#83. Conformity, Global Tension, & Understanding History

The conversation covers various topics, including insurance, conformity, societal collapse, global cooperation, and the escalating situation in Ukraine. The hosts discuss the importance of having proper insurance coverage and the role of insurance agents in protecting assets. They also touch on the concept of conformity and the need for open-mindedness and cooperation in society. The conversation then delves into the possibility of societal collapse and the importance of love and unity in creating a better world. The hosts also discuss the historical context of conflicts between the West and the Soviet Union, as well as the current situation in Ukraine with the involvement of North Korean and French troops. The conversation covers various topics including the situation in Ukraine, the military capabilities of Russia and China, the importance of choosing the right friends, and personal growth and self-reflection.

Takeaways

• Proper insurance coverage is essential for protecting assets and providing peace of mind.
• Society should encourage open-mindedness, cooperation, and the sharing of ideas to foster progress.
• Love and unity are crucial in creating a better world.
• The historical context of conflicts between the West and the Soviet Union sheds light on current geopolitical tensions.
• The situation in Ukraine is escalating with the involvement of North Korean and French troops. The situation in Ukraine is complex and delicate, with the West trying to find a balance between appeasing Russia and supporting Ukraine's sovereignty.
• The Russian military, while still considered strong, has faced challenges due to corruption and embezzlement, and China's military is also growing in strength.
• Choosing the right friends is important for personal growth and well-being, as toxic friendships can hinder progress and happiness.
• It is important to be open-minded and respectful of others' beliefs and opinions, even if they differ from our own.
• Material possessions and wealth do not define a person's worth, and true friendship is based on genuine care and support.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Insurance Coverage
• 16:18 Challenging Conformity
• 29:35 Escalating Situation in Ukraine
• 34:34 The Delicate Situation in Ukraine
• 36:21 The Strength of the Russian and Chinese Military
• 50:43 The Importance of Choosing the Right Friends
• 54:15 Being Open-Minded and Respectful of Others' Beliefs
• 1:03:16 The Value of Genuine Friendship

Transcript

George Angel Ramirez (00:00.782)
All right, man. Sorry, we are live finally. I know I asked you this already, Mario, probably twice, but how's your week going? It's been great. You know, the place that the insurance has been amazing. A lot of learning the finer details of everything. And of course, you know, going about my first sale, which was amazing. You know, getting to have that conversation one on one with the customer, getting to see what they need and be able to be an advisor for them. It's been awesome. So thank you for asking. How does that?

work exactly so I mean people for people people don't know you went into insurance yeah so I'm licensed in personal lines which means auto motorcycles homes rental all the kind of stuff that one of course needs to live and my goal is to protect people's assets you know be able to be an advisor to make sure if case something were to happen they would be covered and they wouldn't have to be worried about that gotcha so you know one of the key most important things with insurance is making sure you got the proper coverages for the things that you have

You know it doesn't make sense to be going with the lowest coverages if you have a lot of expensive things And or if you potentially cause a lot of damage you're gonna be rest assured that you have coverages that you need so so for Obviously, I think the the most sought -after like the most Like it's car insurance right yeah, I'd say by far auto is the biggest thing Second behind it is homeowners, so you know people with houses of course you need to insure their house

and then one that most people will know about is umbrella policy. What is that? Umbrella policy. So basically think about something that is overarching your home, your auto, your motorcycle. That's it's above all that. What it's doing is it's protecting your against being sued. So if you were to take into court for something that you said, like liable slander, you're protected up to $2 million, which you know, a lot of people don't know about it, but it's really affordable. Yeah. So with the

with the, what was I gonna say? Do you ever have to go to court for anything? In terms of? You know, like let's just say something happens, right? Like to the house or whatnot. There may be instances where you have to, you know, if you potentially cause damage, that's, you know, quite expensive. Most likely the insurance company is gonna have to defend you. So you more than likely are gonna end up in a court.

George Angel Ramirez (02:19.086)
but your insurance does pay for all those expenses up to the limits of your policy. So, and they also pay for your wages. That's part of the umbrella. So, you know, a lot of people don't know about that coverage, but it's very essential if something like that were to happen. And it's always cool too. You were saying that your coworkers are, they're all, they're all really cool. They are a huge impact in your work environment as well. They've been very patient with me, you know, learning all the systems has taken, let's say at least a week, you know, putting everything together, learning the products.

Cause all state does things differently than progressive and progressive does different than state farm. So everybody has it a little different. So learning all that has been fun and they've been great with that. And I'm looking forward to a long career there. That's awesome. would you consider yourself like a slow learner? No, I'd say that, you know, once I'm given, I'd say two or three, you know, once I view it, apply it, and then go about it, I should be set. Well, of course, when it comes to mechanical things, I do tend to be a little slower.

That's just because sometimes you gotta really focus in on the really nitty gritty. So I always like to ask three, four, five times because I wanna make sure what I'm doing is correct, especially with things like that. Yeah, see, I consider myself a slow learner. It depends though, it really depends.

So for example, like photography, that's just something that came natural to me. So it was easy for me. But if it's something that I don't really enjoy, then it kind of starts to become. Yeah, see, I'm with you. It becomes more of a chore. Exactly. And I completely agree with that because with learning, you know, if you really like something and you're particularly interested, you're going to be more inclined to learn it. But if you just look at it as some sort of chore or something you don't necessarily want to learn, then the learning curve is there. And you're like, I don't even want to waste my time with them. Yeah. Cause that's what it becomes.

Definitely. Yeah, I noticed that pretty early on with my You know just with learning myself was Especially with like math. Yeah, just things I cannot I can't grasp man I I don't know what it is, but it's just been it's always been super difficult And so for example like one thing I noticed with myself as well working at Whole Foods was and not just working at Whole Foods working at anywhere was that I

George Angel Ramirez (04:32.654)
If it just like you said, if it was a chore, it just would not register in my brain. So.

And no matter what, so a lot of times too, you know, I'd be like listening, you know, we'd be having huddles or we've been having like team meetings or whatever. And I'm just listening. I'm like, this stuff is literally just not registering in my brain as much as I want it to. It's just not, especially like, well, like when it comes to those metrics and things that just, I personally don't care about, it just flies over and it's insane, man. It's kind of funny too, because I noticed that a while ago I was like, like someone is talking to me and it's just.

It's going right through yeah, I completely agree with that with prepared foods because it's also very metrics driven on things that are Easy to forget because there's so much going on exactly so, you know Sometimes I would slip up on something and they'd be like a Mario already talked to you about this like once what's going on? Yeah, I know and you know, I eventually was starting to get the hang of things but even then I'd still make mistakes Yeah, thanks change things constantly change. Well one thing I noticed ma 'am with working not just retail but working

in general as you start to see a lot of these companies that they I Don't know I was talking to my there I was talking to my therapist about this the other day and how a lot of companies are going into this Different direction and I can't like put a finger on it Maybe it's just more I guess the easiest word to put it is more corporate. Yeah, and it's becoming like a very common common thing and and

When you don't, what is the right word? When you don't like give in or... Conform? Thank you. When you don't conform, and that's what just society in general, people kind of look at you in a different way. They do. And that's one thing I noticed where I, and it's not that I don't want to conform, but when you see something that is wrong,

George Angel Ramirez (06:38.734)
Morally or you just personally and you say something

Right. Yeah. People look at you and they're like, why don't you just go with the program? Right. That's one thing I noticed with like a military school. That was one I didn't realize it then. But yeah, you know, you essentially had to conform. I saw a lot of my friends get kicked out because they didn't want to conform because, like I said, either just morally or personally, they didn't believe in certain stuff that, you know, the institution was saying. And that's where we're starting to see in society right now, where a lot of people don't want to conform to what's going on in the world.

