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Dec. 13, 2023 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux

02:14:25

THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF DEMONOLOGY

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	Yeah, so if you've seen Napoleon or not, let me know.
	I've heard it's pretty bad.
	Did I purchase any tech on Black Friday?
	I have not purchased any new tech.
	I mean, it's funny, you know, because it's a business stuff, so I could buy most of what I want, but honestly, I have just about everything that I need.
	I have just about everything that I need.
	But yeah, so directors making movies about entrepreneurs or war heroes just have war heroes yelling and screaming at people and entrepreneurs yelling and screaming at people, which is not really a thing in the entrepreneurial world or the military world.
	And... So Ridley Scott...
	Well, first of all, the movie's supposed to take place when Napoleon's in his 20s.
	And, I mean, Joaquin Phoenix is like a hoary moonscape north of 50, so it's really, really not good.
	Really not good. Battle scenes were well done.
	Yeah, but I mean, who cares about battle scenes?
	Like, I'm sorry, I'm not 12, right?
	I don't care about battle scenes.
	I care about character and history.
	And I heard that Ridley Scott has Napoleon firing cannons at the pyramids or whatever it is, which he never did.
	He actually got a bunch of Egyptologists in there to record the data about all of this sort of stuff.
	But I remember I had a director...
	When I was at the National Theatre School, we were doing King Lear, and I was Cornwall, the guy who gouges another guy's eyes out, got to play a really evil character, which was kind of fun.
	And he got mad at us for not reacting, because, you know, he was all kind of really angry, because we had these big sort of internal Marlon Brando deep movie-style reactions, and he's like, ugh, you know, just...
	You gotta react! You gotta react!
	And he literally threw chairs and it's just like, I don't know.
	People think that tantrums has something to do with high quality art and I think Ridley Scott's one of those kind of guys.
	Hit me with a why if you think Napoleon was short.
	Short guy syndrome. Hit me with a Y if you think Napoleon was short.
	Just out of curiosity if you know.
	Yeah, it's a misconception, right? So they said he was 5'2", but at the time, an inch in France was 1.2 inches in England.
	So he was actually 5'8".
	He was 5'8", so he was not short for his time.
	In fact, a little bit taller than average, than normal.
	So, yeah, it's just...
	People have to sort of explain how people become great.
	Short guy syndrome, yeah, like all short guys end up taking over a third of Europe.
	Yeah, all short guys. There just is a lineup.
	You want the third of Europe today, okay, this afternoon from 10 to 11.30, you can have a third of Europe, but then you've got to give right to the next short guy and all that kind of stuff.
	Yeah, no, he was not a short guy.
	People just have to kind of explain.
	Why it is that people end up great.
	And they have to explain it with the pettiest of possible reasons, right?
	Yeah, so I don't know.
	Hit me with a why if you're interested in review of Napoleon.
	Hey Steph, I'm a bit tardy.
	Well, if you had a TARDIS, you wouldn't be.
	Oh boy, there's an old joke.
	That show's still running, isn't it?
	Undead Doctor Who stuff, right?
	English propaganda. I live in a Napoleonic law state in the US. Where am I? New Orleans?
	I assume New Orleans, right? I only know that because of a streetcar named Desire.
	You ever heard of the Napoleonic Code?
	So, yeah. You would be interested in a review of Nappy?
	Napoleon? Really?
	Oh, God. I may have just blown my bad movie quota on the Marvels.
	Gosh. I don't know if you've listened to the review.
	Izzy and I did of that. Okay, listen, if you guys want a review, I am your knee pad clad philosophy slave, so I will oil myself up and get myself down to the movie theater.
	So if you want a review, I will give Yowl a review.
	A review. Doctor Who is still going, but it's destroying itself from woke nonsense.
	Yes, yes, yes.
	Strange that Ireland suppressed free speech and then, well, anyway, it's inevitable, right?
	All right. Questions, comments?
	I have some thoughts on demonology, which I might share, but I'm not trying to be a tease, but I am here for you.
	I'm here if you've got questions or topics that you want.
	You guys tend to provoke me to, like, the greatest answers known to man, so...
	This is the first live stream I've been able to catch since the new Dr.
	Duke video. Thank you for having him on again.
	It was a great conversation.
	Yeah, he's actually...
	He may read one of my novels and we'll do a show on that, which I think would be a lot of fun and interesting.
	I might give him almost.
	That'll teach him. Oh, yeah?
	You want a novel? Here's 400,000 words.
	Good luck, punk. You'd think that...
	Atheists would have a little bit more humility when Christians keep getting it right.
	You know, you just have a little humility, right?
	Because I think atheists lined up to take the vaccine like nobody's business, right?
	Because magic science cult!
	but a lot of Christians didn't and there's no one who says, gee I wonder how they made
	slightly better decisions based upon the fact that apparently the beliefs are just
	whatever whatever right?
	Did you see the trans shooter that was supported in the US?
	I didn't read about that but...
	I mean, there's a lot of strange hormones around, right?
	A lot of microplastics and a lot of women are both flushing birth control pills down the toilet, or they're just peeing massive amounts of hormones into the water supply, which I'm sure is having some strange effects on people's perceptions, so to speak, maybe even their hormones and so on.
	I love to typing and I don't want to get started on a topic if you all have
	questions or comments because you know I could do a solo show or I can do a live stream and if you
	have if you want me to do the demonology stuff, don't touch the
	receipt paper!
	I've heard that too. I don't know about that.
	I don't know about that.
	Now eggs and bacon are good for you again.
	Don't like the nutritional news.
	Just wait five minutes. Beef prevents cancer.
	You know, just stuff like that. I'll just wait for the typing to die down and then we'll get going.
	Yeah, I woke up with some wild thoughts about demons this morning.
	Demonology? Hit me with a D if I just get started on the topic.
	I don't want to be too much of a tease.
	All right. Demonology!
	All right. Hit me with a why, please.
	If you have people in your life who are consumed by decadence, corruption, abuse, dysfunction, mass problems, addictions, and so on, and you desperately want to help them.
	Hit me with a why.
	If you have people, I mean, they could be in your mind or anything like that, but people who are not doing well and you just desperately want to help them.
	Earlier in the year, I asked you if I should propose after four years.
	And she said, yes, and we're getting married next year.
	Fantastic. Forty, brother.
	Well done. You forded the river.
	You crossed the Rubicon. You snagged the V. Good job, man.
	Good job. Well done.
	I'm sure you will be embarking upon a life of bliss, dedication, and commitment.
	So it looks like about half of you...
	Jared, what about me?
	It looks like about half of you have that.
	All right. So, I was thinking about this.
	I was thinking about this.
	I still do erupt in random discomforts about people in the past.
	It's not super common, but it certainly does happen.
	And I will revisit old decisions to stop helping people just to make sure that It was a good decision, right?
	For me, decisions are like, you know, if you yell in a canyon, you get echo, echo, echo, then it kind of fades away, right?
	It just kind of fades away.
	And so for me, I make a decision, and I don't know if you guys do this and let me know if you do, but when I make a decision, one that's, you know, we almost always have to make decisions on incomplete information, right?
	We're all foundationally aware of that.
	Like, we all have to make decisions on incomplete information.
	And the most important decisions are often...
	So I still revisit Twitter, politics, you know, whatever stuff I haven't talked about in a while that was most controversial.
	I still revisit whether it's worth doing those things.
	And when it comes to people that I have stopped helping, I revisit the decision.
	I'm not a person who just, you know, I make a decision, I put it in a vault, I throw it in the ocean, it disappears from view, I move on, And never look back, you know, like that sociopathy training video where you always see the guy in sunglasses walking away from the giant explosion behind him.
	I'm not even going to look around.
	I don't care. So I make a decision and what I do is...
	I revisit it just to double check, just to make sure I understand, make sure it's the right, none of the variables have changed.
	And then what happens is over time, like a fading echo, the decision drifts away from my mind.
	And then if I think about it, I'm like, oh gosh, I haven't thought about this in six months or a year.
	And that's when I know it was the right decision.
	Do you guys have that at all?
	I mean, maybe. I'm not saying it's the right or wrong thing to do.
	But do you have that where you revisit decisions and you, over time, get more comfortable with them?
	Or you guys could be just like one and done.
	Made the decision, don't look back.
	I don't know which is better or worse.
	I'm just saying my experience is I'm a bit of a circle exit guy.
	Yeah, you re-look at them, right, Dave?
	Yeah, it does seem to be a thing, and it certainly works for me, and because you're making decisions with incomplete information, you always have to be aware of new information, right?
	I mean, the reason I didn't take the jab was not because I knew for certain it was bad.
	I mean, nobody did know, right?
	Nobody knew for certain. I mean, well, maybe the people who did the actual studies, but that just was incomplete information, right?
	And so you have to revisit that, right?
	You know, if after, I don't know, a couple of years, the jab was like excellent for everyone's health and the unvaccinated were doing very badly and the vaccinated were doing very well and there were no side effects and, right, you know, that would have been information.
	So I circle back and check these kinds of decisions.
	So I was thinking about that with regards to people I knew in the past.
	And I had a kind of like...
	Do you ever have this thing where you're sort of thinking in the morning?
	It's really cozy, right?
	I'm under a big, big old weighted blanket.
	I'm like nestled between two elephant arse cheeks dozing away in the morning.
	And I was...
	I had a kind of half...
	Third dream, half vision, if that makes sense.
	And sometimes when I have these half dreams, sorry, third dream, third vision, third thought.
	And those are usually like, that's the trifecta, like the triple lasers from the Death Star.
	And so I have that time of very great mental and analogous fertility in the morning.
	And, oh, so, John, you decide ahead of time, but you go through all the iterations ahead of time, and then you leave it behind, whereas I don't.
	Okay. So, every time I touch base with friends, I've walked away from the conversation.
	Screams of the reasons I can't be around them in about ten minutes or so, yeah.
	So, I had this kind of a vision, and in the vision, I was in quicksand.
	I was in quicksand.
	And I couldn't get out.
	And of course, you know, with quicksand, when you struggle, you go further down, right?
	So you're kind of doomed, because you're slowly sinking anyway, but if you struggle, then try and get out.
	And these movies were around a lot when I was a kid.
	Like, quicksand was just, like, the big thing.
	Like, I'd watch the Johnny Weissmiller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Tarzan movies, and there was always quicksand, and it was always the same thing.
	You've got to get a vine to them and pull them out, and there was – quicksand is, like, a cheap, dramatic thing that people had in movies when I was a kid.
	And so I had this vision of myself in quicksand, and there was a child that I loved.
	It wasn't my daughter, but it was a child that I loved.
	And the child saw that I was in quicksand, right?
	The child saw that I was in quicksand, and because the child cared about me, the child...
	Came to help me, right?
	Came to help me out of the quicksand.
	But the problem was, of course, we all know, the problem was that the child was too weak to pull me out of quicksand.
	And of course, what was going to happen to the child when the child came to save me from the quicksand is that the child would be Pulled into the quicksand or would fall into the quicksand and then you'd get two deaths for the price of one.
	Does this analogy or this sort of setup make sense?
	Good, good.
	Okay, so the child loved me, wanted to help me, wanted, but I had to keep the child away
	from the quicksand.
	you Had to get the child away from the quicksand.
	Now, pleading with the child to go back, to move back, didn't help because the child was crying and wanted to help me and wanted to save me.
	So I had the urge to say to the child who was coming to save me, I hate you.
	I've never loved you.
	Get away from me. You disgust me.
	Harsh. Horrible, right?
	But if that was your child, and the only way you could get your child to stay away from the quicksand would be to scream at the child, to shout horrible things at the child to get the child.
	Because, you see, it's the bond.
