Jan. 29, 2016 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
03:26:43
3191 The Most Honest Modern Woman Is Back! - Call In Show - January 22nd, 2016
Question 1: [1:50] - “What do you think of the Nurse with a Purse phenomenon? It is true that ‘hot girls’ sometimes show up at the doors of beta males once they have become “used up” by the alphas. But another funny thing happens many years later in a man’s life cycle. A typical scenario my girlfriends and I see, is that the man invests in his prime, in the hottest girl, not necessarily the one with the best values, and when a man gets old he realizes that the hot girl took everything he had and he is broke and alone. He tries to woo women in their 40s or 50s, the same types he rejected for the hot girl who took all his resources, because these women now have a home, money and sometimes nursing or care taking experience. Guess what happens to these old men. The same thing.”Question 2: [1:07:14] - “During the American Industrial Revolution, work conditions were terrible, there was no oversight in business, and no minimum wage. Also, child labor was a huge source of labor in industry. Robber barons were known to take short term losses to benefit from small companies. Is this a problem with the free market, or have I just not educated myself about the era enough?”Question 3: [1:42:00] - “Why is it that every time I get involved in a romantic relationship I tend to become very jealous and suspicious over them? It seems like this throws my emotions all over the place, and makes me feel powerless and depressed. How can I understand this problem and overcome my paranoia?”Question 4: [2:43:05] - “I'm done with the ‘Affordable’ Care Act. I'm not renewing and I will accept the tax penalty when I file 2016 taxes. My reasoning is that instead of paying $2500 a year for something that may or may not happen, why not pay the penalty, sock the insurance stipend away in a savings account for when I need healthcare? I would rather be in control of my money, in control of my life (to whatever degree), and give the proverbial middle finger to the state (whilst handing over my tax penalty with my free hand. What do you think of the ‘Affordable’ Care Act and people like myself who are making the decision to forgo insurance coverage due to the cost?”
Christina, formerly known, and I guess currently known, as the most honest modern woman in the world.
She's back to chat about the nurse with a purse phenomenon, which you can get details about it, and invite me into some interesting Fifty Shades of Grey scenario, which you'll also hear about, and it was always a pleasure to chat with her.
Number two, the socialist issue with the American Industrial Revolution.
Oh, the work conditions were terrible.
No oversight in business.
No minimum wage.
Child labor.
Robber barons.
What can we do to push back against this narrative?
Well, quite a bit, as you'll see.
And it is not going to involve massive amounts of research into data, because every now and then I like to try to remember this as a philosophy show.
Number three, you ever feel paranoid in a romantic relationship?
Well...
The third caller is the guy to listen to.
Every time he gets involved in a romantic relationship, he gets jealous and suspicious.
Throws his emotions all over the place.
How can he understand this problem?
How can he overcome his paranoia?
Well, philosophy, self-knowledge to the rescue.
Number four.
Hey, ever heard of this thing called Obamacare?
This guy is done with the Affordable Care Act.
He's not going to renew it.
He's going to accept a tax penalty.
Is that a good plan, a good idea, a bad plan, a bad idea?
What on earth happened to American health care that they ended up in this situation?
We talked about that, too.
As always, freedomainradio.com slash donate to help us out.
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Stefan Molyneux for Freedomain Radio.
Let's get it on.
All right.
Let's get moving.
All right.
Well, up first today, we have Christina, who some might remember from a show we did a while back called The Most Honest Modern Woman You Will Ever Hear.
So she wrote in and said, what do you think about the nurse with a purse phenomenon?
The premise is this.
Is it true that hot girls sometimes show up at the doors of beta males once they've become used up by the alphas?
But another funny thing happens many years later in a man's life cycle.
The typical scenario my girlfriends and I see is that the man invests in his prime in the hottest girl, not necessarily the one with the best values.
And when a man gets old, 65, 70, 80, he realizes that the hot girl took everything he had, and he is broke and alone.
He tries to woo women in their 40s and 50s, the same types he rejected for the hot girl who took all his resources, because these women now have a home, money, and sometimes nursing or caretaking experience.
Guess what happens to these old men?
The same thing.
Well, hi, Christina.
Welcome back.
How are you doing?
I'm doing well.
How are you doing?
Well, thanks.
Well, thanks.
How's the boyfriend still this side of the pit?
Oh, the older gentleman?
I'm still in touch with him, and I've actually moved to a different location.
But I've gone back there to visit him a few times because, you know, I had to establish certain rules of what would work for me and what wouldn't.
And we all know that men don't like nags, right?
Well, I think masochistic men like nags, but generally healthy men would not.
Alright, so what I did is I made a few requests, and then I let some time pass to see if anything would happen, and then I realized no changes were going to be made, so I left.
You know, instead of nagging, I eliminated myself from the equation.
God bless you.
God bless you.
Jesus, praise you.
Good, because this fantasy that men and women have, maybe women slightly more, that you can reshape someone according to your own preferences usually just ends up in disaster for everyone.
So good job.
But sorry, go ahead.
Oh, yeah.
What I noticed that, you know, sometimes if changes are made, it's usually to get the sex part rolling.
But then the changes revert.
I mean, you get what you get.
So you either have to like what you see or forget about it.
Right.
And I didn't like it.
Right.
And I'm just trying to picture an older man having sex while rolling, just because that's just...
Fascinating to me in my brain, but I'll have to set that aside for later, and please go on with your life circumstances.
Oh, anyway, so I moved to a different location, and I'm noticing a phenomenon that I noticed in the other places that I've lived before, and I have a lot of women who were in nursing or are retired from nursing.
They're not the hot girls, and a lot of men that they would like to date are going overseas, and But there are men who don't...
Wait, hang on, sorry.
A lot of men they would like today to go overseas?
What does that mean?
Well, they're going overseas for women because the sex industry is just booming overseas.
And it's coming here, too, eventually, very soon.
Wait, do you mind if we pause here for a moment?
Yes, go ahead.
Okay, I've got your question and I'm going to get to it, but...
The men they want to date are going on sexpeditions to Thailand?
Not just Thailand, but mostly Southeast Asia or South America.
The global sex industry is booming, and the gentlemen, well, the men in our community would openly say, oh, I'm going to go to this place or that place for a month.
And they were partaking in the commercial sex industry, which is booming, and I think it's going to get bigger.
So we used to go out to other cultures for enrichment, for music, for artifacts, for archaeology.
I guess Indiana Jones has just turned into Indiana Bones at the moment, which seems like a bit of a devolution.
But so is that quite common in the men that they're like, I don't want to date Western women.
I want to go out and pay some teenage Thai girl to rub coconut on my ass.
Is that how it works?
It's absolutely how it works.
In fact, I had the most shocking jaw-dropping experience.
I was talking to a man who likes to camp at the beach.
I mean, he has a home, but he likes to camp at the beach.
And I've had maybe 10 conversations with him.
And one day, you know, my 11th friendly conversation, I was talking to him about my dental work, because it's been dental work that's taken me to Thailand, and I just went back recently again.
But I was talking to him about my dental work, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, he looks at me and he says, You know, I don't like strong women.
I'm going to Thailand and get me some little girls.
And then he started making...
Like, licking his chops and making these gestures with his tongue.
Like, obviously, it was a sexual thing.
And I just didn't say anything.
I was quite surprised.
I didn't say anything.
That's very Hannibal Lecter-ish, you know?
It was.
A white wine sauce with a nice Chianti and fava beans.
I mean, that's like...
Oh, God.
Now, okay, so the fact that a guy has a nice house but likes to...
What, camp at the beach?
Because you just can't get enough sand fleas at home?
I mean, that's quite, you know, there's a warning sign right there.
I have a nice house.
I'm going to live on the beach at times.
No, he lives in a city.
His house is in a city.
And he likes to come to a remote location and camp, you know, and he's retired.
So, yeah.
I'm just curious, Christina.
Do these kind of revelations pop into your life?
Regularly?
Like, people are just, like, far too often?
Do you think there's something about you that invites oversharing from insane people?
I guess I talk to...
Maybe I'm a little too open with who I talk to.
I'm kind of, you know, friendly and inquisitive about the world.
But, you know, I've noticed...
Wait, wait.
I'm just...
Hang on.
Just a moment of reflection time.
I'm just curious whether I'm in that category or not.
Oh, well.
Let's just assume I'm not and keep going.
Sorry, you were going to say something else.
But I've noticed with all this flaming gender war that's constantly being fanned, which I think is preposterous, because I think ultimately women and men need to understand that by working together in healthy interdependence instead of one trying to dominate the other, that's what's going to make us happy.
I think that there are some men, particularly boomer-age Western men, who for whatever reason have projected their rage at me, but it's misdirected anger.
Whether it was the wife that divorced them, or whether there was some goody in life that they expected, there's something about me that on occasion triggers this anger, saying, it's you who did it, you know?
I had this friend who was very conservative, And he considered me a liberal, but I don't consider myself a liberal.
You know, I live my life through my perspective, but I think that anything radical is too radical for me.
So I try to stay a little more balanced than anything radical, okay?
But one day he got an Ann Coulter book.
Remember good old Ann Coulter?
Do I remember her?
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, he got an Ann Coulter book.
I frankly don't care for Ann Coulter.
But he read it and it gave him this intellectual ammo where somehow he identified me as being the enemy.
And he came over my house.
We were supposed to walk dogs together.
And he just shook his finger in my face.
You!
You!
Like, I personally ruined his life.
What did he say?
What was the theory?
You know, the theory, I don't know what he read in the book, but he was trying to, he thought the world should be like it was in the 50s where the man went to the office and he had the wife making jello salad at home, six kids in school, vacation, you know, every four months.
But the world had changed.
The economy had changed.
I didn't change it.
You know, but there was a frustration that his world is not going to turn out like his daddy and Moby's world.
And I personally was pointed at as the one to blame.
Well, do you want to know where these men are coming from, out of curiosity?
No, I can understand why they're frustrated because a lot of natural harmonious systems have been turned upside down for a whole variety of reasons, but I'm not personally the one who designed this BS. No, no, no, I understand that, but I'm sure you understand that men as a whole have been judged collectively and highly negatively for Over two generations now.
In other words, all men, in particular white men, are responsible for all of the ills in the world.
I mean, and so men have been judged collectively in a negative way.
We're all patriarchal, misogynist, sexist, racist, colonialism, you know, blah, blah, blah, right?
Slavery, you name it, right?
All the ills in the world dumped at the feet of men, particularly white men.
And so it's not fair to judge people collectively, right?
To say, are you, Christina, you're part of the gynocentric society?
It's not fair to judge you collectively, but it's also not surprising that men might judge women collectively, given how men have been judged collectively for two generations or more, and almost no women have come to the defense of men.
I'm guessing, I don't know these guys, but I'm guessing that's where...
That's where men are coming from.
It's like, okay, we've been judged collectively, so now we're going to start judging other people collectively.
And I just did an essay on this, so I won't touch on it too long because it's going to come out in a couple of days.
But when men are judged collectively, women aren't rushing in and saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies, ladies, back the battle bras down just a little bit.
Not all men are like that, right?
Namalt!
Namalt!
Not all men are like that.
Basically, when the lasers of outraged estrogen-based feminists target the genitals and hearts of men, everybody's like, whoa, let's step aside.
Let the ladies do their work because we don't want to get in their way.
And then men are judged collectively and nobody jumps to the defense of men as a whole.
But then when men even remotely try to judge women collectively, and even if they don't, like I don't, but I'm constantly told that I do, The first thing when you say, well, women do this.
Oh, not all women are like that.
And if you judge them collectively, you're a misogynist, right?
It's like, where were women when all the men were being judged collectively?
Yelling back at all the women saying, not all men are like that.
You're being a misogynist.
You're being a misanthrist.
You're being anti-men.
You're bigoted towards against men.
And so men have been defenseless against these collective judgments.
And I think some men have just said, okay, fine.
We'll have collective judgments of the way to go.
That's what we're going to go.
And if people try and shame me for it, too bad.
Nobody shamed those who judge men collectively.
So I'm not bound by any of that obligation.
I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's what I would guess.
Well, the tricky part in your argument is like...
Which particular arguments are you talking about?
Because on an individual level, I came to the defense of justice and truth, whoever was representing that, whether it was a man or a woman.
I didn't like to see some of the nasty things that women did.
And if some woman was gleefully saying that she did something wrong, she's just ruining that guy for And, you know, when I looked at the situation at higher levels,
to see how deeply, you know, humans are socially engineered, I just felt, you know, that the problem is a lot deeper than blaming one group if they're social engineering that's happening at higher levels.
Does that make sense?
I guess it makes sense.
I'm just not sure if it has anything to do with what I said.
I wasn't talking about social engineering.
I was talking about men being collectively judged and therefore making collective judgments in return, which only confirms the anti-mile prejudice in society because society collectively judges men or some elements within society, particularly feminists, collectively judge men negatively and nobody says anything.
But then the moment a man says anything collective about women, he's a misogynist.
I mean, it's a ridiculous double standard, and it's one of the reasons why women get groped in Europe and men don't do a damn thing about it.
Because, you know, men are saying, well, wait a minute, I'm supposed to rush now to the defense of women getting groped?
But what special position do I occupy in society that rewards me for taking on that risk?
What extra benefits do I get in society?
You know, ladies in general have either been calling us misogynistic pigs for two generations, or...
Have let other women say that without pushing back, and so, okay, if we're so horrible, we'll leave you all be, right?
I mean, and that is something that's happening now.
I mean, it's happening with women, and it's happening with the black community.
Like, this woman, Jada Pinkett Smith, right, Will Smith's wife, suddenly got really upset.
Really upset because I don't think there were enough black people in the Oscars, right?
Maybe there weren't any or whatever, right?
And so immediately, she started...
Talking about, well, blacks, we've got to set up our own institutions.
We've got to do our own thing.
And I'm like, okay, I think it's insane to think that the only reason why blacks aren't nominated is because of racism.
But okay, let's say that you believe that.
Obviously, she does.
So they're going to set up their own parallel institutions.
We've got to boycott.
We've got to boycott the Oscars.
And, you know, I got sort of interested in that and I was kind of curious.
I got a little excited because I was like, wow, setting up parallel institutions, boycotting white institutions, boycotting white developed systems and so on.
Fantastic.
I wonder if she's going to call for blacks to boycott welfare.
And no, it's just a shakedown so that they can get Oscars that...
Maybe they don't deserve because they can scream racism.
So it's just another tantrum and it's just another shakedown and it's just another give us stuff and so on.
As my friend Bill Whittle says, my white privilege is not being able to blame anything on racism but rather take responsibility for myself.
Anyway, so...
That was sort of my point.
And I think that's why, and it's not right, of course, for men to yell at you for the sins of some women.
But I think you can at least understand where they're coming from.
And if you're upset about men judging women collectively, you must be even more upset about women judging men collectively or society judging men collectively for the last two generations.
That probably is where it's coming from.
And so, you know, if I were to come to the defense of men, if I do it on a personal level as I live my life, that's not sufficient.
I'm supposed to start some giant socio-political internet and letter-writing campaign because that's not what I do.
I mean, I'm busy working.
I've got all kinds of crap that fills up my day.
Well, men have been attacked for the last two generations, and they've kind of been busy working, too.
Who knows how it would start?
If women started shaming other women for collectively judging men, that would be fantastic.
If people started collectively shaming people who cry racism when there's no evidence of racism, which is the ultimate act, Of racism.
The word racism is the new n-word in many ways.
If people started collectively shaming people who use these manipulative aggregate collectivist judgments of entire groups without recognizing that there are disparities within the groups, I think it would be fascinating.
Are you personally responsible for that not happening?
No, of course not.
But you're a grain of sand on the beach.
And how do you know it's a beach?
Because there's lots of grains of sand.
Is each individual grain of sand a beach?
No, of course not.
Because you throw a little grain of sand on an iceberg, it doesn't turn into Cabo St.
Lucas, right?
So no individual grain of sand is a beach.
But you get enough of them together, and they're a beach.
And so each, this is collective responsibility, right?
So you are not responsible for the collective judgments against men, but the degree to which you haven't publicly opposed them is the degree to which you are at least to some degree complicit in it.
I just can't take on that much responsibility.
I mean, I think there's so much right now to speak up against, and I do quite a bit of speaking up about a variety of things.
It's almost like, have you heard the statement, you gotta pick your battles?
I live that statement.
What do you mean have I heard that statement?
That's my mantra.
It's written in reverse letters on my forehead in the morning when I shave back my forehead to make sure I don't get all that lustrous hair.
Anyway, sorry, go on.
Right, so you gotta pick your battles.
Okay, but why are all women picking battles that never involve defending men?
That becomes a little suspicious.
Why are at least some women not picking the battles of pushing back against collective judgments of men?
I think, you know, there's different things that we have done that I think is kind of interesting that isn't really about publicly defending the verbal...
Oh, absolutely, yeah.
It's verbally abusive towards men to portray them as hostile, misogynistic, entitled, white-empowered, male-empowered, patriarchs.
I mean, it's all verbal abuse, right?
And the way that I was explained is that if you see someone making a racist joke and you don't speak up against that person, you're complicit in that racist joke.
And I think there's some truth in that, but why is that never applied to collectivist attacks on men?
But go ahead, sorry.
You know what?
I don't have time to look up every racist joke on the internet and write to each person and speak up.
I mean, are you asking me to stand up for things in my private life with the people I interact with or to make a public declaration?
It's a very big difference.
I don't know what I'm asking you to do.
I'm just saying why these men might be upset is because almost no women have done this.
And, you know, and the big reason, the big driver before it comes back to single moms.
Oh, yeah, I'm going back to that well because it just ain't dry yet.
Because single moms choose disastrous men to have babies with, right?
They choose unstable, unreliable, addicted, violent, whatever, idiots, jerks, low rent, trailer trash or whatever to have kids with.
And...
Then when it doesn't work out, the guy runs off, then they have to go run to the state because running to private charity is kind of humiliating because private charity will slap them upside the boobs and say, bad choice, sister.
How are we going to stop having you make really, really bad choices?
And by the way, stop having kids with trash because we have to keep bagging them for you.
And so they don't want to run to charity because charity is going to have a pushback.
And so they run to the state.
And the state's like, oh yeah, you vote for us?
Fantastic.
We'll rely on everyone's female preferences or women are wonderful phenomenon in order to give you money so that you'll vote for us and so on.
But what happens is that single moms then are raising kids and in particular girls who don't have men around.
And it's a lot easier to hate people that you never have around.
Like if you grow up in a black neighborhood, of course, you're less likely to become a racist and so on.
And so because they're growing up without men around and because basically the moms...
They pour all of their bad decisions onto the men.
It's all his fault.
He was just unreliable.
You know, he fooled me.
And so because the single mom phenomenon has girls in particular growing up without fathers and with this endless amount of hatred poured against men from the single moms, this is what drives feminism.
This is how feminists can grow up and say that all men are bad or there's a patriarchy because, you know, they didn't grow up with a dad.
And they had their single mom pouring all of her helpless, frustrated self-avoidance of responsibility, vitriol onto this image of a man who left a hole in the wall to get away from her because she is unstable and immature and usually kind of stupid.
And so this is kind of where it comes from.
Now, you're kind of giving me a false dichotomy because I'm saying, well, this is why men have a problem with women and are starting to judge women collectively because not all men are misogynists, but almost all women either dump on men as a whole, inagrid as a collective, or they stand aside while other women dump on men.
And therefore, almost all women are responsible for the anti-male hatred currently festering in society that is going to go through a mighty quick reversal when the government runs out of resources and women have to go back to ask men for resources rather than being able to hand over little pieces of paper to politicians in order to strip the money from the children they're badly raising. almost all women are responsible for the anti-male hatred currently So, this You're saying, well, how do I, what should I do, solve them all?
Well, no, that's ridiculous, right?
It's a false dichotomy.
I'm saying that if you haven't been out there publicly pushing back, you know, once in a while, it doesn't have to be a full-time job, but where you see it, if you see something, say something.
You're online.
If you see anti-male sentiment on Facebook, do you push back in the comments?
