Shaun Newman Podcast - #465 - George Kapocsi

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Originally from Hungary, for decades he has been a Canadian citizen. He discusses coming from a communist country, seeing the world in a different way, how he will never be accepted in Canada and how he has come to terms with this. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

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commercial or oil field locations for more information, visit them at Hancock Petroleum.com. He's originally from Hungary, now a Canadian citizen, business owner, family man. Talking about George Capochi. So buckle up. Here we go. It's George Capochi and you are listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by George Capochi.

So first off, thanks for having me into your house. You are welcome. Glad to see you here. Now for the audience, they're not going to know, you're one of the many who, text on a daily basis almost, you know, every time. Close, not quite. But you get the point. What I'm trying to get at, George, is you're a guy who has reached out a lot.

We've had coffee together. We've sat and we've had many a conversation. Anyway, so I just kept reaching out and saying, hey, why don't you come on the podcast? And you fought me on it for a long time. And finally, you relented, and I appreciate you let me into your house and, you know, and supporting everything I seem to do. and either way, I'm excited to just sit here

and have a conversation with you this morning. But for the audience, they're not going to know who George is. So, you know, you ask, well, what do you want to talk about? I'm like, George, let's talk about your story. Let's talk about growing up and hungry and just let's talk about it

because you have an interesting perspective being an immigrant to Canada and everything in between. And I just, you know, let's hear about it. Well, thank you, Sean. first of all I would like what

this is the first time I ever do something like this and never never done it for the audience George George is like extremely nervous right and he's like he's worried that he wants it to be perfect and I keep trying to tell you

there's no perfection in podcasting it just it doesn't exist so don't worry about the mic I just want to hear your story and I want to record it and if nothing else now your family has it, right? If you were dropped dead tomorrow, now you have it. Okay, thank you.

So who am I? Basically, a curious outsider who made a mission of looking at the world through a bigger window because there is always more to any story. And I actually asked Sean the question, I asked you the question. why is it so interesting that you want to talk to me? I grew up in the other end of the world in central Europe. My family has a long history, which is not a straight line, to say the least. What do you mean by not a straight line?

People usually try to put labels on you or put. you in categories that, oh, you are Kennedy, he's Irish. Well, I'm, I was born in Hungary, but am I Hungarian? Yes, I am, but my family is, is from all over the world, even in Central Europe. So my father was German. My mother, my mother's father is Jewish. And, And my mother's grandfather is Irish. So that makes me Hungarian. And I think that's, that's, uh, Conversations around the dinner table must have been awfully interesting.

No, because unfortunately, my father passed very early. And, uh, how, how early is early? Before I turn six. Okay. But, but, uh, the, the mixed. background made it kind of crucial that you don't just look at everything in a straight line. When your dad passed away, was it like sudden or was it a disease or? He had a car accident before they got married and then he was always kind of not well.

and basically at 1976 he told my mom in the hospital his goodbye and told her to raise me the best of her ability is that a tough thing am I hitting on a nerve I don't mean to

to pry. Oh yeah yeah definitely my mother is Probably, not probably. My mother is the most important person in my life until I had my kids. And everything I have, everything what I learned is because of her raising me. Well, if she ever listens to this, I think I can, is still alive? Oh, yeah. Okay. So assuming she listens to this, you know,

I think she can be awfully proud in the man you've turned into Georgia, right? I mean, like, you're a guy who doesn't mince words, you know, at least when we sit and have our chats about a lot of different subjects. And, you know, I sit here just having a lovely chat with your wife. And I'm like, man, like, these are the people I run into now where we get down to brass tax real fast and we start talking about things that actually matter. And it's really, really interesting to me. So hats off to your mom for, you know,

whatever she did to turn you into what you are, you know, like my hat's off to her because she's really made a man who stands up for what he believes in, you know. That's what I see. In saying that, let's talk about your mom then or childhood in Hungary. You decide because you have a lived experience that is completely different than everything I grew up in. Yeah, definitely. And that's what makes me an outsider. And I live in Western Canada since 1995. And after a while, I realized that for some reason,

because of my accent, because seeing the world a little bit differently than the mainstream, or least resistant way, I probably never going to be accepted. And after a while, you just want to be accepted, but you don't want to confirm for any reason. You mean conform, correct? Confirm.

Yeah. Well, when I texted you where we sit, I said, look for the purple house and that's kind of my way of of saying that I don't mind

who I am who I am myself and I don't have the urge to fit in for any cost that's it's like a I don't know

a deep thought when you think about it spending your life as an outsider when you know like everybody wants to be accepted you know like it would be a tough way to go where you're in another country and you realize that no matter how good I get at my English language I'm going to have an accent

and because of the accent and because of some of the thoughts and the views I have on the world I'm never going to be accepted by the mass of people is that where you're trying to lay out for me not I think I am accepted but it's you are still an outsider.

