the zurkie show - if you’re scared for the future, start caring

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

we need empathy.don't let anyone tell you otherwise.although it's not happening to you now... doesn't meant it won't.sending you all lots of love and peaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!https://linktr.ee/thezurkieshow

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raise your kids in. Every kind of precursor from history is showing up tenfold. And in an odd way, we are all blind to it, myself included. We're afraid to speak out on things because all of a sudden our personal beliefs affect our jobs and our educational security. It's a weird time to be alive where you feel like somebody is watching you all the time. And it's almost better to stay silent in your mind than speak out against people being treated in. humanely, which is what we are experiencing at a huge level. Here in the United States, we're having a lot of issues with our administration. I don't know if you're watching from abroad or if you are watching from the U.S., wherever you

land politically. People are not happy. And there's a lot of fear. I think it's the first time that we have ever really feared a governmental structure. And it's not even a fear of like, what will they do to us? You know, are they going to fly the chopper and let a rain? on Orlando, Florida. It's more of a fear of

where is all this going? I used to have faith in some kind of system. I used to pledge allegiance to the flag every single day in a classroom that looked very different from me. People from backgrounds, their parents from Mexico,

people from backgrounds, their parents from Haiti. People, you know, their backgrounds from Poland, right? All these kids in one room, I guess, subscribing to an ideal of what it meant to be an American citizen. But let's just go past America. What does it mean to be a human being on this planet?

Because it seems like a lot of it is engulfed in shame. You feel shameful when you have desires for more because of how many people have so little. You feel shameful to want to strive for, I don't know, more education. And sometimes you even complain about it, right? Oh, my goodness, I can't believe that I have this college thing to get done. And there are people that don't even know how to read or write still.

One thing I have noticed, which is kind of concerning me more than anything else, is that people do not have empathy in the way I think they once did. And I think it's because we have strategically been pushed to not educate ourselves on other perspectives. It started with the elimination of reading, which is something that has been happening for a while now. And I've talked about this, you know, on my show. But reading is the ultimate form of resistance. if you are unhappy with how the world is going at large, which I think should be each and every one,

every single one of us, read, read a lot of books, read books that interest you. You don't need to read Machiavelli. You don't need to read, you know, Shakespeare right away. Read things that interest you and read things that have some kind of storyline.

So you can empathize. So you can get invested in a character and empathize. This is lacking. People are not engaged in other people's lives. You see it with your friends. When you talk to somebody, do they really care about what's going on in your life? Or are they just waiting for their turn to speak? I think that this is happening because the more that we disengage with each other, the easier it is to just make it seem like all of this is normal. And you got to go to work tomorrow and there's there's less time and less bandwidth in your mind to question the reality that you're in now i recognize that it is a privilege to have the time to read it is a privilege to have

the time to worry i made an episode about that not too long ago right about worrying keeps you in this pit man it's a privilege to be here to exist here and if you have it available to you why would you not do it rose in lasagna medium power 15 minutes Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-O-Joe, the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woo-hoo! Feel the fun, play Ojo.

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Please sit and sip. Play. Post. Taste. View and enjoy. Via rail. Love the way. What concerns me is that we're not learning from history. And instead we're learning from what is being fed to us right now on a day-to-day basis. That's out of our control that we don't even put in the brain power to look up ourselves.

We are kind of being, we're being used for our empathy. empathy in ways that go towards your favorite streamer of like, wow, we hit a million subs. We're being forced to use empathy on very shallow wells, where I think empathy is needed the most in people that you disagree with. People that are the way they are because they haven't seen empathy from others. and most importantly, like our own selves. I had somebody comment recently, and my girlfriend, about the fact that I will limit my, like, self-care, and I will not empathize with my own self.

I will treat myself like I am some kind of robot that needs to do work, and instead I will use my empathy and put it on another person, right, and be like, that is more important. And I think that the minute that we are not able to tend to our own selves and we just flood other people with unwanted empathy, that can also be bad. It can actually be very terrible. But naturally, if you kind of tend to yourself and you figure out, wait a minute, like, these things are affecting me. The way in which I interact with the world around me is kind of affecting me. I want to speak out about it.

I want to say something. It frees you of this guilt and shame. Because I think a guilt comes from the fact that you know you are ignoring something. The fact that you know you're going against how you actually feel and your conscious is screaming at you. Like, do something. Say something. Call your friend that you haven't talked to in a while. Like, man, go to the gym for the first time in a while. It's okay. Go play that soccer game. Take a break. You don't need to be working on this paper every single day. You can relax a little bit.

