June 30, 2023 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
01:54:42
5208 Death to the Ego - Long Live Wisdom! Freedomain Livestream
Question concerning discussion from a prior livestream concerning propaganda. Your description of women being the victim of statist propaganda in regards hyper-materialism, surface aesthetic obsession, misandry, collectivism, etc. was of interest. Your explanation in my humble opinion sounded very much in line with leftist victimology.Perhaps I missed something. Are individuals to be held responsible and accountable for actions in response to being propagandized? Seems you are most willing to blame vaccine zealots, statists, collectivists, communists, etc. Could they merely be excused for being propagandized? Please clarify.Listening to your novel 'The Present' I should be caught up to chapter 20. Grim stuff. But great writing.Hey Stef! I want to thank you for recommending the book, “Parent Effectiveness Training” in a recent live stream. It seems like fantastic resource peaceful parenting. I’m curious to know if you think anything is missing from that book or if you have any other suggestions for further reading. I’m recently married and we intend to start having children in the next year. Much love to you my brother!Stefan, I have a moral philosophy question for you. Any thoughts on moral asymmetries? For instance, do you believe the presence of virtuous action in a person is relative to the power imbalance between the person doing the act and the one receiving it? For example: if a security guard treats an inmate with virtue, is it of more moral significance than if the inmate treats the security guard with virtue?Having a lot of fears lately. I know I can’t keep my child in a bubble, but how can I deter him from getting sucked in to the stupidity of todays social media generation, as well as the overexposure to all the darker things on the web. How can we best prepare him?How is your relationship with other personalities in the world of libertarian philosophy? people like Larken Rose, Michael Malice, Dennis Pratt, Tom Woods, or whoever. Is there someone you particularly like? or someone you don't like at all.Hypothetical moral conundrums are insanely annoying.Stef, why not try to come back to twitter at this point, since Elon?Stef, I can't think of a single thinker who approaches anything close to your level of insight about such a wide variety of topics.You're as good as the top Austrians on economics, you're better at psychology than most psychologists, you have tech skills, etc.Humility is the opposite of pride, the modern world is dripping with pride, it's not taught or shown anymoreLook I just wanted to jump back in and say I'm sad you felt like going off on a tirade on me. i was one of your oldest supporters and now I don't feel like supporting you. it's a weird feeling. bye.I struggle with criticism too. When I was a child, every criticism from my father was always accompanied by either verbal or physical abuse.Abusive people around your kids?You should build a dating app for your followers only.6/28/2023
Question concerning discussion from a prior live stream concerning propaganda.
Propaganda is always concerning.
Your description of women being the victim of status propaganda in regards to hypermaterialism, surface aesthetic obsession, misandry, collectivism, etc.
was of interest.
Your explanation, in my humble opinion, sounded very much in line with leftist victimology, perhaps.
I missed something.
Are individuals to be held responsible and accountable for actions in response to being propagandized?
Seems you are most willing to blame vaccine zealots, statists, collectivists, communists, etc.
Could they merely be excused for being propagandized?
Please, clarify!
Is this a challenge for other people?
Hit me with a why, if it seems to you that this is a wild and wacky contradiction.
Hit me with a why, if it's like, I don't know, what's, is Steph saying you're responsible?
Is he saying propaganda is responsible?
What is happening?
Yeah, it's funny.
It's funny.
You know, it's funny how if you've ever had a really good teacher,
And you come to that teacher with a seeming contradiction.
What does the teacher say to you, if you have a good teacher?
Well, you said this, but it also seems to be this, and these two perspectives seem to be incompatible or opposing or whatever, right?
What does a good teacher tell you to do?
Shut up, they always say.
I'm not a good teacher.
I just listen.
Yeah, try to resolve it on your own.
Of course they do.
So here's a game that people play with me, and they've played it with me my whole life.
And listen, I don't mind the question.
I'm happy to answer it.
I don't mind the question.
But here's the thing.
What you don't want is to say, well, Steph says this.
This seems to be incompatible.
I'm going to go ask Steph.
You see, things that seem contradictory can be a great stimulus of thought for yourself.
They really can be.
They can be a great stimulus of thought for yourself.
Have you tried to sort it out?
Have you tried to figure it out?
See, here's what I respect.
I mean, not that anybody's sitting there dying for my respect, but just so you know.
Here's what I respect.
Steph, you say this, you also say this, I'm having trouble resolving them.
Here's what I think the resolution could be.
What do you think?
Because that's moving your ass.
That's thinking rather than coming back to me and whining.
It's whining.
Now, maybe I'm completely contradictory.
I understand that.
But you need to think for yourself.
This is not what happens when I'm dead.
Definitely ain't gonna be able to follow this one.
So if there's a contradiction, you try to work it out.
If it feels like a contradiction, if it seems like a contradiction, you should try to work it out.
You shouldn't just come to me, well this doesn't seem to fit with this, I'm limp, Steph, answer.
Why would I bother?
Why would I bother?
Because if you're not thinking for yourself,
If you're not thinking for yourself, why would I bother answering your questions?
My goal is not to have you run to me, see me to resolve things, my goal is for you to think for yourself.
Now maybe you'll get it right, maybe you'll get it wrong, just as I do, but you've got to try for God's sakes!
You've got to at least try!
Now why wouldn't you try?
Why wouldn't you try?
I'm just going to scroll in here and make sure he didn't try.
Yes, he didn't try.
Yeah, why wouldn't you try?
Why wouldn't you at least try?
Because look, if you want to have people care about what you think, you want people to care about what you think?
The first thing you have to do is think!
Let me ask you this.
How long would you train someone?
Let's say you're a golf pro, right?
And somebody says, I really want to improve my swing.
And you know, just give me, do me a favor, do me a solid.
I don't have any money.
Let me just do, do me a favor, do me a solid, help me with my swing, right?
And the guy doesn't get it.
So you hold his arms and you move his arms for him, right?
And then when you let go, he just goes limp.
And he's like, no, no, no, you've got to pick me up, you've got to swing my arms for me.
How often or how long would you train such a person who went full on rubber bones when you weren't moving for him, right?
So if there's a contradiction, seems like a contradiction, you've got to try and think through it first.
Running to me, first of all, there's a little bit of passive aggression here.
This sounds very much in line with leftist victimology, right?
You blame these people, but you don't blame these people.
You hold these people responsible, you don't hold these people responsible.
Seems like leftism.
Please clarify.
You get that's kind of bitchy, that's kind of punchy, right?
And again, I don't mind bitchy, I don't mind punchy, I'm just pointing it out.
If you're not willing to put any thought into resolving what seems like a contradiction, why are you coming to me?
Are you saying, Steph, you know, I'd really like for you to do all my thinking for me.
If you could just do my thinking for me, that would be excellent.
Like, you want me to step over the fact that you have refused to put a single ounce of energy into trying to resolve these contradictions.
Now, if you say, I was really tossing and turning about this, it seems like a contradiction, you know, I went and listened to your Free Will series, I looked up propaganda on your website, and, you know, I listened to what you had to say about this, that, the other, here are my own thoughts, here's where I think the bridge could be, here's where I think the moral responsibility could be, hey, respect, man, beautiful, let's talk.
But I'm just telling you, if you want quality people around you,
This passive-aggressive you contradicting yourself, combined with a complete lack of effort to do any thinking on your part, I'm just saying I'm so desperate for y'all to have quality people around you that I'm really, really begging you on your knees.
I'm on my knees, I'm begging you.
Don't throw contradictions at someone and say, well, I just need you to clarify.
First of all, you're assuming I haven't done it before, right?
Now, if you also were to post on a forum, right?
There's lots of places you can go.
If you were to post on a forum and say, because this is a very common thing, right?
This is like ridiculously common.
Which is, what is the relationship between free will and propaganda?
It's a very common question.
Can we say everyone has pure free will regardless of propaganda, particularly the propaganda when it's inflicted upon them as children in government schools with no exception?
Right?
Does that limit free will?
Of course!
The whole point of propaganda is to limit free will and put you on the train tracks of conformity.
Of course!
And it works!
So people only do that stuff because it works.
On the other hand, there is a matter of moral responsibility.
So, it's a very common issue.
It's the nature nurture stuff.
It's propaganda versus free will.
I've talked about it a million times before.
Here's the other thing, too.
The stuff that seems to you like, wow, this really seems like a contradiction, and the contradiction bothers you, and I get that it bothers you, and you're putting all of the load upon me to resolve this contradiction for you.
But why would I want to think
For you.
Like, I won't do it.
I won't think for you.
Because I can't.
I can't think for you.
I can give you some arguments.
I can give you some ideas.
I can give you perspectives.
I can give you analogies.
I can give you speeches.
I can give you rants.
I cannot think for you.
Any more than a nutritional coach can eat for you.
I mean, do you pay someone to go and get a tan for you?
Why would I want to think for you?
If you say, I've struggled with this for a day or two, I've looked it up, I've asked people, and I just can't resolve it, but here's what I think, and here's what I looked up, hey man, massive props!
Right?
Show your work!
Show your work!
If you keep going back to a math teacher with a blank page saying, no, your math doesn't make any sense, how long is the math teacher going to spend doing your math for you?
Don't put the burden of your absence of thought on other people, or to put it mildly, you can do whatever you want, but anybody with a brain isn't going to fall for it and isn't going to jump because you say boo, right?
They're just not going to do it.
Why would they?
Somebody says, listening to the present, I should be caught up to chapter 20.
Grim stuff, but great writing.
Yeah, it is good writing, right?
Somebody says, hey Steph, I want to thank you for recommending the book Parent Effectiveness Training in a recent live stream.
It seems like a fantastic resource for peaceful parenting.
I'm curious to know if you think anything is missing from that book, or if you have any other suggestions for further reading.
I'm recently married and may intend to start having children in the next year.
Much love to you, my brother.
Thank you very much I appreciate that.
Well yeah of course I mean what's missing from the book is a general philosophy of the non-aggression principle that spreads out to the state as a whole and I don't think it does a huge amount with regards to peer pressure and so on but it's a great start and particularly for younger kids it's fantastic.
Somebody says you cannot help what you exposed to as children when we had no awareness that there was an alternative when we knew and refused to consider them when we refused to consider that it was we who were wrong then you are not a victim of others you have agency they are responsible.
So, I mean, just by the by, I mean, just for those, I'm not particularly thrilled with this.
Resolve this contradiction for me, please.
Just clarify, because it seems like very leftist victimology.
But, no, so what I was responding to in a recent podcast was a guy saying, the more perfect freedoms that women have, the worse decisions they make.
And it's like, what perfect freedoms?
That's a straw man argument.
That's what I was arguing back against that.