And actually why I was kind of giving in to Sean's pressure of coming on the podcast, because I would like to add value to the society for our big family, but our story goes back. phone Sean, I don't know, six months ago, four months ago and told him that you really need to get some people on who were growing up in Eastern Europe or somewhere in the communist, socialist world and get them to tell their lived experiences because the road we are speeding down is a freaking disaster. and talk to your Romanian, Belarusian or Hungarian friend or neighbor,

you know, the weird guy who is outside in his pedos, in his greenhouse or whatever. But you know who I'm talking about. Is the outsiders who kind of the odd people in your... life and maybe just ask them or get your kids to ask some questions because where we are in the way I see it, where we are going is nothing new. We tried this roadshow before and it didn't pan out as advertised. And one of my biggest fault is, um, I love history. I was in high school, I was a history buff and I was always asking too many questions and it always got me in trouble. I'm in real trouble because I always wanted to know

more. I always wanted to know why. I was curious and when people, the propaganda, the government agents just talking in nicely bow-tied statements. It's like, okay, but why are you doing this? Or have this been tried before? Or, you know, those inconvenient questions. And it's better to shut those people off because then you screw up the narrative. Well, what you're talking. Well, the thing that I think, you know,

when you start talking to different people from Eastern Europe countries, your Eastern European countries that have seen, you know, communism firsthand is it's like, okay, so how do you take their, what they're talking about and screaming at the top of their lungs, in my opinion, in their, they're like in your own unique way, right? You're trying to make us all see. And yet none of us have ever lived it so we don't know. And so the urgency isn't there from us, right?

No, it's not. And when I listen to you talk and some of the different conversations I've had, they all are trying to explain it. And yet you're like, oh yeah, but it isn't that bad. You know, it isn't we aren't there yet. We aren't blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you kind of go on and on and on and on. And I don't know.

I've talked about this an awful lot with a lot of different people who have seen some real travesty in, or whatever word you want to associate it with over in Europe, where they tried these things. And they continue to try and push the same similar agenda, just under different wording and heading and everything else. But it talks about leading back to what you've seen. Why don't we talk about a little bit of your childhood or your youth?

Because you've lived under communist rule, correct? Well, they always say that it wasn't communism. It was people's, Hungary was called the People's Republic of Hungary, and it was a socialist country. But the governments at the day were thriving to get to communism. So when you start to split the hair, what is the difference between socialism and communism? and one of the things they say that there is no money in communism and we had a currency, it didn't worth it worth something, but it wasn't interchangeable. So back in the late 80s, when the Hungarian money became somewhat changeable to Swiss franc,

German mark or US dollar. but I mean we had the most hideous things like you were allowed to travel and pay attention people because they are pushing the same idea again that you are allowed to travel once the higher up is going to let you so I think in in Hungary every three years you were allowed to leave to a Western country. But goofy thing is Yugoslavia was also a socialist country, but it was a western country, even though it was south from Hungary, but it was a socialist country, but it was a different socialism there. But anyway, we get $70 worth of money. So I understand that money changed, but can you imagine a family of four traveling, I don't know, from, let's say,

Hungary, Budapest to Spain on $70 for a month. Well, that was an art. And that's the other thing is... So why do you say 70? What do you mean by the $70? Because that's how much money you were allowed to change at the National Bank. They'd only allow you to switch over $70 at a time? Or what do you mean?

In three years. So if you changed over $70 at the bank, they're like, you can't come in and here and do this again. Yeah, you can walk in with gold bars, but no, you are allowed to have only $70 and make the best of it. You get to Spain. I mean, it's 2,500 kilometers. You have to unpack this thought for me, George, for a second. I want to fall along, but I'm missing something here. You're saying your family took a trip to Spain, yes? I'm being hypothetical. Hypothetical. Okay.

With the $70, your family earned more than $70. Why the set? What is the... Because that's a Hungary policy? Yes, that was at the time, the policy in Hungary, that you can have, in every three years, exchange only $70 U.S. dollars worth of money. and that's all you are allowed.

So it's control. I don't know why I'm dense this morning, folks. I'm thinking about this and I'm going, okay, so you go to the bank hypothetically, back in Hungary and you say, I would like to get 200 American dollars for what I have. I have enough to get a thousand. All I want is 200.

No, sir, you're only allowed 70. if you have the permit that you are allowed to leave the country to the west and with that permit with your passport what you paid for you get $70 doesn't matter you can have a will borrow of cash of the local currency you can have a will borrow of gold bars whatever you are allowed with your permit It's not just really, neelie that you, you walk into a bank. But that's just one example. So when you, when you extrapolate that or pull it over to Canada right now, what you're seeing is the language change. We're going to allow you to travel. And as soon as you hear that, your feathers or your, your hairs raise and you go, it begins. That's how it begins because they're going to let you.

They're old, they're all so kind to let you travel somewhere. And it's so subtle that most people don't even notice it. No, most people don't even care. Oh, yeah, it was just a slip of a word. You're like, no, no, no, no. They don't slip words like that. That's strategic and we allow this. And over time, that turns into more and more control.

And with more and more control, you're going to get to a place where it's like you can only leave Canada once every three years because we're saving the planet for climate change, let's say. I think so, yes, you are kind of getting there. the root of it yes so you can tell that my English is not my first language and I don't have the vocabulary or the wordsmithing that some you're doing great George the to me I could just be dense this morning and I just want to make sure that I'm catching what you're you're trying to lay out so that I don't miss it or the audience doesn't miss it because I want to make sure that we're that I'm you know like following along

with your story. Yeah. So where I was going with the wordsmithing is when the so-called leaders, I don't think they are leaders and they are just executors of somebody else's thought. But anyway, our supposed leaders come up with goofy words, which if you start to dissect and and analyze, you understand that, okay, this word didn't exist yesterday or two years ago. And if I could ask my great-grandfather, he wouldn't have idea what some of those words are. And what words are you talking about? I mean, that is many misinformation, disinformation. you know we are right now

don't know what a woman or a man is and and you know I'm not trying to be political I'm I just try to warn everybody that who is open to it that go back to the basics and doesn't matter if you are a hockey player or you are a tile setter or home builder or whatever, just go back to the basics.