	It's the bond that's going to get the child killed.
	It's the love that's going to get the child killed because the child's going to end up in the quicksand.
	So you have to break the bond to save the child.
	Sorry, I don't like that hand-clappy stuff.
	I just realized I was kind of doing it.
	But does that make sense?
	I had to break the bond with the child to save the life of the child.
	So I think I thought back on the people in my childhood and my youth who behaved in ways
	that were inevitably going to drive me away.
	Inevitably.
	Inevitably. They were, in a sense, screaming, I hate you, I never loved you, you disgust me, you're gross, right?
	And that they were, in fact, trying to drive me away.
	Now, why would they try to drive me away?
	If my child or this child in this scenario, if the child could save me, then I would, with great gratitude, accept the help of the child and thank the child enormously.
	But because the child cannot save me and the child doesn't understand the situation, I have to drive the child away by breaking and reversing the bond.
	And I really, really thought this morning that the people in my past...
	With their actions were driving me away because they couldn't be saved.
	I could be saved and I was.
	I could be saved but they could not be saved.
	and they were screaming at me, these imprecations, attacks, curses, condemnations
	to drive me away from the quicksand so that the devils didn't get two souls for the price
	of one.
	Now there's two Thoughts about that?
	One is that You know, like I've mentioned this before, right?
	So somebody who was very close to me when I was engaged to my wife, he said,
	I'm not gonna bother trying to get to know your fiancee because you're just gonna get divorced anyway.
	Now that's just to drive you away, right?
	I mean, this has been the absolute, complete and total love of my life.
	And, you know, we've now been married 21 years, and I've been through some real roller coasters, as you guys all know.
	And that is driving you away, right?
	That's driving you away. I mean, I once had a wrangle with someone over an inheritance that the behavior was so appalling on the part of the other person that, again, it's just absolutely driving you away, right?
	I mean, absolutely.
	It's impossible for that to be any other thing.
	So, why?
	I see.
	Why would they drive you away Or, what are you missing, or what was I missing that I needed to be driven away?
	Oh, it's currently happening?
	You can certainly tell me more.
	Why did they need to drive me away?
	And the reason that, I think, the reason that they had to drive me away was because I, I was wrong.
	And I was selfish.
	Because I was able to save myself, I thought that other people could be saved.
	In other words, I was able to pull myself...
	It's almost like there's me and Bob, right?
	And we both get into quicksand.
	But Bob's quicksand is more watery and deeper, and there's more of a downward suction.
	Maybe there's tentacles at the bottom pulling him down.
	So I get out of my quicksand, and then I go over to Bob to get him out of his quicksand, but Bob knows that if I go in, it's two for the price of one.
	So I think that my quicksand is like Bob's quicksand.
	I go to save Bob, and Bob's like, get away, right?
	Wow, that's prophetic stuff.
	what I've gained from being ostracized out of this world.
	I mean, do you ever get this this thought or this feeling
	And it's like, well, philosophy and virtue and whatever, like, they're so great.
	Difficult, obviously, at times, but like everything that's worthwhile.
	They're so great, like, why wouldn't you?
	Why wouldn't you do this?
	Why on earth wouldn't you?
	Like, the glories, the beauties, the joys, the depth, the magnificent, the happiness, the humor, the love, the affection, the great sex, like, all of the stuff that you get out of romantic and marital love, the joyful parenting, the great connection with your kids, like, why...
	The people who aren't doing this are just kind of kidding, right?
	Like, they're not serious about it.
	Like, why wouldn't you?
	Why wouldn't you?
	Now, of course, the difference, I think, I don't know for sure, because you can't get honesty out of
	evildoers, but I think the difference is that for me,
	I've certainly done wrong in my life, but I've never done evil.
	you Thank you.
	Thank you.
	And certainly not as an adult.
	And I've, you know, tried to do the right thing and the good thing and the decent thing
	with, you know, some spotty results and some obvious inconsistency, but I've never done
	evil.
	So the quicksand, of course, is the conscience, right?
	The quicksand is the conscience.
	If you do wrong, then your conscience will take you down.
	Especially if you do wrong by claiming to be good.
	If you do wrong, just like an animal does wrong in a sense, like you just sneak and betray and stab or whatever, right?
	It's terrible. But if you do wrong through the process of claiming to be good, that's unrecoverable immorality.
	Because you know what virtue is, you just use it to achieve evil.
	I mean, you can't say to a con man, well, you don't even know what trust is.
	He knows exactly what trust is because that's what he uses and manipulates to get his ill-gotten gains, right?
	So if you use morality to get and achieve immorality, if you use the camouflage of virtue in order to pursue and achieve evil, well, then you're literally gone and done and unrecoverable.
	There is no recovery from that.
	Because if, as Socrates says, evil is a form of ignorance, okay, so evil is a form of ignorance, so when you tell people better, they'll do better.
	But if somebody already knows morality and has chosen evil, then instructing them on morality is only making them better at evil.
	Does that make sense?
	That's what Prager says is the only unforgivable sin, doing evil in the name of God.
	So if you train a con man on the importance of trust, he's going to judo flip that trust
	from a virtue to an evil by using the knowledge you're giving him on trust to further generate
	trust from others so he can exploit them more.
	Does that make sense? A guy who's very high status, who knows that women really want him, who uses that to just use them for sex and toss them aside, is...
	What are you going to say?
	Are you going to say, well, you know, women really do find you attractive and women really do want to be with you and they do want to pair bond with you and they do want to keep you for themselves?
	He's like, yeah, I know. It's great.
	Because then I could really shaft them that way, so to speak, right?
	Because the conscience evolved to be in-group preference tribal, but now people are using
	it for universal morality, which short-circuits the conscience.
	Thank you.
	The conscience for in-group preference, like just my local tribe, I'm going to be loyal to them, but to hell with everyone else.
	Well, that's kind of animalistic, right?
	That's like the lions are tribal within themselves, but they don't have universal loyalty to other lions or to the zebras or anything like that, right?
	So if you just use your conscience for like in-group loyalty and stuff, that's kind of animalistic, but it's within the bounds of how it evolved.
	And if you use your conscience for universal morality but actually follow universal morality, then that's fine too.
	But if you use the pretense of universal morality for in-group preference, well, that's… I mean, that's a hole with no bottom.
	That is a quicksand from which salvation is impossible.
	There's no bottom. And what are you going to do?
	Are you going to teach people about universal morality?
	No, they already know about it.
	They already know all about it because they're using it.
	I mean, some expert hacker, you don't sit there and teach him how to use a keyboard.
	He already knows how to use a keyboard.
	You don't say, you know, it's possible to hack into systems.
	He already knows how to do that. Like, there's no knowledge you can give him.
	About computers that's gonna make him change.
	If it's a black hat, right?
	So when somebody insults you morally, they are lost beyond reason.
	Thank you.
	...
	This is sort of the woke universe, and it happens on the right as well.
	But when somebody insults you morally, They're lost beyond reason because they're using morality to exploit others.
	And morality is supposed to be about universalism and universal rules and, you know, the old white privilege thing.
	Well, isn't that kind of racist? No, whites can't be racist.
	like that kind of stuff right?
	Satanism 101 perversion of the sacred evil disguised as good to mock his creator
	This is serving as a meta-reframe.
	The whole narrative shifts. I think so.
	Like, that's what I was really thinking about this morning.
	morning. This is why I wanted to do an introduction to demonology here.
	You know, the answer to that question run out of excuses.
	You know the answer to that question.
	So, Hit me with a Y if this sort of makes sense and is useful.
	I know that's a double thing, but hit me with a Y if this is useful and comprehensible.
	nothing perfectly argued but just use for the comprehensive I think I think it's helpful right
	So then the question is, why are they driving you away from destruction?
	Why are they driving you away from destruction?
	Because wouldn't the devil within them want you to join in the quicksand, right?
	Like, why wouldn't, oh yeah, no, I'm almost out, come on, come out, and then pull you in, right?
	Why? This has been a constant thing in my life, that when I try to help people who are corrupt beyond words, they drive me away.
	It's a wild thing. I don't think it's just for me.
	I talk to a lot of people.
	They don't want to feel the pain of themselves seeing there is hope.
	When you leave, then hope leaves.
	I think that's obviously brilliant.
	I think that's brilliant, Dave.
	And I think I want to make a note of that because I think that's...
	Well, I agree with you.
	Therefore, it's brilliant. But why wouldn't they pull you in?
	Is Darwin promoting virtue somehow?
	Okay, try and stay with the conversation here.
	Try and stay with the conversation. I don't know why people just blurp.
	What does that got to do with what we're saying?
	That's a total tangent.
	It's a non sequitur. And what that means is that the conversation is provoking anxiety within you and you want to intellectualize and distract me.
	Just manage your emotions.
	Try and save the conversation, my friend.
	I appreciate you being here.
	Thank you so much for being here. But trying to drag me off into some, or distract everyone, right, this is staying away from the conversation, right?
	Just try and stay within, you know, just hold on, just type it into Notepad, and when we're done, right?
	But I'm either going to have to, like, when you say stuff like that, is Darwin promoting virtue somehow?
	It's a completely separate conversation.
	Darwinian, Darwinism, evolution, and virtue is a whole separate conversation.
	Nothing to do with demonology, right?
	So what that means is I either have to ignore you, which is kind of rude, or I have to chastise you, which is kind of distracting.
	Is our biology somehow promoting virtue?
	See, that's the same thing.
	I just asked you to stop doing that, and you just replaced Darwin with biology, which is kind of the same thing.
	Oh boy, you really are feeling upset by this part of the confo.
	Okay, I'm just asking you to manage your feelings.
	Because this is a collective conversation, right?
	And if we're trying to sing a song and you come in with a totally different song, it's kind of discordant, right?
	We're just trying to harmonize a little here and we can get to your song, but we've got to finish this one, right?
	I am distracted, right?
	Dave says, thanks. My alcoholic and stoner friends don't want the pain associated with me being moral.
	They see themselves and don't want to be constantly reminded that there are choices.
	I represent Christ in salvation or morals, and they represent constant pain and Satan's promises a physical high of drugs or pain is the best it can get.
	Right. Yeah, a love of drugs is a hatred of self and of natural, right?
	So why does the devil in possession of the person not crook his finger and draw you in to the quicksand?
	Why? Pushing people away.
	If you've made bad choices and are scared of hurting people, you might push them away to protect them because you don't want to experience pain you do.
	Right. So the idea could be, could be, Catholics say you can be possessed against your will.
	So they're not necessarily an evil person, maybe sometimes only a victim themselves, unlike neocons who are happily possessed.
	So Catholics say you can be possessed against your will.
	I mean, you see that with children sometimes, but can adults who are praying to God and have a relationship with Jesus, can they be possessed against their will?
	Satan only lets in people he can conquer.
	If Christ is in your heart, he will usually leave you be.
	So why? In the secular sense, right?
	Why? Because this happens among atheists too, right?
	Why is it that the people curse you away from the quicksand?
	Exorcists have talked about demons attacking holy people.
	No, I get that, but attacking is not possession.
	Come on, man. Attacking is not possession.
	You're moving the goalpost. Why do people push you away from a salvation that you cannot achieve?
	Why do they push you away from a salvation you cannot achieve?
	Somebody says, no, that's not correct.
	Every possessed person gives the demon permission in some way.
	I think so. Interesting that in Christianity we're all born as sinners and need to be baptized.
	How is that relevant to the question at hand?
	Oh man, you non-sequitur people, man.
	It's tough. I'm not trying to be like Mr.
	Conversational Fascist here.
	But you guys, pretty tough to have a conversation with.
	Okay, thank you. So you never find out that you couldn't save them.