Do you share it saying, this is anti-male bigotry?
Do you...
Do you leave comments on anti-male articles if you happen to read them?
Nobody's saying you've got to have a full-time job going out there and doing this, but you can't be on the internet and not come across anti-male sentiment unless you are so full of anti-male sentiment that it's like asking you to notice every time you breathe, it's just, I'm full of anti-male sentiment, there's lots of anti-male sentiment around, so that's natural, you know?
Lots of people are scared of sharks, and so there's lots of anti-shark sentiment around, so I don't really comment, well, not all sharks are like that.
Some sharks don't have any teeth, and You know, there's whale sharks, they just eat krill, and there's nurse sharks, they just eat clams, and all that kind of thing.
So the question is, if you're on the internet, without a doubt, you're on Facebook, you're anywhere on the planet online, you will come across vehemently collectivist anti-male statements.
Do you push back and say, this is horrible sexism, this is irresponsible, this is destructive, men are human beings, yes, there are some bad men, but if I said this about blacks, how the hell would you feel?
You'd call me a racist, I'm calling you a sexist.
If this started to happen and if even 5% of women began to push back against this, this idea would spread and the anti-male sentiment would be like you put talcum powder into a dancing room full of dancing invisible people and suddenly you can see the dance.
But women don't do that and that's probably why you're getting some of this pushback.
Well, I think that's ridiculous.
But it was very well articulated.
I just don't agree.
Well, then tell me where I'm being ridiculous.
Well, I think, see, for me, first of all, I would never join Facebook because I think the future of policing really has to do with these profiles that are...
Do you think it's about Facebook?
Are you online?
Have you ever seen any anti-male sentiment in anything that you've read, even if it's offline, if it's a newspaper, if it's a magazine, if it's a movie?
Do you write to the movie studio?
Do you write to the editor when you see it?
Have you ever seen anti-male sentiment anywhere in the media or in any written thing that you consume?
I have seen it, yes.
Okay, and what do you do about it?
It's not one of the battles that I'm fighting.
I'm doing more local letter writing about the bioengineering agriculture that are right in the area where I live, where they hand out GMO plants at the bank as a free gift.
I mean, that's the battle that's interesting to me because it's close.
GMOs?
That's your battle?
Yes.
Why?
Why not?
Because half the population of the planet is generally being slandered and abused.
And it's the half of the population of the planet that women are really going to need when the government runs out of money, so it might not be a bad thing to be a little bit nicer to those you're going to desperately need in the near future, especially if lots of Muslim immigrants come in practicing tararash or whatever the hell it is where it's like strategic...
Pro-Islamic rape of non-Islamic women.
So I think it's a little bit more important to defend men and to push back against anti-male sexism than it is to worry about shark-based tomato plant attacks from the future, which mostly come from your imagination.
Actually, I don't agree with you, but we're going to have to agree to disagree.
Okay, so tell me why you think the GMOs are so scary, that this is more important than anti-male sentiment.
It's the food supply.
It makes, you know, the feedlots, where they feed the cattle prior to their slaughter.
If those cattle were not slaughtered fairly soon, they'd all end up with cancer.
I mean, the GMOs are...
There's been too many tests and studies that show that they're not healthy.
No.
No.
You know what?
We're going to have to agree to disagree.
I'm not going to agree to disagree.
That's not how philosophy works.
Well, then how about dominating me?
How about dominating you?
What do you mean?
Well, just speak louder and more forcefully.
Do you think that would solve the problem?
Because see, you were allowed to disagree with me and I didn't demand that you dominate me, right?
You disagreed with me about the importance of anti-male sentiment.
And of course, the fact that you're telling a man who's actually experiencing anti-male sentiment that it's not really that important without asking any further questions is kind of one of the problems that men have.
But I allowed you to disagree with me.
I didn't demand that you dominate me or ask you to dominate me.
I'm not really sure what you're saying.
I don't know.
You kind of lost me.
I'm very sorry.
But I do try to help men.
Like, I went on a...
I don't mean to segue away from GMOs, because we went down a tangent, but if you don't mind, I'll go back to the main topic.
Okay, but at least we just...
I just did an interview with a guy about GMOs, so hopefully you'll watch it, and it will make you a little less nervous, and you can saddle up and help some men.
But let's put that aside, because we already did the interview, but go on with your thoughts, please.
Okay.
Well, anyway, I do help men.
I went on a date, an internet date.
Right?
And on the date, you know, I had a really nice time with the gentleman.
He was attractive.
You know, he was very well-mannered.
I offered to pay, you know, the bill or part of the bill or whatever, you know, whatever arrangement would be comfortable for him.
And he insisted to pay.
I thought that was fine.
And I left the tip or something.
But I did mention to him...
During the date, you know, I asked him, why did he go on this website for meeting older women?
He said, well, because I'm an older man.
And I mentioned to him, I said, you know that you can go to the third world and get younger, more fertile girls.
I mean...
What?
Hang on, hang on.
Christina, are you telling me that on a date you're pimping fertile women overseas?
I'm not pimping them, but I wanted to find out why he wouldn't choose that.
I mean, clearly...
The Ukrainian women are more beautiful.
The Filipino women are more submissive and sweet.
I mean, I wouldn't want him to think that a Western woman was the best he can get and then discover, oh my God, how could I not have known about the Ukrainian girls who walk around in bikinis?
I'd like him to consider that that's available before he gets any kind of connection with me.
You should bring, like, goulash tinder along so that you can swipe through these fertile Ukrainian women and Filipino women and saying, you could have all of this.
You sure?
You sure?
You know, I think I could be a really good salesperson for the foreign bride market because, you know, I could just be an example of, or you could have someone like me.
And I think I would be a really good salesperson.
But do you...
Okay, I'll bookmark this in my brain, and please go on.
What happened when you offered up foreign eggs for him to latch onto?
Well, you know, he didn't...
I just put it into his mind, you know, like, don't forget that this is out there, too.
You know, and if you look at those pictures of those girls, they're hotter than me.
I mean, there's no doubt.
I can't compete.
There's no medical procedure that will give me...
Why would you assume that these are, in fact, the pictures of the girls?
I don't understand.
It's the internet.
They could be vultures.
I don't mean emotional vultures.
They literally could be vultures, and they're just putting some picture of a woman in bikini out.
I don't know.
I didn't do that much research, but they're going to have to take the baton at some point, and I think that's a good place to take it.
Okay, so what happened when you told this guy about all of these submissive, available, hot bikini eggs in far-off climate?
With fresh eggs, we know how important they are, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
So, I mean, it just put it in his mind that, oh, yeah, I guess, you know, I thought he might go home, maybe look on the internet and say, oh, my God, she's right.
I mean, these girls are so much hotter.
That was a fun date, but this is where I want to go.
I'd rather have a man do that Then invest in someone who has all of the negative characteristics that are so easy to look up online.
Our lack of manners, our loud voice, harpiness, you know, all of the negative, fatness, everything that...
Wait, who's the we here?
Well, collectively women, right?
Well, no, because the women in...
The Philippines and the Ukraine apparently are not suffering from this.
So do you mean like North American?
I'm not sure who you're talking about here.
Well, Western women are the most hated women around the planet, I believe.
By who?
Because it seems like they get their way quite a lot.
I'm not sure that, you know, that they are like blacks under slavery here.
I mean, don't Western women get most of what they want?
I mean, they vote for the majority of policies.
The government has grown largely as a result of female suffrage.
And so it seems to me that when women get upset, most people are like, hey, how can we help?
What can we change?
What can we give up?
How many men can we sacrifice?
Can we throw them into the volcano god of your estrogen anger in order to appease you?
I mean, I don't know about the hated thing.
I mean, there is some resentment, of course, from some men, but most men are not red-pilled, right?
They haven't...
Woken up to men's rights and stuff like that.
They haven't examined MGTOW or any of the arguments against sort of that.
I'd like them to examine it.
I'd like them to look at the overseas options and I want them to make a fair choice in their best interest and that's how I help men.
You know, I don't think, I actually think that, you know, if a Western man goes to the Philippines, the deal he's going to get is probably going to be better for him.
I truly do.
So you think that you'd be a good salesperson, but at the same time, when you're trying to sell something called yourself, you're basically saying there's way better stuff for you that's not me.
I don't think you really know what a good salesperson does.
Well, you know, Stefan, I think that there are a few oddball men, you know, that...
I don't like the combination that is Christina, but I really believe that the majority of men, given a bikini model, long-haired, sweet, young, kitten-y girl, would choose that.
Because I saw it as evidence in the same community that I lived in.
And, you know, I mean, why not?
Don't you want the best for men?
I mean, you're telling me to do something for men.
I mean, I told the ex, the guy that I was seeing, you know, who bought the house, I said, look, you know, you can get a younger woman.
Oh, I'm sorry.
No, I'm sorry.
It took me a while.
I maybe haven't had enough coffee, but I'm sorry to interrupt.
I now get what you're saying, because I say maybe you could help men fight against the collective negative judgments of men.
And you're saying, I am helping men by grabbing their penises and pointing them at overseas poontang, where they're going to get a better deal.
Pointing them away from me, pointing them to other countries, other cultures where they're going to get far better women than I am.
That's your missionary work?
Is that your helping men thing?
Yes, because they have already shown me that that's their preference.
And if I encounter...
This guy hadn't.
What?
This guy was having a nice date with you.
He hadn't shown that.
Look, all I have to do is show a picture of a beautiful Filipina with pretty breasts and wearing a bikini and smiling like a teenager.
What guy is not going to want that?
I mean, come on.
Well, but that's like, it's like looking at Brad Pitt and saying, you know, there's Brad Pitt and what guy, what woman, well, you know, of course, you know, we get the best.
Who wouldn't want a job where you sit home, pick your nose and masturbate, get paid a million dollars an hour?
Well, we all have to make compromises, right?
Sometimes we just have to do it for free, right?
But so, of course, there may be better things out there.
And of course, there are richer men out there And there are more high-status men out there.
There are more good-looking men out there than everyone.
Angelina Jolie, as considered the world's most beautiful woman, married Brad Pitt, apparently the world's most desirable man.
So they can't upgrade, you know, unless super Klingon space aliens with giant lumberjack penises can step off a spaceship somewhere.
They have upgraded as far as they can.
But we all make compromises relative to what we can get.
And so the idea that there's someone more attractive, more physically attractive out there, well, that's always going to be the case, right?
But Paul Newman was married to Joanne Woodward for most of his adult life, I think.
Joanne Woodward was an actress and a really fine person in many ways, as far as I understood it.
And he never had any affairs.
And people said, like, you're Paul Newman.
You're considered to be one of the most handsome guys.
And yeah, Paul Newman in his prime was eight.
Finally carved off a slab of man's steak.
And he said, well, why would I have an affair?
Why would I go out for hamburgers when I got steak at home?
And she was aging and she was, you know, you see her in, you know, 101 Dalmatians.
She's not quite the hot young thing that she used to be.
And my wife is aging and I'm aging.
And so they're always going to be more physically attractive people out there, but so what?
What does that have to do with, you know, the purpose of physical attraction as you know when you're young is to make sure that the healthy eggs are met by the healthy sperm.
That's what it's about.
Now after that, Nature gives you these wonderful viney bonds of love and connectedness and shared memories and experience and respect and mutual love and admiration and so on, assuming that you act well and you're decent people and all that kind of stuff, right?
That's nature's way of keeping you together so that you can raise your children.
Now, when you get older, nature shuts off the woman's eggs when it's more advantageous for her to spend time investing in her grandchildren's well-being rather than attempting to keep these, you know, rotting dino eggs together.
And so, you know, my wife's getting older, I'm getting older, but we have a child together, we've now been married for 14 years, and we love each other to death, and we're not going to have affairs and so on.
Are there more attractive people, objectively?
Of course.
You show a picture of my wife and then you show a picture of, you know, insert whoever the hottie of the day is.
And people would say, yeah, this is a fine-looking woman for her age, but, you know, this woman is the woman who's going to be getting the bikini contract.
Of course.
But so what?
The purpose of that was long past.
The purpose of that was to have kids.
That sort of fetish for smooth skin, youthful features, you know, the hip-to-waist ratio, the lustrous hair and all that kind of stuff.
That was all to get impregnated.
Now the point of love, marriage, and continued relationships is to wind lives together for the betterment of the gene pool.
I'm just talking biologically.
And we do that through love, shared experience, respect, and all that kind of stuff.
So when you meet a guy and you say, look, there's hotter people out there.
Well, that's true, of course, and that's going to be true for everyone no matter what.
I mean, even Angelina Jolie, you know, now she's had her breasts cut off because of a fear of breast cancer and she's getting older and Brad Pitt is still getting older and has mysteriously post-40 abs that I'm pretty sure he stole from me.
And that's but so they're going to get old and they're going to be able to get younger, hotter people.
Of course they are, but they have a mosaic based family together.
And, you know, they've basically done a Where's Waldo on every continent on the planet and picked out a family.
So this idea that there's harder people out there, and I want you to see that.
So, you know, it's like if you're going to go buy a car, and let's say you don't have a lot of money, you're going to go buy a $15,000 car, and the guy says, well, you know, look, there's these Rolls Royces, there's this, there's this.
It's like, yeah, but, you know, what can I get with the money that I have?
And what can I get with my sexual market value?
And pointing out to a guy, I gotta tell you, I mean, if I was on a date with you, and we were having a nice time, and then you were like, well, you know, you gotta remember that there are all of these hot foreign women who are submissive and nice and sexy and bikini-based and, you know, whatever.
I would find that to be very...
It's not an insecurity.
It's not an insecurity.
It's me observing male behavior based on where I lived, where the men who I felt were the age that I would have liked to date, you know, 10 years older than me, late 50s.
When they realized about the cheap commercial sex in Southeast Asia, there was no even argument.
Like, why should I talk to someone who's only 10 years younger when I can take a month trip to Asia and bang 20-year-olds, come back completely rejuvenated, and why bother?
Why bother?
Because you're surrounded by creeps.
This was...
But this is normal.
This is normal.
It's normal if you're surrounded by creeps.
Why is it creepy that men use commercialized sex overseas?
The commercialized sex is coming to the US and Canada as the economy will tumble.
You'll see.
I mean, there's a reason that...
That the internet saturates pornography into every room because when the poor people have nowhere to turn, you know, the girls are going to whore themselves like they did in the Great Depression.
I mean, that's just what happens during...
Oh no, it's happening already in Greece.
In Greece, you can get a prostitute literally for the price of a luncheon sandwich.
There you go.
Right.
And so why should I tell a man on a date that he can get...
And creeps will go and pay unwilling foreign women for sex.
Look, if I go out to Thailand and I pay, I don't know, 20 bucks, 50 bucks, I have no idea what it is, right?
Let's just say it's 50 bucks.
I pay 50 bucks to a woman for sex.
I know for a simple fact that she does not want to have sex with me for like $50 worth of not wanting to have sex with me.
Now, I'm the kind of person, I can't enjoy sex with someone who doesn't want to have sex with me.
Call me crazy!
I just can't do it.
And so if I have to go out and buy sex, It's like meeting some random person on the street and saying, will you be my friend for dinner for $100?
And then pretending that they're your friend.
Like, I can't do it because I'm a reality-based organism and I can't get a boner if somebody has to be paid $50 to look at it.
Sorry, I can't call myself a good artist if I've got to pay people to look at my...
But most men can.
I mean, historically, men have paid prostitutes for sex.
So this is not a huge lease.
Creeps have paid.
See, you're talking men.
This is why you can't see the collective anti.
You're talking men like it's all men.
All men.
No, men.
No, no.
I do not know a single man who has gone to a prostitute.
Well, you should come visit the neighborhood that I used to live in.
I don't want to because I have a whole creep shield around me and I spent 40 years building it.
You know what I mean?
It's like, you should get a big bucket of bed bugs and drop them into your duvet.
No!
I just got that shit cleaned out.
I don't want it back.
I've got a decreed force field out there and I've been building it for decades.
I don't want to go to a place.
Look, and I will tell you this.
It just struck me.
Once when I was in business, I knew a guy who went over and married And brought back a bride, Russia.
I don't know where the hell it was, right?
Right.
And what a horrible situation.
Everybody knew it.
And every now and then, a little joke or two would flare up and this guy would just sink down into his seat.
Because do you know how low an advertisement it is for your sexual market value for you to have to go out and buy a bride?
Hey look, I dragged some pierogies through a trailer park in the eastern Ukraine and look at the treasure I got.
It's a giant advertisement that your penis has about the same level of attractiveness to women as a viper.
And not that cool viper that dances, the one that attaches itself to your leg and forces people to cut it off.
In my town, there were also men, but the women actually shut this down because they couldn't tolerate, but they said there were villages in Southeast Asia where guys could go and the kids would run out to play with the men.
The kids.
I'm not...
Play with the men?
Yes.
I'm afraid to ask you to break that down a little.
Let me disassume my crash position for incoming pedophilia stories.
Okay, go ahead.
Yes, but the men were not approaching the kids.
The kids were running out to offer themselves because of the poverty that was in those areas.
And who are these men?
These are the people in the community where I lived.
Not everyone.
The majority of the men are normal, good, you know, men.
But it's, you know, when you get these strange, you notice these strange behaviors, it like marks your soul like, oh my god, this is the new normal, you know?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on, hang on.
You're just flailing around with your anti-male sentiment here, right?
Just when I think you're a friend, the squid tentacle takes off the back of my neck.
So, these are specific creeps, and now you're like, well, this is the new normal, which means this is what all men know.
No, my father's not like that.
And the men that I'm friends with and love and care about are not like that.
But you know, the fellow that had bought the house, to me it was very strange that he didn't want to go on to this foreign girl dating site because I put in like a test ad on this foreign bride service site and I wrote up a little, you know, ad.
And guess how many responses he got?
How many you got for the fake, I'm a Ukrainian bikini model?
No, it was the Southeast Asia dating website.
I'm not going to say which one because I don't want to use any brand names.
Oh, so you basically put up a China jade goddess, mysteriously big-boobed Asian woman of infinite foot-rubbing submission, and what happened?
Well, he got 54,000 responses.
Wait, he did or you did?
He did!
I thought you put it up.
I made an ad for him.
I wanted to, you know, because after seeing the fellas in the community who were traveling to Southeast Asia and came back feeling all satisfied and proud that they had this, you know, sex getaway and, you know, being quite open, talking about how nice it was and, you know, that, oh, the rules are different in these countries, blah, blah, blah.
It was hard for me to internalize that someone would be able to like me if what is valuable about women is beauty, youth, hotness, and fertility.
Hang on.
You said you don't have time to defend men collectively, but you've got time to create fake online ads for a South Asian woman or whatever for marriage?
I don't quite understand.
If you've got time for one, it seems to me you could theoretically have time for the other.
It took me five minutes to...
Write an ad for the man who was courting me.
I put an ad for him like, this is his description, this is his age, this is where he lives.
I'm looking for a young wife.
That's what I put it.
Wait, hang on.
See what happens.
This wasn't the guy you went for dinner with at the beginning of the story.
No, the one that was courting me on the other island, the older woman.
Okay, so this is a guy who was interested in you.
Yes.
And you got him 54,000 messages as a hot Asian woman.
No, I put up an ad for advertising him.
And I wanted to show him, I said, dude, you know, I'm 46 or whatever age I was.
You could get younger girls.
Oh, so you just put up an ad for him?
Yes, yes, yes.
Okay, this is the vaguely yellow older guy that we talked about in the last conversation.
Yes, yes, yes.
The Nazgul.
Okay, and he got 54,000 messages.
Yes, yes.
Of people who wanted to marry him?
Correspond with him to see where it led, but that's the whole point.
Overseas, where there's tremendous poverty and tremendous beauty, you can do a lot better than an educated Western woman who's just going to frustrate most guys, based on my understanding of the dating climate.
Why would an educated Western woman frustrate most guys?
Um...
You know, one piece of feedback that a man that I know who is actually more of a professional colleague said, he said, you know, I don't like to be challenged.