When something starts to go wrong, is take a deep breath and then, okay, what am I doing? Why I'm doing it? And what can I do to make it make sense? because anybody who's lying themselves that what we are seeing and experiencing is normal, just please try to explain to your great-grandfather who probably passed away already. And if you can't, then the bloody thing is not making any sense. So stop doing it. What do people say to that?

Pardon? What do people say to that when you tell them that? You know, I'm the guy in the speedo, so... Just for the listener, move your arm for a sec, George. He's wearing a shirt today that says, I never dreamed I'd be a super cool hockey dad, but here I am killing it. He's not in a speedo for everyone listening, but I do enjoy his shirt choice for the day.

I was talking to you on the way here. You know, one of the things I read about communism is that they try and attack, you know, the foundation of what makes a community strong. And people can argue all they like with me on this, but one of them is the family unit. And the next one is a core beliefs foundation, you know, for Western society that has been Christianity. and right now I look at it and I go well certainly you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize like Christianity is under attack like nobody's business well whether you are a Christian or not

that isn't that isn't what I'm interested in talking but what I'm interested in is just like you can see it being played out and and the next one is the family and I don't know maybe maybe you have experiences from back home maybe you don't I don't know you know I didn't realize you know, with your mom, you know, being the, you know, most important person that constructed your life, which makes completely sense, by the way. But regardless, I go, when you were in that time, did you notice anything, was that being played out in Hungary,

or was that not a thing there? Like, as a Canadian, do I sound like I'm losing my mind when I go, there's a total war on the family and try and break us up and have everybody in divorces and kids, you know, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, unfortunately, you can jam 50 years or 100 years in a little short podcast or even a long one. Sure. And that's why I urge everybody to try to learn history because apparently Napoleon said that history is just a, bunch of lies what we agreed on but other people said that history is written by the winners so learn history but but learn history with a little bit more open eye and while you can try to

talk to those people who actually lived it because what you see in the boob tube or what you see in the propaganda machine is not history, it's not a true story, it's you need to either experience it yourself on your skin or you need to try to find the people who lived it. I mean, probably nobody paid attention. I listen most of Sean's podcasts. And when you were talking to the gentleman who lived in Holland, and he was coming home from the end of the war in a rail car. Gerald. Gerald.

Yes, but regardless, underground railroad in Holland during World War II. Yes, but end of the war, he's coming home. and probably nobody paid attention to this one sentence. He said, the Germans were good. When did you hear that last time? I mean, in the last 70, 80 years, Germans, Germany, and anybody who was involved in a Second World War on the Central Powers is dehumanized and evil.

Oh, by the way, can I make a really goofy segue? Please explain to me and you can text it to Sean. Why is that that if anybody on the political stage doing something what the left does not, not like is labeled as, oh, you are a Nazi. Okay. Well, that's not nice. And the Nazis did many horrendous things.

And, you know, there is accounts of six million Jews. And we learned the six million Jews perished in the Second World War. I don't know how many times. We heard that that is 13 million dead because of Hitler and the, the, the Nazi powers and some estimates is even higher than that. I mean, a lot of people perished in the Second World War. But if somebody is a communist, and we just had the provincial election in Alberta, and there is a number of communist sympathizers in the new Democratic Party,

it wasn't a slip who are communist sympathizers but if you open up the history books you can see estimates over 100 million 200 million people who perished because of communists so if i label you a nazi that's really bad if i label you as a communist is a shrug over the shoulder When I went to school, and I understand I went to school in a different country, in a different language, but 100 was always more than 13. So please explain why the 13 million or whatever the number is, is worse than the 100 or the 200 million who perished because of the communists. if you can answer that question to yourself

heads off to you well I mean to begin with you you hit the nail on the head ready to start right like we all have in every single community across Saskatchewan Alberta

certainly probably all of Canada we have monuments raised to all the family members who went and died in World War II right like I mean it's it's it's so it hits home like immediately It's like everybody had a family member who went and fought and fought the Nazis and fought right now. Do you know the entire story? No, no.

But so how does that hit home? It hits home immediately because we were part of the allies who fought Hitler. And every community has people that perish because of that. And so right away that for Canadians has like very strong emotions. tied to it. And when it comes to communism, oh, and I should point out, so then you take the last 80 years since all that went down, and you go, what is Hollywood built itself on? People enjoy the story being retold where we beat the Nazis over and over and over and over and over again. So it's in all pop culture. It's in history textbooks. It's in, you know, like I took a World War II

class in college. It was phenomenal. It was really well, um, taught, I thought, you know, like overall. And it's not that communism gets a pass. It's that we haven't, communism kind of gets a pass. I mean, to me, because not many of us have experienced that. And I'm going to say that, and I'm going to get a bunch of texts now, because I have a bunch of people whose parents fled Russia,

fled different communist regimes, and tell them the stories and came to Canada. But the story doesn't get told that way. For some reason, communism is like this... It's a novelty and nobody really been there, right? I was going to say it's almost this progressive idea, George, that like we're all equal. And we're going to... And the way it's framed, you know, with Karl Marx and his ideas of like...

