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June 21, 2024 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
01:38:42
The Death of a City!
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Time Text
Good evening, everybody.
Welcome to your Wednesday Night Live on June 19th, 2024.
I hope you're doing well.
the 19th, Juneteenth the 19th, 2024. I hope you're doing well. Thank you for your indulgence and
a little bit late tonight, but we're fine.
It's just the usual tech garbage that runneth along with the world.
All right.
So I'm just going to get a wee bit of background video recording going here just in case we need it.
All right.
Let's get that.
And let's get that.
We don't really need any system audio.
And let's do that.
Let's do that.
All right.
So yes, so we are not in the studio, as you can see, but we are still remaining studious.
Not studio, studious.
Oh, no, that's not going to work.
No, it's not going to work.
Is it going to work?
Now it's not going to work.
All right.
Well, we'll just have to use the recording that's, uh, cause I've got to keep switching back and forth to get to video recording.
Tips for sure it's off.
Yeah.
No, I couldn't get into the studio.
I was in the studio, but I'm just having trouble connecting to the internet.
So, uh, I have to do this from elsewhere.
Sorry about that, but I'm sure we are fine.
Fine, fine, fine.
All right.
So, I could do a rant.
I absolutely, completely, and totally could do a rant.
If you would like.
Hit me with a Y for the rant.
Hit me with a Y for the rant.
And death. Boy, that's quite the high camera, let me tell you.
Quite the high camera.
It's on top.
It's up!
Yes for the rant?
Alright.
Okay, so... I grew up in Toronto.
But I have not been to Toronto in quite some time.
I don't particularly like going into Toronto these days.
I live, of course, as you know, outside of Toronto.
And my wife wanted to go and see a play.
Now, God knows she gets enough drama at home, but apparently she wanted professional drama rather than my amateur kind.
So she said, let's go see a play.
I'm like, all right.
All right.
I could do a play?
What is the play?
And she said, she said, some of the most dangerous words for a husband to hear in this or any other lifetime with regards to a play.
She said, Lord above help me, she said, it's a one-woman play.
Vagina monologues?
But I repeat myself, why would you need synonyms?
So she said, it's a one-woman play.
And I said, a one-woman play in Toronto.
Well, love, honor and obey, I made some vows.
I'm cornered, trapped, by my own integrity and my love for my wonderful wife.
Uh, what's it about?
Well, it's a one-woman play.
See, now it's not going to be about politics.
What's it about, I ask my dear bride?
She says it's a one-woman play in Toronto and it's about aging.
It's about aging.
Now, I'm like, is this a love test?
Have I done something to bother and upset you other than having my career?
And she said, no, I just think it would be really interesting.
Then she said, really what to me is often the most dangerous phrase, she said, she said, honey, I've heard good things.
Here we go.
Here we go.
I've played in Toronto one woman about aging and she's heard good things.
Now when I hear heard good things I hear sigh up.
Sigh up.
Because nothing is natural anymore.
Everything is for some intended effect or purpose or plan or decadence or decay or something.
Something.
Yeah, no, I couldn't, I can't do female stand-up comedy because there's only, only so many jokes I can hear about
vaginas.
I just, I can't, I can't.
So, I'm like, okay, I said I'm not super keen on going into Toronto, but I love you, so let's go.
So, we live outside of Toronto, not super far outside of Toronto, and so what did we do?
Well, the play started at 2 p.m.
So we left at noon.
Now, I figure two hours can get you four-fifths of the way to Florida.
So maybe, just maybe, we can get to a playhouse in downtown Toronto.
Now, not right downtown.
Not right downtown.
So we leave it to.
And we're chugging along, we're chugging along, and as we approach the traffic void called Toronto, what happens?
Well, lane closed.
Also, lane closed.
Also, exit closed.
Why?
Because apparently, infrastructure is like Voldemort for Toronto politicians.
You can't say it, or you lose your soul.
Sorry, they're Toronto politicians, they don't have souls to begin with, but if they did and they said the word infrastructure, I can only say apparently this word because I'm not a politician in Toronto, infrastructure is the enemy.
And of course, I worked for a company many years ago that dealt with infrastructure and the amount of deferred infrastructure improvements in Ontario was absolutely staggering.
You can fix Toronto or, or you can go and lasso Mars and bring it back for gold cinnamon dust and its asteroids.
So...
They've been underspending is what I'm saying, and so all it is is patchwork.
Now, we can't fix your roads.
We can paint them rainbow, but we can't fix them.
So we're driving and we're driving, and we're like, hmm, that's a little slow.
Well, you know, we're not super hard... from... the subway.
Now the subway, when I was younger, I didn't have a car in Toronto for very long, but if you, when I was younger, the subway was like FTL.
Faster than light, it was hyperspeed.
Because the subway, you got no traffic lights, you got no construction, it's just... The stars blur for you, Han Solo, walking carpet Chewbacca, you just... You escape the Cylons, you jump all over the galaxy.
When you're talking Subway, you're talking light speed.
Bypasses everything, underfoot, don't have to wait for anything, gone.
You don't have the usual Toronto BMWs.
I remember being in a, when I was in, doing my graduate degree, I remember being in Toronto, it was hailing, and the BMW driver was edging his way to turn, because lord knows, We as pedestrians, please, by all means, Mr. Comfortable BMW driver, turn.
We'll be happy with the hail.
It's fine.
Enjoy yourself.
The important thing is that you're comfortable.
What is the difference between a BMW and a porcupine?
The difference between a BMW and a porcupine is in a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.
So, what happens?
we say and we check the website of the theater and they say well you might want to take you might want to take the TTC the Toronto Transit you might want to take the bus subway because you won't believe it there's a lot of construction around here and there's almost no parking so we're like okay you know what we've got time it's only 40 we got an hour 20 to just get on the subway And get to the play.
No problem.
Reset.
So what do we do?
Well, we get to the subway, we park our car, we walk to the subway, and bad things begin occurring.
So we go into the subway and oddly enough, we're not charged.
Now again, I'm not a professional economist but it seems to me that given that subways cost money to run, you might think about charging people to, I don't know, use them.
But no, we just sail through.
And then we walk down to the subway and there's a big sign at the bottom of the stairs that says the subway is closed.
Now mind you, this is Now the subway is closed for many hours at night but apparently you can't do maintenance because there are ghosts down there that behead your maintenance workers so you have to wait until a very busy time when people actually need to use the subway
To fix the subway.
You know how they try to repair the wing while the plane's flying?
It's that kind of thing.
Now one other thing that you could, you know, theoretically say
If your subway is closed, is you might have a sign not three feet from the subway that's closed.
You might have a sign, I don't know, in the parking lot.
You might have a sign at the entrance, not after you go in and go down two flights of stairs and go to the end of the... So then we're like, okay, when we can't get back on the highway because we've already gone off the highway and they say, no, no, no, the subway's fine.
It's just one stop over.
You just, you've got to take a bus.
One, you just got to go through a bus.
One stop over.
So then we begin the Bataan Death March to the giant hallucinatory illusion slash mirage called The Play that we paid quite a lot of money to go and see.
Now I am of the opinion that we should cut our losses, bail out and get drunk.
My wife on the other hand really wants to see a one-woman play.
About getting older.
Okay.
Love you, honey.
Honestly.
And, you know, she's right as often as she's not, so what the heck.
So we continue.
So then they say, we, um, there's like three TTC employees per square foot telling you to go to the shuttle buses, which are, well, you kind of need to take the subway to get to the shuttle buses because they're about A football field away.
They're not in where all the buses are.
No, no, no.
That would be crazy.
What they are is outside the subway, down the road, diagonal across a busy street.
That's where you get the buses.
Now, it would seem to me that given that they had about 4,000 TTC employees telling you where to get the buses, you might want to take some of those TTC employees and use them to fix the track.
But no.
I'm sure that the union would have something to say about that.
You ever have that thing, that dream, or sometimes a reality, you've got a cat-a-connecting flight, and you have eight minutes, and at the other end of the airport, and then there's a bus, and oh!
So, we get to the bus, we call out for the bus that's just about to close its doors, and what does the bus driver do?
Closes the doors.
goes off, oh don't worry there'll be another bus along here shortly.
