It’s hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your opinion is tough and a climate where you’re either seen as an ultra conservative or a bleeding heart liberal. But what about our perspective? What about the Gen X perspective? Hi, I’m Tony a latchkey kid from the 80s and 90s. Now I’m in my 40s wearing cargo shorts, collecting Star Wars figures and reminiscing about the days before my first cell phone. The Gen X perspective as for us caught somewhere in between boomers and Millennials are we see things a bit differently? I’m tired of staying silent. It’s time to rant, discuss, unload and debate. Join Tony and his guests as they tackle the topics of Pop Culture, Sports, religion, and yes, even politics. If life’s a Rubik’s Cube, we’ve got the experience to tackle it. Welcome to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo. Do you want to start a podcast or looking to level up your show to a vodcast I don’t know where to start. My name is john and I host a podcast called from podcast to podcast where I help podcasters bring their shows to the next level by giving you tips and tricks on marketing, writing, show notes monetization, which host is the best to use and, of course, the best equipment to use for a podcast. I drop episodes every Friday on all podcast listening platforms. And you can watch the vodcast on YouTube. Just search pod to VOD. I also give away tons of free tools and guides over on the website at pod squad dot live. VOD casting is the next evolution of podcasting. So join the squad today and get access to the next step of your show. What is Gen X? What is the silent generation? What do generations have in common? Hi, I’m Trish the dish from the Gen X voice podcast and I invite you to listen to conversations I have with folks from different generations, backgrounds, beliefs and experiences in an attempt to see what connects rather than divides us. Even though Gen X has been called slackers, Karen’s are not mentioned at all. In some cases, we are the bridge generation. So I feel compelled to do my part to destroy ageism by bringing all these voices together. And as a bonus, each guest gets to answer some 80s questions at the end of each show. So download and listen to genix voice today on Apple’s Spotify, Amazon or wherever you listen to podcasts. And let’s see how much we have in common after all. Hey, guys, this is john. And I’m Frank from the basement search you may have heard of us. We started off slow in season one. COVID tried to stop us in season two, but Frank’s too stubborn for that. And now we’re back in season three, doing what we do best coming to you from the basement in Brooklyn, New York, where a general discussion comedy podcast that talks about anything and everything. Video games movies growing up in New York City and being a dad to name a few. We also do a live show every Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern all over social media and run a YouTube channel so don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and ring that bell. We put out some great content on YouTube like let’s play series where we play a specific game every week. The podcast is available on all podcasting platforms. You can reach all of our links at streamer links.com slash basement search comm listen to us and feel the search turned up the volume the volume and now from Brooklyn, New York. This is a basement search which children talk to me about la How was your trip? I know you went to LA and you got to eat In and Out Burger and how was it? It was good I had a really good time. Yeah. So you know it was a family visit saw spent one night out with my brother and sister and family drove down to Long Beach one night to see my cousin’s you know when shopping downtown at the discount alley. And you know and that just will say I’m there. Just help out my mom trying to figure out life. I got our new TV she had a 32 inch, like a four inch border around it. Right that, you know, a third of the lines for pixelated, she could barely gone. It was not a clear picture. So got her a new TV. Then she called me yesterday, the TV’s broken. Of course it was. I said, What do you mean, the TV’s broken? Well, the cable guys here and we’re not getting a picture. I said, Well, did you do this? No. Oh, target now. Thank you. Bye. So um, and I’m gonna say this on the podcast, which is totally gonna get me in trouble. My dad, my dad lives three miles away, right here around the farm. And like my dad, and he calls me noon last night, okay, this is just for shits broke in the house, I can’t make it work. You need to come fix this kind of conversations, not the other phone calls. But like, my TV doesn’t work. My Internet’s broke whatever it is, right three times, four times a week that I have to go out there and fix. Because he just hits buttons, you know, is just, instead of hitting Enter once they’ll hit it, you know, keep clicking the click. And then it’s all right. Yeah. So he does. And he’s getting slightly more challenged with that now. And it’s totally frustrating because he used to stay pretty current on technology and stuff going on. And it’s just I realized that it just changes so fast. Like you miss an update. And your computer’s out of sync with your phone. And your Internet’s not working all of a sudden, and it turns into a total cluster and right. He’s getting calls from my mom all the time, but it’s just wicked. I got a call from my mom. About a month and a half ago. She knew I was coming in, right? And she said, Well, when you get here, I need you to help me with a problem. I said, Okay, what’s the problem? I lost $2,000 Oh, what do you mean, you lost $2,000? Well, the bank says that I have 2000 more dollars than I should. Hmm. Sounds like a good problem. But okay, okay. You know, and you know, she’ll call me and be like, the cables broken. What do I do? Yeah, it’s so their tolerance for technology, I noticed gets shorter. Like they just don’t have the, the tolerance to go through the same because it’s the same problems over and over and over again. And I think that right just doesn’t sit well with them in general. And they just get I noticed this time with my mom that she is. She doesn’t like change anymore. No. Yeah, she likes