Viet-ERA: Help! Who is Nguy Vu and why is my dad listening to him?!

Viet-ERA, I need some help in understanding wtf my dad (and mom by proxy) is listening to daily.
Is this guy Vietnamese Alex Jones or what? My own Vietnamese is not good enough to even understand what's being talked about, but just from the candance of this guy's speech and longwindedness, plus the terrible music that plays from time to time in support of Trump (it's in english!), I am convinced that is what he is. Maybe he is more Vietnamese Howard Stern. How am I to know?

Someone help me figure out how bad this is. I have tried to google but it is of no use. I can't find reliable sources.

Help me before my dad starts buying more not-magic beans off of him. I already know he and mom were convincded to buy some women's beauty creams off of the guy and it costed them about $700 and I can only hope my mom's skin doesn't melt off from it though maybe it will be A Good Lesson.

And yes, I have told them he sounds scammy but they are convinced he is authentic and hyperbolic reveiws of his creams are legit and they are seniors with access to the internets and facebook.

Help me decrypt all of this. Or tell me your own horror stories of your immigrant parents who you have language barriers with being roped into shennanigans like this, including really skewed conservative views or even being duped by the likes of Trump. We're Canadian! They generally vote Liberal! WTF are my parents admiring Trump for?! (answer: anti-china sentiment and latent racism)

The aforementioned Youtube channel:
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCu5l-3_WMwN5jFJ48Qq7r2g

Awful song that plays often on that channel:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HmnYnYX4soI

Warez he's hockin including aforementrioned beauty creams (i think more expensive brightening aka WHITENING cream not shown):

I do plan on reading the book though. I wanna read about refugee boat people experiences and I'm hoping Nguy Vu was more editor listening to other people's stories than writing about himself.

TI92 said:

Posting because I'm very curious how this unfolds

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THERE IS MORE!!! I will maybe tell aboots it after I sort it out in the morning, but it does involve unwittingly subscribing (!!!) to some magic beans using credit card.

Pls do not let ur senior parents loose on the internet with credit cards, everyone..

Llyranor said:

I just glanced through his channel and one of his video is literally "the truth about Obama and the Iran agreement."

I listened 5 min, I'm done. Choice gems: Obama and Hillary's Iran deal may lead us to war, Antifa being communists and ranting about black people, 'I will tell you the truth because what you hear elsewhere is false'.

I hate to break it to you OP, but it sounds like your suspicion is correct...

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AMAZING. Yeah, I will be yelling at them a lot about this. I already have "Trump is a loser and an bidiot! He's bankrupted his businesses multiple times! wtf are you listening to where you think Hillary has a terminal illness!!".

A Fish Aficionado said:

MLM is very heavy in latino culture
Even Univision and Telemundo openly broadcast some heinous snake oil.

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It sucks. Thankfully my parents aren't religious, else they'd probably fall for those Jesus water ads too or something.

S-Wind said:

It's late here and I should be going to bed. Don't have time to do an in-depth look at his channel.

Is he yet another Vietnamese-American of our parents' generation who can't seem to move on from the past? Doesn't shut up about the communists? Supports the Republicans?

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Nguy Vu! I THINK SO. He allegedly was also a boat person and according to my parents, his testimony and sharp memory (? lol) helped identify and lock up some pirates who boarded and raided his ship.

My dad? Oh yeah, very anti-commie and probably supports republicans because of it--also racist. lol Like they will try to not be, bless their hearts, but they have many a Hot Take about every "race".

IN MORE NEWS ON RISKING HEALTH DUE TO ALEX JONES AUDIENCE APPETITE FOR BULLSHIT AND GORILLA MIND:

Dad inadvertently signed up for an AUTOSHIP of these things:

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How this trap works: you sign up to get "free trial samples" of these really sketchy supplements and they have in small print that at the end of the trial you get charged $99/month for each product and they sign you up to a subscription to a bogus nutrition group website for another fee. If you try to cancel your credit card or report it lost without calling them to cancel, they have some disclaimer/warning that they will charge you $25,000 (YES THAT AMOUNT) in damages and you waive all rights to sue them. WOW!!!

The only way my sibs and I caught onto this was they shipped the product and we also have access to my dad's email (because we need to, as this case clearly shows!!!!). We had to make a call to cancel but they say they can't cancel until until we call again a week later before the trial period ends. I assume they hope we conveniently "forget" so they can continue with sketch VASCULAR MALE PERFORMANCE MAGIC BEANS.