And actually you need to do that. And that pressure, it builds up to a point where it starts to inhibit our own, like, perspective. Instead of feeling guilt, we live in guilt. We live in shame. And these are things that rule over people's lives. I think a lot of us have shame from maybe the way our parents react. to our mistakes when we were younger. And I think a lot of us have shame as to the mistakes that we made when we were younger, too,

in our own lives and how they hurt other people. And I think we're seeing right now a lot of people they feel wronged. And because they feel wronged by a lack of empathy, their guilt and shame goes out the door because it enables them to terror. terrorize the people they think terrorized them or somebody else. It's just another form of bullying Someone who is bullied is more prone to bully right someone who Bullies themselves is more prone to bullying others and I just think that right now we're we're in a position where bullying is the norm. It's not called that

It's you know goes under hundreds of different needs names, but if you're doing an action that you know is going to harm somebody else and you still go through it, I really, I really need you to question your morality. Why are you doing these things? Why do you hold beliefs against other people who have made mistakes? Why do you hold beliefs against, you know, things you can't control? Why does body count matter so much to you? Why does, well, they came here illegally, matter so much to you? And why do you only have that one perspective on everything? Have you talked to somebody who's been affected by what's going on in the world?

Not even just now, but at large. Or do you sit in your own bubble? It's something that I've had to realize, and it's something that comes with a lot of guilt. but when I recognize it and I empathize with it and I say, okay, I am someone who's been cocooned. I am somebody who grew up in the suburbs and doesn't understand certain things about other experiences. This is an opportunity for me to learn. I'm not going to let somebody belittle me for it. I'm going to be honest about it. And in the same way, there will be people that will disrespect you for your wanting to learn. That happens. Those aren't people you should listen to.

and they don't represent a whole group of people. We're seeing this lack of empathy cause division in every single category of life. Rich, poor, man, woman, womans. In general, anything you can think of that there are two sides on, it is affecting all of it. And I'm, listen, I'm not somebody that's like, we need to let go of everything. we need to make peace because I think that that can be foolish too. That can be a cope. But what I am saying is that a lot of us have to empathize with our own selves before we're

able to actually look at the things that are going on in this world and understand them fully. That's what stresses me out a little bit is that I don't think people are doing that enough. And I wonder why that is. From the people you know in your life that haven't extended the same grace, to you as they do to other people. Why has that been the case? Is it because they have a certain perception of you? Is it because they're just flat out discriminating against you? That happens too, right? They just don't like you because they don't like you. Some people you can't change their mind. They have such a deep lack of empathy that no matter what you will tell them, what facts you will give

them, what you will try to change about the way that they're viewing the world through their lens, they'll say, nah, nope. Part of being an adult in this world is knowing what battles are worth fighting. You won't be able to change everyone's mind. And this even goes past, you know, politics, past any kind of current event stuff, right? You can't change somebody's mind about you romantically. by trying, by forcing. You can't.

I'm of the belief that you can't. Maybe you've had a different experience. If somebody will view you in that light, it is entirely up to them. It's not up to you. And there, I think, is also this obsession with trying to make people like you, right? That's how you Riz. That's how you get somebody. There is only one version of you.

and the more time you try to spend being somebody else trying to play yourself up as someone you're not you are missing out on the time that you could be yourself and attract somebody that will like you for who you are and if you think that who you are right now is unlikable then i think there is a problem at the core in which you do not like yourself maybe there are self-limiting belief Maybe there's something there that you need to kind of address a little bit more concretely. Maybe it's a weight problem. Hi, I've had that issue. Or maybe it's the fact that you just haven't put yourself out there.

What is that means, Zerky? It means that you haven't had the evidence to back up the fact that you actually are liked by people. You can make people laugh. You can make people smile. You're good to be around, right? Because if we don't have that evidence, it's hard to believe it. I mean, it's one thing when your grandma says, oh, you are so. cute and so beautiful and it's different when a crush tells you hey i think you're cute two different

things right but you need to have the willingness to go out and build that evidence if you don't it's going to be hard for you to find anything and to go off of anything but i think so many people try to instead build themselves into an aesthetic into a skin of sorts like in you know fortnight or something and go up and do the rising. And that can work. It can open the door, sure. But if there's no personality for somebody to latch on to, it's going to, it's going to fall. It won't last. And maybe this is kind of the thing that we're experiencing now. It all comes full circle. people do not want to make anything last anymore. We treat ourselves in such a cheap, quick way, right?

