Politics is obviously extremely

important, but the thing is is that it's

so easy to idolize politics and to end

up putting our faith in politics. And I

think what happens with like a lot of

people who are really like thoughtful

and they care about the world, they get

interested in politics is it's like the

secular religion of America.

>> Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's easy for

people, you know, Christians and

right-wing people to get too caught up

in politics. And not to say that, you

know, we shouldn't be political and

vote. It's obviously not sinful to vote.

It's it's very good thing. But our

relationship to politics,

>> be rooted in our faith.

>> Exactly. And we should we should have

our house in order before we even we

spend the time knowing a lot about

politics because it's like how is your

prayer life? How how is uh you know your

marriage doing? How is how's your local

church? Before you're like researching

these issues and like

>> before learning about Ukraine, Russia,

can you and your brother get along that?

Yeah.

>> Exactly. Yes. Exactly. like knowing like

I was doing it with like capitalism

versus socialism or like debating you

know very important issues like you know

pro-life, proun, pro- second amendment,

pro pro- free speech, all these

political issues but the problem is is

that uh what I struggled with is you

know it's like in 2016 you get you know

they use the word like red pill like you

wake up to these things

>> but then you get kind of addicted to

this cycle of taking red pill after red

pill after red

and you realize maybe I maybe I went too

far and you get kind of blackpilled. You

feel doomed about the world and because

we're kind of putting our hope in an

earthly utopia when we should be putting

our hope in Christ.

>> And the saints the saints knew that it's

like this this world is is temporary and

like you just got to focus on God cuz at

the end of the day there's always going

to be evil in the world. There's always

going to be evil and obviously we should

do our best to fight any fight against

evil but we can't lose ourselves is that

that's what I realized that I was I was

doing and it's it's really difficult

>> that idolizes a masked vigilante

>> Gotham City is proud of an ordinary

citizen standing up for what's right

>> appointed the Batman we did it all of us

who stood by and let scum take control

of our city enemies were at the gates

the Romans would suspend democracy and

appoint one man to protect the city and

it wasn't considered an honor It was

considered a public service.

>> Harvey, the last man that they appointed

to protect the Republic was named

Caesar, and he never gave up his power.

>> Okay, fine. You either die a hero or you

live long enough to see yourself become

the villain.

>> Is when you're consuming this political

news constantly, day after day, taking

so many red pills and getting so

blackpilled, how are you treating the

people around you? Imagine if you took

that time, you know, spending three

hours, even if it's an hour, four, 10

hours a day, whatever it is, just on

Reddit or 4chan or whatever it is.

>> Oh jeez. Yeah.

>> Yeah. On YouTube and just being angry at

the world. Being angry at the world.

Being angry about

>> strangers. Strangers. Yeah. Yeah.

>> Being angry about things that are going

on across the world. Being angry at just

at your neighbor. And

the problem is is that there will always

be evil in the world.

>> There's no one to be angry at. Yeah.

>> And if you're if you're angry at at the

world, you're always going to be angry.

>> You will not take her from me.

>> The danger is that we become evil to

fight evil and justify that that the

ends justified the means.

>> Your anger and your lust for power have

already done that.

You have allowed this dark lord to twist

your mind until now.

Until now, you have become the very

thing you swore to destroy. Only thing

that we can control at the end of the

day is ourselves. And instead of

focusing outward on what these other

people are doing, the thing we should be

focusing on is ourself, the evil within

oursel. Because

>> amen.

>> If you are focusing on the evil within

yourself, you'll realize that

>> that's a full-time job.

>> It is. Yeah, it is. You You'll realize

that I I am the problem is that all this

evil that I'm seeing in the world, if

everyone was focusing on themselves, the

evil within themselves, that the only

thing they can control, the world would

be a much better place.

>> Amen.

>> And it's it it's not it's not easy to

do. It's it's really hard. And that's

why it's a continual struggle. And

that's why we can't we can't merit our

salvation. We need amen.

>> We need God's grace.

>> We cannot just will it into existence.

We need constant confession. We need to

be constantly receiving the Eucharist.

We need to constantly be reading the

Bible and the saints and fasting.