the way things are right. And they need to stay that way. Yes. And no change. Yeah, no, we had a huge argument about me buying her a TV because she didn’t need a TV show. When we spend the money. Why do I need a new TV? Oh my god, this is just a waste slider. You know, on and on. And on and on. Come on. That’s right. So did you go in and out burger just because I got to torture myself a little bit. I went in and out burger. Got my double double animal style french fries, animal style. Great large coke. Yeah. My mom got a double double and my aunt just got a actually she got a double single two patties, one piece of cheese. And my aunt just got a cheeseburger. Because they eat it all the time. So they don’t care. They don’t they only ever eat it when I come in because you make them go there. Right? Yeah. What was it like? bagels? All good bagel. So I gotta give you the name of this place. I order bagels. They might not send them to Oregon. I get them out of New York City. They overnight them. I don’t order them all the time because it’s you know, like four bucks a bagel when you do this because the overnight fees right bake them on a Tuesday. They show up on a Wednesday. Like they’re that fresh and they tell you keep out what you want to eat and freeze the rest because they’ll go bad before you get them done. If you buy like a case lead doesn’t have them. Right so I can’t get them very often because Lori knows how much they cost. And she’s like, seriously the last thing a you need is to eat bagels. And be they’re damn expensive so knock it off. So they’re awesome though. They’re super Oh my God. And that Yeah, they overnight them up to me from the city. That’s ridiculous. Totally. I had to bring back an extra suitcase full of food. Follow up. bakery. Five rye breads. Oh, Jesus. Right. Yeah. And he tried bread is like two feet long. So you kind of get two loaves out of each rye bread. That’s right. So I essentially have eight loaves of rye bread in my freezer. And then they have these little pastries they’re called telcos. They’re all kinds of fillings, you know, fruit fillings, chocolate fillings, that fillings. The boys requested two pounds of that. So, my my only suitcase that I brought down. Yeah. When I filled it with the bread and the pastries and the stuff, you know, a couple other things. It was already 50 pounds. I hadn’t put any clothes in it. 50 pounds of stuff. Yeah. Good for you. Well, you know, I guess. So. So is that How’s that? Is that a direct flight into Burbank from Redmond now? Yes. Did I know that? I guess it’s brand new. That’s awesome. I was actually I was on the maiden voyage. Right. first ever flight of this airline out of Redmond. Okay. And they had like, the fire trucks. Yeah, the airport fire trucks come out during the water. And they were spraying you know, the water cannons and like an arch over the plane as we were going down the runway. Oh, my God. I would Yeah, I killed for a flight a direct flight to LA like that when we were still in bright. Gosh, that would, that would have made it so much easier to do stuff. Seriously. I mean, that’s just crazy. But that is awesome. So I do have I do have one serious question, because I was watching the news of this morning briefly. And they’re talking about all this violence against Jews. And in LA. I think it just happened to there was a some people at a restaurant that were attacked. What Seriously? What the fuck? I mean, can we just talk about how stupid This is? I mean, if you look at this statistics, anti semitic attacks are up. It’s like 14 100%. Yeah, I’ve been asked for years. It’s been crazy. I mean, New York City, pre pandemic. I mean, they were ridiculous. I mean, those are the, you know, the Hasidic aesthetic, Hasidic Jews. I mean, Syria. I mean, I don’t understand it. I mean, that it seems so foreign to me. Because I don’t I don’t personally growing up just living, Southern California, New York, wherever. But if you want to socially profile or be be prejudiced against somebody I never even saw in a slight, not even in a slight way against the Jewish community. I mean, it’s so foreign to me, I can’t I almost can’t grasp it. I mean, you read the history. And, you know, the Jews have been persecuted. Forever. Literally, since history has been in history. Since the Jews have existed. You guys have been beat up, continually. I get that. But I don’t understand like conceptually. Understand how how people can hold hold that is something against somebody like it’s just, I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. Right. Well, you know, it’s coming from two places right now. Part of it is people who believe in the big Jewish conspiracy that Jews own every media, outlet TV they own on the radio, they own all the newspapers. And so well, they do. They’re the ones creating the news. Yeah, well, and for a while. I mean, there’s all this stuff going on with Palestinian, Palestine and Israel. Well, that’s what really has caused a lot of it in the past few weeks. Yeah, but seriously, how is I mean, I guess if you’re from Israel or Palestine, I mean, I guess I kind of get it. Kind of, like, right, if you moved here and you hated the Jews, and then you know, everybody’s fighting back home and you’re living here. Would you take it out on somebody in the Jewish community? I mean, maybe I guess if you’re if you have that much hate in your heart, and you’re that crazy or passionate or whatever word you want to use, that’s misplaced. I just don’t I have a hard time getting it, but I see it and I know just like you do. I mean, I know Catholics and Jews and, you know, Muslims and blacks and whites. And I mean, we know all these melting pot of people that we have in our everyday lives. And it’s so hard to try to conceptualize how it would be okay for even a second to just go. Just because you’re Jason Lowery, and you’re Jewish, that I’m gonna beat the hell out of you. I mean, right, serious. I just, I can’t wrap my brain around it, man. I’m having a hard time with this one. You know, I kind of hate people. Hold on to that kind of, Hey, you know, you’re Jewish. So you must be pro Israel and hate all Palestinians, and therefore we’re going to beat you out. Yeah. But I mean to the Palestinians. I