Women are subject to propaganda, and propaganda has an effect.
Of course!
I was subject to propaganda.
You were subject to propaganda.
It has an effect.
Now, how much effect on what person?
What have you been exposed to?
I don't know.
I don't know.
That's an individual case-by-case basis.
Now, I personally believe it's much better if you take 100% responsibility, 150% responsibility for everything that you do.
And the Internet has made it very easy for people to break out of propaganda.
So I refuse to completely erase only, he was only talking about women.
He was only talking about women have this perfect freedom and they just keep making these bad choices.
And my point was, you can't see the propaganda in women if you can't see the propaganda in yourself.
And I really, really have an issue with other people who say, well, I'm completely free of propaganda, but this other entire half the population is completely swallowed up by propaganda.
It's like, come on, no, you're not.
You've just taken different propaganda, which is to blame women.
You're not responsible for what you've never been exposed to.
You are responsible, here's the thing, you are responsible in a society that's run by pretty evil people, you are responsible in exploring those the evildoers call evil.
Because you would expect to find some potential virtue there, some potential virtue there.
All right, Stefan, I have a moral philosophy question for you.
Any thoughts on moral asymmetries?
For instance, do you believe the presence of virtuous actions in a person is relative to the power imbalance between the person doing the act and the one receiving it?
For example, if a security guard treats an inmate with virtue, is it of more moral significance than if the inmate treats a security guard with virtue?
I don't think that the inmate could treat a security guard with virtue because he's not in a situation of choice anymore.
Because a security guard can threaten and punish him and throw him in the hole and not feed him or I don't know whatever, it could be worse in totalitarian regimes.
So I don't think that the inmate really has the option to have a voluntary, virtue and voluntarism are the same thing and if you're in a coercive relationship I don't think you can really.
Virtue vanishes where coercion is there.
Virtue has to be a choice and this is not a chosen relationship.
All right.
In my scenario I'm assuming absolute power and so the hypothetical guard would suffer no consequences of behaving badly towards the inmate.
I'm wondering if the development of virtue requires the existence of power disparities.
It's an odd thing, you know?
It's just an odd thing.
I'm trying not to be annoyed by people tonight because it might just be that I'm crabby for whatever reason.
Could be.
I'm open to that suggestion.
But have you solved all these moral issues in your life to the point where North Korean theoretical angel guards is like the big thing you're working on?
Like if you talk to people about virtue, have you spread peaceful parenting?
Have you, I mean, woken people up to the coercion of our society?
I mean, I'm always kind of concerned when people wander into these abstract realms, which have virtually no impact on our daily lives.
You know, how much moral responsibility do people who are propagandized have?
Well, your focus should be on waking people up, not wondering how much free will they have.
Give them free will by waking them up.
Or don't, if you don't want to.
I mean, nobody has to do anything.
Don't if you don't want to.
But it's like a doctor wondering how many people are unwell.
It's like, go heal them.
What are you thinking about?
Who's unwell?
Thinking about who has moral responsibility, thinking about some contradiction that seems to be the case with me.
And it's like, come on, come on, brothers and sisters, you and I both know, we both know that you're doing this stuff to avoid challenging moral conversations with the people in your actual life.
Right?
You'd rather talk about virtue in the abstract than spread virtue in the present.
You'd rather talk about conceptual virtue than apply empirical virtue in the life of yourself and the life of those around you.
I know it.
You know it.
It's just the way that it is.
Because nobody is able to achieve as much virtue as they want in their personal life.
Nobody.
It's a never ending battle with yourself, with those around you, with your immediate surroundings, with people you come in contact with.
You can't have woken everyone.
And of course, if you have this amazing ability to wake people up, then you should keep doing that.
Rather than come back to me with like, well, it seems to be contradictory.
Well, what if there's a guard and the prisoner and the, oh God, this is not your life.
This is not what actually goes on in your life.
God, you discredit morality by rendering it pathologically abstract.
What's morality for?
Can I tell you what morality is for?
Would you, would you like me to know what morality is for?
Morality is for pissing off bad people.
That's what morality is for.
Morality is for pissing off bad people.
It's for harming the interests of evildoers.
That's what it's for.
You know, if you have, oh, I've got this great cure for strep throat.
Really?
Does it interfere with the reproduction of any strep throat bacteria?
No.
Then it's by definition, it's not doing any good, right?
If you're not, if you're not annoying evil doers or apathetic people or amoral people, if you're not annoying and challenging the people around you, you're not doing virtue.
If you're sitting and thinking about it in a darkened room, well Steph said this but six months ago he said that, huh I'm gonna go and get the answer to that!
It's like you don't need the answer to that because there's probably about 99 things that you could do
To provoke the good and thwart the evil in your life as you stand right now!
Right now!
Right now!
So when people call me up and they say, you know, I've started doing real good, but man, it's causing a lot of trouble in my personal relationships.
I have all the time in the world for those conversations.
I really do.
I have all the time in the world.
Those are honorable, powerful, decent, and good conversations to have, and I really respect people who do that.
But the people who were like, well I have this theoretical, and there's this contradiction, and this seems to be... Dokey dokey dokey dokey dokey dokey dokey!
We've had 3,000 years of talking about it.
And listen, if you don't want to do it, that's fine.
You don't have to do anything.
You can nod and bow along to all the malefactors in your environment.
If you want, you can do all of that.
But then don't come and waste my time with theoretical questions when you're not putting anything into practice.
That's all.
If you don't want to do it, don't do it.
But then don't come back and you understand that you're serving the malefactors when you don't enact virtue in your own life, but you come with endless time-wasting theoreticals to everyone who is enacting virtue in the world.
We're out here doing triage trying to save people.
And you're like, well, what about this?
And what about that?
And what about the other?
You understand, if you were doing that in a play and you kept tugging and tripping the doctor and pulling over the doctor and standing between the doctor and the patient saying, well, what about this theoretical?
You understand, in that analogy, you're harming people.
And again, I'm trying not to be too negative about it.
I just want to shock people.
Look, do morality in your life or drop it.
Do it or drop it.
I mean, it comes across to me, and again, maybe I'm just a bit cranky tonight, and thank you for your donations, I really appreciate your support, I hope this helps, I really hope this helps.
But, okay, let me ask you this, and again, just to be self-critical, right?
Have you ever had someone in your life who has complained for years and years and years about being overweight?
Have you had someone?
Or maybe somebody who's like, Oh, man, I really got to get in shape.
Oh, man, I really got to get a better job.
Oh, man, I really got to earn my money.
Oh, man, I really got to ask this girl out.
Oh, man, I really got to lose weight.
Oh, man, I've really got to write a book.
Oh, man, I really got to go.
Oh, yeah, years, years, years, right?
Years.
What do you want to say to people who complain about the same thing for years and don't do anything about it?
What do you want to say to them?
What is your impulse?
Everyone I know who was overweight made an effort and often succeeded into getting shape, including me.
Good for you.
Yeah, do something about it.
R-E-S-T-F-U.
Do it or shut up.
Do something.
Reee!
You're tired of it?
To get a freaking life?
Yeah, for the people who lose weight and keep it off, you're only 2 or 3% of the population.
Only 2 or 3% of the population lose weight and keep it off.
When they diet, right?
So you understand, somebody who says, well, you know, I've been obese for 25 years, but I don't know, the carnivore protein synthesis seems to oppose with some of the claims that the vegans have, and I need to read another book, and I need to have another article, and I need to read another research paper, and I need to do this, and I need to do that, and I come to you, and you know, explain this to me, and the carb thing, and the protein thing, and I just don't understand, and you got to explain it to me again, like, it's been 25 years.
In 25 years.
You're not going to do it.
You're not going to do it.
How many years have been exhorting people to bring virtue into their lives in tangible empirical ways?
And again, I have no problem with the theory.
You've got to know some theory.
You've got to understand the abstracts.
I get all of that.
I understand that.
But when people come to me with theoreticals that have absolutely nothing to do with their life, that they're never going to act on, or they come back to me with contradictions that have absolutely nothing to do with their life.
Yes, there are some people in the darkness and there are some people in the light.
And we have more sympathy for mistakes made by those in the darkness than we have for those mistakes made by those in the light.
And just sitting there like a god up in your cloud, like Zeus farting out a cumulus and saying, well I'm going to judge this and this contrary, go down
Get the fuck off your cloud, go down and lead some people into the light.
Get the fuck off your cloud, go down and lead some people into the light.
Encourage people to be virtuous.
Encourage people to pursue truth.
Maybe chastise a few blind and ignorant people on the way.
Do some actual
Good in this world, rather than typing your maybe contradictions to me, and the guard, and the prisoner, and the trolley problem, and the hanging from a flagpole, and who should you eat if you're in the submersible down by the Tantanic?
Do it.
Now, if you're doing it,
And you're having real challenges?
Absolutely!
Come on by.
Share with the community.
We're all struggling with bringing virtue into the world.
We're all struggling with the power of the liars and the power of the lies.
We're all struggling with the misdirection of the sophists.
We're all struggling with the hypnosis of propaganda.
But I've been doing this for 14 years.
I've been doing this show for 17 years.
It's not like on my second day I'm saying this.
And maybe you're new to it.
Maybe you're new to it.
But here's the thing, if you're new to it, there's, you know, there's a giant fucking body of work there that you can go and look up.
Did you do a search for propaganda?
Did you do a search for free will?
Did you do a search for moral responsibility?
The FDRpodcast.com.
Did you do that?
Or are you lazy and coming to me and wanting me to do your thinking for you?
Sorry.
I am mortal.
I'd rather do my thinking for myself and I'd rather do my encouragements to the world.
Your speech right now is like the constant speculation.
Will he or won't he go back on Twitter?
Why can't people start their own journey?
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you feel that Twitter is a great place to spread reason and evidence,
Who's stopping you?
Am I in your way?
Am I got you locked in a basement?
Gimp style?
No.
You can take all the arguments you can take videos of clips of mine.
I don't care.
You can do it all repost it.
It's totally fine with me.
Can't believe Steph's not back on Twitter.
Man, what a what a power vacuum.
What a market opportunity.
What a great thing to do.
But you know what, all of these brave, brave souls, you know what they're doing?
They're saying, Steph!
Oh, you know, the anti-rationality of the world really got me a little upset, brother.
It's tweaking me, it's bothering me.
It's tickling me, like I just sat on a peacock using a vibrator.
Mmm, that's a tasty image for you.
Bothering me.
I'm scared of the world's anti-rationality.
I'm scared of the craziness.
I'm scared of the aggression.
You know what would be great?
If your 56-year-old ass could take the bullets for me, that would be fantastic!
Oh, yeah.