I think everybody is entitled to do different perspectives and opinions and you know, all of us are different in our own way. I personally, I'm with you, you know, there's certain things I just won't conform with because I don't agree with it or I don't personally see it as viable. You know, of course, some things when it comes to a job, you do have to conform to keep it. But you know, I don't like to sacrifice my integrity in general if something is morally or ethically wrong and I personally disagree with it. Then yeah, you know, I'll be vocal about that and say, I'm not going to do that.

You're absolutely right man that that part where It's just because you have it's it's an easier option to say yes, let me just go with go with the grain or go against no yeah, go with the grain and That was one thing I noticed where I'm like, you know as well working at Whole Foods And I know we talked about whole we actually just went there too. That was that was an interesting Yeah, it was good to see everybody but

You know, I just felt like I didn't want to conform. You know, and it's like, of course, yes, you have to with certain jobs, but you're right. You don't want to conform your integrity. You know, you don't want to also try not to let the ego get involved with that as well, too, because a lot of people, you know, my thing was I it's not that I didn't want to conform, right? It's just there was a lot of things that

George Angel Ramirez (08:41.23)
were done a certain way and then all of a sudden they're being changed because the company just wants it that way. And it's like, okay, well, if, and I know a lot of people where they're like, just, you know, just, just go with it. You know, this, these are the rules and whether you like it or not, you're going to have to go with this. And yeah, exactly. Fair enough. But when you start to ask why,

and then they kind of give you a, they're kind of beating around the bush. Yeah, just do it. Yeah, just do it. And that was one thing where it's like, I'm never going to be like that. I'm just, that's never who I've been. And if you give me a good reason why we have to do it this specific way, okay. You know, I'm completely fine with that. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's, it's

I don't know, I just, I didn't want to. I felt it in my heart. It's not that I just don't like, no, I'm not gonna listen to what these people say. I felt it in my heart where I was like, wait.

You're feeling this way for a specific reason. Right.

I you explain this perfectly better than I could you know in terms of that feeling because I completely agree with what you're going through because I went through that exam exactly I'm feeling I Felt that you know a lot of times they were trying to obligate me to go about a something certain way Which I was like no why am I gonna have to do this now and do you know change this change that change this? It was becoming quite overwhelming. Yeah with not knowing what you're walking into on a daily basis you you explained that as well too because I know that's the thing man is like you go from one

George Angel Ramirez (10:14.288)
way like doing one specific thing right and then another this is my thing this is like this was one of my biggest like issue was that

There's multiple ways of doing things. It doesn't mean that your way is better, doesn't mean my way is better. There's a reason why I do my things a certain way. And if we can both get the job done, then why not? And that was starting to become my biggest issue my last month at Whole Foods where everything that I learned was being put into question.

You know, which is not right exactly and that's the thing is like you try explaining it to you know, the people in the positions of power managers or whoever and they're like, nope, that's wrong. That's wrong. And that's partly because of their ego, you know, partly because they believe that their way of working up to that position that they know what they're doing, you know, that we, you know, in our positions, they probably think, they, they don't know what they're doing. They haven't moved up to my position. They don't understand what I'm going through, what I have to put up with. And that's not right. No one should be invalid.

Instead there should be a conversation of sharing ideas amongst everybody and then testing different ways of doing things, you know, and seeing what works and what doesn't. I think it shouldn't be very cutthroat and, you know, shutting up per se the people that really want to help out because in your case you were probably trying to help out the best way you could, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's, you know, looking at the reason like why I got fired.

And it's not that I want to keep on talking about this. It's really not, but it kind of goes into the conversation where it's like, you know, you try doing someone a favor as hard as you try working, you know, to be put that in your face where it's like, Hey, what you did was wrong.

George Angel Ramirez (12:08.462)
And I was like, well, I didn't think it was wrong. I thought this was how it's supposed to be done the whole entire time. Right. You know, and like, I see my mistake. And it's not like I've tried making that mistake. But at the end of the day, it's like, I was trying to help you guys out. Exactly. You know, and it's but but you know what? It's not that I'm trying to, you know, cry over spilled milk, but.

Not just there, but you start looking at you look at that in a broad spectrum in a broad spectrum, right? Where you look at the things that are going out in the world and you're like this is wrong and then you try telling people like hey, this is wrong. You try having a conversation. That's the thing is you can't have these conversations or you can but not everybody's willing to sit down and actually talk about those things. Exactly. Listen. So that's what's become. It becomes really difficult with that.

Like I've said before, you know, oftentimes a lot of people listen to respond.

You know, there's not a really a listening to then actually come to an understanding, come to a, okay, I see your perspective. Let's work on that. Let's see if I can apply that on my end and be open to it. A lot of people, unfortunately, are very stuck in their ways because they want to be correct. You know, it becomes part of that ego. If you challenge my beliefs and you somehow are right and invalidates everything I've ever done and it hurts me, that that's the perspective a lot of times people have. And instead it should be, look, both of us may not know exactly what is right

wrong. But if we work on it together and we're open to ideas, we might even develop a better method that works for everybody. You know, and that's what I would hope. Yeah, he gave me chills with that, man, because no, you're right. You're you're absolutely right with that working together when you're butting heads and look, I guess part of it was my fault as well, too. I'm you know, I kind of let my ego get into it and I tried not to I worked really hard to not let the ego get to me. And but sometimes it does, you know, we're human. And at the end of the day, I try to rein in my ego as

George Angel Ramirez (14:01.104)
much as possible. But you know, when you start butting heads with someone and they just want to see it there, you know, their specific way, you know, it does become, it becomes difficult. Absolutely. I think with that question, you know, if somebody is challenging everything, you know, and validating all of it, you know, you're going to feel personally attacked in a degree. Exactly. And you're going to be wanting to defend what you know, and what you believe in that. That's just, you know, your obligation to yourself to stand up for yourself, advocate for yourself. And I think, you know, that's something that

people need to continue to have, we shouldn't be in a conformist society where people bend easily to somebody telling them no. Instead they should be able to say, look, I understand you don't want to listen to me, but come on. At least let's have some kind of conversation. Exactly. Don't just try to say no and no without really trying to understand. And yeah, I'd hate to see a society where people just conform to us a no. I think that's where it's going though.

You know, I was having a really good conversation with a friend of mine and we were talking about, obviously the goal with this podcast and the goal just really in life for me now is to try to make a better world. Yeah. Right. But one thing I've noticed is I think you have to let this society kind of collapse in order for, you know, the world to flourish again, you know, because it's kind of.

