June 10, 2016 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
02:44:10
3314 The Plight of Black America - Call in Show - June 8th, 2016
Question 1: [1:49] - “I'm a black female, born in the U.S. to Caribbean immigrant parents. Lately, I've been struggling with feelings of alienation and disappointment because even though I feel fully American and I love being American, I feel as though I don't fit in with any group. I feel like I have little in common with African Americans culturally speaking, but I don't have much in common with white Americans either; I've noticed a clear divide in many aspects of my life. To complicate matters, I'm pretty conservative so I feel as though that turns many people my age off of me because "liberalism" is the ‘correct’ posture. Naturally, this makes me less inclined to develop any sort of relationships with them either.”“My greatest concern is marriage. Family has always been foremost for me and I've always wanted a husband and children. However, I feel like my options are severely limited due to the illegitimacy crisis in the black ‘community’ and due to general black underachievement. As I've gotten older, I've become more doubtful of interracial marriage, as I worry that the children will be confused as to their identity. All of this has been causing me a great deal of anxiety lately. I wanted to ask your advice on navigating relationships (casual, friendships, romantic) given my situation and what your advice for managing my feelings of alienation would be.”Question 2: [1:25:55] - “I feel very comfortable debating with friends but get very nervous when debating in public. In public debates, I am usually invaded by a lot of ideas at the same time and fail to communicate them and sometimes I even communicate the contrary of what I want to say. How did you learn to debate? Where you always good at it? How can I get better at debating - specifically when the audience is not in your favor?Question 3: [1:57:22] - "In light of the European Migrant Crisis, you have been supporting Alpha Male behavior relative to Beta Male behavior on the basis of causing the aforementioned crisis and the emotionality of the Betas. However, you also say that emotions are healthy and are a very important, and often overlooked part of masculinity, but aren't Alphas supposed to have very little in the way of emotions?”Freedomain Radio is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by signing up for a monthly subscription or making a one time donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Hi everybody, Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
Hope you're doing well.
Oh man, what a great show we had tonight!
First up, we had a young black lady who is trying to figure out how she's going to fit in with the various cultures she doesn't feel overly compatible with, and whether she should try and have a kid with someone who's black or white or what.
And it was just, what a great woman to chat with.
She was just fantastic and had a very wide-ranging and fascinating discussion about I don't know, everything under the sun and more.
Now, the second caller It's very comfortable debating with friends in private, but when debating in public gets very nervous and feels, you know, very self-conscious.
I wanted to know, like, Steph, did you get better at debating?
And I did share some of my early, well, and rather disastrous exposure and experience of and execution of my debating non-talents at the time and how I got better and the state of mind that helps me best able to do well in debates.
And the third caller wanted to know, About the differences between alphas and betas with regards to emotionality or sentimentality and so on.
And I think I put in a pretty stirring call to action about what can be done in these days of challenge, if not Downright crisis.
So thanks everyone so much for listening.
Freedomainradio.com slash donate.
Please, please, please help us out in these lean and dusty days of summer with whatever you can spare.
Sign up for a subscription.
Be hugely helpful.
And fdrurl.com slash Amazon to use our affiliate link.
And you can follow me on Twitter at Stefan Molyneux.
Here we go.
Alright, up first today we have Celeste.
Celeste wrote in and said, I'm a black female born in the United States to Caribbean immigrant parents.
Lately, I've been struggling with feelings of alienation and disappointment because even though I feel fully American and love being American, I feel as though I don't fit in with any group.
I feel like I have little in common with African Americans culturally speaking, but also don't have much in common with white Americans either.
I've noticed a clear divide in many aspects of my life.
To complicate matters, I'm pretty conservative, so I feel as though that turns many people my age off of me because liberalism is the quote-unquote correct posture.
Naturally, this makes me less inclined to develop any sort of relationships with them either.
My greatest concern is marriage.
Family has always been foremost for me, and I've always wanted a husband and children.
However, I feel like my options are severely limited due to the illegitimacy crisis in the quote-unquote black community, and due to general black underachievement.
As I've gotten older, I've become more doubtful of interracial marriage as I worry that the children will be confused as to their identity.
All of this has been causing me a great deal of anxiety as of late.
I wanted to ask your advice on navigating relationships, casual, friendships, and romantic, given my situation, and what your advice would be for managing my feelings of alienation.
That's from Carol.
Hi Carol, how are you doing tonight?
I'm well, how are you?
I'm well.
I'm well.
You know, if it comes for advice for managing feelings of alienation from those around you, coming to a philosopher is not the worst idea in the world.
Because, you know, I can identify with a lot of things that you're speaking with.
I don't have a lot in common with white Americans these days either.
So I think I'm with you there.
I'm with you there as far as that goes.
Yes.
Is there anything you wanted to add to what you sent in?
No.
I mean, I think that's pretty much kind of what I wanted to convey.
So, you know, however you'd like to go from there, really, you know, is up to you.
Right.
Do you mind if I ask your age-ish?
I'm 29.
Okay.
Do you think, I mean, there is this sort of Myth or tradition, you know, the woman hitting 30 is starting to really review her life for options.
Is there anything to that, do you think?
I just blurred past 30.
Hey, still got my teeth.
Let's keep going.
You know, I think that there might be something to that, but I don't think that I'm doing a lot of reassessment recently because I think that in terms of my personality, it's been pretty fixed.
I mean, with minor changes from, you know, from year to year, you should be changing constantly, I think.
You should be reassessing, but it's not as though...
I was kind of, you know, doing the party girl thing for, you know, all of my 20s.
And then now that I'm, you know, kind of reaching my 30s or, you know, looking down the barrel of 30 that I'm, you know, thinking, oh, I got to lock something down because I've squandered my 20s.
No, it's always been kind of, you know, something that I always thought would happen at some point, but just never really materialized.
So, you know.
Right.
Okay.
Okay.
And...
There are a couple of things that jumped out, and you can tell me a little bit more if you can.
Conservative.
Great, I guess, in many ways.
Certainly, if you're interested in marriage and kids, I think conservative is better than most, if not all, of the alternatives.
Do you think that came from your...
I don't want to say you don't have choices or anything, but do you think that came from your family background?
Was it stuff you read?
How did you end up in that...
I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with my family.
I think ever since I was growing up, my father had always been, you know, his word was always law.
And I think my mother was very, you know, she deferred to him.
She always respects.
I mean, they're still together.
You know, they still respect each other.
You know, she takes his advice.
She looks up to him.
She admires him.
And I think That kind of that order that I guess patriarchy for one of other words was very was very formative in my life So I think that I've always kind of just and I think really that's the foundation of conservatism having a very like a good family foundation and I think All the other proposition just flowed from there,
you know Just seeing that and realizing that yes, there is a certain order to life There is a certain there's a certain way that things should be structured if things are to work well and So I think that I kind of just learned to appreciate that.
We were always just huge fans.
Growing up, I used to laugh because I used to feel as though we grew up like Mormons or something, really some super conservative religious sect because my brother and I never really watched TV. We didn't have cable until I was 15.
We would have these family nights where we just played Scrabble and board games and things like that.
So I never really developed a taste for pop culture, things like that.
It was just a very traditional life in many ways.
So obviously reading was always encouraged, so I would read a lot.
We had these encyclopedia sets when I was a kid in our library.
I would just read that.
I would just read, read, read.
So I think that's kind of where I kind of just developed my own thoughts on things, and I think that's kind of how I became who I am today, I suppose.
Right.
No, that's great.
And, you know, I don't want to, of course, squish all black family and cultures together, but one of the things that seems to come up in a lot of studies is that TVs are often a lot more on in black households than, I don't know, I guess East Asian households or whatever it is.
And so the fact that little TV to no TV, that was kind of my childhood too.
Growing up in England, you know, there was no...
I didn't really even see cartoons.
I shouldn't say that.
You could go, I remember for 10 pennies, my brother and I would go to a cinema on Saturdays and just see a bunch of shorts that, you know, were fun.
But it wasn't until I came to Canada that I even saw cartoons.
And then it was one hour a week, if I remember rightly.
So I know what you mean.
It's like, when you're so bored, you end up reading.
Boy, does your life ever get different from other people who drop on TV, right?
It's the best thing, though.
I mean, I don't, I look back now and I'm just so happy.
Because I look at how easily swayed my peer group is by anything.
Like, if the media says it, it's great.
It must be true.
There's very little critical thought there.
And I think that, you know, when you're just raised on that, you know, like you're vegging out on the TV, your outlook is going to be really different.
So I'm pretty thankful for that, honestly.
I don't regret it at all.
Yeah, I mean, reading...
Did you read fiction and nonfiction when you were a kid?
You know, I used to love fiction a lot more when I was a kid.
But now, you know, I just...
I kind of...
I mostly like biographies, things like that.
But I read a lot of fiction.
We had these little...
I don't know how to describe them, but they were basically abridged versions of the classics, and they were illustrated.
So I love them.
And, you know, like Count of Monte Cristo, that one comes to mind, and they were super abridged.
Obviously, these were, like, long classics, but I read a lot of those.
And then as I got older, you know, Sunday would be our thing.
We would, after...
Way after church, we would go to the bookstore Borders when it existed.
I feel so old even just saying that.
But we would go to Borders and I would just go to, I liked psychology a lot.
So I would read a lot of books by, oh my gosh, I'm Jordan Blank Freud and like all those guys.
I was just really fascinated by that stuff.
So I would just go read and, you know, beg my mom to buy me a book or two.
But, you know, sometimes you get the book, sometimes you wouldn't.
But I would just read anything I could get my hands on, you know, really was fun for me, still is.
Right.
Biographies are fantastic.
You know, it's a chance to try another life on for size.
And I think, I mean, I've got a whole podcast on this I did recently about reading in particular, reading fiction, but also biographies where you get to explore the thoughts of another person.
I think it's fantastic for empathy.
Obviously, language development and so on is great.
And the kind of thing, like the more you read, the better and more fun and easier it gets.
And it is, I think it's a challenge, you know, with the digital generation these days who are More used to screens.
Very short attention spans.
Very short attention.
They can't focus.
And it's funny.
I mean, you know, I kind of still remember the days of 56k modems.
Like the kids now, they don't have a clue.
Wait, wait.
Can I just interrupt you for a sec?
Are you ready?
Of course.
Go for it.
That's exactly how it was.
No, I'm not sacrificing a sheep.
I'm just connecting very slowly.
When I interact with teenagers nowadays, no one understands getting cursed out by your parents.
Get off the phone!
Because they can't call because the modem's on.
I still remember that.
Don't pick up!
I'm downloading!
How dare you?
When you downloaded a song and it took three days and you're like, whew, this is technology.
This is great.
Just things like that.
It's just really funny.
It's really funny.
Oh, are you trying to explain to people what lining up in a bank was like?
It's Thursday, I need money for the weekend.
You're like, what does that mean?
You know, it's so funny.
Okay, so, I mean, I think that's, yeah, anytime I can promote book reading for kids or adults, you know, I am fortunate, of course, in what I do, I have to read a lot for what I do.
And, you know, for the interviews with the experts that I have on, and also just I spend a lot of time reading.
How do you come up with so much?
I just read incessantly.
And it is a great thing.
I mean, it is one of the great joys of life.
So, okay, just wanted to get that little pitch in, and I'm glad that you experienced that, of course.
So we've done conservative, obviously highly literate, great language skills, and so on.
Now, let's talk about...
So you wrote...
I feel like my options are severely limited due to the illegitimacy crisis in the black, quote, community.
First of all, I want to ask about the illegitimate crisis and then the quotes around the word community and due to general black underachievement.
Now, can you just break that stuff out for me?
Yeah, I know.
I think I kind of just threw a lot of things in there together.
Yeah, that's great.
I should have parsed it out, but I think first, I think it's manifest.
I mean, what are the stats?
72% of Black people in this country, I think they're born out of wedlock, which I don't hold against anybody, of course not.
That's not something that they chose.
But it's just...
I see that this cycle is perpetuated, you know?
So you have a whole bunch of people, you know, just living in communities.
You look...
You walk through...
I live in one now, unfortunately.
I live in the kind of more run-down part of town, in the town where I live.
And you see it entire areas.
It's like there are no men around.
There are literally none.
There's like children and there are women of various ages, but there are no men.
There are no fathers.
So that's a huge thing.
So I think you have these people who grow up without seeing men around, without seeing fatherhood, and they don't know how to form families of their own.
And they're not really interested in or capable of forming a family in which they would be the head, which they would be a father, you know, like kind of in the way that I look at my father, the way he is and he was and is, he still is.
And I put community in brackets because, I mean, when I think of a community, for example, I think for a Jewish community, like, look at that.
They're very functional.
They, you know, they build each other up.
They, you know, edify each other.
But, you know, with Black people, it's just very much like a group of codependent people who just don't just do destructive things to and around each other.
And I don't really see that as a community.
I just think it's A loose collective of people who do just crazy shit.
I mean, sorry to curse.
That's fine.
That's the least of what you've said that's bothersome to me as a whole.
And not that you're bothering me, but the information is really important.
So yeah, don't worry about the swearing.
It's not nice though, but I will try.
So I think these are just things that I've become more aware of as I've gotten older.
I think everyone goes through that liberal phase when they're younger and And it makes sense.
You don't want people to suffer.
You had a good life, or maybe not, and you want people to do better, and you want people to be happy and satisfied.
So you think, okay, liberalism, that's the way to do it.
Let's do it that way.
But then you see that it just wreaks more havoc.
And you're just kind of like, okay, obviously what we're doing now is not working.
So you get older, you have to really think about alternatives.
To this complete failure of a system that we have now.
So it's just, you know, something that I've just become a lot more aware of.
And I think I was also insulated from it, too, because when I was in high school, I knew one kid, you know, I was in the honors classes and everything like that.
I knew one kid whose family was African American.
Everyone else was Jamaican, Trinidadian, what have you.
You know, we had some Latino individuals there, too.
But, I mean, I think I was really insulated from that because I saw how well everyone was doing and they were pretty much all Black.
So I was like, oh, great, you know, what's the problem with that?
What are people talking about?
But, you know, then when I went further afield, you know, I went off to college and then went off to grad school.
You're just looking and you're like, oh, wow, that's not the typical experience of many Black people, unfortunately.
And it kind of hurts to look at, you know.
Oh, I can imagine.
I mean, it's...
Agony to watch some of the self-destructiveness of the white community for me, and I can obviously imagine very easily, Carol, how difficult it is to watch some of the, as you say, codependent people doing destructive things.
Do you think it had something to do, were there a lot of immigrants who were in your school?
Yes, so I grew up in, without revealing too much information, I grew up in a sort of decaying suburb outside of New York City, so one of the original Levittown-type situations.
At the time, you know, my parents moved there.
We moved from the city because it was just decay.
I mean, it was horrible, you know.
And we moved there.
Sorry, just to make you understand, the decay thing, was it dangerous?
Was it just unpleasant?
Was it loud?
I mean, what do you mean by it?
It was actively dangerous.
I mean, my parents moved from, I mean, I don't really mind.
My parents moved from the Bronx to, you know, in full disclosure, they moved.
And that's horrible.
So this was the late 80s.
And things kind of had mellowed out a little bit, but it was still hard.
My mom would talk about coming home and there would just be men leering at her, coming into the building, just needles, syringes everywhere, urine-scented vestibules and things like that, roaches, the usual vermin.
And it was just actively horrible.
So it was just decaying.
You had to leave.
They moved out and we, you know, landed in...
It's a nice suburb.
I mean, I had a very happy upbringing.
There was no violence or anything like that.
But it's, you know, it's not as nice as some of the nicer places in this particular suburban enclave that you could imagine.
But it was heavily populated.
Just sorry to interrupt.
For those who don't know, like Carol's...
We don't have to get into details.
Your adverse childhood experience is one.
And I think that's only because there's no checkmark called tough neighborhood or bad neighborhood or something like that.
But it sounds like your home life was great.