And my instinct was to say, well, what if you're wrong?
But that would have been challenging, right?
Challenging.
So I didn't do it.
But he doesn't, you know, he wants to be the man and he just wants a woman that makes him feel good and doesn't, quote unquote, bust his balls or do any of the other frustrating things that educated Western white women do.
Wait, are you saying that educated white Western women are all nags and bitches?
That's the feeling that I get, that the sentiment about us is that, yes.
And so I'm very cautious when I interact with a Western male because, you know, I guess because of where I was living, I just got the impression that if given a choice of an educated, you know, middle-aged Western white woman, A man would really rather pick a young, perky, not so educated, but incredibly sweet and pretty to look at, foreign girl.
I mean, that's kind of a no-brainer.
And do you like, a no-brainer is right, do you like to be challenged yourself?
I do.
In fact, the men that I've done really well with in my life tended to be on the smart side and Tended to have good, like, leadership skills because I have good leadership skills.
So that type of guy and I do pretty well.
Yeah.
But why?
Hang on.
Because I've tried to challenge you a couple of times in this conversation and then you've said, well, we'll agree to disagree.
You wanted to change the subject and so on.
So I'm not sure how much you like to be challenged, given that when I challenge you, you seem to dodge and duck and weave and run away fairly quickly.
All right.
So what would you like me to do then now?
I'm not sure what you mean.
Is this where I dominate you?
I'm trying to remember back to the earlier part of our conversation.
I don't know.
Okay, I think that we went on this disagreement about GMOs.
You suggested that I look at your recording, your show on GMOs.
I'll be happy to do that at my leisure.
I have my own conclusion that I've come to.
No, no, no, it's not about GMOs.
You say that you like to be challenged and I've challenged you a few times and you've refused to engage in the challenge.
You've not wanted to engage in the debate or the facts, right?
Okay, well then you're right and I suck.
Does that work?
Oh, this is where you get passive aggressive, right?
Like I confront you on something because you really like to be challenged.
But then when I challenge you about not wanting to be challenged in this conversation, you get pouty and sucky, right?
Actually, the way I prefer the way I like to do things is if someone does challenge me, I like to take some time.
Are you there?
Oh, I'm here, yeah.
Okay.
I like to, you know, if I don't have a formed opinion, I like to take the question and think about it and then come back to it later instead of doing, you know, kind of a flying off the handle or not very well thought out response.
But you did just fly off the handle at me.
Well, then I'm crazy.
I don't know what to say, Stefan.
What would you like me to say and what would you like me to do?
Well, if you're just going to do this passive-aggressive crap, then I'll move on to the next caller.
But, you know, I mean, you can acknowledge and say, well, maybe there are times when I like to be challenged.
Because when someone says to me, like, I'm not trying to be mean to you, but if you say to me, I like to be challenged, and I've noticed that every time I challenge you, you back away, and then when I challenge you on that, you get sucky and passive-aggressive, then I have to question the degree to which you like to be challenged.
Like, maybe you just say this stuff and maybe you believe it, but when the actual challenge comes along, you don't like it so much.
And that just speaks to self-knowledge.
And that's yet another reason to find a girl in the Philippines who's not passive-aggressive and sucky.
I mean, really?
Maybe the advantage that other women have over you is not their fertility.
They shut up?
No.
Then what would the advantage be besides beauty youth and, you know, kindness?
What is the character flaw in me that you feel that I need to be aware of but I may not be?
Well, do you have any ideas?
I mean, look, we all have things that, I mean, I have things, you have things, everyone has things that we need to be aware of that are sort of weaknesses or susceptibilities or whatever, right?
I think that, you know, in my opinion, based on this conversation we've had, you feel that I'm not defending mail bashing on the internet and that's something I may need to correct to live my life more correctly.
Is that correct?
No, I mean, that's a symptom, I guess.
And I don't, you know, I don't know how blunt you want me to be.
I mean, you say you like to be challenged.
I'm not convinced of that.
And I don't know how blunt.
And listen, this is just my opinion.
It's not any kind of fact.
But if you're asking for sort of honest feedback, then I'd certainly be happy to provide it.
I mean, that's what I do.
All right.
And honest doesn't mean right.
And you don't have to take any of it.
And you don't even have to have me speak.
We can move on to the next caller right now.
Well, I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do, but it's your show, and so I think it's a kind thing to say you're right.
Right about what?
I don't know.
I can't be right because it's my show.
Yeah, you can.
It's your show so far.
Anyway...
No, you have to choose.
If you want, you said, what are the flaws that might be interfering with me getting a good man?
And I can give you that feedback if you like, or we can move on to the next quote.
But you have to choose.
You have to make that an active choice.
I want to choose door number A with a red curtain.
Tell me what my character flaws are that you think might be a good thing for me to have in my awareness.
I like to be oriented toward personal growth, so please do share your opinion.
All right.
Well, first of all, I enjoy our conversations.
I do.
You open the door to worlds that I don't know about.
And listen, that happens on this show, and I appreciate everyone who does that.
And so that's the first thing.
You're obviously intelligent and articulate and passionate about things in the world.
There are people who are on this show who want to come back, and they don't come back.
So, Christina, the first thing I wanted to mention is I really enjoy our conversations.
Thank you.
Alright.
You don't think that connection is possible with disagreement.
You don't think that human beings can truly connect and be intimate and open with each other and significantly disagree.
I think that for you, and I think this is not just true for you, I think it's true for a lot of people, which is why I wanted to bring it up.
And I think it's more true For women than for men.
Like, the majority of people who listen to this show, and it's not a small majority, are men.
Because this show is contentious.
This show has disagreements.
This show sometimes has escalations.
It has, you know, whatever, right?
But I think my experience has been that disagreements are incredibly fertile for intimacy.
And if you avoid disagreements, you're avoiding intimacy.
Because when you're scared of disagreements, when you feel, as I've sort of, I've described this before, you know, if you push two pieces of paper, you get a flat tabletop and you push two pieces of paper together, They can't blend.
One of them has to go over and one of them has to go under.
And I think in that moment of conflict where there's your perspective and somebody else's perspective that either differs or opposes, I think you want to avoid that moment.
That's an alarming moment for you.
And so because differences of opinion and conflicts of opinion are alarming to you, I think that what you end up having to do, which is inevitable, Because you either completely isolate yourself from humanity, in which case you won't encounter anyone who has differences of opinion, and you're not doing that.
So you're in there, you're in the mix with other people, but differences or oppositions of opinion are very alarming to you.
So you end up having to manipulate other people Because you have strong opinions and you come on strong.
And I don't mean that in any negative way.
I appreciate that.
I like that about you and I like that about people as a whole.
I want to know where I stand.
I don't want people to manipulate me.
I don't want to be manipulating other people.
You come on strong.
You lay it out.
You tell me your thoughts and opinions.
But I don't know that you've had people who sort of say, slow down and let's really figure this out and I have a difference of opinion and so on.
So I think that for you...
Because you have lots of strong opinions, you're going to provoke disagreement among others.
Trust me, I know.
I have a lot of strong opinions, hopefully more than opinions, and I provoke disagreement, significant disagreement sometimes with other people.
I don't mean to, it's just a natural result of philosophy.
And so because you have strong opinions, but you are very alarmed or afraid of conflict, you end up having strong opinions, and then if conflict comes, you either choose guys who don't push back, Or, if they do push back, you have to start manipulating them.
Which is why when I brought up the defending men thing, you brought up this false dichotomy.
Well, I don't, you know, I have to solve the whole problem and, you know, didn't say, you didn't say, oh, well, tell me more or, you know, because this was a male perspective, it may have been somewhat new to you because you were saying, well, why are these guys so mad at women?
And I said, well, here's one possibility.
And then you just didn't want to talk about it, right?
And then I pushed you a little further on that and you said, well, let's just agree to disagree, right?
Then we brought up the GMOs thing and I said, I don't, no, no, no.
Like, it's not true that there's all of these, you know, just talk to an expert, read a whole bunch of books about this topic.
And had information that might have been helpful or important.
And then you said, oh, well, why don't you just dominate me, right?
I mean, it's jumping out of the conversation, not having a disagreement.
You know, I say no, no, no, because that's the information I have.
If you have better information, you can let me know and we can refine it, right?
But I'm not going to pretend that I don't have a difference of opinion because you're scary, because you're not that scary.
I mean, hopefully I'm not that scary to you either.
We're just having differences of opinion.
And we can have a great conversation with While having significant differences of opinion.
I'm not putting you in the same category, of course, as the flat earth guy, but I had a great conversation with a guy who believed the world was flat.
And it was, I think, enjoyable and productive.
And so, if I have a difference of opinion from you, what happens is...
You either want to change the subject or you minimize or you push back a false dichotomy.
Or what happens is if I continue or if I point out that you're being avoidant, you kind of go limp and sucky and passive aggressive.
Like, oh, well, what do you want me to say?
And you get all, you know, like if you're playing games with kids, we used to call it, I don't know, rubber bones.
You know, like if someone's trying to pick you up, you just go completely limp.
And it's actually really hard to move somebody who's gone completely limp.
And so this sort of passive aggression and all that kind of stuff, pops up and you get very manipulative when you're faced with someone who's pushing back on a strongly held opinion of yours and you miss the opportunity for the real connection that comes from really disagreeing with someone if you really disagree with someone you can get to know them a lot and you can get to know yourself a lot and as long as you're both committed to having disagreements in a non-aggressive or abusive manner it can be a fantastic thing Where I have disagreed with people,
I have gotten the closest in many ways through those disagreements.
And I would say that because you have strong opinions, but at the same time you don't invite rebuttals, I think that you come across to a lot of people, I would imagine, I don't know, you know, like there are sandcastles and you're a tsunami, because you have very strong opinions, and then if other people push back, you either change the subject, you say let's agree to disagree, you kind of defuse any pushback on your strong opinions.
So then who's left in your life?
Who's left in your life?
If somebody's going to push back hard, you're going to get sucky and passive aggressive.
And so a lot of people are going to roll over and just let you have your strong opinions without pushing back.
But those are low quality people who are kind of traumatized and kind of weird and kind of don't have a self to push back with.
So if somebody pushes back, You get avoidant, and if they don't push back, you get to keep having your opinions washing over other people's sandcastles, but then they kind of cease to exist, and you end up with low-quality people around you.
It's because you're fierce, and you're intelligent, and you're verbally astute, and you have strong opinions.
Because you have that personality type, Christina, this is...
So important for you to surround yourself with people who can push back and can help refine your strong opinions so that they're not just opinions, but become a fact and truth.
And that comes from the sanding back and forth of really engaging with other people on disagreements rather than avoiding false dichotomies, manipulation, passive aggression, and veil...
I'm gonna check out of the conversation but still be here physically if you disagree with me that's very manipulative and I think that's one of the reasons why you end up with somewhat low quality people in your environment because the higher quality people are like well I can't just sit here and not exist while she has these strong opinions but if I push back she gets very passive aggressive which is no fun and Not interesting and we can't connect at that level.
So I either have to not exist, just let her have her opinions and not say boo to a mouse, or I push back, in which case she gets kind of sucky and passive-aggressive, neither of which is fun for me as a self-actualized person.
And so I think inviting and engaging with people's disagreements rather than trying to avoid them or trying to manipulate people out of having those opinions that disagree with yours is the ticket to higher quality people in your life.
And there endeth my brief recitation of what I thought.
I disagree.
I'm just kidding.
Thank you.
That was very good.
That was very good.
Anyway, so instead of passive-aggressive, being overtly aggressive is preferred.
Is that correct?
Based on your...
You've got to be kidding me.
No, I'm asking.
You're not serious that the opposite of passive-aggressive is aggressive?
Well, what is it then?
Instead of being passive-aggressive, be forthright and aggressive?
Why do you have to be aggressive?
It's just differences of opinion.
It's not a duel to the death with poisoned blades and airstrikes.
It's just a difference of opinion.
What was I doing that was passive-aggressive?
I don't actually recall Oh, why don't you just dominate me then?
Or, okay, fine, what do you want me to say?
You know what it is?
I have a very dry sense of humor.
It's so dry.
No, no, no, no.
I have a very good sense of humor.
Don't you dare try.
Steph, you just don't understand my sophisticated humor.
That's more passive aggressive.
It's not passive aggressive.
I've lived with myself for much longer than you've spent time talking to me.
I have an extremely dry sense of humor.
And why would I come on your show and lie to you Oh, I never said you were lying.
Well, or misrepresent myself or do...
I never said you were lying or misrepresenting.
This is a genuine experience.
You go limp.
And listen, you can listen back to the conversation.
But when you listen back to the conversation, you'll hear your manipulations coming in like a predictable sequence when we have a difference of opinion.
I don't know what to do that's correct.
And that's honest.
And I really respect that.
And I appreciate that.
That's a courageous and brave thing to say.
I don't know the answer, because I don't know all of your relationships.
But I can tell you my particular perspective, Christina, is, first of all, if you have a disagreement with someone, ask them so that you really understand where they're coming from.
Don't assume you know, don't push back, don't avoid, don't get defensive.
If I say, listen, men are upset at women because women don't defend men from collective judgments made by others.
Which is fair, right?
I mean, if you were black and you lived in a society where people could just make anti-black collective statements all the time and nobody pushed back really visibly at all, yeah, you'd be upset at everyone for hanging you out to dry.
And so if somebody has a disagreement with you, you can ask them questions.
Like if I say, no, no, no, I'm not scared of GMOs, you can say, well...
Why not?
Right?
Because I was, you know, you said, well, there are all these studies and I was about to say, well, tell me what these studies are.
Because I just read a whole bunch of books and interviewed an expert about this.
So tell me what these studies are.
Maybe we can talk about it.
But you got all, we couldn't get into the discussion because of that.
So asking questions is really important to make sure you understand what someone disagrees with.
Like when people disagree with me, a lot of times I'm like, well, what are your definitions and where's your data coming from and where are your sources and what's happening, right?
Right?
And so asking questions is really important and being committed to the truth regardless of emotional interference is really really important, right?
So you may be right about GMOs.
What do I know?
I spent a couple of days reading books and interviewed an expert.
Does not make me an expert on GMOs.
I have probably more knowledge than the average person.
Maybe I have a lot less knowledge than you.
Maybe this expert was completely talking out of his armpit and maybe he's a GMO clone himself from the future.
I don't know, right?
But I'm not going to pretend I agree with you when I don't, but I'm also not going to pretend that I'm perfectly right and you're perfectly wrong.
So you can just ask questions, you know, like, oh, well, my information on GMOs is this.
Well, where are you coming from?
What's your information on GMOs?
And how long have you studied it?
And what do you know about it?
And what are the studies?
And here's a study I read.
Do you have a rebuttal for it?
And all that kind of stuff, right?
That's not aggressive.
That's a mutual exploration of Common ground, which is sort of facts and evidence.
Sorry, go ahead.
I just didn't plan to talk about GMOs.
It was a side topic, so I don't come prepared with a list of studies or books or anything.
It was just a little segue.
It's not about GMOs.
It's not about a specific thing.
We're talking about principles here.
And it was a whole bunch of things that we disagreed on, right?
So I don't want to get dragged into, well, I wasn't perfectly prepared for a debate.
That's another false dichotomy, right?
Well, it sounds like everything that I do is not the way you like to communicate with people.
Passive aggressive again.
I don't think it's passive aggressive at all.
Totally.
I'm just not pleasing you.
Nothing I do is right.
You just have standards that don't include me.
I've just given you some feedback on how you can have productive discussions with people and you're not asking me any questions and you're not disagreeing with me in a way like here's an approach that I take.
You're just getting sucky.
I don't know how to behave in a way that makes you happy.
Passive aggressive again.
Because I'm not someone you need to make happy.
That's the whole point.
I don't even know what to do, but I do know that the women in the Philippines don't do whatever it is that I'm doing, and I'd like you to go hang out with them.
All right.
Well, I think I'll take my exit cue from that, unless there's something else you wanted to mention.
I'll certainly give you the final say if you'd like.
No, I think that's a good note to end it on.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
Have a nice day.
Thank you, Christina.
Always a pleasure.
Alright.
Up next is David.
David wrote in and said, That's from David.
Hello, David.
How are you doing tonight?
Hi, Stefan.
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
First of all, I'd like to clarify.
This was a point brought up by a friend of mine.
This is not my own personal opinion.
I'm very pro-free market myself.
But this is just something that I didn't know a whole lot about, and hopefully you can clarify the issue to me.
You couldn't get your friend to come on the show, right?
No, it's too bad.
This is an internet friend, or else I would have.
Definitely, yes.
You know, this show goes out over the internet.
He can do it.
Yes, but let's just say that he's not very open to opposing opinions.
I don't think he would be very happy doing this.
Right, okay.
So, listen, I mean, I've already done the rebuttals of the 19th century, you know?
Like, people say, do you know that children worked in the 19th century?
Compared to what?
Compared to the 15th century, you know, a lot of children didn't work in the 15th century because they were dead!
Look, we've solved the problem of child labor by putting them in the ground!
Isn't that lovely?
So the fact that children were alive, but working 12 or 14 or 16 hours a day in a factory is not the fault of the free market.
I mean, children worked all throughout history.
Do you think there was some farm in France in the 14th century where they said, no, no.
Let us not put the children into the fields, even though we're probably all starving to death on a regular basis.
Oh, here comes another wave of the Black Death.
Oh, what a shame.
No, let us put them in hammocks until they're 18 and make sure that we teach them Latin and Greek and make sure that they can read their Aeschylus and Ovid so that we don't disturb them with any nasty pulling up of crops.
You know what I mean?
This is what happened.
It was like, oh, are you four days out of the womb?
Here's a backhoe.
Get busy and don't pull your diapers off at the same time.
Oh, actually, no, do, because we need your baby shit to fertilize the soil.
Otherwise, we're going to starve to death, too.
Oh, all right.
So compared to what, right?
Compared to the pre-industrial revolution, it's an IQ test.
And I'm not talking about you, your friend.
It's an IQ test.
And people say to you, oh, well, you see that with all these sad-eyed children working in mines in the 19th century.
Well, that's bad.
Okay, what was their alternative?
Where would they have been in the 14th century?
Why were there not lots of children working in the 14th century?
Can I give you a hint?
Because they were dead!
Infant mortality declined in the 19th century.
Number of calories consumed, wages went up.
Oh, there was soot!
And soot is sooty!
And bad!
Okay, yes there was soot.
Still life expectancy increased.
Why?
Because soot is much better than the plague.
And soot is much better than cholera and typhus and all that other shit that went on throughout most of human history.
And so life expectancy kept going.
Going up and it really laid the foundation for the wealth of the 20th century.
The wealth, of course, which was successively destroyed in the First World War and the Second World War.
And we still have a fair amount of money rolling around and a fair amount of wealth rolling around.
So you just look at the GDP of the planet.
You can find this online.
Don't need me to read.
Look at the GDP of the planet.
You know, the dawn of time until about 1780 or 1770.
Flatline, baby.
There's no life in the patient.
And pretty much 10 to 15% of the European population could die at any given year because of starvation.
Or plague.
Or war.
Or any combination of the above.
And the roads were so bad, you could have a town that was drowning in food, they'd throw crap out, and then like five miles and people starving to death and nobody did.
So...
That's sort of the first thing, is just look at the flat-lined and it blows up, right?
And it blows up and the free market comes in.
So, I mean, I don't want to go through all the factual rebuttals, like the robber barons.
I mean, come on.
Come on.
I mean, if I write a history of slavery called The Nasty Niggers, wouldn't people think that there's a little bit of prejudice there?
Now, if you write a history of economic development in the 19th century and include the phrase robber barons, you're not a historian, you're a propagandist.
Agreed, agreed.
You know, it's like, here's a history of Japan entitled Those Slant-Eyed Sons of Satan.
It's like, you know, I think that you're maybe showing your bias a little bit there.
So, first of all, they weren't robbers.
They were capitalists.
That's a viewpoint I share with you, that they didn't really rob from anyone, but...
No, no, it's not like they didn't really rob from anyone.
