So there's something that's been pissing me off
since I was a kid, and that is people who are
all talk and not about action. And especially
in the realm of making the world a better place.
It always pissed me off. And I think one of the
things I realized at a very early age is that
you need to really... If you're going to make
a difference, you need to put your hands into
mud. You need to get dirty, right? And so I want
to go ahead and say a few things about virtue
signaling just generally. And it goes under different
names, right? So I don't know if you know what
virtue signaling is. But there's other people
who, like, have all these signs or postings up
on social media or shit that tells the world
what they're about, what they believe in. Bumper
stickers is a good place where people do this
sort of virtue signaling of who they support
or, you know. flags on their uh you know what
is it on their in their houses and stuff uh indicating
their loyalties to or like phrases or something
like t -shirts i don't know all these different
places where people will just basically kind
of express to the world this is what i believe
right okay it's not i'm not going to say that
there's no reason for doing these things i think
it's important to create a culture of support
for certain causes but What I have found in my
living now in Orange County, so let me backtrack
a little bit if you're not familiar with Orange
County here in California. It's like suburban
neighborhoods. It's different from L .A. in this
sense. It's mostly residential areas with some,
at least the areas I live and engage with, you
know, it's a bunch of families and so on. But
people who are at least like fairly close to
middle class, it's fairly safe neighborhoods.
At least, again, the areas that I'm around. And,
you know, these are all well -to -do people,
and they're all generally very kind and, you
know, polite and, you know, want to believe in
doing good things, right? But here's a reality,
okay? Here's a reality. There's a lot of issues
in the world that if you want to fix, you're
going to have to give up something. There's no
way that you can make real change without meaningfully
sacrificing something, especially specifically
for those people that are in positions of power,
people who have money, people who have influence,
right? You need to give up something. OK, that's
the reality, right? Like if you want to improve
like housing conditions, like in California,
we have the housing crisis. If you want to make
more houses available, there's a way to do it.
You could stop some of these people from using
money and buying up investment properties and
creating more homes that people could actually
afford to purchase for themselves and build wealth.
But of course, people aren't going to do that.
Which brings me to the things that I've seen
over the past more recent years with things like
Me Too when they're wearing all white to the
Oscars or I think the most recent one that my
particular community of people that I know were
involved with is this whole blackout thing in
support of Black Lives Matter on Instagram or
some dumb shit like that. This is virtue signaling
shit. I call this lazy activism. This is not
real activism. This is just... a bunch of fake
ways of supporting and showing solidarity, okay?
It's fucking bullshit. It's fucking bullshit.
And it pisses me off because I know, you know,
that this is the least you can do, and it actually
doesn't move the needle, but it just makes you
feel better about yourself and thinking that
you actually accomplished something. It's bullshit.
And I say it's bullshit for a reason. I grew
up in poverty. I grew up needing to, needing,
I actually mean it when I say I needed government
support to be able to survive. That's, you know,
like the poverty, state poverty line, right?
They always give you, they always have this every
year, right? They say this is considered the
state poverty line. And then anything below it
is considered like you're in poverty, right?
I was always below that line. But I think what
people don't realize is that even if you're above
the line, you're in fucking poverty. It fucking
sucks even if you're above that line. Even if
you're like just slightly above that line. That
line, I don't know who comes up with that goddamn
number, okay? But nobody could survive on that
amount of money at all. There's no way you could
even. you can live month to month on that kind
of money, okay? It's absolutely ridiculous, okay?
So I'm not joking when I say I needed government
assistance. I could not go see a doctor at all
if it wasn't for free clinics, okay? I wouldn't
have had food on the table if it wasn't for certain
government support programs, okay? What I'm pointing
out is this, okay? If you wanted to, I remember
thinking back then, if you want to fix this,
we can fix it. We can fix this, but in order
to fix it, guess what? You wealthy motherfuckers,
we're going to have to pay more in taxes. Millionaires,
multimillionaires especially, we're going to
have to pay more taxes. We're going to have to
improve some of these programs. We're going to
have to create situations where families don't
have to be begging for handouts. It's not as
if my parents didn't want, it was like enjoyed
being, nobody enjoys being in poverty. It was
like, it wasn't fun at all. But what pissed me
off most wasn't the people who were like, I actually
appreciate it when people were like, you know,
I don't give a damn, right? It's each their own.
Everybody's on their own, like doggy dog world.
