 Should more Asian men strive to be a warrior in the garden versus a gardener in the war? And what does that even mean? It means that too many people are not listening to Musashi, but rather focusing on Churrasi. Oh They traded the sushi for the samurai. Anyways guys, let's talk about this David because there was a Viral thread on Reddit and it has to deal with Asian masculinity, by the way This video is about essentially Asian masculinity and I guess where does it take the conversation? Oh, man It took it all over the place all the way from me You know Musashi Miyamoto to two lamb the modern Ronan to Sun Zulu the art of war Tao Tao versus Confucius. I mean long story short before we get into the ancient esoteric stuff Andrew We got to verify is this true though? Do Asian guys need to up their warrior mindset level potentially to be more effective in the West because I mean anecdotally I would say if there's like non-Asians walking on the sidewalk and they're taking up most of the sidewalk and an Asian Guys like walking in his rightful lane I would say more oftentimes and not they're expecting the Asian guy to be submissive and get out of the way Yeah, I mean I think the reason why this question was posed is because generally and we all know this that a lot of Asian guys not all But a lot get tend to get underrated Under respected, I guess disrespected in America. Why'd I say under respected? It's disrespected in America and I guess like a lot of Asian guys are wondering like what can I Realistically do about this and what should be the philosophy moving forward if like a group of Asian guys could operate as a group And move forward together right and of course Andrew if you are a six foot four tatted up triad They're probably gonna move for you on the street, right? But we're just talking about like averages and generalities here Yeah, yeah, so we're gonna tell you what we think about this quote do Asian men Need to be more like warriors in a garden versus a gardener in the war Well, please hit that like button check out other episodes of the hot-pot boys as we get into this He opens up by threat the thread by saying a harmless man is not necessarily a good man The blatant harmlessness which unfortunately disguises itself all too often quite successfully as gentleness Should not be seen as a good virtue Andrew not that we say and we agree with everything he says But what this is actually what Jordan Peterson Joe Rogan, etc. Etc. Yeah, I think a lot of the guys who do Martial arts a lot of like the Western thinking bro. We types But I want to say that after doing a lot of research. It's it's like it's not that the east Didn't have this philosophy by the way guys So there's a lot of philosophers and war generals that were very intellectual that essentially are warrior poets and we're gonna get more into that Later a harmless man with no power has no power to do good or evil. He's ineffective So we should train ourselves to have power but choose to use it for good and the defense of our own It's like a nation with a strong military. They shouldn't use it to bully everyone But they should use it to seek diplomacy and stability Mmm, and then also he goes on to say and this is of the words of the OP the original poster stop trying to push Asian men into some new soft gentle masculinity box because you can't just Redefine masculinity how you want these people who say this and do this are not acknowledging human nature. Whoo Fiery words man and his last poetic sentence Andrew. I got to read it how we said it He said someone who believes they are totally incapable of doing harm isn't choosing to be good or evil They are simply existing they have little agency and are not capable of good or evil on their own It may be risk of a being manipulated and wielded by somebody else to do good or evil a man who cloaks Infectiveness and fear as some manifestation of his own virtue was a person who in his deceit only harms himself Contrast that with a man who has power the potential to be dangerous and knows it But chooses it and not only not be cruel, but uses his power to combat evil when he sees it. Yeah, so I guess Before we get into the comment section I mean I would say based off the things that stood out that he said was I did think it was interesting how he was like Wow, a lot of people try to say that Asian men just represent a new masculinity that this is that we're gonna Redefine masculinity because you can be a soft gentle masculine guy. First of all you can I do think there's a range of masculinity But I also don't think you can completely redefine masculinity either that has a definition Right and and we should stick by some traditional Sense of that that definition if you want to be a soft gentle guy just say that that's not wrong But maybe don't try to redefine masculinity. There are some good basketball players in the NBA Andrew They kind of have a soft reputation But that soft reputation is accurate Ray Allen was one of my favorite players of all time He was kind of soft. Yeah And this guy also used this