 A man is demanding a refund from a Chinese restaurant after spotting a Buddha statue in the background David This is going super viral. Let's talk about what's got him so worked up. Yeah, first off Let's just run the clip from Albuquerque, New Mexico You're okay? You can call the health department. Sorry, my name is Maria. Can you call the health department? Do you have the manager? Yeah, no matter if that makes this or if I'm going to get a refund for that. Okay, well, can you give me my phone? Yeah, call the health department. Christian? I don't want to argue with you. I don't want to argue with you. I mean, listen, guys, you saw the video. It doesn't seem like anything too crazy. But I think the reason this is going so viral right now is that, you know, it's soft enough everybody feels like they can engage with it. But oddly enough, Andrew, it's the rare case of like almost religious versus religious persecution or something like that in 2023, which is just very uncommon in America. Yeah, but I'm not going to lie. I mean, usually it's, you know, Christianity, maybe Islam, those are the two disagreeing. But to disagree with a fat, smiley, bald Buddha, that's like usually not the most offensive statue. And we'll even talk about how that's actually technically Buddha. But anyways, guys, I don't know if people are going to actually acknowledge how hard it is to get a refund from a Chinese restaurant. But we're going to go into the comment section. So please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot pot boys. Let's say this, Andrew, as sacrilegious as he thought it was to see a statue of Buddha at a Chinese restaurant to the restaurant. It is sacrilegious to give him a refund. Exactly, bro. That's the last thing a Chinese spot wants to do. And then I'm like, what happens when he walks into a Burger King? Is he like, Hey, why is this called Burger King? It should be called Jesus is King. There's only one king and it's not this guy. Right. And then him and another Mexican American guy are getting into argument and the guy's like, man, nah, man, you're not a real Christian. Love thy neighbor. Love thy neighbor. And all of a sudden he's like, nah, man, I don't have to answer to you. I only answered a one person. He's the man up there. All right, guys, obviously a lot of different people are weighing in. I think there's a lot of jokes, but also a lot of insights surprisingly. So please stay tuned and again, hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the hot pot boys. All right, let's get into the comments, Andrew. Toxic individualism seems to provide the basis for acting out in public. It used to be alcohol. Is this true? Is toxic individualism rampant in America in 2023? You mean just my view is my view and I'm going to impose that onto the world. Yeah, you do not care about the flow of this restaurant. You don't care about the flow of your local community, of the macro community. If it doesn't vibe with you as one person, you're willing to stop everything. Yeah. It does seem like individualism may have gone too far in America. There's a lot of articles about it. I think there's an argument for it. Somebody said you eat at an Asian restaurant and you don't think you're going to be exposed to things outside of your small little world that you live in. What's going on? Why are people acting so shocked? This is America. Yeah, he's like, hey, man, I came to this Chinese restaurant Rose Garden on Gulf Course Road and I came to realize that they're pretty different. The food's not only different, but they also like are into different things. Somebody did support him. I mean, there was a few comments. I would say this was in a minority less than 10% of the comments, maybe 5%. Somebody said, yeah, I don't really agree with him, but why don't they just give him his money back if he really feels that way as a Christian? And then, of course, other people posted like some gutter oil gathering memes from China to kind of like clown the restaurant being like, yeah, they don't want to eat this. Yeah, but if you think about it, the restaurant is already cooking it, and especially for a small mom and pop. Yes, listen, if it's like a P.F. Chang's or Panda Express, I could see it. I could see, you know, that company affording to give him a refund even though the food is cooking. But once you order at that restaurant, the chef is on the walk. So I'm saying that's a loss for them for no reason. For sure. And then the manager, she actually is pretty good at English. She comes out and is just like, yeah, if you really have a big complaint with that, go ahead and file it with the government and the health services. But otherwise, no, that's being racist. And then he's like, okay, so then bring me my food then, right? And then she's just like, yeah, okay, I will. Yeah, can I still have my food? Yeah, when it's ready. And then he just sits there and waits for another three