People who had that sort of perspective, I appreciated
the honesty. What I didn't like were the people
who would come to me and say, we care, we want
to give. And so they would donate shit. But you
know what they would donate? They would donate
leftovers. And they would donate those leftovers
knowing that it wasn't actually going to change
the situation. It was merely going to make themselves
feel good about themselves for doing something,
thinking that they helped. But the reality is
that they didn't help shit. And on top of that,
I felt disrespected being given a bunch of leftovers.
That's not really doing anything to move the
needle. And if you're not doing anything to move
the needle, that's not real activism. That's
not really standing for something. That is you
tossing a few coins at a panhandler. feeling
better about yourself that you did something.
That's all that is. It didn't do shit. And virtue
signaling, honestly, in most cases, doesn't do
shit. It gives you an excuse to not do more,
okay? And I've had this conversation with friends
myself, and I'm probably considered an asshole
for doing it, but I will call people out on it
when people say like, oh yeah, I did this because
I want such and such to be better. It's like,
you're fucking bullshit, okay? You did that because
it was trending. You didn't do that because it
made a difference. Let's be honest. Look, the
Me Too movement, when people were dressed in
all white going to the Oscars, did that do anything?
That did fucking shit. You know what would have
done something? What would have actually made
some changes? If the women who had money actually
got together, created up their own organizations
and structures so that they were the ones who
collectively kept power away from certain other
individuals that they knew to be shady, creepy,
old -school, molesty -type people, they didn't
need to put up with it. They could have done
something about it, but you know what it would
have required? It would have required real work.
It would have required real commitment. It would
have required real time, energy and money. That's
what it would have required. OK, we can address
housing issue in California. You know what it
would require? It would require time, energy
and money. That's what it really requires. We
could address the fact that this goddamn high
speed railway going, you know, between NorCal
and SoCal hasn't been built yet. Right. We could
address it if people just fucking got the job
done. But guess what it would require? It would
require certain people in positions of power.
to give up their political capital. It would
require people to make sacrifices in specific
communities. It would require people to like
people with interest in it. I get it. They have
some interest in it. They would have to give
up something. That's the reality. Change doesn't
happen until somebody who is in a position to
make a change chooses to give up that power.
to give up their time, their energy. It doesn't
necessarily have to be money. They could give
up their time, energy, political capital, their
vocal support. If your capital, if the kind of
wealth you have is not in terms of dollar amount,
but in terms of popular support, you're going
to have to use that in order to make a real change.
And so if you're not doing that, I don't want
to hear from you because it is just lazy ass
shit. And it doesn't make me, like, I see right
through that shit, and it just pisses me off.
Because what it shows other people is that that
is good enough for them to do, and then they
do the same thing, and they feel like they did
something. And then nothing changes, and you
wonder why everyone stays frustrated and nothing
ever actually gets better. You want things to
be better? You're going to have to do something
about it, okay? Let me give you a good example
in this area, right? Because I live in an area
where the school system is relatively good, okay?
All right. You know one thing you can do to improve
the educational outcomes for students who are
not as well off, who lack a lot of resources
to help schools that lack a lot of resources?
We could stop playing this fucking game with
the school districts where people who are in
wealthy neighborhoods are the ones who get access
to the nicer public schools, where real estate
value is tied to. school district. There are
ways of disassociating these things. We've done
it before, right? We've tried busing. We've tried
all kinds of solutions that have tried to address
at least some of what's happening, okay? But
guess what? All these goddamn parents who are,
again, well -meaning, they're nice, they're good
people, they don't want it to change. That's
the reality. They don't want it to change. They
don't want to change. If they wanted it to change,
they would be on the forefront of demanding these
changes because they're actually the people in
the best position to create these changes. But
they're not going to. Why? Because it hurts themselves.
Because it's going to require a sacrifice on
their part. It's going to require them to give
up having such a highly rated school. It might
impact their home value. That's what it's going
to do. So I'm not joking when I say... There's
going to have to be something that you have to
give up. And if you're not hurting in making
a change, if you're not hurting in some way,
then you're not really doing anything. That's
the truth. That's the truth. That's the reality.
And you're going to have to start accepting that
because I'm getting fucking pissed off with all
these people who are just talking, talking, talking
about how they support such and such and such.
But when it comes time to actually doing something
that will really make a change, they don't want
to do it because they're going to have to make
a sacrifice. And I'm pointing specifically to
the people who are in positions of power, people
who have money, people who have the time, the
expertise, the wealth. They're the ones who are
in the best position to do it. They're the ones
who are choosing not to. No wonder nothing changes.
Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that I
am somehow peachy clean and I'm great about this.