He says it was from an ad he saw on his phone. He signed up and even sent emails asking where his pills were. wtf. Why was he such a hurry. Get viagra from the doctor like a normal person or something!!!! He has pretty heavy diabetes that requires insulin shots and cardiovascular problems! These pills could kill him!!! He even already took some and was like "it made me feel energectic" -- and if it wasn't the placebo effect it was probably the slight euphoria of vessels in his body about to burst.

Mom after hearing: lol Let him pass away early. Serves him right. *surfing through facebook on phone*

(In fact, a couple of young gym nuts my husband is friends with experiment with this stuff and other broscience crap and you know what?? They both started having strange blackouts and have been MIA from work for months now. WOW!)

Well after I explained the subscription/autoship scam to him and the danger of the things, he was SHOCKEDDDD. "How can Canada let this happen? Canada is not vigilant over things--" I cut him short. Of course I yell abot YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THE ADS ORIGINATE FROM. IT'S THE INTERNET. They can be pills from Russia! There's not mark of origin on them! The labels can be from a homeade printer! What are you doing ordering shit from random online places when you barely know enough english to read the terms?! Haven't you heard of old people being scammed by online or phone shysters?! That's you!

Anyway, I also yelled at him a lot about Trump being a moron duping other morons and got pretty condescending + terrible Vietnamese oration skills, but too bad.

I'll let you know if we get to cancel the whole thing. I bet we still will owe money for the poison pills though. Any of you want them?

Her Hero Is Gone said:

If they are able to get to a billing screen with their cc in hand there isn't much you can do to prevent them from subscribing themselves to mountains of bullshit. Is disputing and trying for a chargeback through the cc company an avenue worth exploring in this situation?

I've heard about phone scams targeting Chinese-Canadian immigrants in BC (I've recently been getting a bunch of voicemails myself in Mandarin and they are probably scam calls). This whole Alex Jones-level paranoia marketing thing is really scary. I'll never understand why people are so confident buying mysterious pills off the internet, it's bizarre.

Best of luck.

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We'll see if they accept cancellation first in a week, and if not, we'll try a chargeback. I think they put the 25k in damages/loss of business based on how the chargeback will look bad on their business LOL. But it sounds BS to me. I wouldn't worry about my dad's credit score. It SHOULD be trash, but somehow it isn't, which is a mess because that means he keeps being able to apply to them for dumb in-store bonuses or discounts then forgets to pay them. Guess who gets to clean up those messes!!

Financial recklessness is just one of the many vices in my family and extended family --mostly my dad's side. They are all kinda uneducated folk from fishing village Vietnam with dreams of making it big and rubbing shoulders with the elites but it burns them because their "brilliant" schemes are all luck-based or based on poor understanding of market forces and short-term thinking.

And yeah, I also have gotten a few mandarin voicemails! Who knows what that scam is about. Thankfully my family don't speak mandarin.


UPDATE:
You know those "supplements" ?
TURNS OUT, MY SISTER DID SOME OF THE DESIGN WORK FOR THOSE VERY LABELS???!!!!!!!

Sister: I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THESE ARE THE LABELS I DID.. AND IT FOUND ITS WAY BACK TO ME THROUGH DADDY

She works for a printing company and does basic graphic design/text placement stuff for clients/print brokers and she remembers helping to edit these labels!! WOW CAUSE AND EFFECT IS A CLOSED CIRCLE OR... DEATH SPIRAL!

Just as I suspected, it's some sketch company making a random batch of whoknowswhat garbage and indie-printing the labels onto mysterious black pill bottles!

Be careful, y'all.

BriareosGAF said:

This is my favorite thread in weeks, OP delivers.

Dying here.

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Thank you. I am glad this is of some use or entertainment to people.
I'm visiting my parents again tomorrow. They just got a new fridge so of course I want to see it.
Surely we will discuss soem hottakes on politics some more while either the World Cup or THE BEST OF NGUY VU plays in the background.

Look at this sweetass LG fridge that is replacing my wealthier (AND SHADIER--perhaps more on THOSE people later!) uncle's handmedown fridge that was leaking and malfunctioning.
It was on sale for $1998 but my brother pricematched and got an extra 10% discount to beat the competitor so it only cost ~$1800 after delivery and taxes and also 18 months of no payment!


We ordered the fridge before we found out about the pills, so you can see why we were doubly "YOU MADE US BUY A FRIDGE FOR YOU BUT THEN YOU SPENT MONEY ON MAGIC BEANS?!"
My parents have been on welfare for a long time throughout our schooling (finally now on social security) and had depended on us not-anymore-kids for financial support and things such as buying them NICE APPLIANCES SOMETIMES and this is how they repay us? Listening to conservative news radio and buying drugs!? BACK IN MY DAY!!!!
No more Millenial complaints. We earn our keep. It's the BABY BOOMERS who are the most entitled generation!!!