But it was the environment outside the full walls, right, that was more challenging?
Yeah, I mean, it was challenging.
I mean, I vaguely remember the Bronx.
I vaguely, because we moved out when I was five.
So, you know, the suburb was my entire existence.
You know, it's probably shaped a little bit, shaped me in a little bit of a way.
But, you know, it wasn't really, I never felt challenged.
I never felt, you know, we used to ride our bikes.
There was never any fear of danger, you know, Like, oh, okay, you know, be careful.
People are going to snatch you or people are going to shoot you.
It wasn't like that.
But I mean, it has become rougher, though.
I mean, my particular block, my parents still live there.
It's cute.
It's nice.
People keep up their lawns and everything.
People have pride in it.
So, you know, it's kind of a mixed bag, I think, really.
So, you know, it's kind of funny, really.
Right, right.
When you say codependent, what do you mean?
Say codependent people, we were talking about in the black quote community, codependent people, what does that mean?
I think they just depend on each other to, as we put it sometimes, cosign poor behavior or bad decisions.
I think that there's something my mom always says, one can't tell the other they're wrong, and that's exactly how it is.
You'll see all these people doing incredibly destructive and just not productive things.
And for example, having children out of wedlock or not taking school seriously or committing crimes.
And rather than say, you know, okay, you're an agentic person, you know, you made these choices and these were stupid choices and now you have consequences to deal with.
It'll just be a whole bunch of people saying, oh, it's not his fault.
He a good boy.
You know, things like that.
Wait a minute.
I enjoyed your brief dip into Ebonics there for a moment.
He a good boy.
He a good boy.
You know, and there's so entire communities of good boys that look like Somalia.
But they can't all be good boys, you know, because, you know, being a community of good boys is not going to produce Somalia redux, you know?
So it's just like it obviously can't be true.
It's manifestly untrue.
But instead of taking this person to task for these destructive acts or these people, they co-sign.
They're like, okay, yeah, it wasn't his fault.
He's a good boy.
It's some mysterious force that made him do this or made her do this.
And I think in that way, if I look at you, if I condone you, I think this is the mentality, if I condone your bad acts, Then, you know, you will condone my bad acts when I should commit them.
And I think that's codependency.
You know, I don't think that's really productive.
And when you look at other groups, let's say, immigrant groups that have come to the U.S., they don't act like that.
You know, like, if you have a destructive element within you, you just let it go.
You cut them loose because they're going to drag you all down.
You know, you move yourself away from that.
You don't embrace it and celebrate it, you know, but...
That's why I say it's codependent.
Perhaps that's not the exact, you know.
No, no, that's fine.
I just, you know, neither of us are psychologists.
I just want to make sure that maybe psychologists use the word differently as well.
But I just wanted to know what you meant.
And it has also struck me in general that, of course, the self-policing that used to occur in all communities...
You know, the old shotgun wedding, right?
You knocked her up, hey, guess what?
You're getting married with two little divots in your back if you don't.
And that, certainly since the 60s, that has really fallen away because now, of course, if you get knocked up, whether you're white or black or anything else, well, the government's going to rush in and give you all the money.
And this idea that sort of neutron bomb has gone off and taken away the men out of the neighborhood...
Well, a lot of times, of course, if the men are around, the women's welfare...
Right, you can't get the benefits.
Yeah, you can't get the benefits.
Yeah, you'd be worse off for having a man around.
You've got to smuggle them in like a stowaway.
You've got to smuggle them in in a suitcase and all of that.
So it is not actually just, well, you know, there's not particular incentive to get married.
You can get severely financially punished.
Right.
For being in a steady relationship, for getting married, or even being common-law after a while.
So it's not just that the men aren't there because the men are whatever, lazy or indifferent.
They're actually driven away by the welfare state and the current situation that exists.
Yeah.
Which is a huge part of what I'm looking at.
I think about it and You know, I'll be 30 in a few months and, you know, I'm looking at it and I look at all of my peers, you know, from different backgrounds, different non-Black backgrounds and everyone has a community where they can go to, you know, how do you meet people?
You know, traditionally, maybe you're out somewhere and you met somebody, but, you know, people would set you up because they knew this good boy over here, an actually good boy, you know?
You know, and they set you up or, you know, you just have networks and There's no network.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing where maybe something used to be.
And I'm like, what does that leave me?
So I look at that and it's very concerning.
One, because it would be nice to have a community that was functioning where people could rely on each other and we could share resources or what have you, but it doesn't exist.
Not in any real way anyway.
Not in the way that it seems like it does for other groups.
Right.
Right.
When you say you Have little in common with African Americans, culturally speaking.
Again, that's obviously a big blob.
Do you have anything closer to, I guess you'd be second generation Caribbean, right?
Yeah.
Is there any, I mean, what kind of slice are we talking about here?
Do you have anything based upon your father's community or the church community where there are people who have more in common or is that less the case?
So that was funny.
My father was, my mom did the bulk of the church going and my brother and I went with her.
My father was always kind of just doing his own thing.
He's a very independent-minded man.
So, you know, we would go to church, but even there, I look, and it's the same thing.
It's just like, you know, where are the men?
You look around, and they're like women of various ages, and they're young boys, but everyone in my age group, it's just not there, you know?
Yeah, a lot of funny hats, not a lot of bald heads.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, lots and lots of church hats, not a lot of men, you know, and it's just, it's...
It's funny.
I mean, I don't actually know what happened.
So, you know, in terms of that as a community network, it's like the black church is just gone.
I know this is not the forum.
I know who I'm talking to.
No, no, go for it.
I'd love to hear more about the black church.
Things I don't know about, I'm always curious to hear about.
It's hollowed out.
You know, when I look at other churches, they have robust, again, robust networks.
There's no networking.
You know, I think...
Black people really haven't learned to balance faith and reason.
They just don't get it.
They don't see faith as perhaps something that was gifted, I mean, or reason that was something that was gifted to us by God.
They look at them as diametrically opposed.
So there's just kind of this idea that God will solve everything.
And it's just kind of like, no, well, He gave us will and He gave us ability, and we should do things with them.
There's no sense that you have to take the next step.
To that end, there's very little, you know, building of anything, you know?
And I think that this organization, I think, is a very masculine force.
And I think that when you don't have men in organizations, they kind of just become disorganized.
You know, because women, we don't really excel at that.
I mean, and I'm not saying that I'm an exception.
I've seen the same thing, the same tendencies in myself, but, you know, you just kind of, these things just kind of disassemble if you don't have, like, a masculine force in there.
It's kind of weird.
When I think about aspects of my life, it's just very strange and things that I kind of am noticing even while I'm talking to you kind of where things are.
Right.
It sort of reminds me, and I can't remember the name of the show, but a few people have mentioned it to me, about a show where they put a bunch of men on a desert island, and they put a bunch of women on a separate desert island.
Have you heard about this?
I think it was the Dutch version of Survivor, and they really thought, they were like, oh yeah, look, woman power, and the women couldn't do shit.
They did absolutely nothing.
The men were there forming this tag teaming and building huts and fishing and building civilization, and the women were just chilling and Getting sunburned and, like, not being hungry.
So then they realized it was a failure and they just had to, like, consolidate the two of them because they're like, okay, now we have egg on our face, like, enough.
We gotta stop.
What do we do here?
Yeah, now that men have finished building them all, I guess we should go.
Yeah, now the women have to come get this.
Like, now they have to come mooch off of the men.
But it was just, it was obvious.
It's like, why didn't you think that would have been the outcome?
I don't know, you know.
Yeah, how many coconuts do I get for a boob shake?
Yeah.
Yeah, so that was hilarious.
That was so hilarious.
I haven't seen it, but I will.
I sort of got a mental note of myself.
Yeah, I've seen clips of it and, you know, some people in the...
I think it's big, like, in Manosphere-type stuff and alt-right-type stuff.
Like, look, you can't do anything.
It's kind of true.
I mean, look at the history of every matriarchy that you can imagine, and they all live in filth.
So it's really unsurprising.
I mean, I don't think matriarchy yields results in the way that patriarchy does, you know?
It's a yin and a yang, right?
I mean, women bring beautiful things to the world, and men bring beautiful things to the world, and we need each other.
Otherwise, you know, that's it for the human race.
Yeah, it's complimentary.
And I don't think, I think people have forgotten that, unfortunately, you know.
Now, when you were in college and grad school, Carol, did you ever think about, you know, the old cliche, going to get your MRS? I mean, did you ever meet?
Because, you know, there you'd meet, obviously, guys who were reasonably educated and, you know, assuming not to – assuming you weren't buried neck deep in lefty nonsense, you know, guys who had some manliness and so on.
I mean, was there anyone around there that you could find?
Yes.
I mean, there are two things there, I think.
I think that, you know, in the Caribbean culture, it's very much especially for the girls because I think the fear is...
Yeah, you're going to get knocked up.
And the fear that every family has for their daughter.
So it's focus on your education.
Just focus.
Are you there to study or are you there to date?
That's really the mentality.
So that was kind of drilled into my head the whole time growing up.
And I just kind of figured, get the education right and everything else will fall into place.
But secondarily, I went to a very...
It's, eh, whatever.
It's prestigious Ivy League, like lesser Ivy League, you know.
And I think the, you know, the demographics are just very, I mean, they're going to be obvious, you know.
The demographics are majority white, then it's Asian, we know why, and then it's like everybody else.
You're standing out.
You're a minority.
For all the talk of diversity, there's not really much interchange because people stick to their own, which is natural.
It's just very tough when you're a minority there and everyone couples up with their own and there are not that many of you.
It was kind of hard.
I mean, you know, I dated.
I had a boyfriend while I was in college, but, you know, it kind of didn't work out.
So, you know, it was...
Okay, two things.
I'll bookmark the other one, but let's get to the boyfriend.
How long did you guys go out for?
It was kind of...
I don't want to say off and on.
It was punctuated because we met, like, in the spring, and then there was summer break.
And then, you know, then he was a year ahead of me.
So it was just for about a year, you know, and then he graduated.
And he was he was actually Caribbean, too.
His father was Jamaican.
His mother was American, you know, and then he returned to where he was from.
And then, you know, long distance, blah, blah, the usual thing.
Were you in love with him?
You know, we had...
No, let me be frank.
No, I wasn't in love with him.
Why not?
He had just, you know, peculiarities of personality that I think we just couldn't get past.
You couldn't put them in the charmingly eccentric category?
Yeah, he was eccentric, but it just wasn't...
Just pretend he was British.
It just wasn't charming.
I mean, it just wasn't...
I mean, you know, there were...
I can't even...
I'm trying to think back now.
I'm trying to think back because it's been a while.
It's been almost nine years now.
But it's just...
I think there were things about him that bothered me.
I think he was very...
Even at that point, I wasn't fully aware, but I still was kind of just an incipient shitlord, I guess.
I just never was with the whole liberal thing.
And his thing was...
Oh, you know, basically blaming white people for every problem that he had.
And I was just kind of like, I don't really have a philosophy on this yet, but it just sounds stupid.
Like, what choices did you make to get you into this situation?
And I was super straight edge in college.
I never drank.
I mean, I didn't drink until I was 21.
I didn't smoke, weed, anything.
I was super straight edge and super judgmental about things like that.
He was very much into, you know, just smoking and this, like, weird mystical, like, wannabe metaphysical stuff.
It was like, oh my god, this is too much.
Wait, he was into smoking marijuana?
Yeah, he was, like, into smoking weed and trying to pretend that there was depth behind why he was smoking, you know, or to smoking, you know.
I'm just curious, how many white people did it take to hold him down and force him to smoke?
Right.
You know, who put the doobie in your mouth?
Nobody did.
You know, it's just, but like, there were just so many.
I may have missed my rotation on that one.
It was just, it was just so frustrating.
And, you know, I was, I don't know what it was like, like 1920 at that point when we were dating.
And I was just kind of like, that just sounds, everything you're saying sounds so stupid.
And you're a smart guy, but you do not apply yourself.
And that's why you're failing, right?
That's why you're failing at life.
So even then, I was just very, you know, I did not believe that everything that was happening to him or to me or to anybody was the result of some power beyond ourselves.
And he did.
And I just was like, no, you have to take more responsibility.
You know, so there were things that were kind of just not, we weren't meshing on that level, I guess.
And sorry to sort of poke back on this one, but was his explanation for a lot of this just titanic gravitational white racism that was going to drag?
It was, you know, he was a computer science major.
And, you know, it's a rigorous major, especially at this school.
Like, they don't play, you know?
So it's just kind of like, you have to study.
You have to, you know, put the blunt down.
You have to do things that would improve your grades, you know?
And you have to focus.
This is a very, very intellectual undertaking, right?
You know, but he would just say, oh, there's so much racism in the computer science department.
And then, you know, when he sought out help, they didn't help him.
And it was because he was black.
I was just like, how much of this is because you're lazy?
Like, how much?
Let's apportion blame here, you know?
Like, a lot of this is just from what I can see because you're lazy, you know?
I didn't do as well as I wanted to.
And this is, at the time, it was a very tough school.
I don't know.
It's kind of becoming trash now, you know?
I mean, I didn't do as well as I wanted to do my first semester.
And I, you know, I reassessed, you know, and I tried to work as hard as I could because, you know, this isn't, you know, this isn't the minors anymore.
This is serious business now.
But he never really took responsibility.
It's just kind of weird.
Everything was white racism.
I mean, that was a very long-winded way of saying it.
No, no, it's fine.
Everything was like white racism.
As much detail as you wish to provide, I'm certainly...
Happy to hear.
You know, it sort of reminds me of a friend of mine.
A friend of mine, years ago, he was gaining weight.
And he had to take some medication for ailments, doesn't really matter what.
And he was gaining weight.
And I said to him, I said, dude, you know, You're spreading out a little bit there, right?
And he was eating veal parmesan.
I don't know if you know what that is.
Oh my god, that's fattening.
But it basically is you blend back fat, run it through a stringer, put baby calf meat on it, and then just basically slap it on your ass and net it in until it absorbs.
And he was like, yeah, it's this medication I've got to take.
And I just said to him, I wonder if the medication has an unfortunate reaction with the 9,000 calories of veal fat you're putting into your mouth.
And maybe, just maybe, it's not just the medication, but the combination of the medication plus the god-awful food you're ingesting.
Right.
You know?
Right.
Responsibility.
You know, like, how much of this is systematic or systemic and how much of this is you?
And a lot of people don't want to hear that.
People don't want...
You know, responsibility is tough.
You know, it's a bitter pill for people.
So it's just like, you know, they'd rather know that or they'd rather believe that everything is beyond their control.
So he was like that.
He was like your friend.
Well, it's one of these things.
It gives you comfort in the short run, but it destroys your life in the long run.
Exactly.
I mean, you know, and it's just and I've seen how that destroys lives.
You know, if you really I mean, how invested are you going to be in anything if you really feel as though nothing you do will make a difference?
Everyone is out to get you.
You know, that's a horrible life, and it's just, you know, why try at that point?
And people do stop trying, and people just, you know, they just become that lowest common denominator, and the cycle goes on, you know?
Well, and then, of course, it is one of these self-fulfilling prophecies.
Do you remember any, I'm just curious, and you don't have to share anything, you don't want to, of course, Carol, but do you remember any of his examples of racism in the computer science lab?
I mean, Stefania, you know, these things are always very vague, you know?
There's always, like, plausible deniability.
So, I mean, he would say that they just didn't, he would seek out help.
I mean, it's kind of just vague things.
Like, he would seek out help, but they didn't want to help him.
But then I was just, you know, this was a very liberal, you know, like, you know, Woodstock kind of place.
And it's just, I don't really think that they just wouldn't help you.
But if they perceive that you were kind of just not taking it seriously, then perhaps they might not be as interested.
But it was just always just vague things, you know?
But it's just so weird.
There were no real instances of anything, not that I can remember.
