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Aug. 20, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
02:45:15
My Ex Cut Off His Balls! Twitter/X Space
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Hello, hello, good morning everybody.
Hope you're doing well.
I, uh, had janky sleep on, uh, oh gosh, what is it today?
Friday night.
And then last night, oh man, I haven't had this in years.
A thunderclap happened over my house that literally felt like Zeus' hand smiting my nets.
Now I know we've all had these dreams.
I know James, you in particular, but it was really something.
Uh, heart was thumping, and I felt like a veteran or a yappy dog in the presence of, I don't know, return fire from the heavens.
So it took me a little while to get back to sleep.
But I'm up and ready and rearing to go.
And I will get to requests in a second.
I know we didn't get to, I don't know, 15 people that wanted to talk last night.
So I'll keep this quick.
So there is a conversation that's happening as a whole on X on my bat channel, which is that Bitcoin is intangible.
You cannot hold Bitcoin in your hand.
It is intangible.
Like approximately 99% of fiat currency, it is intangible.
Now, of course, that raises a great question.
It's not specific to Bitcoin, it's a general question, which is, okay, what is tangible?
So to me, tangible is perceivable by the direct evidence of the senses.
That is tangible.
So the question is, is Bitcoin perceivable by the direct evidence of the senses?
And the answer, of course, is yes.
Of course it is.
Bitcoin is the arrangement of electrical impulses in a thoroughly validated round-the-world blockchain.
Bitcoin shows up as numbers on a screen, which is arrangements of atoms and energy and electrons and so on in a computer and in a very widespread network of computers, millions of computers around the world.
So yeah, it's real.
I mean, just because you can't touch something directly doesn't mean that it's not real.
I bring to the stand your average book, not the Braille ones, but your average book.
You can't touch those letters.
You can see them, but you can't touch them in the way that you can touch the book as a whole.
In other words, if you were blind, trying to read a regular book, maybe if it was an old-fashioned cover, but you would not be able to feel the letters.
So the letters only impress themselves upon your senses in the same way that letters on a screen impress themselves on your senses but you can't touch them so tangible just means it impresses upon the senses now the reason why i think people like physical touch is physical touch is much tougher to fool right so if you've ever taken a sharp blow to the head usually as a kid you get this metallic taste in your mouth And of course,
under COVID, some people lost their sense of taste or smell.
And so you can fool those.
Sometimes we can hear things not that hear things that aren't there, but hearing can be confusing.
I don't know if you've ever tried to find a phone in an echoing room.
It's a little tough to pinpoint.
And of course, as I said last night, I got this thunderclap of a giant god hoofbeat to the chest that of course had me alarmed that some bomb had gone off in my house or something again.
And so you can fool hearing can be confusing can fool you the site site is notoriously easy to fool right because you think of I mean you drive along the street right you can see ahead it looks like the street is wet, but it's just it's just light waves bouncing between differently heated layers of air.
You get a mirage in the desert.
You can see things a lot of times, so you can misinterpret what you see.
If you ever do something really cool, you're lying, if you go camping or whatever, or you're far away from the city lights, and you lie on your back and you look up, it's very easy of course to think or to view the stars as what they used to think, like a colander with light, like it's just a dark bowl with a few differently shaped holes.
But if you really do look at the stars and you just recognize that they're 3D, not differently bright, brighted 2D, but 3D, and you get the depth of the universe, it's really trippy.
Like you realize you're hanging on the side of a ball staring at infinite space.
It's a little goose bumpy.
It's a little eerie, but of course it is.
It's very accurate.
But touch, you can't really fool.
You can't really fool touch.
So we like the tactile things, right?
But just because you can't physically feel something, and of course you could physically feel Bitcoin if you print it out using a Braille printer, then you can't.
you can physically touch the representations of bitcoins.
But it's funny how, you know, people who get paid electronically, who transfer money electronically, who pay for things with a debit card or a credit card are like Bitcoin is not tangible.
It's like it's a whole lot more objective and tangible than your fiat currency because Bitcoin cannot be created at will.
I do think in general this is no diss to our cognitively slightly different brethren but given that a third of people to sometimes a half of people depending on how you measure it don't have any inner dialogue, I think people without an inner dialogue prefer things that are tangible.
I have no particular reason for that and it's just a gut instinct so I'm not going to say that's some philosophically proven thing but I do think that people who.
People who lack the kind of platonic, abstract conversation about concepts are suspicious of things that they can't feel or touch.
They're going to be fooled.
It's going to be ripped off.
It's ephemeral.
Right?
So, yeah, it is.
And of course, people say, Well, you know, gold can't be taken out if the electricity goes.
It's like, Bro, if the electricity goes, if the electricity goes, the only thing that's going to be currency are bullets and females, which is really tragic, but let's do everything we can to avoid that.
Of course, right?
So the idea that, I mean, how much money do you have in your home?
Not much, right?
So it's going to be cans and bullets and yeah, it's going to be really tragic.
And of course, you can do Bitcoin transactions even when there's no electricity.
And of course, when the electricity comes back up, then Bitcoin just resumes its journey and you can do all of the transactions that you did on paper before.
So there's lots of options around that.
Yeah, just this idea that you can't touch Bitcoin in the way that you can touch gold or paper, therefore Bitcoin is intangible is just a sort of crushing lack of imagination or of course seeing thinking that just because something is electronic it has no value and of course most of the biggest companies in the world deal significantly or exclusively with electronics and you know Microsoft is like 99% software
I mean they have I guess they have their surface books and stuff like that but it is mostly software with a little bit of hardware sprinkled in and So if you look at Google, right, I guess they make Pixel, a couple of other phones, but for the most part it's just digital services.
Facebook, of course, is mostly digital.
So movies are shot on.
digital.