Okay, I mean, they didn't rob...
It was capitalism.
They were doing what is best for their business.
Yeah, they were producing goods and services that people really wanted.
Now, occasionally they'd use the government and so on, but much less than they do today, because there was a much smaller government with much less power, right?
Yes, exactly.
And so...
So first and foremost, the moment somebody uses the word robber barons, first of all, they weren't robbers, they weren't thieves, they were producing capitalists who were satisfying the market demand in a voluntary fashion.
Like, those rich people accumulated so much money by making other people happier.
Those bastards!
So they weren't robbers, and they weren't barons.
Because there's no aristocracy in America!
And that's mostly what people are talking about.
So they're using two phrases that have nothing to do with the actual economic and political conditions.
And that should immediately disqualify them from any further inclusion in rational conversation.
Like you can point it out.
Were they thieves?
No.
Remember the Rockefellers, the Carnegies and so on?
They generally achieved their money not through Clinton-esque political bullshit.
But they achieve their money by satisfying demand in the marketplace.
Oh, and by the way, saving the whales.
Right?
Because people used to use whale blubber, which caused whales to vanish from the oceans.
They used to use whale blubber to light Mostly light, a little bit of heat, mostly to light their homes.
And kerosene was developed and came along.
I can't remember who it was, but one of these robber barons came along and kerosene was far cheaper.
And the people who developed the oil, the oil magnets, the reason that they got so much money was that they were incredibly efficient.
They out-competed everyone else, which meant that they provided more oil for less money to the people.
And so this idea that you're an evil guy Because you make people happier.
I mean, it's insane.
It's insane.
And so this Robert Barron thing, it's just a way of priming people with negative associations.
Oh, they were thieves, they were rich, you know, and it's a way of just provoking class envy.
It's just, it's a way of provoking class envy.
And again, it comes down to people not having a clue about IQ. It's not having, these guys were geniuses.
And we know some of these people around, the people who just make amazing stuff and really, really make people happy.
You know, it's hard to go to the goddamn iPhone store, right?
Go to the Apple store and people are lining up for four days.
To get the new iPhone.
Go up to them and say, Apple's evil.
You know, they're just exploiting you, right?
I mean, they're lining up for four days.
Jesus.
Anyway, so I don't want to get into all of the factual rebuttals.
People have written about them so much.
You know, go to Mises.org, look this stuff up.
It's been rebutted so many times that I don't want to bother with it.
I want to give you another approach where you don't have to look up a thing.
I'm aiming to put Google out of business by giving people principles.
So, do you mind if I just give you, like, a minute or two on how I would respond to this?
Do you want to pretend to be your friend?
Yes, sure, absolutely.
Okay, good, because, you know, it's supposed to be a conversation.
So, okay, so you give me this speech, right?
Yes.
And I would say to you, okay, where does this criticism in general come from?
Does it come from capitalists or Republicans, or does it generally come from socialists?
Well, this is generally, I would say, a socialist issue, right?
Okay, fantastic.
People that dislike people that have become successful from their business practices.
Yeah, I don't want you to psychologize, like just pretend to really be him.
He probably wouldn't say that.
No, no, he would not say that.
Okay, so he'd say this criticism comes from the left.
It comes from socialists, right?
Yes, it comes from socialists.
Okay, fantastic.
So then I would say, so socialists are really concerned with the well-being of humanity, right?
Which is why they criticize pretty much the time of the greatest economic growth in human history and the foundation for the wealth of the modern world.
They criticize 19th century America, robber barons and exploitation and child labor and blah blah blah, right?
Yes, yes.
And so, socialists are really really concerned with the health and well-being of humanity.
So this is why they, of all the times throughout history and all the places across the world, this is where they choose to focus on.
A time when workers are getting richer, When child labor is ending for the first time in human history, when slavery is ending, when the emancipation of women is well underway, this is the time period they choose to attack.
And I would say to this socialist, and I would say to you if you were playing a socialist, do you think that 19th century America was better for human beings in America than, say, Stalinist Russia?
Well, I don't know his exact opinion, but I would say yes, because that is common sense to say yes, it is much better, or it wasn't.
Yeah, and anyone who says that's not true, again, is just an ideologue so far up their own ass that they might as well bring a flashlight and a helmet and give themselves a colonoscopy, right?
Yes.
And so, I would say, okay, of all the societies in the world across history, past, present, Where would you rank 19th century America in terms of destructive effects on human life?
I've just asked them to rank that, because they're choosing to focus on this, right?
Would it be in the top 100?
No.
It would not be in the top 1,000.
Agreed.
Okay.
Right?
I mean, there's hundreds to 280 or whatever it is countries right now, but God, I mean, which way are the footprints heading in the planet?
You know, it's not to Qatar.
It's not to Saudi Arabia, right?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so, why would you focus on this, right?
I mean, there's so many other cultures and countries, right?
Why aren't you focusing on the 30 million people murdered by Chairman Mao just as part of the Great Famine and associated disasters?
Or the 10 million Ukrainians murdered by the forced collectivization of the farms under Stalinist Russia?
Or the...
what is it?
190...
100...
no, 100 million.
100 million people killed by communism In the 20th century alone, you can look up the Big Black Book of Communism for more on this, right?
What about 1940s Germany, right?
Which was the national German workers, oh wait for it, Socialist Party was the Nazi Party.
Socialist Party!
You know, the Communists and the Socialists were fighting it out.
Yay, Germany, yay Europe, right?
So of all, I'd ask them, okay, quick, sought by destruction of human life, Where is 19th century America?
And if they say, well, it's really high up, then they say, well, there were a lot of really stupid immigrants around, weren't they?
Because everybody was trying to get to America.
I mean, they were riding the backs of great white sharks to try and get to America.
I don't care if I lose four fingers, I'm sure I can buy new ones in America, right?
Everybody and their dog was trying to get into 19th century America.
So, then, they were all completely retarded with their own lives and futures, but you, as a socialist, are really, really smart at figuring out just how bad 19th century America was, even though just about everyone in the world tried to get in.
So I would simply say, why are you focusing on 19th century America?
Now there's a reason why socialists must focus on 19th century America.
Because it puts a complete lie to all of the socialist theories.
According to the socialist theories, everyone should have been getting poorer.
Why?
Because the capitalists owned the means of production.
Everyone should have been getting poorer.
Everyone should have been dying.
Everyone should have been starving to death.
Disease should have been rampant.
Society should have been collapsing.
Everything should have been a complete disaster.
Instead, things were getting better and better, right?
Yes.
So that's why they have to go and slander this one time, because they don't want you to look at the facts, because the facts deny the efficacy of socialism.
And it's inhumane, ghastly, sociopathic shit, frankly.
To focus on the one of the few times in human history where the workers were getting richer, where society was getting richer, and ignoring and literally stepping over a hundred million bodies to go and say, you know, the fact that they were selling kerosene cheaper makes them really bad people!
How dare they?
Hundred million fucking bodies!
For your socialist paradise!
You're stepping all over them!
You know, that guy who founded libraries and opened them to the public for free, he was a robber baron.
Really?
Chairman Mao?
Stalin?
The Khmer Rouge?
Are you fucking kidding me?
I mean, are you basing your philosophy on the fact that someone beat you up with the Monopoly character with the monocle?
I mean, are you kidding me?
How many bodies are you going to step over to bitch about 19th century America, which everyone tried to get in?
You know, lots of people trying to get out of Russia.
Lots of people died trying to get out of Russia.
Lots of people died trying to get over the Berlin Wall to get out of Germany.
Tens of thousands of people have died trying to get out of fucking Cuba to get to America.
And you're like, America is really bad.
You sons of bitches!
You unholy, unfeeling, human-hating, murderous, fascist bastards!
That is the one place you should be praising if you give a shit about human beings and any kind of success that they can achieve.
That is the one place you should be going saying, wow, we've really got to learn from this.
Because that is the time when the workers got richer after approximately a billion years of starvation.
This is the time when the workers got richer.
This is the time when people got better.
This is the time when society got freer.
This is where everyone tried to get to.
Let's go and learn from that.
But what you'd learn from that is socialism is a murderous machine of human disassembly and capitalism is a glorious rocket to a brighter future.
And they don't want to say that.
They don't want to say that because they don't understand IQ. And the reason they don't understand IQ is they're fucking stupid.
Stupid people don't understand IQ. Listen.
Nobody should give me all of Apple stock because there's way better people at maximizing the value of Apple than me because I'm focusing on a different area.
In the same way, they should not give Tim Cook the world's biggest philosophy show because he'll drive it into the ground.
The allocation of scarce resources to the most competent people is exactly what anyone who cares about human life should be focused on.
Getting our scarce resources into the hands of the people who can do the most with them and make the most out of them is exactly, if we care about human life and not being some parasitical, remora-sucking-blood-vampire-asshole taking the life out of the future, if we really care about human life, we say, what conceivable system could we have that puts the most of our scarce resources into the hands of those who can do the best with them?
That is the free market, like it or not.
The free market relentlessly pushes resources to high IQ people who can maximize their value.
That's what the free market does.
It says, high IQ, here you go.
Low IQ, not so much.
Smart!
Take this stuff.
Dumb, don't take this stuff.
Now, dumb people, if they weren't dumb, would say, well, of course, dumb people, because they're dumb, they say, well, that's not fair.
He's getting a big mansion, and I've only got to live in this apartment.
I only get a trailer.
Yeah, better than a fucking cave, isn't it?
And if you don't let the rich guys have the mansion, you don't even get the apartment.
You want a cure for cancer?
How about we give our resources to the people who are the very best at figuring out a cure for cancer?
That's only gonna happen through the free market.
It ain't gonna happen because Joe Biden's doing shit.
Relentless reallocation of resources to those who can best maximize them.
That is what the free market does.
That is what the free market relentlessly does.
And idiots get resentful because they're too stupid to know That giving the most resources to the smartest people benefits the stupidest people and the least competent people the most.
And yes, I am fully cognizant now that I am calling people stupid in a podcast.
This came up a couple of weeks ago.
I've crossed the Rubicon.
I have.
I watched Making a Murderer.
I'm not turning back, baby.
So yes, apologies to the prior caller.
I am now calling people stupid.
Now, stupid is a gene set that wants to survive, though.
And stupid is a gene set that doesn't want to wait forever.
A year or two for the smart people to come up with the next cool thing to distract stupid people from being stupid.
Absolutely.
Can I get an Xbox so I don't have to look into my one-tooth, neck-bearded, idiotic, blank-eyed, vacant stare of drooling nothing-headness?
Give me an Xbox!
I'm sorry, you're gonna have to allow smarter people to have resources so that you can get an Xbox in a year.
No!
I want something now, because I'm stupid!
So the free market, the free market will take shit out of poor people's hands and stupid people's hands.
Not that they're always the same, but they're not always opposite.
The free market, it's like you take the candy away from the baby.
No, no, no, you can't handle that.
Take the chainsaw away from the toddler.
Can't handle it.
That's something that's never get on an AFV because they're going to behead themselves.
Take the steak knives away from the toddlers and give it to the sous chefs because they can do something with it other than cut a third nostril into the side of their head.
So this is what the free market is gently taking stuff out of dumb people and giving it to smart people.
And what the smart people built...
Benefits everyone.
Benefits everyone.
An idiot with an IQ of 70 can work a cell phone now.
They sure as hell couldn't work a Univac back in the 50s.
Yes.
Didn't work that way, right?
Right?
And so, I'm going to put numbers and you can dial.
Oh, you can just push it now.
You don't even have to wait for the dialer to go back round because you're too impatient.
Right?
So, Society relentlessly takes stuff out of dumb people's hands and puts it into smart people's hands if you have a free society, but the smart genes don't like that because they're too stupid to know that amazing benefits are going to come back if you let that process happen.
So they just want shit in the here and now, and that's usually because they've made so many stupid decisions that they can't afford to wait.
Right?
So, they've eaten too many fucking bumbleberry pies, and now they've got diabetes.
So they can't wait.
Oh, you know, don't worry, because if you let smart people have the medical resources, you'll get a cure for diabetes in a year or two.
Yes, but then I'll have no feet, no eyes, and I'll be dead.
So can't wait for that.
Gotta take shit away from smart people and give it to dumb people, because dumb people have made too many stupid choices.
Use that new phone to call the welfare office.
There you go.
Yeah, or...
Well, I had 19 kids with a whole series of truckers.
I never quite got their first names, let alone their last names, and I'm too dumb to remember their license plates, so I guess I need me some welfare and a little bit of social security.
If you put these kids on some mind-altering drugs, it would be fantastic.
Oh, I also need some public school, please.
Oh, by the way, I also need some Obamacare, because I got diabetes!
I took in too much dick and sugar!
And now I got too many kids and I can't find my vagina.
I go down there.
I go spelunking.
Sometimes I drop down a bath escape.
Whatever that is, still can't find it.
The only people who can find my vagina is the next trucker.
Ain't me.
I don't even know who that is anymore.
What accent is that?
I have no idea.
That was a great character.
You really got into that.
Right.
Right.
You know, all I did was show Philippine bikini chicks to my trucker guys and they all just left.
I don't know what's going on.
But I sure need some money from smart people because I made some really bad decisions.
Oh, I went to college because they said if I go to college, I'll make a fortune.
Now I couldn't get into college that required any smart and a braindiness, so I had to go into something that didn't require whatever that word was and phrase was that used before that didn't mean nothing, so I got me a degree in...
Can't read, can't really spell, can't make an argument to save my life.
Makes that bald guy in Canada keep typing not an argument until he's basically got it as the only thing his computer does anymore.
So I got me this degree.
Turns out, ironic if I knew what that meant, wouldn't it be?
Turns out, after I got this degree, it turns out that smart people get degrees and then make money because they're smart.
It's not because someone gave them a degree and made them smart.
Interestingly enough, I also joined a basketball team.
Didn't get any taller.
So hell, what am I going to do?
I'm now $100,000 in debt.
It turns out getting a bullshit degree didn't make me any more capable of doing anything other than making some rich guy a flat white latte.
Flat white, what is that?
Steph's singing style?
Why, yes it is.
But anyway.
So, as it turns out, I'm $100,000 in debt.
I'm no smarter than I was before.
My IQ didn't get raised by beginning a bullshit degree.
So now what have I got to do?
That's right!
Feel the burn!
Gotta feel the burn!
That guy's offering to get me out of my student loans.
Which I took because they said to make me a lot of money, turns out I didn't raise my IQ, didn't make me any smarter.
So now I gotta go and, I don't know, suck the dick of some scraggly-haired old Jewish guy because he's going to get me out of my student loans.
Isn't that going to be great?
Oh, I can't wait!
Because that way, he can take more money away from smart people, give it to me, and end of the world!
Hey, that's their fair share though, right?
Fair share.
Yeah, no, it's Gary Johnson.
Fuck feeling the burn.
Feel the Johnson.
Feel the Johnson.
I am with you on that, 100%.
Oh, by the way, completely unrelated.
I heard a funny joke.
Do you want to hear a funny joke?
Yeah, of course.
All right.
Well, the anti-Donald Trump sentiment is so high in America these days.
Turns out just yesterday, Donald Trump rescued a child from the African lion exhibit at a local zoo.
Child fell in there.
He dove in as Batman with his utility belt.
He dove in.
He rescued that child from the African lions.
And do you know what the newspapers reported?
What?
Donald Trump denies food to African immigrants.
Oh yeah, you have encapsulated the media right there in one joke.
That's great.
It is great, and yet terrible.
Yes, it's great because it's terrible.
African immigrants starve to death because Donald Trump steals their food supply.
God help him if it was a white child.
Alright.
So, yeah, I would just go back and ask them how they sought the iniquities of the planet and the societies, and you'll very quickly find out that there's nothing to do with.
If socialists gave a shit about, oh no, child labor is really bad, oh, you must be really against the national debt then, because that's child labor.
It is.
You are selling off the future productivity of children.
Because there's no way, there's no, the current tax base cannot pay off the national debt.
Cannot do it.
It can't do it.
No way.
There's no way China lends a dollar to America unless the future productivity of America's children is going to be sold to the Chinese.
There's no way.
No way.
So, the national debt is child labor.
It is child labor.
It's just deferred child labor, that's all.
You're selling off the future productivity of your children in order to give some subsidies to Black Lives Matter.
I don't know, how about Child Lives Matter?
No, no, can't have a state of society if that's our dictum.
And so, that's what I ask socialists.
Okay, wow, child labor really seems to bother you.
How do you feel about the national debt?
They don't like to answer that question because then they don't give a shit about children.
What they care about is slandering capitalism.
By appealing to stupid prejudices about the 19th century, which is why you hear, oh, the Industrial Revolution, it was sooty, it was terrible, horrible children worked, you know, it was just a, you know, sometimes it was two families to a room, and oh, it was just terrible, you know, right?
Yeah, okay, it was terrible.
And you know why?
Capitalism invented photographs.
And so you've got photographs of the 19th century.
You don't have photographs of the Black Death.
Otherwise, you'd look at the 19th century, you'd look at the Black Death, and you'd say, wow, 19th century is like a near-infinite step up from those people who are being nailed shut in their own houses so they don't spread the plague, and they've all got to eat each other's rotting bodies to survive four more days.
That's the point.
I don't know that one.
There's a little bit of soot.
Yeah, there's a little bit of soot.
But there's not fleas coming off rats from the Middle East that lay waste to a third of the European population in just a couple of years.
Because there was no photography in the 14th century because there was central planning and no free market.
Huh.
Yeah, that's a great point.
That's not even something I thought of.
You'd probably not even have these opinions if we had, you know, some historical perspective to look back on.
Oh yeah, you look at the 14th century, you see pictures of vaguely plump, strangely adult Jesuses cuddling in their mother's lap, you know, and you get to see, wow, look at these frescoes.
Wow, that's really cool.
And it's like, yeah, it was a ghastly existence.
I mean, the Monty Python guys, right, they're really smart guys, really well educated.
And they got it right.
You go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Yeah.
He must be a king.
How do you know?
Well, he hasn't got shit all over him.
It's true.
That is my favorite quote from that movie.
Yeah, I think that speaks volumes to just...
All you need to know about the Middle Ages.
Yeah, exactly.
What a god-awful existence.
It was not the Princess Bride people.
It was not Dungeons and Dragons.
You were either a king or covered in shit.
It was kissing a woman who'd eaten raw meat for 20 years and never brushed her teeth.
I don't know how people fucked in the Middle Ages.
Literally, I lie awake at night imagining...
Sex with some scabrous, small-pucked-faced, half-boob hanging out.
Never brushed her teeth.
Never had any web wipes for that farty shit.
You know, whenever she sharted, it was basically just wipe your ass with a bore and trying to keep walking.
I mean, with no Kegel exercises had been invented yet.
Basically, she squeezed out so many pups that sex was more like spelunking than fucking.
Echo!
Any twins in here?
Twins in here?
Twins in here?
You know, I mean, I guess a blowjob with no teeth?
I don't know.
I have mixed feelings about that.
Holy shit.
I mean, I remember many years ago when I was in college.
I won't get into the details, but basically I was responsible for getting a class project, a university project.
We went into one of the premier art collections of one of the richest guys in Canada.
And he has a whole room devoted to art from the Black Death.
Now, art, you know, the psycho-epistemological reflection of reality that Rand talks about and so on, was really powerfully on display because this art was unbelievably horrendous.
You know, like it made Megadeth album covers look like something out of Jane Austen, right?
It was just unbelievable, gargoyles and eating and babies, and it was horrible, right?
And then there was one, it was just a, I don't know how they did it, it was like a flat pearl-like substance, and you couldn't really see anything except when you moved past, you saw this face of near infinite sorrow, and then it would kind of blink out.
It's sort of like a weird internal holograph.
I had no idea how they did it.
It was an amazing thing to have done so many years ago.
But...
Yeah, I don't know.
What a ghastly, what a ghastly, ghastly situation.
I mean, they thought bathing was bad for you.
Yeah, didn't they believe that the oil left on your skin was a protectant for bad things that would get into your body, right?