minutes. Let's be honest, at these sort of very blue-collar Chinese food establishments, Andrew, they are very accustomed to heavy reps of like rude interactions, right? Yeah, yeah. Like it is not always cordial between the guy on the walk or the girl taking the money and the customer. They're kind of used to it. I mean, it's not a nice sit-down restaurant. I'm sure they have fine food. You know, I looked at their Yelp page or their Google page. But I would say this about this guy's, you know, he's being a Christian and he's trying, but it's all in the wrong ways. I have a feeling he might have found God like in prison or on a time when he was away. No, he probably just got out of like an eight-step program or something like that. Yeah, maybe he's, yeah, exactly. So he's just like extra on fire, but he doesn't really know how to execute it, right? You know what I'm saying? All theories, guys, we do not know. Somebody said, this is the greater problem with the modern Christian community. So many have forgotten that we are a nation of freedom of religion and that's why our founders established such a freedom in this new country. Basically, what's wrong with modern Christians? It seems like they're going backwards. Obviously, this person is pointing at more like the battles between maybe the hardcore Christian right and the LGBT community, this and that. You know what I mean? It just seems like everything is a battle nowadays and you know, you associate yourself with this tribe. This is our gang and our gang believes these things. I think like, yeah, I think one of the tough things is like standing by your beliefs and not wanting to bend is one thing. But then like causing chaos or, you know, making other people feel threatened. Like what he did here was not a crime. All right. It was definitely a nuisance. It was annoying. Thankfully, it did not escalate into anything else. But he was like, I guess I would say like, is there a way for religious people to stand by what they believe in, which is cool, but also just not like ruin other people's lives, I guess. Yeah. Somebody said it's always the people who are born again, unhinged evangelicals. I mean, man, like I said, man, I don't even know because I'm not as deep in this world anymore. But like I'd say there's always a spectrum, you know, like when we were growing up in Seattle, even going to like a Protestant Chinese church, everybody was pretty liberal for the most part. But occasionally you would have a guest pastor from like another state. And I remember sometimes they would say really conservative things. Yeah. Like Christian, he should be like trying to invite them to church or like, hey, can I give you this pamphlet for this church that's across the street? You know, like I wouldn't that be like a better way of like kind of evangelizing Christianity than this way? Yeah. Somebody said not long ago it was Muslims in America who were regarded as a little bit volatile and something that everybody didn't really was unsure of. Now it is Christians, but is it Christians feeling unsure of everybody else or everybody feeling unsure of hardcore Christians? So basically just they're just saying there's always a religion that's like in the media or in people's minds that is like people are like, I don't know. Like back in the day, Andrew, it was Catholicism when America was pretty much either Protestant or Catholic. The Catholics were the group that was a little bit like, I don't know. I don't really trust these Catholics like JFK. I feel like nobody's really threatened by the Mormons though. I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. I never want anything big either. So who knows? That's true. Somebody said, I think he's referring to possible biblical scriptures about false idols, but the reason he got that wrong is because like they're not trying to convince anybody to be anything and that is not a house of worship. It's literally just like just something to represent just something cultural. Yeah. You know, I mean, even a lot of Buddhist families or families that have the Buddhist shrine in their house are not necessarily like hardcore Buddhists. Right. You know what I mean? It's almost, I don't want to say it's only a cultural thing. I'm saying it can be a religious thing, but also I've seen it be very much like just a cultural. Buddhism is very different from the Abrahamic religions. I would definitely almost like put it on a whole different geometric plane if you really know. Somebody said, hey, does this guy go to kebab shops? Because most of the people who own kebab shops are Muslims. So I don't know. Is he just going to have a problem with everybody where he goes that's not Christian? And truth is guys, I've been to Albuquerque, New Mexico a couple of times. There's not that many kebab shops. Yeah. I don't think he goes to them. He would. He would go crazy in New York City around all these hello cards, bro. He would