mean, do they really hate each other? Or is that all government based? I mean, you know, I mean, there’s obviously a larger discussion there. But I mean, before the fighting, they were living next door to each other. And now it’s neighbor against neighbor, all of a sudden, just because somebody has started launching rockets across the border, which is highly contested. I know, there’s a lot of history there with, you know, yeah, with the Gaza Strip and all that. I mean, that’s I’m definitely oversimplifying that, between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It’s right. There’s a lot going on a lot going on in there has been there’s a lot of time. Linnea and, you know, yeah, it’s been really bad for the last 75 years since, right. You know, Israel became a state ran in 1948. Well, right. It’s when you know, what I mean, was it it was essentially the Europeans went in there, and they started carving up the, the Middle East. And, you know, I mean, just looking at a map, not taking into account the history on any level, and just saying, This is yours, this is yours. This is yours. And this is yours. And it’s been a nightmare ever since they split up the middle east the way that they did, and I mean, it wasn’t one of the French it was the British British, thank you. It was the British went in there and did that. And then there’s been continual, while there was continual fighting before that, but I think it was for different reasons. Maybe you would know, obviously, a lot better, right, and the history than I do, but it doesn’t make any sense. When you start telling a whole couple well, more than one class of people what to do and where to live, they’re all gonna get pissed off. That, so yeah, they’re I mean, there’s no, some people will say that, you know, what the two state solution is what we need to do and right, you know, divide up the land. And well, that was the solution in 1948. And the Jews said, Okay, we’re happy to do this. And the people living there at the time said, No, and the other Arab communities said, don’t worry about it, we got your back. And the state was created. And, you know, seven countries attacked Israel. Right. And yeah, it’s, it’s been bad ever since. Right? It was bad. Just Yeah. It’s been bad since forever. Before that. I mean, I mean, talk about the history lesson in the persecution, yeah, the Jewish community, it goes back forever. And again, in modern day times in America, to see that kind of shit happen is it’s baffling to me. I mean, I kind of what I do get is, you go down, you know, to one of the boroughs in New York City, and you got the traditional Hasidic Jews in the look, the way they look, it’s kind of like the Amish up here. Now, and I’m not comparing the Jewish to Amish other than the way that they look different. They just look different, right? They dress, they dress different. But they’re normal as normal can be when you talk to them. I mean, they’re normal humans. And people will obviously you know, forever, we’ve attacked each other overlooks, and because they look different, they must be different. And I’m going to attack them and whatever. And I guess I understand that part of it on a very simplistic, dumb kind of way, but it is what it is. But the somebody would have to like seek you out and figure out that you’re Jewish to be able to you know, go after you in whatever fashion they thought was appropriate or whatever you want to call it, but it just, I don’t know. It just seems weird. I mean, do you or your family or people in your community in Bend talking about bend oregon right now? Like have that in the back of your head when you go to temple or you go to do anything where you’re kind of not waving the flag that you’re Jewish, but that were people would assume that you were Jewish because of where you were what you were doing on any given day? I mean, do you have you ever second thought that in the Recent history and kind of my youngest son when he was in ours wanted to wear his yarmulke to school. Kids are proud. I told him no. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz he would for sure get made fun of on a very basic level because he’s doing something different. But at the same time, right? You never kind of know. I mean, you were made fun. might have been good to open up that discussion of different religion and stuff like that, but you didn’t first grade isn’t the age to really have that because you don’t understand it. And those boys were, I mean, they, they marched to their own beats, they always have. Yeah, I mean, the way they dress and just, you know, how they were raised. I mean, I know their parents. So I know that they definitely marched to their own tune, and they don’t, you know, they’re individuals, and they’re, they are who they are. And that’s awesome that they’ve been raised that way. But it’s, um, yeah, I mean, you know, we were grown up, I mean, I know, I’ve probably called somebody as a stupid Jew, or, you know, as they call me a wasp, or, you know, a day ago or whatever, when we were kids, but it feels like it’s not as innocent anymore. And maybe that’s just because the ramifications with adults, if you say stuff like that, as a kid now is so much greater, like elementary school now, compared to elementary school when we were kids. I mean, when we were kids, you could threaten to kill somebody out back after school or pick a fight, and the teachers never got involved. And they, you know, kind of left it all alone, and let kids work it out. But nowadays that just doesn’t exist anymore in our world, not even kinda, I mean, you’re expelled from school, maybe even criminally charged. I mean, it’s not you can’t do stuff like that anymore. You know, now, you can’t I mean, you know, I mean, I remember this was right after we first moved back to Ben. So it must have been 1999 or 2004. Somewhere right around there. He was at a city council meeting. And they were talking about, you know, having to build something or something to do with buying or something. And one of the city councilors said, Well, it sounds like we’re paying a little too much. Can we jump down? Okay. So that was 20. Oh, I wrote him a very long letter. Yeah, I bet she did. Because your wife wasn’t always