And I'm like at this point I'll take a trebuchet and two mattresses strapped to my forehead just to get to Toronto.
Can't go back.
Can't go on.
So we get on the bus.
Sped on the bus.
Get on the bus.
We get on the bus.
And we toodle.
And the bus has all its windows closed.
And things are not wildly positively aromatic.
And we're dressed to the nines.
Why?
Because we're going to hear a single woman talk about aging for an hour and a half.
So, it seems like the bus has an infinity.
Like, it wants to go straight and in order to go straight it has to take three or four left-hand turns.
So we get to the next subway, which is very busy, of course, because everyone's being bused into there from the arse end of everywhere.
I think I saw a bus coming in from Aldebaran and Beetlejuice.
So then we get to the subway.
And we run to make sure we don't miss the subway, which, as it turns out, was somewhat pointless.
Why?
Well, it was somewhat pointless because the subway sat on its fat wheelie ass for 20 more minutes.
See, this is the thing.
You know, TTC, if you're listening, and maybe, maybe, maybe you are, If you're going to bus people to the subway, it might be helpful if the subway actually, I don't know, MOVES!
But no, everybody's standing around with their thumbs in their armpits.
And, pretty much, they want to make sure that enough people get on the subway that it turns into a Japanese commuter black hole and everybody disappears up each other's asses and has a look around.
Hey!
Now that our groins have been mashed together for 20 minutes,
wanna start a family?
So, we get on the subway.
And the subway finally, eventually moves.
You you
Long story short, well, maybe a little late for that.
But let's just say, long story short, we finally get out of the subway on King Street.
Now we need to take a streetcar or a bus or an Uber or a cab to go to what's called the Distillery District, which is sounding mighty appealing to me because this is a long trip to take sober.
Are there any streetcars coming?
Yes, there are!
Yes, there are.
It's really quite a mash-up.
In fact, it looks like the streetcars have opened stapled together like a giant centipede subway train on the surface.
So then, we're looking for the 504 and you have every 500 number, including 5.11 billion, except for the 504.
So, we're like, well, we'll look for a cab.
Can you find a cab?
Yes!
Except, the cabs can't turn left onto our street.
And we're afraid of going diagonal, because then if we see the right streetcar, we can't get on there.
Also, because we're running to the subway, we don't have a transfer, so now we'll have to pay for the streetcar, which is supposed to be free, because we were already on the subway.
That's fine.
That's fine.
So.
Eventually the streetcar comes along and we get to the play 15 minutes late.
And they don't let us into the play for another 5 minutes.
So we finally get 1 hour and 7 minutes of a play for the kind of trek that you could probably get on your fucking teeth and knees to the South Pole or the North Pole.
On the plus side, the play was really depressing.
So, it was an arduous, stressful and appalling trip into Toronto, where the amount of human incompetence, if attached to a nuclear generator, could power the solar system.
We finally get to the play.
Now, it's not the playwright's fault.
But a play about aging Could it be a little funny?
Just a little.
Just a little funny.
Just a little funny.
You know, there are some funny things about aging, and aging has its pluses, and I get all of that, but... The woman... Her gimmick was that the audience chooses a couple of different stories that are involved in the play.
And someone chose DOG!
And I'm like, oh no.
Like, you know the playwrights where you just know, like, whatever's gonna happen, it's gonna be fucking awful.
Like, whatever happens in the play... Do you love someone?
They get cancer.
Do you like your eyesight?
Oh, sorry, you get blinded.
You like your health?
Oh no, multiple sclerosis.
Are you finally getting close to your dad?
Wham!
Bus hits him!
No, no, bus wouldn't hit him because it's going too slowly.
Um... Oh, an improperly elevated surgeon cuts into him and accidentally beheads him.
So anyway, in the play, somebody said, they held a dog!
Oh, here's a story about a dog!
And you basically, with these kinds of playwrights, I bring a crash helmet and I just assume the crash position, you know, on the plane, where they say, well, in order to be able to better identify your remains and or keep you edible in case we crash in the Andes, you're going to need to assume this position, right?
Bring your chairs to the upright position.
This death, this...
So, the playwright begins telling a story about a dog.
And I'm telling you, it was not more than six minutes before the dog was completely beheaded by a car.
Oh my gosh.
And this woman, who couldn't settle down and didn't have kids, just finds a wonderful lover in her 60s and 70s and everything is perfect and...
Oh my gosh, should have just taken his helicopter.
No, I'm concerned about incompetence in all engineering fields these days, so I'm not sure that... A streetcar named Despair, yeah, quite right.
So, needless to say, needless to say, I may, I just may not be imminently going into Toronto at any time soon.
Neither to see a play nor to not see a play.
Although I will say, and I haven't been there since I was in my early twenties, the distillery district is actually quite a lot of fun.
And the play was fine.
The play was fine.
The actress was good.
The writing was good.
It was just I could have used something.
It wasn't her fault about the TTC.
I could have used something slightly more elevating.
Not her fault.
It's a good play.
Well written.
Good actress.
But it is really depressing.
Makes New York City look competent.
Hey!
Hey!
Let's not go crazy here.
We're still sane.
Ish.
You know... I gotta tell you, friends.
I don't think I'm entirely... Tell me if I'm wrong.
Tell me if I'm wrong.
I don't think I'm entirely romanticizing my youth.
But when I was younger...
Shit worked.
It worked.
The trains doth run.
The buses doth roll.
You could get from A to B relatively quickly.
I had a car in Toronto.
Traffic wasn't that bad.
Things are falling apart faster than a sandcastle under a tsunami.
Just wanted to point that out.
The center cannot hold, things fall apart!
On the plus side, there was a little bit more drama in the journey than there was in the destination, so there was that excitement.
And if I'd just seen the play and not run into the sandpaper-on-the-balls endless incompetence that characterizes the modern world, I wouldn't have had this exciting story.
And Toronto?
My gosh.
It was as close to paradise when I was young as you could get in a city.
I mean, London when I was very little was as close to paradise as I've ever been.
Could travel all over London, perfect safety, perfect comfort, perfect ease, everything worked.
The tube worked.
And when I was a kid in Toronto, and as a young man in Toronto, and I last lived in Toronto in my early 30s, it was just beginning to fall apart.
But my God, I feel like the old guy talking about the old world in 1984.
My God, kids, it used to work.
Stuff used to work.
Everybody was polite.
Everything was efficient.
You could get from A to B without going through four different star systems of Z. Things worked.
Packages were delivered.
You could just pick him up.
Your water wasn't the color of Donald Trump's fake tan rinse-off.
you you
It used to be that the only thing that mattered was raw confidence.
That's the only thing that used to matter, was raw competence.
Now, I don't know, you know, it's not competence that's driving things.
Because competence doesn't drive things, nothing drives anymore.
You say, I remember when shit worked even in the 90s it wasn't so bad, right?
Somebody says, Toronto is the worst city in the world.
My opinion may be personal bias because I live here and I've had a similarly terrible experience on a daily basis.
I'm sorry about your experience.
Yeah.
Well, you know what they say, you can't go home again.
Somebody says, I've heard a theory that we have our attention divided so much nowadays and our attention span
is dwindling.
The result is shitty products and experiences incompetence.
No!
No, it's not that.
It's not that.
It's just that we have metrics other than competence.
We have metrics other than competence.
And so we get a society where things don't work.
Right?
We get a society where things don't work.
Because it takes, I mean, if you're good at your job, and I'm pretty good at my job, but if you're good at your job, you realize with great humility exactly how smart you have to be for a good job to be done.
You have to be super smart.
It's the Pareto principle.
You know, like the square root of any group produces half the output.
What year did you first notice things falling apart?
I don't know.
I don't know.
But the other thing too is because it's largely... So teenagers can't really get jobs anymore, right?
So you don't have the competence filter of teenagers with jobs.
And so there's a whole bunch of different reasons which we can go into, some of which I've talked about before.
But yeah, it's gonna get worse.
It's gonna get worse.
So Toronto is, to a large degree, dead to me.
And it's a shame, because it's a wonderful city, and I loved growing up in it, and it was just great.
Just great!
But now, not so much.
Anyway, I mean, I wrote a whole novel about this, which you should definitely check out, called The Present, you can get it at freedomain.com slash books.
