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March 14, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
01:21:42
ONE CHOICE: Truth vs Manipulation!
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Time Text
Good evening.
Good evening.
Welcome to your Friday Night Live.
Stefan Molyneux from FreedomAid.
FreedomAid.com.
We're going to dive straight into your cool questions.
And let's get to...
Hi, Steph.
What are your thoughts on Hamas?
Yeah, no, I like it.
I like it with PETA. It's good.
PETA, it'll stick my teeth and I get a little bit garlic.
Wait, do I have that right?
Hamas?
Hamas.
Okay.
Hamas, terrorists or freedom fighters?
Well, my general thought on this and world conflict as a whole is I look at all conflicts, I look at the degree to which the participants are willing to be philosophical, to reason from first principles and so on.
And where individuals, groups, cultures or whatever are not willing to reason from first principles, I don't usually pay a huge amount of attention to the conflict after that because the conflict is inevitable and intractable as a whole, if that makes sense so yeah I look it's the same thing
I hate to sort of diminish stuff in the Middle East and so on, but it's the same thing that I have with people who have relationships.
Married or whatever.
And they say, gee, I'm having a lot of conflict with my partner.
So then, what I say to myself is, are the participants in the conflict willing to listen to reason, to debate, to, you know, all this kind of good stuff?
Thank you, Dortmunds.
Well, if they are willing to do that, then the conflict can be solved.
But unless both parties are willing to listen to reason, The conflict cannot be solved.
The conflict cannot be solved.
Sorry, everyone just kind of vanished and came back in again.
You think you should give Izzy control of the background?
Ooh, what would Izzy do with the background?
I bet you it would be quite exciting what Izzy would do with the background.
She'd probably put me underwater with a big giant bunch of eggs or cue balls or something like that.
So I think I... I think I get it as a whole.
All right.
So, I mean, of course, I want the world to have less conflict, obviously, and certainly less violence.
And there's only one way for the world to have less conflict and less violence, or at least certainly less violent conflict, and that is for people to commit to reasoning their beliefs from first principles.
If they are willing to do that, then good things can happen.
If they're not willing to do that, The conflict is inevitable and it is intractable until people are willing to, both sides are willing to listen to reason, if that makes any sense.
I suppose it would be kind of like, how interesting, again, I don't mean to diminish the brutality and the violence and all of that that's going on in the Middle East, but to me it would be sort of like, how interested are you?
In watching a game of basketball or baseball or chess or anything like that, how interested are you in watching a game where people don't play by the rules?
They just make up the rules.
Would you be interested in watching a chess game where they just threaten each other over what the pawn or the rook or the bishop or the king or the queen can do?
Well, it wouldn't be any fun to watch because there wouldn't be any particular skill involved.
There would only be aggression and violence and manipulation.
Involved, so I don't find myself, I don't have much energy or focus or intent to review conflicts in the world where either one or both sides is not philosophical.
That makes sense.
Let's see here.
Can we post the possible backgrounds here?
Yeah, that's fine.
Yeah, if you have cool backgrounds, I'm very...
Happy to watch them.
Thank you, Anthony.
Thank you, Justin.
I appreciate your support.
I really do.
Deeply, humbly.
I appreciate your support.
All right.
A while back, you told me to read The Fountainhead.
I finished it.
Thank you for telling me to read it.
Then I saw your live stream talking about it the other day, right after I finished the book.
Yeah, it's a fantastic book.
I read that book about every eight to ten years.
All right.
What are your thoughts on the Muslim Columbia University student who may get deported for supporting Palestine and organizing the violent protests at Columbia University?
Was it Charlie Kirk who was saying that half of the students at Columbia University are international students for which Columbia University gets paid a lot?
Well, is Columbia University teaching people to reason from first principles?
Or are they taking money and Pushing a bunch of subjectivist woke stuff on people.
So, if Columbia, and I don't know much of the details, of course, about what is taught at Columbia, I suspect that they're not, applying Socratic reasoning and teaching people to think rationally from first principles, so I don't particularly care what happens there.
Right.
I mean, I used to.
I used to.
Ooh, nice.
I like these.
I like these images that you're coming up with.
That's kind of cool.
Sorry, jump all over topics and you name it, but that's pretty good.
All right, so we'll call that Studio 3. Nice.
All right, that's pretty good.
What else do we have here?
Those are nice images.
So, I see a bunch of conflicts and I'm like, oh, okay, so how are people doing in terms of reasoning from first principles?
Well, they don't appear to be doing very well.
And after that, and it's not because, you know, I'm sort of feel bad or, you know, I'm sort of virulently not caring because it's too painful.
It's just like, well, if people are going to not pursue reason and evidence in terms of their thinking, then I'm not sure why I would be invested in what happens after that.
It's sort of like if a friend were to say, I am going to do really, really terrible things, would you want to pursue him?
If he says, I'm no longer going to work for a living, I'm going to go and be violent, and I'm going to steal, and I'm going to intimidate, and I'm going to blackmail people, and so on, and he just abandoned reason and trade as his methodology.
For getting things done.
Would you particularly care what happens to him after that?
I wouldn't, in a sense, really, at all.
Damn, that's...
All right, let me see.
Here we go, here we go.
Sorry, I'll just use the video.
Background in, but let's see.
And a file to what we can do here.
Oh, space, the final frontier.
This is the voyage of the big chatty forehead, launching itself through the nebula of anti-rationality to the black hole of thought that irradiates you from time, time, time.
Nice.
Nice.
All right, let me, there should be a hover thing here.
I got a little hover thing.
Which allows me to...
I don't want to know.
Now I don't want to do a visual search.
Thank you for your tip.
I appreciate that.
Tips are very gratefully and humbly appreciated.
That's pretty sweet, man.
Coming at you from God's eardrum, it is Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
All right, what do we got here?
Beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
All right.
But that is very special.
All right.
Have a close there.
Leave without saving.
Yeah, I can leave without saving.
I found the fifth dimension.
You sent me a $100 donation this week.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
I really do appreciate that.
All right.
So, yeah.
So, with regards to the...
I think this might be a bit spacey.
I mean, with regards to it being a bit spacey.
That is kind of cool, but it may be considered a little bit too DS9. All right, let me just affix that one up a smidge.
Let's just go back to...
Oh, nice!
Yeah, you're going to have to crop that, though.
I can't put the whole image up.
I can't put the whole image up.
So, yeah, with regards to this individual student, it's not his deportation or whatever might be happening.
It's not because he supports Palestine.
It is, I think, because he has vowed to destroy everything to do with Western civilization, and I think that's considered to be...
There's a sort of law, if I understand this correctly, and I'm certainly no lawyer, but there's a law in America that says if you're here on a visa and you interfere with America's foreign policy plans or activities, then you can be deported and so on.
And sort of an interesting question is...
How much do non-American citizens benefit from the First Amendment?
And that is a very, very interesting question.
But it is, if you are fomenting violence, if you are fomenting violence, I'm not saying he is, right?
Because I don't know the details of the case.
So not relevant to this guy.