It's almost like this is like a grand utopian idea. that if it worked out right, everybody would be equal and be great, we're all kumbaya on, whatever. But then when you see communism how it played out and continues to play out, it's kind of like... Now, I'm going to offend pretty much everybody right now.

Sure. Nazi. What is Nazi stands for? It's a political party, isn't it? Yes, but it's an acronym. What is it the short form for? I know. I actually don't know. National Socialist Party.

Correct. I should have known that. My history. So national meaning it was centered around Germany. But it's a socialist movement. When supposedly, the Second World War started, September 1st, 1939. What happened?

Germany crosses the Polish border, and on September 17, they meet up with Russia. Because Russia, the communist Russia, or no, sorry, actually, that's another misleading thing. about we are equate Russia and the Soviet Union. So German army meets up with the Soviet army in middle of Poland. So the two socialist, one is national, one is communist, country invades pretty much at the very same time, Poland. They had the pactum that they won't go against war each other and they are destroying a country of about, I don't know, 40 million people in about two, three weeks.

When I pressed that supposed start of the Second World War, is because when the treaties of closing the First World War, one French general, his name is skipping my mind, but he said that this is not a peace treaty, it is ceasefire for 20 years. He said that in 1919. So the treatment of Germany, Hungary, so the Axis powers were such that it was pretty much inevitable that something will happen and something was built in.

Just like if you are a student of history, if you look at the map of, I don't know, the Middle East and see those borders between countries, which is a straight line, in the area where apparently our culture is coming from, that was the cradle Mesopotamia, that was the cradle of humanity. Humanity. Do you think that people lived in tribes along straight lines? Well, you are fooling yourself. So we are acting as, oh, I have no idea what's going on there, but those bad peoples are not getting along. Well, we kind of created that. No, we did create that. We're saying the best. So that's why I'm I always got in trouble and I mean history repeats itself or rhymes.

I got in trouble when I was 16 because I was asking on comfortable questions. I had the fortune of talking to people who didn't watch the Hollywood movies, but who experienced the Second World War and lived it. even after the Second World War. I mean, the World War ended in Europe May 8, May 7, May 9. I mean, isn't that interesting that Russia or Soviet Union celebrated the end of the World War on May 9? The Western countries marked it as May 8, but Stalin was insisting that the Germans have to surrender again, Berlin in front of the Soviets and the Soviet general who signed the treaty in the Western occupation area was actually executed after or disappeared in Soviet Russia when he signed

front of the American occupied territory and he was pulled back to Moscow and never heard of him since. So, yeah, I had a chance to talk to people. What did it, you know, it's interesting. Like, I don't know why I didn't piece this partially together about World War II. And then some of the minds you would have been able to talk to about that would have been very fascinating because of the side they were put into or how it was framed, I guess, from a Western viewpoint.

So what did they say to you? Like when you're talking to all the, you know, you said you like to ask uncomfortable questions. And I mean, certainly, I assume that's why some of what I do you enjoy, because it's certainly talking about conversations that go strictly against everything that's being pushed on society these days. Rewind the clock and go back to some of those conversations. What did they say to you? Like what stuck out to some of the men who'd fought in World War II from Hungary?

Well, Hungary was ally of Germany in the Second World War, and Hungary got into the war against the Soviet Union really in a unclear circumstance. And so there is a city northeast of the historical Hungary. And I'm trying to put this in careful way because Koshsa or Koshice is right now in Slovakia. It was part of historical Hungary, but after the Treaty of Versa, it was one of the area which became the newly created Czechoslovakia and in the second Vienna treaty it was given back to Hungary because most of the population is I mean most at the time 1938 it was over 90% populated by Hungarians So anyway, Kasha was bombed, but we still don't know who bombed it. So just another historical question where I don't think anybody can say that, oh, it was the Russians, was it the Germans?

Was it Hungary who bombed its own city just to create? Just to gaslight the people into going to war. Yeah. So Hungary lost over two-third of its territory after the Versailles Treaty. And Hungary is or was one of the oldest country in Europe, continuous statehood for about a thousand years. Germany wasn't that, France wasn't that, it was the second largest country in Europe, and the country who fought and protected Europe from the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years.

And then, as a payback, Hungary lost most of its territory, lost its sea access, and and so Hungary was fighting on the wrong side and when the Russians or the Soviets came in they occupied the country after 1945 again the deal was made in Yalta in 1943 without the Hungarians having a say of what's going to happen after the world war is over. So anyway, when you know history, well, two things happens. More you know about history less you trust the government. You can pretty much draw a triangle as the vertical is the trust in government and the horizontal axis is knowing history.

As you know more about history, your trust in government goes way there. So that's one thing. The second is always gets you in trouble. So what did I come all the way back to it? You mentioned you talked to veterans, I think, that fought in World War II from Hungary. And what did they tell you?