You know, I could go and do brave things myself, or I could talk to a guy who got beaten up doing brave things for 40 years straight and get him to do it.
You understand how dysfunctionally female that is?
Let's you and him fight.
Steph, I'm gonna try and goad you into going over into no man's land.
Get up out of that trench, you go.
If you feel something needs to be done, and other people aren't doing it, it's bullshit girly to just try and convince them to do it.
If you feel stuff needs to be done on Twitter, all the controversial stuff that I was doing, if you feel it needs to be said on Twitter,
Nothing's stopping you from doing it.
Ah, dear, oh dear, oh dear.
I don't really fathom it.
I mean, I get it, like, it's more fun to watch me do it.
Oh, I loved it, Steph, and you were on there owning the libs.
Yeah.
All these brave souls want me to go and do it after I did it for decades.
No, you don't get to semi-retire, man.
You just got to fight until you're 90.
Listen, it's that you're very adept at discourse, obviously!
Right.
And how did I get good at discourse?
What, I was just born with a golden Irish horse show of verbosity up my arse?
I really was not.
I was not known to be much of a talker when I was younger.
Question, how did I become good at communicating?
Quick question, how did I become good at communicating?
Was I just born with it?
Steph is a miracle worker.
He came out with the Blurny stone, shoved up his nostril, and he's been snorting and exhaling ever since.
Right!
Practice!
Practice, practice, practice!
Of course!
Of course!
I read, I wrote, I started writing short stories when I was six years old.
I read, I wrote, I debated, I communicated, I argued with my friends, I went to university, I trained, I had a crazy mother who kind of forced me.
I was either going to go crazy or stay rational.
So it's not like, like I get there are some people born with a great singing voice.
Lots of smart people in the world.
Why don't you practice?
Practice debating.
I've got a whole book called Art of the Argument.
Artoftheargument.com.
I'm not as adept.
I'm not as adept.
Yeah, well.
And you're not as adept, right?
So if you're not as adept, why are you telling me what to do?
I know you're not telling me what to do, but why are you suggesting
The best way to fight if you don't know how to fight.
You understand how this looks?
Let's say I'm some Bruce Lee ninja of reason and argument, right?
I'm a Bruce Lee ninja argument guy, right?
And you say, well, I don't know how to fight.
I don't know any kung fu.
I don't know any karate.
I don't know how to fight.
But here's what you should do, man.
It's like, OK, so if you're not as adept as I am, how dare you tell me how to fight?
Where's the humility?
What is the matter with this generation?
I'm sorry, like, where is your humility and perspective?
I've been doing this for 40 plus years, OK?
40 plus years.
You admit that I'm fantastic at it, you admit you're not competent at it, and you're telling me how to do it.
Please go and look up, please go and look up the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.
The Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.
The Dunning-Kruger Syndrome is, if you can't do it, it looks easy.
If you can't do it.
Now here's the thing too.
Have the humility.
Oh my God.
I don't even know where to start with this stuff.
Jesus.
Jesus.
God above.
It's like humility has just completely vanished from the lexicon of the next generation.
So, if you think I should go back on Twitter, that's fine.
First of all, I'd like to see some success on your part.
Well, here's all the things I've changed.
Here's the book I wrote.
Here's the people I converted.
Here's the people I've talked to.
Here's my YouTube channel.
Here's my whatever, right?
Gotta have some success.
Because if you don't know what you're doing, if you've never tried it, how dare you tell me how to do it?
Like, I mean, it's just bizarre to me.
It's completely bizarre to me.
I don't understand it.
Where is the humility?
Like I couldn't conceive, I couldn't conceive when I was younger.
I couldn't imagine it.
This is how I became good.
I didn't just nag people.
I got off my ass and I learned some shit for myself.
But I could not imagine.
Going to a guy, like I had before I started working out, right?
Like I'm 14 years old, I got noodle arms, chicken chest, whatever.
Before I started working out, I literally can't conceive of going to a gym, seeing some guy who's massively muscular, and telling him how he needs to lift weights, when I had no experience, no credibility, no skill, no knowledge.
I'm going and saying, well, you know, maybe you should drink a little more protein.
And maybe you should lift it this way and not this way.
And you should really do this.
And why don't you do that?
It's like, oh my God!
Do you know how you seem to experts?
Oh my God.
Why don't you just go on Twitter?
Do you ever think of going back on Twitter?
You know nothing!
Maybe sit down, be quiet, and try and soak something up.
Just maybe.
Just maybe.
Because you can't learn when you're lecturing and if you're going to one of the foremost debaters and promoters of freedom in the world.
And telling him how to do his job, when you have no experience, no track record, no arguments, and no credibility, you are genuinely embarrassing yourself to anybody with half a brain.
And I'm sorry, I'm really desperately trying not to be mean.
This is tough love, I promise you.
This is tough love.
You're strawmanning this.
See, that's not an argument either!
Saying it's a straw man.
You don't know what you're doing and you're trying to tell me what to do.
I'm not doing what you're saying.
Right.
So I'm trying to give you some coaching and you're just denying everything I'm saying.
Okay, that's fine.
You don't have to take any coaching.
Maybe I'm not talking to you.
You're mischaracterizing me.
Just saying stuff doesn't prove anything.
Hey man, I'm just, I'm just, I'm not telling you what to do.
I'm just asking you why you haven't gone back on Twitter.
Just why not?
Well, of course you know that I've been doing this for a long time, which means I have a giant body of work.
Have you gone and listened to the shows where I've said why I'm not going back on Twitter?
Have you listened to those shows?
In which case there's a lot of detailed arguments.
I have a lot of corporate experience.
You know, I know what happens when a corporation transfers.
I've been through two corporate transitions and almost three.
I've been through three takeover bids.
Two were successful, one was almost successful.
I have seen from the inside, from companies I built with my bare hands, I have seen what happens when there's a power change in a company.
You don't know!
You don't know what I know.
You haven't experienced what I've experienced.
You haven't had the visceral multi-year experience in business of seeing a corporate takeover such as which happened with Elon Musk.
I've been there.
I've been there on three different occasions.
I've seen how tough it is to change corporate culture.
I've seen how a person who comes in with the best of intentions gets undermined by the existing power structure.
Now guys, arguing with, like arguing in the chat here, that's fine.
I'm just saying you're gonna miss stuff, right?
Don't, see, don't let people distract you from what it is that I'm saying.
You came here to listen to me.
Why not just put his bot on Twitter?
Why not, man?
No, that is dumb.
And the fact that you would just say something like that without thinking it through, without understanding what's going on, without understanding the limitations of AI.
I've been a computer programmer since I was 11 years old.
Okay.
Jesus.
I've been a computer programmer for 45 years.
Okay.
Off and on.
So, and I've done detailed presentations on AI.
I'm fairly aware of its strengths and weaknesses.
So then just saying, well, just put the AI on Twitter.
No, I'm not going to tell you why.
I'm not, because I'm not here to educate you if you won't listen.
I have better things to do with my life.
I have better things to do with my time.
Because you're oppositional.
You keep making completely ridiculous suggestions.
You don't even know why they're ridiculous.
And then you're like, well, you've got to spend an hour explaining to me why it's ridiculous.
No, I don't.
It's not a shame that people have derailed the last two streams.
It's not a shame at all.
It's very important.
How did I learn to debate?
By assuming I didn't know how to debate.
How did I learn how to reason?
By assuming that everything I thought was wrong.
How did I come up with UPB?
By recognizing that after 20 years of studying philosophy I still could not clearly define what virtue was and ethics were.
How did I get good at this?
By accepting I was bad at it.
I did not get good at philosophy by going to far better thinkers than I do and giving them useless suggestions.
Why?
Because that's incomprehensible to me.
I mean, do you think when I was 17 years old I would have flown down to see Ayn Rand and I would have lectured her on everything she got wrong and everything she needed to do and
And how do you think she would have received that?
When you lecture people who are vastly better at things than you are, with no knowledge, no credibility, no track record, no empirical evidence of your skills, you are inviting them to reject you.
And this is like, you understand, this has nothing to do with me.
You just, there's a vanity aspect here that is, again, it's just jaw-dropping to me.
It's like you've never seen the karate kid, right?
Wax on, wax off.
It's wild.
I mean, it's funny, you know, I remember seeing a Jerry Seinfeld documentary where he went to a club and people were like bored or rejecting him or booing or walking out.
And he's like, basically, like, OK, how big?
I was like the biggest comedian in the world, biggest comedian on the planet.
How big do you have to be before people show you some respect, right?
The idea, look, I'm happy to take feedback.
I really, I'm genuinely happy to take feedback.
Of course.
But let's say that I'm 7th Dan Black Belt.
Is the 7th Dan Black Belt in martial arts, is he happy to take feedback?
Of course he is.
Absolutely he is.
Absolutely.
The 7th Dan Black Belt is very happy to take feedback.
How do we know that?
Because he couldn't have become a 7th Dan Black Belt if he hadn't been able to take feedback.
So he's very happy to take feedback, right?
What do you need to do to be taken seriously by an expert in something?
What do you need to do?
I mean, it's a genuine question.
To be taken seriously by an expert in something, what do you need to do?
If I want to be taken seriously by a world-famous physicist, what do I need to do?
Yeah?
Not wander in and tell him what I think he should do with no credibility.
I don't, how, how could this possibly be?
How could this possibly be not known?
Tell me what is, what am I missing here?
I'm genuinely, what has changed?
Because obviously, you know, I was hammered down when I was younger and rightly so for the things I didn't know.
And I get that there's a certain impetuousness and an arrogance to youth and all of that, and that's fine with me.
But what has changed?
Are people never told that they're wrong anymore?
Are people never told that their suggestions are ridiculous?
What has changed?
Somebody says, once upon a time, I left a job because the folks running the show tried to tell me how to be an analyst.
This was on top of them being inept, dishonest, and manipulative.
They could not comprehend why I wanted to leave and make more money to boot.
Who's John Gold, baby?
Never let petty losers hold you back.
I am a fairly world-spanning expert in debates, argumentation, public speaking.
I'm a good writer.
Like I have a lot of skills and you know, there's things I'm not good at and there's things that I can always improve on, but there's a lot that I can do.
And is it, is it, is it all just female teachers?
Is it just female teachers?
You can't tell young people they're just wrong?
Is that the thing?
Like, young people have just been filled with, you're never wrong, you're never bad at anything, everything's great, everyone gets an A. Like, is it that?
I mean, that certainly wasn't the world that I grew up in, and that's why I became good at things, because it was really hammered into me that I wasn't good at things.
It's participation trophy era.
It's really, it cripples people, right?
You need to know that you're terrible at things in order to become better.