We're not at a tipping point anymore. We've crossed that tipping point. And once you cross it, you know, there's no going back. So that's where we're at in the world where it's already. That's how it is now. You know, that's just how it is. And at the end of the day, what we have to do is just kind of let life go and not try to force things.

just let the greater power or whatever is happening, let it all happen. I personally think it's gonna collapse. I don't know, well, I feel like we don't know exactly how that's gonna look like, but we just have to let that go. And once we let that go, let everything happen, and then once all that starts happening, we go on from there. I think that's when we'll get to a certain point where we have to accept, hey, we have to do something different. We have to try a new method. For me, I personally think it's love.

George Angel Ramirez (16:18.03)
We have to learn how to love each other.

You know, learn to love yourself first in a non -egotistical way and then once you do that, you can start spreading that to other people. 100%. I think that love is the defining factor that's going to allow humanity to progress in the long run. You know, a lot of people often talk about the Roman Empire and how that collapsed and now they're looking at the United States in the same way. You know, we're in this Republic that's about to just fall apart. And you know, I hope that the fallout isn't tragic. You know, it isn't something that costs a lot of life.

or any of that. I hope that the fallout does however, like a phoenix, revive society and allow society to be more open -minded and be willing to cooperate. A perfect example of that cooperation was in World War II, where you had your Democrats, your Republicans, and everybody was able to come together in a common enemy. It was able to really put us their differences aside and go, okay, if we don't come together and we don't try to confront this, the enemy of West

Japan, that's Germany, we're going to collapse. We're probably our way of life is going to fall apart and being able to work together led to an amazing fifties and sixties and seventies, you know, a lot of progress throughout those decades that really gave, you know, the Pax Americana as they like to call it, you know, all because people were willing to put their differences aside and work together. And I think that if, you know, society can do that again, you know, obviously, hopefully not in a war, but you know, things might happen. But if they can do that same kind of thing.

again and forget the red and blue and just remember that we are all Americans regardless of our parties then I think perhaps we'll have a better society not only in this country but perhaps the world. And you know what you said you took the words right out of my mouth is at a global level not just thinking about Americans but just thinking about as humanity in in general I think that's the most important thing because we've seen that we can come together as a society as a country other countries have done the same thing.

George Angel Ramirez (18:17.102)
whether for right or for wrong. But now let's do this at a global level. Obviously you have to start very small, right? Your local friends, you and me, and then next you know other friends, and then your town, your city, your state, and hopefully at a global level. Well, I wouldn't say hopefully. I think that is exactly what's gonna happen because people are sick. People are tired, and people are sick of everything that's going on. People are sick of all the wars that are going on. People are sick of all the politicians lying to our faces, and people are sick of

just all the censorship that is going on and you can see it. You know, you go out into the world and people are fed up and you know, and it's not just in this country, so many other countries as well too. People are just fed up with their government and that's why I'm very, not that I'm anti -government, but I just think it's an outdated system. It really is. You know, we're working with the system that's hundreds, even thousands of years old in many respects and democracy, you know, the idea was that people would be at the forefront of making the decision.

that affect them on a daily basis. But unfortunately, I'd say that we're more in a republic because our ideas don't really reflect what's going to be happening. There's a lot of lobbyists, a lot of things that are going on in the background that we as people are not aware of that influence the decisions and the choices that are made on our behalf. You know, realistically, it's not a representative democracy. It's a republic. And apart from that, you know, like you said with other governments, you know, Greece introducing a six day work week.

Yeah, what is six -day workweek? Yeah, now they want people to work six days. So Sorry to kind of interrupt you what exactly is going on in Greece? So Let me kind of take you back to around 2000 so Greece, you know was part of the EU for some time and They mismanaged their economy

They spent way more than their GDP could produce and they went into some severe debt. And because of that debt, there was a lot of inflation. There was a lot of rampant poverty that was going on in the country and Germany and the EU had to bail him out. And as that was happening,

George Angel Ramirez (20:22.83)
People were just fleeing Greece. A lot of the brain drain, as they like to call it, you know, a brain drain. So a lot of the people, scientists, a lot of people who were prepared, they were leaving. And before you know it, you know, Greece is still in that situation. They're still heavily in debt. They're still not where they should, should be. And so in an effort to kind of save the country from further collapse, the government has decided to mandate a six day work week because in their idea with the people they have, they can be more productive and they can contribute more to the economy.

So, you know, as if that will succeed, I'm not sure. I personally think it won't because if you obligate people to work more beyond what they're supposed to, your productivity is eventually going to have a diminishing return. You know, people aren't going to be willing to show up to work. You know, they're not going to be as productive because they're being obligated. I think it's part of like, you know, being a chore. If you're obligated to do something, you're less inclined to do well. And if that happens across many, the millions of people that live in Greece, I don't think the idea is going to work out and it's actually going to contribute to further decline.

I think that when you get people angry and riled up, nothing ever good happens. Kind of talking about one question I really wanted to ask you is like going back to the 13 colonies. What would you think the average citizen during that time?

think about what's going on in the United States right now? I think it's all relative, you know, depending on when you your point in history, you know, there's different grievances across different generations. And I think at the time, they wanted to be representative of themselves have their own identity, their own

country, their own currency, everything, you know, be what it means to be American. And so they were fighting against a three, 2 % tax. If they were to see that we're now working with the immense amount of taxes we're dealing with in the irony behind that, I think they would be rolling in their graves are very disappointed in what we are now. You know, because a lot of what we fought for at that time is just being walked over by the politicians that we put in power and

George Angel Ramirez (22:25.07)
I think that they would want to flip the society upside down if I'm honest with you. They saw what we were doing nowadays. Obviously that was way back then too and they had the means to, like you said, flip the society and it's kind of hard doing that now. It is, especially with the way everything works now. On paper it may say, you know, like the second amendment, you know, right for a well regulated militia, you know, that can potentially overthrow the government should the government be, you know.

Bad that probably wouldn't play out the way that the founding fathers would have thought it would because now things are very different 240 some years later, you know, that's just the way things are. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about that.

George Angel Ramirez (23:10.414)
like the military now, my question is, I'm wondering if, I don't know, I don't think it'll ever get to that point where you have the civilians fighting the government anymore. I don't think that's, you know, the military's so, their weapons and everything, and it's just completely different from what it was back then. Obviously back then the average citizen, you know, could have fought off.

you know even the most military's most likely they had the same kind of weapons they were dealing with exactly now it's but my thing is i'm wondering if you know someone in the actual military you know would

do something against a U .S. citizen, right? Because you look at our, in other countries, it kind of is common, you know, where you have the military going against the people. But you have a lot of people here who, the military has a lot of very proud traditions. Speaking of which, so on July 4th, I got to go to Tombstone with a buddy, his name is Ko. He comes from Myanmar. He works for Kika. So, you know, we were talking a little bit about his experiences in his home country.