I don't know that case.
But if you're fomenting violence in America, you would get charged.
I think, in general, it's cheaper to deport you rather than to charge you.
I think that's the general idea, if that makes any sense.
Yeah, ducks and dragons, that would be nice if Izzy was in charge.
Thoughts on tattoos.
Why do people get them?
Well, tattoos are generally associated...
There's tons of exceptions, right?
And, you know, get mad at me if you want, but it's kind of immature to shoot the messenger.
It's just a fact.
Tattoos are in general associated with lower IQs and masochism.
So what are you advertising?
Like when I was a kid, there were no tattoos.
Like maybe there'd be the occasional sailor who would have some crazy tattoo or something like that.
But there were no tattoos around.
And certainly you'd never see a female.
With a tattoo.
This was absolutely inconceivable when I was growing up.
So in general, the tattoos are signaling that you had a terrible childhood and you are putting out a signal for other people with terrible childhoods who aren't going to deal with them to come and act out against you.
So in general, It's like being branded by an abusive parent.
You're being branded by your abusive parent so that other people can find you and interact with you in that kind of negative way.
So it's being branded by your charter.
Very sad.
Well, yeah, so free speech issue.
I was always told it's freedom of speech, not freedom of reach, and so on.
And so it is, of course, hilarious and tragic to see people on the left pretending to care about free speech after the Biden administration.
I don't know why people even engage in this kind of conversation, right?
Any advice for tech workers to future-proof themselves with the advancements in AI? Keep learning.
I spent three years in a large retail in the AI space, and it was a lot of fun.
Well, I mean, I think most code is going to be written in the future.
And I was having a debate with a friend of mine the other day where they were saying, but you're going to need people to debug the code that the AI produces.
And it's like, well, yes, but people will end up writing code to debug the code that AI produces.
So for those of you who aren't aware, when I was a programmer and I was the chief technical officer of a software company I co-founded, I wrote code to change code.
I wrote code to...
I changed databases, queries, forms, reports, and I wrote code to change code.
So it was kind of recursive code activity.
And you can just, wherever there's a pattern, you can figure it out.
So you either have to roll with AI and become an expert at it, or You have to find something else.
But I think just straight-up coding is not long.
Not long for this world.
It is going to go the way of the dodo, I think.
Staff, I still see your name brought up positively on the internet, primarily X. Whether the mainstream media wants to admit it, you've had a lasting impact on society.
Well, this is an analogy, but it's an important analogy.
Let me tell you that.
So the analogy is this.
Sometimes you have to let yourself get shot so people know where the enemy is and what he's capable of.
So I took on, of course, massive numbers of very controversial issues.
And let's say IQ was the big one.
Well, I can't even tell you how much credibility I gained or rather how much the arguments I was putting forward, the facts, the data, the evidence that I was putting forward.
I can't tell you how much my credibility went through the roof because I was deplatable.
Was it worth it?
Well, yeah.
Whatever spreads the truth is worth it and a plus.
Because boomers, and of course it's a lot of older people making these sorts of decisions, but boomers see ostracism as a sign of badness, whereas Gen X and under view ostracism as a badge of honor.
So people, of course, when I got deplatformed, the ideas that I were arguing for, I don't mean to get all kinds of Obi-Wan Kenobi on you, but when I was deplatformed, it was like, if you strike me down, I should become stronger than blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Because people were like, well, why would you strike him down?
If he's so wrong, just disprove him.
Why would you need to deplatform him?
If he's so wrong, just disprove him.
So.
All right.
So let's see here.
From Odyssey.
Okay, so somebody wrote, any chance of looking into reports of mass deaths, even excluding stillbirths and miscarriages, via the COVID vaccine, at least 17 million dead worldwide by at least one accounting, maybe six plus months ago.
Also see the Japanese report and others.
Okay, so I've read these same reports.
I understand these same arguments.
Of course, I'm not competent.
To evaluate them or figure out how good or bad these reports are.
So I can take them at face value.
I cannot take them at face value.
Now that I'm older, I could be 59 this year, right?
So now that I'm older, I say to myself, okay, so if I put time and effort and energy into this, what's the value?
What's the value?
Let's say that I look into this stuff.
I validate it.
I don't validate it or whatever it is, right?
So what?
So what?
What does it do?
I mean, does anybody really think anyone's going to get brought to justice?
It's not possible.
It's not possible.
If these reports are true, and I'm not saying that they are, I don't know.
I can't validate them.
Everybody has an axe to grind.
Everybody has an agenda.
So I don't know if they're true or not.
But if they are true, then it would be...
Just about the biggest crime against humanity that has ever been inflicted on the world.
Does anybody think we're going to get Nuremberg trials?
Well, of course not.
The governments that funded it, pushed it, punished people for not taking the vaccine, stripped away their rights, their ability to travel, their ability to visit loved ones, and their ability sometimes to have a job.
Is the government going to investigate itself and find itself guilty of some of these absolutely appalling things, if they're true?
Well, of course not.
Very clearly, very clearly, you know, I, of course, cannot give anybody medical advice, and I never would dream of giving anybody medical advice.
I shared all of the reasons why I didn't take the COVID vaccine.
I shared all of the reasons why.
I never told anybody to take it or not take it, because that would be crazy.
I'm not a doctor.
But I certainly shared all of the reasons why I didn't, and you can go back and listen to this sort of stuff.
I won't reiterate them here.
They're kind of blindingly obvious in hindsight.
So, let's say that all of these terrible things are occurring as a result of these vaccines.
Well, what would I do about it?
What could I do about it?
People have already taken them.
I mean, I've heard about this detox stuff.
I have no idea if that's true or valid or not.
I don't know.
And even if it was true, Or valid that you can detox a spike protein or whatever you want to say.
Even if that was true and valid, it wouldn't be something that I could recommend or evaluate or anything like that.
So, what would I do about this information?
I don't need any particular new information to validate what I've been talking about for over 40 years, which is that the initiation of the use of force is immoral.
So, I'm happy to hear if there's a purpose to looking into this stuff.
What would I do about it?
What would I do with it?
I mean, everybody who's taken the vaccine has already taken the vaccine.
I really can't imagine, for the life of me, that anybody who didn't take the vaccine, say, four years ago, is going to take the vaccine now.
You can't undo the people who've taken the vaccine.
You can't convince people who haven't taken the vaccine to take the vaccine.
So what on earth would be the purpose?
What is the purpose?
And it's funny, too.
Sorry, just go back to the Columbia student for a second, because, of course, even though Trump told everyone at the Capitol on January 6th to protest peacefully, And to obey law enforcement, he was considered to have incited an insurrection, right?
Even though he told people the peaceful is the basis of a whole impeachment thing, the basis of the rounding up of the J6. So when the president says to people, be peaceful, he's guilty of insurrection.
But when a guy says he wants to destroy all of Western civilization, that's fine.
You can't debate with people who just are chameleons, right?
It's like trying to paint a chameleon with a constantly changing background.
Sort of pointless, right?
Your work will live on forever.