Well, and of course, it is one of these things that if it doesn't matter whether you're black or white, if you go up to people and you kind of think that they're already racist and out to get you, you might not get the most positive responses from people.
It's just my thought.
Yeah, of course.
I mean, people know, you know, we're social animals.
We know when we're not, you know, when someone is, doesn't really like us that much, you know, or kind of has a negative, you know, you feel the vibe.
I know that sounds cheesy, but you kind of know.
We all know when someone is not really into us or a situation and you, you intuit that and you just, you respond defensively, you know.
And I think that may have been what was going on too, you know.
I think that may have been.
Yeah, like if I, Carol, you know, I, you know, I really want to ask you out, but I know you're going to say no to me because you're too good for me.
and I'm just nothing and I'm a loser and And so, Carol, if we could, you know, I don't know, could you just tell me, put me out of my misery, tell me you won't go out on me.
Hey, she didn't even like to date me.
I couldn't believe it.
Yeah, you just you telegraph this, this, this, this feeling and people pick up on that.
And then, you know, of course, because you're telegraphing all this negative emotion, people aren't interested in that.
I mean, life is hard enough.
Why do I, why do we need you as another black cloud?
I mean, no pun intended, obviously, but we don't need it, you know?
So that's kind of just how it was.
Well, and the other thing too is, is it could be possible.
I mean, it's theoretically possible that he did get help, but didn't apply it.
And then the next time he went for help, it may have been for the same thing, or maybe And people are less likely to want to give help to people who aren't really taking their help and doing something with it.
Right, and applying it.
The funniest thing about him is that he was facing, according to him, so much discrimination in computer science.
And this just came back to me.
I just never put two and two together, but it's funny now.
He's like, you know, I'm experiencing so much discrimination, blah, blah, blah.
And even at this point, I knew...
And this was pre-crash of 2008, so sky was still the limit.
We learned afterwards.
But I'm just like, computer science, that's lucrative.
Put your nose to the grindstone and just get it on.
He's like, there's so much racism.
And this was his solution.
He's like, there's so much racism.
I'm just going to not focus on computer science anymore, and I'm just going to...
Focus on my minor in Africana studies.
I'm like, oh my god.
It's like the stupidest thing.
I think I just felt his future earning potential take a slight dip.
Yeah, it's just like, oh my god, this is just hard.
But that's how these affinity, or as I like to call them, grievance departments work.
You get these kids that are up against...
These are serious.
These are big boys.
These are kids who come from all over the country and all over the world from...
Really great educational programs.
And if you come from a school where you were top of the pack in that school, well, look, you're competing against all these other kids from even better schools that are also top of the pack.
And it's like you come in, you're bright-eyed, you're bushy-tailed, and you go in, but then you soon realize you can't compete.
And then if you're Black or you're Latino or you're whatever, then okay, You know, you failed because there's racism.
And then these grievance departments suck these kids up who would have succeeded in these more rigorous majors had they just applied themselves and not blamed everything.
Or the grievance departments kind of fasten onto them and give them a narrative that takes out personal responsibility.
Yeah, exactly.
This is why I failed.
I mean, this was inevitable.
I was going to fail, you know, and it's just, it's so annoying.
It was really bad at the college that I went to because it was super liberal IV, you know, typical thing that you can imagine.
Now, you said two things that I want to circle back on.
We will get you a problem, but I'm just archaeology unearthing stuff that I find fascinating.
I like when you do that.
It's super cool.
Okay, good.
Because it's not about to stop.
So you said that there were lots of Asians there, a few are Blacks.
You said, we know why.
Because everyone knows what happens to Asians, right?
I mean, you're an Asian and you're high-performance.
I mean, I know it's not all the same, not all Asians are the same, but I'm talking about East Asians.
And these guys, they blow, on these standardized tests, they blow pretty much every other group out of the water, right?
I mean, and if things were equal, right, if they were accepted in just proportions...
There would be no question that most of these schools would be 45% to 50% Asian.
It would look like California.
It would.
No, I mean, because they had Prop 209 way back when, and they're like, no more of this affirmative action nonsense.
So in Berkeley, the schools look like they should look.
We know why at these Ivies, but it's the difference between public and private in the U.S. The public schools, they have to adhere to limits on their governmental entities.
But the private schools can shape their admissions policies, so they do what they want.
And, you know, it looks like many Jewish individuals, to be frank, and then many white individuals, and then, you know, they like picking, you know, like the grievance groups.
But, I mean, the Asians, they're very underrepresented in these Ivies because...
You know, they don't qualify as an underrepresented minority.
But I mean, if we're going just based on performance in schools and performances in secondary school and standardized testing, yeah, they'd be taken over, you know?
I was at Playdium a while back ago with my daughter and some friends of hers.
And you know those dance games?
Which ones?
So there's like the floor is lit up and there's like stuff going on on the screen and you have to kind of follow.
Oh, is it like dance revolution?
Yeah, that's right.
Oh my god.
No hand-eye coordination here.
I could have no hand-eye coordination.
Oh my god.
And a friend of mine was telling me just, and of course I know this from the studies, like East Asian reaction time is...
He was saying, I think, in certain online games, like, the Asians just rule because their reaction times are ridiculous.
Yeah, they have these, like, spatial skills that are, like, insane, you know?
And I mean, when I think about Dance Dance Revolution, like, this is the most Asian thing ever.
Like, I can't do this.
You get seizures looking at it, you know, if you're not Asian.
But with them, I'm just like, wow, this coordination is...
It was an Asian guy.
It was an Asian guy playing it.
First of all, his legs looked like some Fred Flintstone character, like I could barely even see them.
He was only occasionally glancing at the screen, and he didn't appear to be concentrating at all while this blur of activity was going on below.
And I'm like...
I bow before our Asian overlords, please.
That's why you win.
Because you guys are incredible.
Okay, maybe in upper body strength, you know, sort of North Europeans.
But, you know, when it comes to just so many other things.
So, okay, now we know why.
So there's, of course, the affirmative action stuff.
Do you think that your ex was an affirmative action candidate?
Do you think he was like, for whatever reason...
I was having a really, really tough time, and we've all been there.
Like, I was the biggest and best actor in my college.
I got all the lead roles.
Then I went to the National Theatre School, and I'm like, oh, ah, these people also know what they're doing, and they're pretty good.
So, I mean, we've all gone, you know, Big Fish and Little Pond to wherever else you go.
Do you think that this may have been the case with him, that he was sort of pushed in Where maybe he didn't get the marks, wasn't able to compete, or had an out.
Like, I always wonder, what happens to people if they don't have an excuse?
That's, you know, one of the greatest things about being white is nobody gives you an excuse.
Right.
And maybe that's the case with Asians, too.
Like, there's no excuse.
And I always wonder, if that excuse wasn't there, how could people do?
I mean, he was, I mean, objectively, a brilliant guy.
I mean, his test scores were, they were up there, you know, from what I can remember.
So...
It just was the lack of effort.
And I think the cultural component was really large, too.
Because at that school, it was very WASP-y, alternatively very Jewish-y.
And we were kind of outliers.
No one knew what to do with us, I guess.
At times, maybe we didn't even know what to do with ourselves.
The biggest mismatch was the cultural one.
But I mean, you know, I mean, computer science, you did computer science.
Is that actually?
I didn't really take it outside of high school, but I was a programmer.
Right.
I mean, but when you were teaching yourself or however you did it, I mean, wasn't it hard?
It's difficult.
It's not easy.
Oh, it was horrible.
You know, and this is kind of like you're smart.
I mean, you're a highly intelligent man, you know, and it's just kind of like, For anyone doing this, you can be whip smart, but you still have to apply yourself and keep learning, and you're going to fall sometimes, and it's going to suck, and you're not always going to be the best, but if you push through, you'll succeed, you know?
And he never really had that stick-to-itiveness, you know?
Oh yeah, I just, I remember the very first time that as a database programmer I needed to do something very simple, open a record, modify its contents and save it.
This is back in the day before the internet, you just had to puzzle things out by yourself with a book or two and so on.
And it took me nine hours, nine hours of sitting.
I remember that so vividly, like nine hours.
There was no type ahead, no drop downs.
It took me nine hours To open a record, now it would take like 30 seconds.
Nine hours to just sit there and until you get it done, you just keep trying.
Right, just figure it out.
I mean, it's trial and error and it's just kind of like, you know, I think he kind of was very, I mean, he was very solipsistic in that way because I think he always looked at everything through his own lens without realizing all these other kids you think are having a ball at it, they're having a horrible time too, but The difference between you and them is that they're dedicated to this.
But you have to be like, this is a hard major.
This is not Africana studies.
You kind of have to put your brain on and leave it on and keep going back to it and just keep applying yourself.
And I think he never really understood that.
And what else has gone on dating-wise for you, Carol?
Well, I mean, you know, it's weird because I've been all around since undergrad.
I've been...
Where I was there, back home, and grad school back home.
I just want to clarify to people, I've been all around.
You mean geographically, right?
No, I just mean geographically.
And that's made things really hard.
I mean, I am dating someone right now, but I think that's the second part, or whatever, that was a multi-part question.
That's the last part of my question, because he's...
He's, you know, I love him.
He's a nice guy.
He's great.
But, I mean, he's not black.
He's Ukrainian, actually.
And I... They barely even tan.
You might as well date an Irish guy.
He actually hates that.
He burns so easily.
And he's just like, oh, no, you're just burning.
You're just getting cancer.
You know, but, I mean, I'm thinking about it.
I'm just kind of like, is this why?
You know, and it's not that I'm racist or anything like that.
But I just...
I just look at it and I'm just kind of like, you know, my family's, I look and, you know, I go home and, you know, my father's Black and my brother's Black and my mom, you know, and everyone's, and without, I mean, I don't want to obsess on this thing, but I mean, I have to face the reality that this is how we are, we're clannish as human beings, and it's just kind of like, you think about it and you're like, well, you know, if I have a kid, that child will neither be Ukrainian nor will it be Grenadian or whatever, Black, that's what I am.
I don't understand.
Where do these children go?
To make it worse, I've just been noticing that every or the majority of mixed race people, they just seem so dysfunctional.
They just seem as though something is wrong with them.
They're confused.
I never really had that confusion because my identity has always been clear to me.
You're black.
Just now go.
Go forth.
But I think that when you don't have that, neither side really...
Because you're not...
I mean, let's be realistic.
People laugh at the one-drop rule, but it's very logical.
I mean, it's not...
You're not white anymore at the point where you're mixed with something else, you know?
Just phenotypically speaking, that's just...
It just doesn't make sense on its face.
It's stupid, you know?
So, like, you're not white, but neither are you black or whatever else you might be mixed with.
So I'm just...
I see why they're confused.
I see why they're hurt.
And I just...
I'm like, is it responsible to do that to a kid?
But then it's just like, okay, so, you know, your high-minded racial politics aside, what are you going to do?
You know, are you just going to be single and, like, get some cats or get a hamster?
I mean, what is there?
And I guess that's kind of...
It leaves me a little sad.
And I, you know, and it's just...
I guess maybe I'm overthinking it, but I mean, I feel as though you should apply some kind of thoughts.
Yeah.
Overthinking is not an argument.
You know, I mean, it's one of these, you know, it's one of these things like you've already built in that it's somehow too much by using the word over.
These are real concerns that you have, right?
Genetic stuff matters.
The outcomes in terms of mental health for mixed-race kids, I mean, they're not all Elliot Rodger, obviously, but there is more of a challenge.
You know, where do you feel At home, where do you feel comfortable?
We are a tribal species.
We always have been.
We most likely, we're not cats, we're dogs, right?
We are a tribal species.
This doesn't mean that people like you and I, I mean, I'm having more fun with you than...
a lot of the white people I chat with.
So it's not like we can't have this great connection and all that.
But it sort of has struck me that a lot of people who were younger tend to be into a lot of this sort of heavy diversity and multiculturalism stuff.
And when I was a kid, I was too.
I didn't care what color my friends were, you know, did we have fun?
Did we enjoy each other's company?
And do you know, did they laugh at my stupid jokes?
That's all that really mattered.
And but it becomes different.
And normally when you're Lots of different cultures, lots of different races and so on.
It's great.
It's instructive and so on.
But there is a kind of rubber-hits-the-road seriousness that happens when you're starting to think about having kids.
Yeah.
Because you've got to figure out what values you're going to raise them with, what culture...
I mean, of course, you know, how many kids don't go around strangling hobos and stuff?
But what kind of cultural values are you going to instill in them?
And wouldn't it be easier if you were with someone who shared cultural values?
And cultural values are not entirely separate from race.
They're not obviously the same, but I don't think that they're entirely separate.
And so it does—I get where you're coming from.
It becomes more complicated— When you try to figure out how you're going to raise children and how those children are going To do in life when, like, suddenly multiculturalism goes from, like, a kind of funky plus to a bit more of a question mark, right?
Right.
I mean, it's cute until you see the outcomes, you know, and it's just...
And, I mean, not to go too far afield, but, you know, when I talk to my boyfriend, he talks about...
He's from...
He's a villager, you know?
He's actually...
And to me, it's, like, so hard to imagine because, I mean, nothing like that really exists, you know?
Like, I'm from the suburbs, you know?
And he talks about just how, I mean, how in-group focused everyone there.
Like, he was telling me this one story about how there's, you know, a lot of older women, I guess because, like, the men over there die much sooner than the women.
So there's a bunch of old ladies, kind of like the inner city, I guess, you know?
So there are a bunch of older women, and, you know, they really kind of rely on the goodness of strangers.
But when you have a very, you know, a very...
I mean, if you're a homogenous group, you have that.
I mean, you can have that.
And he talks about, you know, chopping wood for these old ladies.
And then, you know, he doesn't really know them.
I mean, kind of knows them.
They're in the same village.
You know, and then they would invite them in to eat.
And you kind of look at that and you're like, well, yeah, I mean, this is a high-trust society of people who are...
Very much like each other.
The majority, I think there's like 40 million, and they're all like each other.
And then I think about it, I'm just kind of like, well, okay, what if we have a kid and let's say that we go over there and, you know, immediately that feeling is destroyed.
I mean, it has to be because it's not the same, you know?
It's just, and I'm like, and it's hard because you would, if I have a kid, I think it's important.
I think family is so important in the raising of children, you know?
I'm not one of those, it takes a village, like, losers.
But, you know, you kind of need both sides.
You kind of need the values of both sides.
You kind of need the investment from both sides.
Especially if you want a bunch of kids.
Right.
If you want a whole litter of them, you have to rely on this family.
And, you know, it's just that feeling is immediately just destroyed because this person is, I mean, Ukrainian, okay, whatever, black, whatever.
But that's not really, you're not really either.
And, you know, it's just taken to its logical conclusion.
What does a country like Ukraine look like if everyone decides, oh, it doesn't matter, peace and love, who cares, you know?
It's not Ukraine anymore.
It's something else, you know?
And I just think about that.
I just, like, how...
I don't know.
Am I... Am I bequeathing anything to my children if by their mere existence they're destroying what I intend to bequeat to them?
I don't know if that makes any sense.
No, no, I get it.
I get it.
I mean, I think at the margins, it can be borne out, right?
I mean, more intelligent people or people who have just kind of more of a tolerance for vibrancy or diversity, whatever you want to call it, they can manage.
But I think most people, it's very disconcerting for the average person.
They can't deal with too much difference.
And I don't know.
I mean, it's just weird.
What are you doing?
Well, yeah.
My major concern, just to sort of unburden myself here to get this sort of in the rear view for me, Carol, but my major concern with a multiracial society is nothing to do with the races.
It's the degree to which leftists start manipulating everyone and turning races against each other and And screaming racism at everyone.
I mean, that to me is like, it's not even the multiracial aspect of the society that troubles me.
It's the degree to which generally people on the left and the cultural Marxists will start pitting everyone against each other.
Yeah, I mean, I know, but they know it works, though.
I mean, but that's the thing.
I think fundamentally, if they weren't there, we could have it more likely.