Fasting is really important, too. And

fasting, it really is about the the

underlying principle of of fa of fasting

is that we're giving something up. Um,

you know, in the Orthodox church, uh,

traditionally, we, you know, we give up,

um, all these things that that are are

nutritious in a lot of ways. And of

course, fasting, you know, is something

that is worked out through individual to

through individual, but um, we we need

to give something up to focus on God. A

good example in the Catholic church

during Lent. Well, the last weeks of

Lent, we covered the statues and stuff

at the church. Um because we're fasting

our eyes and stuff in anticipation for

Easter, the resurrection and stuff. So,

yeah, that was a good point. It's not

only food that you should fast from.

>> What was sin to you growing up? You said

like you were kind of unaware of the

language or even like Christianity. So

like when you would be sinning or or

like what would what would in your mind

just doing something bad or like cuz

I've never really

>> I grew up Catholic so I always knew the

concept. It was interesting to hear like

I didn't really know what sin was but

>> you knew right from wrong I imagine. So

like what how is that not knowing

>> good and evil? I think it I think it

becomes clearer when you have u you know

the Bible and in the in the church and

Christianity um is is the knowledge of

sin. But from a young age, it's like

thinking, you know, when someone,

you know, treats you wrongly or someone

is disrespectful or, you know, every

when you're watching a movie, you know,

everyone has a moral compass. And what I

realized is being an atheist is I don't

really have any solid reason to believe

in

like in anything. It's like

>> why are the bad guys the bad guy? Yeah.

>> Yeah. Are the are the bad guys the bad

guys? I mean that's what um

postmodernism people people ask. It's

like

>> relativism.

>> Yeah. Everything's rel relativistic. But

it's like

>> really having a strong sense that no one

operates in that way. Even the most

relativist person they they will say

that something is wrong. And these

atheists that I see online, they make

all these moral claims. Like a lot of

their arguments against God are are

morals. But it's like

>> if you're going to say that God's

immoral, it's like what what is your

basis? Is it just your feelings? Amen.

>> But

>> just I I felt like I always knew that

there was something a higher morality or

a higher standard that

I should that I knew like it was like hm

what would be the best way to respond to

this? And I often did not I well I

almost never did that right

>> obviously. Yeah. And yeah and and I and

I still obviously it's a lifelong

struggle is I I don't have it

>> figured out

>> I don't have it figured out now

>> but just knowing that that hey you know

my friend or this person they you know

what they did was was messed up and it's

just like it it was kind of selfish or

it was um not caring of uh you know like

how I'm I'm feeling like there was

something wrong about

And I and I didn't I I didn't know

exactly and and then later in in life

with the um with like you know drugs and

partying I just saw that

it just everyone was very superficial is

what I would say like the way that

people like pornography like people just

having sex with random strangers. It's

just very superficial. It's very it's

just about the pleasure versus I always

>> or appearance sometimes appearance.

>> Yeah. Yeah, I always I always wanted

something uh deeper like especially in

friendships like having a best friend as

as a kid and like knowing that you have

a special relationship with that friend

and that you know you're not there's

certain boundaries you're not going to

cross and they really want what's you

know what's best for you. Um, but then

like lo like losing that and seeing that

everyone's kind of everyone's afraid to

really care and that and that and that's

what I see with uh with Gen Z a lot is

that they've added so much irony and

sarcasm. It's like they do it's like Gen

Z does care about so much stuff, but

it's like we we numb ourselves um in in

in different ways.

>> That's actually kind of profound. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I always wonder what's

wrong. Yeah. That's actually a good way

to put it. Yeah.

>> Yeah. And the young men what they numb

themselves with is porn, anime, video

games,

>> drugs and alcohol.

>> Yeah. Drugs and alcohol. Like I have,

you know, drugs and alcohol really those

enslave us. It's like I realized they

they're not actually helping you get

further in life and they're just

trapping you. It's like I want to what

is the highest thing to serve and we

should be serving that like hedonism

does not make us make us have that

ultimate fulfillment. And I also realize

that each level you go like that's kind

of like a basic level of numbness where

we distract ourselves. But then the next

level is like there there's lots of

things that u like your your job you can

totally idolize your job and neglect

your prayer life.

>> A lot of guys do a lot of guys do 70 80

hour weeks. Yeah.