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April 15, 2024 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
01:54:39
The True Source of Corruption!
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Good morning, everybody.
Hope you're doing well.
Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain.
Free Domain.
Free Domain.
Freedom is the main thing.
And freedom should be your domain.
So, Free Domain.
That's where the name came from, anyway.
So, I hope you're doing well.
It is the 14th of April, 2024.
We just had a chat before the show, for those who were here, about Israel and Iran, so I guess you can check that out in the archives, but there's a lot of stuff to worry about, I suppose, if you want, but that ain't one of them right now, in my opinion, so.
Tips, of course, welcomefreedomain.com if you'd like to help out the show.
And we have a first question.
We have a first question.
By the way, did you know that both liberal and conservative media is down enormously from this exact time in 2020?
40%, 50%, 60%?
That both conservative and liberal media, online media in particular, podcasting and the live streams and so on, is down enormously from this same time period, I guess relative to the election, 200 days or whatever.
Relative to the election, it's down significantly on both the left and the right.
I think a lot of it has to do with Facebook deprioritizing news after accusations of misinformation.
Misinformation.
You know, it's funny.
Oh, it's funny, but it's not funny, right?
Misinformation is, you know, the big bugaboo.
And people are just so concerned that there's all this misinformation out there, right?
Here's how you know whether people are full of shit or not.
And most people are caca-enabled up to the eyeballs.
So, here's the basic thing.
This is just your Skepticism 101 lesson of the day.
Well, hopefully there'll be more than one.
But here's what happens.
If you're really, really scared about What is it?
They have misinformation, disinformation, and I think a term they invented just for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is malinformation.
It's true, but it could be harmful.
It's true, but it could be harmful.
So if you were genuinely concerned about misinformation and you weren't using it as a tool of blunt force censorship, what you would do, of course, is you would revise the entire school curricula to focus on teaching children how to be skeptical, how to recognize true from false statements, how to deal with primary sources, and how to reason their way through presented arguments to make sure that they could discard arguments that are obviously false or manipulative or unsourced or irrational.
Right?
That's what they would do.
Oh my gosh!
We have a plague of misinformation.
Well, the plague of misinformation It's just the shadow cast by a bad education.
Right?
So if people are very susceptible to misinformation it's because they don't know how to epistemologically determined truth from falsehood.
They don't know how to apply reason and how to be skeptical of evidence and how to follow the money and how to look for compromised interests and so on.
So they don't know.
So what you would do, of course, if you were really concerned about this as a society, then you would revamp your education and ask, I don't know, philosophers or whoever, what's the best way to determine truth from falsehood?
And you would teach people thought literacy.
I mean, because the question of misinformation is an epistemological question.
How do you determine truth from falsehood?
But of course, nobody's doing that.
I mean, they're very, very concerned about inoculation.
You see, vaccine, you know, to prevent an illness by making sure people are resistant to the illness.
So they would revamp, particularly the high school curricula, they would revamp it from the ground up to teach Socratic style reasoning and questioning and skepticism.
Of course, nobody's doing that.
Nobody's doing that for completely obvious reasons.
I just think that was really, I don't know, I just think that's really funny.
And of course, nobody's pointing that out, right?
Well, isn't misinformation, isn't susceptibility to misinformation a complete condemnation of the educational system?
Isn't that the case?
And if you're susceptible to misinformation, it's because nobody taught you how to think.
So we've got to teach people how to think.
Oh, no, no, no.
Whoa, slow down there, bucko.
We don't want to be teaching kids how to think.
See, we want them to be susceptible to propaganda.
But propaganda we disagree with, we'll call misinformation and censor.
But we want them to be susceptible to our propaganda.
Right?
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh.
It's just wild.
Can you imagine if...
Children were actually taught how to differentiate truth from falsehood.
What would happen in society?
I mean, society as we understand it wouldn't be a thing anymore.
All right.
Are you hoping well?
I am very well.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Mark Twain, if you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed.
If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed.
Right.
Did you see the Japan trial that came out April the 8th?
If not, please do.
I think I read something about that, but I couldn't tell you much useful about it.
But I'm going to make a note and I will look into that.
Thank you.
It's really, really important that children be able to determine truth from falsehood.
Oh, should we teach them that philosophically?
No, are you crazy?
We wouldn't fall over.
No, my God.
See, people want, like the powers that be, want children to be susceptible to their brain viruses, just not the brain viruses of those they disagree with.
So they'll call the other brain viruses misinformation, and they'll call their own brain viruses education in the media.
But we wouldn't want any broad-spectrum inoculation against propaganda.
Oh my gosh.
That is so funny.
And, I mean, isn't... Am I wrong?
This just seems... I don't want to be overly precious.
I don't want to be overly... But isn't this just obvious?
Misinformation's a big problem.
Okay, well, we've got to really teach people how to determine truth from falsehood.
Let's get a push for that in the educational system.
Nope.
Okay, then you don't care about it.
Then you don't, uh, you don't care about it.
Then it's just manipulation and trickery and all that kind of stuff.
In the future, I would love to hear your thoughts on the new Fallout TV show.
Why?
I assume it's empty sci-fi manipulative propaganda.
I haven't watched it.
I wouldn't even know how to watch it.
But, yeah.
Alright, let's get to your...
Yeah, and thoughts on a TV show is a pretty big investment.
Like, isn't there a whole season?
So what is that?
10 episodes of an hour each?
So you're asking me to do 10 hours?
If you make it worth my while, but you know, you got to think of the opportunity costs, right?
Like I do have a business to run.
I have payroll to meet.
I have investments in upgrades and so on to meet.
And so if you want me to spend my time on something, It's probably quite, and this is just useful in general, like, here's a big life lesson for you, and I'm sorry to be pompous about that, and maybe you already know this, but if you want people to do something, you should frame it in terms of benefit for them.
You should frame it in terms of benefit for them.
Because the fact that you're asking someone to do something, and I'm glad that you're asking me, I really am, and I appreciate the question.
This isn't anything negative or critical at all.
I'm just, you know, a life tip, right?
So if you want me to review a TV show, what you can do is try and figure out how it can benefit me, Philosophy, the show, other listeners as a whole.
So for instance, if you want me to review the new Fallout show, and I'm not picking on you at all, like I'm really thrilled that you asked and I think it's great, But sort of life lesson is, okay, so you want me to do something, how does it help me?
How does it help me?
So you could say, man, this is the number one show, you know, so many millions of people are watching it, they're obviously really fascinated by the worldview, and you could really get information across to people by analyzing the world of the Fallout TV show.
You know, it's had the fastest growth of any TV show in the last five years, it's blah blah blah, and there are this many million Fallout game players, it was the biggest, like, so you could tell me something about the size of the audience I could reach by doing what you want.
Stating you want something is interesting information.
But can you imagine going to a car dealership and the car salesman says, I'd really like you to buy the most expensive car.
What would you think?
Genuinely, generally, what would you think?
You go to a car dealership, let's say, I don't know, you go to Lexus or Honda or something, and let's say there's a car that's $100,000 and you go in and before even asking you your name or any small talk or any inquiries as to the kind of car you're looking for, he steers you to the $100,000 car and he says, Hey man, I really, really want you to buy this car.
I mean, what would you think?
Would you respect that salesperson?
And listen, man, life is about sales.
Life is about sales and sales are about finding win-win.
Right?
So if you're a salesman in a car dealership, what you want to do is you want to make inquiries.
You want, how many kids do you have?
Do you have a long commute?
Uh, do you take road trips?
Uh, you know what, you know, what's your budget or what are you thinking?
And you will try and steer the person towards the car that works for them.
And then you will talk about all the benefits of that car and, and so on.
Right?
Now, somebody might say, I just won the lottery, and yes, sell me the most expensive car on the lot and give every option.
I remember when I was working in Pizza Hut back in the 80s, a customer came in who was drunk and demanded an extra large pizza with every single topping.
And the guy was like, it's not going to cook.
I don't care, man.
So you could check off every option.
I want a moon roof.
I want an eclipse roof.
I want a sun roof.
I want a Saturn roof.
I want a multi-dimensional time travel black hole canopy.
You can check off everything and then that's the right car for you.
But just in general, and listen, I'm just trying to help you get what you want, right?
I'm trying to give you a way to get what you want.
That if you want someone to do something, frame it in a way of how it benefits them.
And when you want people to do something, Talking about how it benefits them is important because that way you are not perceived as exploitive.
Now, of course, asking me to review this, whatever show it is, television or I assume it's somewhere online, asking me to review the show, it's not exploitive.
But what I'm saying is that if in your life as a whole you just say, I want, I want, I like, I like, I like, without thinking of how it benefits the other person, Then you are probably not going to get much of what you want in this life.
Or you're going to be surrounded by people who've just been programmed to do what other people want without thinking of their own self-interest, which means you're going to be surrounded by pretty broken and often resentful people.
So I know maybe this sounds like I'm out and out of a molehill, but I like to take these smaller lessons and turn them into something larger so that you can get what you want.
You want to ask?
You want to ask a woman out?
You have to give her some indication of how she's going to be better off going out with you.
Now whether that's sparkling conversation ahead of time, whether that's some sort of resource display, whether you share her worldview and that's been somewhat established, and so on because you know for a woman to go out on a date
at least back in the day I don't know if people seem to wear pajama pants in
public these days but back in the day for a woman to commit to a date was a big
thing I know again we go let's hook up culture but I don't think
it's part of this culture of the people who are here but
for a woman to commit to a date is kind of a big thing She's kind of got to get her hopes up.
She's going to tell her friends.
She might buy a new outfit.
She's going to spend, you know, hours on hair and makeup.
She's going to put her best foot forward.
She's, you know, she's thrilled.
It's very exciting.
It's a whole preparation ritual.
You know, men, you've seen that meme, like how men shower.
And there's the outline of a man and the armpits are glowing and the groin is glowing.
And it's like, that's where the soap goes.
And for the rest of it, eh, water will get it.
Water will wash it.
So?
We don't do much to prepare for dates, but for women, it's a whole assembly ritual.
You know, like in the same way that Dr. Frankenstein made the monster.
Except this monster would be very pretty.
So there's a whole makeup.
And then, of course, they tell their friends, I've got a date because that's a status thing.
But that means, of course, they're going to have to tell their friends how the date went.
So it's a big investment and a big deal for a woman to say yes to a date.
So why would she say yes to a date?
Obviously, you want to go on a date with her because that's beneficial to you.
That's why you're asking, how is it going to be beneficial to her?
Now one of the things you can do, of course, is you can give.
The woman a high-status date.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean that it's expensive, but you give a woman a high-status date so she can take selfies and brag to her friends where you took her.
And it could just be something really imaginative.
Maybe there's a festival of Chinese lanterns, you know, half an hour out of town or whatever.
Let's go see the festival of Chinese lanterns.
And that way she gets pictures of herself with Chinese lanterns behind it.
So, you know, I'm just saying, how do you make it beneficial to her to go on a date with you?
How do you make it beneficial To other people.
Because, you know, I talked about this in my job interview thing where I was saying, how do you make it beneficial for the company to hire you?
Of course, you want the job.
That's why you're there.
Why should they hire you?
Why me?
So, you know, I do try to point out when I'm asking for donations that, you know, we have at this point three people working and they've got to pay bills, I've got to pay bills and it's important.
So, I would say I want to buy the car too but I can't afford it.
Well no, hopefully you would... hopefully you would not do that.
Hopefully you would say oh I'm sorry I left something in my car or make whatever excuses you made and you would leave that car dealership.
Because a salesperson who was only interested in fattening his wallet At your expense.
Because you may not want that car.
Well, that salesman would not be somebody you want to buy from.
Does that make sense?
If some car salesman says, I want you to buy the most expensive car, and he's on commission, which I assume he would be, or maybe he's the owner and he wants to pump up his numbers, I want you to buy the most expensive car, you wouldn't deal with that salesman, would you?
Because that salesman would not have your best interest.
Like if you're looking for a house, And you call up a real estate agent and they say, I have the perfect house for you.
It's $4.5 million.
Man, that commission is going to be huge, right?
I'm going to make, I don't know, a hundred thousand, 200,000 bucks on that commission.
So yeah, you should totally buy this house before he even asks what you're looking for.
Then he's like steers you towards the house that benefits him the most in terms of commission.
Well, You shouldn't deal with that real estate agent.
And, of course, there wouldn't be a real estate agent that would all be successful who did that.
Does that make sense?
All right.
I will email you, Steph.
I'd like to sponsor a show talking about that.
Perhaps one or two episodes plus synopsis.
I thought there were some interesting things you could observe on in-group preference and parallels to today.
Well, I'm sorry, and I hate to be annoying too, but you can't sponsor a show.
Like, you can't pay me to do a show.
That's not how I work.
Because I'm not... I mean, obviously, if I was here for the money, I would still be in the software business back in the day, right?
Because I took a massive pay cut to start doing this.
And so...
You can't pay me to do something?
Like, people do offer me this, like, I want a private call-in show, and I'll pay you, and I'm like, no, the call-in shows are for the benefit of the world, and so on.
And so, I hate to be annoying, but I don't have a thing where you can pay me to do something.
I work for the benefit of philosophy, not on an hourly rate, if that makes sense.
So, if you can tell me how, because what I'm trying to do is bring philosophy to as wide an audience as possible.
While telling the truth, it's the big asterisk there, because obviously deplatforming, it shaves back your audience just a smidge, you know?
It squeegees it a little bit, it squeeze boxes it a little bit, it car crushes it a little bit.
So, have the largest possible audience while telling the truth.
And so, if I'm doing something that's paid for one person, but I put it out in general, it wouldn't be pointed to getting philosophy out to as many people as possible.
So, again, I really appreciate the offer and the challenge is to find a way that it benefits me that isn't just cash-based, if that makes sense.
And by benefits me, I mean benefits philosophy.
If you can tell me how, reviewing this show, Is going to help philosophy as a whole, right?
Because here's the thing too.
It's interesting to me.
If we share the same goal, right, like if we share the same goal, which is to spread philosophy, then you can tell me how this is going to help spread philosophy, and that appeals to my self-interest of spreading philosophy, and to yours too, I think.
If it's just something you want me to do for your own personal preference, then we don't have the same, and there's nothing wrong with that, I'm just saying we don't have the same value alignment.
I want to spread philosophy, and you want me to do something just for you.
Does that make sense?
So you understand that my goal is to spread philosophy and so if you want me to do something, tell me how it's going to spread philosophy.
Don't just offer me cash, which again is nice and I appreciate the thought, but find a way that this is like if you get value alignment, you get what you want, right?
Because here's the thing too.
One of the things that's interesting about being a public figure is that, and this is really, really interesting for me, hopefully for you, everybody tells you what they want you to do, but I'm never sure how serious people are, right?
It could just be, oh, I like the show, I'd love to get Steph's take and it's just like a passing thought, right?
You don't particularly care about it in any deep way.
Be like, I wonder what Steph would think of this show.
I'm going to ask him to do the show.
Is it really important to you?
Now, if it's not really important to you, and you haven't told me anything about how this show is doing in terms of its general reach, then I'm going to assume that it's not important much to people as a whole.
And again, this is not about this show.
This is about how to get what you want in life.
Now, if somebody says, Steph, this show is important.
I mean, obviously, I want to hear what you have to say about it, but, you know, we've got 10 million people watching this show, and they're this demographic, and, you know, do a little, you know, honestly, it's like five minutes research to figure out how popular the show is.
And, you know, so-and-so's behind it, and they've done this other great work that's really philosophical, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
So if you've done 10 minutes of work to sell me on reviewing this show, I know it's kind of important.
If you're just like, hey man, it'd be great if you reviewed the show, and you can't, I hate to say can't even be bothered, because that sounds really critical, but you really can't be bothered to do a couple of minutes of research to tell me how it's going to help philosophy as a whole, then I assume that you're just indifferent to it as a whole, if that makes sense.
I assume that you're indifferent, you don't really I want to get my thoughts on this show, because if you did, you would make it valuable for philosophy as a whole, and therefore our goals would be in alignment.
Does that make sense?
So if you're just like, if you just toss off, and again, I'm giving you this kind of feedback because people don't, right?
If you ask someone to do something and they don't care about it because you don't seem to care about it, they won't respond and they won't give you this information.
They'll just move on, right?
I'm trying to tell you all the things that people think about that they're not telling you, if this makes sense.
I want to get this across to you.
All the things that people are thinking about that they're not telling you.
Which is, how important is it to you?
So, I remember once, a fellow was very interested in having me do a particular topic, and he emailed me a couple of times, and that kind of persistence is important too, so it's really important, and I was like, ah, you know, the research is going to be this time-consuming, I think it's a rather specialized topic and all of that.
And he ended up doing all the research for me.
And then he ended up telling me why it would be a big deal and so on, right?
And he was right.
But I had to see how important it was to him.
Because the last thing you want to do is spend your life chasing after people's momentary whims.
Ah, it'd be great if you did this topic.
Okay, I'll spend two days doing this topic.
And nobody cares, right?
That's because then it's all the opportunity costs of all the other topics I could have done.
That would have made a real difference.
And remember, you're competing with all of the other things that I could be doing, right?
I mean, because I have a fairly wide repertoire of shows and show types that I can do.
I don't think there's anyone who's wider, as far as I can tell.
Like, I don't know people who do this sort of deep personal dives into people's lives.
In terms of the call-in shows, I don't think people do abstract analytics in terms of ethical theories and do some economics and politics, though that's mostly the past of course, and movie reviews and dream analyses.
Like, I'm just, like I can do so many different kinds of shows that the opportunity costs for me I don't know how to answer the questions and so on.
The opportunity cost for me of reviewing a television series is big.
And again, I'm willing to do it, but not based upon you just having a whim, if that makes sense.
And again, whims are fine and all of that, but I get requests to do things I can't even tell you how many times a day.
Oh, you should focus on this.
Oh, you should focus on that.
I mean, oh, you look at this Japanese court case.
It's like, oh, I could look into the Japanese court case.
But how many listeners do I have in Japan, do you think?
Right?
So think about how what you want from others benefits them, and that's a superpower in terms of getting what you want.
I should you should review this show you should go I really want you to look at
this movie and it's like somebody sent me a request for it like it's an obscure
German movie from 12 years ago and it's like why on earth do they do that now you
could say well there's this underground movement and they really care about it
and they're very passionate about philosophy and it's like okay but how
many of them speak English and would follow a complex review
So, if you want me to do something, tell me how it benefits, not just me, I mean, you could say, because it's not about just benefiting me, right?
That would be me going to get a haircut.
How does it benefit me?
Well, it makes me look slightly less like an art garfunkel dandelion, but how does it benefit philosophy, right?
Because I'm here to benefit philosophy.
If you want me to do something, tell me how it's going to benefit philosophy.
Taking this time ahead of time to figure out whether you have value to add someone's goals, right?
So that you want a job.
The goal of the business is to make money, right?
And so how can I help the manager?
How can I help the business make money?
It's not about you getting a paycheck.
It's about what can I contribute?
When you focus on what you can contribute, What you get tends to go up.
When you focus on what you can get, you tend to stagnate.
Tell me if this makes sense or if this is helpful or useful.
Let me just take a break for that, right?
I tend not to trust any salespeople.
Well no, but good salespeople are trying to facilitate you getting what you want.
Is there an easy way to identify an honest salesman from a snake oil type sleazy type?
Yeah, because a snake oil salesman will ask you questions in order to break down your defenses.
An honest salesman will ask you questions in order to further facilitate your needs, like meeting your needs.
Does this make sense?
So an honest salesman will say, okay, tell me what kind of car you're looking for?
How long did you have your last car?
What kind of features are you looking for?
What kind of price point are you looking for?
And we'll try and steer you in the direction of a car that genuinely meets your needs.
Whereas a snake oil type salesman will just ask you a bunch of questions like, what's your budget?
Oh, okay, well, I can steer you towards this, right?
Because it's about meeting his needs of income rather than both your needs, right?
Somebody says, well said, makes sense here.
Understood, I will make my case and come back to you with an email.
Yeah, and this is true in your life.
If you focus on facilitating other people's needs, you will find it remarkably easy to achieve what you want.
If you focus on helping to serve other people's needs, You will find it remarkably easy to get what you want.
Because it's also a way of making sure you don't exploit people.
A good salesman will find out if what they offer is of benefit to you.
Yes, a good salesman is there to serve you.
Now, I don't know if you've ever had this situation, but if you've ever had a situation where you go in and you're talking to a salesman and he's like, you know what?
Nothing that we have meets your needs but I know of this place across the street that might have what you're looking for.
Don't you remember that?
you'll remember that salesman and if you ever have a need you will go back to that salesman
and because he's there to meet your needs even if it means he doesn't make money.
Yes, Steph this is helpful.
Currently thinking on how to get a woman on a dating site to go on a first date.
Right.
So you have to make it different, interesting, engaging, and have it meet her needs.
So what is a woman looking for when she might want to go on a date?
Well, she's looking to be thought about, she's looking to be planned for, she's looking to be treasured, she's looking to be taken.
Some place that's interesting and fascinating and frankly that she can brag to her friends and that's nothing wrong with that.
I don't say this like it's some big negative thing.
I assume you want a pretty girl in part so you can show her picture to your friends and she's like, wow, she's so pretty, you know, I'm so jealous, whatever, right?
There's nothing wrong with that.
That's a sort of, it's not a secondhand her life.
It's a sort of social validation thing.
So what kind of date?
So you would study her interests and you would create a date for her that reflects her interests,
pleasures and passions and that she can brag about to her friends.
I've had that from time to time and it's always like, thank you so much. Yeah.
Get on a first date.
So if you say, let's just meet up at a coffee shop I mean, how's that going to give her social status with her friends?
Oh, yeah, this great guy messaged me.
Oh, what does he want to do?
Meet, drink coffee?
Oh, come up with something a little different and a little interesting, right?
A little off the beaten path, a little thinking about her needs.
I mean, let's say she's really into dogs and you decide to, hey, on our first date, let's go to a dog show.
Right?
She's gonna be like, oh, this guy, yeah, he noticed I was interested in dogs and he wants to take me to a dog show.
Oh, that's so sweet!
You know, come on, man, you know this stuff.
I don't have to tell you this stuff, right?
I don't have to tell you this stuff.
You want to think about how you're going to look to her friends, because at some point, if the dating goes well, she's going to introduce you to her friends and she is going to want her friends to envy her for going on a date with you.
She's going to want her friends.
And you can say this is shallow, but you know, whatever, right?
I mean, we're not here because all of our ancestors were totally deep and philosophical, so we can get mad at it if we want, but...
Why is so much of my brain devoted to my heart functioning?
It's like, well, it's not philosophical, but it's kind of necessary, but not sufficient for philosophy for you to have a heartbeat.
So yeah, how are you going to make her friends jealous?
Now, maybe you're not a very tall or fantastic looking guy or whatever, but you can make her friends jealous by being super thoughtful and figuring out what, because here's the thing, the woman going on a date, she's putting herself in a vulnerable position, so she See, if she goes on a date with you and you don't text her back or whatever, she's really crushed, right?
So, she wants to know that you are not just asking her, hey, let's go for coffee, see if there's a spark, see, right?
That's indifferent.
she wants to know that you're interested enough in her that you'll do a bit of
research and put a bit of thought into asking her out and what you're going to do.
I mean I remember dating, wanting to date a girl who was really into the Goldman book The Princess Bride
which is a fun book actually.
And so, I wanted to ask her out.
I looked around, and this is back pre-internet, so I had to look through newspapers and stuff, and I found a place that was showing the movie The Princess Bride.
And I said, I'm sure you've seen it a million times before.
I've never seen it.
I know you love the book.
Let's go to the movie.
And we ended up dating.
I mean, don't you?
I mean, people want to feel special, right?
They want to feel like you're really thinking about them.
They want to feel like you've really considered their thoughts and needs.
So, I mean, that's, uh, that's how life works.
I mean, as you know, I love talking about UPB.
Now, how often do I get to debate UPB with people?
Well, it happened in the donor-only audio chat last week, but before that it had been months, months, months and months and months since I had been able to talk about UPB.
Now, when it comes to my inbox, Because, you know, call-in shows can also be... The call-in shows don't have to be, I'm sad about something in my life, help me.
Which I have no problem with because that really does help spread philosophy and that's what people want.
And what you want, in terms of helping me spread philosophy, it has to be contingent upon what you want.
Now, if somebody emailed me and said, I have these and these and these criticisms of UPB, Let's have a debate.
I'd be thrilled.
I'd be thrilled.
That never happens.
That would be what I would like the most.
And listen, you're not here to please me.
I'm just telling you how to get what you want in life.
What I want to do is spread philosophy.
And if people said I've got a detailed review of UPB...
Here's where I think the problems are.
I would love to do that.
I would love to do that.
Now, what people want, though, in terms of There you call in.
Call-ins don't have to be about personal issues.
They can be about philosophy, they can be about epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, whatever, right?
Could be criticisms of me, it could be a debate, but people don't want that.
What they want to do is talk about how philosophy can help them in their personal lives, which I'm fine with.
I'm absolutely fine with, and those conversations are always very interesting to me, they're very interesting to the audience, and it's not, you know, obviously abstract, pure, moral, analytical philosophy, but it is applied philosophy, which is what's been missing.
We've had a lot of analytical philosophy over the history of philosophy, we haven't had a lot of, here's how philosophy is applied or can be applied in your actual life.
So I do want People are asking for, because that helps serve philosophy, and it's not just about my preferences, it's about what's best for philosophy.
Right?
Now, the reason... Sorry.
Thanks, Jared, for the note, and thank you to the donor.
I will get to that question in a sec.
So, this isn't out yet.
But I'll sort of give you an example, right?
So, I got a call-in request on Friday, and The show's been recorded, so this is not, you know, some private revelation.
This is a topic... Immediate crisis!
Wife had sex with a stripper two days before our wedding, told me during the honeymoon, don't know what to do.
We were high school sweethearts, we met, blah, blah, blah.
We got married seven days ago and she had sex with a stripper at my parents' house nine days ago.
She just told me last night, halfway through our honeymoon.
I've had long-standing self-esteem issues, and we've had romantic issues in the bedroom ever since we met.
This is an immediate crisis that is currently unfolding.
I have taken my luggage, and I'm on my way to the airport as I write this.
I plan to get home, take my things, and leave for at least a little while beyond.
That, I don't know what to do.
I understand that there may be a long queue for call-ins, but I would appreciate it if I were bumped forward due to the immediate and serious nature of my call.
And so, of course, I contacted him immediately, even though it was like 11.30 at night, which is, you know, beddy-bed time for the big chatty forehead.
I contacted him immediately, but he was just getting on a plane, and it was going to be a long plane ride, so I called him.
I woke up the next morning thinking about this poor guy, and called him, and we had a long, almost three-hour chat about everything that had happened.
So that's His issue, right?
And I could go on and on, but this is the kind of, I mean, not always that kind of level of emergency, but obviously that's higher priority than a UPB debate, which isn't going to change fundamental ethical things for at least a generation or two.
So, you do what people want if your goal is to spread philosophy.
And I have, of course, the unique perspective of people can email me about anything and they always email me with, I can't even think of the last exception.
Maybe it was the guy who emailed me saying that he'd been a bit of an anti-Steph troll and he wanted to apologize and make right and so we did a long call about that, one of my woodwork calls.
I meet the market where it is.
Because if it was just about me, well, I'm just going to talk about UPB and I'm going to talk about this analytical abstract philosophy that I really like.
Well, that would not be to serve philosophy.
So, generally, what's happened is, as a whole, Is that the reason why people don't look as to how their actions can benefit others?
Okay, let me ask you this.
Let me ask you guys this.
And you can ask this on a variety of platforms.
I'll check the answers.
Did you have parents who focused on what was really genuinely best for you?
Did you have parents who genuinely and deeply focused on what was best for you?
In other words, was their goal in parenting to provide the best experience and education for their children and therefore you learned what it was like to have someone who gets pleasure out of their devotion to what's best for you?
Absolutely not, nope, nope, no, absolutely not, no, quite the opposite, hell no, no, no, no, nope, hell no, right.
So, you understand all this?
Do you understand why you have a great deal of difficulty focusing on that which is best for others?
Yeah, they got divorced.
yeah if your parents got divorced by definition they focused on selfish
preferences over what was beneficial to their children and so if you don't have people in your life
Who have devoted themselves to what's best for you, and that's what's best for them, right?
I mean, I work on what's best for my daughter, and that gives me satisfaction as a parent, right?
So it's not a win-lose, right?
Oh, Jared says I can be certain of that because they told me about what was best for me and never got any feedback or learned about my preferences.
Yeah, the guy whose wife slept with the... bride, really, slept with the stripper.
His parents had moved him, what, ten or twelve times over the course of his childhood.
And... they never asked him.
I was never asked, hey, do you want to go to boarding school when you're six?
Nope.
Hey, do you want to move to Canada when you're eleven?
Nope.
I mean, I was never asked about any of these things.
So, it's kind of painful to focus on the needs of others.
When we've been traumatized by selfish people.
Does that make sense?
It's really upsetting to focus on the needs of others when we've been traumatized by selfish people.
Because we feel that it's win-lose.
That if we focus on the needs of others, we can't be there.
We can't get any satisfaction.
It's appeasement.
It's humiliating.
It's enslavement.
It's back to being a child and being exploited by selfish parents, if that's what happened, right?
And so focusing on the needs of others is something we can't do.
And when you're around selfish people, You can't just focus on their needs because they'll just exploit you, suck you dry.
They'll vampire you into ash.
Need, need, need, need, need.
Yeah, do you want to go to school?
Are you enjoying your education?
Right?
Do you want me to lose my temper?
Right?
Do you want to go visit your father in Africa?
Do you want to go spend summers in Ireland?
Well, actually, I did enjoy the summers in Ireland.
But I didn't in particular.
Yeah, I was asked if I wanted to go to the orphanage if I didn't listen.
Oh, yeah.
This caller that I had, was it just yesterday, I think?
Yeah, this caller that I had the day before.
Yeah, it was Saturday.
No, yesterday.
Yeah, yesterday.
So this caller, when he confronted his mother about issues he had with his childhood, she said, if I would have known you'd be this much trouble, I'd have thrown you off the bridge as a baby.
So how are you supposed to focus on other people's needs when they just exploit you?
These parents want their needs met in old age.
Well, of course, pensions, right?
Government pensions have deteriorated parenting enormously.
The quality of parenting has diminished enormously because the parents can get your resources Without having to be good parents.
Right?
In the same way that having a government job degrades your work ethic, retirement plans forced by the government deteriorate parenting.
And so, like, there's a reason why the boomers were selfish parents.
I mean, lots of reasons why, but one of the reasons is that they're guaranteed health care and pensions in their old age.
So they don't need to be nice to their kids because they can basically tell their kids to take a long walk off a short pier and they don't end up living in their cars, the parents that is, right?
In the same way that the welfare state has diminished or deteriorated the family because you don't need the benefits of a family because you can get the money through the state.
Somebody says, oh, I remember my sister. My sister and I can't remember one time
ever my mother admitted she was wrong. Right.
So if you just understand this, if you grow up with selfish parents, this sort of amateur phrase, narcissistic, like
narcissistic parents I can't diagnose but that's the amateur phrase which I'm
willing to accept, this kind of narcissistic parents, you can't focus on what's
best for them because that always comes at your expense.
Alright.
Bye.
All right.
I mean, you can create a social safety net of trust.
Did you ever have this when you were younger?
A social safety net of trust, where if you happen to have some money and your friend needs some money, you can lend him some money and then he'll pay you back and you have this mutual cushion, right?
And a lot of this sort of mutual cushion is how people get out of poverty, right?
So, for instance, if you need to move and it's quite expensive to move if you pay movers, so you help your friend move and you save a couple hundred bucks.
Your friend helps you move, you can save a couple hundred bucks.
So, you can kind of get out of poverty with this financial cushion, right?
So if your friend, and I had this when I was in my teens and early 20s that if I happen
to have some money and my friend needed some money, I remember lending one friend $2,000
which was a huge amount of money back then.
And I lent another friend of mine $850 and sometimes it took a while to get this money
back and then you just stop lending to that person because you can't make any plans, right?
So, and I borrowed money from time to time from friends if I needed that, right?
You have this sort of mutual cushion where you are all thinking out for each other and if one person happens to be doing well, they'll help the others who aren't and then vice versa, right?
Because, you know, there was all this income flux and flow when I was young.
I mean, there still is now, but it's a little more even.
If you have a friend who just borrows money and you go and move his house or his apartment but then he's always busy when you need something or he doesn't have any money to lend you ever, then you have to stop helping them, right?
Because it's just a one-way street.
So if you think about someone else's needs and they're thinking about your needs, that's beautiful.
And that's a marriage, right?
I mean, I've been married 21 years, right?
And so, if you think about other people's needs, and they also think about your needs, you're in heaven.
You're in heaven, right?
Life cannot get better than that.
That's the cinquanant, that is the peak, that is the meridian, that is everything.
You really think about other people's happiness, they really think about your happiness, you get happiness from bringing happiness to them, they get happiness from bringing happiness to you, and it's a happiness bone broth soup of joy.
You can't get better than that in life.
So tell me the number of relationships you have where you think about the other person's happiness and they think about yours and you get happy from bringing them happiness, they get happy from bringing you happiness because that's the best you can get.
You can't get better than that in life.
How many relationships do you have where mutual happiness is the key?
Somebody says, oh this is from Rumble, you can give a little test with prospects if they're
willing to accept the test.
At least for me, I'm willing to start super small and build up to where I fit.
Yeah, that makes sense.
You dogs.
Thanks.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai Bye.
I'm not sure that's a relationship in that same way.
Zero, two, zero, zero.
I'm going to count the dogs as zero.
At least five.
Excellent.
Yeah, when Jared and James work and, you know, I mean, obviously I say what I want and I'm always asking you guys, like, what can I do differently?
What can I do better?
how can you be more like how can you be happier working with me and all of that
kind of stuff okay one
One, a varying degree seven or eight.
Let me go check elsewhere at these comments.
Yeah.
Right.
Now, so let me ask you this.
Have you ever been able to transform someone from selfish to kind?
From narcissistic consumption of everyone else's resources without reciprocity to genuine Heartfelt, thoughtful reciprocity.
Have you ever been able to change someone from selfish to kind?
Right.
you You're ready for it.
Okay, let me ask you this.
In relationships, this includes family of origin, everyone around you could be your boss.
How many of your relationships do you feel are focused on the other person's needs and not your pleasures or preferences?
How many people in your life, family of origin, mother, father, siblings, cousins, friends, bosses, maybe girlfriends, boyfriends, how many people in your life is it pretty one-sided that you think about their needs and preferences but they don't come to you with original thoughts about how the relationship really helps you?
All of them?
one, all.
If they don't reciprocate, then they're just exploiting you.
Yeah, but that's not... We already made that point, Joe.
Try and stay with what we're doing.
Right?
All of them, except my father.
I'm going to be a good boy.
Alright, harshness question.
Because, you know, obviously I want to serve philosophy, I wouldn't mind some tips, but this next part can be as harsh or non-harsh as you want.
One to ten, harshness.
Bluntness.
Bluntness, I guess we can say.
Somebody says nope for one day, then they go back to their selfish ways.
One person.
One person.
Alright.
One to ten, how blunt and harsh.
Ten?
Everybody says that and then they don't like it, but that's fine!
Ah, that's fine.
This last one usually comes from emotionally unavailable parents.
Yeah, emotionally unavailable.
I think it's just kind of a catchphrase that covers up stuff that isn't particularly clear.
Hit us with the Warhammer.
I'm still thinking how to put this.
How to put this.
Um.
I'm still thinking how to put this.
Where you give resources to exploitive people, voluntarily, where you give resources to exploitive people, the resources can be time, energy, attention, listening space, help moving, it can be supporting delusions, it can be providing money, it can be taking care of people, wherever you Give resources to exploitive people, you're a bad person.
Like, that's immoral.
That's corrupt.
It's deeply, deeply wrong.
And you must stop doing it, if you want the world to improve.
Right?
Wherever you give your precious, scarce, beautiful, rare-earth, unobtainium resources to corrupt and exploitive people, you are rewarding the corrupt and punishing the virtuous, and you have no right to complain that the world gets worse.
You all want it in ten, right?
You want it in ten, here's your ten.
You're a bad person when you do that.
And you are harming the world because you are rewarding the corrupt and punishing the virtuous.
And if you reward the corrupt and greedy and exploitive and punish the virtuous, the world's going to get worse.
And you complain about the world and its corruption while serving and rewarding The corrupt.
I don't understand why you would do that.