If they weren't there, people were less susceptible to it.
But people are very susceptible to it.
I think they're just playing on something that is very obviously present in the human psyche.
I think that it works just because people...
I don't think people are born hating or born to dislike other people.
But people are born with certain, I think we're born with certain preferences.
I'm not determinist or anything like that, but I mean, I think that, you know, there's certain things that are hard, right, that are hardwired.
Biologically, the only way evolution can work is if we have a preference for the genetics that are closer to our own.
Right, of course, you know, and it just makes sense.
It's a survival thing.
And, you know, I mean, it looks vestigial now that we're in civilization, but, you know, it's still there, you know, for better or for worse.
And I think They know it works because they know that people have that.
It's hardwired into us.
And, you know, I mean, I don't know.
Would we get along?
I mean, would it be all beautiful if they weren't riling people up?
I don't know.
I feel like people would find a way to be riled up regardless, you know?
I think that without...
Some of the cultural Marxism, it would be easier.
You know, how easy it would be, I don't know, but it would be easier.
Like, it really, it pisses me off.
Like, because, you know, I talk about challenging race questions and gender questions and all that kind of stuff.
And I don't get called racist by black people or Hispanic people or mestizo people or anything like that.
It's the white people generally who call me racist.
And it's like, how condescending is that?
I mean, Carol, you're a smart, independent-minded, incredibly verbally acute human being.
You don't need some white person stepping in and lecturing me about being a racist, do you?
I mean, good lord, that's ridiculous, right?
No, I mean, it's horrible.
I mean, you know, and I don't even like – I don't like much of what's going on now in mainstream culture.
I mean, I think it's disgusting.
I think that, you know, the same way that – I think every group has the right to exist and I think every group has the right to voice – An opinion, if not an observation on what's going on.
I mean, I think, yeah, there is definitely, you know, just going to school in a mostly white institution throughout my life, except for high school, you notice that.
And I just wonder, why are you censoring yourselves?
You know, like, you shouldn't be doing this.
Like, you shouldn't be, you know, kind of like going after your own.
And just, it's weird.
It's just so, you know, it's so odd.
And I think it's so wrong.
And I think that now it's just come to a head because You know, I mean, society's fracturing.
You know, I mean, the U.S., Western society, maybe it's fracturing.
I mean, people are just, they're rootless, they're empty, they're hurting.
And, you know, it's just kind of like, if the opportunity is there to blame everything, all of society's ills on something else, then people will do it.
Devious people will do it.
And that's what they're doing now.
And it's horrible.
You know, I hate to see that.
You know, I hate to see that.
Yeah, it is a...
It is a real shame.
Alright, so let's...
And how long have you been dating?
Two years.
But I think that I've kind of...
When you say two years, like two years, that's a long time, right?
Yeah, no, it's a long time.
But what I was about to say was that I think that I've just...
Like, it's not recent.
It's kind of just been...
It's been a long time coming.
But I think as we go on, you know, I've started to have not second thoughts about...
I mean, you know, just the children and things like that and, you know, cultural differences and, you know, all of these things, you know.
Right.
One other question.
Of course.
First of all, of course, this is a great name for a band, but a phrase that you used with regards to your ex-boyfriend from college, incipient shitlord.
Can you help people understand what that means?
I'm sure that you're shitlord.
So it's just kind of like this phrase that these liberals come up with.
They're like, oh, hate facts or whatever.
You're saying that certain groups are more inclined to do this or that.
Oh, you're a shitlord.
But then, you know, the right or like the alt-right or whatever, they just started making fun of it.
Like, oh, you're a shitlord.
Basically, it's just kind of like, you just don't back down from your opinions.
You kind of, you realize that this liberalism is just, it just ends in the grave.
Like, you just, so you just laugh at it.
You're like, you know, if you observe these things and you openly state these hate facts or whatever they are, And you're a shitlord, you know?
And they don't like that.
So I'm just, you know, what I was saying was about myself, it's like even before I, you know, had a kind of, had an articulated belief in conservatism or whatever you, what have you, it was just kind of like I'm looking at things and I was just realizing that it was just all so stupid.
And, you know, every now and again, I would just say something that, you know, was that they don't say in polite society, you know, make observations that maybe shouldn't be made.
And, you know, it was kind of just even before I knew anything about anything, I kind of had questions.
So I think that's kind of what I meant by that.
Okay, yeah, I was just curious.
Some people won't know.
Exactly what that means.
It takes a liberal to put the word lord in what's supposed to be an insult because it sounds powerful anyway.
Yeah, but now it's just funny.
It's just like, oh yeah, shit lord.
They use it in these circles of the net.
It's funny.
It's hilarious.
Yeah, I'm a shit lord.
So what?
Yeah, not everyone is equal.
Okay, that's fine.
I believe that.
What now?
It's just not backing down.
I think that's kind of what it means to me.
It's not backing down from scary opinions.
Before I start rambling away with my thoughts, the feelings of alienation, where are they at at the moment, Carol, and what are they like?
You know, I feel as though I don't really...
I have an image of myself and I think everyone does.
And how you think you come across and maybe how you actually come across.
And I feel as though I can't really tell most people.
I can't really have real conversations with most people about what I'm thinking and what I'm observing because I really do think that it could have a negative impact on my life.
I remember You know, I was having lunch with a co-worker once, and I went a little off script, and I was just talking about, I don't know what the hell I was talking about, but it was for them pretty far out.
And then I noticed the shunning happening after, and it's just kind of like, oh man, power level too high, gotta turn it down a little bit.
I scared the villagers.
Yeah, and I think that it's tough, because I think the things that I'm proudest of I can't really claim.
The things that I want to say I can't really say.
And that's because I'm not really with the whole prog mentality.
On the other hand, I think that I am still Black at the end of the day, and I notice that, you know, especially people I work with, I feel as though they have a little bit of discomfort.
Like, they don't really know, you know, where is she coming from?
You know, she's different from us, you know, and I've just noticed certain things.
You know, I've noticed that there's a certain comfort level of, you know, that the majority of the people I work with have with, you know, other white people or other Asians or things like that.
So I think I'm kind of just squeezed in the middle, you know, and it It hurts.
I wish that we could all get along, but I guess that's not reality.
It's lonely, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
It's lonely out there.
No, I get that.
It may be as much, if not more, a thinking thing than a black thing.
People who think have a tough time with the muggles, right?
I mean, it could just be that.
I don't think it's just that.
I'm just saying that that's part of it.
I think that could be a part of it.
Yes, excuse me.
It could be a part of that.
I just assume everyone thought.
Doesn't everyone think?
Don't you have questions?
Don't you have wonder?
It's just kind of like every little thing.
I think about it and I look up and I'm in awe.
What a wonderful planet.
How did it come to be this way?
And to think that nobody or many people just go through the motions of life, they just exist and they don't live, it's weird.
It's like, how can you do that?
How can you have no curiosity about anything?
And I always thought, I mean, maybe because that's the way I grew up, I always thought that everyone thought, you know, or everyone enjoyed thinking.
It's a challenge when you realize there's no point trying to mistake the world for yourself.
Yeah, you know, and that's the thing.
I think that I definitely, that's something that I've come to realize.
I think maybe that was...
You know, just presumptuous of me to think that everyone saw the world through my eyes, which, you know, I'm just like, not everyone sees it the way you do, and you have to be understanding of that.
But at the same time, it's isolating, you know?
I don't want to be like a freak out there.
People are going to view the world differently.
The question is, can you bridge it with reason and evidence?
Or is it more like, well, I like hugs.
Maybe this grizzly bear would like a hug, too.
I mean, that's literally how it is, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Are you ready for StephBot lecture time?
I am.
I'm ready.
All right.
Strapped in.
Get you all self-comfortable.
Oh, boy.
I'll see if I can make some sense.
Get a cup of tea or something.
No, I'm kidding.
Go ahead.
Okay.
First of all, you are a great person.
Oh.
Right?
I mean, you have...
I mean, I could list you.
You have courage, intelligence, eloquence, curiosity, passion, insightfulness, very well-educated, a hugely delightful person, right?
So...
That's not bad to have as a mom as characteristics either.
You are, you know, I can see a picture of you on Skype, very pretty.
So with that combination, it would be a real shame if you weren't a mom.
Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here, given what I know about bell curves and stuff like that, for you to go out and find at your age, you know, a well-educated, unattached, Black man, who has some cultural affinity and some cultural compatibility and so on, may not be the highest of the odds that you might want to take on.
Now, if you love, and you did say love, I know you skated past it fairly quickly.
I'm bad with emotion.
I think that's what it is.
I'm horrible with it.
That's all right.
But so kids will fix that.
They'll pull your heart out through your nose, and you'll cry every day.
It's beautiful.
But you love Mr.
Ukraine, and you've been together for a while.
Obviously, there's some compatibility.
And I got to tell you, you know, when I think of all of the children, Carol, who are born in the world, who have dumb, mean, terrible children, Or just maybe they've got nice parents, but there's very little opportunity for them in their environment or whatever.
To be your kid, to be your child would be a very great honor for any child to achieve.
You know, like if there's, I think sometimes like there's this big mothership, so to speak, kids are all hanging on the umbilicals and they get to drop in particular households.
Like kids would be crowding around to go down your chimney, right?
And your capacity, I think, I assume that, you know, if you've listened to the show, I've probably nagged you to death remotely about peaceful parenting.
So if you're on board with all of that stuff, you have such an enormous amount of wonderful things to bring to motherhood that I got to think that's going to more than compensate for any of the identity issues that may be There, or probably will be there, in the future.
And I wouldn't let, if this man, and you know, you could go out and try more, but you know, if this is bird in the hand, right, two in the bush and so on.
Right.
If this man is someone that you love, and someone you could see spending your life with, and someone you could see being a parent with, I'm not trying to minimize or discount the identity issues that may arise in the future.
Right.
But that's just looking at the negative.
And there's nothing wrong with looking at the negative, but you know that economics means you can't just look at the visible, you have to look at the invisible as well.
You can't just look at the jobs that are created by government programs, you have to look at the jobs that were destroyed because the money was diverted to government programs, or the jobs that never came into being.
So you're looking at the challenges, the multiracial challenges of you being a mom, And what I wanted to do is just sort of grab your perspective, step it back a little bit and say, but look at all of the amazing things you can bring to being a mom.
And on balance, I still think there's a lot more ground coming up than going in.
I think there's a lot more of a mountain than a hole, even if we accept that there's a hole, which I'm fine with.
But the things that you can bring, curiosity, passion, virtue, integrity, Love of the world.
I mean, isn't that why we have children?
It's to introduce them to the beauties of the world and the joys of existence.
And you obviously have a very deep relish of existence.
And to have that in your life, I think, is going to be far more beneficial than identity issues that may come down the road.
Because with your passion and your intelligence and your curiosity and your The children, I think, are going to be better armed for any identity issues than most other kids who wouldn't even have any identity issues.
So even if we say, okay, well, there's a minus 10, I've got to still think there's still a plus 100 in terms of how you could be as a mom.
So that would be my sort of reminder or potential perspective.
And now I'll stop talking.
Yeah.
I mean, I appreciate it.
Those are very kind words.
And I mean, it does mean a lot, you know?
I mean...
I feel like I do have a lot to offer kids.
I think they're just so great.
I think they're such a blessing.
Anyone who wants to be a parent should think that they want to give their child the greatest advantage.
You don't want to burden them with whatever.
You don't want their life to be started off at a deficit.
I do feel like I have a lot to offer.
I do appreciate your words, and it gives me a lot to think about.
Yeah, and of course, there are always going to be deficits in just about every situation, right?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, of course, there's no perfect situation.
It's silly to think so.
Yeah, there's no perfect situation.
But what you would have to genuinely believe to not have children if you very much want children, you'd have to genuinely believe that your children would be better off not existing.
Than living with you.
I have a tough time getting...
That's a pretty frank way to put it.
I personally have a tough time getting to that place where I could look at you and say, yeah, you know, your children would be better off not being born than being born to you.
Because that's kind of what you're saying to yourself, right?
You know, and I think I just never thought of it that way.
But I think basically that's what it is.
It's just like, you know...
Do you want to have mixed heritage children, whatever the buzzword is, or is it so bad that they're better off not being born?
I mean, that's an extreme position.
I think that's an insane position.
Extreme is a nice way of putting it.
If you've got a boyfriend or eventually a husband or a father to your children who's into peaceful parenting, you're into peaceful parenting, you've obviously got great genes between you.
If he's like you, then God, I mean...
What kid wouldn't be fortunate in that environment?
Well, that's very sweet.
I mean, I'm not trivializing anything you're saying, but that's nice to think about.
I just never really thought about it that way.
I mean, I kind of do, but it's just never kind of articulated the way you did.
So I do appreciate it.
And of course, there are going to be more and more mixed-race children.
Yeah, I know.
And I think a part of me just wonders, is this really a good thing?
I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing, but I just wonder if it's like...
We can't stop it, right?
Yeah, of course.
I mean, what's already in progress probably can't be stopped, you know?
Your kid won't be the only, you know, mixed-race kid in the Ukraine.
I guess if you go to visit, there won't be that many around.
But certainly in America, mixed-race is not, you know, it's not...
What is that I just saw?
I mean, that's not going to be the case.
And there will be other mixed-race kids who are, you know, half white or half black that will be part of that community.
So it's not like, you know, you're the only mixed-race kid in the neighborhood.
If you did this in the Ukraine, it might be a bit of a different story.
But certainly in America, there'll be a lot.
In here, in the U.S., I mean, it's...
Obviously, less of an issue.
No one really cares.
Some people do, but for the most part, no one really looks at them as though they're different or they're scum or whatever.
No one thinks like that.
Very few people do.
But to me, I just wonder what the world is going to look like.
What's the world going to look like in 50 years?
Everyone is just...
You know, all intermarried and, you know, I don't know.
I just feel like that has to strip the world of some of its unique character, you know, because you're neither.
I mean, I think that perhaps I shouldn't be thinking on, there's nothing I can do.
I can't really do much.
I can't think on such a global scale, but, you know, like, what does everything look like once it's, like, All beige.
It just doesn't...
I don't know.
It's just not...
It doesn't seem interesting.
You know, it just doesn't seem ideal.
Yeah, there's less diversity if everyone's blended.
Right, right.
Yeah, it's like diversity becomes monoculture, right?
You know, so I mean, I think that's just what happens.
I mean, maybe it's not reversible.
Maybe it shouldn't be reversed.
But I just think that, you know, some of that...
The things that make the world interesting or that make people interesting is it's going to be flattened.
You know, I mean, it's not going to be...
All right, let's get back to your heart and away from your intellect because that's where your gravitational well is.
So I don't know if you've heard any of the calls I've had with the single moms, but you know, some single moms have called in.
I love the single mom series.
I love the single mom series.
But when I'm actually talking to the single moms, you know, some of them are in pretty dire situations, right?
The man is gone and there's only one kid and they're lonely and all that kind of stuff.
Now, I could never, honestly, Carol, in a million years, imagine saying to that woman, your kid would have been better off not being born.
Mm-hmm.
Now that's, I mean, that's a dire situation.
You will be, you know, an intelligent, vibrant woman married to an intelligent, vibrant man with good, peaceful parenting values.
You're going to stay married.
Most likely his parents are married forever.
You're married.
Parents are married forever.
You've got those skills.
You've got that history.
You've got those resources.
So I would, like, in order to even remotely come to where you are around not having kids, I'd have to look at you and your opportunities and your possibilities and the possibilities of your child's And say, oh yeah, those kids should not be born.
I'd never say that to a single mom, and you're in an infinitely better position than that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that's...
Don't let them have all the children.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
Don't let the single moms have all the kids.
I mean, and this is, you know, and without...
Gosh, I sound like these progs nowadays.
You know, without passing judgment on the single moms, you know, it's just kind of like, I look at it sometimes, and I'm just like, everyone...
Because my high school wasn't that great.