Well, thank you, Dylan.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Oh, that's kind of trippy.
That might be fun to try.
All right, let me close that.
Thanks, Steve.
All right.
I'm not sure where the heck that one went.
We'll get back to it, I am sure.
So, yeah, happy to take your questions, comments, of course.
Very happy to take your support, your donations.
Very, very deeply and humbly appreciated.
All right, let's see.
Let's pick one more file.
That one's kind of cool.
Yes, joining the giant heads of philosophy, but somehow vaingloriously larger than they are all put together.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
It's definitely interesting, Sistil, because everything seems different since 2020 and your deplatforming.
Truth speakers are few and far between.
Yeah, but a lot of the stuff that I talked about has gone mainstream.
And as I've talked about before, it just gets boring and unpleasant.
We're being earlier than everyone else by like 10 or 20 years.
I mean, just, no, it's no fun.
It's no fun.
I mean, it's fun for a while.
See, you hope, you hope, of course, like, I was just reading today.
Sorry to jump all over the place here.
German intelligence has now joined the CIA in concluding with a confidence up to 95% that the likeliest origin of COVID-19 was a lab leak at the Wuhan lab.
This is from IO on X. It seems to me that at this point, the lab leak should be regarded as the default hypothesis.
Now, of course, it was so obvious, right?
It was so obvious.
And I did, of course, the truth about COVID and all of that, the case against China.
I didn't know that may have been, in fact, the case against not just China.
But it was just so obvious.
Of course, I mean, You've got a coronavirus pandemic emerging from 400 feet from a COVID lab, which has the same level of security as your average dentist's office, right?
Right.
I mean, that was not super complicated.
Right.
So.
So if you're early, you hope, of course, that if you're consistently early, you get a lot of people who say, wow, this guy's right a lot.
And he's, you know, it's.
He's got it bang on.
he understands, and so on, right?
And what happens is people just get more and more frustrated, angry, and mad as a whole, and then you just get deplatformed, right?
So society punishes its truth-tellers, and the truth-telling is not so much the deplatforming, the punishment is the indifference of everyone who's like, oh man, Steph, that guy's still alive?
Whatever happened to that guy?
I wonder where he went.
And it's like, I went to see if anybody was interested in following me.
If your friends are with you, right?
Your friends are with you at a bar, and then you get kicked out for some completely unjust reason, and your friends don't even notice that you're gone, well, they're probably not very good friends, right?
All right.
Breaking news out of Austin, Texas.
Top reporter for Info was murdered outside his home on Sunday, on Tuesday.
Many employers have been swatted.
I know one guy got swatted, and Alex Jones, of course, is talking about...
I think General Flynn has also told Alex Jones that there's a hit out on him and stuff.
Oh, those are very nice images, guys.
Thank you very much.
I do appreciate it.
I'm sorry, I should probably be slightly better at multitasking, but I'm not.
It's just, I'm going to save.
Oh, that's a nice, that looks definitely like, what is that, Elftown?
That's nice.
Yes, that is very Elrond Hubbard.
All right.
Thank you.
That's lovely.
Oh, these float overs.
I'm just not used to them.
Oh, that's nice, too.
Four by three.
Ooh, I wonder how that'll work.
I appreciate everybody allowing me to futz around with this stuff.
Kind of cool.
And they stay around forever.
Yes.
Very much like...
Very much on our way to Mordor.
It's just better if I can get my head between those two things.
I look like a combination of an orc and princess Leia.
There you go.
We're all set.
Visual jokes that don't come across at all in the podcast.
All right.
Thank you for your indulgence.
Let me get back to your questions.
All right.
All right.
How do you weigh different types of betrayal in marriage?
Would you say an affair is the worst form of betrayal or can ignoring the needs of the partner to the point of...
Burning them out and harming their health, not just be as bad or worse.
Oh no, there's many things that are worse than an affair.
Yeah, for sure.
Turning a child against the other parent, if you're married, that's a betrayal that's worse than an affair.
Yeah.
Obviously, violence is worse than an affair.
And, of course, the tragically common...
Forcing a man to raise another man's child by not telling him about uncertain paternity is one of the worst things.
It is absolutely one of the worst things around for a woman to force a man to raise another man's child by not telling him about uncertainties in paternity.
I mean, was it in France?
I think it's in France.
You can't actually get a DNA test without the woman's approval.
It's absolutely mad.
There should be absolutely mandatory DNA tests.
Absolutely.
Of course there should be mandatory DNA tests.
Can you imagine?
Let's say that only 5% of babies are paternity fraud.
Let's say.
It's probably way higher, but let's just say it's only 5%.
Well, can you imagine the outrage and outcry if one out of 20 new mothers went home with a baby who wasn't her own?
People would lose their shit.
Completely lose their shit, and understandably so.
But it's just men.
So what does it matter?
Again, outside of medical issues, blah, blah, blah.
For a woman to not have sex with a man, or for a man to not have sex with his wife.
For a woman not to have sex with her husband, her husband to not have sex with his wife.
Massive betrayal.
And certainly in the long run, much worse than an affair.
So yeah, there's lots of other stuff.
Dear Steph, is it still a red flag?
Sorry, is it a red flag if you meet a new friend or potential partner and they say they don't have a lot of friends?
Is it also a red flag if they constantly buy you things even without you asking them?
To me, this is a sign of desperation and a lack of quality the person can bring to the relationship.
But I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Thank you.
Interesting.
Interesting.
So, let me tell you.
Friends are how you meet your spouse.
That's what friends are for.
Friends are to go out and not be alone and look weird so that you can meet your spouse.
I mean, it's funny because the friends of mine who invited me to come and play some pretty good league volleyball where I met my wife, I did not stay friends with them.
In fact, I was no longer friends with them.
Even before my wife and I got married.
And we got married 11 months after we met.
So, when you're young, friendship means a lot.
I get that.
But when you get older, your spouse is everything.
And, you know, friends are nice.
They're nice to have.
But your spouse is everything.
So, friends are there to show that you have social skills so that you pass the initial smell test of whoever you're going to marry.
But marriage is it, man.
Marriage is a whole deal.
Everything other than marriage is vaguely bullshit.
Honestly, I'm telling you this straight up.
I've been married for 23 years.
Love my wife more and more each day.
My heart is growing from a raisin to a supernova over the course of my marriage.
She's just beyond wonderful every day.
So thoughtful, so caring, so strong, and so passionate, and just amazing all around, and very funny.
God, having a partner with a great sense of humor knits up the raveled sleeve of care, to put it mildly.
Your spouse is everything.
Everything else is mostly bullshit.
Your job is kind of bullshit.
You get hit by a bus, they'll just replace you with someone else.
At work.
Doesn't matter.
We're a family!
No, you're not.
Anybody who says we're a family at work has got one hand in your pocket and the other one disassembling your gonads.
And friends, yeah, they come and go.
They move away.
But you see, your spouse, I mean, you are one flesh.
You are two trees that have grown together.
You are one flesh.
Where you go, she goes.
Where she goes, you go.
You make actually human beings.