Quick dopamine, quick fixes, bad habits, we enable it. And this cascades and falls onto the rest of how society operates. I think that there is now a focus on making as much, money as possible, as many things as possible. We forget about the quality and craftsmanship. And it worries me because where is the humanity in that? Like, I want to be able to wear a t-shirt more than two times without it ripping. I want to be able to have some jeans that can sit on my bunda for like three years, not three months. and in a similar sense, I want to have friends that I can call on for the rest of my life,

not just because we were at the same networking event. None of this is making sense. And I think it is because we have convinced ourselves, that's just what it is, bro. But it's not. It's not. And it doesn't have to be. We're choosing it because it's an easy option. We have it readily available, right?

But I don't think we understand. truly the weight of what we can do. As a generation, as an individual person, have you even pushed yourself to a limit where you have accepted another perspective? Someone told you you can work harder. Somebody told you you can make more friends. Somebody told you that you can be prettier.

Uh-oh. And instead of having your ego yap at you and say, wow, if they were really my friend, they wouldn't have said that. And you take the feedback. And you say, oh, okay, maybe if I did kind of take care of my skin a little bit better, I could look prettier. And that would actually help my confidence.

It wouldn't even be for some other guy or some other girl, just for me. I want to look prettier. I want to look better. Right? Instead, what happens is we just look for quick solutions. We look for things that feed our ego. And it's led us to this point. where it's just like, bro, you turn on any kind of media at any time and you're just bombarded with how selfish and terrible this world is and how we are being, we're being robbed of a future.

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Stresses me out, man. I want to live somewhere that's beautiful. You know, we already have the wonderful thing of that on planet Earth, right? I mean, have you been to Birmingham?

UK. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. Oh, man. Yeah, UK, you guys need to find some kind of solution to all that rain, bro. I'm not even going to hold you. You got like, do some, I don't know what you could do even. Maybe you guys got to build like a fake son. Hey, big ups the UK though for the one time, man. Shout out Emery, my editors from the UK. We can't let it happen. And I think that we've kind of been doing that. And I'm part of the problem and I hope that these videos make a change in that way because I do really think if we want to make this societal change that has been brewing for like the past couple of decades it does really start from self-awareness and you know what I just want you to know you listening to my show

you are ahead of I would I wouldn't be surprised if it's like 80% of the population in terms of just being aware of your own emotions, how exterior things affect your own emotions, affect your mind and how you perceive things, and the fact that you're still willing to stay optimistic through all of it, that's special, man. I'm really proud of you for it. It's not something that happens often. And what is the easier choice is to just kind of go with how things are going, complain about it, and not try to find your own, your own. your own version of the truth, I guess, which for everyone is very, very subjective and just personal, right? I'll leave this off saying this.

You shouldn't feel shameful for your mistakes. You shouldn't feel guilty for the fact that maybe you treated people wrong. And you weren't the best friend. And maybe you weren't the best person. And you had beliefs that were discriminatory, rude, upsetting. don't let somebody tell you you can't change and you can't move past that and it goes both ways you have to accept people where they're at and how they act now and what i think has caused the most damage is people are still holding on to each other's past and how they used to think and what

they did when all that matters is now and i get certain certain damage right like patterns of damage. It's hard to get away from and it's hard to just be like, no, I'm just going to forget that. You cheated on me seven times, obviously. But if we want to get rid of what's going on right now, we need to be way more empathetic to the fact that people change. People need time. And your version of perfection that you hold as a standard over yourself and over other people, people, it's not realistic to how this world works. The more gracious that we're going to be able to be with each other, the better we're going to be able to fight against all of these things that are causing us so much pain, dude.

And we've got to protect each other. And that comes from having the empathy and the work that you've done within yourself to be able to lend a helping hand to somebody else, Zerki Show. I hope your day is going well. This episode's on a little bit of a more somber note. but it's been waiting on me a little heavy. I hope everyone's staying safe. Everyone's good out there.

Throughout all the noise, throughout all the things, just know that I care about you. Keep learning. Keep challenging your perspective. And keep socializing with people, your age, older, and younger. Keep talking. The minute that we no longer talk is the minute that the society erupts.

And it's over. So keep talk toying. A little throwback reference if you got that. Today's episode of The Zirky Show was filmed in beautiful Orlando, Florida here on the lake. If you want more of the Zirky Show, just know it's the Zirky Show everywhere you go all over the globe. Same title. We've got people everywhere on every platform. Thank you for staying tapped in.

If you're trying something new, just know that I believe in you. you do the things that bring you joy. And as always, Zirky Show, this has never changed and it never well. I'm sending you lots of love and peace. Also, I got the Windows XP on. Hold on, I want to show you this. What? Check it out, man.

This reminds me of the old PC I used to play Minecraft on. This is crazy. It would crash all the time. Anyways, peace.