You know, it was...
You know, lots of little teen pregnancies and this dropout rate is really high.
College, you know, attendance rate really low.
And this is, you know, I look at the kids, the majority of the kids I went to school with, and it's like, they're on their third kid now.
And I'm, you know, looking at 30, not even a kid on the horizon.
I'm like, This is so unfair.
Why don't they care that their kids are going to have worse outcomes?
Why do I care so much?
But at the same time...
And thus the intelligence in the gene pool is weeded out of society and it all goes to the crapper.
By the time I have my first kid, these guys are going to be literally, I'm not even lying, on their fourth or fifth.
That is not fair.
I'm sitting here kind of like...
Well, I did everything, right?
I did, you know, I focused on my studies.
I did this, I did that.
And it's just, you know, I'm still kind of pushing things.
And, you know, I mean, whatever.
If I could have a kid tomorrow, that'd be great.
Of course, it's not sensible.
So you're just sitting there, you're like, oh, well, you know, a few more, you know, a few more years or whatever, you know, and this is kind of like, then you're pushing geriatric pregnancy.
And then they're like, this is not fair.
Yeah, you want to do it sooner rather than later.
I'm not the youngest dad on the block.
And yeah, I mean, I work out, I exercise, I keep healthy as best I can.
But you know, time is Time takes his tiny little chisely tall on you, no matter what.
I saw it with my dad.
My daughter was practicing the long jump, and I'm like, I'll do that!
Actually, it did actually work out.
I did a big long jump, but part of me was like, I wonder if I'll regret this for the next month.
It's like, maybe I shouldn't have done that.
I mean, I definitely, I've seen how, you know, it takes, I mean, of course, you love your daughter.
I mean, everyone could tell, like, you You're in love with her, absolutely.
And you would do it all over again, but you're an older dad.
My dad was an older dad, and it's just like, I'm tired now.
Yeah, you can see it, but parenthood is this ongoing thing.
I still rely on my parents for just sometimes comfort and advice and things like that.
So there's never a point at which it cuts off, and you just have more energy for that when you're younger, obviously.
And I look at my dad now, he's about to be 72, and it's just like, Damn.
Me when he was 42, my brother when he was 45.
He's tired.
You want to have that time to really be energetic.
And me too.
Of course, I want that time to be energetic and devoted to my kids.
Even at 29, I've slowed down so much.
You really feel time taking its toll.
And I'm like, God, I don't want to be like Late 30s and, you know, it's better to have it sooner than later, you know.
And, you know, I mean, the risks go up and the utility goes down.
No, I mean, sooner rather than later, in my humble opinion, is the way to go.
And does your boyfriend, is he interested in family and kids and all?
Oh, yeah.
He's always talking about how he loves kids and they really like the kids, you know.
They really value children, you know.
He's really excited about it, you know, but I think a part of it, you know, a part of it is kind of like, I don't know, I mean, and this is kind of like a new thing, too, also, but, you know, I would love to have kids with him, you know, I would love to be with him, but, I mean, a huge thing, too, is just my mom.
My mom is very, she's, these Caribbeans, they tend to be very classist, in my opinion, and, you know, she's just kind of like, oh, you know, what's his education?
What's this?
What's that?
And, You know, she's not really on board and I'm very close to my mom, perhaps, you know, perhaps to the point where I kind of need to have a little bit of boundaries.
And I think I've been hesitating because I'm so close to her and I know she doesn't approve.
And I want her to approve because she's, you know, she's my best friend, like no cheese, you know, but she's my best friend.
And I mean, if she doesn't approve, it's kind of in the back of my head, like, you know, what is, oh my God, you know, so...
Wait, okay, okay.
I know, I just introduced a whole new subject.
I'm sorry.
I know, no, that's fine.
I mean, but...
First of all, is your mom introducing you to guys you can marry?
No, my mom.
So, you know, it's all fine to criticize, but unless you're out with the hunt, you don't get to criticize what people bring home.
That's true.
And also, she must have known, along with your father, that she was raising you in a different way to the average African American.
Yeah, I mean, they knew.
I mean, but I don't know.
I just think that When you're used to doing...
These are just very strong personalities.
My dad just does his own thing.
Not in some kind of degenerate bum way.
But he is very strong-minded.
And my mother is very strong-minded.
And then I think when you just have two strong-minded people who get together, they don't really see how it looks to the outside.
They don't really see what they're doing.
They're just like, we're doing the right thing.
And that's great.
So I think both my brother and I, I think they just raised us to be So different.
I was listening to the conversation you had with the Mexican-American gentleman when he says he feels like an alien.
And I'm like, that's totally how I feel.
I just feel like an alien.
And, you know, you just never realized that you were a freak until you went into the broader world.
And now it's just like, you know, I don't even think they realized what they were doing.
They just did it.
And, you know, for a long time I was the same way.
But, you know, like, The world expanded since they were young.
I think the difficulties or the challenges facing people in my generation are just different.
They have no clue.
I feel just weird, like I don't belong and all this stuff.
I don't think they realized what they were doing at all.
No, and I get that.
I think that people who think belong to the future.
It feels like, it sometimes feels to me like I'd cast back in time to bring knowledge to the muggles.
Because, you know, if there is to be a future where we can all get along and enjoy each other's company and, you know, respect and recognize and celebrate differences, like all of the diversity crap that is kind of nauseating when it comes from the left.
Right, yeah.
But which is, you know, a real part of how societies are going to have to figure things out in the future.
I just, I feel like I'm sort of coming back in time from the future and...
You know, the natives can sometimes get a little testy, you know, so that I think is natural.
I mean, and the question is, would you rather be less who you are in order to fit in more?
Like the identity that you have, the uniqueness that you have, would you want that sanded down so you could be just another grain of sand on the beach?
For me, no.
It's not the way to go.
And therefore...
You know, there's an old phrase, Mike Serinovich talks about it in a good book called The Gorilla Mindset, and it comes out of the army and it's called, embrace the suck.
And he's talking, I think he's talking about army rangers, they do like, I don't know, 26 days in a row where they get two hours of sleep and you can either fight about it and complain about it and bitch about it or embrace the suck.
And for me, you know, there's an old saying from Nietzsche, he says, if you are not one of the herd, you will feel lonely, you will be frightened, you will feel ashamed, but no price is too high For the honor of owning yourself.
Yeah.
And I just sort of recognize that I can't be smaller intellectually or less perceptive intellectually or less rational or less dedicated to evidence than I am.
I could maybe fake it for a bit.
I can't fundamentally do it any more than I can open my eyes, look at a tree, and not see the tree.
Like, that's just the way that high-functioning intellects work is you see something, And you get the pattern and you understand it and you understand the implications and maybe you can hide that from other people but all of that is saying is that their fear and their unintelligence should somehow eclipse your intelligence and perceptiveness.
Mm-hmm.
Make the tree and your perceptiveness in seeing it somehow dishonorable because they refuse to see the tree or they think the tree is an evil deity or they'll be cursed if they look at it.
You know, it's all superstition when it comes to reason and evidence.
We have to follow and we have to show people that reason and evidence is not scary because most people are very terrified.
If you show people it's not scary, open your eyes, look at the tree.
It's not going to bite.
And so I would rather have that.
I can't give...
Because the tree is beautiful.
I mean, you say the beauty of the world, the tree...
You know, shimmers in multicolored diamonds of leaves and bird's nest and beauty.
And so I can't give up looking at the tree.
The tree is beautiful.
And just because other people are scared of the tree doesn't mean that I got to close my eyes or punch myself in the head or take forks into my eye sockets or something.
I'm just going to look at the tree and be comfortable with the tree so that other people can look at the tree and know it's not that scary.
And doing otherwise is to let their...
I mean, without, you know...
No, go ahead.
No, no, I was just about to say, you know, just without being a complete sycophant, I mean, that's what, I mean, I enjoy listening to pretty much everything you do, and I like that.
I like that you stick to your guns and you appreciate the world.
Like, you look at it and you're like, this is beautiful.
And, you know, you try to get to that point where they can appreciate it too and they can engage on a higher level.
And, I mean, I do respect that.
I mean, I think it's great, you know.
It's such a mission.
I don't know how you do it.
Love the world.
Love the future.
Love the potential of the species.
And I think if you can see, you need to show.
Especially if you can see and find a way to translate it into what people can consume, that's a responsibility.
I think with great gifts come great responsibilities.
It's not a coercive or compulsive thing.
But, you know, it's like the doctor in a time of plague who can heal with he's got a big bag full of pills.
Does he just stay home and say, well, you know, something's good on TV. No, you got to go out in the streets with your pills and heal the folks.
So, listen, I'm going to move on to the next caller.
But, but, but, will you keep us posted?
I will.
I would love to.
And thank you so much.
I really appreciate you spending this time.
Thank you.
Oh, it was my pleasure, Carol.
A great pleasure to chat.
And you're certainly welcome back anytime.
Thank you.
All right.
Thanks very much.
Bye.
Alright, up next is Felipe.
Felipe wrote in and said, How did you learn to debate?
Were you always good at it?
How can I get better at debating?
Specifically, when the audience is not in my favor?
That's from Felipe.
Hey, Felipe, how you doing?
Hi, how are you?
I'm very well.
How you doing, man?
Good, good.
And I wrote some explanation to that.
Yeah, go for it.
Just to have some idea of what it meant.
Well...
Like a year ago or something, I started watching your program, and what really caught my attention was it wasn't only your political positions, but your ability and your willingness to defend your ideas in front of everybody.
You know, smart, dumb, ignorant, academic.
So then I decided I wanted to acquire that ability for myself.
I started talking in public and I joined these debate clubs and started pitching business ideas and presenting my beliefs as my own.
And at the end of my journey, I ended up appreciating the scope and importance of what you do.
And there's basically two aspects of this.
First, for me, you know, I learned how difficult it is to put yourself out there.
Because I'm very sociable.
I debate all the time with friends.
But when I debate in public, I become so overwhelmed by emotions.
I just disconnect myself.
My mind disconnects from my words and from the audience.
I don't have my usual cognitive abilities.
I just become so different.
I'm this different person.
And the other point, the other thing that I learned while I was in this process of going to debate it and everything, is that this wasn't something of my own.
I mean, I realized that for the majority of people, this is the reality.
And the smartest and most humble people have this issue.
And it was really concerning that being good at debating had nothing to do with having the best arguments or being closer to the truth.
In fact, the time I won my first debate, I was defending ideas I didn't even believe in.
In my experience, the good public debaters There are these arrogant people.
They're not humble.
It's a show, right?
It's a show for them.
It's a show, yeah.
And it's the people who end up in positions of power.
People who just...
There's a silent majority.
And I think those people have to be brought into conversation.
And they are not.
Mm-hmm.
And that's why, like, I think that because of that, we're not listening to each other and we desperately need smart, humble people to get good at debating in order to create a better society.
And I was thinking if it's, you know, how difficult it is to get good and putting your ideas out there without losing You know, this humbleness, this...
Yeah, no, I get it.
Let me give you a sort of brief history and get comfy.
This may take a few minutes, but I certainly did not start out as a good debater.
I did not start out as a good debater.
The first thing that I remember in terms of sort of formal debating was when I was in high school.
I was debating...
Abortion.
We had a debating sort of roundtable.
It's like a UN thing, and we ended up doing some sort of debate on abortion.
And I was not good.
I was not good.
There was a woman.
I still remember her name.
I won't say it now.
But there was a woman who was there.
A girl.
I guess we were all in our, I guess, mid to late teens.
And she gave me...
This speech and sort of asking questions.
They were sort of rhetorical questions.
And I remember them quite clearly, but just to be absolutely sure, let me just look them up for a sec.
Ah, here we go.
All right.
Here is a case with regards to abortion.
So, Philippe, let me ask you this.
You are trying to give advice about abortion.
And here is the situation.
The grandmother is an alcoholic and the father spends his evenings out drinking in the taverns.
His mother has tuberculosis.
She has already given birth to four children.
The first child is blind.
The second child died.
The third child is deaf and the fourth child has tuberculosis.
Now the mother is pregnant again.
Given this extreme situation, would you conceivably recommend an abortion?
Well, I don't think you can take a decision just based on that information.
But it would be something that would more likely than not, you would at least consider it, right?
Oh, yeah.
I would be more prone to it, but, you know...
Okay, so she put all of this out, right?
And then she said, boom, you have just aborted the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
Or, here we go.
A 15-year-old girl is pregnant.
She is not married and lives in a cave in an outback area with very little money or resources.
The man she hopes to marry is not the father of the baby.
There is no hospital or doctor available.
Would you recommend that she get an abortion?
If yes, you have just killed off Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.
And she ate me for breakfast.
I had something about, well, you know, the soul is supposed to be there when the egg is conceived, but then the egg splits a few days later, so which baby gets the soul?
And nobody had any clue what the hell I was talking about.
Yeah.
So she, I mean, she ate me alive.
She was really good.
And I done sucketh.
And I, but it was one of these things, you know, when I'm bad at some stuff, Philippe, it doesn't bother me.
Like when I'm bad at some stuff, it doesn't bother me at all.
Ah, but you know where your joy and your juice is?
It's the stuff that you're bad at and it really bothers you.
You know, like I tried to learn to play guitar.
I can play like one song, All Dead, All Dead by Queen, and that's it.
And I've never been particularly bothered by the fact that I have these relatively tiny, stubby Donald Trump-style hands.
And it doesn't bother me that I'm not even remotely good at guitar.
But there are some things it bothers me that I'm bad at.
And it bothered me, because I remember this really vividly.
I don't remember the math tests I scraped by or anything.
I remember...
That debate, I remember what time of day it was, what the weather was like, boom!
That moment, it was like, wow, you suck, and that's fine.
Because I suck at a lot of stuff.
But in this case, I kind of knew deep down, you suck, but you don't have to.
And that is a very different experience for me.
So, when I got to college, I joined the debating team.
Now, I had done a lot of improv.
I went to, let's see, I did two years of English literature at York University at Glendon campus.
I was on the debating club there and we got to, I had a really good debating partner and he sort of challenged me and worked with me and all of that.
He was more experienced.
And the first year I did it, I think I came in sixth of all of Canada in the finals in Newfoundland.
And I very clearly remember what One of the debates was it was about whether the government should set up a place where people could, this is long before the internet, where the government could set up, should it set up a place where people could record their stories so you'd have a sort of history of people's different lives and so on.
And I said, well, you already have something like that.
It's called the publishing industry.
It's just they verify for quality.
And I remember having a debate back and forth and there was an audience and I remember the guy didn't respond to any of my issues and I walked up to the audience and I said, Wait, we're in St.
John's, right?
St.
John's, Newfoundland.
Am I correct about that?
Because we can't be in the same place as that last guy because he's not even responding to anything I said.
So maybe we're in a different place and I'm just not aware of it.
So I learned a little bit more just how to think on my feet.
I also remember, actually this is even before the high school debate, two other things where there was a debate going on.
One was a very fractious debate I was having with friends about the death penalty.
And the death penalty is one of these, you know, obviously like abortion and so on.
It's a thorny and challenging issue when it comes to ethics and so on.
And everybody was just grumpy and gripey and sniping at each other.
And everybody had their perspectives, but nobody actually knew how to build an argument.
And I remember being inordinately frustrated at that.
I played soccer every week, twice a week sometimes, and I played tennis and so on.
I was pretty good at tennis, wasn't that great at soccer.
And the team that I was in, we never really practiced anything and we never really got any better, but it was really good exercise and a lot of fun.
But it didn't bother me that we weren't doing that well.
But when we were having a bad debate, it bothered me that we were having a bad debate.
And that being bothered by stuff is a good indication of where you should point the prow of your ship.
Are you bothered by something?
Well, that's usually something that part of you deep down is saying you can do better about.
And the earliest real debate debate that I can remember having was, I think I was maybe 14 or 15 perhaps.
And I've mentioned this fellow before.