I wouldn't say I talked to veterans. I talk to people who plug your ear if you are uncomfortable. I talked to a Jewish shop owner who lived in eastern part of Hungary, and I asked them, so what happened? And how did you as a Jewish shop owner experience the Second World War? And so they had a little kind of corner store kind of thing. And he said, well, it wasn't easy, but I can tell you one thing. When the German guy came in, the German officer came in with his mistress or paid mistress

or whatever word you want to use. and he bought the nylons for her and paid and left. When the Russians came in with the same escort or whatever you want to... Prostitute, escorts, sure. He got the nylons and then shut up the shop. So that's one thing which you will not hear in history books. that an officer from one party acted like a gentleman, the other acted like an animal.

You, I think it was, I think it's Alex Kraner, I want to say, who's made this distinction on the podcast before, but I see you doing it again. And I'm going to point it out. You correct yourself lots when you say Russia, no, no, Soviets. What do you mean by Soviets and Russia? Oh my gosh. Okay.

I think this is the one which is going to get Sean canceled, even on Apple podcast. Just like as Hollywood was educating us that the Germans bad, uncategorically. And the Allied forces are good on categorically. We are also, I mean, you watch a Rumble movie, you watch Rocky. Who is the bad guy always? Well, usually, I mean, Ivan Drago is the big one you're talking about. What is that Rocky Four?

And he's the big Russian. And he takes all the steroids and he, or Soviet. No, exactly. Sorry, not the Russian. He's the Soviet. You're right. So the Soviet Union, in our mind is always Russia.

Well, I think, in Kraner pointed this out, if you go back, folks, and listen to one of the, I can't remember it. I think it's the first time I had them on. What you equate is Soviets, Soviets are Russians, and Russians are Soviets. But there's a distinction there. Correct?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the Soviet Union was a union of independent and I'm using air quotes republics who joined

the biggest republic Russia and they mutually accepted that the capital of Russia is the capital of the Soviet Union but I mean goofy thing

is do you know who was the first Russian ethnic leader of the Soviet Union. I feel like you're going to shock me here, but I... Can you name some Soviet leaders? Well, I mean, Stalin is the big one, right? Well, it was the first one was Lenin.

Lenin's the one who led the revolution. What we call the revolution, yes. Who was a... who was planted, but anyway, like we can we can go really really deep and long but the day is not that long so okay lenin Stalin I don't know I do you're looking at me going like I'm going I don't know what did George he majored in history great so uh now he's making fun of me that's great that's well that's why we are doing it in my house so he can't start me out of his studio

But what are you trying to point out? Are you trying to point out that we don't know a lot about the Soviets? Because when I don't know, we know only headlines. We know only labels. So many people say that even Lenin wasn't Russian. Definitely most people know that Stalin was not Russian. was from brusia right

and then the next guy who okay another historical tidbit the next guy was rouschev you know the guy who who planted the missiles in cuba and the u.s

somehow didn't really like to have in their backyard um the ability to have a missile fire at them and hit U.S. soil within whatever it was back then? Yeah. History repeats itself. Never mind. Yeah, we shouldn't talk about that.

You shouldn't talk about the fact that, you know, anyways. It's a funny little thing that, you know, like Americans certainly understand when it's close to their home, but they can't figure it out when it's the other side of the world and putting, you know, military capabilities on the doorstep of Russia. I think more and more people understand that, but it's just... Can you tell to your crime minister, who probably even 18 months ago couldn't even point out where Ukraine is? Yeah, but you've already said it. Is it Justin Trudeau who is literally pulling these strings, or is he being just, you know,

somebody behind him is moving the dice for him in or not the dice, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. or the pieces and is doing this. Like, I don't think at this point, Justin Trudeau, you know, is, I was listening to, I was listening to, and I forget his name, he's interviewed a ton of people. He's interviewed like Draco Wilnick and Jordan Peterson, and the list goes on. And he said something, and I was like, I don't know if I actually just disagree with you. And he was talking about YouTube and how he'd interviewed Andrew Tate, but he told Andrew Tate, he wasn't going to release it because if he did, he would for surely get taken off

YouTube. And he was saying this on an Instagram live. And what he said was, you know, all of us have sold a bit of our soul to be on YouTube. And I went, I've been removed from YouTube and I don't sell my soul for nothing because I think that as soon as you start doing that, that's a dangerous, dangerous game. You either speak the truth or you don't. And the truth can lead you to interesting places. And I see I'm making you squirm a little bit.

But I come back to Justin Trudeau and I go, the Ukraine thing or whatever, the climate change or whatever you want to put it on there, LGBTSL Plus. Do you actually think Justin Trudeau believes that? And I go, no. I think he is being bought and paid for. And this is what they tell him to push. And that is what he is pushing. And if I'm wrong on there, you know, by all means, George.