Yeah, and you know, in some places, they could have been right.
Open cut, cholera, bye-bye.
You know, when you've got one out of every two kids dying?
I mean, the brutality, the violence, everything stunk in a city in particular.
In the farms, of course, it got awful.
Everything stunk to high heaven, right?
We've said this before.
Some old French king opened the window to look out over Paris and fainted at the giant sky fart of shitty stench that was blown into his bedroom.
Ah, it's good to be careful.
Done.
Done.
What a god-awful existence.
I would rather be the poorest person in the modern world than the richest person, even in the late Middle Ages, even in the early Renaissance.
Oh no, I have a toothache.
Dead.
Dead.
I was reading a book about one of my ancestors, William Molyneux, a friend of John Locke's, Guy had a UTI, I think.
I don't know.
It's hard to tell from the description.
A urinary tract infection, which men can get as well as women.
Died.
Fucking dead.
I hope the fever breaks.
Because he wasn't in the South.
I hope that fever breaks.
Right?
I mean, dead.
Oh dear.
Some bacteria got into my urethra.
And I'm dead.
You know, now, you know what?
It's a fistful of antibiotics and you're fine.
Yeah.
No thanks.
No thanks.
So yeah, I mean, life as an unbelievable human horror show in the past was unbelievable.
STDs.
Oh no!
Syphilis.
I think I'm going to kiss horses and go mad.
Have my sister take care of me of 10 years before my brain dies.
That was Nietzsche, right?
I mean, then one of the, you know, Nietzsche went crazy.
Yeah, because the one time he had sex, he got syphilis.
Ooh, snake eyes.
Bad penis time.
It's all over.
There's no amount of poontang that's good enough for that one time to give you a brain rotting disease that turns you insane.
Maybe if he had gone to the Philippines or Ukraine, he could have found a woman that was more beautiful and didn't have syphilis.
Yeah, yeah.
At least it would have been better syphilis.
I mean, no, literally, this is what would happen.
You get an STD and you'd be dead.
Dead.
Dead.
And, I mean, it's endless.
Every drink of water.
Hope I don't die.
Every single drink of water.
Hope there's not some god-awful waterborne disease in here and I'm gonna die.
Oh, the nightmare.
The nightmare.
Listen, your cat is throwing up and you're fucking writing out your last will.
Oh wait, you can't!
Because you can't read or write.
Because you're a peasant!
Which was like 95% of the population, right?
What a god-awful, nightmarish existence.
You know, people who don't wake up in the morning and kiss the gods of capitalism every single day are just people who either hate life or have no idea what the circumstances in the past were like.
And imagine that, you know, it was all this bucolic, wonderful pastoral painting.
Ansel Adams like it.
It's very gloriousness of nature worship.
Holy shit.
Human beings have had a relentlessly abusive relationship with Mother Nature until they taint that bitch in case you're in cities.
Does that help?
Yeah, that helps.
That answers everything completely.
I am glad that you have a point of view on this that I just didn't know about.
Boycott capitalism, socialists!
That way we'll never have to hear from you again.
Alright, I gotta move on, but thanks for the call.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you very much.
Please bring him on.
You know, and tell him if he out-argues me, I'll profusely apologize for calling anyone stupid.
And he can really create a great victory for socialism in this call.
I will just tell him to listen to this podcast, and if he has any questions, he can call in himself.
How about that?
I'd love to chat with him.
I really would.
And I'll be nice.
Thank you very much.
Thanks.
Alright, up next is Everett.
Everett wrote it and said, Why is it that every time I get involved in a romantic relationship, I tend to become very jealous and suspicious over them?
It seems like this throws my emotions all over the place and makes me feel powerless and depressed.
How can I understand this problem and overcome my paranoia?
That's from Everett.
Hello Everett, how are you?
Hi Steph.
Can you hear me?
Do you feel paranoid in general or just about relationships?
Oh, I would say it's kind of a, it can be general at times with just general human connectivity, I guess you would say.
Like if you traced my IP and this call was coming from inside your house, would you be surprised?
I think my paranoia might be justified in that case.
Right.
Right.
Listen, you haven't donated yet, so I just thought I'd help myself to a sandwich.
All right.
And how many romantic relationships have you had where this has been an issue?
Okay.
Well, I'm 20 years old and I've had...
I would say since high school, I've had about maybe three or four serious, I would call serious, relationships where the extent of the relationship lasted longer than a few weeks, more of like a long-term relationship.
So probably about three or four.
And where would you rate yourself in terms of physical attractiveness, sort of the 1 to 10 scale?
I would put myself at a...
I'd say a 7.
A 7, alright.
And the women that you're dating, where would you put them?
I generally find...
I try to find women that I am attracted to.
Please don't waste our time with completely obvious statements.
Of course you're attracted to them.
It's funny to me.
I'd say about probably relatively the same as my attractiveness level, so probably about a seven on a scale.
Okay, so you're not vastly overreaching.
If I get a job that I'm ridiculously underqualified for, I'm looking forward to the YouTube comments below, like the one you have.
But if I got a job that I was underqualified for, I'd be paranoid about being fired because I was overreaching my capacities.
And so the same thing can happen if there's a big disparity in sexual market value in looks or whatever.
If that's the basis of the relationship, then there can be a feeling that this can't last, right?
For, you know, if I... If I get a job I'm not qualified for, the feeling that it can't last is actually quite accurate, right?
Right, yeah.
You would be quite terrified of messing up because you wouldn't be suitable for the position.
Right.
So, do you feel that there is a disparity, not just in looks, right, because that's not the sum total, of course, of sexual market value, but do you feel that there's any disparity in sexual market value between yourself and the women you're dating?
Like, I'm a little bit...
Okay, so for example, if you're working in a coffee shop and they are running a multinational corporation or whatever it is.
I mean, disparities in income, disparities in educational levels, whatever it is that is sexual market value in your context.
Yeah, um...
Well, I can refer back to my last relationship that I had just kind of recently got out of.
I had dated this girl for about six, seven months and she was, at the time, I would say for myself I had a higher sexual market value than she had because the way I found her very attractive physically.
However, whenever it came to more serious issues like reasoning and problem solving and trying to explore things together, I found that being just a really big problem for a long-term relationship.
So she was pretty, but not that smart.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
You can accordion compress these responses down just so we can keep moving and the energy stays relatively consistent.
Okay.
So you would date pretty but not smart people.
And did they know that they were not as smart as you?
That's a good question.
I would say she...
She probably thought she was as smart as I was.
I mean, I don't know.
I can't really speak for her.
And were you honest about your estimation of her?
And again, I don't want to say that necessarily everything we're saying is intelligence or whatever.
It's just street smarts or whatever.
But did you hold back from informing her that you didn't think she was as good at these particular intellectual exercises as you were?
No.
I was vocal and honest with trying to If we had problems and if we had a dysfunctional breakdown of sorts at the time, which would happen more often than not,
it would seem, then I would be very forthright in saying, well, okay, I think that maybe you had a problem with this conversation that we had where it had escalated, perhaps, or someone got hurt, and then maybe we can try to do something to fix that.
Does that answer your question?
No.
No.
So, if you felt that they were less intelligent than you, did you ever say to them, yes, but you're less intelligent than I am?
Generally speaking, I don't think, no, I would never say that to her, no.
So you're withholding some very important information from her, right?
Yeah, I guess so, yeah.
And so, it's not the same as lying, but it's not the opposite of lying, right?
You were falsifying her existence by not being honest about your estimation of her intelligence, right?
And listen, we've all done it.
I had a girlfriend once.
Oh, very, very pretty.
But, you know, and every now and then, it was so frustrating.
Every now and then, she'd erupt with this, like, really smart thing.
Something, right?
Yeah.
It was like, I don't know if it was like...
You know, if you throw a hoop from a crowd every now and then, like one will just randomly bounce in and you...
But it was like an oasis, like the desert, right?
Across the desert.
Please come up with another smart thing.
I'm having trouble justifying this relationship.
Please, please, please.
And eventually it just went too long, right?
And I'm like, oh, I can't.
I can't.
I'm sorry.
I can't.
I don't know if there's another oasis coming, but if there is, it's just been too long.
So, I mean, we've all done it and it's usually...
Made up for by physical looks, right?
Because why would you date somebody who you considered less intelligent than you?
Because she was hot.
Hotter than you?
I mean, from my perspective, sure.
I mean, I don't get off on myself very much, so I would say I was very attracted to her physically, yeah.
Okay, you don't get off on yourself very much.
All right.
I'm going to avoid all the obvious jokes there because people can fill in the gaps themselves.
Yeah.
But what a firm handshake you have, my friend.
Actually, that would be a weekend, Jake.
But anyway, so you dated her because she was hot, she wasn't that smart, and you were afraid of the relationship ending in some way?
What is the paranoia?
Is the paranoia that she's going to go find some other guy?
Yeah, I... The paranoia...
Oh, she's going to be unfaithful to you, right?
Yeah, that's...
But you're being unfaithful to her by not telling her the truth about your estimation of her intelligence.
That is true, yes.
So it's projection, right?
I mean, if you're going to be in a relationship with someone and you're going to be lying to them, so to speak, withholding your true estimation of them, then you're automatically manipulating them, right?
And the relationship has a built-in fuse because sooner or later you're going to run out of lies.
You're going to run out of avoidance, right?
Yes, that is true.
So if you're fearful of her lack of faithfulness, my first guess would be that you're acting in some way that is unfaithful and you're projecting it onto her so that you don't have to give up your tasty pile of hotness.
Yeah, that's...
That sounds pretty accurate.
I was very paranoid that she would cheat on me all the time.
I'd feel the need to ask her details about if she had an encounter with another guy that I wasn't too sure about.
I would be questioning towards it and then Though I would ask her questions and she would answer them, and it seemed like she was being honest, but my distrust, it felt so deeply rooted that even the answers that she had given me were not enough to satisfy this paranoia.
Is this your picture on Skype?
Yeah, that's me.
Seriously, you're going to go with a seven?
Seriously?
Listen, I'm not gay.
You could pick me up.
Oh, man.
Oh, man.
No, look.
You got that baby face.
You got that tousled hair.
You got a little bit of that James Dean sneer going.
I mean, come on.
The hair's a little bit longer.
The hair's a lot longer now.
It's more of a...
Oh, stop it.
I don't care about the length of your hair.
That maybe puts you up a notch or two.
But if you're going to call yourself a seven, I didn't even want to ask where I am on that scale, but holy shit, right?
Now, is that a professionally done photo?
Yeah, that was my senior picture, so it's a little dated, but, you know, still me.
Right, right.
So you're a very good-looking guy.
All right.
Thanks, Steph.
I appreciate it.
Right, which means that I'm already annoyed because you gave yourself a seven, right?
Okay.
I mean, unless you've got like, I don't know, extra tits coming off your ears which you photoshopped out or there's, I don't know, a horn or a banana growing out of your head or like, I mean, I assume this is like you.
Well, I'm not the most...
Do you shave once a month here?
This is amazing.
I'm not the most physically, you know, strength, strong guy.
You know, I wish I could...
Have you seen a topless picture of Richard Pattinson?
Are you kidding me?
Totally R selected.
No.
Okay, you're a really good looking guy.
Mm-hmm.
Really good looking, right?
In my opinion.
And that's, you know, Mike, you would agree with that, right?
Yep, I'll back you up there.
I was wondering if that was actually you in the avatar as well.
Right.
Okay.
I mean, we're not offering a freeway.
I'm not saying we're denying it, but we're not offering it directly now.
We could talk about that, you know, sometime.
Yeah, yeah.
Our people will call your people.
So you're a really good looking guy, and you are dating women that you consider more attractive than you, at least sometimes, right?
Yeah.
You know, if I had said that previously, I think I take that back.
I would say at least the same level of attraction or maybe, I don't know, I'd say at least the same.
I don't know if I can honestly say I've seriously been in a relationship where it's been like the same or she was way hotter.
Dude, dude, dude.
I feel like I'm trying to give a blowjob to exhaust from a car here, right?
I mean, there's so much hot air, right?
Just give me, like, is there other relationships that you have to some degree or primarily based on looks?
Because it's hard to avoid the fact that you're a very good looking guy.
Women are going to be attracted to you, right?
Do you have a lot of trouble meeting and dating women?
I would say I have a hard time connecting with...
No, no.
Didn't say connecting.
Got to listen.
If this conversation doesn't get more efficient, it's going to drive me insane.
I didn't ask about connecting.
I said, do you have a trouble?
I wouldn't say I have any problems attracting women, not at all.
Right.
Now, why are they attracted to you?
What's attractive about you to them?
Uh, I, probably my, uh, you know, my physical appearance.
Your looks.
Okay.
And, um, is that satisfying to you?
Uh, not exactly.
Honestly, no.
It's tempting, right?
Because it's hard to say no, right?
To an attractive woman who wants to be with you, right?
Right.
But it's, it's not that satisfying to you on the one hand.
And on the other hand, If you commit to the looks thing, then there's other things that you don't have to develop, right?
Yeah.
You know, it's the old ugly girls are very funny, right?
Because they have to bring something else to the table if it's not going to be looks, right?
Yeah.
No, I completely agree with that.
I would love to be in a relationship where it's not fundamentally based on looks, but more with a quality of such a quality, something more deep than just simply physical appearance, something more long-term.
So why, if you want to not be judged or have a relationship based on physical attractiveness, do you put a young, hot picture of yourself on Skype?
I mean, uh, geez, that's a, uh, that's a good, you got me there.
Because vanity, come on, because vanity.
I was young and good looking, I get it.
It's vanity, right?
And I'm not saying you've got reason to be vain, it's just that you didn't earn it, right?
I mean, your looks are just accidental.
Yeah.
It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like you concentrated, you know, like Jim Carrey can do these amazing impersonations of other people, like Clint Eastwood and so on, and his face literally morphs into those, you know.
If Clint Eastwood were to die, you could just hire Jim Carrey to just would be, you know.
Yeah, I've seen this.
Yeah, and it's really, it's amazing.
It's one of his, like, under-remarked talents.
But it is a subsidy in the dating market to be very good-looking, right?
And like all subsidies, it comes with a benefit.
And to cost.
So what does it cost you to be good looking?
What does it cost me to be good looking?
I mean, when I was young and hot, I didn't have to be sane.
I didn't have to be stable.
Yeah, that describes me exactly.
I don't feel stable.
I don't feel exactly sane.
I just kind of wander.
I deliver pizzas for a living, and I just go and I deliver to a lot of...
Young and older.
Not too old, but, you know, like stay-at-home women.
And I find myself all the time just kind of wandering through.
And I get nice looks.
And very often I'll do anything about it just because it's kind of my job.
Sorry.
Okay.
Now, you had a pretty bad childhood, right?
Yes.
Okay.
So...
Adverse childhood experience score of 5.
You had no family love or support.
Neglect.
Not enough food, dirty clothes, no protection or medical treatment.
Parents divorced.
You lived with an alcoholic or drug user.
Then you had a household member who was depressed.
Mentally ill, or there was a suicide attempt.
Yes.
Not to my knowledge, there's no suicide attempts.
However, my...
No, these are or.
These are in the logic category.
Yes, sir.
Do you want to break those down just a little bit for me, if you don't mind?
Yeah, absolutely.
I can start with the depression.
Depression, it seems as though it's run rampant through our family.
My sister's been on antidepressants, thankfully.
She has been off of those.
She only took them for a short period of time, so hopefully they didn't mess her brain chemistry up too badly.
I think my mom has also been on antidepressants.
My dad also has been.
It seems like I'm the only one who hasn't at some point.
They've all been depressed for a very long time, it seems.
My dad He'll often stay, he works nights, so that gives him the opportunity to stay asleep for long periods of time in the day and kind of, I don't know, veg out and not socialize too much.
And what was the alcoholic or drug user?
That would be my mom.
Which?
She's used alcohol, I guess you could say, as her go-to means of support or whatever.
As her crutch, man.
She's been using alcohol for as long as I can remember.
My mom and my sister would fight and fight about little things.
My mom would be drunk and she would be very Attacking towards my sister, not towards me since I was younger, but I would get to watch it.
And then as I got older, then I was a very angry child.
In fact, my mom had to...
After one Christmas Eve, whenever she got really drunk, she...
She decided that she would rather have my dad take care of me and it would be a good idea for her to meet this guy from California and essentially just kind of go away for a while.
We live in...
By the way, I live at the time I lived...
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Don't want details.
Okay, well...
You don't want details going out.
Trust me.
Okay, thank you.
No problem.
I guess more vaguely, we lived in the Midwest, so California is a bit far.
So your mom abandoned you to go chase some guy?
Yeah, and I was like 13.
Well, of course, and that's the time when you're getting bigger and you're getting stronger and, you know, if you have a parent you don't respect, that's when things really begin to break down, right?
Yeah.
I honestly think that she was afraid of me because I was a very angry kid.
Yeah.
Well, she may have had good reason if she'd treated you badly.
Mm-hmm.
Blowback's a bitch, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So you went to stay with your dad, and how did that go?
Um...
Well, sorry, how old were you when they divorced?
Oh man, I think I was...
Geez, I should know this, but...
Roughly.
Maybe one or two.
Okay.
Now, had you had much contact with your dad before 13?
Yeah.
He would...
I always remember going to Chuck E. Cheese with my cool dad, you know?
And he would come and pick me up.
And sometimes, my sister's a lot older than I was, so before she went off to college, we would all do things together and kind of get away and have some fun time.
So I would see him quite often, maybe about, I don't know, maybe once a week, like maybe twice a week or something.
Right.
Okay, that's good.
So, why did you, did you share with your mom and dad?
Or once or twice a week, so you stayed with your mom.
And why didn't you share with your, staying with your dad?
I don't know.
I think...
I think my mom was pretty...
I talked to my dad about this recently, about just the family history of this period of everybody's lives.
And I think my mom just...
He made it sound like she would be a bit vicious if he had not...
Let me try to clarify here.
She would be very wanting full custody.
She wanted to have the kids.
She didn't want to share, it seemed.
That's the way I take it.
Was, because, I mean, if you're in the States, more custody is more money, right?
If you don't get sole custody, then you don't get as much in child support, right?
Yeah.
That, yeah, that's right.
Do you think that had a fact, was anything to do with it?
Possibly.
My mom's been on, that wouldn't be the first time my mom's been on welfare.
She's been on welfare for off and on a very long time.
Wow.
I love my mother, but I would really like to understand some of the decisions she has made over the course of my and her own lifetime.
What do you love about your mother?
We all got together for Christmas this year and I actually My dad actually—well, okay, let me not go too far off the topic here.
I'll answer your question.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, okay.
Whenever we got together for Christmas, my mom came, and I only see her now maybe two, three times a year.
She lives a little bit farther away from me now.
But how often do you talk on the phone?
Not very much lately.
How often?
Maybe twice a month, if that.
Once or twice a month?
Yeah.
Why so little if you love her?
You know, if I'm apart from my wife, we're talking twice a day at least, right?
I mean, if you love her.
Right.
That's true.
So what do you love about her?
What are her personal characteristics that evoke admiration, respect, love?
Well...
The relationship I have with her is different because though while she was...
Dude, dude, dude.
If you don't want to answer my question, just tell me you don't want to answer my question.
Because you're not answering my question.
Again, you don't have to.
I'm just asking questions.
You can tell me, get lost, I don't want to answer, but at least be honest about it because just not answering the question without telling me is kind of annoying.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Can you ask the question again?
You don't remember it?
I've asked it twice.
What do you love about your mother?
At times she can be very caring and she has a nice presence about her, but that's only whenever things are going right, I guess.
And how often, let's say over the past five years, has she been extra caring, I can't remember the exact phrase that you used, but how often?
You know, it's...
Yeah, we haven't...
I wouldn't say so, no.
I mean, we haven't very...
So, not over the last five years.
What about the last ten years?
Again, I'm an empiricist, so when people say there's this personal characteristic, then, you know, she's faithful to me while she sleeps.
You know what I mean?
Although, with those dreams about Raul and Juanita, but...
So, if...