A friend of mine's father who was a fantastic man from Persia, who had never referred to it as Iran.
He was from Persia.
And he wasn't there, but his wife and myself and one or two other people, we were debating whether colonialism was justified.
And I had these sort of vague feelings and thoughts about it, but I didn't really know how to articulate it very well.
I just remember being frustrated.
And frustration is a good sign that you can probably do better if you're willing to work at it.
I mean, when it came to guitar, I was just like, man, I could probably work forever at this, not get a whole lot better.
Plus, I'm not going to be a guitarist.
So it just really didn't.
But, you know, with stuff like tennis, I knew if I worked at it, I could get a lot better.
And I did with squash, the same thing, and a bunch of other stuff.
But So I was not good at the beginning, and then when I got some training, I got some mentorship, and I began to work hard at it, then I began to see the payoff.
And that frustration that I had when I felt inarticulate in situations of verbal conflict, that frustration I had was the first indication that I could do better.
And, you know, I've tried so many different things in my life, you know, learning a new computer language, easy peasy, like I could do that in my sleep.
Learning another language like a spoken language?
I mean, I've tried German, I've tried French, and it really did not take very well at all.
It's just not, you know, something that I'm particularly good at.
But I don't feel frustrated at my inability to learn French, but I felt frustrated at my inability to be Articulate and to be convincing and to hold my own.
And that frustration was because deep down I kind of had a feeling or a sense that I could be better at this.
So if that gives you any comfort, it took a long time.
It was years from my first debate to when I felt even vaguely confident about it.
And I'll tell you And it's not a trick, because it's really, really true, Philippe, but this is what I think is really important to understand when it comes to debating.
I would guess, Philippe, that the reason you feel nervous is because you feel self-conscious when it comes to debating.
You think you're worrying about what people are going to think of you.
Yes.
And that is, I don't think, the most accurate way to approach it.
So if you have two friends, a boy and a girl, and you think they'd be perfect for each other, like they date, they might get married, have kids or whatever, when you introduce those two friends of yours, you fix them up or whatever, are you thinking about yourself?
No.
No, you're thinking about how do they get along and how can I facilitate them getting along?
Because I really think they're perfect for each other.
So when it comes to speaking, for me, there's the thought or the idea that I want to get across.
And then there's the audience.
I'm here to introduce the idea to the audience.
And I hope they're going to love each other.
And I hope that they'll really get along and maybe have some babies together.
But I'm not there thinking about myself.
What do they think of me?
I'm thinking, am I getting the idea through to the audience?
Like I'm introducing these two entities to each other.
Are they going to get along?
I hope that they are.
I think they will.
I picked the topic because of the audience usually.
Can I get it across to them?
And that takes you out of the equation.
It becomes about the ideas or the arguments and the audience, right?
And when you take yourself out of the equation, This old cliche, get out of your own way, or whatever.
When you take yourself, your ego, and your identity out of the equation, you become like a superhero.
You get staggeringly great powers.
And that is weird for people who haven't figured that out.
And it took me a long time to figure it out, but...
When you realize that you want people to judge the argument, you want people to judge the ideas, you want people to judge the perspective or whatever it is you're trying to get across, you want people to judge that, then you stop thinking about yourself and you start thinking about how to best plug the ideas into the audience's brain.
You watch the audience and you think of the ideas and you're thinking on your feet and you're really trying to get the ideas across to the audience.
And it's not about you.
It's about the connection between the thoughts and the ears.
Now, that having been said, I also spent a lot of time...
Sorry, go ahead.
Yeah, so why, you know, the best public speakers and the very good ones and, you know, the politicians, they all have, they clearly have their ego on the way.
I mean, they use their ego as a boost, or at least it seems to me it was the way.
Well, I can't fathom what goes on in the mind of a politician.
But they're convincing like a drug addict is convincing at getting you to lend them money.
I mean, they have a goal, they want power, but they don't say this is about me.
They say this is for the people or for the country or for the good or for whatever it is, right?
They don't say it's about me.
Since you don't want to be a politician, I'm going to assume if you listen to this show, I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what sophists do, right?
But I will say this.
I also spend a lot of time in sales.
And sales is a debate.
Sales is an argument.
And the reason it is is that the person doesn't want to buy what you have to sell, right?
Because if they did, you wouldn't have to be a salesperson.
You'd just be a sign-on-the-dotted-line person.
If somebody comes in with a fistful of money and says, I want that used car, here's the money, you don't need the sale.
You don't need the sale, right?
You don't need to know how to sell.
But the reality is that if you're in sales, the person doesn't want to buy what you have to sell and you have to convince them to buy.
And there's a debate, right?
Well, here's the benefits.
Well, they don't really need that.
Here's another benefit.
Oh, well, that is counteracted by this.
Well, this competitor has this.
All you're doing is getting objections and overcoming objections to the point where hopefully you can convince the person to buy what it is that you have for sale.
And I did a lot of sales, and sales being a debate, many negotiations fall into the category of a debate, right?
I think of a legal proceeding.
When you've done a lot of sales, then you're used to listening to objections.
You can't just, you know, when money's on the stake and it's all voluntary, you can't just barrel over people's objections.
You have to listen to them.
You have to absorb them.
You have to find a way to work around them.
And I think doing years and years of high-level, high-tech sales, you know, selling to very big corporations, very complex software that I had largely built, that is...
Something that really helps you train.
Because it can't be about your ego and it can't be about the dollars.
It has to be about, can I find a way that this solution is going to actually solve this person's problems in a way that is going to be beneficial for them.
You can't just be trying to take their money because it's a long-term relationship.
So I think that has helped quite a bit.
And the other thing, so I also try not to debate if I don't really care about something.
You know, there's some things I don't particularly care about, and they're important things, right?
They could be important things, it's just not something that I particularly feel passionate about.
So I try not to debate where I don't feel passionate.
I also try not to debate where there's not an audience.
In so far as, you know, I mean, personally I'll debate, you know, family or whatever, we'll try and figure out what we all want to do that we can all enjoy.
Those negotiations, But I don't get into flame wars on Twitter.
I don't get into that kind of stuff.
Because...
If I don't respect the person I'm debating with, then I will only debate that person for the benefit of the audience.
And...
That is, I think, a pretty important aspect as well.
Because it has to be something bigger than you in order for you to get over yourself.
You have to have a mission bigger than yourself in order for you to get out of your own way.
And the way that we dwarf the neurotic ego is with lofty goals.
It's with giant, lofty goals.
I mean, I've used this example before, but...
When Steve Jobs was building one of the first Apple products, Mac I think it was, it took a couple of minutes to boot up.
And the engineers thought that was pretty good.
And he said, I need you to get it down to like 90 seconds or something like that.
And they said, ah, it's 90 seconds, two and a half minutes, who cares?
He says, we're going to sell 100 million of these.
100 million times 90 seconds is X amount of time.
You're going to be saving this many hundreds of years a day just by getting it faster.
So he gave them a mission that was bigger than Than what they had thought before.
And, you know, as the old saying goes, give a man a why and he can bear almost any how.
And so if you have a mission that's big enough, then you can get out of your own way.
You can reduce the neurotic ego of, do they like me?
And am I doing well?
And did they laugh at my joke?
And right...
And just it becomes a passionate desire to connect with the audience.
And when you take your sort of neurotic or selfish ego out of the way, when it comes to communicating to people, I think they really get that.
That you're there trying to do something that's beneficial for them.
Trying to bring them a perspective that is going to be helpful in the world.
And it also gives you the courage.
To do that, right?
To take stands that may be challenging or unpopular for people because there's a bigger message that you're trying to get out there.
And all of the people who achieve something great in this life do so because they're able to frame their goals in a bigger perspective.
Like we just talked about Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali fought partly because he wanted to inspire black youths or minority youths to do...
Great things.
And so he's like, I'm not just fighting for me, I'm fighting for the community, I'm fighting for the kids, I'm fighting to show people that they can do whatever they set their minds to.
He had a bigger purpose, and I think that turns his fists into bricks in some ways.
So if you can find a bigger purpose, something you really care about, something that the scope of the goal shrinks Your neurotic ego to nothingness.
You become sort of selfless in that sense.
Not like you don't have an identity, but that you're not thinking about yourself when your whole goal is to introduce ideas to an audience.
So aim big.
Only talk about things that you're passionate about.
Only debate with people you respect unless there's an audience who will benefit from a smackdown.
And I think you'll find it a lot easier to be less self-conscious.
Because whenever you see people And what they're doing, especially if it's in public, what they're doing is all about them, is very hard, if not impossible, to keep people's attention.
Freddie Mercury said, I can only sing as well as the audience wants me to.
And having that vulnerability in front of the audience where it's not about you, you're not thinking about yourself, you're really trying to connect some important information to the audience, That gets you out of your own way.
At least that's the best way that I've found.
Oh, that's great.
Thank you.
That sounds very, very important.
And trust your instincts.
Trust your instincts when it comes to debating.
When you've had a lot of...
Frank Sinatra...
Famous singer, of course, right?
Frank Sinatra was singing in front of like a 200-piece orchestra.
And he's, you know, belting away in his robust throaty tenor way.
And there's a little, I don't know, a piccolo or a tiny little horn somewhere in the back that hit a bum note.
He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I think we got a little stranger in the music, you know?
He could hear that instinct, right?
He got that.
Even when he's belting out, he can just hear that little, what the, what was that?
And they started again and they got it right.
But that's, of course, practice and experience.
There's times when I'm debating, I know what the other person is saying is wrong.
I have no idea how to counter it.
And there is, of course, always the, oh, I should have said that.
I mean, that's always going to happen, and that's your preparation for next time.
But if something feels wrong...
Trust yourself.
You know, you'll find out if you're right or wrong as you go forward, but trust yourself.
And to some degree, you have to just trust that the words are going to come.
And after a certain amount of practice, you can.
You know, like jazz musicians, they just, the next notes are going to come.
And the scat singers, well, the next notes are going to come.
You know, a certain amount of preparation.
And you can be, as Stevie Wonder says, with a voice like, Ella's ringing out, there's no way the band can lose.
But yeah, so practice, I think, is important.
Have the debates in your own head.
Have the debates in your own head.
Long before I was podcasting, I was having debates in the car with myself about a wide variety of things when I was driving a working board of audiobooks.
And you probably have debates in your head all the time.
We all do.
Should I do this?
Should I do that?
Should I go to the gym?
Should I have a nap?
Every afternoon.
But those are my suggestions, and I have found them to be quite helpful for me.
Now, do you think that the...
It's especially the people who we need to be debating who are not.
Do you think it's more difficult for smart people, for people who want the truth?
Do you think it's more difficult for them to be part of the conversation?
I think it's easier for the average person to get to the truth than for the intellectual.
The average person who works in the world, particularly who works with his hands, and I've had the distinct pleasure and honor of doing a lot of manual labor in my life.
And when you work with your hands, it's really hard to not be pragmatic and commonsensical and base, so to speak, right?
Base monkey gorilla.
And whereas, you know, if you grew up in some intellectual household and you Never really have a job where you work with your hands and then you go off to college and then you get some intellectual think tank field and so on.
You've kind of never done what I would call an honest day's labor in your life.
I mean, you may be really good at what you do and you may be doing great good in the world, but there's something practical about digging a hole.
There's something practical about staking a claim in the wilderness.
There's something practical about working with your hands.
And I think working with my hands has given me a lot of Base empiricism.
You know, it's really hard to, you know, when I was working up north as a prospector and gold panner, I mean, we had to, I had to carry these big giant drills, they're called piangar drills, around, and all the drill bits, and we had to drill down to try and find the bedrock, because that's where the gold, which is heavy, would settle, would bring up the samples and then try and figure out if there was gold in them and set them off if they were.
And, you know, when you're snowshoeing in waist-deep snow, and there's like bramble bushes you trip over, and you've got an 80-pound drill on your back, it's kind of hard to be super abstract and to not believe in the evidence of the senses.
Like, if all you do is immerse yourself in books and abstracts and so on, you can manipulate your brain.
Kind of Cartesian way in and out of a bunch of perspectives, but when you've spent a lot of time working with your hands, working and sweating, and really having to trust the evidence of your senses.
Having to trust the evidence of your senses is really, really important.
And sports help with that too, because you can't doubt the evidence of your senses when something's going on.
I remember one time working up north, a friend of mine was driving the snowmobile and I was sitting on the back with the drill bits that were on a sled.
And he went down a hill that was pretty steep, and I just leapt off because I thought, well, what if these break loose and they go flying through the air and so on?
And I leapt off and into trees and scratched my face and so on, and lo and behold, he hit the bottom and all of the drill bits broke loose and went spearing down at high speed into the snow and so on.
And if I'd have been in the way, it might not have been that great a day for me, especially because we were dazed from any hospital or any kind of healthcare, medical care.
We were Way in the bush.
This is where you take planes out and land on the frozen lake to set up camp.
And so when you've had to trust your senses, especially if you work with dangerous equipment, you've really, really got to be alert.
You've got to be careful.
I mean, it's really easy, especially if you're out in the middle of nowhere.
I mean, if you get a bleeder, I mean, you're dead.
I mean, we were like...
Even if we wanted to hike out, we were two or three days from the nearest small town, let alone hospital or anything, let alone doctor.
And so when you've had to be really, really careful in your job to not get injured, to not get hurt, and to not make mistakes.
One night, we had one last sample to get, and then we were heading out the next day.
It was really cold.
There's like places up there, you're like minus 40, minus 50.
My friend and I went out And we didn't want to get up super early the next morning, so we went to go and get this last sample, and we left it too long.
It got really, really dark.
Like, when there's no moon and it's cloudy, I mean, you literally can't tell the difference between your eyes being open and your eyes being closed.
I mean, you put your hand in front of your face, open and close your eyes, doesn't make a damn bit of difference.
And we had a little flashlight and so on, but we could not figure out.
Like, we got the sample, and then it's like, Now where are we?
This is long before GPS is like, now where the hell are we?
And we managed to make it out onto the lake, but literally you can't see a damn thing in front of your face.
The inevitable wolves start howling like the usual.
I mean, suddenly you're in a death-defying Jack London novel.
But fortunately, the people who we were working with down at the other end of the lake, they hung out a lamp for us to see, and we could just see it, and we headed that way, and we got back.
But you know, you don't want to spend a night out there in minus 40, minus 50 degree weather without a tent.
That can be pretty Deadly.
And we, you know, a lot of people have had these, but when, when you, when you deal with, you've got to trust your senses, you've got to be smart around dangerous equipment, you've got to be careful, you've got to be prepared, you've got to be safe.
And then when people come along and say, well, you can't really trust the evidence you are sensitive.
It's just like, yeah, yeah, you try that around a drill bit flying through the air.
You try that, uh, when you're humping 80 pounds of, of Pionger on your back.
It just, it's stupid.
And I think that that level of physical labor gave me a very common sense approach to the evidence of the senses.
Because it's all fine if you're Descartes sitting in a hovel somewhere and imagining being in the dream of a demon, but you can't afford that kind of stuff when you're out there bare-faced, bare-teethed in the elements that'll kill you.
As soon as I look at you, you've got to be sensible and careful.
You've got to trust your instincts.
You've got to trust the evidence of your senses.
So I guess the syllogism is, if you want to be a good debater, go be a gold prospector and panner.
But I mean, it's not what I'm saying, but you've got to find some way that you can really trust the evidence of your senses and trust your instincts, because they are very, very important.
The unconscious has been clocked at running 8,000 times faster than the conscious mind.
The conscious mind certainly has its necessary component in human thought.
You've got a real jetpack if you're in tune with your instincts.
All right, I'm going to move on to the next caller, Philippe, but thank you very much.
Let us know if this helps you out.
Let us know if this conversation has helped you out with these issues.
And I really, really applaud your perspective and your goal in trying to get to this.
And I found trying to bring common sense to people in particular who work with their hands tends to work very well.
It's a lot of the intellectuals who are...