And you know, he talked about, cause the military runs their country now. And you know, the moment you decide to talk out even a little bit, they just round you up, put a blindfold on you and kill you. And he said, you know, that was very rampant. And part of the reason, you know, of course he tried to find a better life for himself. And, you know, societies like that do unfortunately exist. You know, it's heartbreaking to hear those stories. Imagine living in a country like that, man. Yeah, you said it's, it's super heartbreaking. Who knows?

I don't think it'll ever happen here, but it's just, it's scary to know that there's places like that. And, you know, the people can only do so much, but you know, when you kind of back people against a wall, you know, eventually they're going to jump back. I think that's actually from a book Putin wrote.

George Angel Ramirez (25:05.87)
He was talking about, I think when he was a little kid, he used to go, and it's not that I'm saying I'm supporting Putin, but it was just a really famous quote from that book where I guess he used to corner rats and then when rats get scared.

They jump, they start fighting back. And I mean, that's just with people as well too. When you put people against a wall or against this corner, they have no way of fleeing. Their only thing that they're going to have to do is fight. Just go forward. Exactly. I agree with you. And Putin grew up through some really difficult times in the Soviet Union because at the time he was born in 53. So it's a while ago. And you know, the Soviet Union was just recovering from World War II.

And, you know, he was impoverished. He grew up in a poor family, had to work his way into the KGB, you know, and go through that journey, which I think reflected a lot of his beliefs that led him to be the way he is now. You know, he blames Gorbachev and a lot of the people that were in power for losing all the lands that, and his speech, I think it was in 2004, 2005, you know, where he talks about how Russia lost its prestige and how he wants to regain that prestige for Russia.

you know, give back what they used to have. And that's part of the reason for the war we see in Ukraine nowadays. You know, I'm going to go in a little detail as to the background of that. So to put it into perspective, the Soviet Union was always at odds with NATO, with the West.

Why is it just and sorry to interrupt you is it just because of an idea ideological perspective or is it just because they never just you know they never liked each other obviously they were allies during World War two so I'll go all the way back to World War one so when the Bolsheviks were winning over the war in Russia and turning into this you know the communist ideas of Karl Marx the West was very skeptical and actually was fearful of those ideas because of what would it instill in people because the idea was that the common worker everybody was

George Angel Ramirez (27:01.04)
equal under that system. Everybody was entitled to a house. Everybody was entitled to a job. Everybody was entitled to different necessities because everybody should be equal. And that very idea threatens capitalism. Because capitalism is all about competition. It's about letting the market kind of go its own way.

And, you know, of course it depends on your type of capitalism. There's, you know, laissez faire as a full free capitalism, and then there's more restrictive forms of it. You know, but having this idea that everybody can be on an even playing field, everybody can be having a job, everybody can have a house. It's pretty scary when, you know, now you have to take that to a capitalist society. And so kind of trying to keep that away from that, you know, society itself was the goal. And containment was the, you know, the new thing they were

trying to do. The only reason World War II that the Soviet Union and the West cooperated was because well they had a common enemy. You know the Nazis were drastically more dangerous to the world at that point and both you know the West and the Soviets could see that and they were like okay you know we may not agree on everything and we may be skeptical of each other but we got to take this guy down.

And so that's why they came together. Afterwards, the West again became skeptical with the Soviet Union. They were like, they're probably going to try to keep spreading their ideology and we don't want that ideology. So we got to find a way to contain them. And sadly, in that effort, I feel like there was a lot of antagonization that was done to the Soviets and to a lot of the communist countries that led to a lot of resentment where I feel like, you know, they personally don't want to cooperate with the West anymore because of all that.

Right. So that's a little bit of a background on that. Gotcha. Yeah, man. I think we were talking a little bit about and I want to save this conversation for right now. We talked a little bit about a week ago where North Koreans troops are going to start heading over to Ukraine. That to me was not on my 2024 bingo.

George Angel Ramirez (29:06.926)
Yeah, I used that as a joke because of course, you know, everything that happens at a little bingo, so to speak. And I did not see that coming. I, you know, well, so I obviously didn't see that coming either. But you know, the crazy thing is I was watching this video on that specific topic, right? Yeah. And one of the things, multiple things came out from that. One of the things that Putin, I believe, said was that he actually confirmed it where

soviet troops were in you know during the korean war and killed americans as well too and he was saying how a lot of their what do you call them the pilots

They carried out so many X amount of missions against the US. And I guess that's a confirmed thing now from my understanding. Another thing from my understanding too is there's different types of treaties. And the treaty that they have is like a military, not just military, there's other things as well too, but sending troops over to Ukraine. And at first, the person, I forgot exactly what the YouTube video was. I wish so I can give him a shout out. But one of the things that they were saying,

you know at first it's not they're gonna try sending over

engineer battalions, you know, to kind of take over, you know, you know, free up some of the troops, build some, you know, stuff. But, you know, it always leads to something else. You know, you look at Putin when he said, this is, you know, just a military special military operation. Exactly. So who knows exactly what's going to come out of it? And now you have the US. I mean, I'm sure there's already US troops, you know, or contractors. But France is now talking about sending some troops over to Ukraine. And you have all the other countries as well sending

George Angel Ramirez (30:54.704)
troops over to Ukraine so that that right there is pretty scary as well too because yeah sure it might be I don't know what it was like 10 engineering battalions over there that can always escalate and the amount of troops North Korea has even though they're probably gonna be used as cannon fodder but you know that's still a lot of troops going up there and you know who knows what's gonna come out of that

I think that there's a definite potential for escalation. Because now a lot of NATO countries have authorized Ukraine to be able to use their missiles inside of Russia.

I don't have any doubts that if they were to kill any North Koreans that North Korea would say, okay, that's the perfect justification. You've killed some of my people. Now I'm going to actually send in reinforcements and actual troops into this war. And what oftentimes people forget is that North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world. They, about four to 5 million people serving in their military as we speak. So they have a huge pool to be thrown there. I really, really

feel terrible for those people. Men and women alike, you know.

that are going to be sent there to die. And it's tragic that that's the escalation. That's the direction we're going. You know, I really hope that this war does die down eventually, but from the looks of things, it's just escalating. It doesn't seem like it. Because when you have other countries starting to jump in the game, now, you know, France has already been talking about doing this for months. Yeah. They've always, they've been the most pushy of, I want to send troops into Ukraine to free up Ukrainian troops to then go and fight in the front lines because Ukraine's been

George Angel Ramirez (32:35.28)
losing slowly but surely they've been losing and You know when the US was not sending aid for a good four or five months that really hurt Ukraine You know you hurt their chances of really doing a counteroffensive because they didn't have the stuff they needed to even hold the lines together And so Russia has been more ambitious You know obviously if you ask my opinion on this war I'm Neutral me too, and that's one thing I wanted to say it's not I'm not here to say like The US is right. I'm just stating from what I understand are the facts

that are going on because whether you look at it, you know, North Korean troops are going to go regardless whether you like it or not. They are the US didn't say an eight or they didn't send an eight or you know, now they have, you know, those orders where they can send those missiles over to Russia. So it's on the same way where it's I'm neutral. It's not that I support the US nor do I support. I don't support either one. Me neither. Because really it just seems like a proxy war. It's a proxy war at its finest. You know, it's the biggest proxy war we've probably had in a long time. And for the US, it's a perfect use

of weapons because they're like, well, we can kill our enemies without having to directly confront them. Exactly. You know, so for the U S there's absolutely every benefit to keep maintaining the supplies, you know, even though it's at the detriment of a lot of, you know, things going on here, because a lot of people say, well, you're sending billions over to Ukraine when you could be spending billions over here. You know, you could be spending in the education system. You could be given to the people, you know, that contribute to the tax system in general. Yeah.