Okay, let's say ten years.
years over the last 10 years how often has she displayed this extra loving stuff she uh over the last 10 years i mean honestly i would say our relationship's more based on fantasy honestly it wouldn't so can you give me a number before we go on to the description okay
over the last you said she's got she's sometimes she's at a time so occasionally she can be extra caring or super caring yeah so how many times over the last 10 years has she displayed that okay it's a long time right?
Yeah.
Pretty, I'd say consistently, but not with very much of deep concern.
I would say like on a superficial level, like very, very nice.
No, no.
Can't talk about superficial level.
Waiters are nice to me superficially.
I mean, it wasn't to do with fundamental love.
The deep caring that would evoke love.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
It's a very dodgy subject for me, so that's...
I apologize.
Dodgy is the word.
I apologize.
Dodgy is the word.
Your picture says grease is the word, but your behavior says dodgy is the word.
Anyway, go on.
Okay.
Yeah.
Jeez.
I would say not very much.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you gave me one characteristic, really, that is why you love her, but she doesn't manifest it.
And so, I mean, I just tell you, I mean, completely honest, I'm not trying to manipulate you in any way, Everett, but, you know, when I look at this adverse childhood experience score, no family love or support, neglect, not enough food, dirty clothes, no protection, medical treatment, parents divorced, live with an alcoholic, household member depressed, you were spanked.
Where is the love, right?
Where is the behavior here that I would say, wow, love, right?
Because my concern is that if you use the word, you get the people.
Like if you love your mom, then you will get your mom in the future, like in your relationships, right?
Whatever you love, that's your future.
Love describes the past usually and to some degree the present, but it defines the future.
It describes the past, but it defines the future.
What you say you love is your highest value.
And if you meet a woman who is a great woman, smart and together and ambitious or whatever it is, she's got her mojo going, she's got her drive going and so on, right?
Yes.
And she's not like your mom.
She's not depressed.
She's not on welfare and off welfare, right?
She's not put down your dad or whatever happens, right?
She's not neglectful.
And you say, I love you and I love your mother.
I love my mother, right?
Mm-hmm.
Which word are you using for very different behaviors?
Because if the woman is much more together than your mom and much better, she's got courage, she stands up for her beliefs, she is strong, she is deep, she is intuitive, she is instinctive, she is philosophical, whatever it is that is the virtues, courage and consistency, integrity and all that.
And your mom does not display an excess of these characteristics.
And in fact, I would say, based on what you've described, a deficiency in these characteristics, then you're saying about a rich man and a poor man, they're both rich.
That's going to be confusing to the rich man, although it's a nice subsidy to the poor man, right?
So if you're going to say that this is what you love, and you're not conscious of the deficiencies in that, then the word love When you apply it to people in the future, it's going to be uncomfortable for you.
Because a great woman is going to look at your mom and it's going to say, you love her?
And me?
Yeah.
But we're not really that similar.
And in fact, in many ways we're opposites.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I do.
That's why the word love, I focus on it a lot in conversations with people because I know it's more than prophetic.
Love is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What you say you love, you will live in forever.
Love is like a giant tunneling machine through impenetrable rock.
And it goes in the direction of what you say you love, and you have no choice but to follow it because you cannot walk through rock.
You must go where the tunnel is open, and love is the giant tunneling device that dictates where you go in life.
To use an analogy that may hit too close to home, you dial 1-800-PIZZA, you say you want love in it, that's what's going to show up at your door, right?
Oh, extra special sauce.
Hm.
Yeah.
So you don't have to answer this right now, but I'd really mull over.
I think we used to...
It's like when it comes to family, you know, of course, you can love your family.
I love my family enormously.
But we use this word love like we're just programmed by Hallmark cards.
Mother, love.
Yeah.
Mother, gotta love her.
Love her.
She's my mother.
Love her.
Because if I don't say that, terrible, ah, disaster, right?
Catastrophe.
Well...
I definitely don't love the things that she's done, which has been a lot.
And also the things that she hasn't done that's hurt me in the past.
Right.
And the degree to which she can acknowledge, accept, empathize with those mistakes and work to correct them is the degree to which there's potential.
But if that is not a topic of conversation, if you can't go to her and say, listen, here's my laundry list.
I got some problems here.
Well, that's not a great sign in my opinion either.
Yeah, she showed me a good sign of that whenever we had a conversation and she ended up apologizing to me.
In a very honest way that she was...
That basically she ran out.
She had ran out on everybody whenever she decided to go to Cali.
Is that conversation still alive or is it a one-time thing?
Because a lot of people will say sorry and then they're saying sorry to basically say this is never going to come up again.
But it's such a big thing in your life, like it was a big juncture in your life, and it's not a one-time conversation.
No, I agree.
It really is a big deal, and we haven't talked too much about it since then.
I mean, we've had a few phone conversations, it seems, about things related to it, like But it doesn't seem like it's fully there.
I don't feel like I'm fully there anymore.
For me, personally, I almost feel like I'm done with my family, even though my dad's helped.
This is about my mom, though.
I feel like I'm done with her shenanigans.
It was hard for me to accept the apology.
You know what I'm saying?
I guess it just makes me feel lost and wonder where to now from here.
After all, my mom was someone that was the only person I was surrounded by.
Well, not the only person, but my main care provider my whole life.
For at least half my life, I guess.
What the hell do I do now?
Well, I don't know about that.
We'll get to that in a sec.
But I just really wanted to remind you, Everett, never feel under any obligation to accept an apology.
An apology is not like this magic spell that allows people to walk through walls and ignore the past.
Sometimes an apology is just closure.
It doesn't mean that everything's fine.
Of course it can't, right?
And never, ever feel obligated to accept an apology.
Because anybody who's apologizing to you and expects you to accept it is manipulating you.
And I'm not talking about your mom, I don't know the conversation, but I just wanted to give this general principle out there.
You know the old thing where it's like, I'm sorry.
Well, I don't really feel that that's a genuine apology.
Well, hell with you then, right?
They're using the words, I'm sorry, to control your response.
And if they don't get the response they want, then they're like some immature person with one of those old CRT TVs that's thumping on the top.
I'm going to keep saying I'm sorry until I get what I want.
A genuine apology is exploratory, and it is never a commandment for the other person to accept it.
Yeah, that sounds a little bit like the faith that we've been all brought up in with forgiveness.
Yeah.
Now, you don't necessarily, you know, if you feel that the apology is real and hold on to it for no reason, of course, right?
Be authentic.
Be honest.
Yeah.
But, you know, and people have apologized to me throughout my life and some of them have been great apologies and some of them have been what I call BNAPs, bullshit non-apologies.
I'm sorry you were upset.
I'm sorry you got offended.
Yeah.
I'm sorry that you got hurt somehow.
I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry that you're just so crazy.
I don't know.
I'm not saying this is your mom.
I'm just saying this is what's happened to me.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm like, I'm sorry, I don't accept an apology that's an insult.
Now you've got to apologize for your apology.
This is not heading in the right direction.
Yeah.
You've insulted me by apologizing to me, by calling me crazy and hypersensitive.
I don't think the word apology means the same thing to both of us.
Because if you insult someone by apologizing, now you just have even more to apologize for.
And this is not going in any sustainable direction.
So I just really wanted to point out it is never obligated upon the recipient of the apology to accept the apology.
That's the job.
Of the person who is proposing the apology.
You know, we'd never say, well, you know, every guy who asks a woman out on a date, the woman has to say yes, because he asked her out.
She has to say yes.
Anyone you ask for a job has to hire you.
It's like, no, you're just, you're proposing, can we go out on a date?
You're proposing, will you hire me?
And somebody's proposing, will you accept my apology?
They don't get to demand That you accept their apology.
They don't get to insist it and they sure as hell don't get to be offended if you don't.
I mean, they can be, but it just means they're kind of dicks, right?
Would you like to go out with me, Sophie?
I can't really this weekend.
Well, to hell with you!
Okay, now I know why she's not going out with him.
Because, you know, he's being a dick about it.
So I just, I don't want to get into the details of your mom's apology.
I just want to put that forward as a principle.
An apology, you know when an apology works, when an apology hits.
Because it releases all of this tension.
It releases this alienation.
It solves problems.
It melts walls down that seemed insurmountable when a genuine apology has occurred.
It's a long-term conversation.
The longer ago the hurt and the deeper the hurt.
It can be a multi-week, multi-month conversation that you have to keep returning to.
If this was, you know, when you were 13 and it really hurt you, yeah, that's a pivotal moment in your life.
That's not a one-time thing and everything's hunky-dory.
I mean, anyway, so I just really wanted to point that out.
Let me just give you the scare scenario, Everett, if you don't mind.
Okay, go ahead.
Okay.
You are working as a pizza delivery man.
Now, pizza's got to get from place to place.
You're a young guy.
I'm not dissing the gig, right?
Yeah.
What's going to happen over time?
What about when you're 25?
What's your plan?
Yeah, that scares the shit out of me.
Good, okay.
I'm glad it does, because if it didn't, I wouldn't know what to say, right?
You've done a good job.
And this is one of the things that looks is costing you, right?
So if you weren't good-looking and you were a pizza delivery guy, would you be able to date these women you're dating?
No, not at all.
No, of course not, right?
So it's your looks that is giving you the subsidy of shallow female attention of shallow females, right?
Because a woman can be good-looking and deep, But then she's not dating a hot mess like you.
Not that you have to stay a mess, right?
But you come from a dysfunctional family history.
You still have some ambivalence about it.
You know, like, I love them.
I'm done with them.
You know, that's a little confusing to people, you know, listening to it from the outside.
So you've got some stuff to work through.
And, you know, you're in therapy now, which I think is fantastic.
Hugely appreciate that and hugely respect the choice in doing that.
I hope you keep with it.
Yeah, just to touch on the therapy thing, I decided that I would...
I'm trying to find a new therapist, so I don't know exactly...
I want to find a good therapist, and I don't know exactly where I can find one.
I mean...
I don't either, but I think this podcast is 1939.
It was a pre-war podcast.
I've got a podcast called How to Find a Great Therapist, which is just my opinions.
There's no objective, right?
It's just my thoughts on it.
I'll have to definitely check that out.
Yeah, check it out.
But my concern is that because you're getting action based on looks, it's carving out...
The necessary ambition.
Like, if you weren't a good-looking guy, you'd have to start doing other things, right?
To get female attention.
You'd have to develop something in terms of, I don't know, sense of humor or money or whatever it is, right?
I mean, something that would...
Or it doesn't have to be anything to do with money or sense of humor.
Maybe you'd become a finger painter of excellent capacity or whatever it is, right?
Yeah.
Stand-up comedian.
Who knows, right?
But...
The looks is going to be a subsidy for you, and the looks are going to fade, right?
And you don't want to be a 30-year-old pizza delivery guy who's got wrinkles, right?
Because then you've got nothing, right?
Because then the hot girls aren't going to go for you.
Because you're getting older and the smart girls aren't going to go for you because you're a pizza delivery guy and you're 30, right?
Yeah, but I would like to hopefully be doing something.
I've always dreamed of being a musician for a very long time.
It would be nice to be able to do something like that as opposed to just shitty pizza delivery for the rest of my life.
Why can't you do something like that?
Yeah.
I feel depressed.
every day it's hard for me to get out of bed lately.
I've played music for a very long time and so when I love music.
I can honestly say that I do love music.
I know I love that.
But you're not telling me why you're not doing it?
Yeah.
That's because I feel...
It's like...
I don't feel like I have to drive to.
So maybe that's...
No, but...
You think it's just going to happen to you?
Like you're going to wake up one day with the tune for yesterday going around in your head with some new thing, right?
I mean, you have to...
You know, this can be like...
Okay, today I'm going to tune my guitar or whatever the hell you play, right?
And tomorrow...
I'm gonna play five chords and then the day after I'm gonna learn a new song and the day after that I'm gonna learn two like it's that's just you gotta just will that stuff, right?
Like can I tell you something?
Uh-huh.
I did not want to do a show tonight.
Didn't want to do it.
Didn't want to do it.
I'll tell you why because I had like a couple of nights not sleeping because I was basically thrown backwards into the Dantean hell of my childhood by the Netflix series Making a Murderer, which I just put a video out about that today.
So I hadn't slept for like three days, barely, right?
Now for me, when I don't sleep for a while, I get this excellent condition.
Oh, God help me.
What happens is I then sleep a lot and I wake up with a headache.
Because, you know, I've been tired.
And so because I've been tired and I finally discharge whatever is keeping me awake, I then crash.
And I don't know if I sleep and like some weird corkscrew handstand or something, but I just wake up.
And I wake up, you know, because I'm over, I guess I'll be 50 this year, which means, you know, sleeping through the night is a joyful but rare occurrence, right?
And so in the morning, I woke up this morning and I was like, oh, you know, Day planned with the family and we had a lot of fun but I woke up and I'm like, I got a bit of a headache.
Now sometimes when you doze a little in the morning your headache goes away and sometimes it doesn't, right?
And so today I had a headache.
And it's rare.
I get headaches like, I don't know, two or three times a year.
It's rare.
But, you know, they happen.
And this wasn't a headache like, oh, I'll just massage.
It was just one of these, like, I'm breathing.
And I can't stop breathing.
And as long as I breathe, I have a headache.
And then we had a family day of fun in the snow.
Excellent.
It's cold.
And really, really bright.
And it's slipping.
And, you know, and so anyway, I gritted my teeth, went out, had a lot of fun, came back, and I was like, oh, God.
Which Nordic god do I have to blow to get out of doing a show tonight?
You know, I didn't really want to do it.
Didn't really want to do it.
And I thought, okay, well, at least I won't do video.
Because, you know, then I can sort of put my head between my legs and keep talking or whatever, right?
Walk around, you know.
But Mike pointed out, you know, it's a good show to do video for for a variety of reasons.
I'm like, fine, I'll do video, right?
So, you know, there's times, and usually I really enjoy the shows, but like everyone, there's times when You don't want to do it.
Do you know what you do?
You just do it.
Just do it.
And, you know, that's an annoying three-syllable thing, which depression is a big complex thing and so on.
I don't mean, oh, just pull your socks up and, you know, grab the gusto and carp the fish or whatever the hell it is, right?
And...
But there is a certain amount of you just gotta will stuff, right?
You just gotta will it.
It's not gonna happen to you, right?
Because waiting for it to happen to you, I think, slides you further down.
It's not working, right?
It's not like you're getting happy or waiting for some motivation to hit you, right?
No.
You just gotta do stuff because you're pissed off at being lazy.
You're a young guy with your life ahead of you.
You've got your health.
You've got your looks.
You've gotta just start willing some stuff.
Make it happen.
You know, Freddie Mercury, the guy I go to when I'm in trouble mentally, right?
So Freddie Mercury, studying art in London, I think, in the 60s.
And I think two of the, was it Roger Taylor, the drummer, and Brian May, the guitarist, were in a band.
It wasn't Queen yet, I don't think.
And Freddie Mercury, fantastic singer, incredible frontman, incredible songwriter, you name it, right?
Do you know how he got into the band?
He was a roadie.
Wow.
They're like, no, we don't need a singer.
Brian May's got that soft, vaguely gay falsetto, which sounds really bad when he's singing with Pavarotti.
But anyway, we got a singer.
Anyway, they had this other guy who was a singer.
And he's like, okay, you don't need me.
You don't need a pianist because you don't do that.
Can I help you move some amps?
And they're like, yeah, if you want to be a roadie, fine.
We're not going to pay you.
Right?
He's like, he's their roadie.
He's just helping them set up shit, right?
Which is like, I don't know.
It's having Rembrandt paint your nails.
Yeah.
And he's just, but he's just, he's showing up, right?
Woody Allen, okay.
Unsavory human being to say the least, but he said 90% of success is just showing up.
It's true.
You've just got to...
And now, eventually, he's like...
They, you know, heard him sing or whatever and, you know, let him try out and, you know, the other...
So he ended up seeing a singer and they were a cover band, right?
And Freddie Mercury said...
Okay, fine.
We're a cover band.
It's good practice, but we have got to start writing our own material or we'll never make a goddamn thing of ourselves in this business, right?
Now, this band, every single one of them wrote a number one hit.
Like, it wasn't like Lennon and McCartney where every now and then you get coughed up while my guitar gently weeps by George Harrison or Octopus's Garden by Ringo Starr, vying as he always was for the worst conceivable husband in the history of the Western world, but...
He's like, we got to write our own stuff.
And then they start to write Queen, they write Queen 2, they get nowhere.
And like for 10 years, he's living in a little room with mold on the wall.
You know, this living god of rock stardom.
They spend 10 years going to play gigs, putting out albums, getting, you know, it took them a month to record Queen 2, an unbelievable album.
You know, March of the Black Queen, just look it up and listen to it, put the headphones on.
I mean...
The fertility, the creative fertility in that song, this is amazing.
Anyway, and they're just getting ripped off.
You know, the band, like, they're selling albums.
Like, even after Killer Queen, like, the bug hits them, Top of the Pops, when I first saw them when I was a kid.
They're broke.
They're like, how the hell can we be selling albums and be broke?
And it turns out, apparently, their manager was just ripping them off completely.
And Freddie wrote a very ferocious song about him called Death on Two Legs, about their manager.
And then they said, you know, we're smart guys.
We'll just be our own managers.
Well, they got some other manager.
But this is like 10, 12, 14 years after...
Freddie Mercury is setting up their amp, their mic stand and stuff, and they're still broke.
And the critics always hated them, always wrote negatively of them.
Who is this prat with his black nails, you know?
And it was a tough, hard, long slog.
And then eventually they end up playing Rio to 300,000 people and they end up taking the complete crown of rock performances at Live Aid, right?
So...
He was willing to set up their mics, whatever it takes.
He was willing to set up their mic stands and plug in their amps and all that and he knew what he could do.
And they had to go in literally at three o'clock in the morning because that's the only studio time they could afford because of course the prices are less in the off hours.
They're in at three o'clock in the morning, Freddie Mercury is writing Bohemian Rhapsody.
And Sid Vicious of the Sax Pistols sticks his head in the door and says, Oi, what are you lot doing?
Freddie Mercury pops his head over the piano and says, Oh, hello, Mr.
Ferocious.
Yes, we're bringing opera to the masses.
I just love the way he calls Sid Vicious, Mr.
Ferocious.
He was a funny bastard, I tell you.
He's rather eloquent.
Yeah, I think so.
So...
It's just the willpower.
Look, depression is a big deal and I'm glad you're doing therapy.
And please, you know, I don't want you to feel like worse because I'm saying, well, just go do it like Freddie did.
You know, but I guess, but I'm telling you, there's times...
Mike, chime in here, man.
How much did I struggle with this making the murderous stuff?
God, it was horrible.
Yeah, this one was bad.
70-some slides you put together on this topic?
Oh yeah, like days and nights of research, 70 slides put together, half recordings, half fails, and oh my god, it was horrible.
It was horrible.
It's one of the ones that took you like an hour just to get started on the first take?
Oh yeah, yeah, like after two hours in the studio I've got 28 minutes of material, which for reading is really, really bad, right?
I mean, oh god, it'll never see the light of the day, probably, but That's...
You know, I've said this before too, for Killer Queen, Brian May spent three weeks in the studio for like 38 seconds of a guitar solo.
Three weeks, one of the world's greatest guitarists, just to get it right.
Three weeks for one guitar solo.
Madness.
So, it's tough, it's difficult, it's horrible, and...
The only people who succeed are the people who don't let that stop it.
Now, depression is a big deal, but willpower is part of your mechanism.
Everett, willpower is part of your mechanism.
And every time you fail to do something that you know you kind of need to do, you strengthen the next failure.
And you've got to push back before it becomes the point of no return.
I'm not saying that's tomorrow.
You're a young guy.
But if you want to be a musician...
You know what you have to do.
This is not brain surgery.
You've got to play music, you've got to find a band, or you've got to go to a coffee shop and just play or whatever.
And at some point, I believe, if you want to really make it in the music business and not be a studio musician, you've got to start writing music.