You know what? We can go from here 75 different. direction. Justin Trudeau believes what he says. He might. I mean, the guy is probably

not the brightest mind, but if you live in your echo chamber and everybody is just praising you, the people I'm talking who you're surrounded with who you hear

I mean, it's just Sean getting lots of praises from the tinfoil head group? Yes. Because Sean was one of those people who was at one point brave enough and bright enough to come out and say certain things what many couldn't hear anywhere else. But he is just like me. You know what I mean COVID was an interesting thing because I didn't understand what people are doing because in my little tribe it was like yeah okay well people are nuts people are really nuts and I'm not buying it we came to that very very early so does Justin Trudeau believes what he says he might

then he's done. If he doesn't and he's still doing it, then... He's evil. He has bad intention, yes. So, where were we? We were talking about this. We've bounced wrong. I was trying to get you to explain to me

Russia Soviet. And then, you know, you went on a little bit of like, well, who were the leaders and who did to do and everything else. And I was just trying to, I'd notice that, you separate them and you correct yourself over and over again when you say Russia. And then you met the Soviets. So there was the leaders of the Soviet Union, which started with Lenin and then Stalin, then Rzschov, who is Ukrainian, and Andropov, who is Ukrainian,

then Chernyenko, who is Ukrainian, and the first. first leader, I could be all that. I mean, I'm not reading the encyclopedia right now, but I believe if my information is correct, the first leader of the Soviet Union who was purely ethnically Russian was Gorbachev. And that was the end of the story. So the Gorbachev pretty much babysitted through Glasnost and Perestroika. So the two systems, Glasnost and Perestroika, probably you heard if you were old enough. That was when they started to open up both the economy and political and cultural things. And that's what kind of allowed. the Berlin Wall to fell.

That's what what is the end of the Soviet Union. So you're pointing out what you're saying, and maybe I'm getting this wrong, is once they had a true Russian leader of the Soviet Union.

I think it's just coincidence, but you learned through Hollywood movies and, and, and, that Russians are bad. And you hated the Soviets. And don't get me wrong. I mean, if you lived under the Soviet or communist boots,

you were not a fan of them. So the system what was created there is truly evil. I mean, just back to the 100 to 200 million people dead. So is it good? Hell no. I mean, uncategorically, but that's including China and, you know, the leap forward. And that's where people really need to think of the ideology of planned economy. Like you can have a great plan for just transition or whatever. this idiot is pushing right now.

But please, please, please open up history book and look at other great plans. I mean, you know the leap forward thing from China, right? Where, oh, we can feed the world better

and lifting up people and we are protecting our crops with killing this and birds and insects and whatnot, well, unintended consequences and million people die of starvation. And whoever lived in the planned economy, we had five-year plans in all Eastern Bloc countries. And it was a running joke. I mean, nothing worked. I mean, if you want to laugh at the eastern Europeans or the Russians or Soviets' expanse.

Just go on YouTube and find Reagan's making jokes about the Soviet Union. Okay, that was the planned economy. So why do you think if you live in Alberta? It doesn't matter if it's a small town of Alberta or Redmondton or whatever. Why do you think that the guy in Ottawa, and I'm not talking about the crime minister, I'm talking about some paper-pushing, highly educated guy in some back office who never seen a tractor, who never seen a shovel in his life, planning that how this new economy going to work? On paper, you can line up anything. I mean, right now, I try to make my living as a small entrepreneur, and we are doing tiling. And years ago, we had 13 by 13 and 12 by 12 tiles, what we were installing in houses, and now the tiles are bigger.

Anyway, I get this draft of in the kitchen is 13 by 13 tile and in the laundry room is 12 by 12 and the lady who made the drawing lined up the two. The grout lines were running nice and smoothly. I'm like 13 by 13 and 12 by 12 cannot meet. One grout line I probably can match in the doorway. But if your door is three feet wide, there will be two bloody grout line will not match, no matter what I do. So that's exactly what we're doing. On paper, everything works on paper.

Probably you didn't read it. The European Union just came out. and you know we are just about five years or eight years or ten years behind of the craziness of Europe sometimes so I'm sure many of your listeners heard about the protest in the Netherlands and probably you heard a lot less about the protest in Poland and Hungary against the Ukrainian grain but anyway so they just came out with a study that The 50% reduction, and this is going to sound familiar for Canadians too, the 50% reduction of fertilizers have no significant effect on production of food, on paper.

And when somebody asks, okay, but can you prove it? There is no proof. On paper, it should work. but we have no proof and that's what drives me nuts is it any of our politicians that we should go this direction

that direction okay great I mean sounds like a plan because crazy people and their crazy ideas that's why we have landed on the moon that's why we have WD40

by the way do you know why it's called WD40 There is lots of things in the name. Water, that's the W, D is dispense, and 40 is, it was the 40th try when it actually did work. So, why don't we say that, okay, if you have an idea, let's try it. You try it in a little scale. and let's see if you think that 50% reduction of of because georgens you know the world's coming to an end in three years and if we don't do this we're all going to die that's that is the that is what they're operating on they're operating on we're killing the planet and if we don't expedite this thing we're all dead anyways well when my mother went to school there was two billion people on the planet and

she was told that this is pretty much the end of it. When I went to school, there was four, five billion people on the planet, and that's pretty much the end of it. We can't have more. Now we have over 8 billion people on the planet, and apparently this is really, really the end of it. We can't have more. news for you guys in our lifetime or definitely in our kids lifetime the planet in many many many

countries going to have way less people that's why i said you you need to look at the world and through a much bigger window if you just worried about what jojty gondack is doing in calgary That's entertainment. I mean, that's, that's, that's, you know what was the best, one of the best decision we made in the last number of years? Cut the cable cord. Like, we have no cable for, I know, no number of years. And maybe I sound to you like a caveman. I think I learned more about the world since I'm not watching a 40 minutes show. in an hour and a half because of advertisements. But anyway.