Oh, by the by, before I forget, James, freedomain.com slash books doesn't go to freedomain.com slash freedomain under bar books, but if you could, that would be great.
So, yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
And none of this is accidental.
It's a controlled demolition, right?
I mean, you can't replace capitalism if capitalism is working so you have to have capitalism not work.
So people are dissatisfied and frustrated with the system they live under and therefore you can replace it.
Right?
The limb has to be diseased in order to be amputated.
So they gotta fuck up the limbs so they can excuse the amputation.
But.
I'm here for you, my friends.
I'm here for you.
Questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems.
Somebody Joe says, my job is an insane asylum, planning to quit soon.
None of the guys are even qualified to do their jobs.
It's like arguing with crazy homeless guys.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, a lot of immigration just relentlessly drives down wages.
It gives the working class no negotiating, right?
And it also is there to mask up the effects of inflation, right?
And if you have any tips to help with the show, I would really, really appreciate that, just so you know what I'm working on.
Like, I mean, I'm working hard at the moment, and what I am working on is I want a version of Peaceful Parenting that is about a third the current length while retaining all the core arguments.
Now, you know me.
I'm about to wink out of existence because I'll say I'm nothing if not concise.
Okay, not the most concise guy in the world, but it's important to be detailed and precise.
Concise and precise often are opposites.
So, I am about a third of the way through the Peaceful Parenting book, making it shorter.
Making it shorter.
Which is a lot of work, by the way.
I don't mean to overly, you know, cry a river, but it is a lot of work to shorten the book.
But when it is shorter, then you can hand it out to people and they don't really have much excuse.
Oh, I don't have time for this and blah blah blah, right?
So I am working on that and that is consuming a lot of my time.
And I should be done that in a week and next week I'm going to continue the History of Philosophers series.
Are you changing it or just cutting it?
I like the full version.
You're changing it or just cutting?
Why would I change it?
I don't quite understand.
I mean, it's an abridged version, right?
It's a shorter version.
And I said, while retaining all the core arguments.
I don't know if you missed that.
Maybe you did.
You know, it's funny.
It's funny.
If people don't listen, they then respond as if they did.
Right?
I said, I'm cutting it down to its core elements while retaining all the essential arguments, or all the core arguments.
And then people are like, are you changing it?
And it's like, OK, but if you weren't listening, then you weren't listening.
That's fine.
Anyway, just sort of wanted to point that out.
Oh, people are funny.
I'm going to do 2 and 2 makes 4.
But you have to remember that 2 and 2 make 4.
Yes, so it is a lot of work, but I do want to make it so that if I can get it to maybe 125 pages, 150 pages, down from 450, I think that would be great.
And then, of course, if people want the longer version, they want the more detailed arguments, they want all of the proof, they can go to the longer version.
But I do want it to so people get 400 plus pages, and they're like, oh no, ain't nobody got time for that!
But, on the plus side, I can shorten it.
All right.
I will not continue without tips.
Just wanted to let you know.
I'm going to have to be assertive on this.
All right.
Hey, Steph.
In the industry I'm in, there isn't much demand for intense work.
I work from home and work multiple salaried jobs at once.
I consistently impress and satisfy my bosses.
From my family, they judge me for working multiple jobs as if I've done something immoral.
I figured that since my managers are happy, there's been no disservice to my work.
Am I in the wrong?
Well, that's an interesting question.
So, if your managers are happy, that's what matters.
Like, you understand that people, people talk about UBI like it's some theoretical thing, like universal basic income.
I would say, and you guys tell me what you think, I think probably 60 to 70% of jobs are bullshit make work to pad numbers.
I think there's like maybe 19 to 35 people who are keeping the economy going and everyone else is just filler and fat.
So, most people's jobs are meaningless.
In fact, they interfere with other people's productive work.
They become like the persons from Porlock.
So, UBI is going on on a massive scale, particularly for women and particularly in government work.
I mean, I remember working for a government agency in my early twenties.
They had something they needed doing so they hired me while everyone else, and it was like 90% women, just sat around and chatted and gossiped all day.
It's UBI.
Alright.
I lost my job yesterday.
I've applied to about 10 or so companies.
I'm not demoralized, but I am worried about my future.
I don't have the skills or money to start my own business at the moment.
I feel quite lost.
I've also considered changing fields.
Unfortunately, I can't retire on my crypto yet.
You tipped on free demand?
Thank you, my friend.
I appreciate that.
Well.
I would recommend very strongly that there's really only one productive approach to getting a job these days.
There's really only one productive approach to getting a job these days.
And you have to, have to, have to...
Um...
You have to work your networks.
you You have to find people, contact people, people you went to school with.
You have to do just about everything that you can imagine in order to try and get work.
You have to be shameless in your pursuit of your contacts in order
Order.
you to be able to get work.
Don't just rely on sending out resumes, in my humble opinion, right?
you Don't do that.
You have to work your networks.
Oh, James sent me a message which has nothing to do with the show.
The message is, if you go to freedomain.com slash books, it takes you to a page that is not freedomain.com slash freedomain underscore books.
So yeah, you have to work your contacts, you have to phone people, say, do you know anyone who knows anyone who could get me a job?
Anything like that.
You have to do that kind of stuff.
How do you handle the knowledge of the 10 words that would completely evaporate someone's built-up lies or narrative?
I'm paraphrasing this concept you have mentioned.
Also, thank you for answering recent question of mine in the Hit Me Up threads.
Donation incoming.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that.
How do you handle the knowledge of the 10 words that would completely evaporate someone's built-up lies or narrative?
Okay, so let me give you an example.
I'll give you an example.
So, a friend of mine, years ago, was saying that he married the wrong woman and his friends and family mildly warned him against her, but he went ahead anyway.
Right?
Thank you for the tips.
He went ahead anyway.
Okay.
So, here's your test as the brilliant and lovely Freedomain listeners.
Here's your test.
Your test is, what can you do, or what could you do, if someone you really cared about, for some reason, was going to go marry the wrong woman, right?
So someone you care about is going to go and marry the wrong woman.
Let's say she's got a temper, right?
Because that's kind of a common thing, right?
Let's say she's got a temper.
What can you do if he's not listening?
If he doesn't listen to you, what can you do?
What are your options?
Somebody says, when I was looking for work, I would message people and message everyone I knew, non-stop.
Yeah, for sure.
Confront the woman in front of him, that can at...
You can trigger her.
Yeah, that's good.
That's good.
So let's say I had a son and my son was going to marry a woman who had a problem with her temper.
So what would I do?
Well of course I would say I think she has a problem with the temper and here's why and here's why and here's why.
And if he didn't listen and wanted to continue on to get married to the woman who had a temper then I would Invite a bunch of people over for a dinner party including my son and his girlfriend or fiance and I would to trigger her.
I wouldn't be mean I wouldn't be manipulative but you know I would pick a hot topic and I would continue to press her on it and wouldn't take no for an answer to see and then she would probably blow up or storm out or something like that and then it'd be like yep okay See, see what I'm talking about?
Like, this is not good.
Right?
And, and, you know, if I had to record it, assuming that was illegal, and that was illegal, then I would record it, right?
Of course I would.
Because I'd want the evidence, right?
I'd want the evidence.
Now, if my son was going to marry a woman who had a bad temper, then, almost for certain, that bad temper would come from Her parents, right?
Thank you, Joe.
So, if the bad temper came from her irritable or hot-tempered parents, I would invite my son, his girlfriend-slash-fiancé, and her parents over with my wife and I, and I would ask her parents, where do you think your daughter's volatile temper came from?
Because, you know, we're looking at merging families, and you guys are going to be around raising my grandkids and your grandkids, so, you know, I'm just kind of curious, where do you think this ill temper came from?
And if they denied it, if they... I would say, no, no, no, here's the evidence, like we were just having dinner the other day, and X, Y, and Z happened, and so on, right?
So I would just ask that, and I would, again, if it was legal, I would record that to make sure that I didn't misrepresent anything.
And of course I would delete all these recordings when I was done and so on, right?
Because you want to make sure that you're not making things up or there's some prejudicial way of rephrasing things or anything like that, right?
What else can you do?
Let's say that my son was going to get married in a church, right?
