move and interact in the world. And I think Ramaswany is right. I think social media is a wasteland. I think the ideas that get advanced there, the arguments that feel so important and so heated there, don't really matter. It's something like 15% of the actual country is on Twitter, which means even if everyone on Twitter agrees about something, and they often don't, at best, you're getting 15% of the country. 15% of the country probably thinks there's no continent named Europe. I mean, you can. There are a lot of dumb Americans out there. My point is this, that for most of us, if social media is our window into the larger world, is it any wonder we're so anxious, we're so depressed, we're so fearful. We're not looking at the real world like a child reading a post apocalyptic novel and believing that's what's actually happening outside. in fact, it makes me think of a funny story. My wife's paternal grandmother, who I loved and has since passed away, used to, watch soap operas. She called them her stories. And, and I asked her once, I said, granny, why do you watch your stories? And she said to me, I have to know what's going on in the world. And I thought, well, no wonder this poor little old woman is so scared all the time. I mean, she thinks what she's watching in a soap opera, that this, woman's pregnant with an alien baby with two heads, or this doctor is really a professional hitman. Those kinds of nonsense stories. She thinks that's real. Well, of course she doesn't want to leave the house. And you can laugh about poor granny, but the truth is, social media is doing that to us. You see, online you have a million reasons to be negative, to be toxic, to be angry. But in the real world, showing up around actual people, I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic about where we're headed as a culture. Reality that should be a buzzword in 2026. And it doesn't exist on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook. Those things are not real. That's what Ramaswamy is saying. And he's saying that he wants to live in the real world. And so do I. And so should you. If the eyes determine the health of the body, what are your eyes looking at? And what needs to change in order for you to be living in reality? Optimistic about reality in 2026. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!