There are no stupid questions.
Yeah, there are stupid questions, of course.
Left one job when they made the receptionist the new manager of the department, having never worked one day in the field itself.
Kids these days get certificates for finishing preschool.
It's wild.
I mean, you really, it's a, I guess it's a way of preventing the transfer of skills to praise kids to the point where they think they, they have nothing.
They have everything to add and they're deficient in nothing.
I mean, I assume this is a guy in his twenties, right?
So let's say he's, he's 22 or whatever, right?
So let's say he's, he's 22.
I mean, it's a pretty young perspective to sort of loftily tell me what you think I should do, right?
So it's 30, 35 years.
So for 35 years, I've been working on stuff.
Like I've had 35 years extra in life and I've been, so I've been doing philosophy longer than he's been an adult, right?
I've been a philosopher longer than he's been an adult.
Now, if I'm approaching someone who's achieved some pretty world-renowned success and is an expert in the field and has done amazing stuff, and I have done some pretty great stuff, the idea that I would not approach that with humility, again, I don't understand.
I don't, I don't understand.
Now, of course, it doesn't mean that I'm right about everything.
But the idea that, you know, that there's an influence on people, but you claim free will, that seems to be a contradiction.
People are influenced, and we should have some sympathy for that, and they lose some free will because of the external propaganda.
But you also say that people have free will.
That's a real contradiction.
And the idea that
The idea that this has never been thought of.
Like, it's a wild thing to me.
The idea, and this happens all the time for me, so this is a little bottled up, right?
Well, people email me and it's the most obvious thing, right?
The most obvious things.
The most obvious things.
That had never occurred to me before, right?
If I'm so good at what I do that I'm worth giving coaching to, then you should understand that the questions you have, I've almost certainly answered before and probably a dozen times.
Almost certainly.
If it's obvious to you that there's a challenge here, then it's obvious to me as well.
Somebody says my driver's license is older than some of the people hired to run the place.
Hmm, hard to take them seriously telling 20-year-old vets of the job how to do it.
Right.
And look, I get that.
So when you're young and you're into technology and there's older people who just can't quite get a handle on the technology, it's easy to roll your eyes.
And I get that they've been raised with all of this nonsense about how adults are out of touch and grandparents are vaguely racist and incompetent and young people are cool and hip and
But I mean, everybody's raised with a whole bunch of nonsense.
I mean, I was raised with a whole bunch of pro-war nonsense.
That doesn't mean that I was pro-war when I was 20.
I was raised with a bunch of hyper-patriotic nonsense, but you kind of grow out of that in your teens, don't you?
I don't know, what is it?
Again, I don't know what I'm missing, but it's a very different thing.
I can't imagine marching up to Freddie Mercury after Live Aid and saying, well, I want to tell you not too, too bad, but you really don't know how to hold and engage with the crowd, my man.
I mean, it's crazy.
It's crazy.
Again, doesn't mean I'm right about everything.
Of course not.
But if I'm worth coaching, I'm obviously pretty smart.
Do you think the parents and grandparents are too consumed by media to give realistic feedback?
I don't know what it is.
I mean crazy wings have to be clipped, don't they?
Vanity has to be pushed back.
Narcissism and grandiosity have to be fought, don't they?
I'm right because I'm me.
I'm super smart and that which is obvious to me is really obscure to other people who've worked in the field for
40 years?
I mean, I can't imagine going to a physicist with 40 years experience, top world physicist, and saying, well, you know, a lot of stuff does fall down, but have you ever wondered why things sometimes go up or stay up?
That's a big question.
That's a big question.
I really think you should look into it.
I mean, what would you even say to someone like that?
What could you say to someone like that?
In the Middle Ages, a mathematician, someone says, has a pre-filled form to explain why the general solution of the roots of a fifth degree polynomial proposed by armatures was wrong.
Go on a rant!
What do you think I've been doing?
Jeez, man, stay up!
Stay up.
When you're young,
You know so little.
And of course you've been propagandized into thinking you know everything.
Do you know why you get propagandized into vanity?
So nobody overturns the propaganda.
That's what it's for, you understand.
You get told you're never wrong so that you don't doubt yourself enough to actually learn the truth.
You get sealed up in this tomb of vanity.
Well, I know the answers as to why this particular group isn't doing well in society.
It's all, all, all.
Well, that's the answer!
And anyone who questions that answer is a bad person!
Okay.
You're just a useful idiot, then, for the powers that be.
I'm trying to crack a tomb that you're in.
I'm trying to crack a tomb that you're in.
And the tomb is, I'm just right and smart.
There's no humility.
There's no doubt.
There's no self-criticism.
There's no respect for people who've been working in the field for a long time.
There's just this monstrous, bottomless, horrendous tomb of vanity.
I mean, everybody knows that Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in human history, what did he have, like a hundred plus tries to try and get the electric light to work?
Well, I think you should try and get that light to burn more, more brightly and more constantly and use less energy.
What do you even say to people?
Look, I just want to jump back in and say I'm sad.
You felt like going off on a tirade on me.
I was one of your oldest supporters and now I don't feel like supporting you.
It's a weird feeling.
Bye.
Yes, I think that's a good exit.
I think that's a good exit.
Honestly, I do think that's a good exit for you to make.
Because if you get some criticism, and you understand that you were implicitly criticizing me by saying, well, you should, why don't you go on Twitter, right?
That's an implicit criticism, which is fine.
I'm totally fine with being criticism.
I'm a big boy.
And you then earned more by just all this passive aggressive stuff, right?
Now you say I'm going off on a tirade on you and that's your perception is that anybody who disagrees with you or criticizes you or encourages you to be more humble or to learn things before you question people who know a lot more than you is just going off on a tirade on you.
You've just reduced it to, he's just going off on a tirade of me!
Bye!
Okay, listen.
If you can't handle criticism, you shouldn't be in philosophy.
You shouldn't be in intellectual pursuits.
Because being in intellectual pursuits means you get criticized a lot.
And you should get criticized a lot.
Because people who get morals wrong can screw up the entire planet and get a lot of people killed.
So... If it's just a tirade,
And now I don't feel like supporting you, so you're taking your ball and going home, because I'm saying you can't throw, right?
You can't throw the ball, and I'm trying to teach you how to throw the ball, and you're saying, well you're just insulting me, and you're taking your ball and you're going home, and that's totally your choice.
That absolutely is your choice.
And I get that it's a weird feeling, because maybe you haven't had objective criticism before.
But the funny thing is that people who say, you know, I'm one of your oldest supporters, right?
Okay, so you understand that I've been criticized savagely and wildly unjustly, right?
I've been attacked and slandered and lied about, and I'm still going, right?
I'm still coming back for these conversations, still engaging with the listeners, still loving philosophy, still doing my thing.
So you say, well, I'm one of your oldest supporters, and the only reason I'm still standing, the only reason I'm still here,
Is because I survive and flourish off criticism.
Even if it's ridiculously unjust.
So you admire my resolution in the face of criticism, but the moment you get some criticism, you just run away.
Which means you don't understand what I'm doing at all.
I really love this guy who can take criticism.
Oh, is he criticizing me?
I'm out!
I'm out!
It's too bad!
It's a tirade!
I'm out!
I was like, but if you admire me, shouldn't you also admire my ability to handle criticism?
Even unjust attack?
I mean, you've seen me in interviews when people go at me unjustly.
I think I handle it pretty well.
I don't think that lets me, it doesn't destroy my love of philosophy.
I mean, it's wild to me.
I really admire Steph.
Man, that guy can handle criticism.
Oh wait, he's criticizing me.
Oh, that's it, I'm out.
You understand that that means you don't understand me and you don't support me at all.
And you don't support the values that I'm literally modeling and have been for 17 years in the public square.
You don't admire me.
You don't respect me.
Because if you did, you would be able to take criticism as I've modeled the taking of criticism
For 17 years.
In the public square.
And the criticism has been wildly unjust.
For the most part, some have been very good.
Some of it has been very good.
But most of it, like 90% of it, is just rampant hysteria.
Like this, right?
Like you're just triggered, you're upset, you're angry, you're hurt.
Because nobody's cared about you enough.
Like, you associate criticism with hostility.
You associate criticism with putting you down.
You associate criticism with rage.
You associate criticism with rampant aggression.
But we correct those with potential.
We correct those we care about.
And you feel that I am putting you down.
No.
I'm identifying where you're deficient.
And I'm giving you a path to not be deficient.
Right?
You don't coach people with no chance.
You don't coach people with no hope.
There are not a lot of batting coaches who deal with guys with no arms.
Right?
I mean, if you say, I can't swim and I have no intention of learning how to swim, can you get a swimming coach?
You cannot.
So it's only, you only get the coaching if you have potential.
And so when you get the coaching and you get the clarification and yeah, you know what?
Coaches can be aggressive.
Coaches can be passionate.
Coaches can be intense.
I get that.
Okay.
Then don't be in the arena.
Right?
Don't, don't do it.
It's just, again, I don't mean to be overly shocked, but just, I didn't have to have my vanity.
Like, I think I've got some good reasons to be vain if I wanted to be.
If I wanted to be, I have some decent reasons to be vain.
But I hope that I have maintained a consistent vulnerability and a consistent humility.
As you know, you listen to thousands of call-in shows.
I don't tell people what to do.
I don't tell people what to do.
Even when it seems to me blindingly obvious, I won't tell them what to do.
I maybe will say, if I were in your shoes, this is the perspective, these are the things I would be taking into account.
But I don't tell people what to do.
And so even with 40 years, self-knowledge, therapy, philosophy, morality, all the experience I have in the call-in shows, I won't tell people what to do.
And then people come into the chat and they tell me what to do.
Just go back on Twitter.
You're contradicting yourself.
And then when I push back on that, it's just you're in a tirade.
I'm out.
I'm leaving.
It's weird.
Bye.
Okay.
I'm sorry that it's weird.
I'm sorry that nobody's cared about you enough.
And I'm genuinely sorry about this.
I'm sorry that nobody's cared about you enough to push back on your vanity.
Because vanity is where you don't improve.
Vanity is where your improvement has died.
There is no possibility of improving.
If you already think you are perfect at something, you can't be improved.
And Vanity says you can't be improved.
Now why have I continued to improve in philosophy?
Because I'm always learning new things.
I'm always learning new approaches.
I'm always learning better ways to argue new arguments.
You get them on the show.
You get them on the solo shows.
New approaches in the call-in shows.
New conversations tonight.
I'm never hitting peak philosophy.
I will die.
With no peak philosophy in me.
It's like science.
You're never done.
You're never done, right?
You learn stuff and that just opens up a whole new range of things to learn.