What else could you do?
Well, you could go to the priest and say there's a big problem with Uh, temper and, you know, whatever, assuming that you were in a private situation, you could play the recording or whatever it is and say, this is really bad.
This is not going to work out.
There's negatives.
You could go to extended family and you could say this marriage is going to be a disaster.
She's a mean woman with a bad temper.
Clearly there was something wrong with my parenting that my son is, is, um, Is interested in this kind of woman, but nonetheless these are the facts and so then you would go to the extended family and say, we don't want to go to this wedding.
I don't think we need to have a real discussion.
You write them out of the will.
There's so many things that you could do to influence what's going on.
But you would absolutely set heart, mind and soul against your son getting involved in a disastrous marriage, right?
Does that make sense?
So much that you can do.
So much that you could do.
You You could in fact be really obnoxious to the point where she doesn't want to marry into your family.
Like there's so much that you can do.
And people do very little when it comes to solving other people making bad decisions.
All right, so let me just thank you for the tips.
Tips are super, super welcome.
Am I familiar with the work of Craig Biddle and the objective standard?
I am not.
Steph, question about reaching a free society.
I was having a debate with someone and we both agreed that there would have to be a standard or principle the majority of people agree to follow, whether it's UPB or something else.
I believe it will be UPB.
how would this agreement come about?
Do you not know the process by which we get a free society?
you Do you not know the process by which we get a free society?
Smart men do not get involved in other men's pussy.
No, that's not... Well, then you're not friends, right?
Then you're not friends, because we all need help.
Particularly these men, because their sex drives are so high, we all need help with this, right?
So we get to a free society when people stop abusing their children.
Because when we abuse our children we teach our children that might makes right and you need centralized coercive power in order to have a functional society whether that society is a family or a country.
So when we stop abusing our children why then we get a free society which is why it's a multi-generational process.
So if children are grown up not abused and reasoned with, and it doesn't have to, of course, be every child, but when there's a significant proportion of it, then it tends to hit a tipping point and go faster and faster.
So if children... It's like saying, how is everyone going to... How is everyone going to end up speaking English together?
Well, you have to be raised speaking English, and then when they're raised speaking English, everybody ends up speaking English together and it's fine.
But you've got to teach people English first, right?
You've got to teach people English first.
So, once children are raised speaking English, in this case it's reason, right?
Once you raise children speaking reason, then you have a rational society and a peaceful society.
If you raise children with violence, you get a violent society.
If you raise people, children with reason, you get a reasonable society.
It's all up to the parents, which is why I've been focusing on parenting from the very beginning of the show.
I think my second show was about childhood, right?
How would this agreement come about?
Children are raised peacefully, they are negotiated with, and by the time you become an adult, you've had 17 years experience negotiating for win-win.
So then that's what people will be used to and that's what they'll do.
All right.
I have a friend like this who's in a five-year relationship with a girl who's seemingly done him dirty.
And I've never seen a guy more dick-napped and led by his lower brain.
I'm not sure how to broach the topic.
Why is he your friend?
If he's living like an animal, do you lie down with pigs in the barn?
If he's living like an animal, how can he be a friend?
He does not take feedback very well.
I brought up how he's always late and he looked like a deer in headlights.
But he's late!
You know why people are late?
People are late, other than technical issues.
People are late because they're fighting with their girlfriends.
Right?
Just about every time... I mean, this is my assumption.
I don't have friends like this anymore.
But when I was younger, if somebody was late, I'd be like, okay, they're fighting with their girlfriend.
Oh, had a fight with their wife, had conflict in their family, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right?
Alright.
That's about it.
So yeah, it's pretty sad.
Sorry, lots of people typing.
I don't want to start another topic.
If there is the typing to be had.
Now, don't forget, don't forget, my friends.
There's a new service that I'm a couple of weeks into offering that's really amazing, and you should really think about it.
So you can do a private call.
It's a call-in show, but it's just you and me.
You can say anything you want.
It's never going public.
You can talk about whatever you want.
It never goes out.
You can go to freedomain.com slash call, freedomain.com slash call, and you can choose a private call, and we'll be in touch about that.
I did three yesterday?
Yeah, it's a lot.
It's a lot.
All right, I'm also going to check over here on Rumble in case you have questions or comments
or issues that you want to bring up over on that platform as well.
I'm super happy to hear from you as well.
But yeah, don't forget, freedomain.com slash call.
You can check out that.
And that's a great, a great service that I'm very pleased to be offering.
And I can tell you this, like everybody has said, this has been like the most amazing hour or two of my conversational life.
And it is, I mean, because I can go full-tilt boogie on private calls in a way that I can't do with calls that are going out to the general public.
Like, I can go real direct, real hard-nosed, real honest, real vivid, real powerful, because I don't have to hold back any horses, because it's never going anywhere other than URI.
So, freedomain.com slash call.
You got a problem?
You want to get a laser-focused philosophical solution?
I'm your guy!
I'm your guy.
I'm your guy.
He says he's a very nice, genuine guy, open, listening to new ideas and taking them in.
He shows a level of curiosity, but I'm starting to think he may be a head nodder.
A head nodder.
And a yes man.
He's helped me wingman with a girl I'm interested in recently as well, which was cool.
Okay, but does he want kids?
Or is he just killing time around an arid vagina?
analogy.
An old call-in snippet uploaded to YouTube, a rationalized response to modern culture, has perhaps your greatest vulgar
Quote, being exhausted and overstimulated is like having cocaine injected in your dick and being told to do a jig on a hot plate.
Great speech slash ranting coverage.
Encourage others to check out.
Been going through a lot of the old catalog.
My quality consistently great.
Can't tell if 2006 or 2016 sometimes.
Oh good, good.
I'm sorry Dylan, you posted this before and I missed it.
Or I blew past it, my apologies.
Hey Steph, my grandfather just passed away.
He had a traditional way of parenting, unfortunately, but was a great man and loved his family.
My question is, what do you suggest on kids seeing deceased family members?
For example, my little sister wants to see her grandfather while he lays in repose.
Why can't your little sister see your grandfather?
Isn't the whole point of an open coffin that you can... that you can go and talk to someone?
Andrew Wilson, yeah, we'll get to that in a second.
Steph, do you have any qualms if someone decides to post the private convo you had with them?
Well, I hope that people wouldn't do that without talking to me and in general I would say keep it private.
It is a private call.
So yeah, why can't little kids see dead people?
I mean, that's why there are little kids, because people die, right?
I'm not saying terrify them or anything like that, but... All right.
Steph, have you heard of Andrew Wilson?
Lying in bed just like Andrew Wilson did.
All right, have you heard of Andrew Wilson?
He's a very skilled debater and recently debated Dave Smith.
He believes that non-aggression principle breaks down without God.
What do you think?
What do you mean, what do I think?
Are you saying that as a guy who's cracked the eternal problem of secular ethics, do I believe that for the most foundational aspect of ethics called the non-aggression principle, it's invalid without God?
So as a moralist and an atheist and an advocate of the non-aggression principle, you just gotta think this through for yourself, right?
You don't need me to answer this, right?
Don't be lazy.
Think things through for yourself.
I'm an atheist.
I promote the non-aggression principle.
I have a rational proof of secular ethics.
Right?
So, if the non-aggression principle breaks down without God, then if I advocate for the non-aggression principle, I either need to find a way to prove it in the absence of God, or I need to become Christian, or I need to stop advocating for the non-aggression principle.
Right, so... that would be... that's an odd question to me because it is... to ask it is to answer it.
Isn't that right?
To ask it is to answer it.
I agree.
Would just like to see you two debate.
He is a very good debater.
He is a very good debater and a very, very smart man, in my opinion.
And there's, to me, respect.
Respect.
Yes, he's a smart guy.
I mean, he does have a little bit of a heavyweight of teardrop blackhole cynicism hanging off his gonads, but that could just be a personality issue.
He's a little bit like a hyper-intelligent Eeyore.
But yes, no, I saw him have an interesting debate with a young feminist student, which I thought was very interesting and it taught me a lot.
It taught me a lot.
Like his argument, the woman was saying, well, but you know, guns equalize coercion between men and women.
And he says like, no, guns require strength to reload, strength to aim.