here you are sending these hundreds of billions of dollars over to a country we don't even know about. And unfortunately, a lot of people don't. You know, you ask the average American, they probably couldn't point Ukraine out on the map. You know, and that's just the reality. We're sending a lot of supplies to somewhere where most people don't even know exists. And my hope is that, again, eventually there's a de -escalation, eventually there's a peace treaty, eventually something gets worked out with the least amount of bloodshed. From what it seems like now, let's just say everything ends right now, Ukraine,

is going to lose a good amount of territory. They, yeah. And that's where the West has even been open to that idea. Yeah. They're like, you know, maybe we should just appease Russia, let them keep what they already have and call it a day. Ukraine obviously doesn't want that because that's going to be the same kind of idea as Germany getting part of Czechoslovakia, Germany getting Austria. You know, these appeasements that embolden dictators and go, okay, they were willing to give me a little piece of the pie. Maybe I can push for a little more of a piece of the pie.

George Angel Ramirez (35:04.912)
And that's where the West is being very careful. They don't want a repeat of World War II. They don't want to give Putin five, six years to rebuild up his military and then go again, where Ukraine is now in a more vulnerable spot of being, you know, basically annexed. So it's kind of finding that balance of what do we do that again, in a way appeases both sides. Right. It's kind of scary to man, knowing that, you know, that, that

the potential of what can happen. Yeah. Right. And it's not that I'm scared. I used to be scared just because, you know, you kind of fear the unknown. But one of the things I wanted to talk about is the Russian military and how

It's insane too because what they were considered or I don't know if they still are considered the second best military in the world from my understanding. I personally would have put them at third or fourth. Gotcha. And this was even before the war. Okay. The reality is that I think a lot of the reason they maintained that second position was because of the Soviet Union. Honestly, I would even say back in the seventies and eighties, the Soviet Union was the number one. Yeah. You know, they were the strongest land power by far. They had the biggest nuclear

arsenal they had a lot of things going for him so I think a lot of people thought that Russia still maintained a lot of that prestige and so when we now saw it into practice because of corruption and embezzlement a lot of things that go on in the country you know military wasn't as strong as they once thought it was yeah and I would say that the number two right now if you ask me is China yeah that's what I was thinking as well it's crazy how you look at the US military right some some something we almost joined and then you look at the

in Russia and their discipline, their training, all the things that you look at here where everything is, for the most part, not the whole entire military, but a good amount of more military, you look at the troops, right? And for the most part, most of them, their training is insane. You know, like the amount of schooling that they have to get, the amount of just the...

George Angel Ramirez (37:20.75)
the discipline to the smallest things. And like I said, I'm not talking about as a whole, but...

you look at the military in Russia and the discipline there and the things that they have to go through all their trainings, it's vast, it's completely different. And the thing is, you look at China, who knows? Who knows exactly what's going on in China and their military? For the most part, we might think it's even how the military in Russia is going as well, too. Are the troops getting the same amount of, are they actually getting good training compared to, you know? Because that's one thing you can never,

never say that the US military, they have, the training is insane. You know, the type of jobs that they have. And it's insane, man. Even from like the infantry men to, you know, someone now working in cybersecurity or someone, you know, working on the tanks and the things that, you know, the regiments that they have to go to. And you start to see when you start to slack off how drastic that can be.

100 % you know I had a friend in Home Depot who's an explosive engineer you know how he his knowledge is you know because the average person in the military in the US military is very well informed very disciplined I think in China you know they'd probably cut corners maybe you know they they have over two million people in the military they you know and of course because their populations four times the size of the United States they can probably budget for that in a way

their military spending is quite substantial though. They, they invest a lot in aircraft carriers, a lot of new current technology that they're putting into. So in terms of being a deadly force, I don't doubt China is. Are they as deadly as the United States? Maybe not. Maybe they are, you know, but of course, back in the eighties and seventies, we thought of them as a joke. Yeah. You know, we really didn't take China very seriously because they had a, what they like to call a brown water Navy. Cause there are different levels of Navy. There's blue, which is what the U S is and trying to.

George Angel Ramirez (39:25.008)
is now. There's green, which is like Australia, the smaller, but still pretty substantial. And then you got your brown water, which China was for the longest time. And so nobody was taking them seriously in the world stage until the reforms that happened that allowed China to propel itself. Because you got to keep in mind, China is living with the memories of the century of humiliation. Right. That's what they call it. The time where a lot of people were showing up and just taking little chunks of their land, taking their money, taking their interests. And China was like, I don't want to be this vulnerable

again. And so they've built themselves into this, you know, strong country that has a good economy, but also an ideology. And you got to keep in mind that the communist ideology that they have, it's a means to an end. It was a means to protect the country, to further national interest, more so than the communist ideals. It was to give people a direction.

And that's what, you know, why Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, all these people were kind of furthering along China because they had something to go for. Not just, it wasn't just the communists that was second. Gotcha. Yeah. No, that's, I didn't, I didn't realize that. Yeah. There's different types of Navy. I mean, I'm, you know, you start, it's obvious, but man, dude, it's really insane. You know, I kind of did a little bit of research on

the Chinese military. And one of the things I found out too is, you know, like you said, the average US servicemen is very well informed. You look at average Chinese soldier, some of them are not even allowed to use the internet. And a lot of them are starting to

I don't know the exact word or the exact feeling that they're facing, but obviously they don't get paid as much. But a lot of them are being sent to different regions where they don't even want to be, you know, in these regions. It's not like here, like in the U S you know, you might get sent over to, I don't know, South Dakota or something, but at least there's something to do. You have time, you know, I don't know exactly how it works, but you know, you, you're able to go see your family every certain whatever, however, you know, the time is. but over there,

George Angel Ramirez (41:35.056)
It's no it's like you know you have you you're set there you don't have any access to the internet You know you have access to limited things or in a place. You don't want to be it's very miserable So who knows exactly what the average Chinese soldier is? Or servicemen is going through right and people got to understand that the Military of China serves the Communist Party exactly it does not serve the country. It's not meant to protect China it's meant to protect the interests of the CCP and when people understand that

that it's a party's military, not necessarily a country's military. It draws a very different distinction and you know really begs the question is, do they focus more on indoctrination or do they focus more on actual military?

You know, that's, that's kind of the question I sometimes will ask myself. Don't get me wrong. I again, don't doubt their power because again, they're really substantial power. Their Navy is the largest now, not by tonnage, but by ships. You know, their airplanes are coming along really well. Their tanks are coming out really well. Their nuclear arsenal is being built up more and more. So I don't doubt that they're a strong player, but it's just, do they focus more on just indoctrinating soldiers or do they actually put them to train? And that's what we'll, I guess we'll have to see if something

break out between them and Taiwan. Yeah. Wow, man. No, that's one thing. That's insane. you know, one thing I noticed too is like the average US soldier or servicemen, you know, a lot of them really don't want to.