Anyway, this fridge will become my fridge when I take over the house lest something happens to it within a couple of years like the house collapsing on it (the house is in BAD bad shape.. needs to be completely gutted because it keeps leaking despite many roof repairs.. paid for by guess who.. me. I guess my parents deciding to use rando asian contractors to save on money was Not A Good Idea).

Everything is collapsing but at least We Will Have Ice on Demand. My dad insisted.

OrdinaryPrime said:

Oh agreed. She doesn't like marijuana possession and yet she voted for Gary Johnson who is for it. It's very hard to see someone you've admired your entire life make such avoidable mistakes. That's where I empathize with the OP.

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Yeah my parents are very anit-marijuana due to probably foxnews-like misinformation about reefer madness so they very Do Not Apporve of Trudeau's efforts. Despite my family being full of smokers or acoholics (thankfully dad quit over a decade ago thanks to our intense Vietnamese doctor yelling at him to--you'd think my NO SMOKING signs campaign at home as a grade schooler would have done the trick but nope hahha).

The thing about a lot of East Asians or at least my folks, is that they definitely have a conservative and Fuck You, Got Mine attittude. Like they love the Canadian government for letting THEM in as refugees and giving them welfare and universal healthcare, and social safety net etc., but now? THOSE refugees! Muslims? Blacks? Definitely Not The Same Situation. lol Hypocrisy.

Very Shut The Door Behind Them types.

S-Wind said:

How do they react when you point out their hypocrisy?

I often had to remind some of my relatives that they were once refugees who came here (Canada and the US) with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing, and how much they benefited from the kindness and generosity of strangers, and the social safety net policies of left-leaning governments. I tell them that we should pay it forward by helping a new generation of refugees.

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They become a little bit sheepish and there is a bit of understanding, but you know the talking points when going on the defense:

- but we're the one of the good ones
- it was different back then, now it's terrorists
- that was when there was more jobs aka ECONOMIC ANXIETY (racism)
- it's only ok if it's anti communism/anti-china

During my condescending tirade (lol), they told me to give Trump a chance it's only one year etc., and I told my dad I already knew Trump was bad and it won't get better and I already foresee it and I will point to their faces when in 3 years it is TERRIBLE. My parents laughed and said well okay, maybe they will win. And my dad says he will know he's won when communism in China fails and China breaks up in his lifetime like the Soviet Union did. (Though.. How is Russia any better off now?! How are they also no longer causing trouble?! I pointed this out and he's convinced it will still be for the better).

...

He's a bit delusional on that front I think.

Llyranor said:

It doesn't matter that ISIS' victims are predominantly Muslim, they're all terrorists! How do they feel about US soldiers using the same justification to murder unarmed women and children at My Lai?

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lol they think it was perhaps justified from what I can gather, because "The Viet Cong were using these women and children against the US army so of course they couldn't trust them. The US soldiers used to be friendly to the citizens but once the Viet Cong disguised themselves among them, there was no more mercy for any side! It's the communist's fault it turned that way!" They definitely feel like the US should have kept Vietnam occupied in order to win against the communists. I think their sympathy for fellow citizens as collateral is a bit fleeting or a necessary evil.

But in somewhat contrast to "conservative streak" , today during my visit after taking a nap, they are busy listening to:

Xuyến Mộc Bình, who I think (?) is a Vietnamese transwoman talking smack about communist Vietnam while holding out in South Korea to avoid political persecution. They really enjoy Binh's smacktalking ability, not that I can really understand it either lol.

My parents generally are not that accepting of LGBT things, including same sex marriage, but they have somewhat more progressive or accepting sentiments along stereotyped lines of LGBT people being entertainers or fashion icons so.. I guess it's something.

Example:


So is everything really boiled down to anti-communism and anti-China sentiment? Probably??

Can you guys tell me if this person is any more reliable than Nguy Vu?!

She could be a Milo or something in being LGBT but nutso alt-right, but I don't yet know how deep this rabbit hole goes..

She explains how she demands to have female pronouns used for her, but my parents are both a bit "Pfft! But that's a man? That doesn't work!" . They kind get how "gay" works but not trans.

bangai-o said:

I think young adults need to start to considering to enroll their retired parents and grandparents into community college. They dont have anything to do all day so they end up watching and listening to all these brainwash shows.

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They used to go to ESL classes as part of like.. welfare upkeep or something!! Alas no longer.. So now they get to stew all day in terrible radio talk youtube, and we all remember those creepy dystopian youtube algorithm threads about this, don't we?

Anyway, dad recently switched by to screamin' Nguy Vu. SIGH.