IGNORANCE IS BLISS: The same joke in the Philippines would get you killed in the States

A chill Sunday morning watching an MMA card on Netflix, then the mood flips when a realistic-looking shotgun gets waved around in a packed restaurant. I break down why that split-second shock hits hard, how PTSD and situational awareness shape daily life in the Philippines, and why reckless “jokes” and risky driving can keep stress levels high.

• Reactions to Netflix’s first MMA fight stream and the quick finishes 
• Situational awareness habits from military and deployments 
• A fast food worker brandishing a toy shotgun and why it is not funny 
• How our brains process threat cues before facts catch up 
• Differences between US and Philippines gun violence and public response 
• Why hyper vigilance affects where we sit, how we move, and how often we go out 
• Driving behavior that triggers anger and erodes trust fast 
• Choosing isolation and staying home as a way to avoid escalation

Let me know what you think. 

Do you think the fast food worker was reckless? Do you live here in the Philippines? 

A lot of people in different countries listening to this, but if something like that happened in the country you live in, what would be the consequences?

Transcript

Netflix MMA Fight Reactions

Heat, Aircon Bills, And Halo-Halo

SPEAKER_01 0:08

You were listening to the objective jerk, and I am said jerk. So I just had this guy brandish a shotgun in the restaurant I was eating at earlier. That was cool. Yeah, I'll talk about that more later. What's up? How's everybody doing? Is everybody doing well? Anyone watch the fight? That's originally what I was gonna talk about, and then this stupid thing. Or maybe I'll just get through. I don't know. I think I'm gonna talk about it longer than I will. So I'm trying to get my notes to see what I was gonna talk about. I think that's for another time. So I'll talk about today, my day. So for me, the fight was this morning. So it's Sunday morning for me. And so while everybody else is like, you know, drinking beer and whatever, and this and that, I'm I'm drinking coffee while I watch the fight on Netflix, the first MMA fight on Netflix. So it's kind of cool. I'm not gonna pay I'm not gonna pay pay-per-view to watch UFC. I'm just not. I do kind of want to start watching one championship, which is the the Asian, you know, area, so that makes more sense for where I'm at. Because for one, I can watch things at night instead of the morning, although I kind of like doing stuff in the morning anyway. But you know, I wouldn't mind having like a little scotch or something while I watch a game, or maybe I don't know, sometimes, but but yeah, so watch that. It wasn't you could tell there was you know a little bit of a learning curve. There's lots of little audio discrepancies and little, you know, little tiny, like you know, people are supposed to walk out and they don't, or that's time, you know, they're off, they're supposed to walk, they stop, or they start to walk and they're like, Oh, can't walk yet, they go back, you know. And I'm talking about the fighters when they're getting ready to so just like little stuff like that, you kind of notice. And then for me, the commercial breaks, which so when I, you know, when I clicked on it, or probably anybody who clicked on it, it was saying it said, and I hadn't seen this before, or I hadn't noticed it before. It said that this event is part of your subscription, but includes paid advertisement or paid promotional material or something like that, right? So I was like, Man, what the hell? Paying, and then it's gonna have commercials and crap, but it didn't have the commercials, it just had like a little screensaver with a countdown, which is I'm guessing people in the states or another countries probably had some sort of commercials or something at that point. But for me, where I was at, they didn't they didn't have it, so it was just so whatever, I guess. But but yeah, it was it was it was cool. It was man, it was quick. It was like what the first three fights were done in the first round, knockouts, and then Diaz at least went to a second round, but then he got cut so bad, so that it got stopped, which kind of sucked. And then man, the the Corano and Rousey fight happened pretty much as you would expect, I guess. I mean, you hoped for something else. I mean, as a fan, that sucked, right? She just immediately goes in, gets the arm bar, done. But from a fighter's perspective, or from her perspective, it was a smart move, you know what I mean? But from you know, I'm fairly certain that the people in charge of MVP or whatever were a little not too happy that the fight didn't go on a little longer, you know. But I mean, given Rhonda Rousey's history when she's kind of tried to take it to staying on her feet and and doing that, she got her ass whooped, you know what I mean? So I mean it was it was a smart move for her, but as far as like selling a product and stuff like that, I don't I don't know. I don't know, I don't know what the if it was like, hey, can you guys at least do this for so long? Or if they just was like, hey, do whatever. I don't know. I'm kind of thinking that was the case. I think I don't think they were like, hey, try and stay on your feet for the first whatever. Because yeah, it was just like she immediately like spear, speared her, took her down, got her an arm bar, boom, it was over in like 14 seconds if that. So it was not surprising, it was disappointing, but also understanding at the same time. Does that make any sense? You know, you hoped for more of a battle. I wanted to see Gina Carano, you know, do some of her shit a little bit, but I'm it's you know, maybe if if Rana Razi would have stayed on her feet, Gina would have got her, you know. I wonder if they'll do another one, maybe. Maybe they'll do a part two. Anyway. So yeah, so there was that. And then so it's pretty hot here right now in the Philippines. It's it's like full on summertime right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Excuse me. So I don't excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