You have to have practice.
The male body is better at wielding guns than the female body on average.
And so even guns don't equalize things as much as you might think.
That's a good argument.
And it's not something that I had thought of, but yeah, he's a, Steph are you atheist or agnostic?
To be agnostic is to say that reason and evidence cannot solve
the most central problems of the existence of the universe, the creation of
life and the validation of ethics.
So you don't need to ask whether I'm an atheist or an agnostic.
And of course I did just answer it as well.
Somebody says, I was 11 when my father died.
and It was the 3rd of September, the day I'll always remember.
Yes, I will.
Because that was the day when my daddy died.
I was 11 when my father died.
Suggest... Look, don't touch.
Someone told me to kiss my father.
It felt like cold wax.
Not him.
Still stuck in my brain.
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think that's true.
Yeah, touching the dead is probably a little creepy.
But here's the thing, so with regards to Andrew Wilson and somebody like him,
I think that there are enough dangerous, anti-rational, anti-moral people in the world
that I don't think it's particularly helpful for someone like Andrew Wilson and I to debate
because we agree on far more than we disagree with and neither of our world views pose a coercive threat to
the other.
.
you you
Neither of our views post any kind of coercive threat to the other.
So, I do believe that debates tend to be more important when people are advocating for the use of violence.
I guess he's a Christian nationalist, so there would be some aspect of that.
But again, we would agree far more than we would disagree, so I generally would save my debates for people I can dislike.
I tend to debate better when I really dislike someone.
Because then it becomes aggressive and personal.
You know, like if you're a boxer, you box better when you hate the guy, don't you?
Because you want to wipe that smug grin off his face.
So I debate better and I don't dislike Andrew Wilson.
I think he's a good debater and a good guy and I'm sure again we would agree on 95% of most things.
I generally debate better, and I think my best debates have been with people I really, really dislike.
You know, like Rationality Rules and just people who, oof, give me the hoo-hoo-hoo.
So, I will save, probably if I have debates, I will save it for people that I...
really, really...
dislike it.
Alright.
We get back to your questions and comments.
I'm glad you never did the destiny debate.
Um...
Who are the top five people you want to debate right now?
Oh, that's an interesting question.
question.
Well, it depends.
If I could be fully self-expressed, I would absolutely take on Jordan Peterson, who I have not at all been impressed with lately.
At all been impressed with lately.
It's been terrible in my view.
Maybe Sam Harris would be interesting, to put it mildly.
So, yeah, it depends.
It depends.
I mean, you know, you've got to pull back so much on debates these days.
Because it's not about who's right or wrong, it's about who's going to get deplatformed, right?
So it's really... debates are kind of boring in a way now because people are in general so hobbled and crippled in
what they can talk about, right?
No, dislike creates a bias ignoring the substance of the topic.
topic.
1 Bye.
Why?
Are you saying that emotions Always involve bias?
What are you talking about?
What are you, Spock?
Well, in order to be perfectly logical, you have to have no emotions.
How the hell do you know what to study?
I mean, if you love virtue, you're gonna hate evil, aren't you?
If you love integrity, you're gonna hate corruption.
You can't love something without disliking its opposite.
How are you going to navigate anything?
It's like trying to navigate yourself through the world without any pleasure or pain principle.
What are you, a robot?
Dislike creates a bias ignoring the substance of the topic.
That's nonsense.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
That's funny.
Yes, I care passionately about virtue.
And truth and reason and evidence.
Integrity.
Morality.
But I have absolutely no emotions about them whatsoever because I wouldn't want to be biased.
Yes, I love my wife, therefore I'm completely biased about her.
No!
No, she's a great woman and a moral woman.
Yes, emotions cloud reason!
Well, that's just a lie told to you so that passionate people can take over and kick your ass.
Fuck that, man.
I mean, I'm a rational guy.
Anyone comes between me and my passions, they're my enemy.
You understand that you're just crippled.
People just cripple you.
They say, well, you know, if you want to be rational, you can't be emotional.
So all you're doing is opposing your instincts, your passions, your loves and your hates.
Rolling yourself up into a little armadillo ball so you don't let a shred of passion escape.
And then you get rolled over.
by everyone who's an idiot and passionate.
Nope!
That's coward.
That's cowardly.
I'm sorry.
I'm straight up going to call it out.
It's cowardly.
If you can't find a way, if you can't find a way to unite reason and passion, you are going to lose forever.
Right?
The best are full of doubt and hesitation while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
Now, Emotions Cloud Reason, all that means is you've been around hyper-manipulative people who use the appeal to emotion to roll over others.
You've been around those kinds of people.
And so, because you've been around irrational people who manipulate emotionally, you say, Well, emotions are irrational!
Well, that's crazy!
It's like seeing somebody drive away from a bank robbery in a getaway car and say, All cars are bank robbery!
This is as bad as the people who say guns kill people.
Yes, yes, I know, I know, I know.
There are irrational people who are very passionate.
That does not mean that all emotions are irrational.
There are people who use tennis rackets to club other people to death.
That does not mean that all tennis rackets are used to club people to death and only people are clubbed to death by tennis rackets.
This is a massive category error.
Irrational people can be hyper-emotional.
That does not mean that emotions are irrational.
Murderers sometimes use steak knives to kill people.
That doesn't mean when you pick up a steak knife, you're a murderer!
Category error.
And you have a reason why you want to believe this nonsense, which is that your emotions are alarming to you, because emotions Emotions will put you, passion will put you in a situation of confrontation with evildoers.
Because if you're just back there spark-like with your head up your own iridescent silent ass, then you're not any danger or risk to anyone who's evil, who's immoral.
But if you unite Rationality with passion, then you're in the arena with the bad guys.
And then you can get your ass kicked.
Trust me.
Trust me on this one.
You can get your ass kicked.
Sometimes you'll kick ass.
Sometimes you will receive a foot in the ass.
Steph, would you consider having a conversation with Andrew Wilson if someone can make the introduction for you?
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, I'm not doing politics.
I don't know that there's much we would talk about, but let me think about it.
People who think getting passionate in a debate looks bad bother me, yeah?
Yeah.
I care.
It's, you understand, it's a categorical error to say that you love something, you love something, and you are indifferent to it.
I both love something.
I love philosophy.
I'm indifferent to philosophy.
I'm very passionate about virtue.
But emotions cloud virtue.
Now, as a category error, you can't do anything in life without passion.
Which is why people are happy if you give up your passions because then you're not doing shit.
and you're not in the way and the passionate lunatics can take over.
All right.
Donated at FDR.
Thank you, Kairos.
I really appreciate that, as always.
Is it evil to abandon a child?
I was arguing with another libertarian that it was, and they argued it isn't.
My argument was that you own your choices and their effects.
Thus, when you have sex, the risk of pregnancy is always on the table, and then abandoning a child is like a death threat to the child.
I also argued that single mothers swell the state.
Neither of my arguments felt like slam dunks.
PPAI said it was evil.
Well, you're not clear on that.
So, if you abandon a child in the woods, that's murder.
Like if you, let's say, a baby, right?
If you abandon a baby in the woods, that's murder.
Straight up.
You take a baby deep in the woods, you leave the baby there, it's gonna die of exposure, hunger, thirst, eaten by animals, you've just murdered that child.
So we can agree that to abandon a child who has no capacity for survival is murder.
So yes, of course it is.
Of course it is.
Because a child is a prisoner of biology.
Right, if I go on vacation, that doesn't initiate the use of force, and I'm not doing anything immoral, right?
I'm just going on vacation for two weeks.
Ah, but, if before I go on vacation, I lock a guy in my basement, and then I go on vacation for two weeks, then he's, you know, let's say there's no water, he's dead.
Because three days no water, he's dead, right?
So, to walk around in the woods is fine.
Doesn't violate the non-aggression principle, assuming it's your property or unowned property.
Walk around in the woods is fine.
Walk around in the woods, leave a baby behind, that's murder.
Now, if you say, is it immoral to give up a child to someone who can take care of that child better?
No.
That's not immoral.
It is not immoral To give the child up to others who can take better care of the child.
Let's say that you have a drug addiction, and you get pregnant, you just stay off drugs long enough to have the child, and then you're going back on the drugs, the addiction is too strong, and you hand your child to someone who can take better care of your child.