Not that they don't want to serve, but it's not how it was during World War II where it's like, I need to serve my country. You still see that. People still want it. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. I'm just saying from a lot of the people that I've known and I've met.

George Angel Ramirez (43:19.534)
Some of them, you know, it's just a means to end. I'm sure that's how it is in other countries as well, too. But, you know, you get your college paid for and you get other things as well. Other benefits as well, too. But who knows exactly what's going on through the average US servicemen right now? And, you know, with this kind of tension that's kind of, you know, rising up, you also got the election. So there might be a new commander in chief and, you know, all this kind of there's a lot of tension in the world right now. You know, here. Well, just in the world in general, you know, yeah.

And it's you start to feel it, you know, you can kind of almost cut it as well, too You do you know and I've heard a lot of perspectives of servicemen and they're nervous, you know At first they were kind of like what's going on in the world? You know, it doesn't apply to us But because of how things are escalating and how things are playing out there is a sense of fear You know, what if we do get sent to the front lines eventually? Yeah, or what if something breaks out in China and Taiwan because China now feels emboldened You know, we'd have to respond in some capacity and unfortunately a lot of people would have

to be dragged into this conflict, which hopefully it wouldn't, but potentially they'd have to redo the draft. A lot of things that we kind of got rid of back in the day, having to resurface because of all these wars breaking out everywhere. And it's not a good sign either, right? That's not something you want to see as a just person in general would. I mean, I guess the Selected Service Act was always a thing. It's just funny how they try to change the words with everything too, but essentially what it is, the draft, right? It is.

I don't know man. It's like I said, I'm not fearful but it's interesting to kind of see What might happen exactly?

Yeah, yeah, let's let's go on to another topic, man, just because, you know, it's it's it's not that it's depressing. Obviously, these these types of conversations and I wish I was more educated with certain stuff. But the thing is, too, is like, I'd rather like I kind of keep informed. I kind of dip my toes in the water a little bit because you have to know. Right. Because certain.

George Angel Ramirez (45:22.702)
Events are gonna affect either me, you, or people that we know, or you know, it's gonna affect someone in a certain way. So you just have to be informed to know, hey, if this happens, okay, at least you know that this isn't gonna happen next, you know, it's out of nowhere. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I think that's a good idea to kind of switch gears a little bit. Yeah. It's a topic that's difficult because it's happening in live time. You know, history is one thing where you can talk about events and go, this happened because of this.

And this is this but when it comes to actual modern -day life and seeing the events unfold is a really scary situation Yeah, so definitely yeah, no you're here. Absolutely right. Let's go switch into other topics man. All right, let's see There was something I wanted to ask you but I completely sorry dude, I'm like running I you know, I'm running on like two three hours of sleep. Yeah, and It's tough. It's not important this sleep schedule that I've been having has been brutal just because I

I you know, there's sometimes there's not much that I do. So I actually just finished watching Breaking Bad. I bought the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. yeah. Yeah, I haven't started breaking or better call Saul. But did you finish Breaking Bad? I did. What do you think? It's amazing. Every season, you know, building up to I didn't expect to feel this way. But when Hector got his revenge on Gus, yeah, you know, yeah, obviously at first I was like, Hector, you freaking deserve it. Yeah.

Especially if you see Better Call Saul. Gotcha. That's the prequel to Make Vette. Okay, okay, that's good to know. And don't get me wrong, Hector, he shot Gus's boyfriend, his associate. And that kind of brewed that revenge mentality in Gus. And so Gus killed his family one by one. No shit. yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry if I'm spoiling. Yeah, I mean, it's been out for a while, so people are, you know, I'm sure they've seen it. Yeah.

have and you got to watch it. It's a great series and seeing that, you know, all build up to that moment where you see Hector in that wheelchair and he's just at the mercy of getting it, you know, that lethal injection, being it all the last one to stand. And then Walter giving him the ability to have that revenge, you know, and killing Gus in the process. Yeah. It's, I think that ego got to him as well too, because obviously when he first started making the meth, obviously it was because of his cancer and he wanted to provide to his family. But you just, like you said, every season starts building up and he wants

George Angel Ramirez (47:52.336)
more and more and more and more and it's really insane man how that All the characters there played it every that shows so so well did and the perfect thing that sums it up is you know when Mike and Walter have their standoff at the end and Mike goes you know you stupid you know this and that is about how he played things is you could have just been a cook and everything would have been fine but Walter you know his ego got the better of him and he shoots Mike you know and and then he's like let me die in peace yeah

Yeah, dude, I Mike was one of my favorite at first I didn't really like him But you start to understand his thought process and you're like, dude, this guy is this guy is insane. He's I'm just wondering I don't I don't maybe I wasn't cuz I wasn't really paying attention to it too much I just had it on the background every once in a while kind of listened to it But he was a cop from one of my understanding do they talk about why he got kicked out? I know he wasn't like the best copper you made it even been like a sleazy cop, but yeah

They go over that a little more in better call song. Okay. Okay. That's the prequel. Okay, then I'm gonna so yeah, I'm gonna watch it. I'm gonna watch it. Yeah Yeah, man, I just finished that so that has been pretty good Have you ever watched the Sopranos? No, dude. You got to watch the Sopranos it is

an extremely good show. Yeah, extremely good. I always watch it every once in a while because I grew up not in Bergen County, but I grew up in North Jersey. So it kind of takes place a little bit in North Jersey. So you kind of start to see certain areas that like I look and I'm like, I like they so in the opening scenes, they go to the New Jersey Turnpike. And I'm like, every time I go back home, you see that sign. And I always think of the theme song, you have to watch it. I will.

Yeah, man. Yeah, it's but what else have you been up to? What it's what do you think your future holds for you? You know, I'm excited, of course a bit nervous and you know, wanting to see how things play out, but I'm overall excited, you know, going into the insurance business and a lot of potential for money there. Did you want water? Sorry. I'm okay. Okay. And you know, I feel that there's a lot of potential. I'm really excited about what the future is nervous, but that's just life. Yeah, that's what I was, you know, me and my best friend were talking about.

George Angel Ramirez (49:52.996)
But...

George Angel Ramirez (50:13.584)
that where, you know, yeah, it's good to be nervous sometimes, you know, but a lot of the times we let that get to us and we start to overthink and then we start to overanalyze every little aspect of everything. And if it doesn't play out the way that we want to, then we get very discouraged or we get very sometimes even sad or depressive mood because we didn't accomplish what we wanted to. And that's the thing with life is sometimes life.

Life just, life goes on. It does. Right. And we can't, and when we start to try to go against the grain. Let me tell you about something pretty transformative that happened when I was 21. So back in the day, I wasn't with the best friend, like good influences. I was very much into going to bars all the time, drinking all the time. Like I was big into that, you know.

going over to my friend's house drinking 10, 12 beers and then going to a bar, drinking another few beers. Then he'd have beers in his backpack. So we're walking back to his house, still drinking beers on the way home. And I was not in a good place in my life. I was making a lot of very questionable choices in that regard because I was struggling with what I wanted to be, what I was doing. And I kind of just lost myself in the moment. And what woke up all that to me and made me try and change my perspective.