analogy of Batman versus Superman Batman is seen to be more courageous Because he's an actual man who can die versus Superman who is essentially an invincible Alien that can't die so for Superman to go risk his life He's not really risking anything and he has no fear because he probably can't die unless there's kryptonite But Batman is just a dude. Yeah, so true. That's a good point, man Andrew real quick some quick thoughts. Why do you think there's so much disagreement on this? I mean, it sounds like pretty solid logic But I guess it depends because people grow up in such different fish bowls in nowadays in modern society Even though in my opinion America for how rich it is a dangerous country when you compare it to like Japan, right? We did with as a similar economics, you know per capita or whatever very much way more dangerous in Japan But I'm saying that why it seems like you still have that ability to isolate your fish bowls in America Where you seem free from this thinking, right? Yeah, and I was thinking about it this way You know like you can be let's just use an Asian person as an example because we're this is addressing Asian masculinity essentially So I guess it's like let's say you're an Asian guy and you choose to go to the boba shop and spend like four hours there a day Let's just say you spend four hours at a boba shop day Okay, and then let's say you go to like bakery pop-ups and you like all the sweet like little nice cool restaurants Which are cool matcha tarts, but those venues and those places are all gardens Within a concrete jungle or they might be like a butter lettuce garden with little bunnies Yeah, they might be a little cute little garden, right? But when you step out of that you're in the real world because like maybe those places aren't dangerous There's not a lot of aggressive people go to boba shops That's not a place where a lot of crimes happen not a lot of robberies happen Let's be honest, but you still live your life in America and to me America is not a garden I think Tokyo Shanghai Hong Kong these big cities are like more like garden Singapore is more of a garden If you look at this statistically speaking low crime. Yeah, low craziness I would say America is almost more like Brazil than it is like Tokyo Okay, that's great. Yeah, that's a hot take but I'm just gonna say America is definitely more like a force or a hike Yeah, at least yeah, um and moving on to our own personal experience Andrew Our dad is a scholar right oftentimes people put scholars and warriors Separated, but it wasn't always that way. That's more of a modern archetype because our dad was a at one point What 200 210 510 almost pure muscle low body fat He was like a mini Arnold Schwarzenegger Enthusiast bodybuilder in his PhD program. Yeah, no, he was definitely a buff nerd but he was very strong and I do think like even I guess from a Son standpoint seeing a father at least that was physically strong. You know, I mean, I think that he was the bolo Every immigrant father has their drawbacks and maybe it's the way they communicate or whatever their adaption to Western life But at physically at least dad was strong and wouldn't he get treated differently than some of our relatives who looked like this Like no, it's true. Sure, especially in Western society where everybody's got the barbarian scanner with the little Dragon Ball Z power levels and everything people are judging you on your physical appearance all the time Subconsciously more than you would want them to it's true. Yeah David you think some Asian cultures might teach the idea of being a warrior better than others Yeah, I think in general Asians have this archetype that they're not really like that compared to Western hemisphere people But um, yeah, for sure There's a variance if your dad did mandatory military service certain countries, you know Taiwan South Korea, Singapore has mandatory military service There may be because because of the mandatory military exposure, right? Right, right, right for me I think the word warrior and I think that a lot of people are getting caught up on a physical warrior Like a warrior is only someone who's very strong and very dangerous and knows how to do the the way of the blade And you know can can knows how to shoot guns and stuff like that I don't think that's definitely part of it But that's like on an extreme end if you're thinking about war. I'm yeah to lamb perfect example Whatever an Asian navy seal what a special ops or a red beret whatever you want to say these guys, right or uh, yeah Wolf warrior for example like always always funny to point him out, but I think like You just have to be effective in a time of need and like being effective can mean so many things It doesn't mean you're gonna try to beat everybody up because literally that might be impossible You can't beat up three thieves, you know necessarily, but what are you gonna do? That's effective How can you affect the situation? How can you help the people in need? How can you help save yourself and the people you care about in your