	Leaves you guilt-ridden. Ooh, that's dark.
	That's dark.
	Interesting. Let me make a note of that.
	That's very good.
	But you can find out that you can't save them.
	No, it's not let Steph talk.
	I'm perfectly happy to have...
	I mean, this is a live stream.
	It's not let me talk.
	This is a conversation.
	It's just I want people to have a conversation that's not a total non sequitur.
	My neighbor has two rabbits!
	What's that from Jerry Maguire or something like that?
	Yeah. Why?
	Yeah. So there's a couple of reasons why, and you guys have them down pat.
	So one of them is that there's an original self or a true self or a better self down there trapped under the demon who's screaming at you to get away.
	Right? In the original analogy, could you repeat the question?
	I think I've done it about six or seven times, so I'm not going to.
	So in the original analogy, I had to curse the child who was coming to save me so the child wouldn't get...
	Sucked into the quicksand and die.
	And then we would both die together.
	So... It could be that the idea that there's an original self buried under the demon who's saying, get away, get away, get away, I can't be saved, right?
	You know, like the mom who's blocking the shark from the kids saying, get to shore, and she's being chewed up, right?
	So there's an original self down there that's screaming...
	For you to get away so that you don't die.
	But then the question is, if the demon has so much control over the personality that the person is not able to be saved, how could they get the word out?
	how could they scream past the flaccid webbing of the demon's wings and get to you?
	Could it be that gives them one last excuse when everything else is lost?
	When they have wasted every opportunity that they can say, well, I saved Steph after all.
	But I don't think, I mean, you could be right, Manuel, but I don't think that people ever get to that.
	I mean, we're talking about a real unconscious motivation here.
	Dave says, most people don't want you to break their image or identity of themselves.
	If they let you in, they must say goodbye to their old life that they're defined by.
	They don't want to do their righteous suffering.
	They don't see salvation as possible.
	I was Catholic as a child, but they got weird, kind of satanic, actually.
	Don't LOL that stuff. That's terrible.
	I'm sorry about that.
	The child is a mirror of their innocence which has since been destroyed.
	So it could be their original self is pushing you away.
	I can't fight the demon.
	I've lost to the demon, but you get away.
	But again, if they had that will to push you away from the quicksand, why couldn't they fight?
	If they can fight the demon off enough to get the word to you in whatever twisted fashion they can, or they do, why can't they fight the demon?
	So, I'm not saying...
	I mean, we're deep in analogy land here, so I'm not saying this is any kind of a...
	But I find that answer not fully satisfying, because if they can fight the demon enough to get the word out to you to get away, why can't they fight the demon enough?
	To get saved. So I don't know.
	I don't know about that. So there's another possibility.
	There's another possibility, which is the demon doesn't want to see you resist the demon, so it's the demon screaming, get away.
	Because if you resist the demon, that strengthens the soul the demon has power over, because he sees somebody else successfully resist the demon...
	So the demon says get away so that you don't win against the demon and thus empower his victim.
	Does that... I know we're sort of a little laggy here, but does that...
	That's another possibility that makes sense to me.
	Fits certain patterns that I've seen, if that makes sense.
	Let me know if that...
	And it could also be that if they've become so corrupted that the light of your purer
	heart is scalding to them, like creates pain, like when you wander out of a movie theater
	and your eyes get stabbed by the sunlight or too much ice cream too quickly.
	ice cream headache. So it could be that your purity gives them so much agony that they're screaming at you to get away so that they don't feel the pain of you not having been corrupted.
	Maybe they don't know it's a demon within them, i.e.
	they're innocent. I don't know if that doesn't make any sense to me.
	Don't keep people around that set a good example.
	It could be that. It could be that.
	So you never find out you couldn't save them.
	Leaves you guilt-ridden. Hmm.
	But... If somebody's screaming at you, I hate you, I never loved you, you disgust me, and so on, I mean, do we really think that that person can be saved?
	So I don't know that that's the case.
	They don't want to feel the pain of themselves seeing there is hope.
	When you leave, then hope leaves.
	That certainly is...
	Possible that they don't want to see the example, like I was reading about people on a weight loss journey today, and people on a weight loss journey, their thin friends are very encouraging, their overweight or obese friends are hostile and negative to them.
	They hate people that are naturally happy.
	They are never happy. What do you mean by naturally happy?
	Who on earth is naturally happy?
	I don't understand what you mean.
	Are you saying happiness is not a state that we achieve through hard work and virtue?
	It's like, to me, they hate people who are naturally highly muscular.
	It's like, you could have the potential for it, maybe, but you've still got to work at it, right?
	A candlelight is not diminished by sharing its flame to other candles.
	I'm sorry, fortune cookie cliches are not at the level that we're discussing, I'm afraid.
	Optimistic? I don't know what that means.
	Sorry. One word does not clarity make.
	Just happy positive optimists.
	You mean idiots?
	Who the hell is a happy positive optimist these days?
	Happy positive optimists?
	Are they blindfolded in an isolation tank so I never read the news?
	Jared says, that makes sense.
	You being around and uncorrupted and genuinely happy provokes pain in them.
	But the question is, when I saw people who were more positive and happy when I was a kid, I didn't hate that.
	I was encouraged by that.
	So when you say, well you being around people who are going through serious
	difficulties or whatever, you are a happy positive optimist?
	What? You...
	All right, we can get back to that.
	I'll make a note of that. Happy positive optimists.
	I think you may be discrediting yourself around sensible people.
	I'm not saying we shouldn't be happy, but just being a happy positive optimist, given that the world is the way that it is, that's anti-empirical.
	It's anti-empirical. The world is going in a very bad direction, and it doesn't look like it's turning around anytime soon, and it's getting worse.
	So I'm a happy, positive optimist.
	You know, I think happy, yes.
	Can you be positive about some things?
	But, you know, just being naturally happy and peppy and positive at the moment, to me, tell me what you guys think, it feels a little anti-empirical, to put it as nicely.
	So, when I saw people who had happy marriages, I was very encouraged by that, and I thought, geez, well, that's what I want out of life, and that's what I'm going to aim to get out of life, and that was all great.
	The demons can only possess people in a way that Christ says is okay.
	Maybe Christ is trying to protect you.
	Satan's minions are on a short leash.
	The leash comment is what I've heard a number of exorcist priests say.
	Whew, okay. They can't have their childhood innocence back, and they're jealous.
	They can't have their childhood innocence back.
	Now, in the Christian context, is there not forgiveness for almost everyone?
	In the Christian context, is there not forgiveness for almost everyone?
	But you have not done evil as a child.
	This assumes that people with that reaction have done evil.
	Yes, if you are repentant, right?
	So there is a way for them to get out of the quicksand.
	So why do they drive you away?
	Oh, the optimist says I have no choice but
	find happiness in the little things.
	I reframe. Yeah, I agree with that.
	Well, you certainly have a choice, but Jesus isn't doing the work the archangel Michael is.
	Why do the corrupt people drive you away?
	The demon can get into damaged people through the crack of trauma,
	not just evil welcoming people to them.
	Catholics say there are different levels of possession.
	The demon can get into damaged people through the crack of trauma.
	I dislike that theologically more than you could possibly conceive of.
	I think that's the exact opposite of the truth.
	No, the demon is in the people doing the damaging.
	To be the victim of evil does not make you susceptible to the demon.
	I mean, I'm no theologian, of course, but I couldn't disagree with you more about that.
	Through the crack of trauma, no.
	Are you kidding me? I mean, did Jesus not experience any trauma with betrayal and rejection and attack and persecution and crown of thorns and dragging the cross and Calvary and crucifixion?
	No. No.
	Because you're saying that if you've been the victim of evil, if you've been the victim of trauma, then you're susceptible to evil.
	You could make the argument, of course, there's a cycle of violence and so on, but there's that free will choice, right?
	I mean, I think that the angels got into me through the crack of trauma, so I don't know
	about the demon thing.
	Viktor Frankl, not a philosopher.
	you Misery loves company.
	Okay, so if misery loves company, why do they drive you away from the quicksand?
	Well, bad people often raise bad kids who follow their lead.
	Yes, but bad people also often, well, can raise really, really good kids, like way better than the average, right?
	People drive you away because your presence exposes them.
	Now, that's too abstract. I don't know what that means.
	That is taught I can vouch for Well, but you can find anything that's taught in almost any religion, right?
	I mean, there's a lot of different versions and flavors of Christianity and all of that, right?
	The crack of trauma and moral hypocrisy creates the doubt.
	It lowers the defenses and increases the chance one might allow or choose evil.
	So what you're saying, though, is that God punishes people for choosing evil and After they're in situations where evil is done to them first.
	So people who are raised better have a greater chance of being virtuous, and people who are raised badly go to hell because they're more susceptible to evil.
	Is that right? I don't really follow that myself.
	Well, the ACE score makes you more predisposed to negative behaviors and health outcomes.
	Could that not be like the demon using trauma to take over?
	Yes, John, I appreciate that, but the ACE score makes you more predisposed to negative behaviors and health outcomes only because nobody talks about the negative health and moral effects of child abuse.
	So it's like saying that if you have parents who have, I don't know, a predisposition to diabetes, that means you're going to get a predisposition to diabetes.
	No. Not at all.
	Not at all. Because...
	If you know that you have a predisposition to diabetes, what's your goal?
	Keep your health down, keep your blood sugar regulated or whatever you do, get your levels checked, get your blood work done, make sure you exercise, make sure you eat well so you end up healthier because if you have a family history of heart ailments, then you really, really make sure that You do well with your health, right?
	So adverse childhood experiences only lead to negative outcomes because people don't talk about the relationship, which is of course why one of the first things I did was start talking about the relationship between child abuse and negative health outcomes and dysfunction and so on so that people can The people who drive you away want to know that something else that they know is alien and different will survive and hopefully be successful enough to show them another way.
	I follow that. The people who drive you away want to know that something else that they know is alien and different will survive and hopefully be...
	I'm sorry, I don't follow that.
	You'll have to rephrase. If the demon is in your heart, dictating your behavior of sin, then being around a Christian who believes and is in God's grace will make the demon or person suffer.
	They don't want you there. You're making them suffer.
	Demons are afraid of God, Mother Mary, and Christ.
	So is it that the demon knows that he can't win against the virtuous person?
	And so the demon drives away the virtuous person because it's like holy water or sunlight to the vampire.
	It's making them suffer. Is that right?
	I want to just make sure I understand that, right?
	They say God's will allows the devil to do his bidding We cannot know why that's his will.
	It's not philosophical. Yes, he knows you can't win or Christ is protecting you.
	Right. Rarely anyone admits wrongdoing in court if they can get away with it.
	Right. Okay, so...
	Let me ask you this then.
	And maybe you've had this experience.
	Maybe you've had this experience.
	So before driving you away from the quicksand, there must be a luring you towards the quicksand to see if you take the bait.
	Does that make sense? Like there's a temptation.
	They try to tempt you when you don't take the bait, when you resist that.
	Then they drive you away.
	Do I have that right? The demon sees if he can pull you into the quicksand.
	If he can't, then he'll drive you away.
	But there's got to be some beckoning come hither stuff first, right?
	To be clear, if you are possessed, Your actions are not considered your own, thereby you do not incur the sin of the demon controlling your body.
	But you do incur the sin of whatever allowed the demon to get into and control your body, right?
	That sin, right?
	Like being a drunk driver.
	You're not responsible...
	If somebody else spikes your drink or, I don't know, secretly injects you with alcohol or something, then you're not responsible for the carnage of your drunk driving.
	But if you voluntarily drink alcohol and then drive...
	You're not responsible for being disoriented and driving.
	You're responsible for getting drunk and then driving.