Oh no, you see, there's so many greedy and exploitive people in the world.
Oh, sorry, one sec, I've got to go give a thousand dollars for my greedy and exploitive relative.
Which is a thousand dollars you can't bring to a virtuous, good, reciprocal, kind person!
You reward the corrupt, you punish the virtuous, and then you get mad that the world gets more corrupt?
Are you kidding me?
You're ridiculous!
Of course it gets more corrupt, you keep rewarding corrupt people!
Which is corrupt!
And you think the corruption is over there?
No!
I mean I could go on and on but I think I think I've made the point.
Hey Steph, greetings from Australia.
I've almost never made a live stream.
I had my picture taken with you and ate you ate beside me when you and Lauren Southern came to tour here.
As a child, one of my few memories is receiving an autographed book and wondering who the heck would I even want to sign this?
Thank you for filling me with the appreciation of another person in the world for their virtues after 30 years of falsehood.
So privileged to have met you.
You're the best.
Thank you, my friend.
I appreciate it.
I wish we could do it again.
The corruption is coming from inside the house, right?
You literally feed lions and then say, what are the lions doing here?
You subsidize corruption and then you're shocked that the world gets more corrupt.
You starve the virtuous and fatten the corrupt.
and then you complain that the world is bloated with immorality.
Every time you give a minute, a dollar, a shred of mental energy to a corrupt and exploitive
person you are rewarding corruption and exploitation and punishing virtue.
Thank you.
That's bad.
I mean, that's a thing a bad person would do.
And you think that the other person is corrupt?
How is the other person corrupt?
You're paying them!
You're giving them time, energy, attention, resources at the expense of virtuous people.
Well, that's why they're corrupt.
Corrupt people, and I say this different from evil, corrupt people seek advantage.
Evil people tend to be more sadistic.
Corrupt people seek advantage.
if you keep giving them advantage you're rewarding their corruption and punishing
the virtuous you follow where I'm coming from right
How dare you complain about the corruption of the world while starving the virtuous and
rewarding the corrupt.
you Right.
And these are the same people who say, well, you know, whatever you tax, you get less of and whatever you subsidize, you get more.
Oh, sorry.
I'm going to have to finish that argument later because my corrupt relative needs a bunch of resources.
And so I'm going to provide them.
Well, whatever you tax, you get less of, and whatever you subsidize, you get more of.
I'm gonna tax virtue by not giving my resources to virtuous people because they don't bother me and demand things of me, but all the corrupt, manipulative, demanding people, I'll just throw my soul, spleen, and spine at them!
and then complain that the world is corrupt!
Oh my gosh.
And listen, I've not been innocent about this in my whole life, so I'm not, again, I give my usual speech, I'm not on a perfect guru hill, I've done this, and... But at some point, don't you just have to shut up about the corruption of the world if you're feeding it?
At some point?
Don't you?
Don't you?
If you give the rewards of virtue to the corrupt, and not the virtuous, Then you'll get more corruption and less virtue.
So you think corruption is something out there, but when you appease and pay off corrupt people
so they're not mean to you, you're just rewarding meanness.
And if you reward meanness and exploitation, you're going to get more.
So you think that the corruption is out there and there's this big giant machinery that produces corruption out there in the world.
No, no, no.
If you provide resources to the corrupt at the expense of the virtuous, you will get more corruption and less virtue.
And you think that this corruption of the world is somewhere out there?
No.
Look in the mirror.
If you're doing this, And I'm not telling you anything you don't know, right?
Does this come as a big shock to anyone?
Does it?
If I say to you, whatever you subsidize you get more of and whatever you tax you get less of, where you provide your resources is what grows, where you put your manure is what flourishes.
If I say that to you, is that a big shock to you?
That if you give If you reward people, they tend to do that behavior, and if you punish people, they tend not to do that behavior.
This doesn't come as a shock to you?
What?
Yeah, squeaky wheels get the grease, the loudest, most violent, most zealous get the resources.
Sure, I get that.
I get that.
And if you're part of that process where you're taking money from the virtuous and you're
giving money to the corrupt, then don't think the corruption is out there and don't think
you're not part of it.
That's all.
Every moment is like dropping a shining golden diamond of your time, attention, and energy on someone or something.
Explains government centers perfectly?
No.
I'm not talking about the state.
I'm talking about the state of mind.
Stop going to the government.
That's cowardly.
Stop going to... It's not about... This is not about the government.
We all have our part to play in reducing the prevalence of corruption and exploitation in the world.
We all... Do you think that morality is something that philosophers do or it's written in books?
No.
It's in your life.
It's in your absolute, certain, deep, powerful life.
It's in every choice you make about where you give your time and attention.
And we've all done it.
We've all done it.
I'm not a perfect person trying to cast down tablets from on high.
We've all done it.
We've all had the nice girl and the hot dangerous girl and we go for the hot dangerous girl.
We've all had the nice friend who wouldn't impose and the friend who's all up in our grill wanting us to do something and we just appease.
The nice friend.
We've had the good friend who wants to spend time with us and we've had the bullying relatives
who demand that we come over to do x, y, or z and we forgo the good friend who wouldn't impose
and we go and appease the corrupt.
Is this coming as a shock to you?
Is this coming?
What have I always talked about?
Morality is personal.
The logic of personal and political liberty.
This was the tagline at the show for many years.
Now it's just personal.
Whatever you feed grows.
Whatever you starve dies.
This is not shocking, is it?
You've got two dogs, you feed one, you lock the other in the basement and starve it.
The one you feed is going to get bigger and stronger, the one you starve is going to die!
So your time and precious attention, where does it go?
Does it go to appease bullies?
or reward the virtuous.
Where does your precious time, resource and attention, where does your money go?
Where do your weekends go?
Where do your Christmases go?
Where do your... Where does your mind space go?
You know that bullshit line, oh I'm living rent-free in your head.
Of course there's nothing free.
Every time you appease the bullies, and starve the virtuous, and these two things are the same thing.
Right?
Appeasing the bullies is starving the virtuous because your time, resources, and attention are not copy-paste.
They're not duplicated.
Right?
If you're going to spend time because some bullying family member is demanding you be there, then that's time you're not spending with virtuous people who are nice to you.
I mean, that's the whole point of an alibi, is you can't be in two places at the same time.
If there's video of you being somewhere, you can't be somewhere else!
So if you're spending time, energy, and resources with corrupt people, you're by definition not doing it with virtuous people.
You're choosing who wins every time you appease.
Corruption wins.
Aggression wins.
Bullying wins.
Violence wins.
Assholes win!
Every time you apply your resources, you're choosing the victors of the world.
You're choosing the rulers of the world.
You're choosing who You got your thumb on the scale and the black hearts weigh
more.
And you feel helpless and victimized by the beasts you feed by choice.
Bye.
Oh, these terrible people.
They seem to run the world.
They seem to rule over everyone.
Oh, it's so- Oh, hang on, sorry.
The relative I hate is demanding I come over, so I guess I gotta go.
You don't have- I'm not talking about things you're forced to do.
Or what you had to do as a kid, or whatever.
I'm not talking about the things you're forced to do.
to do, I think, the things you choose to do.
Talking about the things you choose to do.
you you
And I don't mind that you do it.
Honestly.
I mean obviously I would prefer that you don't.
I don't mind that you do it.
What I'm trying to do is to liberate you from all the fucking complaining.
If you choose to feed the corrupt and starve the virtuous, the world will get more corrupt and you're part of that corruption.
You are corrupt in as far as you do that.
If you choose to feed the corrupt and starve the virtuous, the world will become more corrupt.
So stop complaining about it, because that's what you choose.
That's what you choose.
100% self-ownership.
150% self-ownership.
You choose to reward the corrupt and you choose to starve the virtuous.
The world is going to get more corrupt.
You're part of that corruption.
You're rewarding corruption and starving virtue.
So stop complaining about the world becoming more corrupted because you're complaining about your own damn self!
You think the corruption is out there?
Are you kidding me?
So, I'm gonna go and buy drugs from the drug dealers.
I'll never touch the gym.
I can't believe there are drug dealers in town and the gym is closing down.
That's so weird.
I mean, isn't the gym better than the drug dealers?
So, if the gym is closing down and there's more and more drug dealers, even though I keep buying from the drug dealers and would never set foot in the gym, it's so weird.
I'm gonna complain about the gym closing down and there being too many drug dealers in town.
Own yourself!
Own your actions!
If you're gonna feed the corrupt and starve the virtuous, just recognize that you prefer a corrupt world.
I'm just asking for self-honesty.
I mean, just don't come to me or anyone else and complain about the corruption of the world.
It's so corrupt!
Oh, hang on, I gotta go give a thousand dollars to my aunt who abused me as a child and won't ever apologize.
Oh, I gotta go and help so-and-so move even though he's a total selfish jerk.
Oh, I gotta go and hang around with losers and then complain that the world is full of corruption.
Oh no, you see, out there is all of this corruption and it makes me so sad.
I'm so sad that there's all this corruption.
Come on, be honest.
Be honest.
You prefer it to virtue.
If you're doing this, right?
I'm not saying in general, but as you do this, you prefer corruption, you prefer appeasement to virtue.
So, what you're doing is just saying, aggression and abuse works.
I'm going to reward that and punish thoughtful, kind people.
I'm also going to try and convert thoughtful, kind people into corrupt people.