just go insane. I don't know. Somebody said Christianity in America is all about power, not about true Christian values. Basically saying that it's about being the right religion with moral upper ground. It's possibly being closer to the WASP power structure, which theoretically confers higher status than foreigners from like weirdo places with weirdo religions. Honestly, I could totally see that. I think if you really think about it more meta and you really want to peel back the layers, I'm sure there's so many books about this analyzing it. I haven't looked in one, but it's like, dude, anytime you adopt the religions and the mannerisms and the more like, you know, there's so many layers of onion of the more dominant class that is, you know, the dominant class typically has the moral narrative on their side. Yeah, it does give you more higher status, right? Because why is he trying to dictate everything about what's right and wrong in the restaurant and be all loud about it? Yeah, you know what, Dave? I can't help but feel like there's definitely obviously some aspect of race and culture because like he doesn't understand Chinese culture and maybe he doesn't understand Chinese people like literally from a language side. So he's just like, man, I don't know what's going on here with the statue here and this like false God that you have. While I'm like saying like maybe he might even have walked in and met many Muslim people before, but maybe they look a certain way. They look more like him visually. And then also like if they're just friendly and speaking English, it just is a lot more like disarming. But maybe because the Chinese people, I don't know if they, you know, they visually look Asian, then that's another layer of foreignness. No, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, we have to examine everything because obviously people come as packages, right? When you view identity, you go, OK, that person looks different from me. They probably have a different religion than me. They probably eat different things than me. It's a whole packaging thing. It's very difficult to parse things out in terms of tribalism. Somebody goes, what planet is this guy from? Everybody knows that the predominant religion of Asia is Buddhism. I mean, why didn't you just go get some Christian food if you really wanted to see a bunch of Christians? So this is pretty interesting. I had to look into this because I wasn't even sure because I knew a lot of Asians were Buddhist, but I knew a lot of Asians were not Buddhist. So not everybody in Asia is Buddhist, but 99% of the world's Buddhists do reside in Asia. OK, so of people who identify as Buddhist, by far most, almost all of them are from Asia. Yeah, 99% globally. Wow. Somebody says, yeah, I mean, what does he just think that everybody has to be like Christian based Chinese? Like, what do you think about this? Because this actually goes to a point about assimilation because, you know, obviously he appears to be a probably a Latin American, Mexican American immigrant. They are already Christian in Mexico, right? Most of them are Catholic or Christian, right? So when they're coming over, they don't have to make a religious switch. Whereas a lot of Chinese, obviously it depends if you're Filipino, you're Korean, you're Christian, possibly in Asia and Christian in America because those have converted over time. But Chinese are either atheists, Buddhists or Taoists, I would say. So I guess what I'm saying is does anybody have any right to expect that they have a Christian minority, even if they're from a non-Christian nation serving them food? You know what I mean? Like, we're talking about assimilation. Yeah, I mean, I would guess that in Albuquerque, maybe at a lot of some of the other Chinese restaurants, they don't have Buddha everywhere, but I think they didn't even have Buddha everywhere. It's not like they called it Golden Buddha Restaurant, you know, with like a big Buddha face on the front. Only serve a vegetarian menu. I just don't think he goes to a lot of Chinese restaurants and there's not that many Chinese people in Albuquerque, let's be honest. So I guess it's just real foreign to him, you know, but I feel like he hasn't really been out in society for a while. But there is some very Christian Taiwanese, Andrew, who even represent like, I would say middle America culture. I know a Taiwanese family that we're friends with that owns like a Bundt Cake shop. You know, like I'm talking about like Americana from like 1947. No, there's Chinese Christians and Korean Christians and Asian Christians that own shops and maybe those are the I mean, I'm not saying they do it for business play, but I'm saying it probably plays well with the with the people with the customers to because they feel more, you know, related. Somebody said this is ignorant to the highest degree. Many people believe that Buddhism is not even qualifying as an