	So you're responsible for what you did to put you in the negative state, but you're
	not responsible as directly, right, what you do in that negative state.
	So with regards to the ACE score making you more predisposed to negative behaviors, somebody
	says that makes sense.
	These things spiral a bit, in my opinion.
	Also, my opinion, discernible people see the injustice and get angry at the hypothetical behavior, making it more difficult to keep a good moral standard.
	And UPB is a good inoculate on this level.
	Angels and demons are two sides to the same coin.
	I don't know what that means.
	You're into the deep it is.
	Sounds deep, but there's nothing there.
	I think there's an element of fear involved.
	Evil says you must betray God because God has forsaken you and sin is the only way to salvation.
	No. Evil doesn't say that sin is the only way to salvation.
	Evil says that salvation is an illusion and therefore pleasure should be your goal.
	Josh says, being in the quicksand is part of the deception, knowing that people will look at the quicksand, bringing attention and drawing people closer as looky-loos.
	St. John Vianney.
	I don't know what that means, Dave. The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted, because then there are grounds for believing that the devil looks upon us as his property.
	The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted?
	What? I don't understand.
	Oh, it's a quote from that.
	The quote makes no sense to me.
	I think angels and demons are too abstract.
	That's like saying people have no free will.
	I guess you weren't here when I was talking about this as an analogy, right?
	Let's see here. Death came into existence because of generational sin.
	You can't be innocent of sin yourself.
	You can't be innocent of sin yourself.
	But if it's generational sin and you're born, then you're not innocent of sin because it's original sin, right?
	And also death was a reward, right?
	Because you get to be rejoined with God through death, right?
	So death is a reward to rejoin God, right?
	Have you experienced from the people who've driven you away, was there a temptation that they offered you first or beforehand?
	It's saying, don't tempt Satan.
	You read the verb wrong.
	What's saying, don't tempt Satan?
	The greatest of all levers is not to be tempted.
	I'm sorry, not helping me.
	What if the demon is pushing you away just to get more people to help there by dragging an even greater number into the quicksand?
	But it's personal, Manuel.
	It's personal. The people who drove me away weren't doing it in public, weren't doing it in general online.
	I'm talking about sort of when I was a younger man.
	So there was no spectacle that was going to draw other people in.
	You asked about the initial temptation.
	You must be tempted in order to reject the temptation.
	Yes, God challenges you in order to crown you.
	Satan challenges you in order to destroy you.
	Does Satan challenge you?
	I don't think Satan rewards you without effort, isn't that?
	Satan rewards you without effort.
	Oh, you want a great song?
	I'll whisper it into your ear.
	You'll become rich and famous and have all the groupies and drugs and money that you want.
	And then he destroys you.
	I don't know that Satan challenges you.
	He offers you the unearned, right?
	Does the demon underestimate his potential victim, or is it more that he can't help himself, so he just arbitrarily tempts anyone that comes across his path?
	No. You think of the demon as a groomer, and the demon's greatest fear is what?
	I mean, you can say Christ and this and that, but I think the demon's greatest fear is impotence.
	Impotence of evil, right?
	Which is why when you reject temptation, you get a lot of rage from people, because if you reject temptation, then demons are impotent because they can't achieve anything themselves.
	They can only achieve things through manipulation.
	So, let's see here.
	So demons can help themselves.
	They're very good. Like, if somebody is a sexual predator and wants to target children, he's taking a great risk, right?
	Goes to jail, and if he gets caught, he'll probably get killed in jail in various unpleasant ways.
	So, he has to be very careful about who he chooses, and I think it's the same thing with the demons, right?
	When Jesus walked through the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, Satan came to him and offered to save him from suffering, but Jesus kept his faith in God and made it through.
	No, Satan didn't just come and offer to save him from suffering.
	Satan offered him the whole world.
	So I have that story right.
	He offered him, all the world and everything in it can be yours, just worship me, right?
	And that's the unearned, right?
	Jesus would end up inheriting the whole world without having to earn it, right?
	The challenge is to reject the unearned.
	Yes, the unearned will steal your soul.
	Ah, let's see here.
	There's a lot of mud in the water these days.
	Look at the media. It's ultimately the parent's responsibility, but there's so much phony virtue out there.
	It makes learning virtue much more difficult.
	Yes, that's right.
	A conformity with power has now become virtue, and that's the exact opposite, right?
	And why is it that Satan works through the woman?
	because the woman has value without effort simply through youth and fertility, right?
	I mean some effort of course, you've got a diet or whatever, but that's not really effort, that's just not eating, right?
	So women are born with value or grow into value as young women and men have to earn value, right?
	So the satanic temptation for the unearned generally comes in through the female, right?
	Spot on, Steph, it's why they hate humanity so much.
	They have no power over us that we do not allow.
	So, let me ask you this, because I'm thinking about this sort of live in the moment, which is, okay, what was the temptations that were offered to me that I rejected, that then I got yelled at to go away?
	Oh, yeah, okay. So, one guy offered me marijuana.
	I said no. One guy tried to pull me into his relationship dramas, and I gave him responsibility and wouldn't let him play the victim, and then he got angry.
	I definitely have a better marital partner than anyone I knew growing up.
	I mean, most of the marriages that I knew as a young man have not made it, and have not made it in a terrible way.
	I mean, I've known people who've ended up in...
	I've literally known direct people that I was close to who've ended up in jail over the course of breakups and divorces.
	So, I think there was a kind of an offer and a temptation...
	Take these drugs.
	Let me play the victim and thus infect you with victimhood.
	Let me complain.
	Let me... Oh, like the short guy, my friend who's short, who's like, I'm not dating because I'm short.
	It's like you realize that...
	You're only here and short because your ancestors who were short dated and mated, which is why the shortness genes have survived, right?
	The women's balding genes have not survived because men didn't want to bang cue balls with lipstick.
	So, anyway, but the victim, right?
	I can't, I can't, I can't.
	I can't be happy without the drugs.
	I can't have a relationship without playing the victim.
	I can't take responsibility without being unhappy.
	Excuses and evasions and this dematerializing unreality where you make choices and then pretend that you're the victim of circumstances.
	So maybe that was the temptation.
	I resisted that temptation and then the eruption and the hostility and the Sorry, I don't want to see here.
	God challenges. Satan tempts.
	We get complacent. Yeah, God definitely challenges.
	What about angels?
	What about angels?
	Ask a slightly more specific question than that.
	Happy Friday. Happy Friday back.
	Are we accepting occultism exists or is this analogy only?
	I honestly couldn't care less.
	Whatever works for you.
	It works either way. Tempted him with content in Christ's hunger, tempted him with pride, approving his holiness, and tempts him with the power of the world.
	Yeah, it was more than one temptation, but it wasn't just the one.
	Woman is the man's responsibility, so he wants to corrupt the man from the side door.
	But you guys know one of the reasons I hate the welfare state, right?
	You guys know one of the reasons that I hate the welfare state.
	I don't know if you've ever heard this before.
	So I mean obviously there are moral issues and so on, but one of the reasons I hate the
	welfare state is that by paying my mother, the government took any authority out of my
	hands.
	I could have said to my mother, listen, I'm happy to pay your bills, and I certainly did pay some of her bills from time to time, in fact, quite a few, but I never got to say, you've got to go to therapy, you've got to do X, you've got to do Y, you've got to start doing some exercise, you've got to get some sunlight and not hide like Gollum in the gringiest, dirtiest, ugliest apartment known to man.
	Like, you actually have to do some things in order to...
	Because she was being paid by the state.
	So I couldn't fix her.
	She could tell me to F off and there was no particular consequences.
	The abusers want to hate what could save them because they aren't strong enough to be free.
	That's all no free will stuff, right?
	It's just dominoes there.
	I don't think that...
	Some men have the power of beauty and charm.
	I think it's just more often associated with women.
	I mean, that's an excellent point, and I appreciate you bringing that up, but that's a great correction.
	In fact, physical beauty tends to work better for men even than it does for women.
	Dave says, a husband can command a demon to leave his wife or kids.
	A mother can command a demon to leave a child.
	There's a hierarchy for the lay people.
	Demons respect. Oh, that's interesting.
	Demons and narcissists can't handle rejection.
	Once you reject them or their excuses, they can't bear your presence around them.
	Wow, jail? Even I don't know anyone who went to jail due to breakup quarrels.
	What are you talking about? I didn't say breakup quarrels.
	I said marital issues, marital breakups.
	Except one guy who murdered his two ex-girlfriends and one daughter, but it was bizarre and happened long after the breakup.
	I was a friend of one of the women's friends.
	Oh no, jail is ridiculously common in divorces, right?
	Jail or charges or accusations.
	Sexual abuse in divorce.
	Allegations. SAID. It has its own acronym.
	Everyone is tempted when you practice virtue, it's easier to resist.
	Habitual virtue can strengthen you just like how habitual sin leads you weak.
	Right. You can't command the devil out of anyone.
	I think they have to submit to virtue in order to get the devil out of them, right?
	All right. I appreciate this education, guys.
	It's really, really great. Jesus frequently says fear not in the New Testament.
	I think a lot of demons feed on fear.
	If you release your fear of the demon and what it represents instead of pushing it away, you face it head-on, address it, and then it becomes impotent, losing power over you.
	Much of what Jesus taught seems to be about reducing fear and moving towards love and virtue.
	Yes. So anxiety is a great curse because anxiety leads to a desperation to do anything to get rid of the anxiety, and that's when the devil says, oh, well, if you get money or you get laid or you get power, then you can get rid of your anxiety, but it doesn't work, right? So then you trade in anxiety for a bad conscience and you're toast, right?
	Let's see here. I definitely lowered my standards, says someone when choosing friends.
	I have a pattern of having manipulative friends.
	When they ask me to do something for them, I don't want to.
	I tend to say yes, when really I want to say no, because I feel it's easier to put up with that person's request versus say no and face their manipulative consequences.
	Now, that's a family situation.
	You're just recreating a childhood situation.
	You couldn't say no to your parents, and so you choose friends you can't say no to.
	I don't know if they know why, they just know that it is the case.
	Hmm. Somebody says, a husband can't stop possession, only oppression.
	Yeah, I mean, I don't think there would be exorcists if the husbands could command the demons to leave.
	One of the requirements of exorcism agreed to beforehand is daily prayer and promising to avoid evil.
	A priest doesn't bother trying to help you if you won't help yourself and submit to virtue.
	Well, I mean, that's like there are doctors who won't operate you only if you continue to smoke or continue to drink because you'll just wreck the new, like they won't give you a liver transplant if you keep drinking, right?
	So, when you think of your own lives, and I know this is a bit of a lengthy question, or maybe it's a lengthy answer, did you have the experience of people offering you temptation and then punishing you when you refused temptation?
	In the business world, it was money.
	People would offer me money, and it's happened a couple of times in the podcasting world.
	Why is our animal soul evil, bro?
	Mr. Tangent.
	Mr. Tangent, have you had that experience where somebody tempts you to join them
	in whatever nefarious thing is going on?
	Can you give me an example of something like that?
	So yeah, in the business world it was money.
	It was money. Do this and you'll get money.
	I was in one business situation where something had been promised to employees and so I convinced employees to work extra hard and so on and then a positive business thing happened and the promise was not kept to the employees.
	I ended up paying for it out of my own pocket.
	Because I was just like, oh yeah, you'll get lots of rewards and your employees will get lots of rewards.
	And I'm fiercely loyal to employees.
	Just as I am to listeners, though, you guys aren't employees.
	You're actually my paycheck.
	So don't forget, freedomand.com slash donate.
	Or if you'd like to tip here, we've got no tips so far tonight.
	And I think we're working through some pretty deep and important stuff.
	So if you could tip, I would really, really appreciate it.