Was understanding that I got to do something to further my life, you know, I got to do something that takes you know Precedents and really help be a good role model for my family and younger siblings and so I decided to you know cut off all those friendships and it was hard because I Was for once alone my phone wouldn't ring my you know I wasn't invited to night parties anymore and it was a really hard time I was like man did I make the right decision and I did now

you know, I have a great group of people I talk with and just like yesterday being invited to culinary dropout and sitting down and seeing everybody, you know, across the table, it was, it's, you know, one of those huge tables and there was at least 20, 30 of us there and getting to talk and hear the good perspectives that really give you encouragement in life was fascinating. And it's a privilege to now be in a situation like that. And, you know, and a privilege to be here too. Thanks man. And you know, I tell you some,

George Angel Ramirez (52:40.528)
many times man I'm so happy that you know you're

I'm happy you're doing this. I'm happy your life is going good. I'm happy that you're a part of this journey as well too. It really, like it, you know, it's funny how things work out, right? Where, not that I'm trying to make this about myself, but you know, the situation with work, me needing a co -host, you know, like I was telling you, I was asking a good amount of people and...

people that I thought would have been perfect. And they may have been, who knows, but meeting you and getting to know you, getting to know your beliefs, the things you care about, it really like, because one of the things with me, man, is I want to get to that point, right? I'm really picky with who I allow into my life.

And it's just something I've had to do because same thing with me, I didn't have the best influences. You know, I have a great group of friends. Unfortunately, you know, they're all like my very, very close friends that I've known since I was a little kid. You know, one is in New Jersey, the other one's in Florida. And it, not that I'm in that situation now because I have good friends now, but just sharing the thoughts, sharing, trying to change the world, trying to make this world a better place.

you start to realize that, you know, and not that it's a bad thing, but not everybody thinks that way. You know? And sometimes I kind of struggle with like that being the priority in my life.

George Angel Ramirez (54:15.246)
Yeah. And not everybody, not everybody thinks that way. No, you know, at the end of the day, everybody's going to have their beliefs and their different ways of seeing things. And in our case, you know, we see the way we do because of our experiences and just, just in their case as well, their experiences dictated a lot of what made them be the way they are. It begs the whole question of nature versus nurture. Right. And I think that it's both, you know, how you grow up.

who you are as a person are both going to allow you to make the choices you end up making. And based on the experiences that you go through, it may make it for the better or make it for worse. Of course, better or worse is relative. Everybody takes things in differently. What one does and that, you know, for example, if they're an alcoholic and in their mind, being an alcoholic is good, then that's the way they're going to see it. But you know, in our case, we know that that's not a way of life that is only going to cause you a lot of financial pain and a lot of pain to your family, you know, and that's.

That's one of the things that got to me and I told myself, look, I'm not even able to afford food, not able to afford necessities. And here I am just wasting it all on this beer, you know, and I, and I got to be a good role model for my brother who's growing up and having his own difficulties. And that's what made me make the choices I made to then, you know, embedder myself and I feel good about it. Not, not just because I embedded myself, but because I'm able to embedder other people and be able to motivate other people and be able to talk from experience and then instill that in other people that hopefully they themselves can change.

themselves to help others. I think that's one of the biggest thing is what I wanted to say before is I know I say this a lot, but I appreciate you, man. I really do from the bottom of my heart. I really do because you're someone that I look up to and you're someone that, you know, I enjoy seeing people.

look at life in a better way despite of what might be going on. And I was watching the karate kid the other day. The one with Jackie Chan, because Jackie Chan is one of my, he's like one of my role models. If you, I don't know if you've ever read or listened to the book, Never Grow Up is a really good book by Jackie Chan. I've heard of it and I really have meant to look into it. Very, very good. Just letting you know if you're a Jackie Chan lover.

George Angel Ramirez (56:27.182)
an extremely good book, but sorry, I kind of lost my train of thought. But no, I want to talk about that, you know, friends as well, too. One of the I kind of had to do some, you know, something like that. Pretty something similar a little while ago where I had a friend, she was from Australia and amazing person. But our friendship, it wasn't good. You know, it wasn't it was.

It wasn't good and I'm not gonna get into the specifics of things but sometimes in life you do have to cut off those friends as painful as it might be. You have to. When I came here to Tucson there was two friends of mine who...

I had to cut off one of them and I feel really bad because I just completely stopped talking to him. I'm not a person that just ghosts people, but sometimes in life you have to do it. You do. You know, because if then you try to explain why you can't talk to a person, then the ego starts getting involved. The next you know, you know, it's just a bitter mint and who knows if that's better than just to, you know, stop talking to somebody. But you know, like my friend from Australia, I had to stop talking to her because I'm like, this is not a healthy friendship. It's really not. I had a friend here in Tucson who

I met at Whole Foods and really good guy, but just he started getting to a point where he started becoming extremely religious almost to like a cultish kind of way and He was a customer really good guy, man. We had amazing conversations, but When I started to believe less and less and organized religion He started getting further and further deep into organized religion and like I said almost in a cultish way and I I was like I I I couldn't do

it man like it was something where every single type of conversation that we would have it wasn't It wasn't it wasn't good conversations, and I don't want to be like hey, dude I don't think cuz I don't want to you know I just listen exactly yeah, you know that's his personal belief I'm not here to disrespect anybody on their personal belief. I'm I don't know if I'm right I don't know if he's right, but it's just something like you know I didn't want to talk about and I just I couldn't I was like I can't you know so I had to stop talking to him the

George Angel Ramirez (58:45.232)
another friend that I met at Whole Foods and he was a good guy but the only thing is like he would always want me to pay for alcohol and you know I'm not a big drinker and he he just wasn't a good friend man like he I started hanging out with him during COVID and you know there wasn't really anything to do but it got to a point where I was like I

I can't do this man. You know, it's not a healthy relationship. Same thing with him. You know, he would come a couple times at Whole Foods and like I thought, maybe I should hang out with him. And then I'm like, got that gut feeling. I was like, you know what? I'm not going to, you know, I, as much as I want to, as much as I might be lonely sometimes.

it's better not to go back to those old habits or those old friends who, you know, I hope I wish them the best and you know, I still have love for them in my heart, but sometimes you just gotta let people go. You know, I'm so, my mom says it best, you know, better lonely than bad company. Yeah. You know, and I agree with that a hundred percent. I went through something similar with, you know, when I went to university, I was getting back into looking into going to church and those things. And there was a good group of people there, you know, I'm not going to mention the church name.