You spend, you know, I have good friends, and I'm not in any way trying to disparage my friendship.
But in terms of the people I spend time with, especially, you know, my wife and I are home all day, and we homeschool and all of that.
So, I mean, we are.
We met a little bit later in life.
I was in my 30s.
But we've had more marriage than most people who would live three or four lifetimes because we don't just have the couple hours a day and some stretch time on weekends.
We spend all day every day together.
And it's an incredibly beautiful thing.
And your spouse is everything.
Everything in your life is related to your spouse.
And they are as close as your bottom layer of epidermis.
Closer, in fact.
They can see things you can't see in yourself.
It is the great ease, beauty, comfort, and lubrication of life to have someone always in your corner.
You're always in her corner.
She always loves you.
You always love her.
You are together forever till death you part, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.
That is an absolute guarantee.
I believe more in my wife than in the physics of this universe.
I believe more in her integrity than my own.
I believe more in her virtue, Than in the laws of physics.
Because it's battle-tested and 100% reliable.
So when it comes to evaluating friends, the only question you need to ask yourself is, is this friend going to make me look good to my potential spouse?
So my wife and I went out with friends of mine early on.
We went out with my friends, we went out with her friends, and we had a blast with both.
So your friends are your stepping stone.
To your spouse, your family, your reproduction.
You can't reproduce with friends.
You can only reproduce with a spouse.
You know, there's this, I mentioned this before in the show, so I'll keep it brief, but, you know, there's this completely shitty thing that happens in sitcoms, right?
And it's always the same thing.
I remember it from Friends and a bunch of other sitcoms.
It's always the same thing.
Some woman gets pregnant and there's no guy around.
For whatever reason, the guy is not around and he's taken off or whatever, right?
And then she's like, I can't do this.
I can't do this.
And she freaks out at some point.
And then her friends are like, hey, hey, hey, relax.
We're going to be there for you 100%.
You're not going to go through this alone.
It's like, that's bullshit.
That's bullshit.
You got a baby who wakes up three or four or five times a night.
You really think your friend's going to be over every night helping you out?
Of course not.
Friends are side, side, side dishes in the main course of marriage.
They're not going to be there for you when you have a baby.
Of course not.
Like, you've got to be kidding.
Of course they're not going to be there.
Does that mean they'll never be there?
No, no, no, they'll be, but they'll come by once a week or two and whatever, but they're just not going to have the same relationship.
You have to be wedded and welded at the hips with someone to get through this thing called life.
There's no substitute.
When I was sick as a dog, when I had cancer, my wife was there for me 150%.
Friends came by once in a while, and that was nice.
But it's 1%.
When you're happily married, especially if you are home with your wife during the day, it's easy 99% of all of your time with another human being or other human beings is spent with your wife.
Now, of course, when you have a child, but that's an expression of your marriage.
So, I'll tell you what I judge people by.
I judge people by the quality of their relationship with their spouse, and if they're really focused on friendships, I view them as immature.
Now, again, I'm not saying everybody who has friends is immature, I'm not saying everybody who's focused on friends is immature, but friends are a stepping stone to get to your bride, to get to your tree that grows together, to get to your person, to get to the one-itis of the person who's going to go through life with you, who's going to be...
You're second skin and you're their second skin.
That's all.
All friends are for.
I would judge a friend by how well that friend validates me to a woman who's evaluating me.
That's all.
But yeah, it would be a red flag if they're constantly buying things without you asking them.
Yeah, that's manipulation.
That's kind of weird and creepy.
No, I would not be friends with someone.
That is, of course, it's desperate, right?
All right.
Somebody says, I would want to brag to those who attacked me for not taking the shots.
I wouldn't be very empathetic about it.
I'd want the vengeance, not the greatest impulses.
I mean, honestly, we judge your actions.
Judge your actions.
Don't judge your impulses.
Don't judge your impulses.
You're mad at someone, just be as mad as you wanted them.
Obviously, don't scream at them and hit them or whatever it is, right?
But...
If you're mad at someone, be mad.
If you feel angry at the people who took the shots, then be angry at the people who took the shots.
I don't judge my impulses.
I don't judge my emotions.
I listen to them.
I respect them.
Doesn't mean I act on them, right?
Because I have the neofrontal cortex.
I have the restraint thing and all of that.
I don't judge your emotions.
I don't judge your impulses.
I mean, if people hadn't taken the COVID shot...
Those of us who didn't wouldn't have lost half our rights.
Right?
So the people who took the shots are fueled a kind of tyranny.
And they're not apologizing.
It's in the memory hole, which means trust is non-existent for me.
Non-existent for me.
If there was lots of mea culpas and lots of, well, we should have listened and we're sorry, and like, okay, but it's just, it's going into the memory hole, which means I don't trust people who take their absolutely corrupt deeds and flush them down the memory hole.
I have no trust for people like that.
I don't have them in my life.
I wouldn't have them within a million miles of my heart, mind, and soul.
No, and, you know, this is an old Christian idea that let God take vengeance.
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, right?
Let God take vengeance.
It's not your job.
And for the most part, again, direct criminality is a different matter, but for the most part, it's like their conscience will do the job for you.
It's not something that you really need to focus on.
Their conscience will do the job for you.
Because when people ignore their own ill deeds, They lose the capacity to love and be loved.
and the capacity to love and be loved is the greatest glory and greatest good in life.
All right.
Oh, cool.
Background.
I'm looking for something.
My camera's a little bit set up on the brown side.
So I'm looking for...
I'm looking for backgrounds that are a little bit more on the brown side.
Although this 1950s vibe is pretty cool, too.
So, yeah, if you can find me stuff a little bit more on the brown side, I would appreciate that.
All right.
I did just pick one.
I really did just pick one, I promise you.
Nope.
For some reason, didn't save.
I appreciate those.
Maybe I'll get them later.
Oh, that's a nice brown one, Sepanta.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
That is a good library, man.
That is a good library.
Don't tell me it's changing where it's saved.
That would be monstrous.
Yeah, not bad.
Not bad.
And if it is bad, that's not on you.
What do you think?
I can almost, but the problem is there's a fire there, so it does crackle.
It does not crackle, I suppose.
It does not crackle.
Oh, that's nice, too.
It looks like I'm a floating head.
I don't want to look like I'm two feet tall.
If you save it that way.
Yeah, and not bad, not bad.
I appreciate that.
But yeah, if it's too low, then I look very short.
It's got to be from that perspective, right?
All right.
Oh, yeah, that's a nice one.
The Bitcoin one.
That is good.
But that's a little vertical.
Actually, I'm kind of curious how it deals with portrait.
How does it deal with portrait?
That's quite vivid.
you It's good technology, though, right?
Maybe I'll do these for the Bitcoin shows.
It's a little pixelated, but we can live with it.
all right oh that's a nice one too All right.
Last one for a bit, but I appreciate that.
Not bad.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
A little crickle-crackle.
Not bad.
Not bad.
All right.
So let's get your questions and comments.
We had a show about never working for a boss that considers his employee's family.
Really good conversation.