Jewish. She converted after meeting you. And obviously being in a long term relationship with you. She’s adopted that religion has hers her. But you. So that term is a good one to talk about. I mean, 20 years ago, and beyond that wasn’t something that was unheard of that somebody would say, and I don’t know if it was in this would be a question for you is I don’t know if it would have been considered as offense. I mean, nowadays holy. Just carry on talking about now. But 30 years ago, that wouldn’t would that be considered? I mean, maybe slightly annoying. But I’ll tell you the truth before I moved to Oregon. Yeah. I had never heard that term. Really? Yeah. I guess I probably did. Only growing up in in an Italian Catholic, New York world. That’s something that I seem to feel like I’ve known my grandfather. So we’re going back two generations, although he would have friends that were Jewish, but he was of that generation. World War Two era folk, that wouldn’t hesitate to say something like that or to make racial slurs. But he also had friends that were black. He was in the fire department had he actually did in Rochester. He was actually the the person that champion. When he got into the fire department after World War Two, there was basically no, no Italians, and no blacks were in the fire department. So all the Italians were in the police department, in the blacks or in anything, essentially, and he champion once he got up, he was like assistant to the chief and the fire department. He champion two things and Italians getting into the fire department and blacks as well. It was really he did like this. I and I knew about it because he had talked about it. At some point, but at his funeral, all of these retired firefighters, a lot of them were black men, and they’re, you know, they’re my grandfather’s age are close to it. So we’re talking in their 80s a lot of them are older because my grandfather died, he was in his 90s coming up and telling these stories about without, without Randy, you know, we would have never got into the fire department and all this other stuff, but at the same time, he would use racial slurs about them to them. And they, and it was all kind of this thing, because they were all in that whole generation of people. Everybody was being basically attacked by every other thing, you know, so that, you know, the, the, the Catholics and the Jews or the Catholic, or the Italians and the Irish, you know, the blacks and the Irish for sure, not as much with the Italians, but the Italians as well. Everybody fought and, and went after each other in as time went on, they were all became friends with each other when the neighborhood started getting kind of loosened up. And again, you’re out in LA, this is New York. And things were it was really interesting. So as a kid, it was, it can be confusing, because you hear your grandfather makes some sort of racial slur. But yeah, two minutes later, his friend from the fire department that happened to be a black guy, or you know, an Irish, and oh, my God, the Irish and the things he used to say, I mean, I can’t even repeat them. But that was like normal talk. But it wasn’t normal belief. You switch to my stepmother side of the family in her mic, my step grandmother, who grew up in the deep south, the Bible Belt, and you stayed on your side of the tracks. Right? She grew up, you know, when she was going to elementary school, she brought horses to school, I mean, that old. She was always very nice and very friendly. But she was always still very standoffish to people of color. Because it was just something that was so ingrained in her entire life, right or wrong, and she knew it was wrong. And I’d have discussions with her about it. She wasn’t an outward. She wasn’t ever prejudiced. And I never actually heard a racial slur out of that woman’s mouth ever. But it was just kind of this almost subconscious, standoffish kind of thing. And I always thought that that was really weird. Until I went to North Carolina in my early teens or late teens, early 20s, and spent a couple of weeks in Greensboro and the wall. The South is definitely a different kind of place than I had ever experienced. When my father went into the he was in the Navy, right. And he had to drive to Florida or South Carolina for basic. He had to drive. from LA, from LA. Yeah. So he and a friend went, and they drove through. They were driving, you know, through Mississippi at the time. And he always wore a very large Jewish star. Really, okay. And they get to Mississippi, and they’re at a gas station, filling their car with gas. And this guy comes out a younger kid and says, Oh, are you Jewish? And my father says, Yeah, and the kid says, Well, can I see your horns? Your horns, your arms? Because the myth was still around the Jews had horns. Now that you’re wet, you’re probably talking 40s 1967 Oh, that way that war? Vietnam. Oh, good, Lord. Wow. Yeah, that is that’s kind of frightening. Sorta, yeah. But you know, I, it’s Yeah. And everything in the news today. Not that I wanted this whole conversation to be political. But it’s really amazing how far that we’ve come. But how? how upset so many people still are that they haven’t we haven’t come far enough for writing. I don’t know. I mean, I’m kind of isolated in the world that I’m in right now living in a very rural area on the Canadian border. I think Unfortunately, our our parents generation still has a lot of ingrained teaching. That really isn’t okay. Like I was talking to my mom about We while we were watching the show pose effects. Yeah, it’s about gay and transgender men in the late 80s. During the AIDS epidemic, yeah, it’s really good show. And my mom’s like, Oh, is that the one about the trainees? Not that there’s anything wrong with that? Right. Yeah. Right. I mean, yeah, she says it’s okay. But doesn’t say it’s okay. At the same time. Right. Right. Yeah. And just saying there’s nothing wrong with that doesn’t didn’t make it okay. Just say something. You know? Yeah. Is I in even at my age to it, admittedly, I find it. I’m not so bad that I can’t get over it or change behaviors, but at the same time, I can see the difficulty and you know, like words that we would, I was thinking about this couple