So what do you think, you know, we've kind of done this little song and dance here all morning. When you come to Canadians, you know, come full circle with me, George. You know, you got all these different, you know, I've had all these different Eastern European folks come on and talk about, you know, tons of different things. What is it that you're trying to convey to Canadians to try and. and get them, whether it's to wake up, whatever terminology you want to use. But what are you trying to convey to Canadians? I don't know.

I guess is it that, you know, we're precariously close to dangerous times? Is it... We are there. We are there. And I think you as a hockey player, when you lost the third game in a row, what is your coach telling you? What are you telling your teammates? guys we need to get back to basics so we are that close that losing the next game will be the

end of the season will be the end of you and me and your family so so when you look at daniel smith winning and the conservatives are you like that bought us time or this is this is you know we're up to one and after the first period but we got two periods to play you know sticking with your hockey analogy. When you look at the election, you went and door knocked. Are you like, this was a big win? Or are you more cynical than that?

I'm not cynical. I think I'm realist. Door knocking was a hell of a interesting experience. And that could be another podcast. I'm trying to get myself invited again. So I think her winning or not her the united conservative party winning is gives us a little bit of time but it's it's not daniel smith it's not pierre poliev it's not a politician who's going to save your back half it's going to be

Sean and Joe and Jim and Jill and Eva is you and me. We need to get back to basics. We need to have a family. We need to have a lot of kids. My son just graduated and I'm listening and this guy is going to. that university. That girl is going to that university. And what I can tell you by experiences is university is great. And if that's your inclination, then go for it. And if you are made for it, then you need to study. But in the socialist nightmare, the people who saved us all was

was the car mechanic who can fix cars without too many parts. It was the electrician who can. And you know what? When nobody is learning those trades, we are my business. Tile seller as a course, to best of my knowledge, was offered at SAID back in 2002. And I could be that, but that's my last information. So if you have a tile seller, he's either very old, German, Italian,

or a somewhat recent immigrant, and in the city of Calgary, it's probably 50% of the tile sellers are Romanian. Another 15, 20% are Hungarian or Polish. And there is some Turkish guys and now more and more Chinese, but born and raised Canadians, I'm doing this for almost 20 years. I can think of a handful. Like nobody learned that trade. Nobody is doing it.

And if you go to a construction site, and I know you're about to talk to Shade Mansell, seriously, go out to a construction site. You will find that the hardwood slash vinyl plan guys are all oriental stucco guys in this city you find transylvanians and and east indians and that's pretty much end of the story and if you are one of those born and raised canadian stock co guy i'm not trying to offend you but you are rare very rare so i i had um work

here who whose wives went to Tim Hortons and first it was I don't know if we should hire them because they don't speak perfect English but then when the girls left and went back to the old country the manager was like can you find me somebody like that who shows up every day when it's scheduled shows up on time there is no silly excuses So who is doing those jobs? Because if we are keep importing people, we need more housing. If we need more housing, we need to import more people to build it. It's a vicious circle. You can look down and on the immigrants if you wish. Great. But they're helping run our country.

And you know what? Some of those immigrants, some of those cab drivers, some of those cleaners might be more educated than your son ever going to be. I mean, I know people who were a surgeon in Romania and they are doing lab technician work here. Apparently we need more doctors, but it's not recognized. Oh, it's a different education system. Okay, well, the Hungarian team of cardiac surgeon just won a competition in Europe among the European nations. And they can work anywhere in Europe. they couldn't come here.

We have some silly rules in place where, you know, we're short on skilled labor is what you're talking about. Oh, yeah. And we have a whole bunch of hoops you've got to jump through. And I've heard, I've had Americans before say, oh, it's awesome because if you're a Canadian, you know, like Americans don't have some of the similar hoops where, you know, if you get, if you're skilled labor,

you can just walk into that market and be hired, essentially. And I could be getting a bit of that wrong. But this is what I was discussed. with an American friend. He said, we're in Canada, all the skilled labor jobs go to true Canadians first. And then if you're an immigrant or you're American even, you get pushed to the back of the line. And you're like, oh, that's interesting, right? And he's like, oh, I like it because, you know, it's your home country taking your homegrown talent. But what you're talking about is, yeah, but we're short on everything. And instead of just hiring doctors from

hungry, we're saying they don't have the right education. And I'm sure there's a little more to the discussion than that. But it is interesting because right now, you know, in health care in particular, you know, and yeah, we get to the point in COVID where we're, you're unvaccinated, out the door we don't want you. Meanwhile, we're suffocating or drowning and we don't have enough people in that workforce. We're going to make a medical decision choice saying you didn't do this, you're gone, you know? The government has done a lot. of strange things. I don't think you're going to get any argument from me or the audience on that. And when it comes to immigration, you make me want to go to a work site, George, and actually

just take a peek around. I actually haven't really, you know, paid attention. And that's an interesting It's very tribal. And, you know, I don't know what Lloydminster looks like, but I'm going on job sites or work sites the last almost two decades. At one point, all the siding guys were Quebecois. And the siding guys, you hear French. You go to a house where the hardwood floor is being laid. It's very likely Asians. painters, Hungarians, tile setters, Romanians, and, you know, every, and there is overlap.