Yes, it's true.
Yeah, let God sort them out.
Once you get older and you see the misery that people with a bad conscience are going through, like the emptiness, the emptiness is the worst than anything.
I'd rather feel pain than numb.
To me, it's kind of like, you know, you wake up from, if you've had a bad accident, you wake up and they put that ruler against your foot and can you feel it?
When you want to be in pain, you don't want to feel nothing.
Numbness is the most horrifying emotional sense of statelessness to be in.
it's just monstrous so oh sorry oh There's a second part of a question, but I didn't get the first.
Need another Bitcoin roundtable, Steph.
Yeah, maybe.
Maybe, yeah.
I asked a question in a donation I sent in during the Sunday livestream.
Did you get that one by chance?
And maybe already answered it elsewhere.
It was about my strong video game habit slash addiction.
Well, I am sorry if I did not get to it.
Let me just do a search here and see.
I assume that it had the word.
Let me just do a search for a keyword here.
I just want to search in there.
And if you want to do it here, that would be very much appreciated.
Ah, yes, here we go.
Hey, Steph!
You've given myself and others advice when it comes to quitting video game addictions.
A lot of what you've said has helped a lot, especially achieve real-life achievements over digital.
However, I still find myself sucked into these things.
I was practically raised on them.
It was comforting to play video games over dealing with my family of origin.
Hell, even as a teen, my mother would tell me to go play a game when I would get into conflicts with my father.
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
Well, happy to help, of course.
Happy to help.
I've certainly enjoyed video games over the years.
But how old are you?
Just remind me if I don't know this.
I apologize.
But how old are you?
How old?
I may struggle into a chair here.
I played a lot.
I played two hours of pickleball last night in an hour and a half today.
The getaway sticks are a little tired.
29. Okay.
And are you married?
Yes or no?
Are you married?
Uh, pain?
I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all.
True, but feeling love and peace beyond what the world...
offer us is far better.
Oh, dear.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Oh dear.
Oh dear, my friend.
You know, it's better to feel pain than nothing.
Yes, but pleasure is better than that, too.
It's like, yeah, I get it.
I get it.
You know, if you're in a bad accident and they tickle your feet, it's probably better that you feel pain than nothing.
Yes, that's true, but it's better to not be in the accident in the first place.
It's like, yeah, no, I... I got it.
I understand.
You're going to have to...
Listen, the high IQ audience, people, there's a high IQ audience, and what that means is that you're going to have to work pretty hard to add value.
Lord knows I try to work pretty hard to add value, so...
All right.
And Serpenta, what moral challenges are you currently engaged in?
Are you trying to help someone be better?
Are you fighting some immorality?
Are you teaching people about peaceful parenting?
Do you have a moral goal that you are striving to achieve in your life at the moment?
I mean, when I met my wife, for example, when I met my wife, I was recently published, recently published my novel, and I was working on writing new novels, and of course my novels are sort of very moral, and I'm not obviously saying you have to be a novelist or anything like that, but do you have, this sounds like the doge question, like what three moral achievements have you been in hot pursuit of over the last X amount of time, right?
And it could be at work.
It could be a hobby.
It could be anything that you're doing anywhere that is adding to the good in society.
Maybe you volunteer somewhere.
It could be any number of things.
Maybe you even post good ideas about virtue and philosophy on the web, on social media.
Share what I do or what other people do that you respect.
So, what moral goals are you currently in pursuit of?
And the reason I ask that is that fake achievement drives out real achievement.
There's a sad truth in life, man.
It's like if you're a pornography addict, you don't get a great woman.
Like, you just don't, right?
She's probably even afraid to shake your hands because of its vaguely sticky and overly firm grasp of hers.
Video games are fake achievements, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I mean, when you practice, right, if you've ever done a sport, right, you practice a lot.
And when you practice, that's not a real achievement, except you're achieving better expertise, right?
So video games are fine if they help you become better or more moral, whatever it is that you want to say, that's fine.
But it's got to be for something, right?
It'd be like forever practicing your serve and your backhand, which are the two things you usually need to work on in tennis, your serve and your backhand.
So there's nothing wrong with pretend achievements, fake achievements, non-achievements, in the service of a goal of a larger achievement, but where do your video games leave you?
Where do your video games leave you?
Okay, so he writes, I'm part of a men's volunteer group that's based on personal, career, and community growth.
We meet regularly.
We set up...
Volunteer events, do fundraisers, and the like.
That's the biggest one.
I do a lot with the group.
I recently took on a new role as a communications officer.
Okay, what are the...
You can email me the website if you want.
Host, H-O-S-T, at freedomain.com.
But a men's volunteer group that's based on personal career and community growth.
And what does that mean?
I know I'm asking for a lot here, and maybe this is part of a call-in.
But generally, when you achieve real things in the world, video games get less interesting.
And so if video games remain as interesting, my guess would be that you're not achieving as much as you want in the world as a whole.
And that would be my guess, that you're not achieving as much as you want to from a moral standpoint in the world as a whole.
And, I mean, Lord knows, I don't think we ever do.
I don't think there's so much more we could do, but you kind of have to balance the work-life balance, right?
So, that would be my question.
Why would you be so focused on fake?
Achievements that don't lead to real achievements, right?
So again, there's nothing wrong with fake achievements, but they should really lead to real achievements.
And if you have real achievements, fake achievements don't matter as much.
You know, if you achieve some big moral goal, you have a confrontation, you have a victory, you have a win, something like that.
You achieve something really positive and wonderful in your life.
Do you want to go and collect another badge in Elden Ring?
Well, probably not.
Probably not.
So that would be my first thought about that.
And obviously I don't know anything about your men's group.
Maybe it's very good.
I certainly have seen a lot of men's groups.
Oh, that's interesting.
I look like I'm embedded in time, time.
So I have seen a lot of men's groups that are a little bit navel-gazing, a little bit propping up, and don't help men become great husbands and fathers.
And again, you ask me very different or whatever it is, right?
All right, Steph, is it just canvassing various areas, sorry, is just canvassing various areas a good idea for asking women out?
While, say, they're at work, Well, there are customers.
I don't like bars, and the YMCA feels too close to home.
The YMCA feels too close to home.
I'm not sure what that means.
I mean, I hate to say don't overcomplicate things, because that's not really much of an argument.
And putting the word over in front of complication doesn't really solve anything, but I would say go with the radical notion that if you like the girl, You could ask her out.
As opposed to, what's the exact right place?
If you like the girl, ask her out.
That would be my approach.
As opposed to, should I do it here?
Should I do it there?
Like if you have an excess of girls that you really, really like, you probably don't have rigid enough standards or elevated enough standards.
But yeah, don't overthink things.
Don't overthink things.
It's exhausting.
All right.
This guy wrote Henry Shevlin.
He says, teaching ethics to undergrads in 2025 is bizarre because, one, they insist morality is entirely relative and culturally constructed.
Two, while simultaneously holding unshakable ethical convictions.
Yeah, that's rough, man.