days ago, words that didn’t exist five years ago. The word woke the word. The word has evolved. But the words that in any seriously, like, it’s almost I yeah, I don’t some of it, I don’t understand. I’m obviously open minded. And I’m very, you know, and I’m in a retail business where we get, we have a huge military base that is right down the road from us that people from literally all over this country get dropped into, into our world. They’re not necessarily locals, and they tend to stay in Watertown. And on the base, they, you know, they kind of stay close to home, because that’s all they know. And, but at the same time, I just, some of it is really hard to kind of get because I mean, what your mom said, and in the context, especially right now, it’s like, Siri, yeah, no, I know, you can’t do that. Seriously, you got to kind of gotta change what you say. And you just can’t. Because it’s really upsetting people for even for a reason that you may or may not understand. Fundamentally, agreeing with it or not, is almost irrelevant, because it’s how people globally are feeling. What I have a problem with is a bunch of white people running around, apologizing for being white. I don’t, that doesn’t make sense to me. If you’re going to apologize for something that you did as a human being, as Jason Lally or Tony Randazzo. That makes sense, but apologize for being white privileged, you didn’t have a choice for how you were born? Well, I guess you can argue that too, if you really want to get into it, but you didn’t have a choice of how you were raised, you just have a choice of how you can act when you have the ability to act on your own. Right. And that’s all you got, you know, and I agree with that. But here’s the problem. Yeah. I am, you know, male and white, right? Which means in America, I am better than everybody. I’m at the top of the food chain. Right? Whether we like it or not, that’s just how things work. Right? Now, I’m not going to apologize for my status. Okay, I can’t, I didn’t choose to be male and white, right? What I can do is accept the fact that as a white male in the United States, I have, and can do things that people of other colors and genders cannot watch, I pose the slightly opposing argument, if you look at people in our own circle of friends, Glenn Glenn, thank you, Glenn black, he’s black. And arguably, he’s from at least as long as we’ve known him. And and I’ve, I’ve not asked him this question. So making a couple assumptions only from observations, he seems to have had all the same opportunities that you are, I have had, at least in the time that we’ve known him, and that he’s been in our life. Now, that was also in Bend Oregon and as an adult, right, and when he went through prayer, I like to answer. I like to believe and hope that that’s true. Right? I don’t know. I haven’t had that discussion with him. Right. It would not surprise me to find out that that isn’t true. Especially, you know, growing up in the 70s and 80s. Right. Oh, yeah. Prior to us in his life. Yeah. I’m pretty confident that and I bet he went through some stuff in the 90s. I know that because I’d had talked to him when he was dating. What was her name? Jenny? Yeah. Jamie. Yeah, super white girl. Yeah, right. Yeah. Right. They would get comments all the time when they were out. So comments. But opportunity are two different things. Right. Totally. So, I mean, maybe he’s been, we’re talking a whole lot about us and we should bring him on the damn podcast. We probably need to now we’ll have to reach out to him but to get his opinion on it, and I know he’s so easy going well must have the product and he may not do it, but hopefully he will. Yeah, okay. So yes, all those things are true. We white. And I’m, by the way, I still have an issue with being called White. I still consider myself Italian and why the hell am I not still Italian? Why, how did I turn into being white? But that’s a different discussion. Arguably, I’m not white, but I whatever. I still, there’s no checkbox on the damn forms, let’s say Italian. It just says white, Caucasian jackass and everybody else or nothing at all. You can be nothing because Italians are white. They’re not. We were invaded by multiple races and we have Mixed Blood. I can show you my genealogy thingy that I spent money and spit in the tube for and they give you everything. I’m not European. I am European. But I’m from Italy, which makes me a trillion. And Italy’s didn’t even exist until just like 200 years ago. I actually was less than that, like 150 100 years ago, and been around a long time. They were just, you know, a bunch of people that kept getting invaded. We were just invaded all the time. They just invaded. Italy literally ruled Europe for 1000 years old, the Roman Empire, the Romans, those were they weren’t Italians. They were Roman. And then we were invaded by a Mongol race. And that’s all I have to say about that. So where is Rome? Rome is nothing anymore. old buildings and stuff. I’m Italian. I’m not white. White people are not popular right now. No, I take that back. White people. Yeah. So I agree with everything you said, Yes, we were born into it. We didn’t have a choice of how we were born. But so so what about the middle class, black family, they don’t live in some ghetto. They don’t live in the stereotypical world that so many people think that black people live in, you know, and which is totally stupid and wrong. But I do feel like there’s opportunity. In the again, my perspective only, I mean, I’m not discounting anything, anybody’s saying. I’m treading on very dangerous waters here. But I see I see people that have gotten done better with their lives and their kids and kids, they go to college and shit, they become president for the elderly. Totally. So but the black, middle class family that lives in the suburbs, right, still has to live in fear of getting pulled over by the police, they still have to teach their children how to interact with the police. Sure. Well, and how to interact with store owners, and how to walk to school safely, differently than I had to teach my children. I still don’t agree with people apologizing for being white. We’re getting right on birth circle back around to that one. Because