Ooh, this may be too far for people.
How you guys doing in the convo?
And again, I criticize myself this way, so if it's any consolation, I'm not excluding myself from these facts.
Do we want to go further?
I don't know.
Do we want to go further?
You can tell me.
I'm happy to hear.
Pause for station identification.
Freedomain.com slash donate.
Come on.
You know how important this topic is.
You know how important this topic is.
Freedomain.com slash donate.
Or you can give me a tip in the app.
You can't get this anywhere else.
In a way that's humble.
In a way that's encouraging.
But blunt, right?
You need a pause?
Tell a couple of dad jokes?
Or shall we get to the real heart of the matter?
You wanna go?
You wanna go?
Oh yeah?
You wanna go?
You tell me.
You tell me.
When you reward corrupt people, you're not just rewarding corrupt people, you're making more corrupt people.
You're making more corrupt people.
Do you know why?
Listen, we're all guilty of this.
Don't feel bad.
I'm just turning the light on.
I'm not turning on some x-ray machine designed to dissolve your bones.
Okay, how is it that you create more corruption by appeasing the corrupt?
Because you're a massive advertisement out there to people saying, well you know if you have the
choice of being nice or corrupt, if you have the choice between thoughtful or aggressive,
well just look where the resources go.
So you gotta go be aggressive if you wanna get any resources.
Yeah, so if you want my resources, you have to be corrupt.
You have to be aggressive and vicious and nasty and threaten me and be petty and ugly and you've got to be willing to spread negative rumors about me and you've got to be willing to threaten me and push my buttons and make me feel bad and blackmail me with guilt.
You do that and you get my resources.
But if you're nice and thoughtful, I could just ignore you because I'm out here appeasing all the corrupt people.
So if you want anything in this life, you gotta be like the corrupt people because they get my resources.
Sorry, that's just the way that it is.
Oh my god, the world is getting more corrupt.
How mysterious!
What bizarre alchemy is down in the soupy, squiddy, tentacle quicksand of this world that there's this gravity well towards corruption that's so mis- Oh, hang on, I gotta go just reward the corrupt people and punish the virtuous.
Oh, hang on, let me just get back to my rant.
Oh my, this is so mysterious.
Oh, oh, it's so weird.
Why does the world get so corrupt?
It must be the devil.
It must be the state.
It must be something inhuman.
It's original sin.
No, it's what you're doing!
It's what you're doing.
You reward the corrupt, you punish the virtuous, and you're training the virtuous to become corrupt.
Because we all need resources, right?
We all need resources.
Hehe.
I mean, this is the Manosphere, oh!
Oh, women are so this, so that.
They sleep around too much.
They're too shallow.
It's like, well, if they get rewards from it, then they'll do that.
I literally see...
...the Manosphere complaining about the shallowness of women.
Live from Vegas with bikini models!
Heh heh heh.
Oh please.
you Because you are telling them, here's how you survive.
You survive by becoming corrupt and aggressive and abusive, and that's how you get resources.
And if you're nice and thoughtful and kind, you are ignored.
You know, it's weird, man.
Every time I'm nice, people ignore me and they just go around appeasing the corrupt people.
Oh, hang on, sorry.
My abusive dad's on the line.
He needs me to help him move his boat.
I'm off.
Off I go.
It's a mystery!
How can we ever crack this code?
Here's $50 I didn't spend to meet up with a corrupt family of origin to meet your current point
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Very kind.
Very kind.
Now, who gets the most corrupted?
When you reward corrupt people and punish the virtuous, who gets the most corrupted?
Or, to put it another way, what is the definition of corruption?
And how is it most Corrupted when you appease bad people and reward them while
punishing the virtuous and the kind and the thoughtful.
Who gets most corrupted when you appease corrupt people?
Let's go I needed to hear this.
Go deeper.
.
Yeah, yourself.
Yourself.
Yourself.
Now why do you become the most corrupt in this interaction?
Why are you the most corrupted by this interaction?
Yourself.
And you get caught in the sunken cost fallacy.
Nobody gets caught.
Nobody gets caught.
Try being civil, mild-mannered, and ask for a million dollars for your project from the rich, or those who resort to violence or manipulation, or use force to get that same million dollars.
Hmm.
Which approach most often happens?
Well, you know, there's this race to the bottom in the business world, particularly in the software world, so those companies that promise the most but can deliver the least will often get the contract, and those companies that are realistic about their strengths and weaknesses don't.
Because you possess the free will to resist.
No, everyone has free will.
You become that which you admire.
The knowledge and free will.
That's all very abstract.
No.
No.
When you appease the corrupt, like let's say we all here, we all profess virtue and
we want to fight corruption and promote virtue.
So when you appease the corrupt, the person who's most corrupted is yourself because you've got to lie about it.
You gotta lie about it.
Because you have to maintain the double think, and the double think is the most corrupt of all.
The double think is, I'm rewarding corruption.
I'm outraged that there's corruption in the world.
That's the most corrupt.
The bullies are bullies.
They're not lying to themselves, are they?
They're just bullying you.
Yeah, you know, he's got to come and if I've got to guilt him, I'll make him come.
He's got to come to dinner.
He's got to come for Christmas.
If I've got to guilt him and bully him, fine, I'll guilt him and bully him.
I need him to come.
but you're out there claiming how outraged and appalled you are by corruption and how
you regret its presence in the world and how much you wish to fight it while under the table
funding and rewarding it.
I mean it's like a government that funds the quote terrorists who attack it right that's
That's really, that's about as corrupt as you can get.
Well, we're really against this thing.
Oh, we're funding it.
We're really against this thing.
Here's your rewards.
We don't want this thing.
Here's your benefits.
Because you have the goal of fighting corruption and you're rewarding it.
How much do you have to do yourself to achieve that?
And what does that do to your brain?
to do that.
I can't get anyone to love me.
Well, maybe stop being a Mobius strip of wild contradictions about claiming to dislike corruption
while funding it with every resource at your disposal.
No, that's not the mental equivalent of that.
Because you can tell the truth about that.
Well, if I whip myself it's better than the bully whipping me because at least I can control the blows.
You don't have to lie to yourself about that.
But you can't tell the truth if you are committed to opposing corruption while completely funding corruption.
That's the lie!
That's the split!
That's the brain-bending what the hell is going on!
And you're a lower intestine of a reasoning process.
And mine, too.
Again, I've been absolutely enmeshed in this kind of hypocrisy.
Absolutely, completely, and totally, I say that openly, without a shred of shame, I was neck-deep in this nonsense.
Neck-deep!
It's like a gag order.
No, it's not!
A gag order is enforced.
This is not enforced.
People in your personal life do not have a gun to your head to get resources from you.
It is a voluntary choice.
Don't talk to me about gag orders.
those are coercively imposed.
Nothing discredits morality more than corrupt people posing as moralists.
I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
I've been there.
I don't feel bad about this because I've learned and I'm paying my penance through my reputation to spread the truth.
So you can get mad at yourself if you want.
I'm just laying out the facts.
I don't think the facts should bully us.
And I say this with all humility and no sense of any superiority.
But these are the facts.
Ignorantly chosen cag order?
Nope.
That's like voluntary rape.
great but it's an oxymoron.
I mean this is what's so funny about the right
particularly in America.
.
And, of course, I have my criticisms of the left, but in some ways my strongest criticisms are of the right.
Because they say, look how hypocritical the left is.
And then they continue to engage with and provide resources to, particularly in the family, leftists.
Okay.
Can you believe that leftists will actually end a relationship based upon political ideology?
That's so terrible.
Alright.
So you'll continue to provide resources to people who are corrupt.
Okay.
I mean, we could solve leftism, like extreme leftism or whatever you want to call it.
We could solve that in about five minutes if people just stopped voluntarily associating with and providing resources to leftists.
But they won't do that.
In fact, they'll reward them because the leftists are often the most aggressive, right?
I mean, you think of these sort of social issues and the leftists are the most aggressive and people at peace.
And they complain that there's leftism.
And then they also complain that the leftists are hypocritical.
They're less hypocritical because the leftists are about the will to power.
And they're hypocritical.
The hypocritical is the greatest.
So the greatest damage that is done to morality is virtue signaling.
I hate corruption.
I'm going to fund corruption.
You understand?
That discredits morality.
And it tells everyone, well, you either get what you want through bullying, or you lie to yourself and you're exploited.
You lie to yourself and others and you're exploited, or you don't lie to yourself and you absolutely get what you want.
then that's what we're presenting to the world, right?
So, I hope you enjoyed this video.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
I'd look if you want to go and give resources to corrupt people.
Go give resources to corrupt people.
It's not a violation of the non-aggression principle as an adult to spend time with somebody who's mean or exploitive or a bully.
He's not initiating the use of force against you.
Now you could make a case that if they historically verbally abused you as a child then they're working the wounds of prior violations of the non-aggression principle but we're just talking in general.
If you go and hang out with people out of appeasement who are nasty mean and vicious Go ahead.
I mean, go ahead.
But just recognize that you're in some ways worse than they are.
Because they're at least being honest about what they do, and you're lying to yourself about your anti-corruption!
Anti-exploitation!
I can't claim to be anti-shark while breeding and feeding sharks, can I?
That wouldn't make any sense.
Sharks are the worst thing ever!
Welcome to my 500,000 gallon shark breeding and release tank.