And this woman wrote, I've had a lot of students who couldn't articulate why they held the ethical convictions they did, but were entirely sure they were right.
On the other hand, some could articulate exactly why.
The students who could do that were the most likely to accept that some people might not agree.
Yeah, so the purpose of propaganda is to give people conclusions that allow them, to give people emotional conclusions that allow them to hate and attack.
That's really all propaganda is about.
This is two minutes hate that comes out of 1984. So, the purpose of propaganda is to give people emotional triggers that allow them or give them justification for hatred.
Because most people don't feel particularly comfortable Just hating others, right?
They don't feel good about it.
It makes them feel kind of gross and icky.
So the purpose of propaganda, like the left doesn't really make arguments as a whole.
And of course, the right has its issues, right?
We're just talking about these.
So the left doesn't really make arguments.
What the left does is it creates a bunch of really negative and hostile words, fascist, racist, Nazi, whatever.
They create this lexicon of verbal abuse.
And then just launch it at people who interfere with their preferences.
And this is why it became sort of kind of boring to quote debate.
You don't really get to debate at all.
I don't debate.
All right.
It's, um...
Thank you.
The guy says, oh, about video games.
That's a good point.
I can't say I felt any real-life achievement strong enough not to care about video games.
Some things do come close, like this men's group working on my career, working out, and looking for a girlfriend.
Okay, is working on your career fundamentally moral?
Probably not.
Is working out?
Moral?
Nope.
Is looking for a girlfriend?
Moral.
I mean, hopefully you'll find a girlfriend that has moral elements to it, but no.
Not particularly.
So, he says, in our group, we talk about and give advice for issues we have in our lives.
Could be issues in marriage, people struggling in their career, trying to lose weight.
How to be strong leaders in pretty much any issue men have in their lives.
I'll send you an email about the group.
Okay, so I mean, it's good.
It's good to talk about things, but via what principles are things resolved or is advice given?
Is it just we listen, which is kind of neutral?
So that would be my question.
It doesn't really feel like there's enough morality there to really satisfy you.
I mean, I would never, ever underestimate.
I would never underestimate your capacity to do good in the world.
Always think you can do more.
I generally always think that I could try and do more and so on.
Yeah.
So how to be strong leaders according to what principles?
What does it mean to be a leader?
I mean, these things are all, you know, tricky and complicated, right?
So, somebody says, "I will volunteer that over the last two years I've been active in my church and twin goals of self-improvement and working on service to others.
I try watching a few gaming streams in downtime and besides the lack of depth or character of those involved, and besides the lack of depth or character of those involved, leaves me dissatisfied and or bored after, say, 20 minutes.
So many things like scripture or wholesome entertainment I find more fulfilling, if that helps anyone else.
Make a choice.
I am glad.
It brings me real peace and fulfillment.
Oh my God.
I, me, me, I, me, me, I. Yeah, working on service to others.
I mean, I think that's good, but service in what area?
According to what good?
And something, it has to be measurable.
Has to be measurable.
Whatever is measurable is subject to hedonism.
If you can't measure it, then whether you feel good or bad about it, it's probably going to be The major thing that you're going to end up dealing with, right?
I like it.
it, I feel good about it or whatever, right?
So, oh, the original guy says, you're right.
It's not based on principles.
I'm not sure what that would be or how it would look like.
It's a standard that when men give advice, it's from their own personal experience, not, oh, I read this in a book once.
I don't quite understand.
When men give advice, it's from their own personal experience.
Sorry, you have a men's group based on feelings and subjectivity?
Maybe this is why you're still doing video games, bro.
Okay, what is a man's group supposed to mean?
Let me open this up.
What is a man's group, if it's going to be a man's group, focused on men's way of thinking and doing things?
What is advice in a men's group supposed to be focused on?
Let's take an engineering class, because we're trying to engineer our lives.
In an engineering class, you say, well, I tried to build a bridge once and it fell down.
I was sad about it.
Nope.
Men, men need to teach each other principles.
Facts, reason, evidence, and principles.
That's what men need to be teaching each other.
Facts, reason, evidence, principles, virtues.
It's a kind of false dichotomy to say, well, it's either my personal experience or I read this in a book once.
Men get together to figure out how to get to the moon.
And you don't get to the moon by talking about what you read in a book once or your own personal feels and experiences.
He says, so if someone has an issue at work with a boss, advice should be given from a man who also had an issue at work with a boss instead of, hey, so-and-so author said you should deal with it like X.
Well, my-- what's the false dichotomy?
You've got an issue with your boss.
What's the most masculine thing that you could do?
I'll give you a hint.
Everything that is not honesty is manipulation.
Well, you should handle it this way, and you should try this, and you should do that, and you should do that.
Everything that is not honesty is manipulation.
Now, I understand that manipulation can occasionally, in an extremity, be a valid tool.
So I've talked about a time when I had a guy who reported to me who was very rude and aggressive with me and undermining my authority because I had a team of like 35 people who worked for me who was undermining my authority.
And I went to my boss and I said, I'm going to fire him.
He's like, well, you can't fire him.
He's been here for a long time.
And I said, yeah, but he's got a really bad temper and he's very disrespectful and he's kind of hostile and all of that kind of stuff, right?
And I can't work with the guy.
And I've given him like two weeks, and I've talked to him, obviously, personally, but he's just aggressive.
He was an ex-military guy, and just, I don't know, I bothered him for whatever reason.
It happens.
And my boss just basically wouldn't give me permission to fire him.
And I said, okay, well, if I can't fire him, then I'm not his boss.
So you're his boss.
So he should report to you.
Well, he can't report to me.
He's got to report to you.
Then I have to be able to fire him.
We just went round and round, right?
So then all I did was I knew this guy had a bad temper, so I was honest with him.
I wasn't diplomatic, right?
Even diplomacy can be a form of manipulation, although politeness is nice in life.
But in a meeting, I disagreed with the guy, and he got more upset, and I didn't say, well, let's take this offline.
I just kept disagreeing with him, and then eventually lost his shit, and he got fired.
So even that was honest.
I just wasn't being diplomatic.
I wasn't saying, let's discuss this one-on-one.
Outside of blah, blah, blah, right?
It's just like, no, I disagree.
Here's why I think you're wrong.
Here's the evidence that I have.
And he got mad.
He said, no, I still disagree.
You haven't addressed the evidence.
You haven't made an argument.
Getting mad is not working.
It's not going to...
I don't care about your feelings.
I care about the success of the project.
And here are the facts.
And it eventually blew up, right?
So I'm not sure as men, we either tell the truth or we're slaves.
That's all there is.
Nothing else.
Nothing else.
We either tell the truth or we're slaves.
I didn't want to be a slave.
I told the truth.
I took the hits.
I told the truth.
I took the hits.
I don't mind.
I'm not saying it's fun.
I'm not saying I'm above it all and indifferent, but I don't mind.
That's the deal.
So, If someone has an issue at work with a boss, what advice?
Because if it's advice other than tell the truth, then you're just saying, be manipulative and lie.