I don't want to it's kind of hard to to really do anything. It's just so hot, you know. You just want to sit in front of a fan or air conditioning. More so a fan because I got my electric bill yesterday and it was pretty damn high, because whatever.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Anyway.

Restaurant Situation Awareness And The Shotgun

SPEAKER_01 6:04

So my wife was like, hey, let's go get some halo holo, which is like I talked about before. It's like the Filipino kind of dessert kind of thing. And we get it from this restaurant that's kind of like a it's a cross between like a McDonald's and a and a Panda Express, I guess you could. It's called Chao King, so it's basically like fast food Chinese food. But it's I think the food is better than you know, McDonald's or or what Jolly Bee or whatever. So we went there and we're eating, and I always sit with my back to the wall so I can see everything that's going on. You know, whether that's because I was in the military or I was law enforcement in the military or because of my deployments, whatever. You know, a lot of people who've experienced, you know, certain threats, you know, on a regular basis, you know, you kind of you end up, you know, living your life even if there are no threats. But today, as we were sitting there, were we eating yet? Yeah, I think we did have our food. I think we just sat down and started eating. So we're sitting there, and I'm pretty situational awareness. I'm on my phone a little bit, but not much. I don't really, I'm not really on my phone that much out in public. I'm always just kind of looking around. I'm not like the Terminator, like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. But I mean, you know, I'm looking around, looking at people outside, the car, you know, just that kind of crap. And we're sitting there and like where our booth is at, we're right up against like the window on the on the that separates the restaurant from the drive-thru. And then my back is against, I guess, part of the bathroom or some I don't know what's behind me, but so I can see basically the whole restaurant and the front, and then part of the drive-thru, right? And so we're sitting there and an individual who at the time appeared to be an employee or some kind of worker picking up garbage because he pulled up in like like a motorcycle talk talk thing, which is like a thing I drive. It's kind of hard to really explain this to people. But you guys seen like the Indian have those little three-wheeled cars, Indiana Jones movie, the last one, which I didn't see. The RE, the Bajage, that's what you know, it's similar to that, but it's more, it's like part motorcycle, it's like a flatbed motorcycle, like trike, you know, a three-wheeled motorcycle trike, you know, with a flatbed on the back. I guess that's a better explanation of it. So he pulls up, and I see him step inside, grab a trash can, and he's putting the trash in, you know, in the little motorcycle thing. And I'm just, you know, I'm not at this point, I'm not like thinking anything. I'm just watching him eating, whatever, this and that. And then he's doing some stuff, and then he grabs what looks like a shotgun, like a pistol grip shotgun. And I'm like, is that a fucking shotgun? And for like a split second, and then it's like he's kind of laughing. I can see it's like it's not legit, but he grabs the shotgun and he like it's a toy, I'm assuming, but it looks like a real one, and it looks like a one that is carried by the a lot of security guys here in the Philippines. And he he like points it at like his co-workers, he's like, and they laugh and whatever he puts in there and he goes away, right? And I was like, that dude just like because my wife heard me say, like, shot, you know, she heard me like say to myself, is that a shotgun? And I was like, dude, he's got a shotgun or a toy or something, and then you know, it was pretty quick, and you know, but then it was like she turned around, she saw, she's like, What the crap? And so he, you know, put it away and he drove past us down the the drive-thru. And so then my wife was like, she, you know, she spent some time in the States, been around me. She's lit, she's worked for the government, so she's gotten a lot of active shooter training and various things like that, too. So she's you know, she's a little more in the know when that with that stuff, and so she went up to you know and asked to talk to the manager to tell him what was going on, you know, and I guess they were they thought it was funny, they didn't, whatever, this and that. But so my wife is flipping out. I I wasn't flipping out, but you know, my you know, I went from normal whatever to like heightened, I don't know, you know, it's like you see something like that, and it was only for like a second, it was like a split second, like oh shit, something's going on. Let's you know, like I I picked up on it pretty quick that it wasn't any kind of like real threat. Now, I mean, if if I wasn't watching the guy and I was something else, and I looked right when he was pointing it at, you know, and I was thinking like a shot, you know, it could have been different, or if I was right next to him, I'm you know, and saw it like at the last second and maybe try and grab it from him or whatever, and like, what the fuck is a toy? Or I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Not that I'm like, you know, John Ramble or anything, but the only thing I have is a knife on me, which isn't anyway. God, I'm getting all kinds of like messages.