Do I rest on my laurels?
Do I just say, well, I did UPB, I did RTR, I did free will, I just destroyed the simulation hypothesis.
You know, I've done that.
I'm done, right?
I identified peaceful parenting as the route forward.
I talked about the adverse childhood experiences and mortality.
I did R versus K. I did, you name it, right?
I mean, right?
No, I mean, I'm far from done.
I'll be going for another 30, 40 years, I hope.
Because I've still so much more to learn.
But if I was like, well, I've done all of these great things in the realm of philosophy, I really am the greatest, blah, blah, blah.
It's like, okay, then I just stopped learning.
Why would that be any fun?
I'm excited by my deficiencies.
I'm excited by the things that I have yet to learn.
Because learning is living.
And if you're a young person,
With no real experience in debating or philosophy or how to manage a worldwide conversation on the most volatile subjects known to man, which I think I did a pretty good job of.
I think I did a pretty good job of.
If you've no experience in that stuff.
I mean, I don't want to say like, how dare you tell me what to do?
How dare you lecture me?
But it's like,
Where's the humility?
You haven't done anything close to that.
You haven't done anything close to that.
I guarantee you.
Because if you had, I'd have heard of you.
And again, it doesn't mean you're wrong and I'm right, but I'm not going to bother listening to you if you just come and tell me how I should be doing things with no research, no history, no humility.
And that you would come to me, you can post on and say, you know, even if you're too lazy, like I've got a whole, you go to my website, podcasts, it's a whole search function right there.
So if you're too lazy or indifferent or bored or uninterested or vain to even look up what I've said before, why would I want to listen to you?
It's all there.
It's all free.
There's no ads even.
It's all there.
It's all free.
All the people are like, yeah, explain UPB to me.
I got a whole book.
Have you read the book?
No.
You don't even know you're supposed to read the book first.
I don't, again, I, I don't understand.
Like you, you don't know what you don't know.
I completely.
And then somebody gives you feedback when you're annoying and saying you're annoying and here's why.
I don't know.
I guess is it?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Oh, and all of this, you know, I used to support you.
Now I'm not going to support you.
Take your money and be gone.
If you, if you're donating, listen, if you're donating this to this guy and I, you know, I, again, I say this with great affection and great love, don't fucking try to buy me.
Okay.
Like, please.
More experienced people with way more money than you have tried to buy me.
I can tell you that straight up.
The amount of money that you could offer me would be nothing compared to the amount of money I've been offered in the past to compromise my values.
Well, I'm gonna take my $20 a month and go home.
Okay?
Honestly, please.
I'm begging you.
Take your $20 a month and go home.
Because if you think that
I'm going to alter my position on this because you giving me $20 a month.
I don't know what you're doing here in the first place.
I have no idea what you're doing here in the first place.
No, I don't feel like supporting you.
Take your money and go away.
I'm because I'm not for sale.
Come on, come on.
Of course I'm not for sale.
Ah, there was a line up at times.
But of course I'm not for sale.
Oh, oh, I'm sorry.
You might take your donation and not donate to me.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I pointed out the foolishness of your position.
I'm sorry that I thought you could do better and wanted to give you feedback to improve.
I'm sorry.
Please, because my price is $20 a month.
I don't know.
Like, how can people, how can people like, well, I really admire your integrity, Steph, and that's why I'm here.
But if you don't agree with me, I'm taking 20 bucks a month out of your pay.
But it's, I mean, it's sad, right?
This is, um, I mean, it is, it is really sad.
And listen, if you want to call in and talk about it, it's totally fine.
Somebody says, my guess is that the people who you're ranting at still have their abusive parents in their lives.
In my experience, in my experience, it's almost always that.
That's a very good point.
I welcome the day Steph tears into me for nonsense I might spew.
Ouch.
Steph disagrees with me.
I'm out!
Not every loss is a tragedy, right?
In before he says, oh wow, he's still talking about little old me.
I must have struck a deep nerve.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Steph has called me out when he thinks I'm wrong.
I'm sensitive to that, but he's trying to help.
I swallow my pride and rethink.
It's up to me.
Yeah.
If I ever inspire a round from you, I'd print it out, ask you to sign it and hang it on my wall.
I appreciate that.
It's why I respect Steph and try not to over-engage when speaking to a living God.
Well, I appreciate that.
I mean, that's obviously hyperbole in the extreme, but...
Oh dear, oh dear.
Man, I've had plenty of reasons to be called out since 2007 and have been, my goodness.
Look, it's just, and everybody has to go through this process from time to time where you get your vanity punctured, right?
I mean, somebody says, I struggle with criticism too.
When I was a child, every criticism of my father was always accompanied by either verbal or physical abuse.
Right.
Right.
And I'm sorry for that, that's really, right?
Tutors and good teachers love a student who knows how to ask for help.
Those are the ones who can succeed.
Yeah.
I mean, people, and this is, this is nothing new, right?
I mean, some of the way I've expressed it is new, but it's nothing particularly new.
Like even back when I was on Twitter, people would tell me, well, here's how to grow your engagement.
Here's how you should engage with people.
Here's how you should handle this.
Here's how you should do that.
And I'd go over to their profile and they'd have like 42 followers.
Right.
And at the time I had, I don't know, like close to half a million or something like that.
Right.
And I'd say, wait, I've got half a million followers dealing with the most controversial topics known to man.
You have 43 followers.
Why would I take your advice?
Well, you should be less controversial.
Well, you're less controversial and you have only 43 followers.
So the fact that I would ask for evidence before taking advice.
Wow.
I mean, am I, am I crazy about this?
I don't think so.
Doesn't everybody?
I mean, if you have a problem with your car, do you just park it in some place and say to the closest homeless guy, here, here's a, you know, fix my car?
I mean, do you go to the dentist's office and tell them to fix your car?
Or do you go to the mechanics and tell them to fix your teeth?
No, because before you take advice from people, don't they have to have some credibility?
I mean, is this a thing that has completely vanished from the world?
Show me your expertise before I listen to your advice.
Now, if somebody is dealing with super controversial topics and has 5 million followers, hey man, I really appreciate it.
I would love to hear what you have to say.
I'll pay you for your time.
You know, all the people are like, if you're not at least as successful as I am, why would I listen to you in terms of how to run this?
I'm not talking about like syllogisms or arguments or whatever, right?
But is this completely vanished from the world?
That people can just say shit and they don't have to prove why you should listen?
I mean...
If somebody says, you should go on Twitter, man, Twitter is a safe place.
It's like, OK, then you go and post controversial stuff and tell me how it goes, you know, try it for a couple of months and grow your following and do all the things that apparently people are hungry for me to do and then show me you can do it and show me you can last and show me how to handle it and then come back like if you really cared about it.
But I guess it's just easier to type shit and think you're contributing.
I mean, it's just funny to me.
It's just funny to me.
Let's see here.
It's so weird being in a time where the larger power structures in our culture are at a complete odds with the realistic feedback, discipline, and criticism of the past.
Well, or the people in the present, right?
It's awesome you point this out because I'm realizing that to have deep meaningful connections with people you have to have the obvious stuff down.
UPP.
It really reveals how boring most conversations are.
Isn't it... I mean would you would you take advice on marriage from a guy who's been divorced three times?
I mean would you?
I just think it's funny.
I mean, death of the ego is painful but fruitful.
Yeah, I think so.
I'm morbidly obese.
Check out my dieting book.
Life's too short.
I've had this argument, honestly, since the very beginning of the show.
Since the very beginning of the show.
This is, again, for the people who here, we haven't talked about it for a while.
From the very beginning of the show.
If you want me to treat you with respect, the first thing you probably want to do is treat me with respect.
And then telling me obvious things without ever doing any research and lecturing me on things that you have no expertise in and no experience in and no credibility in, it's not treating me with respect.
It's just not treating people with respect.
If I go up and lecture the guy who's been a physicist for 40 years, I go up and lecturing him on obvious things, I'm completely talking down to him.
You understand?
I'm completely insulting him.
Well, you might have 40 years expertise in this field, and you might be a world-renowned expert, but this obvious thing just occurred to me, and I bet you've never addressed it.
Like, you understand, you're coming across as incredibly pompous and arrogant and insulting.
And maybe people haven't told you that.
But that's the problem, is that vanity is always an insult to the expertise.
Like, vanity is always an insult to experts.
If you come across like you just know better, and it's obvious, and
It's, it's, you, and then when people get mad at you back, you play the victim, right?
I mean, this is, that's wild to me.
If I went and lectured someone who was a 40 year veteran of something that I didn't really understand very well, I went and lectured them and they told me to F off.
You pissant or whatever, right?
I mean, I, oh my God, he was so rude to me.
It's like, no, no, you were rude ahead of time.
Like you were rude by coming in and lecturing somebody with vastly more expertise.
As if they were an idiot and you were a genius.
When you've no evidence for that at all.
If you treat me like an idiot, again, you know, depends on my mood, depends on my, I don't know, blood sugar or something, right?
But it's just, it's just kind of funny.
People come in and insult you with the obvious, and then when you push back and call them vain, they get huffy and hurt and storm off.
All right.
Yeah, that was a $5 donation.
I will I will get to it.
I will get to it.
He might be able to tell you what not to do by example.
No.
No, I don't, I don't, I don't know what that even means.
Like some guy is saying he eats really terribly and doesn't exercise.
Let's say that I'm a fitness expert and have been for 40 years, fitness and diet expert.
And some guy says, well, I get to 300 pounds by eating badly.
So you should learn from me.
It's like, I could have told you this is like, I don't get to learn from a negative after 40 years.
Like this is not the way, right?
On the side note, I want to say thank you for having Jared reach out to me about the truth about pirates.
It's really cool that I got to contribute, even in the small way I did, to a free domain project.
I'm really excited for the final product.
Well, thank you.
I really, really appreciate that.
Yeah, or advice on marriage from some guy who's got a notch count higher than his IQ.
Yeah.
Failures can be experts on what not to do if they admit they made mistakes.
Well, why would you want to learn from failures?
Why wouldn't you want to learn from people who've succeeded?
Right?
Like if you're trying to find some hidden treasure and there's one guy who knows where it is, that's the guy you want because it can lead you to the treasure.
You don't want 10 guys who went in random places in the world and didn't find the treasure.
Like, why would you want that?
There's nothing I found more ridiculous than seeing semi-obese people drinking beer, whom have little to no experience in sports, genuinely getting upset and angry at a pro player doing something they thought was dumb.
Even more so at a TV.
Oh yeah.
Alright, let's see here.
Hey Steph, long time supporter.
New first time parent here.