I mean, it makes morality look beyond ridiculous.
Right?
It makes morality look beyond ridiculous.
And...
This is what the world needs to hear and realize.
I'm no exception from that.
I'm not an exception.
I'm still tempted by it.
I'm still tempted by it.
So.
That's what I have to say about that.
Just be honest with yourself.
Just be honest with yourself.
I reward the corrupt for their aggression and punish the virtuous for their kindness.
I'm absolutely a central part as to why the world is corrupt and I have no logical right to complain about corruption when I'm rewarding it and I have no right to complain about the absence of virtue when I'm punishing it.
That's all.
I'm not trying to condemn you at all.
I just don't want you to lie to yourself, as I work to not lie to myself, right?
I mean, again, I'm down here in the trenches with you, brothers and sisters.
I really am.
I'm tempted by this.
I still occasionally fall prey to it.
I understand.
I just really, really strive to be honest with myself.
Just be honest.
If you choose to reward abusers, you're going to get more abuse in the world.
If you choose to punish virtue, you're going to get less virtue in the world.
So then, stop complaining about corruption and embrace it.
Embrace the corruption you're embodying.
Or don't.
But don't lie to yourself about it.
That's all.
If you want to reward the corrupt and punish the virtuous, join the army.
Join the fire ant march through the picnic of civilization.
Just, I mean, embrace it.
Don't fight it.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of corruption.
I want to reward the corrupt and punish the virtuous.
Go join the orcs.
Go join the black army.
Just go do it.
But just don't live this contradiction.
Because it's the contradiction that makes virtue very hard to sell.
If you claim to be virtuous while secretly or maybe even obviously funding corruption, you're discrediting virtue.
So if you want to reward corruption and punish the virtuous, go join the corrupt.
Don't pretend to be virtuous.
Embrace it.
And stop discrediting virtue for the rest of us.
You do more good to virtue by joining the corrupt than pretending to be virtuous while rewarding the corrupt.
This is just what I needed to hear.
If virtue is only virtue signaling, if you complain about the corruption of the world
while rewarding the corruption of the world, and if you bewail the absence of virtue while
punishing the virtuous, that is the greatest corruption.
Thank you for watching.
you And the good news is you could do something about it, right?
Isn't this good news?
Oh, the world keeps getting more corrupt.
What a mystery.
There's nothing we can do.
I'm helpless.
I'm just a caterpillar before the giant caterpillar truck of Earth overturning.
I'm helpless.
I'm a leaf on the stream.
I'm a dandelion fluff of the wind.
I'm blowing around.
I can't do anything about Ruchu because of the Fed and the government.
What nonsense.
You're intimately involved.
In the production of corruption or virtue, everybody's in the machine, like it or not.
You're either serving the machine of corruption or you're not.
We are all intimately involved in the production of virtue or corruption.
Everybody. All the time. Always. No matter what.
There's no escape from the machine.
You're either producing virtue or you're producing corruption.
This is a white pill.
Puts the opportunity front and center within my reach and power.
Yeah.
Voluntarily choosing to give resources to corruption leads to self-corruption.
Because you have to lie to yourself about it to maintain your false sense of integrity.
Well, you have to pretend to be confused by what you're funding.
You have to be Self-deluded about the effect of your actions.
You subsidize corruption and then you have to pretend to be outraged by the existence of corruption.
So you look insane.
Everyone can see you doing it, right?
Everyone can see you doing it.
Your conscience, most of all.
Everyone can see you doing it.
Oh, it's so terrible that there's all this corruption in the world.
Oh, sorry, I have to go and help all the corrupt people and give them all my time, attention, money, resources.
Everyone can see you doing that.
Do you have any sense of how crazy you look railing against corruption while serving and feeding corruption?
Do you think you're hiding anything?
We all live in this weird delusion that we can hide things from people.
I live in a secret mode of my own hypocrisy.
Nobody notices.
Nobody sees.
I mean, this is the against me argument.
Everyone can see that virtue is the lie you tell to yourself so that you can discredit morality by secretly serving corruption.
And it's funny because the secret service to corruption is only within your own mind.
everyone else sees it blindingly clearly.
I mean you've heard me a million times in the call-in shows saying if a babysitter did to your child what your parents
did to you would you have that babysitter back?
Well, no!
Of course not!
I'd press charges or whatever, right?
So why would your child be so much less important than you?
Why would your child be so worthy of protection and you be so worthy of betrayal and continued
abuse?
Everyone can see you doing these weird mental contortions where you claim to be bewildered
and frustrated by corruption while rewarding corruption everywhere you go and punishing
virtue everywhere you go and then claiming to be anti-corruption and pro-virtue.
virtue.
And again, I say this with deep humility.
I'm not even ashamed of it.
Because shame is another form of corruption.
I wish you were either one or the other.
So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
Imagine if Gandalf were secretly sending magical powers to Sauron while claiming to fight Sauron.
Or imagine if it was completely clear to everyone around him that Gandalf or Aragorn were sending magic or military might to Sauron while claiming to be totally against Sauron.
They would look insane, wouldn't they?
Would you have any respect for somebody who genuinely believed that they were
outraged by corruption while continuing to fund corruption and fight virtue?
It would be a form of vanity, right?
that I'm willing to discredit morality so I can feel moral while appeasing the corrupt.
Are you ready for a slightly different topic, although something related?
If there's more that you want to ask or talk to about this, I'm certainly happy to hear.
And, you know, be gentle with yourself.
You didn't know what you didn't know.
It's completely obvious in hindsight, but you did a lot of work to hide it from yourself, as did I, and now you can just make your choices.
And I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just telling you don't lie to yourself.
All right.
Who is the highest paid athlete of all time and what is he worth?
Now, this is inflation adjusted earnings as of end 2023.
This is salaries, bonuses, prize money, purses, endorsements, licensing, royalties, memorabilia, book deals, media appearance fees, and golf course design fees.
It does not include deferred compensation until it is paid out.
This is according to Sportica.
Who is the highest paid athlete and what is he worth?
Well, Ronaldo.
Tiger Woods.
You say 300 mil?
Messi with a billion.
Tiger Woods, I think.
Michael Jackson.
No, Michael Jordan.
Michael Jordan, 1.2 billion.
I think it's a soccer player.
I don't know his name.
Chris Christie.
The highest paid athlete of all time is Michael Jordan and this is US 3.75 billion dollars.
billion dollars 3.75 billion dollars
number two Tiger Woods 2.66 billion dollars Number three, Cristiano Ronaldo, 1.92 billion, soccer player of course.
Number four, Arnold Palmer, 1.76 billion dollars.
Number five, LeBron James, 1.7 billion dollars.
Number six, Jack Nicklaus, 1.67 billion.
Golf, of course.
Lionel Messi at 7.
1.67 billion.
Soccer, of course.
David Beckham, 1.5 billion at 8.
Apparently an honest wife is 1.6 billion.
Roger Federer is tennis, right?
1.49 billion.
And Floyd Mayweather, 1.48 billion.
Boxing.
I gave you the definition of boxing.
if you weren't listening I'm not going to repeat it.
Of what, right?
I would like to thank the world for giving this massive amount of money
to men who are good at throwing, catching, or bouncing, or hitting balls.
I.
I love the world for doing that.
I mean, what do we got here?
$135 for the live stream, and I appreciate your tips.
I'm not trying to put anybody down.
And a couple more tips at freedomain.com slash donate, which again, I massively appreciate, not trying to put anyone down.
I love that the world gives almost four billion dollars to Michael Jordan,
almost three billion dollars to Tiger Woods, and almost two billion dollars to
Cristiano Ronaldo for respectively bouncing, hitting, and kicking balls.
A philosopher with balls doesn't make much, relative to this of course, but people who
bounce, hit, and kick balls make billions and billions and billions of dollars.
I saw, for this past Super Bowl, people paid like $20,000 per seat.
Edwin Aldo, the basketball player.
But Steph!
They bring so much happiness and inspiration to kids all over the world.
Now why do you think I love that the world gives all this money to ball bouncers?
And I'm not talking about Michael Flatley's nutsack.
What?
What is wonderful about all of this?
Thank you.
Boa mega!
I appreciate that.
What is wonderful about this?
I don't have to care about the well Well, I mean, I have to care.
Obviously, I live in it and all of that.
Because it signals that those people are incapable of good value judgments.
Well, the world values its ball bouncers, not its moral reasoners, as a whole, right?
And that's what people want.
And that's what they spend.
They don't spend their time in pursuit of virtue.
But in the endless sneaker-squeaking of a basketball court.
Because it is always the question of the moral philosopher.
And I would put us all in this camp.
It is always the question of the moral philosopher.
Do I save what is or build the new?
Do I save what is or build the new?
And you have to look for these data points about whether you will put yourself at risk for saving what is.
Because saving what is is very risky, right?
Because if you save what is, there's a lot of blowback, right?
Let's say I were to get 10% of people to focus more time and attention on the quality of their souls and conscience and morality than watching bouncy balls!
Bouncy balls?
Does the ball go in the hole?
Does the ball go in the net or not?
Let's say 10%.
Right?
Let's just say 10%, right?
Alright, let's do some quick math here, right?
So 3.75 billion For Michael Jordan, plus 2.66 for Tiger Woods.
We'll just do the top three.
Plus 1.92 for Cristiano Ronaldo.