That's not evil, is it?
That's not evil.
In fact, you're saving the child.
I mean if you're drowning or you're on the Titanic and you hand your child to someone in the lifeboat and there's no room for you in the lifeboat, you've just saved that child's life, right?
So it is evil to withhold the means of life from someone when you have a monopoly on that.
You lock someone in the basement, you have to!
Give that person food and water, or you're gonna kill them.
You're responsible, you murdered them, right?
So it depends what you mean by abandon.
.
Single mother swell the state.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
I mean, the welfare state is the single mother state, right?
So does that make sense?
So it really, again, definition is really, really key.
Definition is really, really key.
So it depends what you mean by abandon.
Is it immoral to take a child away from parents?
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's kidnapping, right?
Because we own ourselves and we own the effects of our actions, therefore we own our children.
Doesn't mean we can do with them what we want, because they are sentient beings, but we own our children.
And if you take someone's child, that is taking their property.
Or you're saying that the effects of their actions, which is their child, is yours, not theirs, which is not the case.
It's not the case.
I mean, I understand that people say, oh, you're saying the children are property like slaves.
It's like, well, they are property in that you create them, you bring them home, and you have a monopoly on providing them care and resources.
So yes, it is an absolute evil to kidnap a child from parents.
It violates the will and ownership of the parents and it also violates the will of the
child who does not want you to kidnap away from the parents.
you Now, of course, if, like, let's sort of go to the extremes, and if the parents are endangering the child, then you are not taking the child away, you are rescuing the child from danger or death.
So you can't grab and hold a child, unless that child is about to fall into a lion enclosure, or a Harambee pit, or something, right?
Then you can grab and hold the child, because you're not confining the child, you're protecting the child from danger.
So, if the child is in imminent danger of being seriously injured or killed, then yes, you absolutely go in and you take that child away.
Because that is acting as an agent of self-defense on behalf of the child.
And of course, because self-defense is universal and moral, it doesn't matter who enacts it.
Which is why a security guard can act to protect someone's life or property, right?
So hopefully that makes sense.
That's a great question though.
And I'll make a note about this, to talk more about parents, children, and the question of property.
Because it's a very interesting one.
Children aren't inanimate property, and obviously they're higher than pets.
So.
Then it is immoral to take a child away from a pedo.
Then it is immoral... No, sorry, because Like, you can't kidnap a woman on a date, but you can take a woman to safety who's being raped.
So, I'm sorry, I don't quite... Like, you can't just grab a woman and pull her into your van and drive away if she's on a date.
That's kidnapping.
But if you help the woman into your van and you'd speed away from a man who's raping her, you're rescuing her from a violent situation.
Andrew Wilson seems to focus mostly on OnlyFans thottery.
He's, yeah, he's in the Whatever thing sometimes, right?
right? The whatever show.
Alright, sorry, somebody had another question?
I was watching that video about the man who put his wife and girlfriend on OnlyFans.
My first time was finding my grandfather's porn mags when I was 10.
He died when I was 13 and was the only adult male in my life.
We never spoke about pornography and then I used it a lot, he says.
I can see and tell that it's evil, but I've already got those formative years of corruption.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I wouldn't... I would really hesitate to talk about corruption when you're a victim.
It's really tough to talk about.
Corruption is something that you choose, not something that you're involuntarily exposed to as a child.
Right, so, look, if you choose to take drugs as an adult, that's a bad decision.
If you're born drug-addicted, you're not a drug addict, in terms of, like, you haven't chosen, you're not morally responsible.
Your body is addicted to drugs, but not through any choice of yours.
Right, so be very careful talking about corruption as a child, because corruption implies a free will which you don't have as a child.
A pedo has a child, can you take the child away?
Sorry, I answered this.
I'm not sure what you're asking anymore.
Of course you can, because the pedophile is sexually assaulting or raping the child.
So the pedophile is violating persons and property, and therefore can't claim the protection of persons and property, right?
I like your argument that a parent is like a financial manager and steward for a child's adult self.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Steph, have you seen those videos of weird pets like huge iguanas being infantilized?
All the comments are very lovey-dovey and positive.
I find it very strange.
There's no sane or healthy person that has an adult who has a large lizard and or snake for a pet.
I mean, maybe there are some, and maybe you're the exception, right?
But for the most part, I've never known a sane or healthy person who has a large lizard as an adult, or a snake for a pet.
You know, what was that?
There was some Charlie's Angels with Green, what was his name?
I can't remember.
And he was feeding frozen mice to his snake, and it's just, like, weird.
Like, weird.
Why would you want to do that?
It's completely bizarre to me.
What a strange, bizarre thing to do.
It's to me, again this is obviously just my opinion, I don't have any proof, but to me
somebody who has a lizard or a large lizard or a snake as a pet, as an adult, right?
Somebody who has a large lizard or snake as a pet is showing you their own sociopathic reptilian nature in a box.
That's just it for me.
You know, somebody saying, well, I'm cold-hearted, and if you have any doubt, look at what I'm feeding.
Yeah, honestly, don't view yourself as corrupt for what happened to you as a child.
Don't give yourself a label that... Don't give yourself a stain that you can't wash off.
As an adult, you have more responsibility, but don't give yourself a stain that you can't wash off like a label like that.
I think that's pretty wretched.
Now, don't forget, there's a bunch of people watching over there on Rumble.
You can also tip as well.
You know, there's a lot of work that goes into these kinds of shows, a lot of prep that goes into these kind of answers, and I've solved at least half a dozen significant problems for people over the course of the last hour and a quarter.
If you find this a value, you can tip on the app, or you can go to freedomain.com slash donate, freedomain.com slash donate, and help out there.
You just reminded me of the kid in my senior year of high school who kept a bunch of snakes and had tattoos all over it.
It's like the Rottweiler thing, you know, it's like, I got my Rottweilers.
Okay, we get it.
You're a cold eyed sadist.
I get it.
You just donated?
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, of course, parents do need to help their kids understand all of the unsavory stuff that's on the internet.
They really do.
They really do.
That's one super-sized microphone!
Yes, it is.
Yeah, I used this for recording some of my audiobooks because I didn't want to sit in the studio, so I got a second mic for... the upstairs!
It's a very nice mic, by the way.
It's a very nice mic!
One day I will run PassMark, which is a speed tester, on one of my computers and have it not suck.
One day!
That day is not today, but one day it may happen.
In fact, I don't think I've ever run a test of hardware where it's even close to what other people are getting.
It's always slower.
Ah well.
You know, you buy a computer with 16 cores and 15 of them are used to process system interrupts.
That's all Windows seems to do, is system interrupts.
Don't forget PeacefulParenting.com.
There's my little gift.
Even if you're not a donor, you get the whole book right there.
PeacefulParenting.com.
You can just go straight there and you can get the book.
I'm fine if you share it around.
PeacefulParenting.com.
All right.
Any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges, prrrrrooobleeeems?
I am happy to hear, to answer.
I have, so yeah, just my day, I did, gosh, I worked for a couple of hours on shortening the Peaceful Parenting book, which is tough, because it's like pulling my own teeth.
So I worked for a couple hours this morning, had some lunch, I helped my daughter put together a duck coop, and then I did a private call-in, and then I helped my daughter finish her duck coop, and then I came up.
A lot of bad stuff happens during sleepovers.
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Sleepovers these days, it just takes one kid with that one website to just muck up half the gene pool in the neighborhood.
It's not good.
The sleepovers are not great.
Dang, I do wish Linux was a reasonable alternative for most people to replace Windows.
You are not alone in that.
You are not alone in that.
The ideal operating system will have to come out of Elon Musk.
And out of his armpit directly.
There's nothing else.
There's no other option.
No other option.
But yeah, I like Linux.
I played around with it a little bit.
I actually have an emulator on one of my PCs.
But I just... I can't go down that rabbit hole of, can it replace everything?
Because it can't, right?
And, you know, when you get older too, like when I was younger, fighting around with OSes, I did OS2 back in the day.
It's an IBM one.
I used to like, love fighting around with operating systems back in the day, but you know, 50, I'm going to be 58 in a couple of months.
Time's ticking away.