But you know good group, but every conversation was just about religion. It no longer became. How are you doing Mario? It's about have you been doing this? Have you been you know reading the Bible more? Have you been it all became religion our friendship entirely became that and so eventually you know I just had to tell him Thank you so much for everything But this isn't working out for me because I think a friendship should be genuine not just solely based on religion

That's the same thing that happened to me too when I was going to a church here same thing I'm not going to mention any names, but there was a church I was going to here in Tucson and Really great group of people man. Like I look at I just felt like they had like a blindfold as much as they thought They didn't it got to the point where the same thing to like are you doing this? Are you doing that? You know, it was nice because they would always ask me how I'm doing and whatnot But it would always kind of come back to those things and I was just get those gut feelings where I was like I don't belong here You know as much as I want

George Angel Ramirez (01:00:53.072)
friends as much as I want to connect with people those lessons made me realize hey you know not everybody like yes have love for everybody in your heart but that doesn't mean you know people can still be very bad for you so you got to be very careful with who you open up your heart with because

You don't want to be put in a position where you probably will still feel lonely. You're in a group of friends and next thing you know, it's just, it's not, it's not that they didn't want to be my friends, but that part of religion where I was trying to wean off of it and they were trying to force it more into me. And I get it, that's basically what a lot of churches try to do. But in a way, it's counterproductive sometimes. It is.

I think there's no worse feeling than being a third wheel in a group of friends you think are your friends and you want to be a part of the conversation but you really aren't a part of the conversation.

It's very lonely feeling. It really is. And I completely see that because I dealt with that going to church and being in the fellowship, you know, being the one guy who was kind of just put onto the side because they would, you know, everybody would have their relationship. I was only the single guy. So they were like, you know, while sitting down there like, can you just move? Because, you know, I have my, you know, my girlfriend here and you know, that seat's better for her. You know, I was just being moved around a lot and kind of just being walked over a little bit too.

You know, yeah, and that's just not healthy. And I said, okay, you know, clearly we don't see eye to eye on everything on religion. You guys don't really respect my presence, you know, so it's time to call it good. Yeah. Yeah. Churches can be very difficult, man. And I'm not saying that there aren't good churches out there, but you know, one of the things too is

George Angel Ramirez (01:02:47.822)
It was hard for me to...

put my opinions or what I believed in, you know, whether for right, whether for wrong, and then having to just be slashed down and say that is wrong. The Bible says this and you know, I understand like the Bible says this, but why is it that I'm feeling this gut feeling about what a certain message that you're saying? Why does it feel wrong? A lot of people that like, don't listen to that. You know, that's the devil working. I'm like, I

I don't think so. And then you try saying that and they're, you know, it just, if you go around in a circle and at the end of the day, it's better to stay quiet, but you should never be in a situation like that. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier, you know, about conformance.

No one should ever feel the need to be conformist to the things they really believe in. If you believe something in a certain perspective, you should be allowed to vocalize those opinions without judgment, without them trying to throw the book at you. You know, you should be able to share those ideas and they be open minded to them. Of course, not to say that they should change their beliefs, but they should be willing to say, all right, George, you know, I can see what you're going with this. And I understand that and I respect that. And that should be the end of that story instead of rather here, you know, throw on the

Bible at you and going know your way of doing things wrong that your work you're doing the devil's work you know you're thinking of the flash and or whatever you know phrase they tell you that that's not right yeah yeah man I I completely understand that I you know I feel it as well too because you know I I grew up in the church and there was so many times where I was just like

George Angel Ramirez (01:04:26.83)
I don't belong here and I know I've said this to you so many times and it can be tricky, you know, it can be very tricky, but obviously when you're young and when the church says a specific thing and saying, hey, try not to listen to those inner thoughts. And I was talking to someone, you know, my friend about that.

And obviously we didn't see eye to eye with that. That's okay. But it was nice to be able to actually have that conversation with someone with that specific belief system.

because sometimes you can't, you can't have that conversation and you know, and I, and not that I'm trying to speak about religion or anything like in a bad way, but that's just how a lot of them are starting to become. A lot of these churches are really starting to, not just Christianity, but a lot of religions as well too, are starting to become that way where it's very cutthroat. Yeah. And it shouldn't be that way. No. And then, you know, being thrown the tithe around, you know, we've got to give that 10 % of your salary to this, which the Bible never really says that, you know, that was back in the day.

Not to get deep into the literature, but that was something they used to do, but it wasn't money. It was, you know, 10 % of your crop, 10 % of whatever you produce. Right. You know, and that was back in the time at that time, but really the, you know, as the Lord wants you to give from your heart, not be obligated to a certain percentage. If it's a dollar, it's well received. If it's $2, it's well received. The point is you give what you believe in to the church, you know, not 10 % or any of that. And that was another thing I had to deal with was they were very, you know, forceful about that. They're like,

You're not tithing. You know there's a problem, and you're not gonna be welcome here. You know things like that Yeah, and it shouldn't be like that. You know especially like that wealthy thing as well, too It's not having those materialistic things and being wealthy just as a person with health with relationships with You know

George Angel Ramirez (01:06:17.87)
That's one thing I've been learning is not having an abundance and it's hard because there's certain stuff that I want, but now I'm starting to realize, hey, those things really don't matter as much as I thought they mattered. And it takes time. It takes time building that mindset up and.

It's it's a very hard thing it can become very hard because society is telling you one thing and they're like hey We want you to be this specific way, you know having a house having this having that Makes you a person and when in reality it doesn't you know, one of the things that you start to really see is

especially about yourself is the people that you surround yourself with. I think that's one of the most important things that I'm starting to realize. And I feel like that's why I may not have a lot of friends, you know, because you I've tried making friends, you know, but a lot of times it's just about, you know, I feel like

this person really isn't a friend. You know, maybe they're trying to use me or maybe they're trying to transaction. Exactly. A relationship. My therapist said it the best is giving and receiving, you know, I give to you, you give to me, and then we give to the people around us and not just, you know, materialistic things, you know, time, friendship, you know, lending a hand, caring about somebody. I think those, those, it goes a long way. I put those to the forefront of my friendships.

want to be an empathetic understanding person to my friends. I never put transactions anywhere near that forefront of why I do a friendship. I do it unconditionally in the sense that I'd want to better them. I want to be a true friend for them because that's the way I would hope that they would feel about me. And a lot of people oftentimes are very pretentious and they are friendly. Of course they have to be friendly and formal, but what they think of you

George Angel Ramirez (01:08:09.616)
you don't know, you know, and you come to discover that as you develop this acquaintance ship that leads into friendship and then you can make that decision at that point, do I want to get things to go further along or am I starting to see that they aren't who they say they are and now I got to step back, you know, and it's the world we live in.

Did you write man think that's a good place to leave off Mario. Thank you, George It's been a wonderful episode and thank you for everybody listening You know, it's it's phenomenal to be able to share everything and I look forward to the next one Yeah, like I said, I always appreciate you man. We got to get you on social media You know, I know you have Facebook but I've got to get you on Instagram man So people can start following you and you know, hopefully if people want to reach out to you not just me and Because you have a lot of amazing your way of life is you the way you see life. It really is

beautiful man I really appreciate that and it's nice to share that with people so but you know we'll figure that out later and you know thank you for always being a good co -host man I know this is the third episode and I'm looking forward to many more likewise thank you George all right man thank you and take care everybody take care