I mean, I get it. I understand. I understand. not throwing that in somebody’s face and realizing that yes, they have to grow up and live a different way. And I don’t think a lot of people are apologizing for being white. I think that they are trying to own the fact that they have this privilege and use that to try and create change. Okay. That probably is the best explanation that I’ve heard, to be honest with you. At that one, I could be okay with not feeling like it’s a stupid answer. So thank you right for that. Because that is honestly the first time that I’ve heard a response to that question. That didn’t sound just stupid. Yeah, it sucks. I you know, and again, and I’ve also always said, Man, I can’t, I can’t put my self in somebody’s shoes, what it’s like to live in the inner city, in the projects. And I’ve talked to people that have lived there and whatever but you kill you walk a mile in those shoes until you live in New York City as an example where there’s cockroaches is the norm in your apartment. And that’s not something that’s abnormal. We would absolutely lose our minds. Absolutely. I know you would I know your wife would my wife sure is how would not be okay with cockroach for even a second in LA there were cockroaches everywhere. Yeah, well, right. I remember not in Orange County Just saying. I remember one night it’s like one o’clock in the morning, right? And there’s this high pitched scream like a seven year old girl screaming. My brother had come home. And he was in college. Right? So he’s like, 20 years old. Come home, went to the kitchen and turn on the light. And a cockroach ran across the kitchen floor as they do when you turn the lights on? Yes. And oh my god, I thought he was going to die. And then I asked him why he screamed like a seven year old girl. Yeah, of course. It’s and but that’s the normally they’re supported. They have flying cockroach dude. So we’ve gone multiple years in a row, right. This year, was the first year that I had the pleasure of coming face to face with a couple of cockroaches in the rental that we’ve rented year after year. And of course, I immediately got on Google and realized dummies are everywhere you just didn’t see before. They spray for him twice a year. There’s traps everywhere. You don’t have to live with them. And yes, they none of that matters because the cockroaches and they fly. And I turned on the lights in the kitchen and plucker goes running across the floor. Now I took a deep breath. I didn’t scream Laurie was still asleep. So I didn’t say anything. There’s the last thing I’m going to do is tell my wife that there’s cockroaches in this house. So the next morning I wake up and Laurie gets up and whatever. And I’m standing in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee and I’m thinking to myself when we’re in that little bastard go and I kind of looked at a corner of my eyes saw what looked like a clump of dirt in on the floor in the laundry room. And it was that damn cockroach dad upside down because there was probably cockroach bait in the cupboards or wherever, everywhere. And he died. So I nonchalantly went over and picked him up and had the heebie jeebies and threw him away. And then I didn’t see anything that night. But the following night, I turned on the lights in the kitchen, it was like two o’clock in the morning get up to get something to drink. And then another one run across the counter. And I’m thinking Hold on, he’s gonna run face to face with one of these guys and it’s gonna be all over. Like my wife is gonna lose it. So I’m getting I’m getting the heebie jeebies at this point. Like, are they crawling over my face while I’m sleeping? Like I’m like, we can’t sleep. So that night Go back to sleep. The next morning Laurie finds one in the cupboard. I think I think it was that night that she’s the next morning she found out presumably a different one. I’ll say it was the same one. And then I saw I got it took care of that she was seemed kind of okay with it. I didn’t see anything. That night. Again, another one in the kitchen. The next morning. I’m like, Hey, I got to talk to you. She’s like, what’s what’s wrong? You know, we’re on vacation. We’re you know, we’re there for three weeks. She’s like, so what’s up? I’m like. So I did a bunch of research this morning on Google. It’s how I started the conversation. Did you know that it’s super common for cockroaches in Florida. And they even have flying ones and I go through this whole dissertation. And I said in the reason I’m telling you this is because over the last five nights, three of which I’ve seen cockroaches run in the kitchen, and she was like totally nonchalant. Like, yeah, they’re in Florida. And yeah, that’s kind of gross, but okay. Totally different reaction than I was. I was expecting we’re leaving and going somewhere else. And I was like, okay, and I’m thinking to myself, why don’t you pansy? I was freaked out about it. And she was pretty, you know, she wasn’t. I don’t think if she would have saw one, crawl over her foot or run through the kitchen in the middle of night, you probably would have gotten a screech, but she was totally cool with the whole thing. And I had to kind of calm down and I called the landlord who’s a good friend of mine and said, Hey, this is what’s going on. She’s like, hell yeah, they’re all over the place all the time. Yeah, cockroaches crazy. But again, some people it’s totally common. They grow up it’s no big deal. But some people it’s totally foreign. And I don’t know how I came on a cockroach thing is a good example of that, but I’m gonna go with it, I guess. And and, yeah, so this started with talking about going to Florida. And then we ended up I stopped the recording when we stopped. So I don’t know how long that first recording was, but that’s okay. But yeah, it’s just really Why is this recording? Oh, we’ve been on for an hour already. I was looking for Mike. Yeah. So, let’s, I want to talk about cuz I want to do this as an entire, like, live stream of man. And I’m going to show you something. Let me see if I can do this. Okay, so you gotta be patient with me. Okay, I’m going to switch screens. Do you see that? there? I can see I see the superfight cards. And can you see my