Why Gun Threats Feel Different Here

SPEAKER_01 11:52

But so, you know, she's talking to them, and she's like, it doesn't appear to be, you know, like they don't think it's whatever. They don't think it's a big deal, and then but and my wife is like thinking about what she's gonna probably let the police know. Oh my gosh, dude. It's I set my my camera up front to notify me when when there's a person in the thing, and my wife's you know, and okay, I'm trying to I listen to my podcast and I and I and I say this all the time, but it's like I'm really trying not to get through what I'm trying to say so fast because I'm just like, uh blah blah blah, you know the thing. Anyway, um, so I I have a camera out front and I turned on a settings to notify me when it picks up a person in the front of my yard, you know, the front gate. And so my wife is out there right now talking with her cousin, so they're walking around and they keep you know setting the thing off. So that's what keeps kind of going off. I know there's a lot of times like I'm I don't want to explain what I'm trying to explain, even though I started to explain what I was gonna explain, and then I never finish it. So I'm really trying not to do that. Anyway, but the reason I do that though is so I don't lose I don't lose track of what I was talking about. But anyway, so you know, so it so my wife goes and asks for the manager. The manager does come and he and he brings the guy that that did it, and she proceeds to yell at him and Ilocano, blah blah blah blah. And you know, I don't know exactly what she said, but I think she was just like, you know, public place, you should be doing that, whether it's a toy or not. You know, my husband's you know, veteran with PTSD, he sees that and it's like just you know, kind of explaining how it's kind of not cool, and and they apologized at the end, you know. And that was it. My wife was more mad than I was, you know, like for a second, I was like, oh shit, but then it went away and I realized okay. But I mean, it's it kind of just it I was thinking about it, like it's kind of I mean it's it's retarded to to do that. I mean it's easy for me to say that growing up in the states where more people have guns and you know they're active I thought I'd turn this down.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Man, what's the crap too?

Living With Hypervigilance In Public

SPEAKER_01 14:37

You know, and there's a lot of active shooter incidents in the states, right? Some of them are real, some of them are fake, but they do happen. And it's you know, it's kind of I guess unfair to really criticize the people here in that regard, because it's just it's different here, you know. But with that said though, I mean they do have they have things that happen here, you know. There was a year ago, I talked about it on my podcast, there was Brongay Captain who was gunned down by some some people, like down the highway a ways, you know, and we we went we drove by it like probably a half hour or after it happened, there were still bodies in the truck, there's bolt holes all over, and you can see blood, and you know what I mean? Like it was a massacre. So I mean the stuff happens here, but it's not it's not the same as in the States, you know. You get a lot of like kids who are just fucked up or whatever it is, and they want to go and teach some bullies a lesson or whatever. But here, you know, there are there is gun violence and whatever there are criminals who have guns, and and you know, case in point, the shooting I was just talking about, but it's it's like a it's a it's a hit though. Like people, you know, guns for hire. Like that's my wife is always telling me, like, when we're driving through certain areas, you know, this this area here is known for you know contract killers, basically, like people who will kill somebody for money, you know. They you know aren't necessarily a professional or even experienced, but they're just willing to do it. And so it happens, you know. I talked about the lady on the bus, but it was somebody that knew her that were trying to get him out, you know. So just like a random act of shooter, which that happens more in the States, you know, where it's just somebody goes somewhere and starts shooting people, he has no idea or who they are, you know. So here it's like usually it's there's more of a reason, I guess you could say. But I mean, down south, obviously you have a lot of Islamists, you know, they're blowing up, shooting stuff. And then here you do have the NPR, the communist kind of group that were like a problem back in the day. They're still around, but they don't really do anything anymore. At least not on a big scale, large scale. But then, you know, at the college that my son goes to, they had somebody call in saying they're gonna like shoot to school, you know, an active shooter kind of thing. And they've had bomb threats. I think it's just people trying to get out of doing like they weren't ready for some assignment or something, and so they call that in to get out of it. I don't know, or you know, people just trying to, I don't know, who knows? Just stupid shit, you know. And but I don't know, it's just so it's like I'm trying to understand, like the, you know, this this dude. I don't know, it's just it's it would even with everything I just said, it is kind of stupid what he did. Especially when the when the restaurant is like full of people, you know. I mean, if it's like I mean it's not cool regardless, but to me, it'd be more understandable if it was late at night, no one's you know, eating in the restaurant, they're cleaning up, getting ready to close, and you know, maybe somebody came in at the last minute and happened to see something or whatever, and that's when he was doing it. You know, hey, it's stupid, but okay, whatever. It's but doing it in the middle of the day when there's people there, it's like, what the fuck are you thinking, dude? Like that was pretty ignorant, but you know, that's why they say ignorance is bliss, man. Like this guy has no idea how stupid that was, you know, because he just lives in his own world and doesn't pay attention to the news or whatever. Because he's ignorant and you know, he's probably much happier. You know, I don't know. It's just it's just kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Yeah, the whole ignorance is bliss thing is is it's true, you know. But so that I don't know. Like I'm getting I'm getting a lot better with but I don't know.