And if you do find this helpful, and look, the helpful thing here, you understand,
I'm irrelevant to this equation.
The show tonight is not about me.
What I'm trying to do, I'm trying desperately to do, because I don't listen to these people and I don't show them any particular, they don't rile me up.
So the reason I'm sort of getting passionate about it, I mean obviously it hit me a particular way today, so I'm not going to pretend I'm not passionate about it, but the reason is because what I want to transfer to you
Is skepticism at criticism.
I want to transfer to you how not to listen to people.
Because I guarantee you, you have people in your life who are trying to tell you how to do things and they don't have the first clue what they're talking about.
And you need to, in your mind, very clearly, absolutely discredit those people.
And say, Oh, that's interesting.
I'd love to, um, I'd love to see your track record on this.
You know, oh, you should just go and talk to her.
You should just go up and ask the girl out.
It's like, oh, okay, so tell me the last five times you did that and how it went and what you learned, right?
Oh, you should just do this.
You should eat this diet.
It's like, oh, okay, well, I'd like to see your blood work if you don't mind.
I'd love to see your blood work.
I mean, I'm sure you get it tested to make sure your diet is good.
You should eat this, and not that, and not the other.
It's like, well, OK, if you're going to tell me what to eat, then clearly you've stuck to this diet, and you've had your blood work tested, because that's very important.
And if they haven't got any blood panels to show you, then you don't even care enough about your own health to get tested on your blood.
So why on earth would I listen to you about my health?
I'm sorry.
You don't have any evidence.
You don't have any proof.
But I feel great.
Well, good for you.
But I'm an empiricist, so.
I'm trying to really, really help you stop listening to people.
Your blood type came back as Grape Jelly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, you know, my mom was like,
Here's how to be a man.
I'm like, you couldn't even hold a man.
You're not a man.
You're going to tell me how to be a man?
You've got to be kidding me.
You've got to be kidding me.
All right.
So somebody says, hey, Steph, longtime supporter, new first time parent here, having a lot of fears lately.
I know I can't keep my child in a bubble, but how can I deter him from getting sucked into the stupidity of today's social media generation, as well as the overexposure to all the darker things on the web?
How can we best prepare him?
I'm sorry, I'm not quite understanding this one.
How do I deter him from getting sucked into the stupidity of today's social media generation?
What am I missing here?
I mean, you control who he sees and you control the technology he has in his hand.
I'm not sure I fully, I mean, you control who your child socializes with completely when they're young.
You control where your child goes to school.
You control who hangs out with them, who they're exposed to.
And you control whether he's got a tablet or a phone in his hand.
So I'm not quite sure what you mean.
Because you're a new-time parent, your kid's very young.
As far as, well, what about when he's 15?
Okay, that's 15 years from now.
I don't know what the hell is going to be going on in the world in 15 years.
But do you feel this stuff like comes like ghosts through the wall?
Do you feel like just permanent?
Is it put into the water?
Is it fumigated into the air?
No!
You're in control of your child's environment.
They don't have to go to sleepovers.
They don't have to go to crazy people's houses.
They say, oh, well, what about school?
No, you're in control of that too.
You're in control of whether you put your kid into some crazy school.
You're in control of all of that.
So, again, I'm really, really sorry if I'm missing something obvious.
But you're in absolute control of your child's environment.
How do I control something I'm completely in control of?
I don't follow.
Again, I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious.
Somebody says, thank you for the tip.
Bryson, I appreciate that.
Ha!
Caught you live, you slippery bald genius.
Been donating for a couple of years, but live, but live donations really scratch that philosophy itch.
Don't they though?
Don't they just feel about as good as good can be?
And I just, I want everyone to experience that joy of a live donation, that thrill, that excitement, that beauty, that wonder of a live donation, boy.
It's like a cashgasm.
Skepticism of why someone is saying what they're saying is a great habit.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, so people wanted me to go back on Twitter, right?
People wanted me to go back on Twitter.
I get that.
Now, if they were honest about it, and they'd say, look, I know it's dangerous, I know it's risky, I know it could be really disappointing, I know it could be brutal, I know it could lead to worse things, but it was entertaining to me.
Now, see, if people are really honest, they won't say stuff like that.
Like, they won't say, Steph, I want you to do X, Y, and Z that goes against your principles because it's entertaining to me and I like the show.
I like the show of you going out there and doing this stuff, right?
Because that would be so obviously selfish.
Right, so they have to hide behind this general good stuff, in general, like often, right?
They have to hide behind this general good stuff and they have to say, well, you know, it's just good for the cause, it's good for philosophy, you know, it'll help the world, blah blah blah, right?
Which is, it's a lie.
It's a lie.
Because then they're telling me, okay, you've been doing this for 40 years, I haven't really done it at all, but I know how to help the world.
I with no experience being a public intellectual talking about ethics and virtue and truth in the world, I know what is going to help the world.
I have no experience, you've got 40 years, but I know how to do it.
So they have to cloak it in some general good stuff which has no credibility, or they have to say,
Or they have to somehow try and prove that it is in accordance with my values to return to an abusive relationship with no apology, no restitution, and no guarantees of a non-repetition.
Well, Steph, you have been talking about bullshit non-apologies for decades, but I really think you should go against those entire values that you've held up and talked about with other people.
You understand that
Some social media companies publicly called me a cheat in my business dealings.
Dishonorable.
A cheat.
Right?
Sorry.
I'm not going to ignore that.
Oh, can I come back and we don't have to talk about it?
No.
Fuck that.
No.
Somebody publicly insults you and calls you a liar and a cheat.
They got to apologize.
That's just the way it is.
So yeah, so people are either honest and say they just want the entertainment value of watching me do this, which is selfish, or they have to pretend that they know better than I do how to manage a public conversation about virtue.
All right.
How's your relationship with other personalities in the world of libertarian philosophy?
People like Locke and Rose, Michael Malice, Dennis Pratt, Tom Woods, or whoever.
Is there someone you particularly like or someone you don't like at all?
I have no relationship with people in the world of libertarian philosophy.
I have no relationship.
But I mean, people I've had on my show a bunch of times and so on, everybody vanished when I got deplatformed.
Everybody.
Uh, well, no, Dave Smith came on the show with me afterwards, and as did, um... Um...
Oh, this is embarrassing.
This guy's name should be totally on the tip of my tongue.
Peter Schiff.
He is a great guy.
So yeah, but I don't have any relationships with the people.
Like when I got deplatformed, everybody scattered.
Nobody contacted me.
Nobody like, I get that.
I mean, they were concerned or worried.
I get all of that, right?
So that's where they are.
That's where they are.
All right.
I didn't even see any articles saying, well, this is not true, right?
What's being said is not true.
Somebody said Chris Williamson had you on?
I don't remember that person, but if so, I don't want to ignore that and I appreciate you pointing that out.
Thank you.
All right.
Also, take my money for my long question, whether you answer it or not.
Let's see here.
Okay, so somebody says, Steph, I'd like to pivot the conversation to how philosophically to deal with an in-law who will say anything to my wife to keep her at bay in regards to being a supporter of an unrepentant child abuser.
I was listening to your recent call in where you gave an analogy of rehiring a babysitter that beats your kids and would like to hear more of your thought line on this.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I'm sorry.
Will say anything to keep my wife at bay.
An in-law who will say anything to my wife to keep her at bay in regards to being a supporter of an unrepentant child abuser.
Oh, so somebody is aligned with an unrepentant child abuser and wants your wife to stay in a relationship with that person?
Why are you asking me something you know the answer to?
Again, I'm not trying to be obtuse here.
You're asking me, so somebody is
A supporter of an unrepentant child abuser and wants your wife to support the unrepentant child abuser too?
You can't possibly be asking me how to deal with that.
Come on.
Maybe you need my permission or something, but I'm not going to tell you what to do.
But is there anybody who has any doubt about how to deal with that?
Somebody says, I remember Tom Woods defending you a few times on his show.
Well, that's nice.
I appreciate that.
I have no animosity, right?
It's just, you know, you find out who your friends are when you're really being attacked by who's running out of the room and who's walking in, right?
Or running in, right?
Um, so let's get some more details here.
Uh, somebody says, why aren't you confronting this in-law?
I have, it's just that she feigns being receptive to hearing arguments, then will revert back later to her original position.
I've said she's not allowed here or around our children if she's an unrepentant child abuser.
She just feigns to repent, to get what she wants, to visit and communicate with her kids.
Okay.
So if somebody says, I'm sorry, I apologize, and then backs out of it, they're done, aren't they?
I mean, what am I missing here?
Like how many times does somebody get to betray your trust before you say this person isn't trustworthy, right?
Uh, somebody says we plan on homeschooling, but we don't want to be some crazy over-controlling parents.
You know, you're programming yourself with that kind of language, right?
You're crazy, over-controlling parents.
You're not giving yourself any free will by characterizing limiting dangers to your children as being crazy and over-controlling, right?
I can't hang on to anything because I don't want to be a crazy hoarder.
It's like, you've just, you've just completely erased your, your free will there.
Because putting limits on the people or the media that your children are exposed to is being crazy over controlling parent?
What are you?
I don't understand.
Why would you say that?
Why would you say that?
You say, we aren't going to expose him to social media, but once he's older, they can always have curiosity and try and start seeing what's on the internet.
How?
Oh, you mean like their friends might have it?
Well, you choose their friends, right?
I want to try and make sure he's best prepared and not get sucked into all the crap online that is destroying children and their childhood.
Yeah, well, of course.
I mean, you want to have moral parents around who've had the conversations about what's on the internet and you want to talk to your kids about what's on the internet and how dangerous it can be and how destructive it can be.
And you, you know, tell them, I mean, there are a whole bunch of apps that my daughter would never be within a million miles of, and she doesn't want to be either.
But here's the thing, you just want to be more entertaining than the internet for your kids, right?
You want them to come and spend time with you, you want to keep the lines of communication open, and all that kind of stuff.
But you're not a crazy, over-controlling parent.
I mean, certainly kids can't handle the internet until at least 12.
At least!
And then you really have to be with them for most of it, right?
All right, let's see here...
Confront the abuser.
I have.
She is an appeaser.
Do you think the parents have mental hold on her?
In-law is on the same level as the abuser, so why are they still around?
Oh, the guy says, you're totally right.
I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else.
Well, you just needed to hear it from yourself, really.
And you've got to trust your own instincts.
And this is why I try to talk about virtue as a reproducible framework within your mind as well.
So somebody who's an unrepentant child abuser is deeply immoral.
An unrepentant child abuser is deeply immoral in the Christian framework, in the UPB framework.
Somebody who's an unrepentant child, I mean, somebody who's a child abuser was moral.
And I don't even know, I don't know what you do to recover from being a child abuser.
Like, I have no idea.
I have no idea.
And I'm very glad that I have no idea.
So, you know.
Somebody's an unrepentant child abuser.
You don't have to ask me.
You just have to ask principles, right?
Ah, let's see here.
Your wife argues that this abuser isn't around them enough to have an overall negative impact and wouldn't ever abuse them.
No, but that's not the issue.
The issue isn't whether the prior or the past child abuser will abuse your children.
Obviously that's an issue, but that's not the fundamental issue.
That's not the fundamental issue.
Do you know what the fundamental issue is?
You guys know, right?
You've heard this show enough.
You know this one.
What's the fundamental issue?
I'll give you guys a moment here.
So what's the fundamental issue with having an unrepentant child abuser around your children?
What's the fundamental issue?
No, it's not that they will abuse the children.
That is a foundational issue.
But let's say that for sure you know they're not going to abuse the children.
Well, you're modeling to your children that evil people should be around.
Yeah, you're just modeling to your children and saying, oh no, evil doers are welcome here.
Yeah, totally.
They can be unrepentant child abusers.
They're totally welcome in this house.
Evil is welcome here.
Unrepentant evil is welcome here.
And you should conform to the requests of unrepentant evildoers because they might make you feel bad.
So really, really corrupt and dangerous people, you should obey them because they might make you feel bad, you might feel guilty, you might feel negative in some way.
And you understand that if you do that with your children,
You say, oh yeah, no, we should conform to evildoers because of social pressure.
What do you think is going to happen to your children when they hit puberty and they get subjected to peer pressure?
Do you understand?
You've already communicated to them for years that you should conform to evildoers because of social pressure.
And then some evildoer is going to snake their body around your children
And your children give me like, well, I'm going to do what mom and dad did.
Of course, right?
Because you should do what evil people want you to do because otherwise they might get upset with you and you should bow to social pressure and obey immoral people.
And then you're going to be, you're probably going to be genuinely shocked.
Not that this will happen now that you know it, but you probably will be genuinely shocked if your children end up being susceptible to peer pressure after you modeled it to them for 15 years straight.
Why would you do what the evil person wanted you to do?
Why wouldn't you listen, kid?
We told you peer pressure was bad.
Why would you conform to the evildoer's preferences?
Why would you succumb to peer pressure?
Why would you do what the bad people want you to do?
Well, because you had a child abuser around me your whole childhood, and you did exactly that, and you modeled exactly that.
It's not the fundamental issue isn't whether they abuse your children.
That's obviously important.
The fundamental issue is that you're modeling appeasement to evil.
And you're saying, well, she said she was going to be better, but then turned out she wasn't.
So we gave her another chance.
And then she said she was going to be better.
And then it turned out that she wasn't.
And we gave her another chance.
And then she said she was going to be better, but it turned out that she wasn't.
So we gave her another chance.
And then you're going to wonder why, when your children get older, people who lie to them will constantly control them.
Right?
You don't have the right to model appeasing evil to your children.
Like, I'm sorry, you don't have that right.
Any more than you have the right to not provide healthcare or shelter or quality food or engagement, entertainment, interaction.
Like you don't, because they're going to go out into the world.
And if you have modeled to them a piece, evildoers obey the least functional, the least mature, the least virtuous among you.
Bow down to wrongdoers.
If you've modeled that to them, and you then send them out into the world, they will be as lambs to the slaughter.
You understand?
You don't have that right.
Come on, people.
Tell me.
I know there's a lot of you watching here.
Tell me this is not worth a donation.
Come on.
You can't look at me and tell me this is not gold that can save your life.
You're going to have kids.
You will never forget this argument.
You will never forget this.
And you will give you... I'm just, I'm giving you human shields, man.
Starcastle style.
I'm giving you human shields to people who want to manipulate you, to people who want to control you, to people who want to bully you, to people who want to lecture you, to people who want to get their hooks and fangs and tentacles into your children.
I am giving you shields for days, baby.
I'm giving you boundaries.
I'm giving you a border.
Tell me this ain't worth something.
Come on.
And I go, I know a lot of you donors, and I appreciate that.
I really do.
But someone's got to make up for the guy who left with his 20 bucks.
Children are empiricists, so they watch more than they listen.
Yeah, for sure.
And here's the other thing, too.
Here's another thing, too.
It's definitely worth a donation.
I donated via website this evening.
I don't really enjoy handing over 30% through locals.com at least often.
I appreciate that.
Listen, the local stuff is the coins is a third and that's not their fault.
That's because of I think Google or Apple or something like that.
So I appreciate your tips.
I really do.
But just sending a cash tip or support through locals is not 30%.
So I don't want you to feel that or believe that.
So that would be that would be unfair.
Do you guys know what a coup de gras is?
Do you know what a coup de gras is?
A coup de gras is when you've got your enemy down and just, it's the last thing that takes him right out of the fight.
You know what a coup de gras is?
Yeah.
Just joined, I will watch the greatness later.
Appreciate that.
Coup de gras, final blow.
Yeah, that's what's French, right?
Every time you make a case to donate, I've got to donate.
You're so right.
Even on top of the subs I have.
Thank you.
I really appreciate that.
I really, this is wonderfully kind and I really appreciate that and I hope that I always earn it.
I know really how valuable it is.
So here's the coup de grace as to why you should not have
Cup of Greece.
Seize the carp.
So here's why.
Are you ready for the coup de grâce?
This is going to blow your socks off.
And this is the thank you for the donors.
And if there's a couple more, that would be fantastic.
It's coming up to the end of the month.
And I do my numbers at the end of the month.
And I like the numbers to go not down.
So I really appreciate your support.
And here's how I'm going to earn it for you tonight.
Are you ready for the coup de grâce?
Now,
The biggest danger of having child abuses around your children is not that they will abuse your children, that's a big danger, and it's also not that it renders your children incredibly susceptible to peer pressure.
The real danger of having child abuses around your children is it detaches morals from action.
It takes theory and practice and separates the two.
Because you would say, I'm sure, if your kid came and said, listen, there's a really mean kid in my class and he keeps hanging around me, you would say, and he keeps wanting to come over, right?
You would say to your kid, listen, we don't have to have that kid over if he's mean to you, if he's abusive, we don't have to have that kid over.
You shouldn't have mean people over who are potentially harmful, right?
So you would say that to your kid and if your kid, you know, your daughter gets older and she starts dating some guy and he's really mean to her but he keeps apologizing and then he's mean to her again and, you know, they're in this cycle, you'd say to him, listen, you don't have to date this guy if he's that mean.
It's probably a bad idea.
It's not going to get any better.
So you would have all of these rules and these ideas and these arguments about, well, you've got your morals and here's how you act on your morals.
But if you have morals which says you shouldn't have abusive people in your life, particularly around your children, but you don't follow those morals, you've just detached morality from their life.
And you've rendered it a useless theoretical that is around vanity and pretense, not actual power.
The morality that you don't act on is vanity.
It's virtue signaling.
So what you've done is you've trained them to say, well, you just talk about being good.
I mean, you talk about virtue.
Virtue is really a language.
It's syllables.
It's sounds.
It's spelling.
It's a way that you move air around and pat yourself on the back.
It's a way of showing people that you really intend to be good.
You like the idea of good.
But you don't actually do it.
You don't actually do it.
You understand?
It's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons.
You know, like in Dungeons and Dragons, you all have a fight with a sword.
And it's purely theoretical, and it's purely imaginary.
You don't actually take a sword out and hit people.
That would be crazy.
It's the same thing with ethics, you understand?
You talk about it.
You have these theories.
You have these arguments.
You have these ideas.
You have this approach.
And you do talk about it a lot.
And you particularly talk about it as if it's really serious and important to your children.
But here's the thing.
At the same time, you completely contradict it with everything you do.
Because the important thing, kids, is to remember that virtue is about thinking that your parents are good, not them actually having to do it.
You understand?
Because actually having to do it, that can be uncomfortable.
Like, that can be difficult.
You can get some blowback on that.
And we don't like blowback here.
So what we do is we talk about not having destructive or abusive people in your life.
But then we have destructive and abusive people, not just in our lives, you see, but in your lives, too.
So we can choose it for ourselves.
We also chose it for you when you weren't in a situation of choice whatsoever.
So we went very much against our values.
The values we told you to live by, we went very much against our own values.
Because remember, morality is mumbling.
It's words.
It's sounds.
It's a soundscape of self-praise.
It's not something you actually do.
Like, dieting is books that you read.
And little apps that you install to track the calories.
And dieting is looking at the calorie count on restaurant meals.
And dieting is this.
But you know what dieting never actually is?
It's changing what you eat.
It's all a bunch of theory.
It's all a bunch of numbers.
It's stuff you talk about.
But as far as like, what, actually changing how you eat?
No, no, no.
See, exercise is really about exercising your throat, your mouth, your voice.
It's not about actually going to the gym and lifting any weights.
That'd be crazy.
So virtue is not something you do.
Virtue is something you talk about.
Virtue is something you praise yourself for.
And virtue is something you inflict on children, but not on evil people.
You see, you inflict virtue on children because you'll say you shouldn't be in destructive or abusive relationships, but then you will bring a destructive and abusive person into the child's life.
So virtue is something you inflict on children and you avoid when it comes to evildoers.
And then you will say to your children,
You will say to your children, what would you say?
When they get older.
You guys don't seem to be following these values.
What's wrong?
What's the matter?
We told you very clearly what you should be doing.
Why aren't you following it?
Is that because you modeled the complete detachment of theory and practice?
Virtue is a cloud castle that you visit in your mind and in your dreams.
Scripture is not something you actually drag down to the earth and build brick by brick and take shelter in.
It's not a real thing.
It's nonsense.
It's vanity.
It's noise.
You talk about it.
You listen to it on podcasts.
You type about it a little bit.
You do it on Twitter.
You complain.
You provide evidence.
You make arguments.
It's all blueprints.
No building.
It's all theory.
No practice.
My God!
Don't actually do it!
Are you crazy?
And you see, evildoers are very comfortable with you keeping it all in theory, right?
What should we do to evildoers?
Well, I mean, I don't know exactly because it's a very complicated question and a lot of it is dependent upon individual circumstances.
What should you eat?
I don't know.
But I know you shouldn't eat gravel.
And Ursnik?
What should you do with evildoers?
Don't hand your kids over to them.
I can tell you that, in my opinion.
So yeah, if you have values and you do the opposite, you're teaching your children to be moral hypocrites.
You're modeling, model hypocrisy towards your children.
And, see, here's the thing.
Thank you, Kyra, I appreciate that.