	Don't tempt me with the evil of desperation.
	I'm going to show my feet again.
	Just be aware. Be aware.
	Yeah, I knew a guy once who was – it was demanded that he do something in the medical field that really went against his conscience and he just quit and started his own business.
	He just quit and started his own business and massive props.
	Is it a case of people's evil saying, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave?
	I don't know. I mean, Don Henley lyrics aren't exactly illuminating the deep theology of our conversation.
	Exorcism is basically just like shamanism or voodoo or any other religion based on magical thinking.
	Listen, I get the fedora stuff here, like, oh, it's so primitive.
	It's like, but, but, let me ask you this.
	Have you ever yelled someone into doing better?
	Have you ever shocked someone or surprised someone or raised your voice in passion, in enthusiasm, and in emphasis, and they, like, get shaken out of their hypnotism there?
	And this could be, right? I mean, I've been pretty harsh with people about weight loss and so on, and it works.
	It works. We'll get back to that, so let's see here.
	So no, an exorcism is my life has gone really, really badly, and there are people incredibly committed to doing better, and they're willing to do just about anything, and I'm going to fight them with all of the bad decisions I've got.
	I'm going to attempt to make the case, and they're going to fight against that case, and maybe they can rescue me.
	So you can look at it as mystical and all of that, and I get that, but there's a reason why it's common across all religions, because there is something about other people's commitment to your virtue that can shake you out of the hypnotism of evil.
	Ah, somebody says, I've been offered money to stay in jobs, get jabs, push DEI, etc.
	Leaving felt like a weight lifting.
	Yeah, yeah. Liberals offering non-canceling kind of works for many.
	Yeah, yeah. Vax or no job, etc.
	Yeah, yeah. I recognize that story in your book, God of Atheists.
	Yeah. Drugs said no, but it made it hard to hang out.
	Oh, you get this with drinking too, right?
	Me, loosen up, have a drink.
	Come on. All right. When I was young, there was immense social pressure from my peers to do things I didn't want to do.
	Everyone eventually gave in to some degree.
	Some went further than others. I was one of the last to give in and tried my best to avoid situations where I'd be pressured to extremes.
	Well, we all know this about the loose girls who then make fun of the girl who hasn't slept with anyone yet.
	Oh, you're just such a prude. You've got to loosen up and relax and enjoy yourself.
	And women love sex too, and they just drag them down.
	Somebody says, they think they've escaped the demons through their dissociations.
	You remind them that this is false, as is their entire dissociated world.
	They want to stay in the safe worlds they built for themselves and not come out to fight the demons they thought were gone.
	The longer they've ignored the demon, the more shattering this realization becomes.
	Accepting your help means accepting the necessary fight.
	They're afraid they will lose. Postponing the fight keeps hope alive.
	Yes, back in high school, Pierce from the basketball team invited me to enter a car with a drunk driver to go to a party.
	He said, hell no. I was attacked for being boring.
	Oh, yeah, yeah. Boring.
	Boring. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
	Are you familiar with the story of Lilith?
	If so, what's your perspective?
	I would have to read up on that.
	I've read it, but I wouldn't be able to do it any kind of justice at the moment, so...
	You mean from Cheers, right?
	I'm kidding. Um...
	Yeah, so dissociation, evil is a blanking out of consequences, right?
	Evil is a blanking out of consequences.
	I mean, there are all these Democrat politicians.
	What is it in New York? They passed this law to allow, pretty much remove the statute of limitations for accusations of sexual misconduct in order to get Trump, and now they're all getting dragged down themselves, right?
	Adams and Cuomo and others, right?
	I had a boss in the past who...
	Offered incentives, if I look the other way in the business world, yeah?
	Is being evil a form of thinking you're a god?
	I don't know what that exactly would mean.
	You know, they've done this experiment on four-year-olds about God, right?
	They ask four-year-olds about God and they say, can God do anything?
	Yes. Can God walk on water?
	Can God make mountains float?
	Can God turn back time?
	Yes, God can do anything. And then they say, it's really, really interesting, they say to these four-year-old kids, they say, can God make something that is mean good?
	And can God make something that is good become mean?
	And what do the kids say? What do the kids say when the researchers ask, can God make something that is mean good and something that is good mean?
	They say, God can do anything, but can God turn good into evil and evil into good?
	Four-year-old kids.
	Yeah, they say no. No, God does not have that power to make evil good and good evil.
	He can do anything physically, but he can't reshape morality.
	So, even kids get UPP. That's why I say four-year-olds.
	Four-year-olds get this, like, that, 100%.
	Is being evil the form of thinking you're good?
	No, evil is dissociating from the need for virtue.
	Evil is dissociating from the need for virtue.
	And we have that because we have false morals.
	So we have, oh, violence is bad.
	Oh, well, I've got to defend myself.
	I have to be violent, so I'm going to dissociate from virtue.
	Because we don't have UPB, so we don't understand that using violence to defend yourself against attack is virtuous.
	It is virtuous. You don't have to dissociate from virtue, right?
	Because we have these false moral standards based upon power rather than UPB. So when you dissociate from the need for virtue and the value of virtue, then you become corrupt, right?
	It's not the pursuit of evil, it's the avoidance of good.
	You don't need to pursue disease.
	You just need to avoid health.
	You just need to not do things.
	You just need to sit and eat whatever you feel like and never exercise and then you'll get sick.
	Demons are working towards human suicide.
	They want to destroy us as we were made in God's image.
	Our staff, I really like drinking it, it really improves the bond I have with friends.
	Do you really find this objectionable?
	If so, is it deeper than purely health reasons?
	What bond? Why would you want to be something other than yourself in order to have a bond with friends?
	So you become less yourself because drink...
	Your inhibitions and your character are you, and drink changes that, so you become less of yourself.
	It's like saying, well, I want to see better by blurring my vision.
	I want to see more clearly by closing my eyes.
	So you become less of who you are, and you're saying that people will only like me if I'm less of who I am, and I only like other people if they're less of who they are.
	So you don't like them as they are, you like them as they're not.
	which is drunk, they're not themselves do you really find this objectionable?
	Oh, I love you, man.
	That is such a weasel word.
	Objectionable? It's not a violation of the non-aggression principle to drink.
	But there's no bond with friends.
	Your bond is in the mutual self-annihilation of the authentic personality.
	You're like a bunch of vandals smashing statues saying we have that in common.
	Kids are very intuitive, says someone.
	My son from a young age knew good versus bad almost naturally.
	It was instinct. Oh, yeah.
	Oh yeah, for sure. What would you say to an evil person who claims that they do good for the world with the fruits of their evil deeds?
	What do you mean, what did I say?
	That evil can turn to virtue.
	Well, if an action turns to virtue, then by definition it's not evil.
	It's like saying, my particular habit, It makes me healthy, but the habit is unhealthy.
	It's the opposite of health.
	Well, if a habit makes you healthy, it's a healthy habit, right?
	If you have a habit called exercise, you can't say exercise is unhealthy if the habit leads to health.
	So if something leads to virtue, it can't be evil.
	I mean, that's praxeological, almost definitional.
	It's almost tautological.
	How do you think communism is associated with demons?
	Is it a club of like-minded people or is it a formation created by demons?
	So communism is a giant abstract falsehood to cloak the desire for the unearned.
	What does communism offer you?
	Oh, you get to own the means of production.
	You get to own the factory, guy.
	You get to own the factory. You'll get stuff for free.
	You'll be able to just be a mime or you'll be able to paint vases and smoke drugs and you'll get guaranteed income.
	Communism is the ultimate satanic offering because it's offering you things that you haven't earned.
	And in order to get things you haven't earned, great evil needs to be done.
	Not only is it virtuous, but one of the highest goods one can do.
	Lay down one's life for another.
	What? Lay down one's life for another is one of the highest goods one can do?
	I don't understand. What are you talking about?
	So an evil guy needs a heart transplant, and you say, take mine, and you kill yourself with a note saying, give my heart to the evil guy, and that's the greatest good you can do?
	I mean, maybe I don't understand what you're saying, but laying down one's life for another is one of the greatest goods you can do?
	That's total bull.
	I mean, that's beyond bull.
	Ah, I'll be good in a time, in a situation where I must lay down my life for another.
	It's like, you know what's never going to happen?
	You're never going to be in that situation.
	The greatest good is something I will never achieve.
	No, the greatest good is just being basically honest in your life as a whole.
	That's the greatest good. Someone's saying something false, you correct them.
	Someone's saying something corrupt, you correct them.
	You speak truth to power, you do basic good in the world.
	That's the highest good you can do because you can do that every single waking moment of every single day.
	Ah, but I'm going to wait for a time when there's a trolley problem.
	I'm going to wait for a time when I must lay down my life for another...
	You know that's never going to happen.
	So you're just posturing. That's just empty, useless posturing.
	Virtue is what you can do every single day.
	I'll be healthy when my health habit will be when somebody needs a kidney and they phone me up and they say, you're the only match and then...
	That's not going to happen. Healthy is every decision you make every day.
	You're going to get some sunlight. You're going to take some vitamins if that's going to be what's good for you.
	Are you going to exercise?
	Are you going to eat well? Right?
	Virtue is what you can do every day.
	Don't wait for some giant extremity.
	That's a satanic thing. Oh, you know when you're going to be really, really good?
	When you're in a lifeboat, you know, in the middle of the ocean and there's not quite enough for everyone and you jump overboard and get eaten by sharks.
	That's Oh, virtue is later.
	Virtue is in another dimension. Virtue is down the road.
	Virtue is in some science fiction scenario.
	Virtue is in some mad cap adventure movie from hell.
	Oh, virtue. Yeah, don't worry about it right now.
	You want to save up for that virtue that's just going to happen on the other side of the world, in another life, in another dimension, in situations that will never occur.
	That's what you want to save your virtue for.
	You can only ask out the girl with three heads.
	Boy, when you see that girl with three heads, you ask her out.
	You understand? That's just ending your bloodline, right?
	Virtue has nothing to do with emergency scenarios.
	Virtue has absolutely nothing.
	Because by the time you're in that emergency scenario, there's no virtue.
	It's just compulsion. Virtue is about prevention.
	It's not about cure. And anybody who tells you...
	I had this thing about the fucking trolley bullshit that people ramble on and on about.
	And that's like, you're never going to be in that situation.
	It's never going to be a real thing.
	It's never going to be a fact. So it's just saying, oh, well, I'm going to spend my moral energies on shit that's never going to happen.
	And it's just a way to distract you from the virtues that you can actually achieve in your life.
	Like, I don't know, tell the truth to your friends.
	Tell the truth to, you know, somebody who's not parenting that well.
	Go tell the truth to that. You see someone who's suffering, tell them about child abuse and ACEs.
	You see somebody who's confused, tell them about UPB. Sit down, have a conversation.
	Like, that you can do. You can be honest with the people in your life.
	Oh, I'm going to wait for laying down my life for another...
	Dave says, I'm late 40s.
	All my drinking buddies for 20 years are not friends.
	They never were. No. It's mutual addiction.
	Mutual hiding from reality.
	You plus chemicals is less you.
	Alcohol is a solution only in chemistry, right?
	Boom! You're not yourself when you're drinking.
	your inhibitions are lowered. Yeah, for sure.
	You were talking about using force to defend someone from evil.
	Um...
	Did I say that was the highest moral value?
	I mean, the fact that I used a moral example, I didn't say it was the highest moral value.
	That was what somebody else, I was arguing against that being the highest moral value.
	So, you're going to have to listen more carefully, my friend.
	When I was becoming sober, quitting pot, I had buddies who had to get high as soon as we got together.
	I learned rapidly it was terrible.
	I wasn't hanging out with them. I was hanging out with a zombie.
	I didn't see it clearly until I was fully sober.
	Oh, if you can't stand your friends sober, you can't stand your friends because they're not friends.
	I mean, go to a party.
	Try this. Honestly, you drink a lot.
	Go to a party. Don't drink.
	Don't drink. Don't touch alcohol.
	People look like a bunch of retarded chimpanzees.
	It's embarrassing. If you're not drinking and you're at a party, everybody looks like half a brain-dead idiot.
	It's embarrassing. They look like a bunch of retards.
	It's just terrible. Sorry to insult retards.
	Like honestly if if if you can't stand people sober you can't stand either them or you
	You have to save yourself before you can save others I want to write for fortune cookies.
	Just tell the truth.
	Just tell the truth. You can do that all the time, every day.
	I mean, that's right. And if enough people tell the truth, we don't end up in lifeboat scenarios.
	Big gestures were my parents' way of trying to excuse terrible behavior and neglect.
	Oh, yeah. Virtue is a daily habit and a daily discipline.
	Greater love hath no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends.
	Yeah. Yeah, no, that's not a thing.
	I'm going to wait till I can get a vacation on Krypton, at which point I'll get all the superpowers I need to save all the cats trapped on trees.
	Yeah, very good. Yeah, I quit drinking and I realized that meeting my friend was an excuse to drink more and dissociate.
	He always droned on about himself and I just zoned out.
	That was the same guy who called me weak for quitting.
	Yeah, yeah. Sober at a party, they won't want you there.
	They will instinctively know you can see them acting dumb.
	Yeah, so if you're sober at a party the drunk idiots see themselves through your eyes as drunk idiots, and they feel
	humiliated, right?
	You're most likely lose a lot of friends when you're honest But is it your loss or theirs?
	Boy, the word friends is doing a whole lot of work in that sentence.
	Will you lose any friends if you're honest?
	Will you lose any friends if you're honest?
	will you lose one single friend if you're honest that's a quote from scripture
	There is no greater love than this to lay down your life for your friend.
	Don't necessarily agree.
	Okay. So, whoever's putting that quote in, I know that you don't necessarily agree, but there is no greater love than this to lay down your life for your friend, right? Of course, you could be suicidal, right?
	But... What did people say about that?
	They said it was good or virtuous.
	This is just talking about love.
	Right? I mean, animal parents will sacrifice themselves for their offspring at times, or risk themselves for their offspring at times.
	That's kind of an attachment.
	we're talking about virtue.
	In a way you could say Robin Hood was virtuous for stealing from the rich to
	give to the poor but maybe the greater good was to uphold property rights and
	On a deeper level, one could investigate if the property of the rich was acquired voluntarily and say it's less bad for Robin to rob funds that were not acquired voluntarily.
	So Robin Hood was stealing back the produce of farmers that were stolen by pig-vicious aristocrats, right?
	So, just taking the bike back.
	Just taking the bike back.
	My 40-year-old friends would get so drunk and high at holiday parties with their kids there too.
	Nice fancy white-collar suburb families.
	All wasted. I would see them a few times a year after I was sober.
	It was too much. The drunk guys being around 10 years old.
	Couldn't be near it anymore. They're not in my life.
	COVID helped make the final break.
	Oh, it's like, have you ever tried to have lunch around golfers?
	Like, have you ever tried to do that?
	Or like a late afternoon meal around golfers?
	They're incredibly loud, incredibly obnoxious, and drinking like fish.
	What does ACE stand for?
	Adverse childhood experience.
	the adverse childhood experience. It's a way of scoring how bad your childhood was
	so that you can judge your risk factors for various negative outcomes, both
	health and societal and legal.
	Alright, so you all were tempted and when you resisted the temptation
	the demons drove you off, right?
	So when you proved yourself to be incorruptible, the demons drove you away.
	Yeah, I played golf a couple of times in business, and people were like, have a drink!
	And I remember having a drink once or twice while playing golf, and I'm not bad at hitting the golf ball, but man, when I took a beer or two, I just...
	I can't remember the last time I've had two beers.
	When I took a beer out there, I was...
	I was terrible. I was terrible at it.
	Minigolf is fun, though. I love the vocabulary this community has.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
	So, the demon drives you away so that he can lure other people.
	Yes, that's it. Because in the dream vision that I had this morning, there was me and the quicksand and the boy by the side.
	But there's a constant flow of people.
	So the constant flow of people, one by one they come, one by one, like they can't see each other, one by one they come.
	If somebody's not getting in to the quicksand with you, if you can't take them down with you, you want them to move on so the next person doesn't see what's going to happen.
	Does that make sense? A drink is demonic, fundamentally, like alcohol is demonic because it lowers your inhibitions and inhibitions are the essence of virtue and humanity, right?
	Oh, you're so stuck up.
	You're such a prude. You're so inhibited.
	It's like, yeah.
	Also called not being an animal.
	Pardon me, Nagasaki dad sneeze.
	Thank you.
	So, yeah, because there's a constant flow of people going by, right?
	And so, if you're going to resist temptation, right, if you're not going to give money to the hooker, the hooker needs you to move along.
	So that somebody else will give money to the hooker.
	So maybe there's a temptation.
	You resist the temptation. It's like, get the fuck out of here because you're in the way now.
	Does this make sense? Maybe that's what is happening.
	Maybe it's not, I just want to save you.
	And it's like, no, you resist the temptation.
	Get out of here because I need someone else who's going to succumb to that temptation to be standing where you are.
	Well, not only are you bugging the hooker when she's working, but you're interfering with other people and also like other people who might pay the hooker, but you're also making the hooker look less attractive.
	Because if you're saying no to the hooker, you're saying no to the hooker, then other people are going to be like, well, what's wrong with the hooker?
	Maybe she's got an STD or whatever it is, right?
	I had two drinks for the first time in years the other week.
	I was wrecked. Can't believe people are out there drinking six packs.
	Oh, yeah. Why did Jesus turn water into wine?
	I'm kidding, I'm not trying to stuff, plus I hate wine.
	Right. Well, I mean, obviously the analogy of turning water into wine is to take something that is common and corrupted into something that is valuable and clean, right?
	Right. Because, you know, alcohol in the past was a way of getting hydration without the danger of cholera and other water-borne diseases, right?
	Because the fermentation process, the alcohol, the boiling or whatever, the process would often kill off most of the stuff, so beer was a lot safer than water.
	So water into wine is turning the common person...
	It's turning something that's probably polluted and dangerous and common and useless to some degree into a drink with nutrition and value and cleanliness and so on, right?
	So wine is not like the boxed wine mom crap now.
	Wine in the past was a pure valuable substance.
	I don't drink because my dad drinks.
	Yeah, yeah. And that's the parable of the loaves and fishes, right?
	So Jesus has a huge crowd, and there's only a small amount of loaves and fishes, but they keep passing it along, and everyone gets nutrition.
	Everyone who reaches in gets the loaves and fishes, and they pass it along, and it's an infinity of loaves and fishes, right?
	and that is of course that when you spread virtue you don't run out
	that's a do I lose virtue by spreading virtue?
	Do you lose virtue by spreading virtue?
	No, we gain security and happiness by spreading virtue.
	I mean, I've lost some money, I've lost some security, I've lost some safety, I've lost some prominence by spreading virtue, but I haven't lost happiness.
	Somebody was, I think it was kind of a, let me see if I can find it, it was kind of a bitchy comment, but I wasn't sure, and I, you know, I try not to impute bitchiness where there may not be bitchiness.
	But let's see here.
	What did he say? What did he say?
	Ah, yes. Somebody wrote on my 12th November live stream Bitcoin update.
	Somebody wrote, how are you emotionally coping with going from millions of views on your videos with loads of engagement to a paltry four comments on a video nowadays?
	Now, I chose not to take that as snarky.
	Do you guys think it's snarky?
	It's hard to tell without the tone, right?
	Is that, is that, let me, I'm going to, I'll paste it in here.
	Is that snarky?
	On a random note, the God of Atheists audiobook link comes up as a wall of error text.
	Oh, thanks. We'll take a look at that.
	It could be that you need to copy and paste it into a feed catcher.
	You would take it as snarky?
	I think the paltry is the snarky bit, right?
	It's paltry. How are you emotionally coping with it?
	Millions of views on videos, loads of engagement with paltry.
	Four comments on a video now.
	You think that's snarky?
	It certainly could be.
	It certainly could be. You know, you don't have to.
	This is on Rumble.
	Hard not to see the bitchy side?
	So what do you think the purpose of that is?
	What do you think that is?
	The purpose of that comment is?
	Okay, that's a very interesting comment.
	I'm fine with it. I'm just curious.
	I think, I mean, I have my thoughts, but I want to get, what do you guys think the purpose of a comment like that is?
	Because I get these comments from time to time and, you know, whatever, you used to be so big and now you're eh, right?
	All this kind of stuff, right? You used to be so prominent and now you're just obscure and nobody remembers you.
	What do you think that is? What do you think that is?
	What do you think that is?
	To get me back on Twitter?
	To make you feel bad? Emotionally coping is a troll.
	Yeah, self-aggrandizement, humiliation, put someone down to try and rise themselves.
	I think it's a bit twisting the knife.
	But do you know what the real statement is there?
	Do you know what the real statement is?
	When somebody says, aren't you miserable?
	Being much less prominent.
	Aren't you miserable? Being much less, quote, successful.
	Aren't you miserable? Being much less famous.
	What are they really saying?
	Yeah, to bribe you into getting more views on large platforms.
	Yeah, people say, oh, you make more money.
	It's like... So this is really important.
	So when somebody comes, I sort of say that like the rest of it isn't, but when people come at you with an insult like this, it's a confession, right?
	No, it's nothing to do with me.
	It's nothing to do with me.
	Honestly, nothing to do with me.
	What they're saying is, when people insult you with their greatest fears, every insult is a confession.
	Hope you get this, right?
	Thank you for you, Steph. Thank you very much.
	I appreciate your support.
	No, it's not projecting their own misery.
	It's a revelation of what they couldn't handle.
	So people try to hurt you, and how do they do it?
	Well, if they have empathy, they don't try to hurt you.
	But if they're cruel and they try to hurt you and they don't have empathy, so they don't know what really hurts you, what do they do?
	Well, what they do is they tell you what would hurt them the most.
	Does that make sense? So this guy couldn't cope with going from millions of views to a paltry four comments on a video nowadays.
	And of course, that's not the biggest platform and blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
	But that's not...
	Let's say there's only four videos, four comments on a video when I used to get thousands and thousands and thousands of comments a day, right?
	So... I mean, I used to do a cozy 10 mil views a month, right?
	So when he says...
	You've fallen so far.
	He's saying, I couldn't stand what's happening.
	I couldn't handle what you're doing.
	Like, that's my worst fear.
	Every insult. I'm telling you, every insult is a confession.
	Somebody says, you're ugly, right?
	Well, they're saying that my worst fear is to be called ugly.
	When people make fun of me for being bald, they say, they're saying, I couldn't handle it if I was bald, or I'm not handling it that I am bald.
	Does that make sense? Every insult is a confession.
	All they're doing is telling you, they're just handing you a weapon.
	They're just saying, hey man, I'm totally telling you how to hurt me the most.
	So he's saying that a loss of status is his greatest fear.
	A loss of status is his greatest fear.
	When you see insults for what they are, it's a confession of vulnerability.
	You understand, it's not about you.
	This guy is like, well, you've just lost massive amounts of status.
	That is my greatest, greatest terror.
	The worst conceivable thing that I can think of is to lose.
	So he looks at, oh my God, there's only four.
	He used to get millions and millions of views.
	Oh, he's only got four comments on a video.
	That's the worst thing ever.
	Now, so part of it is an insult, but when people insult you with their greatest fears, they're also asking for help with their fears.
	I had an ex-girlfriend say to me after I got up early to make her breakfast, don't you do anything for yourself?
	Right. So he's like, so...
	So here's the two ways to read that comment, right?
	How are you emotionally coping?
	We're going for millions of views on your videos, loads of engagement, part of you, four comments on a video nowadays, right?
	Now that's the surface level, right?
	A deeper level is how are you emotionally coping with going from millions of views to like a paltry fall comment?
	How are you able to do it?
	How can you survive the loss of status?
	I can't do it.
	I can't figure out how to survive a loss of status, Steph.
	How do you do it?
	Free me from this addiction to status.
	Do you see what I mean? Tell me if that makes sense.
	It's a confession and a plea.
	Now, the plea could be a trap.
	But it's a confession and a plea.
	Now, let's see here.
	Now, if I had gotten bitchy back, right?
	Now, if I had gotten bitchy back, right?
	They're telling you how the demon has emasculated them.
	When people insult you, they're telling you how they lost their soul.
	So, he lost his soul or lost his integrity or got corrupted by his fear of low status.
	Does that make sense? His greatest terror is low status and he's like, how can you survive this?
	Because if you can tell me how to survive this...
	I can lose my own fear of low status and thus become good.
	Because what is the greatest prevention of virtue in the modern world?
	What is the greatest mechanism by which virtue is prevented in the modern world?
	If you know that, you know the most important thing.
	Shame? I think that's fairly common.
	And shame does what?
	Truth, shaming of being different, responsibility, peers.
	I'll tell you what I think.
	The greatest The barrier to virtue is overcoming the fear of low status.
	Because that's how they punish virtuous people, is destroying status.
	Right? Destroying status.
	I mean, that's what deplatforming is, is destroying status, right?
	Destroying reach, destroying audience, income, reach.
	Sorry, I repeated that.
	So, it's...
	If you can survive the lowering of status, you can be a good person.
	If you can't survive the lowering of status, you can't be a good person.
	Like, that's just the deal, right?
	That's just the deal, right?
	From king of the Jews to nailed on a cross, that's the lowering of status, right?
	Christ came here in squalor.
	Status was irrelevant. No.
	No. Christ hinted at being king of the Jews and the Messiah.
	And he couldn't say it because he would have been killed directly, right?
	He was born in a manger.
	Yes, but he had the lineage of kings.
	Come on, man. He wasn't a welfare kid.
	He was the lineage of kings.
	Please. And he had holy men at his birth site, and he had gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and he had a whole star that followed his birth.
	Humble birth, please.
	So... What's all that about when people insult me, but they have people in their lives who have the very issue they're insulting me about?
	I want to point that out. It's met with outrage, especially if that's related to somebody's parent-friend partner.
	So, insults are an attack upon status, right?
	So, I mean, what does Satan offer Jesus?
	Status, right? He says, my kingdom is in heaven.
	My status is virtue.
	Now, do you know why status, the loss of status, is painful?
	Of course it is, right? I mean, If it didn't work it wouldn't be used.
	Do you know why the loss of status is so painful?
	Why is the loss of status so painful?
	Christ was heralded as birth by angels.
	Yes, there was a little bit of that too, right?
	This humble beginning stuff is not really, really true.
	Thanks for the great show. Thank you.
	I appreciate that. For the tip, if there's anybody else who wants to help out, I would really, really appreciate that.
	And I really, really appreciate you guys helping me out with this quicksand thing.
	So, why is low status so painful?
	Because low is the chance of reproduction, because power is a drug.
	Yeah. Yeah, I remember when deplatforming was still pretty new.
	One of the YouTubers I watched was demonetized.
	You said demonized.
	Demonetized, and he made a video crying and begging YouTube like they were gods.
	Yeah. So, the reason why...
	Lowering status is so painful is that Like monkeys literally are addicted to status.
	So dopamine is of course a very, it's a high reward drug, right?
	And they've done studies, I mentioned this before, I think it's bonoba monkeys.
	When bonoba monkeys go up the hierarchy, they get rewarded with massive doses of dopamine, which make them thrilled and overjoyed, which is like power junkies, right?
	And when you get, when they fall down in status, the dopamine was withdrawn and they go through literal physical withdrawal symptoms, right?
	So status is a drug that comes from the animal.
	Does that make sense? Status is a drug that comes from the animal.
	And if you can reorient your system to get joy from virtue, then you will inevitably have to accept a loss of status.
	Because it's always status versus virtue, status versus virtue, status versus virtue.
	If you can't accept the loss of Of status, you cannot become a virtuous person because you will just expose that fear of the loss of status will be exposed, and then people will simply use that to drive you away from virtue.
	Do you see what I mean?
	Whatever you fear will be used to control you.
	Now, the only thing that I fear is corruption and immorality.
	I mean, in terms of like philosophy, I mean, I don't like getting hit by buses either, but the only thing I fear is corruption and immorality, but that's under my control, so it can't be used to control me.
	So fear is used to control others, but if that which you fear is under your control, you can't be controlled by others.
	And status is what? Status is an opinion of other people.
	Status is the opinion. Can I control the opinions of other people?
	I cannot, right?
	Status is the quicksand.
	Oh, that's good. That's good, James.
	That's very good. Very good.
	What can I control? I can control my own behavior.
	So my relationship to virtue is what's important.
	I have control over that. And because what is of value to me is controlled by me, I'm not susceptible to control by others.
	And because I'm not susceptible to control by others, I can't be bribed or bullied into conformity, so I have to be deplatformed.
	Like the moment that your value is under the control of other people you've crippled your free will
	So because I knew
	This guy saying a paltry four comments on a video. Now, how can you how can you stand?
	your loss of status Right? And 96, 97% crash in audience.
	How can you, and you know, obviously income, you can imagine, right?
	So how can you stand your loss of status?
	What's he asking for?
	He's not insulting me.
	He's asking me how I can be good.
	He's saying to me, Steph, how can I be good?
	I can't handle the loss of status.
	I can't stand it. You can.
	Please tell me how. Please tell me how you do it.
	How do you do it? I can't do it.
	How do you do it? I'm trapped in my fear of the loss of status.
	I'm trapped in the monkey brain.
	It can't be good. How are you emotionally coping with your loss of status?
	Do you see what I mean? Can you give another example, please, of what you mean by the moment your virtue is controlled by others and you lose your free will?
	Well, your virtue is never controlled by others, so I was probably imprecise about that, Colleen, and I appreciate the question.
	So if my value is controlled by the opinions of others, then when other people think of me negatively, I have negative value.
	Which is why when people want to bully you, they aim at your reputation in the hopes that if other people look at you badly, you look at yourself badly, or that it creates such a status loss that it's agonizing for you, which either drives you into conformity to regain your status, or you then flee the arena because being low status is too painful.
	Right? Now, of course...
	If you listen to my history of philosophy series, you know, as a philosopher, you have to accept, if you're going to do any good, you have to accept that one of the first casualties of virtue is reputation.
	Because there are very few people who are willing to pursue virtue over reputation.
	So, if my value is dependent upon the contents of the minds of others, then people who wish
	to control my sense of value will simply control how I'm viewed in the minds of others.
	Now, negative status can be dangerous, so you have to keep an eye on it.
	I'm not going to, oh, I'm completely immune to negative status and hostility and hatred.
	And it's like, no, that can be dangerous, right?
	So you got to keep an eye on it.
	Negative status can be a predator loose in the property, right?
	You got it? Okay, it makes sense, right?
	So, what I got from that, of course, I got the snarkiness, and maybe it was snarky at one level, but what I got from that was the undertext, right?
	We are all smart enough here to To go for the undertext, not the surface shit, right?
	So the undertext. The undertext is, please help me liberate myself from the demon of status.
	Help me out of the demon of status.
	Give me an ally. Give me a perspective that gets this fucking beast off my neck.
	Does that make sense? That's how I took it.
	Steph, do you have to read these comments multiple times to see it?
	Or do you see it really quickly now in just one pass?
	No, I don't. I mean, the first thing I was like, that's annoying.
	And then I'm like, no, hang on.
	Wait a minute. No, of course, right?
	I mean, it's, you know, I got a lot of history of not being philosophical.
	So, yes, I have to burrow through a layer or two from time to time.
	Usually, usually. Okay.
	Now, do you know that we had a conversation, right?
	That I actually had a conversation with this guy.
	I actually had a conversation with this guy.
	Now, if I had reacted with some bitchy comment back, then he would have seen that I had failed the test of status, right?
	Because if he says to me, oh, it's a paltry four comments, and I'm like, well, screw you, I'm fine.
	I don't care, right?
	Then if I had reacted with hostility...
	Then he would have dominated me with status because he would have provoked me into aggression by pointing out my low status.
	No, it wasn't a call then. It was just a short combo back and forth in the comments.
	So I responded to his true self, not his false self.
	His false self was doing the status thing.
	I wanted to respond to his true self, which is not...
	Steph, you've obviously become completely low status.
	My true self...
	His true self is... Help me with status, right?
	Now, I'm a man.
	I have testosterone. I like status, of course, right?
	I'm not indifference to status.
	That was nice of you.
	Yeah, I mean, it's honest, right?
	The honest thing is, right?
	So what's the honest thing that I would say about that?
	What is the honest thing that I would say about that?
	Well, what I wrote back was...
	I love it. Back to pure philosophy.
	Exclamation mark. Smiley face.
	Right? So he said, how are you emotionally coping with going from millions of views on your videos with loads of engagement to a paltry four comments on a video nowadays?
	Actually, it's seven now. Oh, some of them might.
	And I said, I love it.
	Back to pure philosophy. Right?
	That's what I wrote back. I love it.
	Back to pure philosophy. Right?
	I'll paste this into you.
	Okay. So you can see that, right?
	I love it. Back to pure philosophy!
	Smiley face. Now that's true.
	That's true, right? It is true that I love what I'm doing more now than I was doing before.
	I love the politics. I love the current events.
	I love the world engagement. I thought that was great and powerful and wonderful and excellent, and I'm glad to not be doing it anymore, right?
	Wouldn't be having this conversation.
	Responding to the subtext.
	Well, I'm responding to the true self rather than the false self.
	I'm responding to the person under the demon rather than the demon.
	I don't engage with the demon. I bypass the demon.
	Why? Because if the demon has no power to me, the demon won't have power to him.
	See, if the demon provokes me, the demon gains power.
	Right? If I react to the demon, then the demon gains power.
	Whatever you feed gets stronger.
	Whatever you starve gets weaker.
	So if I pretend the demon doesn't exist and I talk to the true self...
	I'm lifting him out of his entrapment.
	I'm getting him out of the quicksand.
	Does this make sense? I want to make sure I'm being clear.
	I think it's clear, but what matters is if it's clear for you, right?
	I've never had it in me to get sparky, snarky with people.
	Sometimes I don't even notice it when they do it to me, yeah.
	Okay, so how do you think he responded to me saying, I love it, back to pure philosophy, right?
	So this was a bypass of the false self and a connection to the true self.
	I find it hard to do that with people, respond to their better self and interest
	I admire you doing that, would like to get better at it.
	Yeah. It's not always my first impulse.
	I'll be straight up with you. I don't have any sort of magical floating head that is immune to the monkey brain.
	I would not have made it past the comet.
	Right. I used to be a server and it was never any spiral into snarkiness.
	Yeah. Didn't respond, I guess.
	No, he did respond.
	Now, how do you think he responded?
	To me. What a giant cope!
	There's a steady drip of copium in your veins, right?
	So do you think he responded with escalated snarkiness?
	Level up the snark? You have to turn off adrenaline to learn to think clearly under confrontation.
	takes practice. Yeah, to some degree, for sure.
	Well, I will read you his response, right?
	All right.
	you Just to refresh, right?
	He says, uh, How you coping?
	Millions of views. Paltry 4 videos.
	I say, I love it. Back to Pure Philosophy.
	He wrote back, It might be worthwhile to do a video on this.
	I'd be interested to know how you've dealt with the mental and financial blow of being completely ousted from the town square as a heretic.
	It's a damn shame what they've done to you.
	Your videos were superb, and I especially enjoyed the comments section.
	While we can't get the comments back, why haven't you uploaded your old videos here on Rumble?
	Were you expecting that?
	It's magic. Right?
	I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing.
	I'll read this again. It might be worthwhile to do a video on this.
	I'd be interested to know how you've dealt with the mental and financial blow of being completely ousted from the town square as a heretic.
	It's a damn shame what they've done to you.
	Your videos were superb, and I especially enjoyed the comment section.
	While we can't get the comments back, why haven't you uploaded your videos here on Rumble?
	Right? Pretend the demon isn't there and the demon isn't there.
	I'm giving you, like, please use this superpower responsibly.
	Pretend the demon isn't there and the demon isn't there.
	Talk to the true self and the true self no longer sees the demon.
	Now, Did I get him out of the quicksand?
	A little bit.
	A little bit, right?
	And I admired his response.
	No, don't feed the trolls!
	No, not answering would have been to not feed the trolls.
	That's ridiculous. Sounds like a demon to me.
	I don't know what that means. Did you just perform an exorcism?
	Well, who knows, right?
	But see what's under the aggression.
	What's under the aggression is a need for virtue.
	It really is a shame all those comments are gone.
	Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
	Absolutely. Now, why did he start off so aggressively?
	Because aggression works for him.
	It's what he was taught. It's what he does.
	Aggression works for him. And when I respond without aggression, he has to change his behavior.
	His aggression becomes obvious to him.
	Like, why is he provoking me to aggression?
	He's provoking me to aggression to hide his own aggression from himself.
	He still sounds like he's being an asshole when I read this.
	No. Your videos were superb.
	It's a damn shame what they've done to you.
	I'd be interested to know how you handled it.
	That's all nice. He said it might be worthwhile to do a video on this.
	He's tentatively speaking more honestly, but he would like to know how to do this, right?
	Do you guys want to know how to do it?
	Just out of curiosity. I can tell you in like three minutes if you want to know how to.
	How do you escape status? How do you escape the status trap?
	Yeah, I mean I assume it's fairly helpful It's not a personal thing
	It's a social thing. Would you guys be here if I'd sold out?
	Would you guys be here if I joined X, Y, and Z large media thing and I was being paid to say things that you knew I didn't believe?
	Would you tune in? And without getting into names, we can all think of a whole bunch of people, people, a whole bunch of people, who have been born and
	paid for.
	Without getting into names.
	Names. Because it'd be a long list.
	I mean, people have been bought and paid for.
	And I say this with sympathy.
	Is it a calling or is it a gig, right?
	Is it a calling for virtue or is it a gig for money, right?
	Authenticity is the metric for whom I watch.
	So you wouldn't be here.
	You were always the most genuine voice of reason in the Wild West of the Internet era.
	So...
	I still care about status.
	Yes.
	Heh heh heh.
	Right? I mean, you can't get rid of caring about status.
	Because we're humans, right?
	We're animals. We're biological creatures.
	And biological creatures need status.
	So, you can't get rid of status.
	This Buddhist thing of have no desires...
	The best thing you've ever done is quit politics.
	Yeah, well, no, I mean, I think it was good being in politics.
	So, you are always going to need status.
	So, you have to shift what status means.
	You have to shift so that your status is quality, not quantity.
	Politics is theater.
	No, no. Politics is now brutality.
	Politics is attack.
	It used to be. Right now it's gone beyond that.
	So, you understand that pursuing quantity over quality is like pursuing sleeping around
	over marriage to a wonderful partner.
	Would my wife love me if I lied for money?
	Would my wife love me?
	Would my daughter love me?
	me? Would my friends love me? Would you care for me if I lied for money and
	power and reach and numbers?
	Lying for money is so passe.
	Oh, if only it was passe.
	It's the current thing.
	I mean, I know too much.
	I won't tell any tales out of school.
	But I... I know too much about what people are not talking about.
	So, alright, let me ask you this.
	If I sold out, who would be left?
	Who hadn't sold out?
	I'm not sure.
	you If I sold out, who would be left?
	Who hadn't sold out?
	Yeah, definitely a few people.
	But would they have that same commitment to philosophical rigor and integrity?
	Right? I mean, there are people who have integrity to their own belief systems and have paid a heavy price for it, and I respect all of that.
	But they don't have the philosophy.
	Are there any other philosophers that you know of moral philosophers who haven't sold out?
	Oh this stuff Alex Jones doesn't talk about No question. How much...
	I'm not trying to sort of pump my value here.
	I get emotional even thinking about it.
	how much would it break your heart if I sold out?
	I mean it would break my heart beyond words.
	You're the best at making simple, understandable, logical arguments that are reproducible in the minds of laymen.
	You change so many lives and minds for the better in perpetuity.
	I mean, honestly, it would break my heart.
	It would break my family's heart.
	It would break my friends' hearts.
	And I almost completely...
	I mean, it would break your heart, wouldn't it?
	I mean, I remember when I learned about some corruption in the objectivist circles.
	It was just awful, right?
	It was just awful. It would just be awful.
	And wouldn't there be a certain amount of despair?
	Like, okay, if Steph can't do it, how can I? You'd be dead to me.
	No offense, man. No, I get it.
	I get it. It would be awful, wouldn't it?
	And it wouldn't just be awful for me and for you and my family.
	I think it would be awful in general for philosophy as a whole, like the history of philosophy as a whole.
	It would be terrible.
	So you're just paying me to not sell it?
	Sorry, I'm just making a joke.
	Guys, I know it's a very heavy topic, right?
	It's a very heavy topic. And obviously, I've been tempted, and I've had offers, and, you know, it's, you know...
	I mean, what was it?
	Stephen Crowder was offered, what, $25 million a year?
	Okay, that's some coin. Joe Rogan, what was it, $100 million?
	Please don't leave us out here with the crazy.
	No, I won't. And it would obviously make it harder for people in the future to not sell out if I, after everything I've gone through and everything that I've sort of survived and staggered through, if I just gave up the ghost and joined the Borg or something like that, or, you know, well, this person's paying me X amount of money and I can get a studio and I can get a guaranteed audience, I just have to not talk about X,
	xyz, abc, whatever, whatever, whatever, right?
	I mean, I've been tempted but never seriously.
	Like, you know, I still think about Twitter from time to time, and I'm like, no, I mean, I'd rather do nothing than the wrong thing.
	Like, if I, you know, for whatever reason it becomes unsustainable, I'll just stop.
	Like, I won't join.
	I personally would tune into either platforms, but I joined the ones you're on because you immensely benefit and improve my life.
	Your company is irreplaceable.
	Thank you. I've thought about what would happen if you stopped making shows or something happened to you.
	I wouldn't have much left to watch and nothing that makes me think this deeply.
	I mean, this is completely one of a kind.
	This is like, and it's not just one of a kind in terms of the depth and all this, that and the other, but every show is new.
	Am I wrong? I mean, it feels new to me.
	I've always tried to avoid repetition.
	It feels new to me. It feels like every show is like a new dimension, a new exploration.
	It feels like almost a new continent that we get to explore over an hour or two, right?
	Or two hours or whatever, right? Can you reveal details of what you've been offered?
	It was some coin and it was some...
	It was some coin and it was some big platform.
	But no, I can't.
	I can't. Sorry. Steph, your show is the gold.
	It's our shows, baby. It's our shows.
	Every show is amazing. I feel that way.
	I feel that way.
	I took a long break.
	Yeah, I did. No, I've been tempted.
	You know, all you have to do to regain the good graces of society is turn on your values and...
	Attack the truth. So many people lie for a living.
	They don't need one more. No, I don't want to talk about what people aren't talking about.
	I know that that may sound like a cop-out, but one thing I learned pretty early on in the business world is you have to be able to keep your vault.
	You have to keep your vault.
	The shows are getting better and better.
	Deeper, more connection, more real time.
	Yeah. It's a collective endeavor.
	I may be the meat puppet with the voice box, but it's a Borg brain that's doing all of this, right?
	Like, we're all sparking off each other, and it's a collective effort.
	Even most of the good pastors are full of vitriol, so pure-minded people who stick to their morals and actually say it out loud.
	Yeah. I couldn't.
	I couldn't do that to the future.
	I couldn't do that to the philosophy.
	I couldn't do that to you.
	I mean, I couldn't.
	I mean, you guys have supported me.
	You've listened. You've shared. You've obviously taken some bullets and some discomfort, if not more than some discomfort for philosophy as a whole.
	But I couldn't.
	I couldn't. I couldn't.
	Oh, there's no free will.
	No, I just, I know what the stakes are.
	And the good thing about having a 500-year business plan is you're not afraid of deferring gratification.
	You are consistent but not repetitive.
	Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
	It's like Queen, man.
	Lots of different styles of music, but almost all consistently pretty, pretty damn good.
	Pretty damn good. I wish I still had those playlists from YouTube.
	They intentionally got rid of a man teaching adults how to heal from family abuse.
	Yeah, I mean, it wasn't personal.
	I was just in the way of power.
	And I don't know if YouTube has kept it on a backup somewhere.
	I don't know. You're 100% right, says John.
	There's nothing like this anywhere. To the extent trying to find this depth and people I can speak to in normally land is challenging, and I find it frustrating how shallow most interactions and conversations are.
	At times, it's like speaking to a different species in an incomprehensible language.
	I've had some interesting meetings of late through where people are open to these ideas, so I have some help.
	I appreciate that. All right.
	Do you think Kevin Samuels was sabotaged?
	He was hitting on honesty in calls.
	Well, he was pretty heavily attacked, right?
	He was pretty heavily attacked, and I think he was going through a lot of stress as a result of those attacks.
	And that happens to a lot of the brilliant black public figures.
	I mean, obviously not just the blacks, but in particular, I think it's underspoken about how much Kevin Samuels and others get attacked.
	He drank Red Bull like water.
	Was he vaxxed? I don't know.
	All right, any last tips, comments?
	Thank you guys for a wonderful evening, of course, of great, great philosophy.
	Yeah, he was a great guy, but I wish that he had, maybe he did better debates or more debates, but I wish he'd had slightly more competent opponents.
	He really threw a wrench in the feminisms.
	Well, until we can get the ladies back from the state, a lot of it is just talk.
	A lot of it is just words.
	Like trying to talk someone out of cashing in a winning lottery ticket, right?
	It's just probably not going to work that too well.
	Just a lot of words, right?
	Alright, well thanks everyone so much for a great great evening.
	I really, really appreciate it.
	And we will see you Sunday at 11 a.m.
	at 11 a.m.
	Thank you for the tip, Josh.
	I really, really appreciate it.
	Thanks for liking, subscribing, and sharing, y'all.
	I appreciate that. Have yourselves a gorgeous, beautiful evening, even without my dulcet tones and shiny ostrich egghead.
	And we'll speak to you guys at 11.
	Thanks for all your support. If you're listening to this, yeah, the best part of the show, I never walk away without having learned something new.
	As is the case for me, and hopefully my unconscious will give up another great analogy for Sunday.
	Have yourselves a great, great evening and Saturday.
	Happy Thanksgiving. Belated to our American friends.

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