little head up there in the corner? I see your little head. Hi. So totally. So we have this game, right? And the damn lights not on. Oh, lights on. So we have this game that we want to play. Right. And I don’t think we should play it tonight because I think we should just get on and play it but we should play it later so that your Oregon people can like be on Facebook and watch us play Super fast. Yeah, so we can play Super fight right? We don’t miss a whole section of people that are still working it because late for you is kind of is really late for me. But that’s kind of okay. You know, but even if we played at like six or seven, I these cards dude are off that they’re horrible. That’s horrible. This game was made. I mean, it is horrible. These are funny. These are like, I mean, seriously, this game was made from the we should have invented this and made money on it. And we were too stupid to figure it out. Because it was like every, every interaction we had for 10 years, almost that pissed everybody off. I mean, because I know your wife was mad at us. Laurie was certainly mad, Alicia. I mean, they all were pissed every time we open our mouths. I mean, even last time I saw you, Julie couldn’t believe that the first thing that we did was make fun of each other when we saw each other. But you know, the game was made? And I haven’t played it yet. And did you get your expansions? You didn’t get them yet? Right? I don’t have the I didn’t get the expansions. Okay, we don’t think we don’t really need them. No, we can just play because it can play out of the decks with the camera because we only need to see him initially, right? Because, right, once we have them and I’ve shown people what they are, then we’re not going to be on that camera anyway. But we just tested the camera out. And that works that which is totally cool. So I am going to mount that probably better to swing out of court, you wouldn’t believe what’s going on in front of me right now. But it worked, which was awesome. That’s a really cool platform, because right now people are so challenged with communicating with people on the other side of the aisle. And you know, you voted Obama and admittedly I voted for that would have been bush. Hmm. No, no, not that. That was McCain that time McCain. Yeah. And then I didn’t vote for Trump. The first time. Admittedly, in the second time, I was a little challenge there didn’t know what to do. But we can talk about keep that one a surprise. But you know, and then I ran in local politics as a Democrat right away. So you know, oh, boy, there’s some interesting stuff to talk about. But you know, you got to know your audience can’t, you’ve got to know your audience. And that’s the really the important part about that is when I was approached to run locally, I said, Look, I’m more republican and, and I don’t have the I don’t have the because in New York State to run for local politics, Republicans have to go out and get, you got to get signatures, you gotta have a certain amount of right and five signatures to be on the ballot. Well, back when I ran, originally, the democrats were still doing a caucus. So you get all your friends in the room that are going to vote for you that are Democrats, and they, you know, they write your name down on a little piece of paper, and then the head of the democrats for the region, pulls the names out of the hat and says, okay, Tony, you got 22, and so on. So you got 20 Tony, you win. And that’s how I got on the ballot the first time, which was the only way I was gonna happen, because there wasn’t enough time to get signatures. That’s why I switched. The only reason I switched at the time. Then when this next term came up, and I ran officially again, they took away the caucus. So you had to go get signatures, I’d like to caucus way better, but it was more engaging, I guess, because you had a bunch of people in the room, and they’re all talking and it’s just way more active. And as opposed to going door to door with a piece of paper, say sign this please, which I didn’t do anyway. So it’s based on the amount of signatures is based on your population. So you have people help you, which is totally legal go out and get signatures. Well, the mayor was running on the same cycle as I was and she’s been here for 100 million years. So she carried around my ballot, as well as hers. But then also you go to different places. You go to enclaves where the democrats are out or the republicans hang out. You know, you’re You’re kind of hard pressed to get a bunch of signatures in the VFW mostly Republicans, a little more conservative guys from World War Two, especially, but, you know, you go down to the yoga studio not not to be not to be pigeonholing people or being, you know, but you know, you’re gonna get what you’re going to get in no matter where you go. So it’s pretty easy to get. So I stay at a Democrat. And now I’ve been out of office for a year and a half, two years, and I’m still a Democrat. I haven’t switched. And if I do, switch, I’ll be an independent, I’ll never be a single party. I’ll never be a republican or democrat ever again. Once I get down to the election on race and change, Julie and I are not so even though we would probably be independent. We’re both registered Democrats, right? Because in Oregon, if you’re not registered for a party, you can’t vote in the primaries. Even as an independent you can’t, independence cannot vote in the primaries. I’m thinking if we can hear you know, the only some states they can’t Yeah, you can in how that works is only I. And I may be wrong, but I think it’s only if so what usually happens is whoever’s running, they’ll pick up the independent party in put it on their ticket, as well, so that they get greater reach. So right, they both won’t do it. But a lot of Republicans or Democrats will do that. They’ll try to get the independent voter, the green party vote or the whatever, vote and get that on their on the ticket so that those people can come and vote. And that’s the only way I think that you can if right, if I remember right, yeah. So that’s the only reason. Julie and I are registered. shockcraft. Yeah, that makes sense is because we like to particularly I like to vote Yeah, it’s one of my