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Feb. 6, 2024 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux

01:47:36

The Unholy Power of Marketing! Freedomain Livestream

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	There we go. There we go.
	Good evening, everybody. It is the 13th...
	No, wait. 19th of January 2024.
	I hope you're having a wonderful week.
	I did not have a wonderful week, but that's not particularly important.
	We shall survive. I'm happy to hear how your week was, but...
	I'll warn you right up front.
	It's not common for me.
	It's not common for me, but I'm a little testy.
	This won't take it out on you.
	It's my emotions to deal with, but I'll be a little testy.
	Hopefully, we'll take that out on the unjust people in the world rather than you glorious, lovely, just people.
	So, I'm happy to get your questions and comments.
	And questions, criticisms, issues, whatever is on your mind.
	Let's see here. What happened?
	I'll tell you in a sec. I found out Tuesday that the afternoon shift was done and I was back on days starting the following day.
	Also, the company I'm working for is almost done moving.
	That all sounds good.
	Happy Friday, Steph. It's my birthday and my husband is currently taking me to get some sushi.
	Sounds a little fishy. Our son is in the backseat and I couldn't have wished for anything else.
	Just thought I'd hop on here to say hi.
	I'll be listening to the stream afterwards.
	Happy birthday, Emma.
	It is great to see you turning 23 again.
	So that's just wonderful.
	That's just wonderful.
	Congratulations. You know, there are those times in life and you really do have to absorb and you have to embrace them and love them where you're just like, everything here is perfect.
	I couldn't ask for more.
	I couldn't ask for more.
	You know, because there was that fear that if you ask for more, the gods will get angry.
	I remember dating this woman once.
	When I would talk about how happy I was, that things were going well, she'd say, oh, black tongue, the gods will get you, and she was kind of half-joking, but it was kind of a thing where, don't be too happy.
	Don't be too happy.
	Gods will notice and strike you down.
	Don't be too full of truth.
	You'll get deplatformed.
	It's funny, I was just last night listening to the deplatforming scene, and In the present.
	In my novel, The Present, let it never be said that I haven't done my research.
	Let it never be said that I haven't done copious and sometimes brutal amounts of research when it comes to my novels.
	I was never, in fact, an 18th century British lord, but a lot of the other things I've done the detailed research for.
	So... Alright, let me just get your, things were good at work, you got extra hours and Old Testament, overtime?
	Overtime? That's good to know.
	That's good to hear. That's good to hear.
	Alright. So I can wait for your questions to come in.
	I do, of course, have some thoughts.
	Have you heard of this Stanley Cup phenomenon?
	I couldn't understand it when I first heard about it.
	I thought it had something to do with the National Hockey League, because, you know, there's a Stanley Cup.
	And I used to enjoy, in Toronto, mentioning to people who were big hockey fans, I think that the Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup the year after I was born, and look, I'm bald.
	Because shitposting is an art that you have to learn offline before you apply it online.
	In the book The Present, how did they have mensurized conferences with no bomb threats?
	Well, they kept it very far underground.
	to ground, they did have to have all kinds of security, and I didn't go into whether
	they did or didn't, because that wasn't part of the story.
	So, I'm not even going to ask, you know, because I'm already annoyed.
	Nothing to do with you guys, but I'm already annoyed.
	So, I'm not even going to ask.
	ask, I'm going to go straight into rant. I'm going to go straight into rant.
	So this Stanley Cup thing is just wild.
	.
	So, it's a drinking cup.
	It's a sippy cup.
	It's a sippy cup, and you'll understand why I'm testy about this.
	I'm not really testy about this, but I'll harness my testiness about other things into this.
	But it's a sippy cup.
	Yeah, I like the stream. That would be excellent.
	Share the stream. Do all kinds of funky stuff.
	Seduce the stream. It's pretty cheap and easy.
	One glass of wine. And it's spreading its legs like margarine on hot toast.
	And so it's a sippy cup.
	The Stanley Cup thing. And women have gone mental for it.
	It's mostly women, isn't it? They've gone just mentally with this.
	I've been chatting with my wife about females being in the marketplace.
	What are your thoughts on females working?
	I think it will be cool when they do.
	So, right now they just seem to have a lot of government and HR jobs.
	Okay, so the Stanley Cup used to be more for outdoorsmen.
	A decade ago it was a canteen marketed to campers and soldiers.
	Now it's for younger women, lifestyle bloggers, college students, yoga moms.
	So, Stanley rolled out fun colors And added a straw.
	This changed the whole trajectory of the company because women will spend more on accessories than hikers will on a practical item and people will buy accessories in a range of colors while they feel they only need one of a practical item.
	So how did this happen?
	So they tapped into identity and belonging.
	I don't know what this means, and I'm not even sad that I don't know what this means.
	It says, remember the VSCO girl trend of a couple of years ago?
	VSCO. What the hell does that mean?
	VSCO. Photo editor...
	I don't know. What does this mean?
	I don't know. You know, people, if you're going to use acronyms, tell me what the hell they mean.
	Remember the VSCO girl trend of a couple of years ago?
	The aesthetic was loose t-shirts, athleisure, that's a new word, glowy skin in that never-present water bottle.
	At the time, it was hydroflask.
	The vibe was, cute girls stay hydrated.
	Cute girls.
	Stay hydrated.
	Okay? So, that's a thing.
	Buying the must-have accessory has always been a way for young women to find belonging and secure entry into the in-group.
	So Stanley tapped into the millennial and Gen Z trend of cute popular girls being associated with self-care, wellness, beauty, skin care, and yes, hydration.
	The water bottle became a beauty symbol that helps you get glowing skin and shiny hair, a symbol of taking good care of your scalp.
	What is it with women and glowing?
	They're like Chernobyl fetishes.
	Look at my glow-up!
	It's hard to justify spending $50 on a water bottle for boring old drinking water, but spending $50 on a wellness product that helps you stay hydrated, meet your New Year's resolutions, and show off a stylish status symbol to boot, that's a bargain!
	So Stanley achieved the marketing triple crown.
	Status plus self-expression plus collectible.
	I'm doing my best not to root for the asteroid.
	Apparently this is the marketing triple crown.
	Status plus self-expression plus collectible.
	They first set a high bar for price and quality to make the cup into a status symbol, then offered stylish colors to make it a fashion accessory and form of self-expression.
	And finally created distinct collections and limited editions to make it into a collectible.
	Positioning a product as a status symbol justifies a high price point.
	Enabling self-expression makes people willing to pay the price.
	And being a collectible makes people pay over and over.
	No, it doesn't make any of those things.
	It doesn't make people do a damn thing.
	It doesn't do a damn thing.
	It doesn't make people do a damn thing.
	Oh, there's more.
	But not only there's more. It's fitting that Stanley Cup showed up on StockX.
	I don't know about that. What is StockX?
	Alright, let's do this.
	Let's find out what is StockX.
	StockX. Sneakers, streetwear, trading cards, handbags, and watches.
	Okay, so...
	Online marketing and clothing resell are primarily of sneakers.
	Oh, so is it for, like, hood status, foot kicks, fashion accessories?
	Whatever, right? It's fitting that Stanley Cup showed up on StockX because their success largely cribbed off the playbook for sneakers and streetwear, doing collabs, collections, and limited editions.
	Sneaker brands use collections, collabs, and limited editions to create a sense of scarcity, exclusivity, and urgency.
	That's why people line up to buy sneaker drops, and now apparently insulated cups as well.
	Oh, it's like looking at this zombie cult of the Apple store.
	Jammed full of people.
	Jammed full of people. When Stanley started releasing drops of limited edition colors, the influencers went crazy.
	You know what they say? My new single drops.
	You know, we're dropping this limit. It's like, no, you're not.
	You're just releasing it. I'm not dropping a new podcast.
	I'm just pushing publish. Anyway, someone who works in that world told me, no one owns just one.
	Influencers would place their special edition cups in Zoom calls and TikToks coordinate the cup colors with their outfits and show off the latest seasonal cups.
	Then, when those quickly went out of stock, people would resell them, leading to insane resale values that caused even more demand for the initial drops.
	At one point, the quencher bottle had a waitlist of 150,000 people.
	Like a beauty brand, Stanley pivoted their marketing to be social first, especially on TikTok,
	where they encouraged user-generated content for unboxing videos.
	Unboxing videos.
	Oh, look. What's in the box?
	It's a cup.
	Oh, my gosh.
	I'm going to have an unboxing video of my grandmother's mouth candy.
	What's inside?
	It's a box.
	Look, I'm having an unboxing video of my chapstick.
	What's inside?
	It's chapstick.
	What's inside the box with a cup inside?
	A cup! Okay, that's the first good laugh I've had all week.
	All right. Unboxing videos to product reviews.
	I have a cup.
	My review is that it holds liquid.
	Oh, my God.
	Oh, my God.
	Oh, I have a product review of a USB key.
	It holds data.
	I mean, look, I can understand a product review of some complicated camera and so on.
	A cup. My review of the cup.
	I missed.
	It doesn't aim well.
	You know, it doesn't do 4K resolution, and I would say that the microphone is a little bit turny.
	It doesn't get FM, but it does double as a jetpack if you eat enough Indian food.
	Okay, unboxing videos to product reviews to memes.
	Almost everything about the cup was meme-worthy from the...
	Oh, wait, what?
	From the what? What? Show more!
	Okay, from the what?
	Uh... From the very specific colors...
	What? Very specific colors?
	Is there any... I want an unspecific color.
	Just poke yourself in the eye really hard and all the colors become unspecific.
	To memes. And almost everything about the cup was meme-worthy from the very specific colors to the enormous size.
	There was a meme showing a guy struggling to drag a massive dumpster with the caption, me walking into class with my Stanley.
	The absurd excess of owning multiple Stanleys was itself a meme.
	I'm so extra... With my memorable video featuring an influence explaining why she owns Stanley Cups in two nearly identical shades of grey.
	Really grey?
	Um, that's your very specific colour?
	I need a really specific laser-like quality.
	Grey. Done.
	Excellent. Unboxing video.
	What's inside the box with the grey cup on the outside?
	Oh my god, it's a grey cup on the inside.
	Alright. The hashtag Stanley Mug Hashtag has now been used tens of millions of times.
	Stanley was meticulous about fostering their diehard fans by replying to their posts, thanking them and generally making them feel good and giving them the most coveted currency on social media.
	Clout. Separately, Stanley went hard on influencer affiliate marketing.
	That's why so many big influencers were posting about Stanley with a discount code.
	This is now a standard paid tactic that can be expensive but very effective and choosing the right influencers can make a huge difference.
	Actually, I think there's a few people who've approached me for product placements, for product placements.
	What do you think they were?
	What do you think that people offered me with regards to product placements?
	What was my dangling demonic offer of product placement?
	What do you think it was?
	Wrong answers only.
	Obviously. I don't even need to tell you that.
	Like, wrong answers only. Absolutely.
	Wrong answers only. Alright, we'll come back to that.
	We'll come back to that. Let's go on with this nightmare into the minds of women.
	Alright. Everyone saw...
	The video of a woman discovering a fully intact Stanley cap with unmelted ice in the flaming wreckage of a crashed car.
	I didn't! Oh, sorry, I missed a bit there.
	Stanley's social listening operation was excellent and allowed them to be opportunistic about spontaneously jumping on trends.
	So, what, there was a fully intact Stanley Cup with unmelted ice and the flaming wreckage of a crashed car.
	The company, A, noticed it quickly, B, stitched it on TikTok, C, had the company president reply directly on their video, and D, offered to buy her a new car, and he emphasized that this was a one-time exception.
	Every single element of this was perfectly done, especially the last part.
	Soon afterwards, a woman's whole house burned down but left the Stanley Cup in good condition.
	At this time, people told her not to expect the company to buy her a new house.
	Oh, God. Nine, they played the long game.
	People often say that overnight successes are several years in the making.
	That's true, but massive catastrophic failures are also several years in the making.
	And that's the case for Stanley.
	Their brand exploded in 2023, thanks to a few years ago when they first started marketing to women and establishing influencer relationships.
	Arguably, Stanley's first breakout moment came from a partnership with the online shopping blog The Buy Guide, which featured the updated girlier Stanley Cup in their second ever Instagram post leading to thousands of sales.
	A big number at the time.
	That was in 2017.
	Oh my god.
	Oh my god.
	Alright, so what did people offer me?
	My pillow. They offered you gold bars.
	No. Paper shirts.
	Nice. No.
	Paper Swift reddit merch line.
	Yes, Taylor Swift. Yeah, yeah.
	Combs. They offered you Alex Jones InstaHard and Super Male Vitality and Bone Broth.
	Yes, that's right.
	I was actually going to broadcast a show inside an aboriginal cooking pot.
	Special edition iMolyneux phone charger.
	Plugs directly up your nose.
	High quality reading labs.
	Hair gel. They offered for me to be the before picture in hair restoration therapy and also, last but not least, hello, back to you, Sweden baby, Daniel.
	No, bowling ball polish.
	I simply had to stick two fingers up my nose and roll myself down an alley.
	That was generally the idea.
	Also, ostrich egg warmers was a very big thing.
	A permanent coffee cup where it's actually two straws that go in your ears because they don't usually need to listen.
	So that was a fairly big deal.
	The other thing was training on how to talk without ever inhaling like a jazz trumpet.
	You can just keep that Note going forever and ever.
	How to talk without inhaling.
	How to talk without being able to stitch a coherent thought together.
	And how to talk without ever coming to a conclusion, a point, or the end of your story.
	So these were all things that I was offered.
	And I just said no.
	Live action commercial remakes of that sexy bald cleaning guy.
	That's right. That's right.
	Oh, I dropped my pencil.
	Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. So yeah, these are all things that never happened.
	No, I mean, I've been offered some product placement stuff over the years, but it's never been a particular thing of mine.
	I just don't think it fits.
	It just doesn't particularly fit.
	It doesn't particularly fit with what I do.
	And do you know why it doesn't fit?
	because you all are just so kind and nice to donate and support what it is
	that I am doing.
	freedomain.com slash donate if you would like to help out the show and not only
	but also that you can support me right here on the app!
	Right now it says no tips yet, which makes me sad.
	But if I get a couple of tips, I'll give you my rant on the cups.
	I'll give you my rant on the cups.
	May also include a tiny bit about women as a whole.
	Love women as a whole. But we've had 75 years of pointing out every male foible known to man, so I do think it's about time we just point out a few of women's foibles.
	So, I'm just going to wait on a couple of tips, and then I will dive in.
	Oh, and also, don't forget, you can go to freedomain.locals.com, and you can check out...
	The truth about sadism, part one.
	The truth about sadism, part one.
	I just screamed the whole thing.
	The whole thing. So, Sam Kinison style.
	All right. Steph, I was debating with someone regarding UPB, universally preferable behavior.
	The person I was debating who was a Christian rejected UPB because behaviors like polyamory, necrophilia, surrogacy, etc.
	is not a violation of UPB. And therefore, he said it is not superior to because God said so.
	How would you respond to this?
	How would you respond to this?
	It's a great question. It's a great question.
	All right. One of the challenges that you have when talking about ethics is people take your proposed ethical system and apply it to the current world.
	People take your current ethical system and apply it to the current world.
	In other words, They take a world which has massive, endemic, built-in violations of your moral system and then say, well, how would these edge cases work in your current system?
	Right? Let's look at UPB as it is practiced.
	If UPB were practiced universally, we would be in a stateless paradise.
	There would be no child abuse.
	There would be, of course, no intergenerational debt.
	There would be no government central bank inflating away your savings.
	You would have a peaceful and free and rational and reasonable society.
	So, let's look at These behaviors.
	So what is the root of something like polyamory?
	Polyamory is rooted in desperate lack of self-esteem, right?
	Desperate lack of self-esteem. If you love your wife, if you love your husband, you're not going to share them.
	If the purpose of your sexuality in a healthy and positive way is to maintain and expand on the pair bond that is the foundation for a healthy, good family, Then you're not going to be interested in polyamory.
	Polyamory comes out of sexual abuse.
	It comes out of pornography addiction.
	It comes out of massively broken homes.
	It comes out of crushingly low self-esteem.
	And these things aren't present in a UPB-based society.
	Now, of course, you can say, well, will there be exceptions?
	Yes. Yes, there will be exceptions.
	God, that drives me crazy, this.
	Well, will there? Yes, it is.
	And I deal with this in my novel.
	The future of the exceptions about how society actually handles the situation of child abuse.
	I give the absolute steel man case as to child abuse that occurs within a truly peaceful and reasonable society.
	So I absolutely accept and absorb all of that.
	But it's kind of like this, right?
	This is the exception people absolutely...
	Oh, they drive me crazy.
	Because what is it, like 98% of lung cancers come from like smoke, inhalation, tobacco, and like 2% of people, I don't know what the numbers is, but it's tiny, like 2% of people get lung cancer because, like just bad luck, right?
	They didn't smoke, they didn't like, whatever, right?
	They didn't be exposed to asbestos or whatever gives you this sort of stuff, right?
	So it's just bad genes, just 2% bad genes, right?
	So, 98% of people, lung cancer is, to a large degree, preventable.
	I assume, right?
	You say, wow, we really should get people to stop smoking.
	Oh, but, you know, what about, you know, there's people who, there's people who get lung cancer even if they don't smoke.
	And it's like... Yeah, we'll just go and do some good things in the world and you do, I don't know, whatever.
	You just waste your time.
	You just waste your time. So the exception, people.
	So how does UPB do things like handle polyamory?
	Well, polyamory is not a violation of the non-aggression principle.
	But polyamory is an indication that somebody has crushingly low self-esteem.
	Why would somebody have crushingly low self-esteem to the point where they're willing to share the objects of their love?
	Why would they? Because they were raised in a situation of verbal abuse and creepy sexuality and premature exposure to pornography, which seems to be the norm these days, all this kind of creepy stuff that's going on.
	UPP would not encourage that, of course, right?
	So polyamory will be almost certainly a complete non-issue in a UPB society because children are raised well and positively and peacefully and have self-respect and pornography is kept away from children and we shouldn't get into all of that another time.
	But, yeah.
	So polyamory won't be a big issue in a UPB society.
	Necrophilia. Necrophilia, of course, is sex with dead people.
	Well, I... I don't understand how that would be UPB compliant, because ownership does not end when somebody dies, right?
	I mean, am I missing something here?
	If I am the legal guardian and the inheritor of my mother, and she dies, I inherit what happened to her body.
	I now am responsible for what happens to her body, so her body becomes my property.
	Once she doesn't have self-ownership because she's dead, then her body would be my property.
	And if somebody uses somebody's body for sexual pleasure, that's against the property rights of whoever is responsible for that body.
	So I don't know how necrophilia, and of course necrophilia we can't even, I can't even fathom the amount of Creepy, vicious, violent, underhanded, sinister, half-murderous sexual abuse that would result in somebody being an acrophiliac, but that, of course, would all be banned by UPB. Surrogacy, etc.
	Okay? So, surrogacy, of course, is when you can't have children of your own for the most part, and so you would pay somebody else to carry a baby for you.
	Not a violation of UPB. And so, thank you, Josh.
	I appreciate that. So, in general, more life is better, isn't it?
	In general, more life is better life.
	And if there's people who can't have kids, then isn't more life better?
	I don't like the idea of surrogacy as a whole, that just could be me being old-fashioned.
	Of course, when you have a free society, the technology to have children in fertile couples
	would be through the roof.
	Right?
	It would be through the roof.
	Also, of course, you'd have a much lower need for surrogacy because having a child in your
	late teens is the optimum.
	It would be the healthiest, it would be the best, it would be the cheapest, you'd need
	the least insurance, and there would be the greatest encouragement to do that kind of
	stuff.
	So surrogacy, which has largely become an issue because so many women are choosing to
	have children much later in life, or have been propagandized into that, so surrogacy
	would be a much...
	It wouldn't be a complete non-issue, but it would be a much lower issue as a whole.
	Technology would improve and women would start having children younger, so all this kind of good stuff would be great.
	So... Polyamory, not an issue in a free society because children were raised well.
	Necrophilia is absolutely against UPB because somebody owns the body and you're violating somebody else's property against their will and permission.
	And surrogacy would be a small or non-issue, right?
	The problem with surrogacy is that the pedophiles could hire a woman and have complete parental rights to their child.
	There are checks for things like this with adoption.
	Sorry, I don't quite understand.
	So you're saying a pedophile could hire a woman and have complete parental rights to their child?
	Well, that's easy to solve.
	I mean, sorry, maybe I'm... I mean, that's easy to solve.
	I mean, I've talked about this before.
	There's no reason why you would have heard this before.
	But in a rational and free society, if there's a surrogate child...
	If the person who...
	Well, again, you're back to pedophiles, right?
	So pedophiles in a free society would be extraordinarily rare because childhood sexual abuse would be virtually non-existent.
	But in the legal system, if a woman gives birth to you and hands you a cross to a stranger for money, then you can sue...
	The stranger, if the stranger abuses you, you will go immediately to get help, because there would be actual practical help for the victims of sexual abuse or any kinds of abuse in a free society, so you'd go right there.
	You would also sue the woman who gave you up, and you would sue any company that did any vetting or background checks.
	So everybody would have a massive incentive to make sure this never happened, and if for some bizarre reason it did happen, people would get sued into oblivion.
	And of course, in a free society, you would get sued personally.
	You would lose your house.
	There would be no corporate shield.
	Like, all of this stuff is terrible.
	So... Ugh.
	You guys gotta... I hate to say...
	Unboxing! Think outside the box!
	Think outside the box. So, and all due respect, this is the laziest shit on the planet.
	I gotta tell you guys, this is the laziest shit on the planet.
	If you just dump a problem into a system without thinking it through, it's lazy...
	And boring and dumb.
	And you're too smart an audience for this kind of stuff.
	Sorry, I'm just going to be really frank with you.
	Well, the problem is that this could happen.
	Okay, think it through.
	Thank you, I appreciate the tip.
	Think it through. How would you solve the problem?
	What would you want in a system that would solve the problem?
	Rather than, well, problem, bleh!
	I just threw up the problem, now everyone else deal with it.
	How about you think through how the problem could be solved rather than saying, well, the problem is this.
	Okay. Fantastic.
	Absolute genius job in saying that there could be a problem with something.
	Yeah, there could be a problem.
	Yes, there could be a problem. Okay, so let's go back to yours.
	The problem with surrogacy is that pedophiles could hire a woman who have complete parental rights to their child.
	There are checks for things like this with adoption.
	First of all, there's a reason Russia stopped sending its kids to America, so I don't know about all of that kind of stuff.
	Secondly, if you're concerned about pedophiles, what should be your number one concern?
	I mean, other than, you know, single motherhood or the destruction of the family and so on.
	In terms of statism, what is your number one concern, if you're concerned, as we all should be and are, about the sexual exploitation of children?
	What is the major issue?
	If you don't know this, I don't know what you're talking about.
	Well, you're talking out of your ass, right?
	right? So what is the major issue that is facing children with regards to sexual
	exploitation in the modern world?
	Oh wait! Stop war?
	Yeah, you're right, ground beef.
	It's public school. Per capita, the number one sexual exploiters of children are public school teachers.
	Yeah, divorce doesn't help, single motherhood doesn't help, and all of that.
	So, if you're concerned about this kind of stuff, you're just saying, well, but the pedophile could do this in a free society.
	It's like, compared to what? If you're not doing compared to what?
	I have no interest in what you're saying.
	I'll be frank. If you're not doing compared to what?
	Well, you know, in a free society, it certainly is possible that one in ten million children might slip through the cracks.
	Therefore what? Therefore we stay with the current shit pit of a society?
	That's your plan?
	Just stay with what we've got?
	God. Titanic's thinking, well, it could be the case that that boat might not have enough salty and crackers for everyone to be comfortable for two weeks.
	Okay, stay on the boat!
	Stay on the boat. So just people, if you just come up with a problem, here's a theoretical problem, here's a potential problem, without actually trying to solve it, without actually figuring out how you could put incentives in place to solve that problem, I don't know what you're doing.
	You just sand in the Vaseline.
	You're just throwing a bunch of logs on train tracks.
	Apart from single moms, yes, public school is a large danger.
	Right. Okay. Why are there single mothers?
	Why are there single mothers?
	Why have single mothers exploded?
	Like, why is it that 60 years ago, in the black family, only 15 to 20% of kids were raised by single mothers, now it's 75%, right?
	Why? Why has single motherhood gone through the roof?
	Is that because of freedom?
	Is that because of independence? Is that because of property rights?
	Is that because of UPB? No, no, no, and no.
	It is for one thing and one thing only, which is the massive government transfer of wealth.
	from productive people to unproductive people from stable families to broken families from men to men Women!
	The welfare state is the single mother state.
	So if you are concerned with the sexual exploitation of children, you have to work to reduce the prevalence of single motherhood, which you can't do in a status system.
	Because in a status system, people, and often women, will vote to avoid the consequences of their own bad decisions.
	I get that. Nobody wants to be the example that other people point out and say, see what happens if?
	So if you are concerned with a problem, compare it to the current system and figure out how a free system could work it.
	Utopian thinking is what stands in the way of people opting for freedom.
	LBJ's incentives for single mothers destroyed families.
	Peace.
	you Single women vote for the left, so the left has a massive incentive to produce more and more single women, which is why they have all of this hostile-to-men feminism and all of that and constantly goading division between the sexes.
	Keep women separate from the herd and they're easy to take down by the predators of socialism.
	The lions in the grass find it pretty easy to take down the unaccompanied females.
	What's wrong with aiming for utopia?
	Yeah, I mean, I don't know what you mean.
	Utopian thinking is what stands in the way of people opting for freedom.
	And that's one of these deepities that, I don't know, vaguely sounds clever in the same way that cotton candy
	feels like food until you just dissolve- dissolves in your mouth.
	Well, okay, so I got- I got a tip- I'll do this female thing.
	I'll tell you why. Do you guys know why the Stanley Cup thing bothers me so much?
	Do you know why?
	Why? Why does the Stanley Cup thing bother me so much?
	Somebody says, when I was in high school, the vice principal...
	Was known for getting with some of the girls in high school.
	He ended up having an affair with one who was 17 and left his wife and children for the girl.
	He also got away with drunk driving a few times.
	The degenerate still works there.
	You hate hockey? LOL. Trivial?
	Nope. Because they look like they skipped leg day.
	I don't understand what that means.
	Aside from it being idiotic?
	No clue. Oh, it's one of the darkest parts of my soul, so I've just, you know, brace yourself, it's not going to be pretty.
	It's going to be meme-worthy, but it's not going to be pretty.
	Because you can't find one in stock.
	You know, this is another reason why you let a lot of criminals, like leftists let a lot of criminals out of jail,
	so that women can feel scared, so that women will vote for big government.
	Constantly scare people and run for protection.
	It's all very boring and trivial.
	so I mean not trivial, it's trivial to analyze right?
	Now I'll tell you why the Stanley Cup thing and all of these marketing
	herd brainless vanity based movements why they bother me so much
	And maybe, maybe, just maybe, after this, they'll bother you too, and I think they should.
	In the world of philosophy, what do we do?
	We try to get people to be good.
	We try to get people to think rationally.
	We try to get people to think critically.
	We try to get people to sacrifice short-term comfort for the sake of long-term goodness.
	Cross your legs, grit your teeth, ladies.
	Stay away from the thugs and the criminals.
	And the...
	I had a call yesterday.
	Where the guy loves his wife.
	Loved, no, continues to love his wife, even though she's now become his ex-wife.
	His wife had an affair on him, left him, had a child with another man, and pretty much the day the child was born, the man ghosted and left her.
	Honestly, one of the worst and most catastrophic mistakes a woman can make is to leave a loving husband to chase a sexy guy.
	She gets pregnant and the guy locks and ghosts her the moment the baby is born.
	So my goal, of course, my whole life, my whole adult life, from mid-teens onwards, has been to exhort people to virtue.
	Please try to be virtuous.
	Please try to think. Please try to restrain yourself.
	Please try to pursue people based on virtues rather than hotness, sexiness, wealth, charisma, status.
	Just try to be good people.
	Try to be good. Hey, I'll model it as best I can.
	Lord knows I'm not perfect, but I'll model it as best I can.
	I try to show you some of the fruits over the horizon, some of the glowing city that seems to be suspended in the sky.
	It's so unreal to most people of what it is to have a happy marriage, of what it is to have a productive and purposeful life, of what it is to take the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with some grace and positivity to stay focused, to stay positive, to stay creative, to stay funky.
	I've tried, and it's not a fake.
	I've tried to give people a vision of what it is like.
	On the other side of that desert, we have to cross over to become who we actually are.
	Not who other people want us to be, not who's convenient for the rulers, but who we actually are, thinking for ourselves.
	I've given the path, I've given the GPS, I've given the reasoning, and I've given the example on the other side.
	At, I dare say, some pretty great sacrifice to myself and those around me.
	That's a fair assessment.
	It's a reasonable assessment.
	My whole life I have been working, working, working to try to exhort people to virtue.
	I've made jokes, sung songs, written stories, ripped my shirt off, danced around, got tear-gassed, confronted.
	The city leaders in Los Angeles, to their face, face down, riot troops, all to try to exhort people.
	To become virtuous.
	To... for yourself.
	To not take the greatest treasure of your existence, roll it into a tiny ball, and serve it up as finger food for the all-hungry cannibalistic elites.
	Now burn my reputation to the ground!
	Bailed out of a very lucrative, software-executive, entrepreneurial career.
	I have no regrets.
	But there's been a price.
	A series of prices, really.
	And I think as far as modeling virtue and proving virtue and exhorting to virtue, to clarity, to thinking, to skepticism, to empiricism, to reality, I've done a pretty fucking great job.
	I've certainly done as good a job as I am capable of doing, although, with the caveat
	that I'm always aiming to do better and do more, which is why I keep going.
	I have tried to package up philosophy in a way that is compelling, engaging, proven,
	digestible, understandable.
	I've thrown every analogy and metaphor that my hyper-creative brain can come up with to try and illuminate and show the path through the fog for the planes to land on the opposite of the Epstein island we call Elysium Fields.
	Nirvana. Reason.
	Virtue. Truth. Integrity.
	Thought. Strength.
	My philosophy is not pathological altruism.
	It is not selfishness.
	And it is a pleasure.
	What if I worked so hard?
	I've worked so hard to make it applicable.
	To people's lives in the here and now.
	What pisses me off about shit like the Stanley Cup...
	is...
	you Damn it!
	I should have put a straw on it!
	I should have had it come out in different colors.
	I should have paid people with cleavage to slowly read UPB in a sultry voice while playing Medal of Honor.
	You see, I've burnt my reputation down to the bowels of hell itself in the exhortation of mankind to virtue as a whole.
	And how many people follow and how many people do it!
	Really do it!
	As opposed to...
	Oh!
	It's got a straw!
	And pretty colors! And it accessorizes!
	And here's a pretty girl holding it!
	And it's limited edition!
	People will line up!
	For 18 hours straight!
	To buy a retarded pink jug.
	But exhortations to virtue, beautifully packaged with the end result in sight, float like a
	silent bat above the sleeping minds of the blind and the ignorant.
	Sort this video.
	Tragic. But this woman, she's in her 30s, she's at Disney World, and she's like, how you feel when you've waited three years to hug Goofy again, and then Goofy, some guy in a Goofy costume comes around the corner and gives her a big hug.
	She waited three years, spent thousands of dollars, and hug a guy in a suit.
	The Cabbage Patch Kids!
	Tickle Me Elmo! Tulip Mania!
	The South Sea Bubble.
	People go insane for useless, stupid, expensive shit.
	And you dangle practical virtues in front of them.
	And they're like, eh.
	Maybe if it came in tope!
	Maybe, uh...
	Maybe if it came with a pet rocket.
	Do you ever hear about this shit, pet rocks?
	Like a multi-million dollar business a guy came up with where you could just buy a pet rock.
	Multi-millions of dollars on pet rocks.
	Oh, those little troll hair things.
	They can put them on a race.
	It's so cute. Little troll hairs.
	How about virtue? No, I don't know what you're talking about there.
	I don't know what there. Do you have a doll that giggles when you tickle it?
	Because I don't know about the virtue thing.
	I don't know what you're talking about there. But if you have a doll, oh, how about a doll that's kind of soft and plushy?
	Did you ever hear him? My nemesis.
	My deepest and greatest enemy are the Beanie Babies.
	The Beanie Babies.
	I knew a guy whose wife had created entire shelving units to hold.
	The fucking Beanie Babies.
	I don't even know how many thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours she spends scouring
	the planet prior to the internet for beanie babies!
	How about some reason and virtue?
	I don't know. Does that fit on the missing spot in my square for the Beanie Baby?
	What am I missing? I know I'm missing stuff.
	They're Pokemon cards. At least you get out and walk about.
	What stupid shit am I missing?
	What am I missing?
	There's all of this shit.
	It's just this endless conveyor belt of stupid shit that people are just insane for.
	iPhone now comes with 19 camera lenses so you can see through time.
	Still can't find your personality, though.
	Pegs? What are pegs?
	I don't know what pegs.
	Squishmallows? What the hell?
	That seems vaguely familiar to me.
	What are Squishmallows?
	A brand of anthropomorphic stuffed toy that was launched.
	Oh, God. Oh, I got a couple.
	Oh, yeah. I remember.
	Alright. Um, did you ever have those annoying Twitch kids who were like, I have now spent 19,000 hours learning how to unscramble a Rubik's Cube.
	Yes, I'm looking at you.
	Singer guy.
	Justin Bieber.
	Hey, how about some reason, evidence, and virtue?
	No. I must move about these colored squares.
	Breakdancing. I remember being at a high school dance.
	Friend of mine was really into breakdancing.
	How much time did he spend learning to pull himself up from the ground on an imaginary
	rope?
	I have.
	Hey, do you want to talk philosophy for an hour or two?
	What? Is that useless digital crap that dies with my hard drive?
	Oh, is that actually the grounding for happiness, reason, truth, and virtue in my life?
	No! Mountain climbing is exercise.
	I'm fine with that. You can program people to consume everything except thought.
	You can trick people into desiring everything except virtue.
	The team which has a color that I like on their jerseys, whose owners have taken my
	entire tax base, including me, for hundreds of millions of dollars, my team should do
	well.
	you you
	you You got two choices in life.
	Think or buy.
	Think or buy.
	And everyone's like, Ooh, mm.
	Ooh, not so much with the thinking.
	Uh, but if I could buy some useless shit and wave it around in front of a webcam...
	BOOM! I'm down with that.
	And a half. How many people collected those free games of Epic?
	Never play them.
	Just take up hard drive space.
	And everybody knows that money ain't gonna buy you happiness.
	It is not a prestige item.
	It's a slave stamp.
	Yeah, in the 20s, this is Edward Bernays, right?
	Freud's nephew. Honey, attractive women are liberated and smoke cigarettes.
	Sounds great.
	Men think women buy, right?
	Nope. Men buy a lot of useless shit, too.
	I mean, admittedly, malls are female-centric, but men buy a lot of stupid shit, too.
	Power Rangers. Yeah, just programmed.
	Just programmed. Just programmed.
	Somebody tells me this is high status.
	It's high status! Oh, Candy Crush.
	I don't know. Is that a big status thing?
	I think that's just, I don't know, harmless distraction.
	I mean, amusements are okay.
	It's all of this...
	And nobody tells you to like Candy Crush, right?
	I mean, there are ads for whatever, but all they can do is get you to try it.
	It's all of these people who were like, I didn't know how much I needed it until I saw an influencer.
	Influencer? I guess the word programmer is already taken.
	A lot of English people can only connect to their fathers through football.
	Except they're not connecting with their fathers.
	They're simply disconnecting from reality and joining them in complete emotional and
	intellectual absence.
	Expensive watches.
	you Status items of every conceivable kind.
	Yeah, cigarettes were called torches of freedom by women, as instructed, yeah.
	Good stuff tonight. Thank you, Paul.
	I appreciate the tip. For the person who's asking, UPB is universally preferable behavior a rational proof of secular ethics?
	You can find it at freedomain.com slash books for free.
	Why don't we look around your house?
	I do. Look around your house.
	Louis Vuitton bags. I was at a mall the other day with my daughter.
	And she's like, what's with these bags?
	I said, well, you need those to put your lack of soul into.
	You need a place to carry the shredded, desiccated, detritus-ridden remnants of your brain, and that's how you put it in a bag like that.
	It's a slave stamp.
	Like those tottering, butt-in-the-air heels for women.
	It's a slave stamp. Stephan, have you seen The Century of Self?
	by Adam Curtis it complements this conversation the created creation of
	items to keep people docile and complacent so they can be easier
	controlled when I was a teenager in the 90s this truth post my mother
	went berserk and screamed at me for refusing to wear acid-washed jeans to a
	family event She told me all the kids are wearing them.
	The power tool that you use only once and then toss it to the garage forever?
	At least you use it once.
	At least it has some practical use.
	You may use it again. Like, who decided that the look was going to be jeans that looks like You got caught in a combine harvester or fell into a giant vat of rabbit hamsters.
	And you just had to chew through half of this stuff so that women with chunky thighs can have the thighs bulging out like a hernia of leg fat.
	Gotta have the swoosh, gotta have the right shoes.
	Status, status, status.
	Status or virtue.
	Do you want to please idiots or your own conscience?
	Do you want fools looking up at you or your conscience smiling at you?
	Do you want to be approved?
	Then you're a slave. Do you want to be good?
	Then you're free. I was trying to explain to my daughter.
	She's like, oh, these are going out of fashion.
	I'm like, so they'll come back.
	There's no such thing as going out of fashion.
	There's just a bunch of idiots who are like, oh, that's so last year.
	I'm so 2008.
	You're so 2008.
	That's so last year.
	Well, they'll just cycle it back next year.
	Just wait a couple of years, and what was cool goes uncool, gets back to being cool.
	They're just churning you, churning you, taking your money.
	Now I understand. Says someone why God says, Thou shalt not worship false idols.
	A lot of wisdom in the Christian Bible.
	You can go to fdrurl.com slash upb.
	Dyeing your hair, face piercing seems to be the woke state of symbol.
	Well, that's you advertising your unprocessed childhood abuse to make sure that you stay
	with other people who are also traumatized.
	Tell me the stuff that you most regret spending money on.
	.
	Tell me the stuff you most regret spending money on.
	Uh, Steph, you're right. In the late 90s, my mother saw the girls in high school and was so surprised to see girls wearing bell-bottom pants.
	What's old is new again.
	Yeah. No, I mean, and my daughter schooled me on this.
	We were at the mall and I saw a girl in bell-bottom pants.
	I'm like, wow, you don't see those a lot anymore.
	She's like, they're totally in again.
	Okay. See, it doesn't matter.
	It doesn't matter. Pretty people look good in anything.
	Pretty people look good in anything.
	And there's this completely, you know, you go to glasses, go to get glasses, right?
	And you see all these beautiful people with glasses.
	Wow, so handsome, man.
	And glasses.
	Does anyone think that the glasses make you look like those people?
	Does anybody think?
	You know, you get these beautiful women with these great figures in these ridiculous dresses.
	Sally Jessie Parker?
	Wait. Sarah Jessica Parker.
	Yeah, she's got a nice figure, nice hair, bit of a horsey face, but, you know, so she looks good in the most ridiculous outfits.
	You put other women in those ridiculous outfits, they just look ridiculous.
	Alright, what did you waste your money on?
	We've all done it. Motorcycle.
	Mom jeans came back.
	SUV with heated seats in my early 20s.
	A fast sports car. I regret spending money on model trains.
	Sold them and don't have them anymore.
	Well, at least you got some money back, I guess.
	Drugs, alcohol, and related paraphernalia.
	Food. Oh man, have you ever had this?
	You ever have this thought and you get together with people and there's always alcohol involved?
	Always alcohol involved?
	And you have this basic thought and don't you want to say it at some point?
	Why do we need to have alcohol?
	Why do we need to drink? Video games, bad movies, expensive gym memberships, pornography, I've seen some people I know who were not abused adopt woke styles fit in with the abused.
	I'm real. It's sad.
	If they weren't abused, why would they want to fit in with abusive people?
	I've seen some people I know were not abused.
	Assumes facts not in evidence, Your Honor.
	Assumes facts not in evidence.
	I regret buying Air Jordans.
	Oh, the idea that you would act as an advertisement for somebody else and pay for the honor thereby is completely incomprehensible to me.
	Well, I don't have a personality.
	Maybe, just maybe, I can be a billboard for a billionaire.
	Hmm, yeah, that's something.
	I can't create anything of my own, but maybe I could act as free advertising for somebody who's already a billionaire.
	Yeah, yeah, that's it.
	Partying years wasted on my 20s.
	All right, thank you for that.
	Tip, thank you for that.
	I'm going to make a save here so I can check it out later.
	I probably won't read this right now unless we really run out of things, but thank you.
	I've saved that and I will look at that.
	I promise. Yeah, expensive dinner parties for prestige.
	My oldest friend drinks.
	I let myself get caught up in it sometimes.
	I mean it feels like, it feels like, the modern world feels like people would
	almost rather be dead than be good.
	People pursue just the most wildly self-destructive habits and perspectives and so on.
	And you're just asking them to think, but their conformity, it feels like it's going to cost them everything.
	It feels like they're going to cost civilization sometimes.
	But it doesn't matter. Just keep going.
	Never turn back. Never question.
	right off a cliff.
	The amount of money that is poured into status garbage is about a zillion times that which is
	poured into truth, wisdom, empiricism, and virtue.
	you you
	you you
	How much will people do rather than pursue simple and powerful self-knowledge and virtue?
	Dogs are used to status symbols now?
	Yeah, yeah. As a younger, successful man out of college, I went through my stage of buying Corvettes trying to impress women.
	I remember telling my friend, if this doesn't get me laid, nothing will.
	Now I don't care who the hell sees me driving my old beat-up car.
	Which begs the question, did your Corvettes get you late?
	I mean, that's good marketing I guess on the part of the Corvette company.
	Corvette company?
	Corvette?
	you you
	Makeup. Of course.
	Glow up! Look at my glow up!
	I'm now a space alien!
	Well, you probably won't like me for who I am, but maybe if I get the buckle fat sucked out of my cheeks
	to the point where I look like a skull with skin stretched over it, maybe that
	would make me likeable.
	I'm a space alien!
	you you
	Well, yeah, makeup does work.
	So she's gone from making a really bad face to making a really pretty face.
	She's gone from no cleavage to cleavage.
	So yeah, no, I get it.
	I get it. Makeup does work.
	It does make people look better.
	But makeup is absolutely robbing you of love, happiness, self-respect, and contentment in the future.
	Makeup is absolutely robbing you Makeup is like a guy renting a car.
	Like, you've seen this plot twist in a bunch of different, some woman falls for some guy, oh, here's my house, it's on the beachfront in Malibu, and it's got, you know, it's three stories and a beautiful view, and it turns out he's just house-sitting and he's an unemployed grad student or something like that, right? So, you're simply wrecking yourself in the future for the sake of attention in the present.
	You're faking. You're faking.
	I mean, I remember seeing there was some comedy with Anna Faris many years ago.
	I can't remember what it was called, but she's in her 30s.
	She's so desperate. Anna Faris is a pretty girl, right?
	My pretty woman, she's so desperate to keep some guy's attention that she wakes up in
	the morning, puts makeup on, gets back to bed, and then pretends she just wakes up that
	way.
	Think of the terror of a woman addicted to makeup when the man wants to go for a swim.
	And that's just the way it is.
	It's just the way it is.
	Or the women who won't eat less, they just want, well, you know, vertical strikes is slimming.
	Like, no, it's not. There's no such thing as slimming.
	Everybody knows exactly how much everybody else weighs.
	Everybody knows.
	Everybody knows exactly how much everybody else weighs.
	Like these guys who fold their hands over their belly.
	Oh my God! You now look like Michael Phelps.
	Bizarre to me. Bizarre to me.
	Can't you guys tell what she really looks like, even with makeup, in real life?
	I get it's hard in pics, but in real life.
	It's tough, man. It's tough.
	It's tough.
	To be comfortable in your own skin and have a relaxed form of natural beauty is tough.
	Pillow on the belly while sitting.
	Stealth move! Yeah, yeah.
	I asked a girl out once.
	She was very against going swimming.
	I didn't take it for a good sign.
	Yeah, yeah. Somebody says, I forget where I read this, but the ideal consumer is someone who lacks an identity, seeks status, and is never satisfied, which is why I would buy things to try and fill a void that would never be filled with objects.
	Yeah. No, I mean, I mentioned this before, like, a friend I used to have years ago was a good friend of mine for many years, and he had a whole wall full of DVDs and CDs and videos, and he bought laser discs, and laser discs were like these giant platters for movies.
	You needed two of them for a movie.
	And he probably spent $20,000, $30,000.
	This would be the equivalent of $60,000, $70,000 now.
	And then he lost his job and he needed money and he looked at this wall and he's like, what the hell was I thinking?
	I'm never going to watch this stuff again.
	Like he would spend Saturdays.
	This is before you could, like now you can get all these live versions of music easy, like on online or whatever.
	But he would go to music record conventions and he would buy live versions, live albums
	and all this.
	For what?
	He never ended up having kids.
	ended up getting divorced.
	I usually look at the bone structure slash symmetry past the makeup.
	I just look at the figure.
	I care less about the face.
	I just look at the figure. The figure is where the personality really shows up.
	The figure is where the personality really shows up.
	Because people with bad figures, people who are overweight, the issue to me is not the weight.
	The issue is that they're almost always overweight because they're not telling the truth to themselves.
	Right? I mean, how many times have you had that conversation with somebody who's overweight and they say, yeah, it's weird, you know, I can only eat 1500 calories a day.
	I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
	Please don't even try.
	I alone in the universe defy the law of physics.
	Isn't the purpose of expensive vacations, in many cases, to gain status via stories, pictures, envy, etc., rather than taking pleasure in travel?
	Well, I don't know. I mean, some people do take genuine pleasure in travel, but for a lot of people it's status.
	Yeah, for sure. For a lot of people it's status.
	Yeah, so when I would meet people, just the first thing that I would look for is self-deception.
	I mean, the first thing that I would look for is self-deception, right?
	So I remember meeting a woman.
	She was kind of overweight, kind of, you know, I won't say kind of trashy looking, but she was taking all of these extra courses and she's like, I'm going to move up in my career.
	And I'm like, I don't see how.
	I mean, there's a whole look, there's a whole thing, there's a whole whatever that you have to deal with.
	So I look for the self-deception, you know, like the women who've got psychic abilities or the women who just really love their cats and it's like, okay, so it's all self-deception.
	So, I mean, makeup definitely is one form of self-deception and lying about what you eat is another form of self-deception.
	So there's lots of forms of self-deception.
	Lots of forms of self deception and people who deceive themselves can't be trusted.
	Do you know the one thing that you need to be safe in your relationships?
	What is the one thing you absolutely need to be safe and secure in your relationships?
	What is the one thing you need to be safe?
	In your relationships. I just had this conversation with the guy whose ex-wife kind of wanted him back to raise her boyfriend's son.
	Honesty? I mean, to take an extreme example, a guy locks you in his basement and says he's going to kill you.
	He's honest with you, right?
	She has to develop authenticity, connection.
	No. The one thing that you need to be safe in your relationships is the virtue of the other person.
	The virtue and the integrity of the other person.
	It's like I learn something new every livestream.
	Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You can't trust people.
	You can only trust their integrity.
	Do you follow? You can't trust people.
	You can only trust their integrity.
	Their commitment to moral standards is the only thing that will ever and ever and ever and ever keep you safe.
	Right? So, if you want a wife who's not going to cheat on you, she has to have integrity and really mean her wedding vows.
	If you want a man who's going to take care of you, he has to really have integrity and virtue and respect his vows.
	There's nothing that will ever keep you safe except integrity and virtue.
	Somebody's really being cranky, and you say, ooh, that's a little harsh, and they're like, ooh, sorry, I don't mean that, because they have a value.
	Don't be harsh, don't be mean to the people, right?
	So they're, then, you know, that's a little harsh, and, oh, sorry, you know.
	They pull themselves back in line, because they have integrity.
	They either pull themselves back in line or there's an external lever called ideal behavior
	that you can pull and it changes their behavior.
	The only safety in this life is integrity.
	you Commitment to virtue.
	That's why it's so bizarre to me that I'm selling safety, integrity, love, security, happiness, and I can't compete with giant canoe-sized pink sippy cups.
	Do you see what I mean? I'm selling truth, honor, decency, virtue, safety, security, love, contentment, happiness, self-respect, a good conscience.
	But over there is a shelf full of beanie babies!
	Beat me, eat me, licorice, rip dungeons, vastly outsell.
	Simple virtues.
	It's just easier to buy a cup, that's all.
	Oh, but you're so wrong, my friend.
	You're so wrong.
	It is so much harder to buy the cup than to be good.
	Because buying the cup puts you in the company of people who care about status.
	Can you imagine if I was a single guy and some woman came up expecting me to be impressed by the fact that she had a Stanley Cup?
	The only person who would be impressed by that would be some other slave denizen, right?
	It's not easy. That's not the answer.
	It's not easy. Just like saying, well, you know, it's just easier to spend your whole life sitting on the couch than to get up and move around.
	It's like, no, it's not. It's not easier.
	It's not easier. I mean, I'll tell you my philosophy.
	You spend time in the gym or you spend time in hospital.
	That's it. That's it.
	That's all you got. That's all you got.
	You spend time in the gym or you spend time in hospital.
	You spend time in the gym or you spend time in the chiropractors?
	You spend time in gym or you spend time in rehab?
	You risk injury in the gym or you guarantee injury in the world?
	You push the food away or you trip over your own stomach?
	you you
	You either restrain yourself Or you get restrained by hospital food.
	You either cut down on what you eat or they feed you less in hospital.
	That's my philosophy. Well, it's easier to not exercise.
	Really? Of course it's not.
	Don't spread that myth. Easier to buy a cup?
	No. It's way harder to buy a cup.
	It's way more horrible to buy a cup.
	Because then you're surrounded by other people who care about cops!
	Choose vegetables or inject insulin.
	Whatever, right?
	Don't spread the myth.
	Don't spread the rumor that it's harder to be good.
	Come on, man.
	Be empirical. Especially if you're over 30 or over 40.
	You all know people who chose conformity.
	You'll know people who chose not thinking, who chose vanity.
	You think that life's easy?
	You think my mother's life has been easy since she turned 40?
	She's close to a half century past 40, and it's been miserable.
	You think that's an easy life?
	I don't understand what you're saying.
	You think that's easier?
	I mean, yeah, you get more immediate praise, I guess, from idiots.
	By buying a cup.
	you But can you imagine a world where people, look at my cup!
	I have a super-duper cup!
	I'm so cool, I have a cup!
	Because I spent money on a cup, and I unboxed the box with the cup in it, and inside was cup!
	Cup! And people were like, underneath, they were like...
	Well, that's stupid. What do you care about a cup for?
	This is ridiculous. Get a life.
	Like, get some virtue. Do something good in the world.
	Go volunteer at a soup kitchen.
	I don't know. Go read books to the blind.
	Go do something.
	What are you wasting your time, effort, and energy on picking up some stupid status cap?
	Because that's why it's so hard to sell virtue, because there's all of this undertow, this
	riptide of all of these people dragging everyone back down into the shallow end where they
	die like mudfish.
	you you
	you you
	you You know, why can't anyone think?
	Because all of the fools in the media say who you're allowed to like or not like, who you must love, who you must hate.
	I'm confused. Can you explain the cup?
	No, listen, listen, the fact that you started the movie three-quarters of the way through is no problem at all.
	Let me just rewind and start the movie again for you.
	The fact that you showed up late is absolutely cause for everyone else to stop and explain everything that we're doing.
	Because, you know, you happen to show up late.
	You go to movies and you show up three-quarters of the way through to the movie and you go to everyone and, hey, what's happening in the movie?
	I wanted some more popcorn, so I missed it.
	What happened in the movie?
	I don't know. Are you the main character in everything you go to?
	I wasn't here.
	What happened? Oh, man.
	I know I showed at the concert halfway through.
	What did they already sing?
	Can you guys tell me what they sang?
	What did they sing? Oh, the audacity is just amazing to me.
	Oh, the audacity is just amazing to me.
	It's like me showing up late to a debate.
	I don't understand this point.
	Okay, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.
	Guys, guys, guys. Stop.
	Stop. Okay, it's a two-hour debate.
	I showed up an hour and a half into the debate, but I don't follow this point.
	Can you... Somebody...
	Stop. Explain to me.
	Like, I need some... Like, oh my God.
	You showed up late. Stop interrupting.
	It bothers me that it's specifically a Stanley Cup.
	Can't be a No brand or a Yeti or a Thermos brand.
	Well, no, it has to be a Stanley Cup.
	And, you know, I don't hate the Stanley Cup company.
	I'm sure their cups are fine.
	I mean, they're doing what they're doing.
	It doesn't bother me that they're doing that.
	It bothers me that people let it be done to them.
	Ah, Brandon being very helpful.
	Stefan is a big hockey fan.
	I don't have a personality therefore, right?
	I don't have a personality, I don't have any thoughts of my own, therefore I have to be pretty.
	I don't have any personality, I don't have any thoughts of my own, therefore I need the cool cup.
	I need to be really good at this video game.
	Uh, I need to drink.
	Uh, I need cleavage.
	Uh, I need big muscles.
	Uh... I wasn't here for the first three scores of the other team, so they don't count.
	Yeah, listen, I'm sorry that I showed up to the football game an hour late.
	Guys, guys, just start again.
	Just start again.
	Just start again. I mean, talk about main character syndrome.
	That's pretty funny. I can't imagine tuning into someone's show later than asking to have all this stuff explained to me.
	Well, what started this stupid cup thing?
	What? Were you not here at the beginning either?
	I went through the whole list of exactly how it came to be, starting in 2015.
	What do you mean? I just went through...
	Were you not here? Did you leave?
	I thought you were here at the beginning. I went through the entire process of how this cup thing came to be.
	I literally did 20 minutes, and you're like, but how did this start?
	Oh my God! I'm going to give myself a concussion with forehead slapping.
	I'm going to need boat oars on trebuchets.
	Oh my gosh.
	I literally did like 20 minutes on how the whole cup thing developed and how it happened and the marketing plans, employees and who they allied with and the steps they took.
	So, I don't know.
	It's just weird to me that if you weren't listening or you weren't here that you would just, well, how did this happen?
	Here's Darwin's theory of evolution in great detail.
	Yeah, but how did we get here?
	I don't know. Is it just me?
	It just seems odd to me if people would do that.
	I try not to be rude, but, you know, it's a little odd.
	It's a little odd. I mean, and I don't know, can you go back and rewind?
	Can you just go back and rewind? I don't know.
	I need to drink 50,000 liters of water a day.
	Well, you know, this is the thing where it's like, you know, you just need to stay hydrated.
	You need to stay hydrated.
	It's like, you know, my body says that shit, right?
	You know what my body says when I need to drink?
	It says, hey, you're thirsty.
	I'm thirsty. And then it's kind of weird.
	Like what I do, it's kind of a funny thing that I do.
	I get up and I have a drink.
	My body will tell me if I'm thirsty.
	I don't need a marketing campaign to tell me how much water I need to drink.
	Let's take that from the top.
	So it's just a funny thing.
	It's like to substitute marketing for biology is very strange to me.
	You might be thirsty, but not even know it.
	By the time you're thirsty, it's too late.
	So we evolved to die of thirst before we're thirsty.
	It's just basic evolution.
	One of the things that our bodies evolved to do was to help us not die.
	You know, they're pretty good, pretty solid at helping us not just fall over and die.
	Pretty good at that stuff.
	By the time you're thirsty, it's too late.
	Really? So then why did we evolve thirst to be too late?
	I mean, it's just bizarre to me.
	You know, we've got, I don't know, four billion years of evolution, pretty well tuned to figure out when we're thirsty.
	You need to drink preemptively to get glow-ups on your skin.
	No, so I can tell you why drinking water helps your skin look younger.
	So... Oh no, I'm thirsty.
	Tell my wife I love her.
	Goodbye. So the reason why drinking lots of water...
	Makes your skin look good is because you spend all your fucking day in the bathroom out of the sunlight.
	So you look younger because you have no sun.
	It turns you into a vampire.
	You have no life.
	Why? Because you're always peeing.
	I went through about a week when I was younger and there were these articles about drink more, drink more, and I went through about a week and I'm like, I simply, I can't spend my entire day either actively peeing or needing to pee.
	Like, I just can't do that. I just like, why would I not listen to my body?
	Why would I not listen to my body?
	By the time you're hungry, you're dead.
	By the time you have even the slightest pang of hunger.
	You're in a car. You're expiring.
	You're looking at a well-rounded sky with dirt being thrown in the hole.
	It's just too late.
	You can't just go to a tap and get a drink, or get some filtered water and have a drink.
	You need an entire intergalactic vat of liquid around with you at all times.
	It needs to be in your backpack.
	It needs to be directly hydrated.
	that you need to be blowing mist up your nose.
	Yeah, fat cells, are they 66% water?
	Yeah, just drink your ass.
	Just get a big giant straw, stick it in your hind and drink your ass.
	Just drink your ass, you know, drink your ass.
	In the same way that, you know, assuming you're not a BMI of pie, then if you're hungry, you can just eat your ass.
	I mean, that's what your body does, just eats your ass.
	A guy taking physiotherapy in university told me, but by the time you're thirsty, you're
	already something like 30% dehydrated.
	I don't know.
	Well, I could listen to my body, or I could listen to some cleavage monster on the internet
	tell me I need to drink more.
	I could. I could listen to 4 billion years of evolution, or somebody with a direct financial interest in getting me to drink more.
	Hmm. I wonder what I should...
	I wonder what I should do.
	What should I do?
	Coffee is, additionally, a diuretic.
	I don't know. Is that true? I don't know if that's true.
	I don't know if that's true. Eventually, animus will be the in thing.
	I mean, technically, they're the in thing just by being animus, but I think I get where you're coming from.
	Yeah, I don't think coffee is a diuretic.
	I mean, you pee more, but you drink more.
	I mean, can coffee cause you to put out more water than you have in your system?
	That would be a miracle of science, if it could.
	It'd be like getting a fountain out of this cup.
	Perpetual. Yeah, I don't think it's a diuretic.
	Enema, it's the opposite of drinking your ass.
	Yeah, I guess so.
	I guess so. That used to be, I never had them, but it used to be a thing when I was a kid.
	I assume it was mostly just creeps.
	I had coffee as a stimulant.
	I really thank you for adding to the conversation.
	I hear food fills you up.
	I hear water hydrates you.
	And philosophy is the exact opposite of shallow materialism.
	Can you imagine an economy that was based on virtue rather than consumption?
	Wouldn't that be amazing? Wouldn't that be amazing?
	I do remember some trendy rich guy talking about getting a coffee enema I mean, I don't know.
	I mean, obviously I'm a marketing genius because I do this show.
	But there's only one name for a coffee enema company, and that one name is Hyper Ass.
	I'd love to do the unboxing of the Hyper Ass.
	It comes with a tube, a lot of coffee, and a Roomba that no one can quite figure out.
	I heard Steph takes donations at freedomain.com slash donate.
	Hyperass. Cocaine butts.
	Stimulanus. Sorry, I could do this literally all day, but I probably shouldn't.
	Enema is a constipation cure.
	I don't know. Just eat well.
	Get your fiber.
	Excuse me. We have traveled the journey.
	We have traveled the ways, my friend.
	We have traveled the ways.
	You know, I... Espresso.
	Nice. Espresso.
	Very nice. Very nice.
	Very good. Very good.
	Turning coffee!
	You know, they check your prostate.
	What is it that you see the face of the libertarian finding out they have a body part called the prostate?
	Ah! Turn in coffee.
	I like that one. Even though it's mine, it's still pretty good.
	Coffee enemas are holistic treatments for cancer, according to the Gerson therapy.
	I don't know. It's kind of like the mask thing.
	You know, if... If flushing out your bowels with a bunch of water was really good for you, wouldn't we have retained that or have that ability somehow in our bodies, right?
	Oh. And a max.
	All right. I don't know what some of the good names for coffee.
	Can't do the match with latte.
	Last day. Could we do anything with, I don't know, Kappa.
	Cappuccino? Cappuccinos? Cappuccinos!
	Cappuccinos? It's not too bad.
	It's not too bad. What I would want from a coffee enema, though, was foam that you could write on.
	Like foam that would really come out beautifully that you could write on.
	Thank you for...
	Well, that's very kind.
	I really appreciate your donation.
	Thank you. Why not?
	I appreciate that. That's very kind and puts a spring in my step in a song.
	Rectal Roast? You know, I would just, uh, I would just, if I had a lot of coffee enemas, I just want them to be decaf, otherwise my ass would be up all night.
	Don't you hate that? You go to sleep, but your ass is still up, twerking.
	Hey, settle down here!
	You're disturbing my...
	Backwash from my Stanley Cup.
	The tide is coming in and out.
	Yay, made it. Oh, welcome, my guardian angel.
	Welcome to Fantasy Island.
	Colonoscopy? Ooh, that's nice.
	Colonoscopy. Colonoscopy.
	Very nice. How about between the round ground?
	Between the rounds? Grounds.
	There we go. Economic status based on objective contributions to human wheel.
	Yeah, yeah. Some of these uber-wealthy have essentially reached financial immortality.
	Try philanthropy with virtue as the currency.
	Yeah. I got two bangers.
	I'm content. Ah, right.
	Brown-eye brewing.
	Brewing. I do not want to see that unboxing.
	Actually, it'd be great if it had the eye of Sauron to let you know when you were done.
	Brewing, that's good. Very nice.
	Oh, we are hitting the heights of Socratic wisdom at this third eye coffee.
	Cap your cheeks, though.
	That might be a bit of a stretch, but that's pretty good.
	Oh, my gosh.
	Or maybe the tagline could be, keep your friends close, but your enemas closer.
	Keep your friends close, but your enemas closer.
	Something like that. This is philosophy top tier.
	Absolutely. Absolutely.
	It's the Murray Rothbard brew frother.
	It's called the enema of the state.
	I don't know why that had to be Batman voice, but anyway.
	Ah.
	And if you haven't done it for a while, it's mold faithful.
	you Sorry, we literally could do this all night.
	It would be absolutely unwise and we'd probably lose our minds at the end of it, but...
	Ah, top tier.
	A brappuccino! Also nice.
	Oh, it's a nice.
	Yes, it comes with its own trampoline vibrator so that you get the right amount of froth.
	Hold in your sneeze and paint the wall.
	You can also paint the wall with a brush.
	you you
	Quick wipe coffee. Yes, that's right.
	It would have to come with wipes in the shape of coffee filters, no question, right?
	That would be an absolute.
	I think the multi-billionaires of the future will be those who hold three bitcoins.
	some more yeah yeah cafe seepage yeah ah it makes you feel good and it makes you feel bad
	It is, in fact, a frenema.
	You know, like frenemies. It's a frenema.
	It's really like philosophy.
	It's a frenema. Cleans you out.
	Kind of uncomfortable. It's your friend.
	Oh my gosh.
	Keep your fiber closed, but your enemas closer.
	Nice.
	Nice.
	Um, I guess the coffee anima that would be the Americana would be you just stuff a Big
	Mac up your butt.
	It's an Americano.
	I remember my daughter once, she ordered a sandwich at a restaurant in America and it had three layers of bread.
	Three layers of bread.
	I spent way of a budget a couple episodes ago, but gotta get another tip in.
	Fun stuff. Thank you.
	I appreciate that. Thank you.
	I appreciate that. That's very kind.
	French pressure. French pressure wash.
	Nice.
	Nice.
	Or something that tickles your prostate which is Nespresso.
	Bye.
	you There's actually an Enema Spa in Vancouver.
	It would have to be Vancouver, wouldn't it?
	The left coast. There's actually...
	This is not mine. There's actually an Enema Spa in Vancouver that sells hard and convinces rich people they need to do it daily to be healthier than other people.
	How bad has your conscience got to be that you think that pressure washing your ass is how you get to be better and healthier?
	Like, that's... How crap-stained is your conscience that you feel that the natural cleaning power of your bowels is just not enough?
	It's just not enough. That's wild.
	That is wild. When people do some crazy stuff for health, enemas is one of those things.
	I'm no expert, obviously, I don't know, but they just do some crazy stuff for health.
	Was it transfusions from the blood of teenagers these days is some crazy stuff that goes on?
	Yeah, they can't get rid of their shit fast enough.
	Yeah, it's wild.
	I assume it's all just bad conscience stuff myself.
	That's what I assume. I mean, the idea that we haven't evolved self-cleaning bowels is just completely bizarre to me.
	I mean, that's just not a thing, right?
	It's just not a thing. I remember seeing a show, gosh, it was about a psychiatrist many years ago, with the guy from The Simpsons, but playing a serious role, and he had a patient who just simply wouldn't poop.
	He just wouldn't poop.
	It's $126 a flush.
	Wow. Wow.
	Have you ever tried these oxygen bars?
	You ever tried those? It's free in the air, but we'll give it to you for a price.
	Yeah, I tried one of those once.
	That voodoo stuff don't mean nothing to me.
	Where's that from? She said, you like it now, but you'll learn to love it later.
	Oh, that's right. Robbie Williams.
	Somewhere down the crazy river.
	It's a good song. Why do you always come down to Nick's Cafe?
	I don't know, the wind just kinda blew me this way.
	Well I suppose people used to go to Priests for absolution, and now you just go to the
	Vancouver Spa for our solution.
	you They had neon oxygen tubes.
	Yeah. Wild.
	I mean, I was curious. I tried it.
	I was just curious to see what it was like, and I guess it was interesting to try, but Lord above.
	Lord above. All right.
	Any other last comments or questions?
	Champagne animals would be quite exciting.
	If that didn't make your nipples burp, I don't know what would.
	Champagne Animas. Mimosa!
	Yeah, I'm just going to hang on to the cork.
	Because I don't want to bubble my pants on the way home.
	Pure oxygen is a controlled substance, opiate-like effects.
	Oh, is that right? I don't know. I don't know.
	What's that old Eddie Murphy song?
	Boogie in the butt, butt, butt, boogie in the butt.
	It was pretty funny. Put a Lamborghini in your butt.
	Pretty funny. Thanks for the great laughs and streams as always.
	Thank you, Lee. I appreciate that.
	That's very, very kind. Bottle of champagne, yeah.
	I love that, was it, real pain?
	Oh, champagne for my real friends.
	Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends.
	I almost liked that one. Agh!
	You know, we should just come up with goofy shit to riff on the last half hour on the show.
	It's actually kind of funny. We used to do this show, Late Night Shits and Giggles, many years ago.
	And it was actually quite a lot of fun.
	We should do that again.
	I'm going to put out a bonus to Subscribestar members because we had a bit of a faff up.
	And so I'm going to do some stuff for Subscribestar and for people who subscribe on the website and through Telegram as well.
	Just so you know. Yeah, shits and giggles.
	They were funny. It was basically just like whatever goofy stuff we could come up with that seemed funny in the moment.
	Back in the Skype cast days.
	Yeah, we should do those again. Those were a lot of fun.
	Those were a lot of fun. I still literally remember some of the jokes from like 15 years ago.
	Oh, I genuinely think that there's a lot of this stuff.
	It's just like, there's no way we can get people to buy this.
	And then people are like, bet we can.
	And they're like, come on.
	I mean, it's a water jug.
	How could we possibly get people to buy a water jug for 50 bucks and line up?
	No, come on. And they're like, no, no, we can.
	Mark. Mark.
	Marchiato. Marchiato! There we go.
	There we go. Yeah, Crocs.
	So when I was, I guess, in my mid-teens, there was like the polo shirts, right?
	You couldn't just have a shirt.
	You had to have the polo shirt. And if you had the polo shirt, you were super cool.
	And, unfortunately, women's susceptibility to status over virtue drives men's pursuit to some degree of status over virtue, and then you just end up with a whole bunch of craptastic people raising amoral children.
	The status is the enemy of the good.
	Because status is a way to get endorphins through superiority rather than the encouragement to virtue, right?
	It's win-lose, right?
	Virtuous win-win. You convince somebody to be virtuous, it's like that old analogy.
	If you light someone's candle, but your candle, your candle doesn't go out.
	So if you get someone else to be virtuous, everything's better.
	But if you are status-driven, then your success is other people's failure.
	It's fundamentally cold and exploitive, right?
	I mainly donate through subscribe so I think I'll be able to do more.
	Then here, never check Subscribestar's website.
	I guess it'll be shared on Discord.
	Yes, yes, it'll be shared on Discord for sure.
	Yeah, the Subscribestar stuff will go through Discord.
	We'll do it that way. Because I owe y'all, I owe y'all.
	Alright, well listen guys, thanks a lot.
	I appreciate the show tonight.
	I massively appreciate everybody's support over the course of this evening.
	One very generous donation in particular.
	I thank you very much for that.
	I am humbled and will always, always, always try to provide maximum value for What it is that we do here.
	And I just love you guys to death for giving me the opportunity to do this.
	And please check out, you know, let's do this.
	Please check out the Peaceful Parenting podcast, which is...
	I put out a new chapter this week.
	just because you all are here, you can get this, put it into your RSS catcher, your podcast
	catcher and it will get you all 16 sections of the Peaceful Parenting book and I appreciate
	everyone's patience as I sort of went my way through. There's a lot of data to gather as
	well and organize, which I'm not doing all the footnotes in the audio book because it
	would be a little tough to follow the flow, but it'll be available in the other versions.
	So yeah, just check out that show and that show is really good.
	Check out The Truth About Sadism.
	You can get that at freedomain.locals.com.
	Also at subscribestar.com.
	You can set yourself up there as well.
	freedomain.com to help out the show.
	I really, really appreciate everyone's support tonight.
	Lots of love. We will see you guys on the morning of the Sunday.
	And have yourself a gorgeous, gorgeous rest of the night.
	Lots of love. I'm up here. I'll talk to you soon.

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