I'm not telling you anything you don't know, right?
The people who make it to the very pinnacle of their profession, they're not weird and mysteriously, strangely talented.
There certainly is some aspect of that, but it's not the only thing.
They just showed up at 2 o'clock in the morning when they were tired to record an album.
Or they just wrote songs.
And they wrote songs and were willing to put their songs out there knowing that they were going to get insulted and scorned and called talentless and hacks and crazy and derivative.
Because the moment you do anything in this world, everybody lines up to scream you down because if you succeed, you open up a possibility for them being winners.
And if they don't take it, they have to label themselves losers.
Right?
Right.
So many people in the world attack anyone who's doing anything.
Yeah.
Because if I can do it, so can they.
And if I succeed, then they become failures for not doing what I did.
Whatever it is, doesn't have to be what I'm doing, but the methodology, just going out and doing it and doing it and doing it against all opposition, against all odds.
You create losers by succeeding and they hate you for it because if nobody succeeds, They don't feel like losers, right?
This is how derivative their personalities are, how much they are like the shadows, right?
And if the tree falls, the shadow moves involuntarily.
And this is why people hate success, because they are at these crossroads like you are, like you are right now today.
Yeah, that brings me back.
And in your therapy and in your future, you're at these crossroads.
That brings me back to school, actually, because everybody always got gold medals, everyone.
Yeah.
You're that generation, right?
Everybody gets the medal because women don't like conflict and women don't like excellence and socialists don't like differences, right?
Not at all, no.
Right.
Yeah, I really do.
I agree with everything you're saying.
I guess I see a main obstacle in the way of a lot of things that I want to do.
I feel like there's this big obstacle of, well, I can't make any friends and I can't hold a steady long-term relationship with anybody, it seems.
It's just scary as hell to me.
I often wonder if I can even connect with someone on a real level that is not fake.
I guess that's where I'm coming from.
Do you think that we're doing this tonight in this conversation?
I think so, yeah.
So you can.
Problem solved!
Can I hit this high note?
Hey, let me just play you back this recording.
Yes, you can.
It's not Elton John Live in 1974 doing Goodbye Yellow Big Road, but it's a pretty high note, so you can do it, right?
So that's done and dusted.
You can do it, right?
You just need to...
Get the people around you can do it with consistently.
But when it comes to artistic pursuits in particular, and this is not just programming or anything, you do not need to rely on other people to get started.
If you want to be a musician, you play your music.
Whether it's alone, in a coffee shop, recording, playing back, listening to it, you know, you can get these remote guitar lessons or music lessons.
You can get them online and so on.
There's apps for all that shit.
But you don't need anyone.
You don't need anyone.
Yeah, you're right.
To get started, right?
Now, of course, and I'll tell you this, if you can write catchy songs or if you can make people buy tickets or encourage people or motivate people to buy tickets to come and see you, you won't be short of people who want to work with you, right?
Mm-hmm, yeah.
I guess I would hope that I wouldn't be short of people who would like to connect with me on a deeper level.
Well, for that, you have to stop connecting with people on a shallow level.
This is not something that...
Because you're an adult now.
When you were a kid, you deserved, of course, to...
Be connected with on a deeper level.
But now that you're an adult, that ship has sailed.
You can't ever get that back as a kid.
And you can't ask people to treat you as if you're a kid because then they're not connecting with you as equals and it won't be on a deeper level because they're not your parents, right?
And it should have happened when you were young, but it didn't.
I'm sorry.
But part of the grieving is accepting that it's never going to happen and finding some other way to get things done.
Now, the way your way of getting things done right now is to be pretty.
Yeah.
Which is a blessing and a curse.
It's pretty easy to get a job at Papa John's whenever everybody else looks like a greaseball.
Right.
And it's easy because you're young and handsome to pick up girls.
And yeah, it's great.
And it's deadly.
It's deadly.
Yeah.
Because having a conspicuous ability like looks and picking up women allows you to defer a whole bunch of things because you can get a bunch of stuff done.
But if you're picking...
Look, where you are right now, Everett, you can only pick women based on looks.
Because you as yet, and this is why therapy is so important, I think conversations like this are helpful, you have to develop...
Enough personal resources that you can bring something that's deeper to someone, right?
Yeah.
I guess I wonder...
Okay, yeah.
I agree with that.
But to do that, you've got to stop dating these shallow women who are only dating you because of your looks.
Right.
That's your crutch, your looks, your crutch.
That gets girls for you, but it gets their own girls for you because you're lonely.
Yeah.
Get the sense of isolation, like interstellar gap.
Yeah, yeah.
And as long as you're chasing cheekbones, you never get to hold anyone's heart, right?
I would definitely like to learn not to chase that and chase something much better.
And you will, I think, through therapy, you will develop the kind of resources where you can look at a pretty woman Like you look at a beautiful painting.
It doesn't mean you have to have it.
You can appreciate it.
It doesn't mean that you've got to throw away months of your life in pursuit of something that's never going to materialize if she's not a deep or smart person.
So you can, you know, nobody's saying that you can't appreciate an attractive woman.
Of course you can.
Physically pretty woman, no.
Totally fine.
Totally fine.
You know, I can look at a Lamborghini, doesn't mean I've got to drive it into a ditch.
Wow, that's a cool car.
Do you want it?
Nope.
Too high maintenance.
But when you develop more resources within yourself, and that usually has to do with, you know, getting closer about things in the past and so on, then you will have the depth to transcend your current position or at least accentuate it with some other pursuit like music where you can let your light shine.
Yeah.
But right now, I don't know that you feel that you have more to offer than looks and so you go to the looks because of that deficiency and you think it's feeding you but it's eating you because the more you go to looks the less you develop that which you would develop in the absence of looks.
It's like if you can't get to sleep without sleeping pills and you keep taking sleeping pills then you're not learning healthy sleep habits to get to sleep in a more healthy way, right?
And so it becomes an addiction, I think.
That's how it was.
Well, yeah, I get that.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I mean, you got a nice head of hair when I started.
I had a nice head of hair when I was younger, too.
I started losing my hair.
I'm like, this is a disaster.
Oh, no.
I'm going to have to become stable.
I mean, it's like, but it was great.
Oh, it's the best thing ever.
The best thing ever.
You know, that which we...
Hate and fear can be the...
Can't always get what you want.
As the song says, sometimes you get what you need.
Listen, I've got to move on to the last caller, if that's all right with you, but I really appreciate the call.
I hope you'll stay in touch, and I hope you'll listen to that show about finding a great therapist.
FDRpodcast.com.
Anyone, if I got the number wrong, you can go and find it.
Just look for...
Okay.
Therapist in the title or whatever.
It's not some sort of be-all or end-all.
It's just my thoughts about it.
But you've got a lot to offer the world, man.
If you're listening to this show and you're interested in self-knowledge, you go into therapy, you will have a lot over time to offer the world.
Doesn't mean that you've got to have any problem with your looks.
It's like inherited money.
It doesn't mean you've got to go hand it to a homeless guy.
But I think you'll know how to put it in its proper perspective and use it rather than at the moment I think it's using you.
Well, I appreciate it, Stefan, and I'd like to say that I also just appreciate the work that you've done, and I will be looking forward to checking that podcast out about the therapy.
Thanks, Everett.
I appreciate that, and stay in touch.
All right, thanks, Stefan.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
All right, we have to call Sam via phone, because he kept dropping.
Hello?
Hi, I'd like to order a pepperoni pizza.
Hello!
How's it going?
Hello!
I'm on a cruise ship.
Do you deliver?
Sorry about before.
No problem, Sam.
Let me just read your question real quick.
Sam wrote in and said, I'm done with the Affordable Care Act.
I am not renewing and will accept the tax penalty when I file my 2016 taxes, which will be at least $625.
My reasoning is that instead of paying $2,500 a year for something that may or may not happen, why not pay the penalty, sock the $150 a month assurance away in my savings account for when I need health care?
I would rather be in control of my money and control of my life, to whatever degree, and to give the proverbial middle finger to the state while handing over my tax penalty with my free hand.
What do you think of the Affordable Care Act and people like myself who are making the decision to forego insurance coverage due to the cost?
Well, is it illegal to not get the insurance?
Well, it's...
It's kind of hard because it's...
The reason I ask is I don't want to talk about Convincing people to break the law, right?
Because that's not a good scenario for a philosopher or anyone for that matter.
So if it's like in Canada, you can put money into a retirement savings plan, you get tax breaks for it.
Now, it's not illegal if you don't.
So I don't know if this is like you get taxed as a result.
I don't know if it's considered to be a punitive thing because it's illegal.
So I don't want to, you know, get into a discussion about, yeah, go break the law.
That's a great idea.
You know, that's not a good scenario for me or anyone really.
Right.
No, it's here in the States, if you do not, at the very least, go through the insurance marketplace, quote-unquote marketplace, that is through the government, you will, come your tax time, when you pay your taxes, you will be fined, I believe it's 2% of your taxes, or 2% of your income, rather.
But you don't get a record for it.
It's like, okay, okay, got it.
Yeah, so you pay...
Actually, my number was wrong in my original question.
It's actually more than that, like $695.
That will be in 2016 when I file my 2016 taxes.
So they will take out 2% or like a concrete absolute amount.
It's kind of strange.
But essentially, with my job now, I get $150 stipend per month for insurance.
And insurance is just...
It's double that.
It's more than double that, actually.
So I figured, why not just put away the money into basically an HSA and then just pay the penalty when that comes around.
I know this is kind of a weird question for what you're usually talking about, but I figured it kind of ties into economy and kind of anarchism to a degree and just So it's not necessarily against the law.
Sorry to interrupt, but there's two ways to sort of look at your question, right?
I mean, so one is to gamble, right?
Right.
Because you're basically saying, well, I'm not going to buy fire insurance because the odds of my house burning down are very low, right?
Right.
Okay.
Now, if your house doesn't burn down, Great decision, right?
If your house does burn down, bad decision, right?
So philosophy can't tell you that, right?
Because that's future variables, which are, of course, unpredictable.
I mean, if you could predict it, there'd be no such thing as insurance, right?
Insurance could happen, probably won't, really bad if it does, right?
So if you don't buy health insurance and you get leukemia, well, that's a big problem, right?
Right.
If you don't buy health insurance, or if you do buy health insurance and you never get sick, bad decision, right?
So philosophy can't tell you that.
That's a personal decision based upon the level of comfort, risk, and reward that you want to have.
Right.
So from that standpoint, I can't tell you.
If you were saying to me, like if you're just calling up and saying, Steph, should I buy health insurance in some free market?
I'd be like, I don't know, it's cost and benefits, right?
It's your choice, right?
Yeah.
Now, as to giving the middle finger to the state, that's a different matter.
Okay.
Well, I don't know how paying a tax...
I don't know how giving more money to the government than to health insurance companies is screwing the government.
Do you know what I mean?
Right.
And that was kind of the debacle that was happening in my mind when I was originally posing the question, is that...
While I'm, on the one hand, wanting to say screw you to the government, I'm, in effect, giving them money at the same time.
It's just a hard...
Screw you, mafia!
Here's a cake!
I don't know that that works, right?
If you want to move out of the country, I don't know.
I mean, America seems to chase you down.
You know, America is like a tax stalker.
Like, no matter where you go, there they are.
But, yeah, so I don't know that you can make any sort of big political statement by giving $700 to the government, right?
Right, and actually, according to my income, they most likely...
It's anecdotal, but I've heard from other people that if you make a certain amount, you're a small fry.
They're not going to try to, you know, strong on you.
But knowing my luck, they probably will.
I've seen videos in the past of yours about Universal healthcare and just the Affordable Care Act and all this sort of thing.
I just wanted to get kind of your take on a more specific kind of situation where it's the free market and the government and what is exactly going for it.
I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I do know that with the government coming in and giving the market a hard time, the market has been forced to raise their prices because From what I've gathered, the government kind of screwed them out of a lot of money, and there's been this whole process of kind of the government coming in and getting its fingers into the market's business.
If you know more about this, please...
Yeah, and so, I mean, I've read an article by Dr.
Roderick Long, about the problem 100 years ago was healthcare was too cheap.
It's hard to believe in America.
You could get healthcare for like the modern equivalent, and you could get health insurance for the modern equivalent of 100 or 200 bucks a year.
And so healthcare was too cheap, and the doctors were upset because there were all these midwives and other practitioners who were providing healthcare, and the doctors didn't feel like they were making enough money, so they got the government together.
They ginned up the population with various fears and anxieties, and they ended up licensing doctors, and then they drove everyone out of the profession, started jacking up their rates.
Then they restricted the number of people coming into the medical field by restricting the number of licenses provided by the universities, and then after the Second World War, Congress gave them the exclusive right of writing prescriptions, So you had to go to a doctor in order to get obvious medicine that you need.
Hey, it's my fourth UTI. I don't know what I might take.
It might be a leech.
It might be radiation therapy.
I know, of course, it's by antibiotics and you know that, but you still have to go to the doctor, right?
And so all of this started driving up the price of health care and Then what happened, of course, was in the Second World War, you weren't allowed to give raises to people.
So people said, okay, what are you paying the most for?
Healthcare, okay, we'll make that part of your salary.
So, I mean, your company doesn't provide your car insurance.
Why the hell would it provide your health insurance?
Because that's the way the system was set up.
And so you've got this progressive disconnect between consumers and price.
And even that choked along fairly well.
And before Obamacare, more than 80% of Americans were really happy with their health care.
So it wasn't like there was this big problem that needed to be fixed.
Except there are stupid people who make bad health decisions and don't buy insurance.
And then they're screwed.
Right?
So, I mean, what happened then was, and this is long before Obamacare, people who had not bought health insurance, who got sick, panicked.
And I get it.
I totally get it.
I really...
I mean, it's your life.
You know, you didn't buy any health insurance.
You don't have any money.
You get some cancer that's very expensive to treat.
You know, ding dong, welcome to your hole in the ground, right?
And people, it's heartbreaking.
You have pictures of these people, they've got kids.
And, you know, now in the past, that heartbreakingness used to be expressed in forms of charity and so on, but...
These people, they don't like going to charity because charity is going to look at them funny, right?
Like single moms who had to go to charity before the welfare state, the charity would be pretty down on them because they'd done really stupid stuff by having kids outside of wedlock and all that kind of stuff, right?
Right.
And so people had made a lot of really bad health decisions and not all bad health decisions, like 30% of healthcare problems like my cancer...
Just bad luck.
It's not lifestyle related.
I mean, I've been working out since I was 18 and maintain my same weight and eat well and all that.
So some of it's just bad luck.
So what happened was the government said, okay, well, you can't deny people for pre-existing conditions, right?
Whoa!
Whoa!
How to completely destroy the fundamental principle of insurance, right?
Well, I can't deny your request for fire insurance just because your house is currently on fire.
Yes, you can!
Otherwise, there's no such thing as insurance in any way whatsoever.
And of course, because the government was enforcing insurance, it began to, it did two things.
It prevented competition across state lines, which Donald Trump wants to Re-establish.
So you get sole providers, oh, socialists, they're so terrified of monopolies that they're going to prevent companies from competing across state lines.
I mean, they're ridiculous, right?
That's a government monopoly, but it doesn't fit into the socialist stereotype, so it doesn't exist, right?
And so everybody who had an obscure ailment wanted to get the free rider provision put into everyone else's plans, right?
So, you know, some 70-year-old couple in Des Moines now has to pay for infertility treatments.
Through their insurance plan.
Well, they're 70.
I think that's kind of baked into the ancient gizzards that there's infertility, right?
And so everyone started piling their own obscure ailments onto general insurance because they didn't want to have to pay the insurance for their own strange ailment because it'd be very expensive.
So they got it on everyone else's and that drove the price up.
And then what happened is younger people started saying, you sound young.
You put yourself in this demographic.
You start looking at this and saying, well, why the hell am I paying for fertility treatments when I'm 19, right?
I mean...
If I check the fact that I can't bend my bedsheets, I think I'm fertile.
That's a big problem, right?
Why am I paying for lupus while contracted in Campuchia?
So young people looked at this and said, look, this doesn't make any sense for me at all.
Because young people should only be paying maybe $200 a year in insurance.
And if it was that much, if it was less than a dollar a day, young people would.
So as the government began to make insurance more and more expensive, by not allowing competition, and by setting it up so that you waited until you got sick before buying insurance, like, oh, it's so retarded.
How could you even imagine, right?
Yeah.
And so health insurance began to get more expensive.
And then you got this massive flood, you know, tens of millions of illegal immigrants coming into the country.
They all go to the emergency ward, which is the most expensive way to treat people that you could conceive of.
And so prevention is gone, and you're basically just getting a whole bunch of emergency cures, plus then you get the mental health industry coming in with all their crazy meds that are all funded, and then you've got the governments paying people to put their kids on meds that destroy, in my opinion, destroy their brains, these psychotropics and so on.
All of this costs money.
And women, of course, you can't discriminate on the basis of gender.
Yes, you can, because women use a lot more Healthcare dollars than men do.
Because women's plumbing is deep and mysterious and labyrinthine.
You know, a man is a tube, a woman is like some convoluted lower intestine map of the London subway system in there.
I don't know what the hell is going on, but sometimes strange stuff comes out.
Babies and other things I dare not name.
And so...
And so everything just got ridiculously more and more expensive, which meant healthy people didn't want to have anything to do with the system for the same reason that people with blood in their veins don't want to go to a vampire convention.
It's only going to end well for the vampires for a short period of time until they run out of victims and they're going to try eating each other.
And so young people didn't want to be on the system.
Guys didn't want to be on the system of any age because this is what you're saying.
It makes no economic sense.
And so the whole insurance system was starting to break down, but rather than turn to the free market and let things fix themselves, if you liberalize things, more controls lead to more controls, lead to more controls, lead to more controls.
And socialized, single-payer government, Canadian-style healthcare has been the goal of the Democrats for 30 to 40 years.
And they're very open.
Obamacare is not designed to solve the problem.
It's supposed to break the insurance companies so that they can get to government healthcare.
That's what it's for.
That's what it's for.
It's got nothing to do with saving money, it's a way of buying votes from sick people, and it's a way of destroying the last remnants of the free market in the American healthcare system so that they can get the joyful Canadian-style healthcare system, in which case I don't know where the hell I'm gonna go when my cancer comes back, because I don't know if where I went last time will still be around.
So, you're making a perfectly rational economic decision and legality is another matter.
The economic decision is like, why the hell don't I just save my money?
Right.
And pay for what the hell I need.
And of course, the other thing too is that healthcare insurance is covering like doctor's visits.
What the hell is that?
That's not insurance.
You know you've got to go to the doctor.
If you've got any brains, you go to the doctor.
Go get a checkup.
Go get some blood work done.
Solve problems before they come along.
It's like getting car insurance for oil changes.
I know I need insurance for gas for my car.
No, you don't.
Because you know you're going to have to buy it.
You know, the guy promised Obama, Mr.
Jug-eared beanpole lie spitter himself.
He said, oh, you're going to save thousands of dollars.
You can keep your doctor.
They knew all this stuff was lies to begin with.
It's impossible for government laws to suddenly make everything cheaper.
Because if it was possible to make it cheaper, the free market would have done it already.
The average price of healthcare premiums under Obamacare will rise by an average of 12.5% nationally in 2016.
Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, and Hawaii will have the biggest average premium increases, all of more than 30%.
And we live in such collective amnesia that this is not outrageous to people, that they were promised lower premiums, and instead they're getting higher premiums, higher deductibles, and worse coverage.
I mean, this is just the hopelessness when it comes to people dealing with the state that they're just not up in arms about.
This is life and death.
This is much, much worse than something like welfare.
People are going to die from this.
Sorry, go ahead.
I was just going to add on to what you had mentioned earlier about getting votes from sick people and all this sort of thing.
It's actually funny how my own mind, I noticed how my own mind was being changed Or being almost persuaded that if...
I was so upset with what I was paying now that I was getting to the mindset of, why don't we just have, you know, an NHS, you know, like Britain or someplace like this, where I was getting almost to the other end of the spectrum.