Driving Culture And Road Rage Triggers

SPEAKER_01 19:46

The thing that sucks is like every time we do go to places, you know, I sit in certain places for that reason, and I'm always like thinking about okay, if somebody comes in, you know, what what what can I do? What are we gonna do? And I actually was like when we were sitting there, where we were at, it's like, okay, I can see stuff coming, but I can't really get to anything quickly. Like, I'm kind of so it probably would have been better. And I thought about this because I sat in a booth in the corner. There's a table that goes to the bathroom or whatever, so it's like, okay, so if we're sitting here and somebody comes in, we can at least kind of get behind some cover pretty quick. But then I was like, eh, whatever. But then this guy, the shotgun, and it's like, oh shit, and then you know, I don't honestly, I don't even know if it was a toy or if it was real. Um, it probably was. I'm assuming it was a toy. He probably found it, I don't know, laying around somewhere, and so he was like showing it to his friends. Oh, look at I don't know. He thought it was funny. But yeah, it does kind of sucks though. Like it's like that's kind of this that's why I don't really go out. I don't go out much becoming a glorophobic oh man, I don't have my phone. Is that what it is? I think I said that before. Glorophobia, right? Is the fear of going outside.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

But it's not like I'm afraid, I don't know. It's just it's just crap like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

But I actually plus the way they drive, dude, Filipinos, man. You guys suck at driving. Dude, the other day, yesterday, I know I talk about this a lot, but this is a prime example, right? So yesterday morning or late morning, I was leaving the gym, and so I'm pulling out of the gym parking lot, which and onto the road, which is the highway, the one single highway that runs up and down, you know. Yes, there are many roads in like little towns or cities or some farmlands, but there's not like okay, I'm gonna go up Main Street. Oh, Main Street's blocked. Okay, I'm gonna go down two blocks and go up something Avenue, Pacific Avenue, whatever, right? No, that doesn't exist. You got highway two, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

And gosh. Awesome. Good times. So I'm getting ready to pull out and take a ride.