favorite things. So I want to vote as often as I can, which means I have to be registered for a party. Right? So yeah. And from what I’ve understood is a lot of people as you age, you tend to change. Not always, but I’ve seen it, I saw it with my dad, which when he was my age and younger, staunch, ultra conservative Republican, and he’s a total inbred and now he’s also you know, a meditation instructor and his chat a major overhaul of his entire life from what he was doing. And he sees things a bit differently now. And in although he loves to watch Fox News, I think he watches it as pure pure entertainment. He tells me about it every day. But yeah, it’s really interesting to see how people age especially like teenagers, when they go from teens to 20s. Or they go from not owning a house to buying their first home. How are their first real job how their opinions change on things like taxes and, and watching watching young people get angry for the first time about political things like that, because of grown up reasons. Instead of I’m, I’m a Democrat, and I’m gonna, you know, I’m going to protest that because because, well, why you’re 1817 years old, you don’t know shit about shit. Well, because all my friends are doing it, you know, they don’t know why they’re doing it or why they feel that way other than whatever their experiences were to get them there. But until they start, you know, getting a career, getting a house getting all those things and then things like taxes become a real thing. buying groceries and budgets and all those things start to become real and that definitely pulls on you and ways on your political beliefs. I think taxes are one of those things that never bothered me. You know, they don’t they they never bothered me as even a little bit until I owned my own business and and then all taxes bother me a lot like a lot payroll tax because you breathe tax and then like our governor here gas tax, he’s putting in a 50 cent gas tax seriously, because you want to get rid of all cars that have freakin motors, you jerk. We talked about this last time we talk But see, I mean, come on, really. So taxes have become a bane of my existence. And because that can heavily weigh on the profitability of a business if you’re being heavily taxed. Now I do believe and I’m okay with certain tests. So if you’re selling a good or a product and I’m borderline here because I sell wine, but it’s like cigarettes or weed is a great example in Oregon not quite in New York yet but it’s gonna it’s happening is you should tax the shit out some of that stuff like potato chips, soda pop in this is, you know, things that are a fad Tax. Tax almost. Yeah, I mean Really, if it’s if it’s unhealthy, and you’re making the choice to do it, and smoking is a good example, because I’m a smoker, so I can talk about this. And I’m fat. So I could talk about potato chips, I guess. But I’m gonna talk about cigarettes for a second, I pay a huge amount of tax because if I go to Georgia, or wherever I go to buy cigarettes, when I’m on my way to Florida, they’re half the price. So, so $5 for every pack of cigarettes that I buy in New York State, more than that, but at least $5 goes to tax. That’s now that’s funding, I hope it should be funding things like getting quitting smoking. So that tobacco tax should go to drug, you know, raising awareness and programs to get people off of nicotine. They should go to prevention and medical stuff because of lung disease and all the shit that happens because you smoke. I agree with that. If I’m going to do education, admittedly stupid and bad for myself, if I should pay a little bit extra to help cover the cost of what that’s going to do to me, potentially down the road, I’m okay with it. But punishing me because I own a car that uses regular gasoline. Because everybody on the planet uses one. It’s not like I’m choosing to use a car. Because I could fly otherwise with my wings attached to my back that like that just doesn’t sit well with me because it’s not really a choice. Like I understand that. But how are you know, how bad are the potholes where you live? Oh, they’re horrible. I live somewhere where we actually have four seasons. Well, you do too. I guess you really have summer and winter, but I get fall in spring. Okay, but a lot of that gas tax money goes to the Yeah, fixing road. Sure. And I’m okay with that part of the tax. Like I get that part road repair, you drive on the road, the only way the state can afford to pay the road is the tax you put on gasoline or buying cars. So sales tax, you know, part of the sales tax or whatever and luxury taxes. I mean, we can really go off on different taxes, but right, adding a 50 cent tax because you really want to be the first state to ban freakin cars with regular motors or whatever. It’s up his sleeve, which I don’t know what it is. Whatever is up his sleeve to charge that much in attacks. He’s doing that not for the right reasons. In my opinion, he might think they’re the right reasons because he is, you know, King Cuomo. He’s not really a governor is more of a king reiax. But you know, it’s like, shouldn’t we vote on something like that? 50 cents gas tax really, you’re just gonna make that happen? just out of the blue. Like, that makes no sense to me. Like that’s where I start have our problem. And it’ll be interesting. And I’m gonna save this one definitely for another episode. But that power that local government has over people now that they’ve never felt or experienced before that they’ve had since COVID. Started dude, serious, right? Watch them let go of that power. Not in a New York minute. There’s gonna be some big old problems. Thanks for listening to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo, where we see things a bit differently. Let’s get social. Find us on Facebook by searching Gen X perspective, Twitter, at Gen X underscore podcast and on Instagram at Gen X perspective. You can also find us online at Gen X perspective.com. And reach out to Tony directly at Tony at Gen X perspective.com. to maybe you can talk strategy on how to beat Super Mario Brothers three. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Gen X perspective wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening