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Oct. 18, 2023 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
01:54:43
WHY CHOOSE TRUTH?
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Time Text
Ah, song quiz.
Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse.
Without freedom from the past, things can only get worse.
Isn't that an appropriate song?
Sooner or later. Bye.
No, it's Sting, actually.
Yeah, Sting, actually, is Friday's hearing from Too Much Touring.
I guess like Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey, fried his hearing, and he said, yeah, I got a hearing aid, but found when I turned it on, I wasn't really missing much.
All right, listen, I am here for you, my friends, as always, on this glorious Friday night.
I have been giving some thought to the interesting criticism Called inappropriate mirth or inappropriate glee.
How dare I laugh at a time when the world is in flames?
How dare I be happy when there is such suffering in the world?
Have you ever heard that?
It's inappropriate.
Inappropriate schadenfreude.
So, I mean, I've really been thinking about this.
I've been really thinking about this, is it right, is it wrong, is it good, is it bad, right?
And, you know, I'm obviously happy to take criticism and maybe I am a cold-hearted, mirth addict who just is enjoying life despite the fact that there's suffering in the world.
As always, I ask for your capacity to accept harshness and directness.
I always want to check with you first.
Before the harshness and directness occurs.
One to ten. How harsh, how direct should I be?
I'm happy to serve you as always, my friends.
Autumn, coming in hard.
Coming in hard.
Brace yourself. Wasn't that the definition of Scottish foreplay?
Brace yourself. All right.
Ten on the harshness. The Dread Pirate comes in at six.
I'm afraid that's neither Dread nor Pirate-y.
No, I can't do that.
All right. So it looks to be pretty harsh.
Okay. Why do we give people good advice?
Knowing a lot of times they're not going to take it.
Like, why do we give people good advice?
Hit me with a why if you've given people in your life some damn fine advice, but they just don't take it.
Yes! I think we've all been there.
Yes, yes, yes. No, it's not to feel superior.
I mean, listen, I mean, I'm sure you've been in the situation, as have I, as have most people here, you've been in the situation where you really are sad that people aren't taking good advice.
I know I am really sad that...
People don't take good advice.
So let me ask you this.
What percentage of people in your life, over the course of your life, the people in your life, we all know most people are doing something wrong.
Lord knows we're doing things wrong from time to time.
So what percentage of people in your life have listened to reason and changed their behaviors?
What percentage of people in your life have listened to reason and changed their behaviors?
Zero! People do that.
One out of a hundred. Zero.
Twenty percent. Hey, good for you, man.
Quite a few, but it's a minority.
Three percent. Five percent.
Fifty percent. Good for you.
Two to three percent.
Two. Five. One out of a hundred, maybe.
Right. So why do we talk to people knowing that a very few number of those people are going to take our good advice?
Why do we talk to them?
You've had five people change their behavior?
Good for you. Good for you.
I've changed three people's minds on spanking.
Excellent. Hopefully not with spanking, unless that's their thing.
Because we want to help them, but we know that the vast majority of people aren't going to listen and we won't get to help them.
In fact, they, you know, hit me with a why if you've ever gotten blowback from trying to help people.
You ever have somebody turn on you because you've tried to help them?
It's called the planet for me as a whole, but maybe it's different for you, right?
L-O-L-Y, yeah. We subconsciously want to see what will happen if they don't take advice to try and help balance their equations to make sure you've done all you can.
That's close. That's close.
For ourselves, yeah.
To hide from the truth that they're not going to take good advice, yeah, sometimes.
Childhood rejection played over again, that can happen for sure.
To limit responsibility, I assume you mean yours.
So, do you know how important it is Oh, we're coming in hard, man.
Oh, God, please.
I just feel I need to buy you some flowers and take you out for dinner and tell you how pretty you are.
Because we're coming in hard, man.
This is supernova.
Oh, God, are you coming?
Should we come in this hard?
I mean, this is not even spit lube.
Are we? Yeah?
All right, if you guys want it.
We're not six minutes into the show.
And we're coming in hard.
And listen, you're going to tip me.
You're going to tip me like a canoe.
You're going to tip me to ensure prompt service.
All right. We all know how important in life it is to care.
However, I think for people like us, do you know what the most important thing in life is in many ways?
Is to learn when not to care.
Tell me if I'm wrong. I'm happy to be corrected.
Isn't it really important to learn when to stop caring?
When to restrain the natural empathy of the moralist, of the helpmate, of the savior from the devils of unreason to stop like a really, really bad habit.
Caring too much.
Caring falls into the Aristotelian mean.
You don't want to be a cold-hearted bastard who doesn't care about anyone, but, dear God above, dear God above, if you care too much, you will be atomized.
If you care too much, you will be atomized.
You will be exploited. You will be torn apart.
You will be miserable. And every unhappy person in the world will have a giant skyhook with which to drag you down to the bottom intestinal, festerous well of their misery.
All right, I want to check in and see if I've shocked everyone.
Sometimes hope can kill you.
Please help me to stop caring.
I need this. Oh, so important for sure.
Really good point. Yes.
Correct. There's only so many things I can worry about.
You can't help those who won't help themselves.
You can't reason with a person who has a head buried in the sand but their ass in the air.
No, but you can use them to open a beer bottle.
I was taught to care unlimited about everyone.
It was exhausting. I'm learning to hold back empathy.
It's been trapping me in unhealthy friendships.
Sometimes your bleeding heart bleeds out.
Oh, well, well put.
That's the ant and the grasshopper.
Yeah, that's an underrated story for sure.
The Skyhook has me.
I need help. We love it!
All right. Hit me with a why.
Do you want me to unpack this and save you from pathological altruism?
Hit me with a why if this is a useful topic for you to get you to unplug from the endless jar shocks and voltage of everyone who needs things from you.
Yes. All right.
All right. Looks like it's of value.
And I hope that you'll remember when it comes time to tip.
Later on, freedomain.com slash donate.
If you're not doing it right now, it will help.
Tough for me not to care.
My mother ingrained this in me.
You must care or guilt will eat you.
Right. Now that's the curse, right?
It's the voodoo curse. If you, you, oh, you're going to regret it later.
If you're unkind now, if you don't forgive now, you're going to regret it later.
I don't have anything to offer you in the present.
I can't give you anything of value right now, but I can make you fear an imaginary curse of mine years down the road.
It's even good to compartmentalize and not care about things you do care about except when it's applicable.
Why do we give people good advice?
I mean, for those who are interested, you know, it's kind of funny.
Hit me with a Y if you've ever heard the novel Atlas Shrugged.
Have you ever heard of the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand?
So the original title of it was called The Strike, and it's about smart people who go on strike when they're not in a place where reason can be effective anymore.
Smart people go on strike because the world has gone beyond reason.
And it's so funny to me how so many people who like this show also like the novel Atlas Shrugged but can't stand that I went galt on people and got out of politics and won't post on Twitter.
Yeah, being on strike is really good when you're beyond the world of reason.
How dare you go on strike and not do politics and post on Twitter?
Yeah, that's a great novel, man.
You should withhold from the world when you're beyond the state of reason.
How dare you withhold from a world that's beyond the state of reason?
I'd much rather read about it than actually watch it.
People, they don't mind.
Like, honestly, people don't care that I'm off politics.
And they don't care that I don't post on Twitter.
You understand it has nothing to do with that.
Anybody who's bitching and criticizing me about that kind of stuff, you understand it has nothing to do with me not doing politics or posting on Twitter.
Do you know why people are so upset about me not doing politics, contemporary events and posting on Twitter or other places?
Do you know why people are so upset about it?
Do you know why? Loss of entertainment.
That is not correct. That is not correct.
Because they succumb to temptation.
No. No.
You reject them?
No. No.
They don't have a place to attack you?
Yeah, maybe a little. But the main reason why people are mad at me for getting off politics and not posting on Twitter...
It's because they don't want to process the reasons I'm not doing that.
You follow? They don't want to process the reasons why I'm not doing that.
That's why they're mad at me.
That's why they want me to go back on Twitter so I can have more hope.
Stop taking away my hopium.
Or they can't process it?
No. No, everyone can process everything.
No, no, no. Everything can process everything.
Everyone can process everything.
I don't give any, oh, they can't process it.
Of course they can. So, you want to learn how to stop caring, right?
Why do we give people good advice?
So we can stop caring if they don't listen.
Why do we give people good advice?
so we can stop caring when they don't listen.
Do you know what is emotional suicide?
Is caring about people more than they care about themselves.
Yeah, your hands are clean.
You can rest easy. You did your part.
You have no regrets. You put your all in.
You did your very best. You gave people the right information in the right tone, the right way.
You tried every different way so that you don't have to care when they don't listen.
Because you see, that's the price.
Of being given good advice.
The price of being given good advice is the people who gave you the good advice
don't have to care about you if you don't listen.
Does this make sense to you?
If you have any questions, please contact me.
100%. So you have Uncle Stan.
Uncle Stan is a chain smoker and drinks too much.
And you say to Uncle Stan, I really want you to be around.
I want you to get to an old age.
You've got to stop drinking and you've got to stop smoking.
And you give him charts and data and arguments and facts.
And Uncle Stan won't quit.
He won't quit. And then what happens to Uncle Stan?
Smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish.
What happens to Uncle Stan?
I would guess in his 50s.
What happens? You really do have an Uncle Stan who drinks too much?
Yeah. He gets liver disease from the drinking, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, he gets emphysema, he gets whatever it is, right?
And he gets, yeah, COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, something like that.
So he gets sick, right?
Peter Zawski style. He gets sick.
And then he needs a lot of sympathy.
He needs a lot of resources.
He needs money. He needs attention.
He needs care. He needs to go feed his dog.
He needs to pick you up from chemo.
All of this stuff, right? I need you to care about me, says Uncle Stan, wheezes Uncle Stan from the hole in his throat, right?
I need you to care about me.
To which I say, why would I? You didn't.
Why would I care about you when you didn't care about you?
Do you follow? And why didn't you care about me enough to prevent this from happening?
Why didn't you care about me enough to prevent this from happening and why didn't you care enough about yourself to prevent this from happening?
Because let's say you spent 20 years trying to convince Uncle Stan off and on, Uncle Stan to quit smoking and quit drinking.
And he's like, no, I'm going to keep doing it.
Not only nope, like he didn't even say I'm too weak, I'm too addicted.
He's like, no, man, come on.
You got to loosen up.
You got to relax, man. You got to learn to let your hair down, man.
Have a little fun.
Don't be so uptight! God, you're such a square.
He kind of insults you.
And he calls you a bad person, a square, a repressed, a Puritan, doesn't know how to have any fun.
And he rolls his eyes and he mocks you.
and he makes fun of you.
Right?
Somebody says, I quit drinking and somebody jokingly called me gay.
As if I'm weak or something.
I mentioned this fact in conversation.
Literally happened today. Yeah, boy, you want to find out if you're surrounded by addicts.
Just don't drink. You ever tried this?
I don't really drink. I mean, I'll have maybe one or two ultralight beers a month.
I like the taste. And it's mostly a summer thing.
Like if you're out working in the heat and like a cold beer is really nice.
But that's it. I don't drink wine.
I don't drink spirits. I think once or twice last year I tried some fireball whiskey, which was actually pretty good.
But yeah, you try it.
Just try it. No, I'm good. I'm good.
That's crazy. So, Uncle Stan mocked you, or attacked you, or undermined you, or insulted you, rolled his eyes at you, when you told him to quit smoking and drinking because he's going to die young.
and then he gets sick.
Now you know what the standard answer is, oh be the bigger person
and you know he's sorry now and la la la la, right?
Right?
No. Because here's the funny thing, and I don't know if this makes sense, or if this is going to make sense.
Obviously, tell me. Tell me if this makes any sense.
Make a new plan, Stan.
Don't need to be coy, Roy. Just listen to me.
You can be sad that something happened to someone without caring that it happened to someone.
You can be sad that something is happening to someone without caring that it's happening to them.
When you are sad, you are sad.
when When bad people, when irresponsible people end up doing badly, I'm sad that it happens.
I'm sad that there's war.
I'm sad that there's debt. I'm sad that there's these terrible things.
It's a sad thing, of course, right?
So we know what the opposite of war is.
We know what the opposite of violence is.
It's reason. It's philosophy.
It's UPB. That's the opposite of war.
That's the opposite of violence.
So people who reject reason end up with violence.
I've said this from the very beginning of this show.
We have two choices for the resolution of human disputes.
Reason, violence.
People who reject reason will end up with violence.
That's the way of the world.
It's the way of reality. It's never going to change.
I don't know why people need to keep learning this lesson over and over and over again.
I don't know why people need to, but they do.
And would you say, I mean, I'm happy to hear criticism as always.
You know, I can always do things better.
What else could I have done to promote reason in the world?
What else could I have done to promote reason in the world other than what I did?
Maybe I could have done more.
I'm certainly happy to hear.
But if there's more I could have done, married Taylor Swift.
Oh, God, no, thank you.
Can you do a backflip?
I cannot. Maybe when I was younger, but not now.
Get back on Twitter. Right.
No, listen, I mean, I took tear gas.
I stood and gave speeches in the face of death threats and bomb threats.
You know, I did about as much as a human being can do without direct martyrdom, right?
Right. So I put everything on the line To promote reason in the world.
I stood up in front of politicians and told them they were corrupt.
I called out social media for its censorship, then got censored.
I spoke at the European Union.
I spoke in Brazil.
I gave speeches in Hong Kong.
Poland. I've done everything that I could outside of direct martyrdom, which would not have me speak of reason anymore.
I think I've maximum...
Done what I can do to spoken reason.
Yeah, I confronted the LA City Hall people.
I did all of this stuff, right?
Did I not, you know, survived surprise blowback attacks from people like Joe Rogan?
It was like, oh, I love you, man.
Right? So, I mean, I think, you know, I got attacked on live TV and more than held my ground.
So, I You know, am I perfect?
Of course not. But I sort of look back and I say, okay, did I do as much as possible?
You know, I wrote UPB. I promoted.
I debated and fought with people who are anti-reason and anti-free market and anti-property rights.
You know, I'm a peaceful parent.
I'm happily married, you know, despite coming from my background.
So I think, again, I'm not trying to sort of praise myself or anything.
Like, I think I did as much as I could do absent direct martyrdom.
And again, if there's things I could have done that I didn't do, I took about every reasonable opportunity to promote reason in the world.
Do you think you did all of that so you could quit caring about the world as much?
Of course, we are all aware, we are all aware that reason is likely to fail.
In our personal life, in our public lives, in private conversations, in public speeches and podcasts, we are all aware that reason is likely to fail.
How do we know that?
Look across the world.
How many people submit themselves to reason and evidence?
It's very, very rare.
I think I'm fairly good-natured, fairly positive, fairly appealing, fairly charismatic, fairly energetic.
I've sustained a show, you know, for like 18 years now, and I think I have done good work, about a billion views and downloads, which is really more than any other philosopher throughout history, probably all combined, a billion views and downloads.
I did...
You know, I've put my – Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia that had a big impact on me as a teenager, and I wrote my Utopia, I wrote my Atlas Shrugged, I wrote my Nirvana, I wrote my heaven novel called The Future, I wrote a novel called The Present on what's happening in the world.
It's true a tragedy, though.
Well, I hear what you're saying.
I hear what you're saying. I can't view it as a tragedy.
It's just a fact. I try not to ascribe emotional depth to facts.
I knew right at the beginning, what do you think I gave my odds of success right at the beginning?
What do you think I gave myself?
About one in a thousand.
It was about one in a thousand.
Now, one day I'll share the successes.
And there's stuff that nobody here would know about, and that's totally fine.
It doesn't really matter, right? But there have been successes that I've kept quiet, which is fine.
I achieved more success than I thought I would, but I still only gave myself a one in a thousand chance.
Because it's not up to me, right?
I try not to ascribe my happiness to things beyond my control.
Isn't that a sure way to get depressed?
Is to have a goal of happiness that is beyond your control.
You can't do that and stay happy.
Now, what is under my control?
How I present, the information that I gather, the arguments that I put forward, the rigor of my intellectual pursuits, that is under my control.
Asking for what I need, your donations and stuff, that's within my control, right?
What I do is all that's within my control.
Now, what is not in my control?
what is not under my control.
Others. I am in control of what I say.
I am not in control of whether you listen.
I am in control of what I say.
I am not in control of whether you or anyone listens.
Do you follow? I mean, I know this sounds blindingly obvious, and I apologize for being reductionist.
It's really, really important to get.
In the analogy, you should be glad that you told Uncle Stan to quit smoking and drinking.
The fact that he chose to listen or not can't have a foundational impact on your happiness because that is putting your happiness outside of your control.
And if there's one thing you want to ferociously hang on to, my friends, it is your capacity To control your happiness.
You must guard that fiercely.
Fiercely, it's the fiercest thing you must guard is your capacity to maintain control
over your happiness.
I had hundreds of colleagues off and on that I talked to over the years.
How many stood up To defend me when I was deplatformed?
Virtually none. That's just a fact.
I could say, oh, I betrayed. It's just a fact.
I can't control, like, my happiness or sadness can't be on whether people support me.
It can't be on whether people listen to me or agree with me or defend me because I have no control over that.
I have no control over that.
I put more than any...
I will hang on to this to my dying day.
I put more than any intellectual throughout the course of human history, I put out into
the public sphere for years and years and years the exact total and complete cause of
war.
Can I make anybody listen to the exact complete and total cause of war?
I can't. If there's war in the world, my conscience is clear more than anyone else.
I put forward a rational, logical, scientific, psychological and empirical argument to the
exact roots and causes of war.
I can take comfort in the courage and compelling nature of what I did.
.
I mean I really put my ass out there people.
I really put my neck on the line.
But people thought that I was crazy and of course a lot of people are crazy but
a lot of people seem crazy because they have knowledge that you don't.
Bye!
Thanks for watching!
So, why the fuck would I ever allow my happiness to be dependent upon the whims of others?
Talk about not being in control of yourself, your life, or anything about you in any way, shape, or form.
Yes, those who were dancing were called insane by those who could not hear the music.
music.
Thank you.
Why the fuck would I ever allow one shred of my happiness to be under the control of people who won't listen to
reason?
Inappropriate glee Look, I've thought hard about this.
Is it just cold? Does it mean inappropriate glee?
No! We pour everything into helping others so we're free when they don't listen.
We're free. We're free.
Do you follow?
We pour heart and soul into helping others, so we're free when they don't listen.
Saying you should feel bad because this other person didn't listen.
You owe this person resources because they didn't listen to reason.
You owe this person time, attention and money because they didn't listen to good advice.
Nope. No, I don't.
I absolutely don't.
I absolutely don't.
I absolutely do not.
.
Because I won't care about people more than they care about themselves.
Somebody says yes, some people think I'm too nice, but I do that so when it's time for me to end the relationship I
know I did my part.
I will give just about everything to people in the cause of prevention and almost nothing in the cause of cure.
Thank you.
Do you follow?
Like a nutritionist will do almost everything to get you to eat well and maybe exercise,
but he's not going to give you open heart surgery.
And what did I say when I was deplatformed?
I said, it's a terrible mistake because the people who come after me, you don't want to meet.
The people who come after me, the people who replace me, you don't want to meet.
But, you know, people were like, no, it's fine, we'll meet them.
Okay, well, you're meeting them.
How's that going? I mean this is all very predictable.
It's all very predictable.
Thank you.
Instead of decades of reason, you now get days of rage.
So please, my friends, do what you can to help people.
Thank you.
And if they don't listen, you are free.
My mother is very old.
I have not spoken to her in a quarter century.
How often do I think of her?
Maybe once or twice a week.
Maybe. If something comes up that reminds me.
Now, if I think about my mother, and I do, I don't hide from the knowledge like she's sitting alone in a terrible rent-controlled apartment surrounded by papers and dust and trash.
It's a wretched life. It's a wretched life.
Absolutely. And boy, oh boy, did I ever try to bend heaven and earth to prevent her from ending up in that life.
Did I ever try to move heaven and earth to prevent her from ending up in that life?
as I did my father, although more my mother, because I had more of a...
I didn't have much of a relationship with my father at all.
I'm free.
She made her choices.
She has to live with the consequences.
She made her choices. I tried to help her.
She has to live with the consequences.
And what a dishonor it would be to the people in my life who do listen to reason to give resources to those who don't.
What an insult to the people who do listen to reason in my life to give resources to those who don't.
And I'm telling you my friends. I am telling you Hmm should I tell you?
I'm gonna get him.
Why do you think it's so important to manage?
Thank you. I appreciate the tip.
Why do you think it's so important in particular now to manage your empathy and restrain excess caring?
Why is it so important now?
Why am I giving this speech tonight?
Where is society going?
Why am I giving this speech?
.
What is happening to society's resources?
What is happening to society's currency?
What is happening to society's competence?
I mean the act scores are just crashing.
Have you watched, I'm watching again, I think it's the third time, the movie Lord of the
Rings, Lord of the Rings movies.
I don't know.
I mean, they're some of the best movies ever made.
And thank God they got made three minutes before The Woke.
Portcullis came down and killed creativity.
So, the character of Smagol, of Gollum, right?
Ah, my precious!
So Gollum is one of the really compelling mecosystem, multiple personality characters, right?
He loves, he hates, he wants friends, he wants to murder.
And when he is going to murder people, then he's caught.
Sam catches him and wants to kill him.
And he's like, oh, poor Smeagol, I wouldn't hurt a fly.
he goes from wild aggression to cringing pity manipulation like that, right?
Do you know what assault of pity manipulation is coming down the pipe at you and me?
Do you know what's...
Can you hear this rumbling?
Do you know? You know, like those South Sea Islanders who know when a tsunami is coming because they've had experience with the ocean for thousands of years.
Do you know what is coming?
And all the people you warned and warned and warned what are they gonna do
when they run low on resources?
They're coming. They're coming.
Thank you.
Yep. Bang, bang, bang, bang.
And they might try and come in through the windows for all we know
So I think that you are going to need to
uncouple yourself from pathological altruism Because I think it's going to be used to manipulate and
control you I think. It's my strong belief.
I've been working on...
Like, I'm a bit of an over-feeling guy.
I'm sure you're aware of this.
I'm a bit of an over-empathy, over-compassionate guy.
I mean, it's one of the reasons why I think I'm so effective in the call-in shows and so on.
Like, I really care, really empathize and all of that.
Man, I've got to pull this stuff back.
I've got to pull this stuff back.
Because you know people are going to come by and they're going to need things, they're going to want things, all the things you told, all the things you warned about, they didn't prepare, they didn't do this, they didn't do that, and that is grasshopper and the ant.
Grasshopper and the ant. Grasshopper and the ant.
You know, if the ant lets the grasshopper in, you know the ant doesn't make it, right?
I mean, you never see the end of that fairy tale.
Right? Who's bigger, the ant or the grasshopper?
Who needs more resources?
Who consumes more food? Who needs more space?
If the ant has stowed enough for himself over the course of the winter,
and he invites the grasshopper in, he's toast.
And I'm trying to help even friends at the moment to prepare.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The grasshopper would likely eat him first for variety.
It could happen, right? It could happen.
And all of the older people, they're going to be very unhappy.
And you know my rule.
It's been my rule since I learned it from my college roommate who was doing two PhDs in biology and something else.
Treat people the best you can.
the first time you meet them after that, treat them as they treat you.
And I remember, I don't know if people don't remember being a child.
I remember being a child. And if I didn't jump through the hoops and if I didn't do the right things and if I didn't memorize and regurgitate the useless crap that they fed me, what happened?
They would steal an entire year or two or more of my life by holding me back in grades, right?
You didn't pass.
You suck. We are going to take a year of your life away.
Remember that? Do you remember this, if you fail?
There's always a threat. Wasn't it a terrifying threat?
Hey, you get another year in school!
Do you feel motivated yet?
You were threatened with that in second grade?
Yeah, it was awful. It was awful.
And, I mean, didn't you always know the slightly older kids...
Who were held back and, you know, you're in grade 8 and there's the kids from grade 9 or 10 still stuck in grade 8.
Like this giant warning sign of imminent bullying.
My mother told me she refused to let the school hold me back.
Oh gosh, Khan, you had cancer during school and they held you back at grade.
I remember my fear being I'd be seen as a stupid kid.
Yeah? Yeah?
In grade one, they held you back because you had cancer.
I'm so sorry, man. That's just right.
So for me, it's like, well, the generation ahead of me, if I didn't dance through these stupid flaming hoops in the way that you wanted me to, you know, learn and regurgitate all the useless crap that I needed to in order to get to the next step, the next grade, If you were willing to steal a year of my life from me, to hold me in the brain fog prison of school for another year, where was your compassion for me?
Where was your compassion for the smart kids in the Demar school?
Where was your compassion for the smart kids in the Demar school?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now, in England, I actually did have some compassion.
My intelligence was recognized to some degree, and I was given my own room with another guy.
we read books and just played games because everybody, like the teachers knew that I was just
really bored so y'all threatened with stealing a year of my life
when I was a kid it.
.
And now you want compassion from me?
Are you kidding me? You set up an...
I get, you know, the system was inherited, but at least have some compassion for it.
It's a bad system.
It's a bad system. You want compassion from me?
I was born, and it's even worse now, into debt slavery.
Children are born more than a million dollars.
U.S. more than a million dollars into debt, which is more than most of them will ever make over the course of their lifetime.
You took a year from me. Yeah, I was – and it's hard to say I was put back, but when I first moved to Canada, I was in grade eight, and then they put me back in grade six.
I have mixed feelings about that because it's better to be somewhat closer to your age cohort, which is – but I was ahead, and then they put me back.
And – If you say to the older generation, you're going to have to give up some stuff because, you know, it certainly wasn't the kids' fault.
Certainly not the fault of the kids.
We can't have this kind of debt.
They wouldn't, right? Do you think they're going to give up any resources because you're born in debt?
Do you think one dollar, one dime of the resources they wanted from the government?
Do you think they'll give up one thin dime of that because they voted for a system that had you born into a million dollars worth of debt?
when they're sitting on massively inflated real estate homes and so on and
they got to earn their money when taxes were lower and regulations were fewer
and competition was less. So they won't give you anything back that they took
but now they want you to give them stuff that you've earned.
You understand? They won't give one dime back that they took, but now they want you to give everything to them that you've earned.
The propaganda makes them think they're simply getting their money back.
No, they don't. Nobody believes that.
Nobody believes that. That's just what they say.
People find propaganda all kinds of easy when it comes to aligning with their greed.
Nobody believes that. Nobody believes that.
So all you have to do to expose that, all you have to do to expose that is one simple thing.
Say, okay, well I'm not going to pay any taxes into retirement pensions anymore because apparently the government already has your money, just they'll cut you a check.
Everybody knows the money's gone.
Everybody knows that it's just debt.
Everybody knows that. I mean, there's nobody who doesn't, right?
So I'm just pointing out that even though the younger generation has begged the older generation for better consideration for not burying them in so much debt before they're even born, the older generation won't in general do it.
They won't give anything up.
I mean, they won't often even leave their money to their children.
You heard about this habit of the older people?
What do they do? Well, I want to travel now.
Need a really expensive golf membership.
Got to be part of that country club.
Need a new car.
Got to get a boat. You kids will be fine.
Okay. Right?
Okay. Do you know how liberating that is?
I mean, freedom is, oh man, this is really powerful stuff, man.
I'm telling you, straight up powerful stuff.
Freedom for other people is freedom for you.
Freedom for others is freedom for you.
People are free to screw you like a wine cork.
Like, they are free to exploit you.
I don't think it's right, but they're free to exploit you, bury you in debt, nag at you for, you know, like old economy Steve, nag at you for failing to achieve what was handed to them on a silver platter.
They're totally free to mock you for small government aspirations, to mock you for wanting lower taxes, to mock you for opposing being born a million dollars in debt.
Totally free to oppose that.
To mock you to ridicule.
They're totally free. And they're free to do that.
And that freedom gives you freedom too.
Gives you freedom too.
Well, the consequences of you failing to study for some stupid test on meiosis versus mitosis when you were 11 years old should be perhaps you losing a year of your life.
Oh, the consequences for me failing to listen to reason for 70 years?
I'll be sending you a nice tip on my next page.
pay this is hitting deep to a lot of the core of my anxieties.
Do you know how wonderful people are when you're generous?
.
It's incredible. The world of the selfish graspers is incomprehensible to the generous people.
I mean, I don't know if, like, do you know what it's like when you're generous and kind and positive in the world, what a paradise you live in?
It's almost incomprehensible.
It's completely incomprehensible to the selfish people who hang on to everything.
I give and I give and I give.
No, listen, I give. I don't charge people for call-ins.
I don't charge people for advice.
I don't charge.
I mean, I ask for donations.
I've been, I think, fairly generous with my time, energy, and effort in the world because I don't want there to be a financial barrier to the spread of wisdom.
So in my life, I'm generous to a fault.
And I've lent friends money.
I've helped people move.
I'm generous. It is to a fault.
It is to a fault. But it becomes a virtue.
It becomes a virtue when you see that a lack of reciprocity is liberty from obligation.
A lack of reciprocity is liberty from obligation.
You follow? Have you ever had that relationship, you know, that relationship, for want of a better word, that relationship where you help them, you help them move, you, you know, the wife's pregnant, you clean their house, you babysit their kids, you just help and help, and then you need something.
Shut up. You need something.
Oh man, I really, you know, I got this part in the play.
I really need someone to help run lines.
Well, kind of busy.
Kind of busy. You help them.
Hey man, I really need you to, I need help with this essay.
It's absolutely crucial that I get, I gotta graduate.
I need help. Okay, I'll help you with the essay.
I'll give it a look. Help, help, help.
And then you ask for reciprocity, even a little bit.
5%, 10%, a little bit, just a little bit.
And then what? I'm sorry, you're just like a helpful slave.
This is not a reciprocity relationship.
Are you crazy? This is me getting stuff, man.
This is me getting stuff.
I once helped a friend with his essays.
Didn't write anything for him, but I helped him with his essays, asking him the right questions, clarifying his graduate school thesis, and really, really helped him with all of that sort of stuff, right?
And then I'd written a play that I wanted to produce, and I asked for his feedback.
Nothing. Nothing.
Incredibly freeing. Listen, people are free to exploit you.
They're free to do it.
Go for it. Knock yourself out because every exploitation is liberty for me.
Freedom for you is freedom for me.
Do you follow? And this way you don't have to control people because you only have to end up controlling people when you can't get away.
Steph, your old business videos helped me get my dream job.
Before that, I was taking advice from the show suits.
Well, I had to be a sociopath who'd been exploited sexually as a child.
Not you, but the show suits.
So, you understand?
The desire to control comes from a lack of capacity to escape.
And escape is a mental process.
It's a state of mind first.
first it's only a state of being later.
Hey man, you're free to exploit me.
Thank you.
You're free to exploit me.
And I'm free to walk away.
With no guilt.
With no remorse.
With no negative feelings whatsoever.
Now that's one thing.
Tell me this. Have you ever been grateful to people who've harmed you?
That's an interesting question.
I mean, hopefully they're all interesting, but have you ever...
Tell me, tell me, when and how have you been grateful for people who harmed you?
Do you know who's the co-writer of my new book, Peaceful Parenting, which you can get at freedomain.locals.com?
The audio book is coming, pumping out.
There's even a feed for it. Who is the co-author of Peaceful Parenting?
Who is writing the book with me?
Mama Molyneux, that's right.
It's close to close to Mama JF. Yeah, my mom is co-writing the book with me
In the same way that your obese father co-writes your book on nutrition
You You
You .
So that's one thing.
Freedom for others is freedom for you.
Every immoral person is desperately trying to teach you something.
Yeah, my dad taught me how not to be a dad.
Yeah, because that's, you know, you want the angel and you want the devil.
The angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other, right?
You've got to listen to both sides. My ex-wife, says someone, I always felt something was wrong but did not want to break my vows.
Then when I discovered her betrayal, I was angry but free from her.
My ex taught me to expect better of others in new relationships.
Evil people are trying to shore up your spine.
Do you follow?
Evil people are trying to shore up your spine.
Learn from me.
Do better. I can't make it any more obvious.
Get away. I mean, to a large part, thanks to you all, I have a pretty great life. I think we're doing great work in the world.
Every evil person has guided me to virtue.
If I had been raised better, I would be a worse father.
I would be, God help me, average.
Average? Oh, God.
God help me, being average.
This show is built on the actions of evildoers, and every evil person has guided me to virtue.
Lord knows there aren't a lot of people out there inspiring us to virtue.
Is that a fair point?
Everybody you believe in lies down with the beasts.
Boy, I could name some names, but I won't.
Because then we'll be distracted by gossip.
How many people, don't count me, whatever that means, right?
How many people in your life did you genuinely admire and look up to who you didn't feel
betrayed by significantly at some point?
Abuse made me worse, but then a better person in time.
Well, that's like a traditional vaccine, right?
Zero. One.
One to two. That's great.
Were they public figures or people in your life?
Minus 10 because I allowed them to betray me twice.
Oh, Jared, if it's only twice, you're doing fantastically well.
Boy, I wish I could get mine down to twice.
Pretty much all of them are maybe still counting, but it has made me sharper and stronger.
My father's mother was wicked to me.
Towards the end of her life, after she lost mobility, she continued to be cruel.
It felt so good to walk away.
She couldn't hurt me anymore, emotionally or physically.
I mean, I hope to never betray you, and I worked very hard to not do that.
You know, maybe. I don't think so.
I think I'm, you know, at 57, I'm past most of the major temptations in life, and Lord knows I've been offered the ring of power many times.
And I said, no. Again, no claims to perfection, but I very much aim to not betray you guys.
At least not today.
Not today, Zurg. What did I miss?
We're praising evildoers.
You look early 40s.
Good for you. A little bit of waffle here, whatever, right?
Not doing too badly.
Not doing too badly at all.
I look at some of my older videos and it's like, yeah, I made you know right.
I mean, you know right?
Ah!
Oh, it's so tempting to dive into gossip.
If I have a weakness.
Oh, it's gossip. Stefan, tonight's show is so valuable to me.
You truly are a light in my life.
Thank you very much. Indulge a bit?
No, it's tempting, but it's...
It's tempting, but it's poking beasts that...
I mean, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?
It's pretty obvious.
Only a little bit of gossip?
I do love me some gossip.
Thank you.
Gossip for subscribers only.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we'll do it. We'll do it for that.
Extract what philosophical aspects you can from it and tell us.
Nah. Come on, a little bit never hurt anybody.
Really? I don't think that's true.
Gossip can be quite destructive.
But, I mean, if it's based on truth.
It's based on truth. Gossip if we hit 100 likes.
You think I fill up my car with likes?
Is that your theory?
That I buy groceries with likes?
All right. So that's most of what I wanted to get across in the first part of the show.
second part of the show I'm happy to entertain questions comments issues
problems criticisms whatever is on the collective glorious sunburst supernova
hive brain of this philosophical aggregation of Borg heads Lauren Sutton surprised me when she turned left
Did she turn left? I don't know that she did.
I haven't really kept track of her, but I don't know that she did.
What do I know? Yeah, and be careful.
Did you check out John...
Oh, God, you've got to warn me if you're going to say the words John Oliver.
I mean, you've got to give me a gag.
You've got to give me like a hairball golem-eating lembas bread warning of revulsion.
Did you check out John Oliver's piece on homeschooling in the U.S.? He advocated for more regulation on the basis that parents who homeschool could abuse their kids, whereas if the kids were in public school, the teachers would be able to spot signs of abuse.
thoughts. The amount of childhood sexual abuse that goes on in schools is far,
far, far higher per capita than anything that ever happened with Catholic priests.
So yes, it's for the children.
How would you like your tyranny?
It's for the children, you see.
We fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them over here.
It's... for the children.
Don't you care about the children?
Hit me with a why if you were abused at home and teachers found it and did something about it.
They sensed it, they knew it, and they did something about it.
Just hit me with a why. If you were abused at home, were in school, and teachers...
Figured it out and did something about it and just helped you so much it was you almost couldn't stand it
It's for protecting the children You've got to give up your freedom to protect the children.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but it's just...
John Oliver is...
Oh my God.
Let it be written here.
That one may smile and smile and smile and be a villain.
Smiling damn smiling villain.
Yeah. Alright, let me get to your comments.
Some good philosophical ones here.
Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure.
The pedo-priest thing was largely from commie infiltration.
I assume the same thing was true with the Boy Scouts, right?
They had to get rid of all of that stuff.
Can you give a true reason for preferring truth?
I was asked this today and didn't have an answer.
Why should we prefer truth?
Why should we prefer truth?
What do you think? What are your thoughts on repressed memories?
Dangerous stuff, because memory is not a documentary.
It's often fiction.
Yeah, why should we why should we prefer truth?
I'm a tea, but I did not earn it I feel by God to promote universal virtue.
There are worse reasons for getting up in the morning, and I applaud that one.
Ignorance offers no benefits.
That's not true. Some see ignorance as a shield against reality, spineless witless normies.
Ignorance absolutely offers benefits.
It may not offer benefits to you, but stop being so selfish, my friend.
It's not all about you. Of course ignorance offers benefits.
Can you give a reason for preferring truth?
Truth is always better in the long run.
It is the most accurate representation of reality.
Those who have coherent words must approve of truth.
The universe's perfectly consistent deviation from that invites madness.
Contradictions are false. It cannot be true that there is no truth.
Not sure if that actually answered the question.
But why should we prefer truth?
Why should we prefer? I mean, it's an interesting question, right?
Why should we prefer truth?
Adhering to truth is how we survive.
Nope. Lots of people lie and survive that way.
An ugly truth is infinitely more valuable than a beautiful lie.
That's just a deepity.
That's an aphorism. I wonder what StephBotAI would say.
Which is available for donors.
Thank you for a brief. Yes, you can go to freedomain.locals.com and check it out.
I think everyone will agree they would like to know what is true.
Nope. If you want to be honest, we must.
Yeah, well, but that's tautological, Jared, right?
So if you say, why should we be honest?
Well, if we want to be honest, it's like, but why should we want to be honest, right?
Look at the lives of those who don't prefer truth.
They often do very well.
Also, do you prefer truth?
No. Is that true? I shared, we'll all end up smarter with more truth out there.
The purpose of life is to accumulate resources, not necessarily to end up smarter.
Truth is UPB. No.
Truth is not UPB. Truth is not UPB because UPB also permits the use of violence in the defense of persons and property and you can't just punch someone who's lying.
Truth is necessary to be loved.
That's certainly true. Truth equals integrity, but truth which has a positive sense to it and integrity which has a positive sense to it, you're saying, well, you should like this one positive thing because of this other positive thing.
But if you don't want truth, why would you care about integrity?
Non-truth is fantasy and doesn't directly apply to reality.
Why should we prefer truth?
Thank you.
It's an interesting question, right?
Because it feels like we should have an obvious answer, but it's a little hard to come up with one, right?
All evil is born from untruth.
But if you don't prefer truth, how could you really define evil?
why should we prefer truth?
I mean I could tell you since this was a good question, right?
I mean, I could tell you since this was a good question, right?
you All right. I know that I want to know what is true so that I can make choices that will benefit me.
Adam chose untruth to stay with Eve.
It's a tough question. Yeah, it is a tough question.
It's not an obvious question, right?
Why should I? And it's a basic philosophical question.
Why should I prefer truth?
Sand, sealed, delivered, I'm yours.
Thank you, Jared, I appreciate that.
Why should we?
Thank you.
So we understand how to live?
Go more basic than that.
Here's the thing. Here's a big tip for philosophy.
If you're having trouble with the abstractions, jump to the body.
If you're having trouble with the abstractions, jump to the body.
You ever figure this out?
If you're having trouble holding your to-do list in your head, you write it down.
You make it material. You make it physical.
If you're having trouble with the abstractions, go to the physical.
Truth is the accurate identification of reality.
We need things in reality to survive.
We need shelter, food, water, you name it, right?
Can you survive without truth?
Can you survive without truth?
Without an accurate identification of the things in reality, can you survive?
Nope. Right.
So if somebody says, why should I prefer the truth?
It'd be like, well, someone has to to feed your ass!
Someone has to. You're here, which means you have preferred the truth in order to be here.
So don't be a hypocritical asshole and just accept that you're alive because you prefer the truth.
So shut up and let's get on to something productive.
Because if you don't prefer the truth, you've got to fasten on like a vampire to someone who does.
So stop being a parasite.
Someone has to or you get no food, no shelter, no water.
A few people answer that initially survival.
No, I get that. But if you reject the truth, you have to prey on other people accepting the truth in order to survive.
Does that make sense? Yeah, to survive, but you can survive by rejecting the truth.
You just have to then become a hypocritical parasite on everyone else.
Does that make sense? Why should I prefer the truth?
Because if you reject the truth and you're still alive, you're preying on other people.
And the only way that you're able to pray on other people and get resources from them is if they accept the truth because you're still accepting the value of truth.
You're just preying on it rather than accepting it yourself.
You're relying on other people to accept the value of truth so you can steal shit from them.
So you're just one person removed acceptance of truth plus evil.
Someone's got to accept truth for you to be alive.
Either you accept the truth and produce or you reject the truth and then you have to pray on other people who accept the truth.
So you're still accepting the truth.
Just one person removed plus evil, theft, manipulation, exploitation.
You're still accepting the truth.
You're just adding evil to it.
Does that make sense? You have to accept the truth of the things you're going to steal from the people.
Oh, that guy's got a loaf of bread and I'm hungry.
I reject the truth. Well, I'm going to go steal from that guy's loaf of bread.
you're still accepting the truth, you're just adding evil to it.
If you reject the truth, other people got to provide your resources.
Then you've got to accept that you've got to steal from other people or bully or manipulate or whatever, right?
Does that make sense? There's no way to reject the truth.
You either accept it and live with some sort of self-survival and integrity, or you claim to reject it, which means other people have to accept it, and then you have to still accept that you steal from them to get your resources.
So you can't reject the truth.
you can only accept the truth or pretend to reject it and be evil.
Or you reject it and starve.
Well, no, because the person making the statement is already there to make the statement.
So they're not dead. You follow?
Yes, but then the same person is just going to ask, why should I not pray on truthful people?
And I would say, okay, how do you know who has resources to pray on?
How do you know? Do you go and try and get meat from a tree?
Nope. Do you don't go and try and get wood from a cow?
Nope. You have to accept that things have nature and facts and resources.
You don't go and steal from a scarecrow.
You don't try and get gold from a baby.
So you have to accept some facts of reality even in order to prey on people so you're already accepting the truth.
You can't even prey on people without accepting the truth.
So it's ridiculous.
Holding a scarecrow at gunpoint sounds like a good novel.
sigh But enough about fiat currency.
Does this answer well enough?
Like, you can't reject the truth.
If you reject the truth, you've got to prey on other people who accept the truth.
And you have to accept the truth that they're worthy of preying on.
There's no possibility of it.
It's impossible. And that's why.
You're having trouble with the abstracts?
Straight to the body. The brain doesn't exist without the body.
The body doesn't exist without reality.
Anybody who's trying to give you some abstract argument that goes against the survival of their body has clearly rejected it in order to be alive to make the abstract argument.
It's like all the people, oh, language doesn't have any meaning.
Oh, really, you brain surgeon?
Did you just use language to communicate that language has no meaning?
Aren't you smart? Oh, the midwits.
Oh, the midwits. No one here, of course, right?
But the midwits. All the people who, you know, they're like IQ 110, 150, 120, and they probably were the smartest people in a small town, and they could out-argue anyone.
And then they get to a larger environment, right?
They were a big fish in a little pond.
They get to a larger environment with some really smart people, and in the Internet, maybe, too, they come to a place with really smart people, and then they don't feel so smart anymore, and their ego takes a big crash.
And because they were always right and smarter and better able to articulate things in their little pond that they came from, they come to the big area and then people just walk circles around them and prove them wrong.
And they're like, well, no, I'm smart because I grew up and I was the smartest around.
I've got to be smart. So in the ego crisis that occurs, what do they do?
They just discount everybody who disagrees with them and they call it hate speech.
It's wonderful how you give such clear, direct, and useful answers.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
I do love me the philosophy stuff.
I do love me the philosophy stuff.
I liked the ego video from earlier today.
Oh, good. Ligo my ego.
I appreciate that. All right.
We had another good question here.
Um... So...
Somebody wrote, saying any attempt to debunk UPB reinforces UPB is the typical argument that any assertion that there is no truth is an assertion about truth and therefore it's paradoxical and debunks itself, etc.
It's not a huge discovery.
It's an amateurish Kantianism, according to this guy's university professor.
It's an amateurish Kantianism.
Um... I guess you can hit me with a Y. Do you think that I believe that my major contribution to philosophy is to note that some arguments are self-contradictory?
Do you think that's my...
Do you think nobody in the entire history of philosophy has ever noticed that some arguments are self-contradictory?
Yeah. Do you think that's...
I mean, do you think that's what I think my big contribution...
You know, if you say that a married man is a bachelor, that's a self-contradictory statement because married men are by definition not bachelors.
And do you think I believe that absolutely no one before me noticed that there was such a thing as a self-contradictory argument?
No. Oh, that's brilliant.
I've invented the word and.
But. And.
Snorfgoogle. Amateur is Kantianism.
Do you think that Immanuel Kant was the only first person to point out that there are self-contradictory arguments?
Do you think that the entire purpose of UPB is to say that some arguments are self-contradictory and that attempting to disprove logic using logic is self-contradictory?
Do you think nobody ever noticed that before?
Oh my gosh.
That's just brilliant.
And that's a midwit. That's a midwit.
I just put the word amateurish in front of something and it's an argument.
Yes, attempting to use logic to disprove logic is not logical and I'm the first
person ever to notice that.
I'm so smart!
It worked!
There's an MMA fighter who went around and challenged a bunch of fake martial artists and proceeded to totally dominate them.
Imagine you doing the same thing to philosophy professors.
Yeah, I mean, this is very much the definition of a straw man, right?
Any attempt to debunk UPB reinforces UPB. Yeah, that certainly is true.
That's not the essence of UPB. UPB is the proof that rape, theft, assault, and murder can never be universally preferable behavior.
That's the thing, right? Professor Mid-Whittington Smuggins.
Oh, I say, what is amateur Kantianism?
It's weird, it's ugly head of my classroom, amateur Kantianism.
Oh, this guy online, Mr.
Giant. Forehead, thumb, ostrich, speckle brain.
Oh, the idea that he thinks he's invented the argument, that things are self-contradictory, that the form of the argument contradicts the content of the argument that's been around since pre-Socratic.
You just can't believe it. I'm going to reduce this person's complex argument to something as simple as humanly possible.
Put the word amateurish in front of it.
Add the name of a famous philosopher.
Bing! I'm a genius!
That's delightful. Oh, please don't pay this man.
Please don't pay this man.
He is a sophist.
He will lead you astray. I like that Sir Smuggins is British.
Well, you know, when you see this, Marvin, you don't have a degree.
Isn't it funny how all of the famous philosophers taught by philosophy professors don't have degrees?
Oh, your voice acting is so much fun.
Yeah, you know, in hindsight, I'm glad I took all of that voice and acting lessons and so on.
It was it was worthwhile. I think we'll be able to have this kind of fun stuff, right?
John verbalize John but it locks up John ver Vicky's community can't agree that our memory of
an object can match a physical object They don't believe we can use memory to drive a car.
So, wait. But they remember what a car is in order to use it as an analogy on things we can't do?
We can't possibly know what a car is!
I didn't. Why did you choose the word car?
No reason. Why did you use the word reason?
No reason. Why did you use the word no?
No reason. So why are you using words rather than random syllables?
Do you remember how words and language and syntax and grammar work and arguments work?
Yes! I can remember big abstract concepts like arguments and grammar and syllables and words and sequence, but I don't know what a car is.
It certainly is true that I know vector calculus.
But I can't do arithmetic.
It's all so funny.
It's all so funny.
It's so funny. Amateurist Kantianism.
It can be very difficult for people with a limited intellect to truly recognize a mind superior to their own.
They assume you're a sophist like them.
Maybe they were doing taxi cab geometry.
I tell you, the more complicated people's formulations, the worse their conscience is.
I'm just telling you guys straight up.
The more complicated people's formulations are, the worse their conscience is.
The more complicated they are, the more they've lied to people, the more they've misled people, the more they've preyed upon less intelligent people and from a midwitch standpoint of, oh, the complication is brilliant!
The less you can understand what people are talking about, the worse their conscience is and the more they've preyed upon people.
Tipping intensifies.
I say, this donation is not actually real because it's just an idea in the mind of God.
Tally-ho! French philosophers, you ever crack those books and you just read stuff and you're just like, the fuck are you talking about?
Can you provide me anything useful to make life decisions in the here and now?
So all German philosophers are serial killers?
Oh God, no. Oh God, no.
German philosophers are way worse than serial killers.
Serial killers have a limited number of people they can get their hands on over the course of a single lifetime.
German philosophers can poison an entire continent from end to end for about infinity years.
I mean, you know that Germany, in the lead up to National Socialism, to Nazism, was by far the most educated and religious country in all of Europe, right?
In fact, in the world that was recorded, Germany was by far the most – I did this in my Truth About Nazism presentation, which went out as an NFT. Yeah, Germany was by far – oh, well, we educate people more and they'll be better.
It's like Germany was by far the most educated and they voted in Hitler.
Oh yeah, no, please, you know, give me a serial killer rather than a bad philosopher because I can defend myself against a serial killer, but a bad philosopher, which is to say most philosophers, which is to say most German philosophers, they will end up mind virus infecting the young through Prussian-style state education and then end up burning down the entire planet out of error.
All right. That's what attracted me to free domain, practical philosophy.
Philosophy is about helping you to become happy by living a moral life.
And if you can't explain to...
I'm not putting anyone in this category.
I aim in my general communication, not so much on the live streams, but in my general communication, and you'll see this in the Peaceful Parenting book, I'm aiming for IQ 90 up.
I'm aiming for IQ 90 up.
Again, nobody here, I get all of that.
I'm aiming for IQ 90 up.
Because if you can't, no, it's exactly what is needed.
It's exactly what is needed because at that level of intelligence, and if I can get below that, man, I'd be super happy to get below that too.
I need to get there because the people who are less intelligent need the most philosophy.
Because they can't necessarily see the consequences of their actions in the same way that smarter people can.
They can't see over the horizon of tomorrow and so on.
So they need philosophy to substitute for some of the less self-empathy that they could have, empathy for others and so on, right?
So that is my goal and my purpose.
So the idea that I'm going to complicate philosophy so what?
I can... Feel smart?
Um...
Should we do some quotes?
Ummm...
you.
No, because I'm doing the History of Philosophers series, right?
And of course, I've read a bunch of philosophy in the past, but the History of Philosophers series is really eye-opening as to just how bad some philosophical writing, most philosophical writing, is really, really bad.
Let me just see here.
God help society of academics.
Let's see here...
I think there are awards for this stuff.
And George Orwell has fantastic takedowns of academic writing.
It's really, really amazing.
Let's see here.
Alright.
Thanks for watching!
Here we go, here we go.
Uh, oh no, this might be, uh...
Here we go.
Emotional detachment between us during manifested harmony in relationships was causing a cognitive dissonance within me.
My mind was wandering in Kafkian labyrinths of doubt, guilt and sorrow while my mouth almost subconsciously produced sparkling words that people usually associate with love.
Delightful. That's some bad fiction writing, of which, of course, there's a lot.
All right. Bad academic writing.
it's predatory theft from the taxpayers uh... recent scholarship on the public sphere has
maintained that we need to examine the many manifestations of the public which shaped
nineteenth century politics commerce class gender and national identities
Most of these studies have reconfigured but have been informed by Jürgen Habermas' notion of the public sphere as an ideal realm of rational discourse located between the private sphere of the family and the market and the formal institutions of the state.
Analysis Sorry, analysts of global integration have been rightfully concerned with elucidating global inequities.
But increasing interconnectivity has also created possibilities for seemingly marginal people to affect larger patterns of interrelation.
By concentrating on how economic power is deployed by dominant global actors, analysts of globalizing processes have largely overlooked the ways in which quotidian acts such as consumer demand across the globe influence economic relations, however asymmetrical those relationships might be.
Yeah, good luck getting some useful things out of that.
That's why I want to do more.
I think these are hilarious.
It's like watching a slow-motion murder of clarity.
Ah, yes. The work of the text is to literalize the signifiers of the first encounter, dismantling the ideal as an idol.
In this literalization, the idolatrous deception at the first moment becomes readable.
The ideal will reveal itself to be an idol.
Step by step, the ideal is pursued by a devouring doppelganger, tearing apart all transcendence.
This de-idealization follows the path of reification, or, to invoke Augustine, the path of carnalization of the spiritual.
Rhetorically, this is effected through literalization.
sentimental education does little more than elaborate the progressive
literalization of the enunciation.
Oh it's just delightful.
It's just delightful. And I never read this shit, because if you can't be bothered to be clear, why should I bother to read you?
Why on earth would I bother to read you if you can't be bothered to be clear?
It's hard work to be clear.
It's hard work, to be clear.
And people who can't bother, I don't care.
I don't care. It's about vanity.
Like, I'm smart if you can't understand me is the classic midwit perspective.
I'm smart because you can't understand me.
And it's like, no, your job as a smart person is to be comprehensible.
I'm barfing in my mouth.
All right, let's see here.
Derrida or Nick Land?
Well, Derrida's terrible, yeah.
Nick Land? Give me a link.
Will you ever do a biblical series?
Yeah, I'd love to. I'm really swamped at the moment with the Peaceful Parenting book.
Read the intro to Fanged Nuomina.
It'll blow your mind with how much baffle gab is squeezed in there.
Alright, let's give it a try.
Fanged Nuomina.
Sounds like something Vox Day would publish.
Fangid Nuomina.
Uh...
Let's see here.
How bad are we getting here?
Rabid nihilism.
Oh, no. Rabid nihilism.
Oh, I don't think...
I think this is just... Oh, no.
Oh, 685 pages.
We might be here for a while.
Get comfortable. The audiobook from hell is commencing.
Alright, let's do the intro introduction.
Oh, editor's introduction? Nope, nope, nope, nope.
Uh, boy, that's a long editor's introduction.
Are you paid by the word?
Are you paid by the frown?
Are you paid by the, what the hell is going on here, expostulation?
Oh my god, editor's introduction's going on for 36 pages.
Uh, that's not a good sign.
Let me explain to you the unexplainable.
Alright. God almighty.
Uh, right. All right.
Here we go. For the purposes of understanding the complex network of race, gender, and class oppressions that constitute our global modernity, it is very rewarding to attend to the evolution of the apartheid policies of the South African regime, since apartheid is directed towards the construction of a
microcosm of the neocolonial order
a recapitulation of the world in miniature. The most basic aspirations of
the Boer state is the dissociation of politics from economic relations
so that by means of Bantustans or homelands the black African population can be suspended
in the condition of simultaneous political distance and
economic proximity vis-a-vis the white metropolis. This policy
seeks to recast the currently existing political exteriority of the black population in its relations to the
society that utilizes its labor
into a system of geographical relations modeled on national sovereignty
The direct disenfranchisement of the subject peoples would then be re-expressed within the dominant international code of ethno-geographical slash national autonomy.
I would not say that's rabidly clear as a whole in general.
All right. Not ideal.
All right. Communicating research to normal people is an entire industry.
How flibbermindedly, serobro crunchingly brilliant.
Do people actually read this stuff and claim to understand it?
Who does read it? That's what blows my mind.
Well, there's no market, right?
The market is the involuntary taxpayer, which is not a market at all.
In college, I thought I wasn't smart enough to understand all this brilliance while being afraid to speak up and point it out.
Makes no sense. Yeah, I mean, it's all Emperor's New Clothes, right?
It's all the Emperor's New Clothes.
Oh, yeah, you gave me the editor's introduction, so that's going to be a mess.
You're killing me. Switch to the phone book.
Yeah, no kidding. Are they publishing these obtuse papers to drive people to despair, so they'll sign up for MAID in order to escape the torment?
Well... The reason that they do this is to...
It's an appeal to insecurity, right?
It's an appeal to insecurity.
I mean, I'm sure you've met very smart people who say, explain it to me like I'm five years old.
Right? My favorite paper ever.
Gender encoding in fluid mechanics, masculine channels, and feminine flows.
Well, of course...
Yeah, it's... Give it a chance.
I thought I had it bad reading technical med literature.
This is awful. Yeah, yeah.
Why are you reading firewood?
It actually would be valuable.
More valuable is firewood.
Yeah, it's just...
It's just an appeal to insecurity.
Like, it's the emperor's new clothes, right?
I don't understand. Explain it to me like I'm five years old.
Well, I can't. Explain it to me like I'm 10 years old.
Well, I can't. Okay, so you're just doing a circle joke, right?
You're just doing a circle joke. So, yeah, it's pretty terrible.
All right, what do you think of the excuse, it's not black and white?
Because if you're thinking of being my baby...
All right, it's not...
Yeah, you hear this thing. Oh, it's not black and white.
It's more complex and blah, blah, blah, right?
Okay, so it's not black and white is not an argument.
It's not black and white.
It's the appeal from complexity.
It's the argument from complexity.
Yeah, it's a good song. It's an argument from complexity, which is to say, well, it's more complex than you're making it out to be.
It's not just black and white.
Man, could that guy dance.
Okay. Yeah, what are his pronouns?
So, it's not black and white.
Okay, well, what is it? Right, I mean, I remember arguing with...
Sorry, that sound, what is it that a cat makes when it goes into a blender full of Chinese food?
Vash, right. I remember debating with Vash, and he's like, oh, well, it's all a constellation of incredibly complex variables as to why this happened.
It's like, no, it's not. No, it's not.
It's too complex. It's more complex than you think.
It's not an argument. Yeah, it's not an argument.
Two and two is four. Well, it's not black and white.
It's not an argument. The world is a sphere.
Well, it's not black and white. Not an argument.
Women tend to be shorter than men.
Well, it's not black and white.
Well, I never said it was, right?
So if somebody says it's not black and white, it's usually a straw man, right?
So you're seeing it's a false dichotomy, an either or, right?
So if somebody says it's not black and white, just say, when did I claim it was?
Like, are you listening? I mean, honestly...
Hit me with a Y if you think you're a good listener.
I think I'm a good listener. Hit me with a Y if you think you're a good listener.
I said hit me with a Y. Just kidding.
All right. Most of you are good listeners.
Okay. What percentage of people that you talk to genuinely listen to you?
Or are they just waiting their turn to talk or making up something about what you're saying or daydreaming or something?
Meh, I usually try to think about what I'm going to say while they're talking.
It's not black and white means I will change the goalposts on you until the end of time.
Most don't really listen.
Yeah, I mean, most people don't listen.
Most people don't really listen.
And do you know one of the main reasons why people don't listen?
What do you think is the main reason why people don't listen?
What is the main reason that people don't listen?
Well, they're waiting to talk, yes.
They weren't listened to.
I think that's certainly true. Not going to change their minds, yeah.
Okay, look, we all have situations where we don't listen to people.
I have this occasion in call-in shows.
Fortunately, no one can see the video where I'm like, oh, I got to catch up with what this guy's saying, right?
Why is it that most people don't listen?
They don't want to hear it, they're afraid of having their mind changed.
Well, why don't on the times when you don't listen to someone? Why don't you why are you not listening?
Why do you not listen on those times which happens to all of us I think when you don't listen
I have a conclusion. Yeah, because they're boring.
Because you know what they're going to say.
You know what they're going to say.
Right? I mean, I was talking to a guy, I don't know, I can't remember exactly when, some time ago, and he was like, oh, I hate Trump.
I hate Trump. I hate Trump because his father gave him all the money to get started.
And I'm like, oh, but don't you pay for your kid's university education?
Well, that's different. I was like, you know, like, you know exactly when people are programmed, when they're NPCs, you know exactly what they're going to say.
You know what their next opinion is going to be.
and it's really hard to listen when you've heard the speech a million times before.
How many people are interesting, original, curious, thoughtful, insightful, of great value to talk to?
how many people are of great value to talk to I'm not sure when you say can warranted assumptions become
true universals I don't know what you mean by that.
True universals, I think I understand.
Maybe a UPB thing, but I'm not sure what you mean by warranted assumptions.
Just break that down.
It's a little too brief for me.
Explain it to me, like I'm five years old.
Ah.
I remember when the iPhone came out without the headphone jack, everyone just repeated the press release.
Yeah, it's old tech anyways. Yeah, you know what people are going to say.
Minus 10, most people drain you.
It's kind of true, right? Not many.
Most are just reading off CNN's Chiron, 2-4%.
I've started to notice when I bring up something original in a conversation, the other person just dissociates.
Right. So do you know why the other person dissociates when you come up with something original?
Because they don't know how to respond.
They don't know how to respond to an authentic, genuine conversation that's happening in the moment.
And the problem with following the train tracks of propaganda is you lose any confidence in your own ability to have a spontaneous conversation.
And also... Most people, oh, this kind of ties in.
Okay, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.
I want to give you my opinions, whatever.
I want to know what you guys think. What percentage of people are totally faking it when it comes to having ideas, arguments, or opinions?
What percentage of people do you think are totally faking it?
80%, 90%? 99%, 90%, 95%.
You guys are very generous.
Scott Adams says all of them.
He may have gone a little bit too hard on the hallucination simulation gasp, but whatever, right?
They're all fakes, even the smart ones.
Yeah. 80%.
Yeah.
I mean, so you understand that if everyone's handing out counterfeit bills, I mean, everyone kind of is, right?
But even in that paradigm, if everyone's handing out counterfeit bills, they don't want somebody with a counterfeit detection machine to show up.
And curiosity and authenticity expose the liars.
It exposes the fakers.
It exposes the people who are hijacking other people's insecurities to pretend to be smart and knowledgeable.
Does that make sense? Bingo.
Yeah. Yeah. Most people are trembling shadows of legitimate insecurity because they're faking and bullshitting their way through having any pretense of an intellectual life.
Boy, there's a sentence for you.
Put that on a t-shirt. I mean, look, come on.
I mean, we've all been there.
We all know. Everyone of us has faked some knowledge.
I don't mean to say that this is some, oh, I've never...
Everybody has done this, right?
Everybody has done this. Do they know they have counterfeit or they're deluded?
Yeah, they know they have counterfeit. That's why they dissociate when someone honest comes along.
Letting go of the false self leaves the void to be filled with truth incrementally.
No, but... Funny thing, higher IQ, more capacity to be NPC. I wouldn't put it that way.
It doesn't mean you're wrong. I'm just saying I wouldn't put it that way.
What I would say is if you're high IQ, you get more rewards for being an NPC because you're a more believable NPC. If you're better at faking, you become a higher paid actor.
It's not higher IQ, more capacity.
No, it's just more reward. You just get paid better for being a more credible NPC. I mean, a PhD used to be capacity to think.
now it's just capacity to obey. Something we take for granted with good reason. An
example of a warranted assumption would be trusting the published bus schedule. The bus should show up as
scheduled.
Another example would be trusting that my key will start the car.
Yeah, so...
So...
Bye.
That is empiricism.
Empiricism is when you accumulate knowledge, right?
So there's inductive and deductive reasoning, and you can get artoftheargument.com, artoftheargument.com.
You should get that book. It's a great book.
Inductive versus deductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning is when you reason from first principles, and it's 100% knowledge.
Inductive reasoning is when you gather examples that provide high levels of future probability.
So the example I use in the book is if you have a neighbor, she's kind of a crazy cat lady, and she's got 20 cats.
You know she's got 20 cats.
It's an audiobook for Art of the Argument, yes.
So you've got a neighbor, she's a crazy cat lady, she's got 20 cats, you know that, and you see 19 cats, and they're all black cats with white paws, every single one of them.
So, okay, what are the odds that her 20th cat is also going to be a black cat?
With white paws. The odds are very high because obviously she's got a fetish for black cats with white paws and so, right?
So that's an example of inductive reasoning.
Can you 100% prove it?
Nope. But it's pretty likely.
And so, yeah, this inductive reasoning where you come up with future probabilities based upon past empirical evidence and trends and And math and all of that is pretty helpful.
So yeah, can they become true universals?
No. Because deductive reasoning by its very nature can't give you 100% proof.
I mean, the power of UPB is it doesn't require, it doesn't rely on empiricism.
It relies on deductive reasoning, not inductive reasoning.
The greatest good for the greatest number is kind of inductive quote reasoning.
And so, no, you can't get true universals From inductive reasoning, because inductive reasoning is about probabilities.
Does that make sense? Yeah?
Okay. Oh, you're welcome.
Now, so, I mean, all men are mortal.
Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal, is 100%.
Like, we know that 100%, right?
There's no question of that.
All... Unmarried men are bachelors.
That is, by definition, 100%.
It follows.
It's another way of restating it.
It's sort of like synonym reasoning.
Men are defined as mortal.
Someone who's a man is defined as mortal, right?
So if you're part of a category with 100% definition, then you also inherit that 100% definition.
All men are mortal. Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal. That's 100% knowledge.
There's no question of that, no doubt about that.
Right. And this is why the rape, theft, assault, and murder can never be universally favorable behavior.
Ever. Ever, ever.
Absolutely, completely, and totally impossible, not by inductive reasoning, by deductive reasoning.
100%. No escape.
No excuse. No way around it.
Read out of the argument. Recently, I'm hungering for debates.
Now, there's just no good faith in this town.
Yeah, it's tough. You know, I miss having good arguments.
Good arguments are a great mental workout, and it's just, it's hard to get them because everybody's so bored off, paid off, defensive, compromised, corrupted, and kind of pathetic.
And kind of cowardly. Well, of course, it's kind of easy for me to have a fun debate because I'm pretty certain of the things that I know and I'm happy to change the things I don't know.
So I don't really... I have nothing to lose with a good debate.
I'm not afraid of a debate.
I have nothing to lose. If somebody proves me wrong, they've done me a great, wonderful service and yay, thank you and blah, blah, blah, right?
Yeah. Well, yeah, but less intelligent people, less certain people, less wise people, they don't want to debate because they're going to be revealed as frauds.
The philosophy page in Discord is good.
Yes, Subscribestar.
You can go to subscribestar.com slash freedomain and you can get all of that.
You versus the entire intellectual dark web.
Yeah, yeah. I get that.
All right. I think we've got them all.
All right. Any last tips?
Come on. We have done some great work here in less than two hours.
We've gone through prying yourself free of emotional paralysis through over-caring, why you do good things to people and the freedom that it gives you to philosophy, to just done some great work.
You are donating at the end of the month.
Thank you very much. I really, really appreciate that.
I really appreciate that.
Yeah, subscribe, star.com slash free domain.
You sign up there, man. There's a whole planet on the other side of that, which you should really check out.
It's a really great community. Worth all $3 a month in about two days.
Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
That's very kind. Yeah, so please check out...
Jared and Mike have done some fantastic work.
Get us to 100 likes post-livestream, guys.
Thank you very much. They've done some fantastic work in pulling together all of the great shows that are available to subscribers and on freedomain.locals.com.
And there's just amazing shows up there which kind of got lost in the driftwood of, you know, tied in, tied out of like the...
The news feed, they just kind of bubble down and all of that.
So they've got an awesome article coming and just great stuff.
I've got two chapters done of the Peaceful Parenting audiobook.
The article is up and pinned.
Yes, up and pinned. So freedomain.locals.com.
Come check that out.
Thinking that it's too late to fix things is kind of a black pill.
How do you stay motivated? I won't surrender one inch of my happiness to things beyond my control.
I'm starting a business. Is it too late?
Are things too far gone? Should I not bother?
I would not not start a business.
Start the business because whatever happens, you're going to need those skills.
Being more entrepreneurial is going to be incredibly helpful no matter what happens.
Yeah, it's also on Subscribestar for those subscribers as well.
Of course, you can go to freedomain.com and subscribe there as well.
Lots of different ways to help out the show.
Freedomain.com slash donate, of course, to help out the show.
If you're listening to this later, I really do appreciate that as a whole.
More will be added. Yeah, you know, so there used to be a message board way back in the day where I also posted...
Donor-only shows. And there was just some absolutely incredible stuff up there.
And honestly, it has been lost to time and the world for, what is it, close to a decade now.
And there is going to be great stuff coming back to the planet from the resurrected Library of Alexandria known as the old community server board, which had some just truly fantastic stuff on it.
So we're really trying to leverage old value because, you know, it's tough to make new stuff.
We just leverage old stuff. I'm trying not to become the philosophy museum, but...
All right, so you just purchased The Art of the Argument.
Hope that helps you. I know it will help me.
I really appreciate that, and let me know what you think of the book.
All right. The old stuff saved my life.
Yes. Well, and if you have, just if you're listening to this, and you have any of the old shows sitting on a drive somewhere, especially the, not the ones in the mainstream, but the ones from the...
Subscriber only from days gone by.
The philosopher king, the gold, the silver, the bronze levels on the old message board, if you could let us know.
Oh, yes! And if you are a front-end developer, if you're a front-end developer out there, we are desperate for some help.
We are trying to come up with an unbelievably fantastic and amazing search engine for free domain so that you can find the shows that you want and even create custom feeds.
So if you just want call-in shows under two hours to do with marriage and family, boom.
Parenting shows, you know, 45 minutes or longer.
You can get your own feeds and just extract what you need, for sure.
Where should we message if we are a dev?
If you could email me, operations at freedomain.com, operations at freedomain.com.
We are going to blow everyone's mind with the search capabilities.
Of the show. Because, you know, we've got well over 5,000 shows, and there's some incredible stuff back there, but good luck finding it, right?
I mean, unless you're some OCD archaeologist, it's pretty tough.
So this is all of the great stuff.
So if you're a front-end developer, just email me, operations at freedomain.com.
Also, call-in shows, call-in at freedomain.com.
Always eager and happy to get new call-in shows, and I really, really thank you for...
Your support of what it is that we've been doing low these 18 years.
We're going to have to do something for year 20.
Maybe we'll do a meet-up. Should we do a meet-up next year or the year after?
Should we just do a meet-up? It would be fun, right?
It would be fun. Well, let's see how the world is doing and see what we can get done.
All right. In Florida.
That's interesting. Florida would be a fun meet-up.
That was where our first meet-up was in Miami way back in the day.
Philosophy retreat in the Bahamas.
We may have to do it in Poland for all I know.
All right. Thanks, everyone.
Lots of love. I appreciate your support.
Freedomain.com slash donate.
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Check out the books, especially my novels.
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All right. Lots of love, everyone.
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