But you go to a job site in Calgary. You can hear all different languages. Language is working. Yeah. So when you look at, you know, when I bring this back to what we're, what initially got set on this, you go, where you're heading to in Canada is a lack of skilled labor. and if you have a lack of skilled labor, things aren't going to work right

because there's nobody there to fix it and keep it running and maintain it and et cetera and build the houses or build this or build the cars because everybody's moving away from what makes a society operate, which is the, you know, how many people did the plumber save, you know, being able to, or how many people did electricians by bringing in light and heat and all the skilled labor that.

Electrician is a protractive. trade like you can't be an electrician unless you have Canadian schools just like you can't be a car mechanic I mean this is how great plant system works my example in 1995 I came to this country and I came the proper route in 95 I paid $1,500 to apply no no promises made no nothing $1,500 growing up in Eastern Europe was a shitload of money. In 1995, $1,500 was a lot of money even here. So I applied to became a landed immigrant. I get maximum points because of my trades.

I was a car mechanic by trade, a body worker. I also studied vehicles in the army and I was trained in Germany by Bosch, you know, fuel injections, traction control. So I get maximum points for my trade. I get here, oh, you can't work in this. I'm like, okay, do I have to take a test? No, you have to go back to trade school for four years. I'm like, okay, my English is not good enough. I can get that and maybe I can learn the trade-specific English.

No, no, no, you can't work unless you go back to school for four years. At that point, I was around six years studying nothing but vehicles. I finished in the old country and please don't tell me, go back to your old country. I'm not interested. I spent most of my adult life in this country. So I'm as Western Canadian as Albertan as probably you are. So anyway. Do you know who my audience is?

I don't think any of them are telling you to go back anywhere, George. Oh, come on. We have teachers in this province who... Sure, but they don't listen to the Sean Newman podcast. Okay. anyway but yes anybody who is not falling line and doesn't matter where you are in the world is if you don't follow the narrative or you are uncomfortably talking out then go back to your old country whatever where was I well you're just explaining how you were

basically a skilled you know you'd spent your life around vehicles cars auto mode of manufacturing and you got here and we're repairing repairing and got here and we're told that listen you're not you know it doesn't matter what you have you need this yes and if you don't get this paperwork that you can't you can never work in this industry yes and uh you know i'm i finished in the top three in my education uh outstanding student of profession I worked in a shop with actual vehicles, not on paper, but apparently I wasn't good enough to take a test, even though probably I could have teach some of the things.

That must have been very frustrating, I assume. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you are immigrating to a new country, or even if you just change city, you need to find your ways and the last thing you have is time to relearn things which you already know I mean you you as an immigrant you have to make a living to survive so back to where is is any politicians going to save us no it's going to be you me and and your neighbor take care of yourself. I mean, did healthcare work? No. Did people get really sick who took care of

themselves? No. If you listen to your grandmother's advice that, you know, have sunshine, have vitamin D, have balanced diet, have check certain things, then if you took care of yourself, then you can take care of your family. If you can take care of your family, then you can help somebody else too. We need to build this tribe back up again. And don't wait for politicians. They are just going with the wind,

going with the overturn window. If one of the other podcasts you were talking about, the pendulum swinging, or whatever. The pendulum ain't going to swing back unless somebody is pushing or pulling. So you know what? Get out there. Get busy. Get involved because the crazies are pushing in one direction and one direction only, but they are pushing and pushing for decades. And you awake or or waking up, hoping for the best, ain't going to do anything unless you get out of your chair

and actually go to a meeting where the local board of the party of your choice is selected. And then you can start to influence policy. But if you are talking to your friends, you know I have bad ideas okay I hash it out with somebody and oh that's not right

I can correct but if if you are just waiting for the new 10 commandment coming down on the mountain it ain't going to come or if it's coming it's too late

so you need to get involved and you know there was so many things I wanted to talk about you know about country and and Alberta and Alberta's place in the world it all does not matter if you're

if you sit on the sidelines and wait for somebody else to go do it yeah now it's you know what are you in Canada are you a Canadian okay great I'm I'm even though I talk with an accent even though I was born in another country I'm Albertan and to me my local area is much more important than than the Ottawa Montreal corridor or or Newfoundland and all that

I mean you know what take care of yourself take care of your family take care of your own neighborhood and and i think alberta is big enough that you don't need jordan peterson says don't change the world clean up your room and you know your if your room is loidminster or or whatever that's that's just think globally i mean know know what you going on in the world but act locally and that's actually the total inverse of what the day are doing they they act like they want to change the world but they want to get into your life get in your house in your bedroom in your head well invert that well i really appreciate you uh have me all over and sitting down and doing this, George.

I hope you've enjoyed it. You know, you took some convincing folks, but he slowly started to smile, you know, instead of being terrified of it. I think you're ending on a very sound point, you know? Jordan Peterson talks an awful lot about it. That's the one that I agree with you, right? Like, don't go try and save the world.

How about you start with just clean up your bedroom? Maybe if you can do that, maybe then you can, you know, you can move on to a little bit bigger. Maybe, maybe, you know, and he's using the bedroom, and then he's talking about the house. And, you know, maybe if you get your life in order, maybe then you can, you know, start to enact some things in your community that are good for other people. And maybe if you get that in order, maybe then you can go to bigger and bigger things. But you don't just jump to trying to attack the world's problems when, you know, you're letting problems enact themselves out in your own room or your own house, your own family, or your own community.

And I think it's a really, a really sound thought at the end of this. and, you know, just appreciate you sitting down and doing this, George. Thank you.