So, do you have to have had the exact same experience or a similar experience to say to a man who's having trouble with an authority figure, tell the truth.
Well, I'm going to get fired if I tell the truth.
Okay.
Then don't tell the truth.
But if you decide not to tell the truth, don't complain about it.
Because most people, when they're asking for advice, and I listen, I say this as a guy who's had thousands of public conversations with people asking for advice.
Most people, not everyone, most people who are asking you for advice are desperately begging for one thing and one thing only.
Tell me, Steph, I'm begging you, I'm begging you, tell me how to fix this problem without having to be moral and tell the truth.
Tell me how to improve this situation without requiring from me gut-wrenching levels of integrity which I'm scared of, which I understand, and I sympathize, I really do.
Tell me...
How I eliminate or reduce or avoid this conflict without standing up for truth, reason, facts, and values.
How do I fix my parent without telling the truth?
How do I fix my marriage without telling the truth?
How do I fix my job, my career, my friendships?
How do I fix it all?
Steph, give me a magic elixir that lets me fix things without telling the damn truth.
Well, you can't.
Because the moment you avoid the truth, you've emasculated yourself.
Because slaves can't tell the truth.
Slaves hate being slaves.
Court toadies, courtiers can't tell the truth.
Because they can't say to the king, I have no respect for you.
Men who lust after women can't tell the truth to the women.
Because they can't say, well, I don't really like you, but you've got a nice rack or whatever, right?
I don't really respect you, but They've got to lie.
Oh no, tell me more.
I'm so interested.
So I'm concerned that in this men's group, it's all like, okay, how do I solve my issue with my boss without being it's all like, okay, how do I solve my issue with my boss without being Thank you.
And again, I understand diplomacy.
I understand Diplomacy.
But if you choose not to tell the truth, there's no point complaining about the outcome, because the outcome is entirely predicated upon you choosing to not tell the truth.
And I'm not even going to nag people about not telling the truth.
But let's not pretend that there's a solution to conflict that doesn't involve morality.
Let's not pretend that there's a solution.
to conflict that doesn't involve telling the truth.
He says, so true, that or they just want to complain and have you sympathize without actually wanting to put any effort into fixing the problems they are complaining about.
Thank you.
You have problems in your life exactly to the degree That you're willing to lie to yourself about lying.
Let me say this again.
It's really, really important.
Really important.
You have problems in your life to the degree that you're willing to lie to yourself about lying.
Or if you say, well, telling the truth is impossible, or I can't possibly, or whatever, you're just lying to yourself.
You can always tell the truth.
There's a price to be paid for telling the truth, and you can choose not to pay that price.
That's fine.
But if you say, well, I'd rather keep my $100,000 a year job by lying to my boss, by misrepresenting things to my boss, by not telling the truth to my boss, by lying by omission, I'd rather keep my job.
Then you're being paid to lie.
Then just accept that.
It's like you're like an actor.
You're being paid to lie.
Hey, I didn't actually say this.
It's just not me.
I'm not actually a cop.
Would you get mad?
You know, they keep handing me money and they tell me I have to pretend to be a cop.
If I'm in season six of The Wire or True Blue or something with Nathan Fillion, right?
Man, they keep...
I don't even...
These aren't even my words.
Like, yeah, you're an actor.
You're told to put...
It's called a costume.
It's not a uniform.
It's a costume.
They're paying you to fake emotions that aren't real.
They're paying you to fake intensity that isn't there.
But I just feel so false.
Like, it's not...
I'm not authentic.
I'm not a cop.
I'm not in these situations.
I'm not really sad, and they want me to cry.
They're just asking me to lie.
It's like, yeah, that's called being an actor.
That's why Marlon Brando said acting is an empty and useless profession, because it hollows you out.
Because you lie for a living.
Can you imagine an actor saying, I mean, I'm on this show, Grey's Anatomy, and They keep handing me these hospital outfits, but I'm not a doctor, and they keep wanting me to walk over here and say the same thing 13 times.
I don't want to say, that's not my genuine, I don't really, I'm not a doctor.
It's like, you're being paid to lie.
What are you complaining about, that these aren't your words?
You're being paid to lie.
So if you got to flatter your boss's ego and manage his fanities in order to pick up your hundred K, don't lie to yourself about that and say, yeah, I mean, I, I misrepresent things I like, but I'm all paid for it.
Thank you.
At least you're not lying to yourself about lying, then.
If you're with some woman and you don't really like her, but she's sexy and you're horny and low brain is running your dicknapped existence, okay, then don't at least lie.
Oh, yeah, she's the greatest thing.
She may not seem that smart, but deep down, you just...
Looking to knock her flesh?
That's all.
Don't lie to yourself about lying.
That's all.
Then you're totally lost.
And then nobody with any brains is going to have any respect for you at all.
So somebody's like, yeah, I got a really difficult boss, man.
He really, he craps at me.
He nags at me.
It's like, have you talked to him about it?
Have you looked for other work?
Okay.
No.
I mean, I can't get another job that pays me to leave this much.
It's like, okay, but then you're being paid to lie.
So take your money.
And don't complain about it.
I just don't understand why people are like, I can't, I mean, you know, I've talked to a bunch of people in the show who work for their dad, right?
It's like, yeah, but, you know, I can't get another job at this level.
I have to work for my dad, but he's such a tyrant.
It's like, so you're being paid.
You're being paid to shut up and do what your dad says.
You're not a kid anymore, so you take the money.
I don't know why you would complain.
I can't get another job like the one my dad gave me.
Okay.
Then you're making an extra $50,000 a year by shutting up and lying by omission.
Okay.
So take your money.
Don't complain about it.
If you want to tell the truth, then take the $50,000 hit, go get some other job or whatever.
Maybe you will, maybe you won't.
I don't know.
But if you don't want to lie, like it's so weird to me that people get paid for stuff and then complain about it.
Like when I was a waiter, I got paid to carry food out.
It's like, I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't paid.
Like, I wouldn't be just carrying food around in a restaurant for people.
I wouldn't be asking them what they want and telling the people in the kitchen what to make.
I wouldn't be writing this down.
Like, I wouldn't be telling them what the special...
It's like, I know that.
That's why you're getting paid.
Well, you know, this is a pretty good job.
It's close to home.
I get some time off and it's good benefits, but my boss is difficult.
It's like, oh, yeah, you're getting paid for all of this.
Bonus stuff.
Yeah, take what you want and pay for it.
I just find it kind of weird.
I just find it kind of weird.
Like, you know, people who don't exercise and eat too much and then they complain about being flabby and out of shape.
It's like, you know, like I think of all the supplements that I take and have taken over the years.
You know, it's like people saved all this money and all this time by not doing these supplements, right?
And they saved all of this time and money by not having a gym membership and not going to work out.
Oh, I'm kind of weak and I pulled my muscle and it's like, I don't know, like, what are you complaining about?
You made your choices.
I don't do complaints.
I'm actually, I'm trying to remember the last time that somebody complained to me in my personal life.
Yeah, I can't remember the last time that someone complained to me in my personal life.
I don't do that stuff.