community? And I think that and in self it could be you know, it could be I think about the Boston bombings, right? This Chinese fob exchange student who got his car jacked He was stuck in the car with the Boston bombers and he was scared for his life because he knows that those people I just killed a bunch of people with bombs So they had a gun to him and then when they were stopped at a gas station He quickly within a split second unbuckled a seat belt and booked it out of his car ran across the street to another police station I mean gas station and then called for help and then reported his car as the one So they knew what car to look for and then police caught him and they caught the bombers, right? So you're saying he was still able to heavily impact the situation in a positive way He was courageous, although he didn't have to hit him. Yeah, you know I'm saying yeah I know what you mean. There's the concept of the warrior poet in the East and it seems like the Japanese They leaned it to it particularly as far as writing goes and it seems like to be honest Andrew I got to be honest. It seems like Chinese leaned out of it even though it still exists in Chinese history For some reason the Japanese lean into this whole like Ronan samurai thing. I'm not saying there isn't China There's Tao Tao who conquered a lot of northern central China I think specifically to adjust the Chinese situation because I guess a lot of people would say Chinese guys Need to hear this the most. I don't know on a ratio basis I would say there's an over-emphasis on Kong zi who is a Confucius not saying he's not good, but you know, there's mong zi Zhuang zi Tao Tao and of course Andrew, you know who else was a great Chinese philosopher Sun Zhu the art of war war general. Yeah, but how come we only just Keep her head in the books Looking like this guy. You know, it's funny. I think a lot of Chinese martial artists Studied Sun Zhu a lot more than like your average Chinese person And actually it's funny because a lot of military American military guys all war generals in America have read that book. It's a requirement. Yeah So American military guys are reading it Chinese martial artists are reading it But somewhere in the middle the average Chinese guy kind of missed the art of war. No, we're just reading mongas anyway We're getting into the comments section Andrew. Somebody said man to put it more simply It's really about being able to just defend your boundaries assertively And that is just a huge pain point for Asian guys just living a corporate lifestyle Maybe they're not in the streets or ever exposed to anything street. Yeah, and I think Defending your boundaries can mean your physical boundaries like defending your physical body and being like yo man step back Hey, man, please don't do that You know using your voice and your mind to defend yourself or like in a workplace, right? Like you're kind of getting pushed around or maybe people are asking you to do extra things Violating your boundaries or your work If you're standing in line some people see that you're Asian and subconsciously treat you differently And they're a little bit extra aggressive or they expect you to move like hey Can you move it buddy? And then you're just like hey, man I don't have to move, you know like and you just stand there and defend yourself It's not about punching that guy in the face. It's more about just verbally and in your spirit being confident in yourself Seems like people really enjoy testing Asian guys boundaries. Yes Asian guys will get tested So you have to be ready and you have to be trained It's not about exploding all of a sudden and going super saying on the guy who asked you to move Right and was slightly rude to you. That's not what being a true warrior poet is about right right right? It's almost like you're you're keeping a steady pace rather than just like exploding out of nowhere because that's a little bit like Not as calibrated right right right somebody said man How can we learn to do this when I was growing up in high school? Everybody was picking on me because of my race saying I was small and that little did you know a classic Asian guy Stereotype no peepee and my dad told me to just ignore them and that just literally was not good advice Yeah, basically this guy saying like some Asian dads obviously not all them give the kids bad coaching even though Maybe it's not meant to be bad. It just is like ineffective in the moment, right? Oh, yeah, it's not the worst advice, but it's definitely not great advice I would say like there's definitely an in-between between Just ignore them and focus on your studies and then there's also on the far extreme. Well, just punch them in their face You know, it's not there's like an in-between of like Why are you going to defend and stand up for yourself knowing that and knowing if you're prepared to is a lot more important That's why I wouldn't just tell a random kid to go punch that person in the face because I'm like I don't know if you're trained to deal with what comes next if you punch