No. I'm ranting here because I just get pissed
off about this kind of stuff, but I'm probably
guilty of it too. I don't know to what degree
or how much. Everybody's guilty of it, probably
to some degree. I don't care. I don't care. Call
me out on it. That's fine. I will hear it and
I will accept it and be like, yeah, you know
what? Fuck. I'm not living up to my own standards.
Okay. And so please call me out on it. This is
not just because, just because, you know, just
because other people, I point out that other
people are doing this doesn't mean that I'm not
doing it. I might be doing it as well. And there
might be things that I can do better. Fine. The
question is this, are you willing to listen?
That's all I'm asking. Are you willing to listen
and to really reflect on why it is that the things
you're doing has zero impact? Okay. So I'm saying
all this, just asking you to just be honest with
yourself, please. That's all I'm asking. I don't
mind. Like I said, I don't mind if you come at
me straight and say, hey, look, I don't really
care about this enough to really sacrifice anything
of worth. okay? I will do this bare minimum,
and that's what I'm willing to do. If you're
willing to acknowledge it, I respect you. I respect
you, okay? I respect you. I'm not joking about
this. I'm very serious. I would rather you be
upfront with me, honest with me, and just say
it to me straight up like that instead of lying
to me and then telling me that you're really
about it. You really care. You care about addressing
homelessness. You care about addressing poverty.
You care about addressing food deserts. You actually
care about this kind of stuff. If you care about
it, I want to see you do something about it.
If you're not going to do anything about it,
then don't tell me that you care. That's all
I ask. Be fucking consistent. Okay? With that
said, there's something that does actually matter
to me, and I'm going to tell you right now that
I'm planning on doing this every single year,
okay? But in the summers, when I do have the
time, I am going to open up a forum where students
who want free college consultation, this is something
that I used to, you know, get paid like thousands
of dollars per student, thousands of dollars
per student to do, okay? I'm going to open it
up for free. for any student who wants that help.
Because what I have realized was that a lot of
students are not getting a fair shot at getting
into college because their application didn't
get the polish up that other students did. I
think that's absolutely unfair, okay? And I know
that there's quality students out there and they
just can't afford the additional help. that they'll
need. Because let's be honest, like high school
counselors, teachers, they can help to some degree,
but that's patchwork. What you need is somebody
who really just can sit one -on -one with a student.
I've tried to look to see if there's any good
resources online. And I found that there are
some good general resources on places like Reddit.
I think there's one for like asking about colleges.
There's been some people who provide free advice
on YouTube, on podcasts. I think that they are
helpful to some small, very minute degree. But
when you get down to it, you need somebody to
help you one -on -one. There's no other way to
improve your chances until you have somebody
look over your application, every aspect of it,
and really try to clean it up so that it presents
the best version of you. It's like having somebody
who helps you with your resume to make sure that
you have all your, you know, I's dotted and your
T's crossed, right? Any of you who are needing
and wanting that help, I will put a link to a
form where you can sign up. This is for 2025.
This is for students who are applying in the
fall of 2025. and going straight from high school
to college. I will have a separate form in the
fall for transfer students. I'll shift my focus
there. But I recommend that you take advantage
of it because it's free. Like I said, it usually
will cost you thousands of dollars. Might as
well save yourself that money, or maybe you just
can't afford it at all, and that's fine, which
is why I'm offering for free. I want you to go
ahead and sign up. I want to be there as a resource
for you. I want to help you, okay? Sign up while
there's still, I mean, this is a one -person
operation, so sign up while you can. If I get
some support from people around me in my community,
I'm going to try to see if I could find other
people who are willing to volunteer to provide
the service as well so that we could expand the
number of students that we could help. But I
want you to go ahead and dedicate the time in
the summer. High school students, I know that
you think that you have time. I'm telling you
right now, college application takes a lot of
work to do well. And if you start late summer,
beginning of fall, when you start school again,
you're going to be screwed. You're not going
to be in a good place. You're going to be overwhelmed.
It's not going to be your best work, okay? Take
the summer to go ahead and get this done. And
I guarantee I will work with you to try to ease
the transition so that it's not as heavy of a
load for you to take on, right? Usually it'll
require at least an hour, one -on -one Zoom meeting
with me. And then after that, we'll do probably
a lot of back and forth on Google Docs to clean
up some of your essays, but also look over transcripts
and things like that to make sure we got everything
in order. Please sign up. It's free. And I hope
that we could actually make some sort of dent
in what is otherwise a pretty shitty situation.