I, you know, you know, that close encounter with the third kind, you got that, you got that glow over the horizon.
That's death, man.
It's not so far over the horizon anymore.
I get 20 years, I'm happy.
I get 30 years, I'm very happy.
I get 40 years, I'm ridiculously lucky.
Went through your French Revolution presentation again recently.
Very amazing, thank you.
The French Revolution presentation, all praise to Jared for a lot of that research.
The French Revolution presentation is, in fact, incredible and it's available for donors at freedomain.com.
Well, sorry, at freedomain.locals.com if you subscribe, you get that.
Submitting a call-in request, I've always been afraid of calling you for some reason.
Um, you're not afraid of calling me.
Let's be precise, my friends.
You are in no way, shape, or form afraid of calling me.
Now, y'all are smart people.
Duck coop.
That's funny.
I ought to save that.
Um, actually, you can share that, right?
Yeah, you can share that.
Okay.
So, you are not afraid of calling me.
Come on.
I'm a super nice guy.
I can't think of anybody who's had a bad experience.
I do remember, actually, I can remember one woman, we're calling in with her boyfriend and she was so relentlessly terrible and horrible that She absolutely never wanted that show to be released.
She was absolutely ashamed at how she behaved, and she was just appallingly horrible, mean, and vicious.
I found it quite interesting and quite a ride.
But yeah, nobody's really... I mean, who has a bad time when they call me?
I'm very friendly, I'm very positive, I'm very helpful, I'm very peppy, and so you're not nervous about calling me.
The next philosopher is Kant.
That's going to be next week.
So, yeah, you're not nervous about calling me.
You're not nervous about calling me, but there are bad people in your life who don't want you to call me.
Just so you're aware.
There are bad people in your life who don't want you to call me.
And that's about it.
That's about all she wrote.
There are just bad people in your life who don't want you calling me.
And that's it.
That's all she wrote.
My friend has a bunch of tattoos even blacked out his whole arm and is covered in geometric shapes and characters.
It makes me wonder why he wants to do that.
Well, to signify to other people that he's an unprocessed victim of child abuse so he can exploit them and they can exploit him.
Steph, do you think one day you will stop doing shows standing up?
I'm sitting!
Uh... What do you think about people who collect vinyls?
I don't see the point, but they say the physicality is nice.
I mean...
I assume that people who collect vinyls are like women who parent dogs.
And I used to have a friend of mine who does quite a bit of real estate and he bought a house wherein there was room after room with massive numbers of vinyl records on the walls.
Like tens of thousands of vinyl records.
This guy had been collecting vinyl records for decades.
And...
I can't...
And he, uh, he died.
And of course, he never listened to all those records.
He couldn't.
It just becomes a fetish.
Now a lot of times people get involved in early technology because they're sad about the world that's gone.
They just left them there.
He died!
He died.
Do you not listen?
Did I not say?
I thought I said he died.
Écoutez!
Don't like this is what I do with my wife when I mumble.
I sort of do this.
Come clean the ears!
Which, you know, she loves.
Loves it to death.
Yeah, guy died and he had all of these final records.
And what happened?
Well, he tried to sell some of them.
Nobody was particularly interested.
And off to the dump they went.
Off to the dump they went.
Right?
You know this story, right?
Alexander the Great?
What he wanted when he died?
It's probably apocryphal.
Right?
Alexander was a great Greek king.
As a military commander he was undefeated and the most successful throughout history.
On his way home from conquering many countries he came down with an illness.
At that moment his captured territories, powerful army, shops, swords and wealth all had no meaning to him.
He realized that death would soon arrive and he would be unable to return to his homeland.
He told his officers I will soon leave this world.
I have three final wishes.
You need to carry out what I tell you.
Is Generals in tears?
Agreed.
The three wishes.
One.
The best doctors should carry my body.
Two.
All the wealth I have accumulated, money, gold, precious stones, scatter them along the procession to the cemetery.
And three, my body should be covered in a shroud with only my hands visible, swinging in the wind, palms up, carrying dust.
One of the generals, who was surprised by these unusual requests, asked Alexander to explain.
Here's what Alexander the Great had to say.
I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal.
I want the road to be covered with my treasure so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth stays on earth.
I want my hands to swing in the wind so that people understand that we come into this world
empty-handed and we leave this world empty-handed after the most precious
treasure of all is exhausted and that is...
time.
That is time.
That is time.
Probably not a true story, but I don't particularly care if it's true or not.
Steph, do you think people are born with those oratorical skills or did experience how?
Well, apparently the first time that Adolf Hitler got up to speak, he was incredible.
Dunno.
How many square feet is your house?
Philosophy Show!
For real estate, you need HGTV.
Home and Garden Television.
That's what you need, my friend.
Not what I do.
All right.
Oh, wait.
What did I have over here?
Trying to give a little more light as darkness begins to fall.
There we go.
There we go.
I think deep down we know what we're good at, and we should really, really aim to focus on that, right?
I think deep down we know what we're good at.
All right, any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems?
We, of course, will have a chat!
I like the Friday night voice chat, so you can... maybe we can open it up, but I like having debates with people and having voice chats back and forth.
Yeah, just remember, you don't have as much time as you think.
You don't?
I mean, I think I packed a lot of living into my 57 and a half years, but you don't have as much time as you think.
Steffi's selling his house.
Would not if you donate.
All right, so I just want to check something here.
I'll just wait for any last questions or comments to come in.
Thank you for those who are donating at freedomain.com slash donate.
I really, really do appreciate it.
I really do appreciate it.
And don't forget, freedomain.com slash call.
You want a private call, free of public scrutiny, where you can talk about whatever you want.
And of course, some people don't call in because they have maybe business questions and they want to keep things proprietary.
All of this could be solved.
All of this can be solved.
But yeah, freedomain.com slash call and you and I Can chat like we are?
The early band, yes.
And you and I climb over the sea to the morning.
We can do all of this wonderful stuff.
All this delightful, delicious, lovely chatting.
And it's kind of an introductory price right now.
It will go up.
Favorite rock singer slash band?
Trying to upgrade my playlist.
Um... Do you like Squeeze?
Tempted by the fruit of another... Yes.
Wasn't that, uh... The people keep on bragging?
That was, uh... Gosh.
Elvis Costello.
We did that.
Favorite rock singer or band?
Freddie Mercury and Queen.
Without a doubt.
Without a doubt.
Listen, I mean, if you want to really listen to some absolutely baroque stuff, listen to, from the album Queen II, March of the Black Queen.
Wild!
It's totally schizo.
Yes, introductory price for call-in.
Yeah, so, I don't mean to be Mr. Marketing, but the demand is vastly outstripping my time, so I'm going to have to raise prices.
But, you know, you want a call?
Yeah.
Call in, man.
Call in.
We'll set it up.
Steph, I love you and your work, but sometimes I feel annoyed when you ask people to tip, even though I think you produce an enormous amount of value.
Why would I feel that?
Well, I think it's because it sometimes can be tough to see other people directly ask for what they want, if, if, you have a problem directly asking for what you want.
I know, and you're not the first person to be annoyed by me relentlessly asking for tips, but, you know, I know the value that I provide, I have employees, and I have costs, and I want to keep things sustainable, and, you know, after deplatforming, income went down Largely, largely, largely, so, you know, I've got to be responsible to the sustainability of the show, so I'm going to ask, right?
But a lot of times people don't like me asking because they see me, repeatedly, without escalation, without bullying, without manipulation, people see me asking for what I need and want, and it bothers them because they don't feel the same freedom to do that, right?
I mean, do you dislike asking for what you want?
I've been working my way into sending you a call and request for a while now, how do I contact you?
So just go to freedomain.com slash call.
freedomain.com slash call.
So... And yeah, I mean, I asked for donations because I need donations.
Oof, got spine tingles, you nailed it, we'll donate again this Friday.
Right.
So, look.
Let's end with this, right?
So, most times when we're children, If we have dysfunctional families, if we ask for what we want, we get attacked.
Oh, you're being selfish.
Oh, think of other people for a while.
Oh, I'm too busy.
When we ask for what we want, I want to spend more time with you.
I'd like to go to do this.
I'd like to go and to do that.
And people get annoyed with us.