Who've talked themselves into and out of a whole bunch of different things that don't really make a lot of sense.
All right.
Thanks very much for the call there.
Thank you very much.
It was very useful.
Good.
All right.
Up next is Ricardo.
Ricardo wrote in and said, In light of the European migrant crisis, you've been supporting alpha male behavior relative to beta male behavior on the basis of causing the aforementioned crisis because of the emotionality of the betas.
However, you also say that emotions are healthy and very important and are often an overlooked part of masculinity.
But aren't alphas supposed to have very little emotions?
Can you help me square that circle?
That's from Ricardo.
Hi Ricardo, how you doing?
I'm good, thank you.
And you?
I'm very well, thanks.
Interesting, okay.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know about the sort of European migrant crisis and all of that.
I think that the question as a whole is very interesting.
I can't recall if, when, or how I may have said that, but emotions are healthy and are very important and often overlooked.
I don't know that alphas are supposed to have very little emotion.
I think, you know, William Wallace, you know, that Mel Gibson portrayed freedom, you know, there seems to be quite a lot of passion in men and women who get a lot of important stuff done in the world.
So I think this idea of the sort of blood runs cold kind of alpha, I think that may be more like, I don't know, sociopath or something like that.
With regards to maybe what you mean is that...
There's a huge amount of sentimentality about multiculturalism in Europe, maybe coming a little bit more from women than from men.
Maybe that is occurring.
So maybe we're talking about the difference between emotions and sentimentality.
Would that be something closer to what we mean?
Well, when I picture an alpha without emotions, the picture I had was...
I remember a conversation you had with a woman, which you ask her, well, if migrants...
Came from the sea in their boats.
What would happen?
What would we have to do?
Yeah, what would you do to stop them?
Yeah, exactly.
If that was your mandate.
Yeah, yeah.
And we had to bring out the guns, you know.
And that really struck me as really, really cold, you know.
Maybe it's just because I'm a beta and, I mean...
Oh, but listen, don't get me wrong.
Should it ever come to that, and we hope that it doesn't, that would be a horrible situation.
It's not something I, you know, this is not my particular field, but I can certainly imagine people, the argument could be made that you're saving more lives by stopping people from making the voyage.
Right.
Right, if you stop, like, however aggressively you may stop people making the voyage, then if it's a deterrent to other people making the voyage, then you've saved lives as opposed to costing lives.
Yeah, right.
Now that's a tough calculation to make.
I'm glad I'm not in any situation where I have to make that calculation.
But it certainly is a case that from a sort of amoral calculation or non-emotional calculation standpoint, we could sort of understand that.
I think I owe you a backstory from where I got this question from.
So I'm Okay, so here I am, born as the colloquially called beta male.
I've never had a lot of success with women.
I've been bullied a lot in school.
And everything was fine.
Not fine.
But I accepted who I was.
Every day I tried to To always be better.
Just trying to grow from that perspective.
But then it all changed.
It all changed when the migrant crisis arose.
And then you just railed this migrant crisis is all because we praise multiculturalism to an insane level, we shouldn't We shouldn't bring all these migrants with different cultures, with incompatible cultures.
And you're just basically calling everyone a cuck, which is kind of funny.
I know this is not an argument and so on.
And I remember you talking something about alphas and betas in that regard.
So it kind of struck me as, oh, so if betas are the problem and I'm a beta, then, well, shit, you know, I'm kind of part of the problem here, because I'm not that courageous, or at least I'm not as courageous as I am.
Well, let me ask you this, though.
Let me ask you this.
So, in Eastern Europe, they are, in general, resisting the migrants, right?
They've got walls up there, right?
Yeah.
They're pushing them back, right?
And what do you think of that?
Hmm, what do I think?
I mean, emotionally, it's kind of horrible, but it has to be done to preserve Western culture.
I think they're doing good.
I approve that behavior.
Right.
Now, listen, you don't have to be willing to do it yourself in order to approve it.
Right?
I mean, you may approve somebody's gangrenous leg, Being cut off.
It doesn't mean you have to saw it off yourself, right?
Right.
And, yeah, so if you look at the countries, Hungary and some of the...
They say this is not...
You can't just come into our country.
And they have the right to do that, as far as I understand it.
And as far as I understand it...
A lot of the migrants who've ended up in various countries have ended up there not following the exact protocols for refugee status and so on where you have to stay in the first country you land in.
And this is sort of my admittedly amateur understanding of the situation.
But there's a failure to enforce the laws.
And we can see this in the southern border in the United States with the sanctuary cities.
And there have been reports that from the Obama administration down to the people on the ground at the border, they've been told to just stand aside and let people through.
And there is...
A failure to either enforce the law or repeal the law.
That's the real cockiness.
Like, if you want open borders, then you should just repeal all these laws that have any...
Like, just repeal the whole immigration process and just say people can come whoever wants, right?
So the real cockiness is neither enforcing the law nor repealing the law.
That's Weasley, right?
But if you look at...
Of course, some of these Eastern European countries were in the Ottoman Empire and they've had a significant problem with other cultures coming in and being dominated by other cultures.
And of course, a lot of them, of course, are a generation and a half free of Soviet control and are pretty interested and keen on having their own country for a while.
So, if you can look at the actions of those countries and say, I can understand where they're coming from, then That is looking at things from a certain perspective that, you know, has some validity to it, right?
On the other hand, if you are there in a conversation and you say, well, I have some reservations about this, that, and the other, and say, oh, you're a racist, right?
Well, what would your response be?
Well, I'm not a racist.
I just have these, you know, pretty valid concerns.
Maybe I didn't understand the question exactly.
No, no, that's fine.
I mean, I'm not a racist, and so on.
Now, that's one way of dealing with it.
And another way is to take a strong counterattack, which is, how dare you call me a racist?
How dare you call me a racist for merely expressing an opinion of concern?
Right?
Getting defensive is something that generally encourages attack.
Attempting to explain, attempting to apologize, attempting to appease, I mean, all of this stuff tends to invite attack.
There's a great book by Vox Dei called Social Justice Warriors Always Lie.
And in it, he goes into some examples of people who try to appease the leftist mob, you know, Tim Hunt and...
James Watson and other people who'd apologized and tried to appease and...
doesn't, doesn't help, doesn't help.
It just makes it worse.
And so I think that until we can actually have rational fact-based discussions about these issues, reason and evidence is always gonna lose, almost by definition.
And so the people who sort of screaming racism or screaming xenophobia or whatever phobias are going on, They are actively attempting to interfere with the necessary discussion about the future of society, and they are very much causing problems.
And that is something to be aware of.
That, you know, if you start bringing up things that could lend you to be attacked by the left or whoever, then, you know, instead of taxable, Probably someday come.
And, you know, your response to that is going to have something to do with where the future goes.
And it doesn't have to be some big public brawlout or something like that.
But you do have every right, you have every conceivable right to be angry when people slander your good name.
When people call you some negative term, racist or something like that, and you're not...
You have every right to be angry.
And the funny thing is, is that if people know you have comfort with your own anger, they tend not to pick on you.
Hmm.
Right.
I mean, that's...
I haven't...
I mean, it's really hard for me to get angry and stuff.
Yeah, so...
So anger is a very, like, alpha thing.
Yeah, I mean, the Aristotelian challenge, which is, you know, he said, look, anyone can get angry.
That's the easiest thing in the world.
What's hard is to get angry in the right way, at the right time, against the right person, for the right reasons, with the right effect.
I mean, anybody can just scream and, you know, throw their Wii controller at the television or whatever, but...
I really appreciate what you're saying, but I want to shift a little bit to my alpha-beta distinction.
I don't know why I'm so fixated on that.
Well, you want to be an alpha, but you feel maybe you have the emotional apparatus of a beta, right?
Yeah.
That is so true.
Right.
And then when you say all those kind of quote anti-beta, you don't have any problem.
It's just that on a beta society, you can't enforce the law.
You don't think it's bad.
I would argue that the male betas are driven more by Sort of hyper-feminine early environments.
And it's not like...
I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, right?
This is a hypothesis, and there, of course, would be many exceptions, like all hypotheses, at least in these areas.
But when you were raised, did you have a strong and powerful male role model that mentored and instructed you?
No.
How did I know that?
No, no, no.
So what did you have?
Yeah.
Do you remember the Colin show where there was a guy, it was me, that explained the whole mother-aunt-uncle situation?
A guy had children with a...
Hamlet?
No, a...
So a guy had sex with a woman, had two children, but then, oh, hey, his sister, her sister's hot, and then...
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, got it.
Exactly.
So he...
Oh, and this is where we had a debate about alphaness too, right?
It wasn't quite about that, but it did have something to do with it.
It did.
Women will try to, a lot of women, some women, will try to define alpha as the pursuit of women.
Why?
Because it gives women power over alphas.
They can say yes or they can say no.
So then your alphaness is defined by whether women say yes or no to you, which means that women are the real alphas and everyone else is just a beta, or if they call it a pussy beggar.
So that sexual conquest and the pursuit of women...
What the hell does that have to do with anything?
I mean, that's saying that women are the ultimate arbiters of that which is noble and heroic and the masculine soul, and that can't be right.
That just can't be right in any way, shape or form.
To me, alpha is fidelity to reality.
It's fidelity to reality.
And of course, when it comes to having a civilization, you can't have a civilization unless you have fidelity to reality.
Otherwise, you have a superstitious cult of nonsense, otherwise known as most of human history in many places around the world.
You have to have fidelity to reality.
And unfortunately, we've become somewhat degenerated as a culture to the point where fidelity to reality Fidelity is controversial.
I mean, you know, there's an old saying by George Orwell, something along the lines of, in extreme times, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act, just a simple act of telling the truth.
As two-time guests on the show, Noam Chomsky, has pointed out, he says, you know, just stand there and tell the truth.
It's really all you have to do.
It doesn't have to be that flowery or it doesn't have to be very eloquent.
You've just got to stand there and tell the truth.
And fidelity to the truth is Is really important.
And that's the great gift, I would say, that alphas, and I'm aware I'm defining as alphas, what I do, but obviously, right?
So fidelity to the truth.
And when you are afraid of telling the truth, and there's times where you all get a bit nervous about it, right?
But when you are willing to kill the truth as a child, you should protect.
When you're willing to kill that truth because other people don't like it, that to me is...
Challenging and problematic.
And you're then part of the general chips at the base of the tree of knowledge that bring down civilization.
Giant oaky crash.
So you learn the truth and be honest about the truth and the facts as you see them.
Be willing to be corrected.
Be willing to be open-minded, of course, right?
I mean, the truth is a process.
It is not a...
It's a journey, not a destination.
And...
I think that's very alpha.
Now, I don't know exactly why, because I've got more castanets than eggs, but I don't know exactly why there's something in a lot of women, it seems like, where the truth is, like, abhorrent.
I think it has something to do with the fact that they need social approval more than men, right?
Because women, we evolved women, are back home in the village, and they're taking care of the kids, and they've got three or four or five or six kids, and they need other parents to watch them, and so on.
Got to go get some nuts and berries in the woods.
They got to go pee and they just need people.
So they need the cooperation of their peer group a lot more.
A man sort of out there, you need some cooperation for hunting and so on, but a man, if he's just able to hunt, who cares how he got it, right?
So there's more risk and reward for initiative and taking risks.
There's more reward for taking risks for men, which is why men tend to be more spread out along the IQ. Bell curve, right?
I mean, women's IQ bell curve is like a penis, and a man's is like a breast on its side.
Because we spread out more in the higher and lower areas.
Because nature rewards risk for men more, which is why men don't spread out more.
So I think women tend to be more subject to fears of social disapproval than men do, which is why women create stable and healthy environments, or at least that's the plan, create stable environments of cooperation for children to be raised in, and men are out there risking and creating and building.
And so when you have a generation of men who's raised by women, you have a generation of men who are raised with a great fear of social disapproval.
Because that's a lot of women have this fear of social disapproval.
You know, what are you supposed to wear?
How are you supposed to do it?
You can't go out looking like that.
You know, this house has to look this way.
We've got to put rocks and flowers in front of the house.
Why?
Because that looks nice, right?
You need a dining room table.
Why?
I've got a lap.
Well, you know, it's just, you know, and it's a great thing.
I mean, just the way it is, right?
And When you have a generation of men raised, not with fidelity to the truth, but fear of disapproval, then societies who fear disapproval will generally crumble in the face of societies who don't fear disapproval.
Because when you fear disapproval, it's very hard to have an in-group preference.
Because the in-group is actually what you're most afraid of, right?
You have an in-group preference if these people can disapprove of you and disassemble your happiness.
And so when you have The fear of the disapproval of others, it's very hard to have in-group preference, which is why women who tend to fear disapproval more than men have very little in-group preference.
And other cultures, other approaches to life that don't fear disapproval can then have a very strong and resolute in-group preference and will tend to overwhelm that.
And then, you know, in all things where there's not reason, there's a pendulum.
Where things just crash and smash back and forth from extreme to extreme, which could be slowly steadied and righted and created as a stable platform with reason and evidence, which is what we're trying to do here so much.
But without reason and evidence, without philosophy, there's just a massive swing back and forth.
And when women got the birth control, then female sexuality and hypergamy When female sexuality and hypergamy went crazy, they needed the state to rein in the inevitable disastrous consequences of all of that.
When the CIA-funded feminists first began to do their slow unraveling of the Western familial bond, that also accelerated the process.
And when women marry the state, then men become...
Not only unnecessary, but negative.
As I was talking about with Carol, the first caller, about how in the poorer neighborhoods she grew up in, the men were negative on the income of the family.
How insane is that, right?
Like having a provider as a man becomes negative because it interferes with your capacity to scoop up government goodies.
And so then men are driven out of And then, of course, you create this massive fantasy that somehow men are pedophiles and then the men can't be around young kids, right?
I mean, this is all extreme feminist R-selected gene sets trying to create an environment that allows them to reproduce.
I mean, at the expense of civilization, but hey, what do genes care?
And so then, you know, like yourself, there's no honorable, decent, strong men to teach boys how to be men.
And this makes society a ripe fruit Open for the plucking by whoever wants to come along and those societies inevitably will come along.
And then what happens is everybody freaks out and panics and masculinity becomes a virtue again.
But I don't know that it can be suddenly summoned into the hearts and balls of men so easily and we'll see how that plays out.
Yeah, that is so true.
Why are you describing the Angry Birds plot?
I don't get it.
Because Muhammad Ali apparently wrote it.
Oh my gosh, we've had a whole show without water buffaloes.
I just wanted to mention that so that we have a show now with water buffaloes again.
Water buffaloes!
As you were.
Everything that you said is so true.
To re-summon masculine energies again, it would be pretty hard.
It takes a generational process, I guess, but we don't have that time, which kind of led me to call in, you know?
I mean, yeah, sure, I have my problems, my psychological problems, I have my traumas, whatever, right?
But they seem...
They seem that they're going to take a long time to heal, and I'm not sure we have that kind of time, you know?
So, I mean...
So it kind of bothers me.
My personal problems mean nothing against Western civilization.
So I don't really know what to do.
Should I try to correct my bait in this?
No, you know what to do.
Speak the truth and take your legs.
And what?
Speak your truth and take your punishment.
Take what you want and pay for it.
Speak the truth and take your punishment such as it is.
And your reward such as it is.
Doesn't seem much of a reward.
Compared to what?
What happens if nobody speaks the truth?
What happens to civilization if everybody heard things their way into lemming-like runs off the cliff of unreality?
It's over.
It's over.
It's done.
That's the punishment, right?
And that's, you know, I think I would argue also that one of the real alphas, one of the definitions is to be willing to accept discomfort for a greater good.
I mean, isn't this basically what has happened to society?
Is we have refused to allow failure.
We've refused to allow people to fail.
We've refused to allow people to be ostracized.
We've refused to allow people to be criticized.
Except for white males, of course, right?
But we've just refused to allow failures.
The welfare state?
No.
You're having your sixth kid?