What Would Happen Where You Live

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Onto the highway, and you have like a shoulder part for people to park, and then you have a little bit of the shoulder where like the mopeds and the tricycles, especially the slow ones that they drive on, and then you have the road, you know, which is going to the right, which is the way I'm going. So there's two cars parked right there on the shoulder, so I had to kind of you know creep out a little bit so I could look down and see if there was anybody, any mopeds or any tricycles coming up the shoulder, so I could just pull out, and then I usually drive down the shoulder because I'm turning. It's just like, you know, I don't know, 50 feet away, not even that. Yeah, probably about 50 feet, I guess. And so I I, you know, I creep out, I pull out, I'm looking, I'm looking, okay, it's clear, and then I I hit the gas, and then I immediately like I have to jam on the brake because some dipshit is driving the wrong way on the shoulder. So he's driving this way, so he's going the opposite direction on the shoulder area, and it's like, dude, what the fuck? It's like it's this crap right here, man. It's these things like this that just I don't know. You know, my my my son's like, man, he's like, Dad, you gotta get he's like, you gotta find yourself a good friend, a good solid mate. Well, that sounds bad, but like mate, like English, you know, Australian mate is what I meant. But you know, just uh another male who's around my age, because a lot of guys I kind of do hang out with occasionally are older than I am. But man, I just know that like if I if I met some dude and we got along and we had a lot of the same interests and we hung out a lot, and then if he went anywhere and drove and I was his passenger and I witnessed him driving like a moron, I would be like I'd lose respect, you know, like I don't know. Now a lot of people are like, well, it's it's culture, and you gotta do get with the program and how they it's like okay, yeah, there are a lot of things like the way they they turn early. I mean, there's a lot of things that they do, which is more culture, and you know, I it annoys me, but it's like okay, I get it. But driving the wrong side on the road is fucking stupid, you know. But trying to pass somebody on a highway on a curve is stupid, or passing somebody on a blind hill where you can't see what's coming up around the other side is stupid. Okay, that that culture doesn't matter, that's just stupidity, you know what I mean? Pulling out in the traffic without looking is stupid, and you know, so it's like that's the kind of shit where I'm just like, oh my gosh, dude. So I mean, the little piddly stuff that the things that they do and whatever like four away stop signs where they don't stop, you know, whatever, okay. You know, a lot of it's the system, it's failed them, whatever, but those few things like I mentioned is just stupidity. Yeah, I'm sorry, but you're gonna lose my respect, and I'm just gonna be like, you're a fucking moron. I don't think we can hang out, you know, guess I don't know. I mean, I guess I could try and educate the person, but who am I? You know, this is his country, right? I don't know, it's just you know that's a lot of the reasons why I don't go anywhere. Now, again, like I used to, man, my my temper was really bad and really short. And you know, I came close a couple times to possibly assaulting someone and going to jail here and maybe getting told to kick out of the country or something, you know what I mean, because of that kind of crap. So I've and to kind of you know not put myself in that position, I st I stopped going out a lot. And I'm fine with it, really. I I like to be home anyway. I've always been a homebody, but now I have a homebody plus PTSD and you know, whatever kind of crap, but so it kind of but I don't know. It's just it kinda it's kind of weird. It's a little and I think about like if I go back to the States how I would feel or act or anything. I don't know. If it would be I'm trying to remember how I was when I left. But I was on all kinds of that's when I was first Yeah, but the road is different though. I mean, yeah, there was possible whatever, but but driving in the states, most people know the rules and and you know, abide by them. Not everybody, but you know, I always say like 90% of the people in the states can drive pretty decent, have you know, some sense of you know right and wrong, and and you know, don't drive like an idiot. We got like 10 10% of the people are just complete morons who cause the accidents or almost cause the accidents or drive reckless, whatever. Here it's the opposite. 90% of the people are a bunch of idiots that cannot drive, and you got like 10% that are actually decent drivers. And yeah, so it's just like so you got that, and then you have you know this thing with the with the kid with the shotgun. I mean, he's it wasn't a kid kid, I don't know how old he was, he's 20, 21, I'd say. But I don't know, like it's not I understand like things are you know, he hasn't lived the life that I lived, but even so, people, you know, you you can't think that that's not a big deal to just I mean if it was like a super soaker that was neon yellow, this and that, and you're like, you know, okay, I mean that's kind of childish or whatever, but this gun looked real, you know, it was like life, it was like realistic size, it was black, you know. I mean it could have been real. I didn't I didn't touch it, so I don't know, maybe it was real.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

I I don't think so, but um it's just you know it's just not smart, you know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I mean if he well and see here's the thing, it's like okay, if if he did that in the states, dude, he could easily, easily get shot, right? But the states is a little different, police are a little different. But here the cops don't really care. You know, they're kind of lazy, and even if you know, and they would just try and play it down because they don't want to do paperwork. Oh no, I I I don't know. It's just it's just different here. That's all. Anyway, that's all. Just BS and again, what's up? Anyway, let me know what you think. Do you think that was you know, reckless of the individual? Do you live here in the Philippines or wherever you? I know I got a lot of people in different countries listening to this, but if something like that happened in the country you live in, what would be what would happen to that individual? Anyway, that's all. Thanks for hanging out, appreciate your time, God bless, and I'll see you next time. All right, bye.