actual religion in the Western sense. It's actually more a philosophy of living because a lot of people are saying you could be Buddhist and Christian at the same time. Obviously, you know, when you look into it, basically, Andrew, it's just not about moral absolutism. There is no moral absolutism and Buddhism. Anyway, I'll just pop it up. You know, you guys this. So the statue of the fat guy that everybody sees around is not actually Buddha himself. And by definition, there are possibly multiple Buddhas. Right. The big fat guy is the Buddha. Buddha, which which Siddhartha Guttama is Buddha, the first Buddha, right? He's skinny. Yeah, he's the skinny one. But this guy is Buddha, which is a different Buddha, which is one of the Buddhas. Somebody said, man, it is just some nowadays in 2023, some people love drama. It makes them feel like they exist because they're not acting like everybody else. Do you think that's true, man? He wanted to get on get in on some of the virality that he missed out on. Yeah, because he's definitely looks pre Internet. Yeah, dude, this one comment is interesting. I bet he wouldn't be so brave if this was an Islamic or Jewish establishment. But because it's Chinese people, he feels like it's OK to bully them. Yeah, I do think so. I think there's a racial element. But I think that also those the other Abrahamic religions, maybe beefing over that almost feels too serious. You know what I mean? Like let's just like those religions. I've obviously been at odds and frenemies or whatever throughout the millennium, right? But like Buddhism is like from the East East. Yeah, we're talking about like beyond the Himalayas. I would argue a big fat Buddha statue is the perfect mascot for a Chinese restaurant because it shows you how delicious the food is. Yeah. You have some skinny person, some stick skinny person represent the restaurant because the food is delicious and you want to be fat while you enjoy it. Yeah, the crab rangoons are definitely not low in calories. Yeah. What if this guy's like, dude, just why do you have a fat guy in the restaurant? Like you're supposed to be serving healthy food. I thought Chinese food is healthy. Yo, somebody said that he was just trying to be like the guy who was like popping and locking going Jesus Christ. But he just didn't know how to do it. He was trying to get aim for that, but he just wasn't doing it the right way. Man, shout out to Albuquerque for going viral. We were just there for the balloon fiesta earlier this year. Shout out to the balloon fiesta. I was there. I mean, I think that, you know, it's always interesting these discussions, these videos. I'm glad they came out. I remember I saw this comment that was like, God, I can't believe we got to see every idiot doing something just idiotic nowadays and everybody's got to have a discussion about it. But I actually think it's good because otherwise everybody's got to live like the most interesting varied life ever. But now you get to learn from like incidents that don't happen in your vicinity. Yeah. Yeah. And listen, you get to have these discussions. If you're actually having a discussion, you get to have it from afar and learn from afar. But I will say, I hope that this gentleman like, I hope he gets the message at least now. I'm not saying like what he did again was like really violent or even harsh. But who knows? I mean, if he's really drunk, he could try to destroy that restaurant or something like that. You know, I'm just saying if it could have gotten hostile, but it was pretty far from it. But I'm just saying like, like what? Like, how is this guy going to hear the message that people are having about his incident? Like, Hey, bro, I saw you. Can you just not do that around Albuquerque anymore? Just calm down. And it was very interesting to see almost two sides. If you do call him a valid Christian, like the very conservative Christian being like, Amen. They got false idols in here. I got to give my money back. And then there's a more liberal Christian American guy, a Mexican American guy was like, Na, man, love thy neighbor. Love thy neighbor. That's how you should apply it. So I thought that that was a very interesting split. But yeah, like I said, overall pretty soft incident, but it generated a lot of talk on the internet. And yeah, like I said, you just not getting a refund. Yo, I just not getting a refund from spots like Rose Garden. Like I said, with the faded menu, you not getting a refund. I just don't know how you can look at the smiley fat boot eye and be a fan. I just don't get it. He's so cute. He's just like, amen, come to my restaurant. We're eating real good out here. And then like you're looking at it be like, oh, let us know what you guys think in the comment section below guys. I just know that there were so many comments and so many people at different angles on it. Keep it civil. Until next time with a hop up boys. We out. Peace.