Okay, here's some more money.
No failure.
Can't fail.
Everybody gets a ribbon.
And if you've got any pride, you don't want those stinky ribbons that go to everyone.
You want a ribbon that you've damn well won.
Yeah.
And so we have shied away from discomfort and therefore we've lost our bearings about where we should go as a society.
You know, there are people who smoking craters of disaster are there to guide other people.
You know, it's like this old thing I've mentioned a bunch of times is Very vivid poster I saw when I was younger about a ship going down.
It could be the purpose, the whole purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others.
We have rushed in and saved.
You know, like the government treats citizens like hyper-anxious moms treat toddlers.
Oh, we better put stuff in the plugs.
We better put stuff on the toilet so they don't open it because they could fall in and drown.
We've got to put gates because, you know, they just tumble down the stairs.
We've got to walk all over them and hover around them and make sure everyone's okay and nobody gets hurt.
And that's a lovely part of women.
I get no problem with that part of women.
It just needs to be balanced a little bit.
Yeah, if my daughter wants to jump from the seventh stair, go for it.
If you hurt your ankle, you'll learn the sixth stair next time.
I mean, that's life, you know?
I mean, this wrapping people in the bubble wrap of no consequences has just made everyone hysterical and fragile and unable to deal with adversity.
And, you know, when you avoid adversity, it tracks you down.
Yeah.
I mean, I can say to some people, you think you have adversity by being a white male?
Oh, yeah, no, I mean, the...
When I say, you know, you've never experienced racism, you're a white male.
It's like...
I don't even know what to say.
I mean, I don't even know what to say.
People that propagandized.
Yeah.
If that were true, would you be able to say that to me?
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just the running out of time, you know?
It gets me kind of anxious.
I mean, if your goal was to...
Good!
If your goal was to keep me from sleeping, I mean, mission accomplished.
Well, you've got to rest up.
I mean, you've got to rest up and be healthy.
But, yeah, we don't have a dump truck full of time anymore.
So we've got to step it up.
You know, there's...
There are people who will post on the videos that I do.
It's too late.
We haven't got a chance.
The election's going to be rigged.
Nothing's going to happen.
Nothing's going to change.
And I hate the fact that we have to save those assholes too.
I'm not putting you in that category, my friend.
I'm just saying...
The...
These cloying, fungus-based, doom-and-gloom despair robots who just seek to draw the energy, life, and red blood cells out of everybody else's necessary arteries of action.
Oh, God.
You know, it's like you have to land the plane that has your worst enemy in it as well as your family.
It's like, okay, fine, I'll land the plane nicely.
I'm not going to jump out because my family's here, but I'm not happy to be saving you either.
And, uh, yeah, don't, don't, obviously don't be, you know, just act.
Just act!
Do something!
Do something!
For God's sakes!
I don't care if it's put on a clown mask and screaming on Yiannopoulos' yodel from the top of the CN Tower.
I don't care what it is.
Just do something.
Just do something.
I was in theater school.
We were playing King Lear.
We were all very method and internal actors.
And someone rushed in with big news and we all were like, ah, I'm thinking about how much this affects me and so on.
And the director just, he was nuts, right?
But he started throwing chairs around.
You know, you just heard this news.
React.
Do something.
Don't just sit there and think about it internally.
This is not a movie.
This is theater.
If you don't move something, nobody knows what you're thinking.
Do something.
I remember this very vividly.
A little bit over the top, but we certainly didn't get all internal afterwards.
And I just remember that.
Just do something.
Do something.
And in the doing, you will find out the right something.
But do something.
Post something.
Share something.
Comment on something.
Remind someone of something.
Bring some uncomfortable facts to someone.
Just do something.
Because if only a minority does something, it ain't gonna be enough.
It's still a democracy.
Everybody has to start doing something to protect and extend and expand the values that make life worthwhile.
Because you won't want to live in a world You know, if you have a heart and you have a mind, and you have passion, you have thought, you won't want to live in a world where that's not possible anymore.
You'll get through the day, but like a zombie dragging himself from ward to ward in an empty, diseased hospital, you'll get from one place to another, but it won't really be living.
And if you're one of the people who will really notice the difference between self-censorship or external censorship and open honesty, if you don't act now and you lose what you treasure, you will only understand its value when it's gone.
And that to me is the greatest curse that cowardice can play on us all, which is if you do not fight to protect What you love, because you don't know how much you love it, and you only realize how much you love it when it's gone.
That is the great cruel trick.
That is the most demonic and downright nasty and evil, if I can put it that way, aspect of our distraction and dissociation.
It's like the wife, you didn't realize how much you loved her until she walked out on your ass.
And you ended up, as the saying goes, in court with one person trying to get free and the other person trying to get even.
And you know that if you don't do anything, and if that is universalized, nothing can be saved.
Society tends towards entropy.
Society tends to spiral down to the lowest common denominator, particularly when you have a big powerful state in the middle of it, because it appeases and it buys.
People who make more mistakes tend to run to the state because the state has to protect them from their own idiocy.
Smarter people don't need to run to the state because they make fewer mistakes.
So society, a state of society tends towards entropy just as a free market tends towards efficiency.
And if we do nothing, well, it reminds me of one guy who sold cars once who said that a guy came in after driving his car for two years and said, man, it's really not running well.
Really not.
And the guy drove it pretty hard.
I think it was two years, something like that.
Guy came in.
This car sucks.
You know, I don't like it.
It's not running well.
Turns out he'd never changed the oil.
Not once.
They had to just take out the whole engine plug and start again.
They're all fused together, all sealed.
So societies with a state in particular, like cars, tend towards entropy, tend towards decay, tend towards decadence, apathy, corruption.
And if we don't maintain those societies, if we don't do stuff, We end up having to take out the whole engine block and start again.
And that's a pretty unpleasant process.
So just do something.
And you can start small.
And you can start anonymous.
And you, of course, you know, do everything that's within the laws of where you are, as I always say.
But do something.
Do something.
Awaken one person.
Give someone a different perspective.
Speak your mind.
Have fidelity to truth.
Fidelity To truth, fidelity to reality is the only way that we can ever truly love our fellow human beings.
And yeah, for a lot of people it's tough love.
But when you tell people surprising things and they realize that they can hear those surprising things, maybe even freak out, but still survive, it strengthens them, it toughens them, it's helpful.
You're like the trainer who causes some discomfort but strengthens the body and bones.
Do something.
Do something.
I'm doing what I'm doing and I'm doing a hell of a lot of it.
I think it's all the right stuff to do.
Maybe you disagree.
If you agree, like, share and subscribe what we're doing here.
Donate to the show, freedomainradio.com slash donate.
If you disagree, that's fine too.
You could well be right.
Do your own thing.
Show me how it's done.
But do something.
Once you're awake, you fundamentally have no virtuous choice.
You have a practical choice.
You can choose not to do anything even if you've woken up.
Even if you know what reality is, you can choose not to share it with people if you want.
And no one's going to throw you in moral jail for that.
But you have no virtuous choice.
If you can save people from ignorance and you have the truth, if you choose not to do it, you're not a good person.
Doesn't mean you're an evil person, not initiating force.
But virtue is positive actions in defense and extension of the good, of reality, of truth, of courage, the courage to speak truth in dangerous times.
And you never know who it is you're going to inspire.
You know, maybe you won't be the person who brings it to the world.
But maybe...
the third brother's distant cousin's roommate, to quote Spaceballs...
is the guy.
And the idea, the facts, the perspective will leapfrog...
It's way over to that person and it will sit in their chest and he will become incandescent or she will become incandescent in the ability to communicate what you're saying.
You don't know where everything you release is going to land.
You know, you extend thoughts to the world like blowing on a dandelion.
Off they go.
Where do they land?
Well, a lot of them land on concrete or water.
Yeah.
Some of them will land on soil and some of them will grow.
Do something.
And from that, anything can happen.
But if you don't do something, nothing will happen and everything falls apart.
Yeah, I mean, you're totally preaching to the choir here.
I mean, I share Tons of stuff on Facebook.
I mean, it really, like, before I click the share button, it's like, must click it.
Oh, yes.
Ah, damn it.
And I end up clicking.
All right, all right.
Okay, let me ask you this question.
Do you admire anyone who has done questionable things in their past?
Hmm.
I do, just so you know.
I mean, I do.
That's a good question.
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Okay, all right.
Now, and even if you don't admire them, you may enjoy what they do, right?
So there was a show for a while called, I don't know if it's still running, Two and a Half Men.
With Charlie Sheen.
Now, Charlie Sheen appears to be a rather insane monster of hedonism, to put it mildly.
And, you know, he's had his prostitutes, his drugs, and I think he's got AIDS. He's admitted to AIDS now and all this kind of stuff.
You could say he's a hot mess.
Pretty guy.
Nice head of hair.
And a bit of a hot mess.
And people will tune in to watch his show.
He was like, I think he was the highest paid actor on a sitcom.
Like making God knows what that makes philosophers pull their last remaining tufts out of their ears.
So here's a guy, he's like, ah, questionable stuff, right?
Ah, questionable stuff.
Well, at least he didn't insult Jews, like Mel Gibson.
Donald Trump, like, is there a word that is a pejorative that has not been hurled at Donald Trump at one time or another?
No, the guy had it all.
Yeah, I mean, there's no arrow that can't be shot at the guy that hasn't been shot.
They're out of arrows, right?
When they're hopping on Trump U, they're out of arrows.
And is he winning?
Hell yeah.
Is he stopped?
Is he stopped by the haters? - Of course.
He's what?
Is he stopped by the haters?
No, most definitely not.
And if you, you know, if you think about that and you go through this mental exercise, which is not a really, it's not a bad mental exercise to do, think of all the people that you may have a positive opinion of that lots of other people dislike.
Ayn Rand, do you think it was a lot of fun being a grad student who was a big fan of Ayn Rand in Canada?
Do you think they were saying, oh wow, you're a free market, tiny government guy?
We don't have any of those in Canadian academics.
We're really into diversity.
We're going to really help you come along because all we got are a bunch of socialists, a bunch of lefties, and I think there's one conservative, but he covers it up pretty well.
But if you're a really small market, objectivist-y kind of guy, we don't have any of those anywhere in Canadian academia.
We're really into diversity.
We value different viewpoints.
We're really into multiculturalism.
We don't have any of you.
We're going to put you on the fast track to get yourself a professorship.
Did they ever say that?
No!
Was it a lot of fun being an Ayn Rand fan?
Well, actually it kind of was, but it wasn't a recipe for success.
See, academia wanted, I'm guessing, academia didn't want any small market guys in there or free market guys, small government free market guys in academia, so they shut me out to make sure I wouldn't have any influence.
How's that working out?
It's so funny.
Yeah, because all the people kept out of academia are now going on the internet and are winning the fucking culture wars.
Booyah!
How's that government program called Keep People Out of the Cultural Influence working out for you?
Not well at all.
If I was a professor, I could have taught maybe a couple of hundred, maybe a couple of thousand people over the course of my career.
Now, we're cooking over 200 million views and downloads.
Good job!
Y'all kept me out of influence, wasn't it?
So, think of the people...
Who you have some positive views.
You don't have to love them, worship them, but you have some positive views about it.
And then think of all the slander and slurs and nasty name-calling and bullshit that they've been subjected to.
Do you care?
Do I what, sorry?
Care?
Do you care?
About the negative stuff that they've been subjected to.
I mean, they seem to be doing fine, so I don't...
Do you care that they have been subjected to insults, slings, and owls of outrageous nonsense?
Yeah, I do care.
Well, not enough to stop admiring them.
True.
Right?
I mean, look, I've got my criticisms of Ayn Rand, to put it mildly, but she was a singular and powerful and illuminating philosopher and novelist.
Was she a perfect person?
No!
No!
No.
God, no.
Is there anyone I admire who's a perfect person?
Anyone I admire who's a perfect person?
No.
Am I a perfect person?
No.
People I admire, bad things are said about them.
They're scorned, they're ridiculed, and so on.
I mean, look at what people write about Ann Coulter.
Look at what people wrote about Margaret Thatcher.
Look at what people wrote about Sarah Palin.
Now, I'm not saying these are all heroines of mine.
I'm Quite a fan of Ann Coulter, though.
But Ann Coulter still cranks out number one bestselling books.
And, you know, if there's anybody in American politics or who's interested in this kind of stuff who hasn't read Adios America, you're just being ridiculous.
Go read it.
And for God's sakes, New York Times has been a number one bestseller forever.
Give it a book review.
Come on.
I know you're owned by a Mexican overlord named Carla Slim, but You know, it's getting ridiculous that you haven't reviewed it.
But anyway, or at least it happened last time I checked.
So yeah, there are lots of people who really negative stuff is said about, and they do fine.
They do well.
No such thing as bad publicity, as they say, right?
They do well.
And that has to do with a recognition that there's a cause larger than can be barred by negative words, right?
If we were all frightened of negative words, we wouldn't have left the caves.
And the people who sling negative words are parasites on the people who ignore those negative words.
So there's a great mistake that a lot of people make, which is to think that negative words have the power to define you for everyone.
They don't.
They don't.
In fact, anybody who throws an ad hominem at you, just calls you a name or whatever, right?
They're being wonderfully efficient because they're showing they don't have any arguments.
They call you names, right?
And they're very efficient because wise people say, okay, well, you only get shot at when you're over the target, right?
You only get sniped at by bad people if you're harming the interests of bad people, right?
If you just...
Why aren't they digging up as much dirt and throwing as many slings against people like Paul Ryan as humanly possible?
Well, I think we all know the answer to that one.
And, you know, so you've got that fear, you're in a post and so on.
Don't let the trolls define your life.
Now, obviously, you know, you gotta eat, you gotta keep your job, right?
Don't do anything that's That self-catastrophic or whatever.
But if it's mere words, that is your concern.
And again, I understand that in some places in the world, it's more than that.
And it's quite real.
And I'm sensitive to that.
So I'm not talking about that.
But if it's just negative words, I mean...
We all have benefited from people who have surmounted their fear of bad words.
And maybe it's just the way I was raised.
Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never harm me.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.
And that's just an important thing to remember.
You don't do any service to bad people by subjecting yourself to their power.
If they feel futile, they actually have a chance to maybe change from being bad people to being good people and helping out in the world rather than being negative.
But the more you feed their power by surrendering to their hostility, the worse you make them and the worse you make the world.
Alright, sorry, you wanted to say something else?
No, no, go ahead.
No, I'm about to close off the show, so if you have something you want to add, now's the time.
No, I mean, I really appreciate you just making me aware of, you know, these migrants.
I mean, the first thing I hear, the first time I heard about them coming, I said, you know, yeah, just let them in.
But then after, you know, some videos and a long conversation with Some friends and family.
I, you know, oh no, just keep them away.
And I thank you for everything you've been doing.
I appreciate that.
Thank you so much for calling in.
And thank you everyone so much for watching and listening.
We put out the second version of liberal hypocrisies, number two, which I watched again.
Still find it kind of funny.
But I hope you'll enjoy that.
And freedomainradio.com slash donate to help out the show.
Please, please, please help it out.
You know, we're going into the summer months.
Things can get a little tumbleweedy dry in the old donation box.
So if you could help us out, see your way clear, you know, 10 bucks a month, 20 bucks a month, whatever you can reasonably afford.
Obviously, you got to eat.
I respect that.
But You know, it's less than the price of a cup of coffee a day.
And I think that you can really help us propel philosophy to even more hearts and minds in the world during these very crucial times.
And, you know, with that philosophy, the government's just going to inflate the money away anyway, so why not hand it over?
You can, of course, follow me on Twitter at Stefan Molyneux.
You can use the affiliate link at fdrurl.com slash Amazon and, of course, fdrpodcast.com to share the show.
If you like this stuff on YouTube and Facebook, please like, subscribe, and share to help us know how many people we're reaching.
And thanks, everyone, so much.
For your time and attention and honesty and openness.