Right, and lord knows in school if you try to get something that you like or want or need, like, I don't know, interesting lessons, people are going to get mad at you, get frustrated with you, so to ask for what you, to ask directly for what you want in a dysfunctional household is going to get you abused.
Or harshly treated.
And in school it's the same.
It's the same way.
So we're trained out of asking for what we want.
Now why are we trained out of asking for what we want?
So that other people can step in front of us.
Right?
so other people can step in front of us.
I feel way better about doing a private call in knowing there's a charge.
I felt like it would be asking too much to do a private one without the expectation of reciprocity.
Right?
Yeah, and it would be.
It would be.
Once my financial situation stabilizes and my substantial pay raises kick in, I will lavish you with money.
You've been incredibly helpful and I've not given enough in return.
Well, I appreciate that.
And honestly, congratulations.
What a lovely sunset.
I don't get to see this from the studio.
What a lovely thought and I appreciate that.
Thank you.
I understand that feeling as I was never allowed to desire things as a child.
Asking what you want so you can be the best you can be at the job.
Steph tips on asking for a raise.
I got a job offered from a competitor.
Right.
Steph, you know you can get a job, right?
That's funny.
Ah, Steph tips on asking for a raise.
I got a job offered from a competitor.
Okay.
All right.
So you don't ask for a raise.
That's being in a begging position, right?
You don't ask for a raise.
Right.
What are you doing when you ask for a raise?
Are you asking for the company to give up something?
Are you asked to be treated with favoritism?
Are you asking for the company to lose money by giving you more money?
No!
You're asking for recognition of the value you're providing.
Right?
That's what my tips are.
I ask for recognition of the value that I'm providing and the value that I provide is enormous, unprecedented and you can't get it anywhere else.
Like I know that for an absolute fact.
I know that for an absolute... I will go to my grave absolutely certain that the value I provide is enormous, life-changing and cannot be replicated and is not replicated anywhere else.
So you're not asking for a raise.
You're asking for just recognition of the value that you provide.
Right?
Are you begging a girl to go out with you?
No!
You are not begging a girl to go out with you.
You are offering her a great, fun, enjoyable evening.
Right?
So if you have validation of the value, you would say, so what you need to do to get a raise, you need to track the value that you're doing.
Say, look, I did this much faster.
I did this much faster.
I cut costs here.
I cut costs there.
Here's the value that I'm providing to the company.
I don't feel like it matches what I'm getting back.
And I want to keep providing value to the company.
And I also want to stay motivated.
Right?
So I'm giving you the chance to, you know, respond and, you know, if you think I'm crazy that's fine, but I'm giving you the chance to respond to the value proposition that I'm making.
You're not asking for money, you're asking for recognition of the value that you're providing to the company.
You're not asking for money when you ask for a raise, you're asking for money back.
You see what I mean?
You're not asking for money.
Oh, please give me money out of this big pile.
You'll end up with less.
I'll end up with more, blah, blah, blah.
It's about your ego.
No.
You're asking for money back.
I just saved this company $100,000.
I want a $10,000 raise.
You're still up $90,000.
Well, I don't get the $10,000 raise.
Maybe I'm not saving you $100,000 next year.
Right?
You're not asking for money.
You're asking for money back.
You lend your productivity to a company.
And they pay you out of that productivity.
Like if you lend a hundred dollars to a friend and you say, can you pay me the money back?
You're not begging for money.
You're asking him to pay you back what you lent him.
You're not asking for money.
You're asking for money back.
You're asking for just recognition of the value you've provided.
Now, if you don't know the value you've provided, that's a whole other problem.
You got to figure that out.
You got to make that case.
Because your boss also would love to pay you more Right?
But he needs to be able to justify it to his boss.
So if you hand your boss the paperwork saying, here's what my value is, here's what I'm offered, and here's the value that I provided, and your boss can then go to his boss and say, this guy needs a raise and here's the value he's providing, right?
Exploiter says, exploiters do not care.
Everything is supply and demand.
Exploiters do not care.
I know you're a bit of a troll here, but... Cause Steffy, you know, Steffy.
Oh, so, so edgy, man.
You put E at the end of my name.
You dropped the letter.
It's not Stefan, not Mr. Molyneux.
Steffy.
Steffy.
That's so sad.
What a sad little thing.
Exploiters do not care.
Everything is supply and demand.
Yeah.
Okay.
Everything is supply and demand.
Yeah.
Business is business, right?
Everything is supply and demand.
Sure.
And if you say that you're in demand, then they'll supply you more money.
All right.
Well, listen, guys, I really, really do appreciate everything you've done except for this image of Queen Elizabeth II in a Freddie Mercury outfit saying, Queen performing at Live Aid 1985.
That, I'm afraid, has burned into my brain.
Dear Lord.
Mama, I just started a war!
Alright.
So, I appreciate that.
And you have to have confidence.
Mr. Molyneux sounds way too formal.
Yeah, yeah.
Could be.
Could be.
Alright, well listen guys, I really do appreciate... I had an English teacher named Mr. Molyneux, a great big man who shouted really loud.
Well, I'm very glad that that has changed into a medium-sized man.
I'm taller than average, who shouts really loud.
All right.
Thanks again for a great evening.
freedomain.com to help out the show.
Really would appreciate it if you'd like to help out the show.
I might, I might, I might, I might, I might, I might do an in-person meetup.
I've really been thinking about it.
Really thinking about it.
Because I think I can get places that can't be cancelled.
I think that I can get... Would you guys like to meet up in person?
I think it'd be a blast.
I think it'd be great fun.
We could play some volleyball.
And where would the meet-up be?
Well, I think it would be someplace in the States.
Yeah, I think... I would love to meet you all.
I really would.
I think it'd be great.
Hugs all around.
Yeah, I think I'd do it in the States.
But I think it would be great.
It would be wonderful to meet up.
And if I can get a place that can't be cancelled?
2025?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm not sure right... I don't know.
Maybe right around election season when everyone's distracted or something like that.
Maybe that.
Maybe that.
But yeah, I think that would be fun.
And we used to do them years ago, so...
Yeah, after the start of this show, I hope it's outside of Toronto, that's right.
You can use OBS and show us stuff on screen if you want to do a stream like that.
Yes, that's true.
Yes, that is true.
I can even do that on, uh, I've got a presentation.
Yeah, I've got a presentation format here I can use, right?
Oh yeah, but that's not going to work because... Yeah.
Yeah, but I can do that for sure.
If you came to England, I would meet you.
Oh, interesting.
Interesting.
2024 in USA.
I will for sure meet you.
Yeah, okay.
Well, I will keep that on my radar, and we will hopefully get something like that done.
Because honestly, it would be a blast to meet everyone, and it's a really, really great time.
We used to do these years ago, and Orlando is a good spot, yeah?
Okay.
Okay, but I need a place that can't be cancelled, right?
All right.
Well, thanks everyone.
I appreciate the feedback.
freedomain.com slash donate.
Thank you everyone for A lovely evening.
We'll talk to you guys Friday night.
And don't forget, I actually have posted at freedomain.locals.com, I have posted the shortened version for everyone.
You don't have to be a donor.
A shortened version of the Peaceful Parenting book.
I'd love to get your feedback.
Uh, you... Are you related to Hugh Molyneux the Earl?
I assume so.
Yo Steph, I haven't had a chance to follow you in a while!
Lie.
Not since the boom period to the mid-teens.
What's your thoughts on the new wave of pro-men's tradcon video content?
What?
I think a lot of it is good.
A lot of it is, um, a lot of sour grapes.
But, um...
If you want to know where I stand on men's rights, my novel The Present is the place to go.
Freedomain.com slash books.
You can go to listen for free to my novel The Present and that's got a very strong and powerful men's rights perspective in it and that novel will be very surprising for you to read given how I work with Christianity in that book but you really should check.
It's a fantastic book.
I've been listening to the audiobook again and it's like Damn.
You've already read it since 2019?
No?
No, my novel The Present wasn't out in 2019.
But nice try!
Alright guys, thanks a mil.
I'll talk to you Friday night, 7pm.
We'll meet up on Skype and freedomain.com slash donate.
Thanks for the great questions and comments tonight.
Lots of love from up here.
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