Alright, my employer could hide in the shadow of a corkscrew.
Okay, I get it.
I do not invest any more thought or energy in the job than they invest in me.
They probably are trying to push me out the door.
I accept I may need a new one.
New job, new boss, new door.
Does not mean I will give them ammo.
In fact, the owner's wife is the HR manager.
I almost give them credit for being that open about who HR is there to serve, not even hiding it, so I live with it or leave it.
Yeah.
I mean, if you're being well paid to shut up in front of your boss, don't claim that you feel, I'm just not expressed in my...
That's like somebody being in a Shakespearean play and saying, like, I don't even get to use my own language.
I don't get to ad-lib.
Like, right, because you're in Shakespeare and nobody wants to hear you ad-lib Shakespeare.
The guy says, the advice men get in this men's group varies a lot.
It's a large group.
There are definitely a few that would say, just be honest and tell the truth.
However, the words virtue, morality, and ethics are scarcely mentioned.
One guy asked me, what does virtue mean?
He's never heard the term before.
It's nerve wracking to quit a bad boss, especially if you're in your comfort zone, but it's very liberating feeling when you do.
If you want to know who's to blame for not getting fit, I'll open the front camera on the phone.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah, I just don't do complaints.
Because you know the way it always works with people who complain, right?
At least in my personal life, right?
So the way it always works with people who complain is you just end up with a yes-but personality.
Oh, it's so bad.
This is so bad.
Well, you could do this.
Yeah, but...
Well, you could do that.
Yeah, but...
There's this problem and that.
But you just end up...
Frustrated, tired, exhausted, empty, and drained.
They're just a bunch of vampires.
Complainers are just vampires.
Now, again, I'm not putting callers to me in this category because they're very much focused on finding solutions.
But yeah, complainers are energy drains.
They're genuine vampires.
Genuine vampires.
Ooh.
I wanted to mention as well, sorry for this to distrust my mind, I have an event a Friday night, and normally I don't do events Friday night because I have the show, but the show is going to be 4 p.m.
Friday.
So just to keep you alert and aware, and I'm sorry if you can't make it, I do apologize.
I do take these shows very seriously.
I try to stick to the same schedule, but I could not.
Somebody says, I've had a lifetime of yeah, but...
Yeah, like a guy who's with a woman because he just finds her sexually exciting or whatever.
It's like, yeah, but she's not very stable.
It's like, but you're getting your dick wet in the way that you like.
I don't know what there is to complain about.
I don't do complaints.
I don't do complaints.
I think it's an insult to free will for people to complain about things.
Make your choices and take your consequences.
You know, I mean, the people who, you know, people who don't work out and eat poorly, they might make, they might be making a great decision.
They might be making a great, like, if there's a nuclear holocaust, then at least they enjoy cheesecake, and it's not like my endless sit-ups are going to do much to protect me from a nuclear blast, right?
So, you know, if they get hit by a bus, Then they might as well not have gone to the gym, right?
Because they just get creamed and killed by...
Then they might as well have enjoyed themselves, eaten good food, and not gone to the gym since they're going to die anyway, and the gym wouldn't save them, so they made a good decision, right?
Making...
Like, not taking care of your health is a great decision if, for reasons unrelated to health, you don't live very long, right?
It's just, if you are going to live longer, then you want to treat yourself better.
Right?
We understand that, right?
So, I don't even mind the people who, you know, of course, I don't like that you got to pay taxes to take care of all of these people.
Oh, that's interesting.
Oh, it really is focusing on me.
So, when I move away from the camera, does it?
Yeah, it kind of fades out.
When I move away from the microphone, it's in the background.
Wow, that's cool.
So I can do the show with no microphone.
I can't even tell you how much we used to work to keep the microphone out of frame in the past.
I don't care anymore.
But I used to care.
Nice room.
Yeah, it'd be nice, right?
Maybe some lovely artists can create a great backdrop with free domain stuff on it.
That would be cool.
Alright, any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges?
Problems?
Do give me your problems, Meridian style.
FreeDomain.com to help out the show.
And I'm sorry, I'm a smidge.
I wouldn't say under the weather, but I'm certainly feeling a little tired tonight for a variety of reasons.
I slept well last night, but just had a very crazy active day.
And sorry if my energy was a smidge low.
I'm not sure it was super wise to do the backdrop stuff, but it was kind of fun and cool to do.
So I just kind of enjoyed it.
It was nice.
I had a question at the start.
Oh, yes.
Thank you about that.
Sorry about that.
Something about seed oils, right?
So, my diet is good, man.
I eat almost no processed food.
My wife is very much a...
Put your question in here, if you don't mind, again.
I'm scrolling back.
Can I even get back to the start?
We're going back to the start.
Can I page up?
Yeah, if I have to do it, I have to do it by rolling on the scroll mouse.
Wheel.
That's going to take a week or two.
Page up doesn't seem to be working, I'm afraid.
Oh, oh, wait.
Page up.
I managed to do it.
All right.
I think I can get your question.
Say it, spit it out.
All right.
Hi, Steph.
Regarding your My History with Hunger presentation, have you tried cutting seed oils out of your diet for a month or two to see how you get on, e.g.
vegetable oil, rape seed oil?
Sunflower oil, etc.
Basically anything other than olive oil, avocado oil, butter, ghee.
If you've not tried this, I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you are interested in visceral fat and food cravings.
A presentation on your experiences and results would be very interesting.
Okay, I don't do much of my own food.
My wife and my daughter are very keen cooks and chefs, so I appreciate that.
And I will take that under advisement.
I don't think I have the stuff.
If at all, that you're talking about.
But I will double check with the boss of the outfit and I will let you know.
So I appreciate that.
It's a great question and I'll certainly give it a shot to try it out.
Have you heard of influencer campaigns?
They're rampant on X these days.
I mean, I know...
What influencer campaigns are?
I don't know.
Like, you mean people getting money to take particular political perspectives or opinions?
Yes, I do understand that.
I know that the left was throwing money at people over the 2020 election, 2024 election, throwing money at people to run particular narratives.
But I have heard about it.
I don't really know much about it.
All right.
Well, listen, thanks everyone so much.
I really do appreciate your questions and comments.
Freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show.
And don't forget, if you do, go to fdrurail.com slash locals or just locals.com.
You can sign up there.
Sorry, freedomain.locals.com.
You can sign up there.
You get massive amounts of goodies and AIs and all other kinds of juicy stuff to try out.
And maybe, James, what we can do next week is give people a preview of the AIs again and send those around.
Because it's been a while since we've done that, and they're really good.
The AIs are fantastic.
There's a call-in AI, there's a general staff bot AI, there's a Bitcoin one, there's an RTR one for real-time relationships, relationship advice, and so on.
There's really great stuff.
So I hope that you will check that out.
You can also go to subscribestra.com slash free domain to help out the show.
And I hope that you have a wonderful Saturday.
And we will talk to you Sunday at the Usual Bat Time on the Usual Bat Channel.
Lots of love from up here, my friends.
I'll talk to you soon.
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