So that's 8.33 billion dollars, right?
We'll throw in LeBron and we'll make it 10 billion, right?
No, we'll throw in Arnold Palmer.
We'll make it a cozy 10 billion, right?
That's easy math then, right?
Because of the 10 phalanges.
So ten billion for the top five.
Let's say I would give you five percent, ten percent, ten percent of people to focus on virtue rather than bouncy balls!
Is the ball going to go into a hole?
Is the ball going to be caught?
Is the ball going to be kicked back?
Right?
So if there was a race between the corrupt and the virtuous for The megaphones of society, as opposed to a race of who gets the ball first.
If you were to get ten percent of people to transfer their allegiance from retarded sports bouncing to the quality of their own souls, you'd be talking about shifting a billion dollars.
Right?
So ten billion dollars for the top five athletes.
I mean, the list goes on and on.
It's crazy, right?
This goes on and on.
I'll post it here if you want to peruse it.
Like it just goes.
The very bottom is Conor McGregor with 555 million dollars.
His fighting, right?
Some people I don't even know.
Drew Brees, is that football?
Aaron Rodgers football?
Dwayne Wade basketball, 565 million.
So it's well over half a billion dollars for Conor McGregor who's got some moral
courage without a doubt.
So if I were to or anyone were to get people to think a little bit less about
people often in other countries or people certainly in other states or
cities kicking hitting or bouncing balls there'd be a billion dollars in play just for the top five.
Jared, can you, if you're still around, if you could do me a favor?
What's the worldwide value of professional sports?
And yeah, you're right.
You're absolutely right, Joe.
It's more than that, right?
It's more than that.
Yeah, the profit from teen owner stadiums, buying jerseys, paying for TV subscriptions.
And also, you understand, why do the rulers love sports so much?
And they always have, you understand, they always have.
Why do the rulers love sports so much?
And I'm in the fortunate position of being a good athlete, so, I, you know, people come, you're just jealous of the jocks.
No, I was a jock.
I was a jock.
But why do the Why do the rulers love sports so much?
Because it brings distraction to the masses and despair to the moralists.
Sports brings distraction to the masses and despair to the moralists.
Yeah, and there is the practice for war and all of that.
But yeah, people are distracted.
They think that the important thing is which overpaid, juiced-up athlete And I don't mean juiced up necessarily with illegal substances, I mean they're just the matter matter matter training and diets and all of that that they're doing, right?
By 2027 the global sports market is expected to be worth over six hundred and twenty three billion dollars, right?
So if you can get ten percent of people to focus their attention on the quality of their souls And the pursuit of virtue.
Rather than sports, then over 62 billion dollars changes hands.
Now what will people do for 62 billion dollars?
Well, will they de-platform people?
Yeah.
Will they attack them?
Yes.
Will they try and throw them in jail?
Absolutely.
Sure.
It's a lot of money.
People were killed for 50 bucks.
Don't interfere with people's distractions or they'll chase you to the ends of the earth.
If you think about the amount of time and energy that people have put into, say, exhaust
sex worker Nala's supposed conversion to Christianity or Stephen Crowder's divorce, if you look at the amount of energy that even the dissident right or whatever you want to call it, if you look at the amount of time and energy they put into those two situations versus mighty platforming as their central moral philosopher, you can see their focus too.
Yeah, I can.
Have you ever, can you ever imagine some sports ball watching party?
== See also Some sports ball watching party where some guy looks up and says, guys, what are we doing?
We're just sitting here in easy chairs, drinking beer, eating pizza, snacking on nacho chips.
We're wasting our lives.
We're just watching other people do things.
Why don't we go out and play a game ourselves?
Why don't we go and do some charity project and help the homeless or feed the hungry or raise money for sick kids?
Like, what are we doing?
Why don't we talk about life rather than watching other people grab at balls?
Why don't we grab life by the balls instead of watching people grab at balls?
I used to enjoy trolling my friends who were really into hockey.
Oh Oh, he's icing.
Icing?
It's all ice!
I was at a fight and a hockey game broke out.
Imagine if somebody were able to crack the shared distracted delusion of
anti-virtue called sports obsessions and transfer people's allegiance from watching pixels run and bounce to actually
pursuing virtue in their own lives.
It's kind of boring.
I mean, I get if you dissolve yourself into the Borg, sports can be kind of fun to watch.
So do you want to save what is old, build for what's new?
It's just why I'm in a multi-generational project called Peaceful Parenting.
The world is very clear When you look at the data, this is where people put their money.
This is where people put their resources.
Not on anyone who can actually improve their lives, but at people who are used as political pawns to distract people and get them to waste their lives.
How many parents are far worse parents because of sports obsessions?
Watching the game, going to the game, thinking about the game, fantasy leaguing the game.
How many people are made worse parents through sports obsession?
you you
Can you imagine?
Instead of watching the Super Bowl, people watched a debate about virtue and were as excited.
I mean, I personally would be willing to hire and vet the cheerleaders as long as they all look like me.
I think that would be about as glorious a sight as human perfectionists could possibly be conceived of.
Just joking.
Because the team are thieves.
And that's a wrap for this week's episode of The Biggest Liar.
I'm your host, Jim Sterling.
I'll see you next time.
Bye now.
Because the team are thieves.
Because the team is surviving off your tax dollars.
The thieves are vampires preying upon the economic futures of your children and you cheer them like they're heroes.
They're literally stealing from children through government debt, right?
I went into this many years ago on the truth about the NFL, like just how much money sports ball teams get from the government.
It's not all, but most, right?
They're stealing from you, and you cheer them on.
But don't worry, UPB is just about to take root in the mindless masses' minds.
I'm sure we're fine.
Playing team sports can also really put a lot of pressure on family.
Oh, I love sports. I love sports. I think sports are great and healthy.
And I talked about this with regards to Pearl Davis that you can tell the sports woman from the non-sports woman.
Do many people actually watch golf?
Oh, yeah.
It's huge.
I mean, it's a boomer thing for general, but... Why do leftist politicians always complain about big, greedy corporations and not rich, greedy sports figures and actors?
Well, because they use those people to transmit, right?
There's an inequality in male shieldedness these days, right, right?
So, it's wonderful.
It's immensely liberating to me.
Looking at these numbers, I'm like, oh, thank you.
Thank you, thank you.
Can you imagine, like, 50 highest paid whatever of all time and in there is like moral philosopher.
I mean, it's partly what Socrates killed, right?
We're saying, I think that the punishment for me Asking philosophical questions in Athens should be that you should put me at least on the kind of pension that a good athlete gets.
Put me on the kind of pension that a good athlete gets, because I'm doing far more good to Athens and to the Republic.
I'm doing far more good to Athens than a sports figure does, so at least put me on the same
pension that the government pays a sports figure.
Yeah, we've never had anything like that.
Needs enough fans to sustain it.
Instead you get something like those debate... Oh, is that gone?
Did it come back?
Debate YouTubers.
It's not your team.
They're your team like the Vikings or the Irish team.
You get something like those debate YouTube channels that largely whatever it takes to get the vote of the audience signs objective standards, right?
What if Steph started that trend of lucrative philosophy?
But, you see, I guess if you're a popular philosopher you're not a very good philosopher because you're challenging.
Like, you guys are robust enough to have your beliefs challenged as I did today and I appreciate that.
Conservative fixation on things like crowd is divorce, logistics is masturbatory and parallel to sports fixation.
Well, I suppose criticizing other conservatives and their choices isn't going to get you cancelled, and if you're too terrified of getting cancelled, you can't speak the truth.
So that's just a fact, right?
All right.
Any other last comments, questions?
I really do appreciate your time.
I think I've done some pretty great work today.
And remember, you're also supporting the call-in shows, right?
Like I did, I've been doing a bunch of two and a half plus hour call-in shows, which go really deep.
And so you're supporting that as well.
You can tip me here, of course, on the apps.
You can join a great community at freedomain.locals.com, and you can also go to Freedomain.
Instead of forgetting the other day about maybe going back as guests at the shows, I would love to see you in a show on Fox or RT.
Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen.
Well, and, you know, when it comes to some obviously fairly corrupt religious leaders and preachers, they get tons of money.
But, you know, the value of the future is what we're aiming at, right?
By the way, Steph, yesterday I had a dream you flew to London for Polly's podcast and it went well.
Interesting.
Do you remember Lionel?
You did some shows with him.
He does so much political drama coverage these days, it's crazy.
I get that.
Because it's easier to fight corruption in the political sphere where you have no effect than to actually fight corruption in your personal sphere where you have all the control in the world.
See, people want to be virtuous where they have no control, and if you tell them to be virtuous where they have absolute control, you're a bad guy.
You're an enemy.
Right?
I get that.
I understand that.
Because the feeling of virtue is good.
The actual act of virtue is difficult and painful, at least in the short run.
All right.
But that's what we're here for, my friends, and that's what we're up to.
So thanks, Emil, everyone.
If you're listening later, freedomain.com slash donate.
I will see you guys Wednesday.
Keep working on the Peaceful Parenting book.
Two new chapters went out recently.
A big one yesterday, which is the beginning of part three.
It's not free.
Still have to be generous to get there.
But I hope you would check that out and do let me know what you're thinking.
Of course, if you're subscribers, you get priority call-ins.
Call in at freedomain.com.
Call in at freedomain.com.
Lots of love everyone.
Take care.
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