them in the face, right? So you it's actually a whole process of Training and walking through the different scenarios and being able to like gather yourself together and staying calm so that you can defend yourself Yeah, it's very interesting situation because when you're around Asians everybody is like so non-confrontational And more harmonious and then when you come to the West man It could get so contentious But it's tough to like morally be against that when you're just trying to rise up the Western ladders and be effective Right, right, right. Um, somebody was just saying you got to learn to speak softly, but carry a big stick Obviously Jay-Z out of line walk softly and carry a big clip. It's all cultural What would Speaking softly and carrying a big stick in like the workplace mean because like I know in the streets If you literally have a weapon on you, that's technically a big stick If you got a gun on you got a knife or if you really know how to throw a punch then I guess you have a big stick boat I guess it would be maybe like Looking confident chest up being verbally dominant being really clear with your ideas and really clear what your boundaries are If somebody's trying to throw some work on one of your team members, but they need to work on your project being like hey Stop asking my team member to do work for your project. Like do you think some of Asian guys like lack of training or like lack of ability to do this some Asian guys lack of ability to do this Is it like kind of attributed to like maybe identity crisis? Like if you don't fully know who you are Then you don't necessarily know how to fully portray yourself and act. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it goes back to like what that original Author of this reddit post said so poetically where he was like saying do not mask your Infectiveness as like your gentle virtue. You know what I mean because he's like is it really? Yeah Hey, why don't you speak up at the meeting? You know, I'm just just one nice guy give other people the floor, you know, cuz I write a lot of emails Come on man Somebody said it is better to be feared than love from Machiavelli. Yeah I'm sure this sounds dubious and some pipe people might feel like he's devious or he was tortured But I think he probably just saw the truth raw truth of human nature Machiavelli Andrew Tupac a Bronx tale Sonny said it too. Um, what do you think man? Is it better to be feared than loved? I'll tell you this it's certainly more effective because it is true this I'll tell you this people do hurt people that they love but people rarely hurt people that they fear I always thought that that was actually true. Well, this is why some Asian guys like, you know, they'll get the full sleeve tattoo They'll work out start wearing Tank tops start dressing a certain way, you know, if you wear certain things it kind of gives the symbol that yeah You're not to be messed with, you know, and yes, you get some intimidating guys Asian guys out there The quasi Yakuza triad package. Yeah, essentially you look like an Asian gangster Most people are not gonna mess with you, you know, and I think that That's tough to Yeah, I mean, I guess that's that's why people get those markings. Some people said did it change from the 1970s and why does it seem like everybody perceives Asian guys in 2023 unless they're like a super thug You know, that's like big buff and tatted or whatever to be Harold from Harold and Kumar's character You mean there is a there's the comment saying that it seemed like Asian men were much more Protective and violent back in the early 70s. I think right you're saying was the Bruce Lee archetype Yeah, I think it was a harder time I think that immigrants were coming back were coming from a harder situation back then I do think that it was kind of like this was before like a lot of the Asian communities really developed and before they Really entered to be honest like high positions in corporate America. Yeah I mean, I dude if you want any Asian father who runs like a small business in like not a great area They're gonna have to know how to deal with some stuff. Was this before all the sad boys synth wave pop? It's yeah, it's going crazy right before the raves to way before the the split bang haircuts way before the Let me just say this man I think Keshie and Joji sound good on a late-night drive to but that just does not remind me of warrior music Or testosterone for music. I don't know you tell me you wouldn't listen to it if you're March, I don't know where you march somebody said, you know It has to do with Nietzsche Nietzsche was a famous Western philosopher He's talking about master and slave morality from the Greeks and or there was Aristotle He said the strong will do what they will the weak suffer what they must it's a hawks and doves in game theory What's the morality of a hawk eating a fish because obviously a fish is a prey a hawk is a Bird of a hunter. Yeah. Yeah, right. Um, somebody said you got to read Miyamoto musashi Mmm, and I just said man, how come