It's just funny how the manipulation happens when it comes to this stuff.
And, like, it's...
There's...
I'm definitely not saving money if I'm paying into the system.
I would be paying $300 a month.
I'm thin.
I don't smoke.
I hardly ever drink besides a glass of wine in my hand right now.
I'm not out in the community getting diseases and all this bullshit.
It just doesn't make any sense, especially at my salary.
I'm fortunate to be living where I am.
It's a cheap area to live in, but it's just not feasible to pay into this system, especially after...
And I will admit, in 2008, I was a voter for Obama on this very, very issue.
That was the biggest point that I wanted to see happen in my naive 18-year-old mind.
Well, you were fresh out of, you know, 13 years of government school, right?
I mean, what the hell are you supposed to know, right?
And everything was just, you get whipped up into this emotional, just this huge emotional cloud of everybody kind of banding together and everything is hope and change.
And I didn't vote for him again.
It's just been one letdown after the next.
And Yeah, so here I am.
I don't know what to do.
Well, I do know what to do, to a degree, but all I can do is continue how I am and save my money.
I've looked into this, and I've looked into other people trying to do it this way, and very few are doing it.
Well, and, you know, other countries who have this universal health care...
Well, I mean, there's some differences, right?
An ethnically homogenous population tends to have fewer things like inbreeding, cousin marriage, birth defects, so it's cheaper.
A higher IQ population It's cheaper in terms of healthcare because higher IQ people are thinner, they're more careful, they eat better, they take better care of their health, they live longer.
So, you know, it's one thing to go to Norway and say, well, their healthcare is relatively cheap.
Well, okay, it was before the third world migration patterns happened, but You know, you bring in a physically, emotionally, and physically traumatized third world population, which has a low IQ history, let's say, to put it as nicely as possible, well, your healthcare price is going to go up just a little bit.
It's the same thing with welfare.
So that's sort of something that's quite different, and that's what America faces that other countries don't face as much.
It's a much more, hey, multiculturalism, it's still our strength, right?
So that's sort of important as well.
And the other thing, too, is that these other...
These other socialized healthcare systems rely enormously on the remnants of the free market embedded still in the American healthcare system.
Because so many medical trials, so many cures, so many new procedures are developed in America by the remnants of the healthcare system.
Right.
It's like the people who ran the Communist Party didn't buy Lada's, right?
They didn't buy Soviet-made crap weasel heaps, right?
They bought Mercedes.
They bought...
Benz's, they bought Lamborghini.
So, a lot of the healthcare in other countries is heavily subsidized by the creativity and ingenuity and innovation coming out of the American healthcare system.
When America socializes its healthcare system, that's it.
I mean, new medical research around the world is gonna start grinding to a halt because it's being driven by the remnants of the American healthcare system.
And so, this is the case, like Muslims in England, far more expensive in terms of their overall healthcare requirements than native-born white British people.
And you can look up all the reasons.
I don't want to get into all of those reasons myself.
But you can look these up, and it has to do with inbreeding as well.
Islam allows cuts in marriages, which is not great for genetically positive outcomes, so to speak, in aggregate.
And so, yeah, people look across at Europe, you know, like, wow, Europe 30 years ago, they never track it these days.
But yeah, Europe 30 years ago, you could socialize healthcare.
Plus you get, you know, there's a great Simpsons episode about this, as there is about a lot of things.
The Bart Wants What It Wants, season 13, episode 11.
Wow.
Simpson family go to Toronto.
Getting off the barge, off the bus, Marge proclaims, it's so clean and bland.
I'm home.
Homer just walks out into the street and Lisa's like, be careful, dad.
And he's like, it doesn't matter.
They have free health care.
Gets hit by a car and he yells, I'm rich!
This is the level of people's economic thinking that happens.
And so this...
These issues are really significant when it comes to what's going to happen to healthcare in the future.
This is another reason why government unions are so desperate to maintain their benefits.
I mean, if you go to these government union rallies, These are not slender people on average, right?
I mean, I got to imagine when they build these stages, they're not using balsa wood.
We need more titanium.
We've got some teachers union workers up here.
The rivets are holding together like desperate GIs hugging their kids for the last time.
And they got it.
They can't like, I mean...
You try getting rid of these union benefits, these union privileges.
Jesus, can you imagine these 50-year-old people weighing 300 pounds if they have to go onto the free market for their healthcare?
Well, they'd be okay if there was a genuine free market, but given the way it is right now?
God.
Oh no, they're being introduced by Chris Christie.
That's it.
Give up.
Let's just run.
Well, it's funny how we compare the current state right now of healthcare with NHS Britain or any other country with socialized medicine.
I dated a Scottish girl and I spent a lot of time in Britain and we had to go to the hospital a couple times and she did not want to go to the hospital.
That's how horrible it was up in Scotland at least.
She would rather go to UTI or whatever she was going through at the time.
Then go see the doctor there.
It's just funny how people my age and younger really don't know.
They don't know because they've not been out of the country.
I've done a lot of traveling.
I've seen a lot of this stuff firsthand.
But most people my age, they don't know what this is like.
They don't know the economics behind it.
They don't know the...
The reality of what socialized medicine looks like.
Well, and also they're comparing a multi-ethnic country like America to a mono-ethnic country like a lot of the northern European countries and so on, right?
Lower IQ populations are much more expensive in terms of healthcare and blacks live less long than whites, whites live less long than Asians.
Goes by IQ. And, you know, we've talked about these IQ differences before.
We can't really emphasize them enough because you cannot understand America without understanding the...
It is one of the countries with the greatest IQ diversity in the world.
And it is really tough to manage a society with IQ diversity.
Now, if you have a free market, no problem.
IQ diversity is just part of the lovely melting pot of human differences.
But when you have a centrally managed, increasingly coercive, increasingly socialized system, Well, you have a big problem.
I mean, you know, in some of the places in America, and this is in Florida, they've had to start changing the scores of black kids because they're failing, right?
And there's this sort of fundamental lack of ability to understand all of this stuff.
I mean, how do you run a school system With a wide variety of, on average, IQ splits.
Now, in a free market system, you can have specialized schools, and it doesn't sort by race, it sorts by IQ, and so on, and it can all work out really well.
But when you have a centralized, coercive, one-size-fits-all solution, God!
I mean, it's destructive.
It's too advanced for the lower IQ people, and it's too basic for the higher IQ people.
Nobody wins, and then people wonder why the jobs go overseas, and worker productivity declines catastrophically.
So...
It's a very, very different situation.
And America, of course, you know, this is not that complicated.
America already has socialized healthcare system for veterans.
Right.
Medicaid.
I mean, how's that working out?
I mean, oh, we're going to get socialized medicine so we can all get the joyful medical experience of your average vet rotting away in some back alley behind the VA hospital with rats crawling all over your wounds.
Yay!
That's the future.
That's a worry of mine, too, because my brother is in the Army, so God knows what he will have to deal with when he gets out.
But like you said, with this one-size-fits-all mentality, to put it more generally, I guess, or to bring it more to the general level, it's this collective...
I don't want to go into a tangent about that, but When I speak about this insurance thing, there is a collectivist type of mentality of, well, I don't care that you don't like this.
It's good for everybody, or it has benefited me.
When I speak with women about this, they'll say, well, screw you, man, because my health insurance was more expensive five years ago or however long ago.
They'll say, screw you.
It's good for me now, so therefore it's good for everybody.
No, no, no.
Sorry, sorry.
You may have missed the memo.
Women are very kind and generous and compassionate creatures, always thinking about the needs of others and the common good.
They're never selfish and materialistic.
They never buy expensive handbags that destroy the rainforest.
They never, ever want to go to malls that cater to shallow materialistic tastes, and they sure as hell never want to take their husband's or ex-husband's hard-earned money for frivolous things.
So, Just so you know, don't look at facts.
Read the memo that comes out of the women's studies classes, and the women are a wonderful phenomenon.
I just wouldn't want you to confuse the reality with the propaganda.
Just remember to read the memo, and if you have any doubts about the memo, use it to give your dick a couple of paper cuts until you see the light.
I'll have to catch up on my reading of Slate and HuffPost.
Yeah.
Alright, well, I don't want to drag on too much, but it's just been a struggle these last few months of trying to sort it all out and understand the right decision to make.
And as far as what you can do, I mean, you've just got to keep reminding people.
That the problem is coercion, the problem is the initiation of force, the problem is a violation of the non-aggression principle, the problem is increased government power.
As the government gets more and more power over healthcare, it gets worse.
And we can see this pattern repeated over and over and over again.
Oh, the other thing I wanted to mention as well is that when a, and I've mentioned this point before, it really can't be repeated often enough.
When you first socialize a healthcare system, you inherit the doctors who were trained and raised and have all the work habits of free market people.
And the entire organization of the healthcare system is, at least in America, some remnants of the free market system.
So when you first socialize it, it's fantastic.
Fantastic!
However, over time, that all changes.
Because the next generation of doctors never grew up in the free market.
Never develop those personal habits of customer satisfaction.
Never develop those work habits.
Never develop that efficiency.
The efficiency goes out of focus.
The work ethic, the customer focus, all of that goes out of focus.
And the new generation of doctors, the old generation of doctors, the people who wanted to work in the free market, were confident in their ability to provide value in a voluntary environment.
The new generation of doctors Just to bump some pimple-ass bureaucrats.
My doctor accepted.
But for the majority of the time, you get a different group of people.
Like if you turned UPS into the post office tomorrow, yeah, first couple of years, pretty good.
A lot of work ethic.
People are still used to it.
They take pride in their work.
Then the efficiency and the allocation of resources in UPS still echoes the discipline of the free market.
But you look at UPS in 40 years, after it was taken over by the government, it's just another damn post office.
Right.
Yeah.
I'm very, very fearful for what kind of lies ahead.
I don't...
So act on that fear.
Stay healthy and inform people.
You get this fear, and I feel it coming after you.
Okay, the antidote to fear is action.
Because if you allow yourself to be afraid and don't act, you'll just get depressed, which is kind of what they want, right?
So if you're depressed, you're not doing anything to change.
Plus, hey, can we sell you some meds?
So you just got to, you know, go out on Facebook, go out where you post stuff.
You know, I read comments on articles.
You know, I read an article.
I'm like, hey, I wonder what people are saying about it.
So, go out there and keep pointing out coercion is a problem.
Government takeover is a problem.
It's gonna get worse as they keep doing.
Look at all the promises that were broken.
Look at the VA. Just shake people out of the snake hypnosis of supposed government efficiency and morality People will just wake up to reality.
Step up, wake up to reality.
That's what you've got to keep doing with people.
Now, it doesn't have to be a full-time job.
It doesn't have to make you depressed.
You don't have to engage in endless troll fights with idiots who can barely type with their foreheads out there in the hinterland of the internet.
But you can do things.
Just remind people, remind people, remind people.
You never know when you're going to just drop that brain bomb that is going to ignite reality.
Some incredibly talented human being, some incredibly rich human being, somebody with enormous amounts of influence.
You know, somebody wrote something, somebody posted something that made Donald Trump want to run for president.
Now, like him or not, he's shaking up the establishment, bloody bloody, he's bringing new conversations that are really overdue in American society.
And...
Someone did something that lit the fire under that guy.
I know it was this show.
I have no belief that it was this show at all.
Interesting to think it was.
But you don't know.
You put something out there.
It could be some comment you posted three years ago.
Some super smart, super talented, super wealthy, super ambitious man or woman is going to see that and it's going to go bang in their brain.
And, you know, the mind once shaped by a new idea never regains its original shape.
You know, I had objectivism.
I was never the same person again.
Personality is the same.
Never the same person as a whole in terms of how I think or that I think.
So you don't know.
You don't know.
What nugget you're going to leave that is going to light a fire under somebody?
Maybe it'll be you in the future.
Maybe it's somebody else.
You don't know.
Like, I put all of this stuff out there.
Most people listen to the show, come and go, and some people end up hating it.
Some people end up loving it.
Love them both in many ways because, you know, you guide your ship by the rocks and the ocean, right, and the current.
And so, you know, if I'm not being hated by bad people, I'm not doing my job.
The oncologist doesn't want the cancer to love him.
And so you don't know what you're going to do and what effect it's going to have to be.
It's the butterfly effect.
You know, you might post something somewhere, forget about it, three years later it starts a revolution.
Like a mental revolution, an ethical revolution.
And so for me, I'm scatter shooting, right?
I don't know where the next light is going to come in the world.
Certainly some lights in a personal way have come out of this show, some marriages, some kids, wonderful stuff.
I don't know where the next great light is going to be in the world.
So you cast your net as wide as possible.
So go out there.
It doesn't have to be a full-time job, but just go out there and communicate and reason and provide evidence and link people to this show, link people to whoever's talking about it that you think is good and passionate and effective, and we'll get the message out.
I mean, the left dedicate themselves.
You know, Ben Shapiro says, the left never sleeps.
Never sleeps.
Always working.
Always plotting.
Always watching, Wissowski.
Always watching.
And they're always plotting.
They're always calculating.
You know, they're like a kid who's desperate for sugar.
You know, that's all they think is that dancing sugar fairy and they can taste it on their tongue and they bend every single conceivable atom of their willpower to get that sugar.
That's the left.
And all we got to do is just do that, you know, and that's a worthy fight.
You can do it from your armchair.
You don't have to go out into the field of Gettysburg and get yourself shot at.
You just got to go out and be called names by people who type them wrong.
You know, we can survive that, right?
Yeah, no, I think it's, I think all this is, it's kind of boiling over to this, I've really, really thought about potentially one day, I don't know, I mean, I don't know how I could do it because I don't have the money for it, but running on something like just somebody getting up there and just straightening all this stuff out, like just, and not, I don't know, it's, it's, It's idealistic, but you know what?
It has to start somewhere, I guess.
But do stuff you can like now.
And the other thing, too, if you go online and start correcting people's misinformation, you can see whether you have the spine, stomach, and willpower to overcome the negative feedback that you're often going to get, right?
Right.
Politics, I mean, it's just putting your dick in a blender run by the media, right?
I mean, if you're on the right, if you're on the left, it's the aforementioned...
18-year-old Thai girl massaging her feet with coconut oil.
But so if you're into the free market, I mean, you're gonna, you know, if you're into the free market, the dumb genes will want to kill you fundamentally, right?
Yeah.
All right.
I mean, you know, we point out media misrepresentations of Donald Trump.
And people are like, yo, why don't you just get a room with Donald Trump?
It's like, you know, this is just the correction of facts, right?
Right.
Why did you do this with Ron Paul, who polled 2%?
Well, because politics is the art of the possible, you know?
I don't hunt for unicorns.
Anyway, so this, you know, you point out facts about slavery.
You're racist!
Point out facts about IQ. You're a white supremacist!
You know, it's just stupid shit, right, that people say.
It doesn't mean anything.
And it's a good way to guide yourself by.
You know, if incoherent people full of rage get upset at you, you've got to be doing something right.
Yeah.
It definitely helped, especially listening to this show and listening to the listeners, listening to you, obviously, to talk to people in my everyday life that are kind of, they're, for the lack of a better term, a bunch of dunces, but they...
A bunch of what?
Dunces.
They're not very smart.
They mean well, but I guess that's what you're saying is starting out kind of Now, listen, if you think that saying the phrase means well is doing anything, you might as well give up right now and just go back to voting for socialists.
Seriously.
That is like the weakest, pansy-assist excuse for avoiding a fight.
They mean well.
That's almost as bad as, let's agree to disagree, you know?
Right, right.
Anarchism is all about being free to disagree.
When you have a state, I'm not free to disagree.
That's the goddamn problem, people!
Right.
So, and by the way, sorry, just to clarify, you know, I did a whole show when people were calling Donald Trump, sorry, when people were calling Ron Paul a racist, I did a whole show, he's not a racist, about the whole newsletter thing and all that.
I mean, I did correct misinformation about Ron Paul, but nobody remembers that anymore, because apparently I'm just Donald Trump's bad boy.
But, so yeah, the fact that I correct misinformation and point out, you know, my enemy is the media, as I've already said, and so on.
So, Shit, what were you talking about?
Now it's time to end the show.
I can't remember.
Oh, you know, it's such a juggle and there's so many spinning plates.
Thanks, Lionel, for the metaphor analogy.
But I can't remember what we were talking about.
It was really good, though, right before Mike distracted.
Dances!
Oh, yes!
Okay, I remember now.
Thanks, Mike.
I mean, thanks, my brain, who remembers things.
My name is Mike.
No, they mean well.
God help me.
That is such a statement of intellectual contempt.
You know, I've never seen it, but I was in a A store buying something and the TV was playing.
Michael Jackson's preparing for his last concert tour.
And somebody was getting the lighting wrong or something like that.
And he's like, well, they mean well.
You know, and it's just like, oh, that's like the worst conceivable thing that someone can say about you.
You know, it's like, it's literally what, it's the same tone that people say about, you know, some retarded kid's drawing, you know?
It's a forehead print, but he means well.
His heart's in the right place.
He failed!
Failed completely!
I don't care what the intentions were.
I don't care what the intentions were, right?
Please don't cover up people's Incredible intellectual malfeasance by saying they mean well.
If they mean well, tell them how they can actually achieve what they mean and see how they feel, right?
I want to help the poor.
You know what helps the poor the most?
The free market.
Are you behind me?
Here's the proof.
No, you're not behind me?
Then you don't mean well.
You're just using the poor as a club to beat the last remnants of freedom out of the body bag of politics before zipping it up and flushing it down to follow Bin Laden in the Indian Ocean.
So, yeah, please, please don't, oh, they meant well, or they did the best, they're doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.
And it's like, no, the internet, now you can type the knowledge in 30 seconds if you want it.
So there's no excuse for anyone anymore.
Please, please give people the intellectual respect of allowing them to be complete assholes.
Because the moment you say, well, you know, they mean well, you're just like, well, maybe they're just, you know, fascist, paranoid, hungry for rich men's money jerks.
Could be, right?
Yeah.
Well, actually, as you're saying all that, I remembered actually what that person that I thought meant well said to me was when we were talking about gender and it was a girl and we were talking about gender.
She said, facts are arbitrary and data and statistics, they don't really mean anything when it comes to So I don't think that...
I think I'll take back my...
Is it a fact that facts are arbitrary?
Sorry.
You know, facts are arbitrary.
Well, yeah, so sometimes you get one from a guy who wanted to fix your windows.
That's an Inside Canadian spam facts joke.
But anyway...
Listen, I mean, anybody who says that, it might as well be a brain virus attempting to chew out your frontal lobes and replace it with a textbook from Jermaine Greer.
So, just, yeah, that's somebody who, like, I back away.
You know, they might as well just be sneezing bacilli into your face.
That is a genuine and general attack on your intellectual capacities.
Yeah.
And, of course, if facts are arbitrary, we can't have a state because the state enforces things in an absolutist and geographical-wide fashion.
So it's nice to hear that relativism leads directly to anarchism, except to bet it doesn't for her.
Yeah, well, to put it in context, she's a poetry major, so that kind of...
Yeah, poets used to be pretty practical, used to be pretty empirical.
Shakespeare was a poet, and he had some common sense real politic about him, but she's a modern poetess, I guess you could say, and Sylvia Plath model.
You know, Sylvia Plath kills herself because she was a horrible human being, but anyway.
That was her biggest influence in Sylvia Plath, so there you go.
No, it's fascinating how vaginas clasp facts to their chest and then just Crushed their windpipe with vaginal Kegel-like strangulation.
Ah, I invite your facts into my vagina and I kill them with a vaginal cave collapse.
Excellent.
All right.
Well, thank you so much for having me on.
I appreciate it.
Thanks, man.
I appreciate it.
And stay healthy.
Stay healthy.
And if you feel the burn, see a doctor.
And that doctor is me.
Thanks very much, everyone, for a great show.
Our world's a real pleasure.
Freedomainradio.com slash donate to keep these shows running and to have me do the shows even when I have a headache.
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I don't have a migraine, but it's a migraine sufferer's worst nightmare.
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Really don't either.
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