This YouTube interview (Josh Trent with Greg Anderson) discusses whether and how the U.S. should "unlock" during the COVID-19 pandemic. Greg describes closing his own jujitsu academy and CrossFit gym before mandates, criticizes government "essential" business lists (citing liquor stores, marijuana shops, and the Washington state lottery remaining open while private construction was closed), and frames the shutdowns as harming livelihoods and civil liberties. The conversation also raises collateral social harms (increases in suicide, child abuse, domestic violence), presents an on-the-ground medical anecdote (a physician friend in Queens reportedly treating ~200 COVID patients), and debates mask guidance and law-enforcement perspectives on enforcement vs. individual judgment.
Questions this video answers
About 200 COVID patients.
Chapters
What do you see as the truth right now? For us, for you, for society? Like what is the truth? Do we take off our masks and take a stand for what we believe in? Do we wait in the wings and see what happens? Where do we go now?
My truth is exactly that. We need to open our country back up and we need to allow people to pursue their happiness. But, and I'll tell you why, I'll tell you what started raising red flags for me almost immediately. Okay. When this first thing kicked off, I actually closed my business because I own a jujitsu academy and a CrossFit gym, right, where people are sweating on each other, they're in close combat. You know what I mean? If there's a real dangerous disease going around, that's probably something that we should take a step back from. And so I closed my business before it was mandated by the government because as a respectable person that, that wants to protect my students and my team. Hey guys, let's figure out what's going on and just take a few weeks off and analyze the facts, okay? But immediately, and I don't know what it was like in California, but in Washington state, immediately everything shut down except for. And they started naming what was deemed essential from the governor's office, liquor stores, marijuana shops, and I'm pro both of those things. You do what you want to do, right? But if you. But you start to see a trend. Auto licensing. So like tabs for your cars. Okay. The lottery, Washington state lottery was deemed essential. That got to stay open and operate any type of construction contract that was contracted by the government, that was deemed essential. But any private construction was deemed non essential. And you started to see crystal clear that oh, anything that pads the government's pockets is somehow just arbitrarily deemed essential. And right there they lost credibility because that proved to me you're not trying to protect people's safety. What you're trying to do is ensure that you keep making your money. But you don't care about your, your citizens ability to make money and feed their family. All you care about is feeding the machine. And so right from the get go, I was like, hey, these things aren't adding up. This is not making sense. And then you just saw it go downhill from there.
Well, we had a question, a statement actually, to play devil's advocate, because I love free speech. I want people to engage in conversation, Greg. Like that's what this is about, man. And Diana said there's a real dangerous disease going around. The fact that governments don't shut down those businesses doesn't mean that there's not a pandemic going on. To that, I take a deep breath and I respond by saying, no one is disrespecting the lives that have been lost. No one is saying that death is not one of the most challenging things that we all deal with, but it is an inevitability. And in my question for you, and what I'd love all of us to really ponder here through that deep breath that Diana was brave enough to bring up, how do we decide the lives of the few for the lives of the many? We see suicide rates going up. We see child abuse going up. We see literally, health crises, domestic violence. Domestic violence. So many things happening on the other side of the coin. And at what point do we take a breath, take an honest assessment of our situation, and move forward together? It's. It's challenging either way.
Of course it is. And there. There's no answer that. No path that we can go down where everybody's going to be safe. Yeah, right. Like, that doesn't exist. That's not reality. But by us wanting to open our businesses and restore people's livelihoods, just like you said, that's not detracting from the people that are vulnerable or the people that have gotten sick from this. Like, anytime someone gets sick or anybody passes due to a disease, it's tragic. And I don't think by not wanting to see our entire country implode that we're being insensitive to those people. And I'll tell you this. Like, I don't like to get into the medical side of things because I'm not a doctor, but my best friend on planet Earth. He was the best man at my wedding.
He.
He's been my best friend since we were 12 years old. He is a physician in Queens, New York. He has 200 COVID patients. I talk to him almost daily. And the things that you're hearing on the media versus what he's seeing, they're not matching up. That's the truth. And he told me, he's like, I see people die every day. This is a terrible disease. But he's also saying what we're being told about social distancing, what we're being told about. You have to have a mask on the. He's like, as a medical professional, no, I don't. I'm not seeing what's being put out on the news and what's being put out on governor, from the governors and from the mayors. And so I'm seeing a firsthand account, both as a law enforcement officer and a firsthand account from my best friend who's literally in the epicenter of COVID and things aren't matching up. And if people. If people aren't willing to take a step back and be like, okay, we understand that people are getting sick, but there's something else going on here. It's clear as day you're ringing a.
Bell of truth right now. Everyone share this if you're feeling the same truth, because what I know to be true is that we are at this point where we're either going to move forward and have freedom and really honor our forefathers. Can you imagine what it would have been like, Greg, 1776, coming over here, like, under. Under colonial rule and then having to have a tea party? Like, people forget how easy it is to not repeat history in a unless you're aware enough to have the courage to not let it repeat. And I think that's what you represent, man. And I'm so honored that you chose this podcast, this platform to speak your truth on. If you had some intelligence and some guidance for people that are navigating this space in their city, local, state, and even federal government, how do they navigate this process right now? What are their real rights? How do they keep their health under rights for themselves? Health, freedom? And what are their personal rights that you can share with us?
Well, and I would say this because I've been asked that question on all the. All the appearances that I've been making, like, I don't want my message to be your truth. I'm just a man, just like you're a man. Right? But what I'm imploring people to do is simply look at the facts and ask themselves, does this feel right in my heart? Does this seem like the right thing to do? Because there's a reason that there's international outrage when we see that young woman in the New York subway dogpiled by 6 cops for not wearing a mask. There's a reason for that, and that's because we know fundamentally in our hearts that's incorrect. And I think I almost find it offensive that the government feels like they need to protect us, because I would like to think of the American people is emotionally intelligent enough to find out and look inward and decide what's going to work best for them. And I think if people do that and they ask themselves, what do I feel comfortable doing? Where do. Where's my line in the sand? Where am I not going to get pushed any farther if people start to come to terms with these things, then when they find themselves in that situation, they're already going to have their, their answers because it's already been something that they've ran through and in their mind and in their, their hearts.
We're here in Southern California, in San Diego area. And the energy and the conversations that we're seeing here, Craig, is about freedom, about health, freedom, about personal liberty. You know, there's a phrase that's on so many of the officers doors, and it's for the people in service and good for the people. Now what? There's a difference. When you look at somebody behind a desk who possibly never enforces laws, just writes checks and gives people orders to do and put out, those people have a disconnection. There's a fundamental disconnection between the people that are, quote, in making the laws and the actual officers, like the men and women who are enforcing these laws. What were your colleagues saying? Were they on your side?
I'm not kidding you. And maybe it's because people don't want to argue with me because I get passionate about this stuff.
Yeah.
But 100% of my co workers are in absolute agreement with me. They cannot believe the stuff we're seeing officers do nationwide. And that's why I was compelled to talk about it in my video. I said, I understand that you got a mortgage. I do, too. I understand you have babies to feed. Yeah, I do, too. It doesn't matter what your financial situation is or your personal financial commitments. None of that is relevant because this is a, this is simply a matter of law and this is simply a matter of right and wrong. And we do not have the option to go and enforce these executive orders and destroys people's livelihoods. We don't have that option.