It's a very kind, kind donation.
This is donated on the FDR site.
This argument is remarkably pertinent to recent chats I've had.
Right.
Yeah, we expect 200% from you, son, but I'm the authority figure and I'm entitled to double standards, lol.
Right?
It's insane when you understand this.
Isn't it wild?
Isn't it wild?
Somebody says, Jester, thank you so much.
Hey Steph, I've been a donator since 2013.
Your work saved my life and my family.
I've named my son's middle name after you.
Thank you, that's very kind.
Thank you so much for everything you do.
Much love from me and my family.
I really appreciate it, that's very kind.
Somebody says, I'm so happy to be integrating these morals with my kids and change my family tree.
Really appreciate it, Steph.
You're hands down the main reason why five more kids will be peacefully parented, hopefully more.
How wonderful.
OK, I'm going to end on this note, and this is going to be a really high note.
This is going to be like Freddie Mercury, middle of... under pressure, high note.
And it's going to blow your mind even more.
I keep asking if you're ready.
You guys are always ready.
You're ready, aren't you?
Are you ready?
Are you ready?
Brace yourselves, man.
This is going to be a big, wide-ass watermelon pill, and it's not going to be administered orally either.
So bend over, grab your shoelaces, and get ready for some philosophy lube, because we're going deep and wide.
You're sitting down?
Yeah, that's probably better.
If it's not going to be delivered orally, probably sitting down is the way to do it.
Okay.
So.
Evil is transmitted through hypocrisy.
So this is the way the mechanism works.
Aunt Sally is the unrepentant child abuser.
You let her around your kids while telling your kids not to have abusive people in their lives, right?
So why isn't Aunt Sally bothered by the fact that you say all these things and then she violates it?
Because that's how the immorality transmits.
You are an integral part of the transmission of immorality by not living your values.
That's how it transmits.
It transmits through hypocrisy.
Evil does not transmit through evil.
Evil transmits through hypocrisy.
Because hypocrisy detaches virtue from life.
It makes it abstract and allows people to dabble in shit that they never actually planned to do.
If you're exposed to evil, that doesn't make you evil.
Hell, I was exposed to evil continuously as a child.
I've been exposed to a hell of a lot of evil as an adult.
You've seen it all online.
Evil doesn't transmit evil.
Evil wants you to train your children to be good while conforming with evil because that's how it transmits down the family line.
Exposure to evil does not transmit evil.
Detaching morality from life leaves you defenseless against evil and that's how it gets you.
Snakes in beside.
Snakes in behind.
Bypasses your defense mechanisms.
So when you say to your kids, I'm a moral person.
Gotta be moral.
Gotta act in a moral manner.
And then you are hypocritical about that.
And I say this with great sympathy and great empathy.
I did it myself.
I'm sure I still sometimes do.
It's just something you have to watch out for.
But evil drills right past virtue through hypocrisy and transmits that way.
Think of it like this, and this is an analogy, right?
So if you're exposed to a virus, you get an antibody and you should be safe from it going forward, right?
So exposure to evil is like that.
You get an antibody and you see evil and you're immune to it, in a sense, going forward.
At least you can identify it.
If the virus can disable your immune system, that's how it spreads.
So you have no defense.
So exposure to evil is like exposure to a virus.
It stimulates your response.
But hypocrisy disables your response by making all of your responses only theoretical.
If you get infected with some virus, and you say, in my imagination I have antibodies, the virus is like, yeah, great, fantastic.
You think that in your imagination you have antibodies, that way it doesn't activate your real antibodies, and you won't go looking for a cure either, because you think that your imaginary antibodies are all you need.
Think the word health, and you'll be fine.
Think the word thin, and you'll lose weight.
Right?
If they can get you to make it theoretical, they rule the world.
If you're honest with your kids, and you say, if you were to say something like this, look, Aunt Sally is an unrepentant child abuser, she keeps manipulating, she keeps bullying, but we're terrified of her.
So we're going to give you over to her, because evil is scary, and we have to do what evil wants, because otherwise the repercussions could be really bad.
I mean, could you say that as parents?
Could you say that?
If you're genuinely honest, right?
As opposed to this bullshit like, well she apologized, like the last five times, right?
Can you be honest with your children?
When I was doing my documentary in Hong Kong, and you should really, freedomain.com slash documentaries,
When I was doing my documentary in Hong Kong, I don't know if you remember this bit, I marched, I got tear gassed, there was crazy stuff, shrapnel, there was like concrete flying through the air.
I was completely ridiculous because I should at least have had goggles.
But anyway, I marched it, stood with it.
And then when I left, when did I leave?
Why did I leave?
I left because the tanks were coming, basically.
Okay, that's the state, right?
Can't fight that.
And I said very openly, here's where I bug out because this is the state and I don't fight it.
Can't fight it.
So I'm honest about that.
I stayed where I could be relatively safe or at least record and have an impact on what was happening.
I took my tear gas, I took shrapnel, I took little bits of concrete blowing all over the place, not like literal shrapnel.
You know, and I think I showed a fair amount of martial courage and physical courage there.
Come from a long line of warriors, so it's not the end of the world.
But yeah, I left when it was like, yeah, can't fight this.
Not going to a gulag, can't do it, right?
So.
Can you be honest with your children and say, yeah, she's a horrible person, she manipulates, she lies, she's an unrepentant child abuser, but we're going to hand you over to her because we're scared of evildoers and you have to make the sacrifice because we don't want to take the risk of protecting you.
Do you think it's important for a parent to admit fault if they slip up morally?
Does that help maintain the trust of the child?
I'm sorry, do you think a parent should lie and pretend to be perfect?
How on earth does that help the child to understand how to recover?
We all slip up morally.
I do it, you do it, and I've apologized I don't even know how many times to my daughter for something I said or did that was not up to my moral standards.
So yeah, of course, you've got to be honest with your kids.
And that way you say, look, you don't become a bad person because you made a mistake.
I think this is sarcasm, but Jesus could have just suggested we ought to be nice, and geez, wouldn't it be nice if people loved God more and were obedient?
But it might get uncomfortable to stand up to them and confront them, so I'll just let it happen.
Yeah, when you admit fault to the model, that model's admitting fault to your kids.
Well, it also teaches them that perfection is not a standard.
See, perfection is binary thinking.
Like, I'm either a perfectly good person or I'm a perfectly evil person.
And if I make a mistake, I've fallen from grace, and I'm a bad person, and it's original sin, whatever it is, right?
But that's not the reality.
Right, I mean, it's like a bell curve or a continuum, whatever, right?
I mean, it's like health, right?
Nobody eats perfectly, but there's good diets and bad diets.
Nobody exercises perfectly, but there are people who don't exercise at all, right?
So, you make mistakes, you recover, you move on, and you teach the children not to self-attack, right?
The only reason you wouldn't
Share your moral failings with your child is because you're self-attacking.
You don't, you think it's shameful and you'll simply contribute, you'll communicate that to them.
The kids know it all anyway.
If you, if you're rude or you're short or you're whatever, right?
Then they know it.
And they know that you haven't hit your ideal, which is fine.
It happens.
They know you haven't hit your ideal.
And they know you're covering it up.
And what does that tell them?
What does that model for them about you not hitting your ideal?
That it's shameful and bad.
All right.
You should always remember that.
Evil transmits itself through hypocrisy from generation to generation.
You should build a dating app for your followers only.
Many of us would pay a lot to find unvaccinated, libertarian, leaning, virtuous, conservative, atheist women that follow your show.
These days, it's very difficult to find those kinds of women.
You can organize that, right?
There's plenty of places that you can.
You can get to a great free domain community through subscribestar.com slash free domain and you can organize that.
I'd buy that app in a heartbeat.
See, you're waiting for me.
You're waiting for me to build an app.
You don't have to.
You can be prominent in the community.
You can say you're open to dating.
You can ask.
You don't need to.
God, why is everyone?
Sorry, not everyone.
That's too much.
Why is it that you're waiting for me to do something when you have the absolute capacity to act?
So, you can get something going.
You can build something yourself.
You can become prominent and get what you want in this community.
You don't need me to do it.
You don't need it for me.
All right, here's the link.
AIStephBot is back!
There's a number of marriages that have come out of this show, and we've never built an app, right?
I've never built an app, and I can think of half a dozen marriages at least that have come out of this show, and children, and more, actually, when I think about it, even more, so.
Dude, Stepbot can build 80% of that app.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, see, here's the thing, right?
I mean, if you want to be credible, again, tell me why, tell me why that's not something I should do.
Because if you don't know the reasons, why not?
Then just saying, well, here's all the positives, right?
Why would that be a negative?
Or how could that be a negative for me?
I mean, it's time, it's money.
You could say, oh, well, you could charge for it.
Okay.
Maybe.
Yeah, it could be any number of things.
I don't know the data requirements.
I don't know the laws.
I don't know the liabilities.
There would be trolls there who would lie about things.
Everyone's just like, well, just do this.
And you've got to be critical of your own thoughts.
The first thing you've got to do is be skeptical of everything you come up with and say, what are the problems with it?
What are the negatives?
What are the liabilities?
Why hasn't Steph done it?
And does it need to be done?
Does it need to be done?
And what if it turned out that a bunch of prostitutes were using it and scammed men for money?
Like, who knows, right?
I'm just saying, right?
Deep State will make up six trafficking charges due to his app.
I don't know.
I don't know, right?
But you gotta be, right?
Why is it necessary?
I have a community.
I have a number of communities.
Y'all can meet and chat outside of my purview.
You can message and all of that.
I have no exposure, no liability, no nothing, right?
So, yeah.
So I have no particular impulse to do that.
All right.
Thank you everyone so much for a great evening.
Wow, we did two hours.
I was actually going to do a short show tonight, but I never do.
Who am I kidding you?
I should stop lying to myself, don't you think?
I mean, I'm all about honesty.
We get a brilliant breakdown on mind-blowing topics towards the end of the month every month.
It's like the fourth month in a row where everlasting quotes come from Steph.
Great show tonight.
I hope you have a great evening, Mr. Molyneux.
Well, I'm telling you, it's going to be a pretty short evening.
And thank you for your support.
If you're listening to this later, freedomain.com slash donate.
Really, really would appreciate your support and it's more than appreciate it.
It's kind of important.
It's pretty important for reasons that I will get into at some point and I hope that you will trust me when I say your support is very important and I would really, really appreciate it if you could support me and at some point I will tell you why and it will make a lot more sense and I'm hoping that you will trust me when I tell you that it is very, very
Important.
So, freedomain.com forward slash donate to help me out.
Lots of love from up here.
Take care.
Check out the link that I gave you for the AI and let me know what you think.