everybody's just focused on churrasse's Miyamoto musashi was a guy who had 66 duels back in feudal Japan Andry was the samurai became a ronin and he ran he wrote like a bunch about life Isn't Miyamoto musashi also opening up at New Omakase in New York City. Yeah, I'm just kidding. It's actually a really famous Sounds like a sushi chef, but you know, I mean obviously somebody was saying are you guys over simplifying it? I don't know if everybody's gonna be like this crazy like Guy and he they could lead people to have the swenjalum pendulum swing too far in the other direction What about flavors of strength and standing up for yourself that are frankly more in the middle are more effective? Yeah, so I think the truth is it's like it's not about just learning to be more aggressive You can notice that we didn't focus on the word aggressive today. That's not the key to this It's actually like training and more understanding Where and how you're gonna defend your boundaries and your body and your mind, right? It's and it's understanding why you're doing that not just exploding and having this rage of aggression That's not necessarily good. That's toxic that can turn into easily domestic abuse You can hurt someone you love you can hurt someone that you don't love but on accident You know, that's where the fear of toxic masculinity comes in a play, right? Which is why some people try to really encourage soft gentle masculinity, but it's almost like you need Horsepower in the car You don't want a red line and like blow the engine out and it like explode your charger or whatever Ferrari You know why you gotta push the car. Yeah, and you know why people explode is like I don't know if this is exactly how volcanoes work But it's because they like hold it in bottle it up And then the volcano shakes and weights and weights and then something tricks And then it blows up into this huge eruption versus, you know the little Volcano that's constantly steaming or always spewing out lava You know what I mean? Like I don't know like There's an everyday way to deal with things instead of bottling up and then it turning into rage Which is actually what you don't want. Yeah I think that that happens when you have a simplistic view of it And that's why there was all these people in this thread saying read the art of war Read Miyamoto Musashi and all these check out two lambs channel modern Navy seal guy Anyway, let's just get into our takeaways overall. I'm gonna go ahead and say this Andrew all in all I guess it depends on what fish bowls what industries how you want to shape shift your life Overall, I think in America this is just true. What's true? No, the guy's assertion that it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a garden in a gardener in a war But yeah, like you said, I don't even know if America outside of a few protected pockets like Irvine, California Is a garden. I don't think America is a garden. I think Cities in East Asia like Tokyo Shanghai Hong Kong Singapore those are gardens Those are like very like low crime very little to worry about Statistically a guard less aggression like just period but a lot of people they come from those places and They bring that garden like attitude to America, which America is definitely maybe In certain parts of the jungle, but also I would say most of America's at least a hike or a forest Right. It's not a garden. Anyways, I would say, you know As an Asian guy myself like how does one become more of a warrior in my opinion? Like I said, like, you know, I do think training martial arts and not just wanting to fight people But actually wanting to train is a good way You learn a lot about yourself and you learn how to deal with Adrenaline rush and things like that also I do think people do need to like play a sport like basketball or something with a lot of like tense Situations that could pop up where you deal with them constantly you Yeah, you have to be able to yell at each other and have this type of communication in the midst of a competition or war Right, so you have to train yourself by doing that type of thing Yeah, and then I would say, you know, those things would make you more confident in life Yeah, let us know what you think of This general statement in the comment section below and what do you think are some good recommendations? If it's true how people can sort of sink into this thing I'm actually gonna look more into the Miyamoto Musashi stuff. That's cool Yeah, let us know in the comments down below what you think the easiest way is for a man to become a warrior Is it to take a knife fighting class to take a Krav Maga class of MMA Muay Thai? What you got to go to the gun range at the fire of the sheet. Oh blade. Yeah, or go become a sushi chef I don't know what it is. You let me know what you think is the best way Do you believe that Asian men in America especially should try to be more warrior like and what does that mean? Let us know. Thank you so much for watching the hot pot boys Hopefully that conversation was helpful and until next time we out. Peace