Sometimes they're not even released in theaters, but even if they are, they're sent digitally and displayed that way.
So movies, you know, which can move our hearts and make us cry with the amount of propaganda, well, they're not shot on film usually, and they are distributed digitally, and then you can order them digitally.
They show up on your tablet or your TV digitally.
Does that mean that they don't have any value and don't make any money?
Of course they do, right?
So it's funny to me, you know.
I said this before, I said it again.
And listen, I happen to take your call, so we'll get to people in a sec.
But, you know, 90% of your philosophicalical questions are just solved by slowing down and looking at what you're doing.
So if you're saying things that are digital have no value but you're typing that on a digital network called X, then just stop and say, Okay, well, if digital things have no value, why am I typing on a digital network?
I'm clearly attempting to change people's minds and influence them in the course of what I perceive to be the truth, and I'm doing that using a digital network that's worth billions of dollars, so maybe I shouldn't say that things that are digital have no value.
All right.
I appreciate your patience, Reynard.
Why do I think of a fox?
I do think of a fox.
Fox in the city?
Reynard, you are in my right ear.
right ear because apparently I'm far right And I don't want anything to go on the left side.
Reynard, if you want to unmute, I'm all ears, my friend.
Good morning.
How are you doing today?
I'm well.
How are you doing?
Good.
Thanks for taking my question.
My question is, is there a philosophical hack or end around or workaround around rumination?
You have a bad experience.
Someone betrays you, hurts you, you never get an apology, but it's in your memories and you think about it.
Is it just a thing where just time will heal all wounds or is there a way to accelerate that process so you don't think about it anymore?
What a great question to start the show with.
I really, really do appreciate that.
Now, I don't want to, you know, probe your wounded psyche, but is there a specific thing that we can talk about or do you want to keep it general?
We can keep it general.
Okay, keep it general.
Okay, so you ever been walking in the woods at night and hear a sound that is alarming?
Yes.
Okay, so that's your body, your instincts, your base of the brain, lizard brain, saying potential danger, right?
I remember walking with my wife in the woods.
We went hiking too long and we were walking back in the dark.
Fortunately, it was a decent moon and it wasn't too leafy, so we were able to walk.
This is before there were like cell phone flashlights where everyone had an infinite of hardware on their hip.
And yeah, we heard a crash in the woods.
And I tell you, man, my brother used to say, well, that'll get your attention.
And it, your heart rate goes up, your palms get sweaty, your fight or flight kicks in like immediately.
And, you know, of course, I did the natural thing and I hid behind my 1,50 m wife and used her as a vehicle between me and whatever was dangerous in order to get to safety.
Just kidding, of course.
But yeah, so that is your brain kicking in and saying that you're in danger and you really need to pay attention and you need to prepare to fight or flight.
So if you are betrayed by someone, then you are in danger not because of the past.
but because of the future.
So our brain focuses on the past and we think, oh my gosh, I'm obsessed with the past.
I think too much about the past.
But your brain is not an idiot.
Your brain focuses on the past to protect you in the future.
So if you get into business with someone and they betray you and they steal a bunch of money and, you know, they leave you with a giant mess and maybe a lawsuit or something like that, then why do you ruminate on it?
Because you didn't see it coming.
And your mind will be drawn back to the past until the lessons are learned.
Now, once the lessons are learned, then you're protected in the future, and then there's no more juice to be squeezed out of the past, and your brain will discard it like a snake skin from a growing snake.
So you are drawn back to think about the past because you have not learned the lessons that will keep you protected in the future.
And it's not because you're dumb, it's usually because keeping yourself protected in the future will have a great cost to your life in the present.
So if you were betrayed by someone, let's say in business, then you didn't see that person was a crook.
If you're married, your wife didn't see it.
If you have siblings, your brothers and sisters didn't see it.
If you have parents, well, you have parents, I'm sure.
Your parents didn't see it.
Your grandparents didn't see it.
Your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, nobody saw that, that that person was bad and dangerous.
Now, these are people who gave you moral instruction, and yet they can't even see an evildoer in their midst.
That's really important.
And it's really, really, I tell you this from deep and bitter personal experience, that when you realize that the people around you either can't see evil or see it and approve at some nefarious level, evil's effect on you, evil pillaging or preying upon you, or they're aligned with evil, your entire family structure, your entire moral instruction, your relationship to everyone around you fundamentally changes.
So there's a huge barrier to seeing corruption and the signs of corruption in someone who's betrayed you because the radiating waves seem like a giant rock thrown in the center of a still lake.
The radiating waves hit everyone in your life.
If you date someone who's really bad, then why did everyone in your life not warn you about the bad person?
Well, either they can't see the bad person, in which case they can't see evil.
If they can't see evil, how can you have any real respect for them?
And how could they possibly instruct you on anything morally?
if they can't see evil or they can see evil and side with evil and feed you to be sacrificed to that kind of person so the reason we ruminate is not even because it's so hard to learn the lessons of people who betrayed us, but because if we are betrayed in the middle of a family circle,
in the middle of a friend circle, in the middle of a romantic relationship, then it speaks to the blindness or rank corruption or sadistic siding with evil of those around us, and that's a pretty, pretty jagged pill to swallow, if that makes sense.
It does.
All right, anything else?
Thank you.
You are very welcome, and of course, if you want to talk about this either publicly or in a private call, freedomand.com slash call.
All right, Christopher, I think did we try to talk last night or get to talk last night?
It's a wee bit of an overtired blur, but I'm all ears if you want to unmute.
I'm happy to chat.
Yes, sir, go ahead.
We had a private call, probably about, well, maybe almost coming up in a year from now, and the topic of that private call was about helping me with my insomnia.
And after it concluded, my insomnia persisted.
Okay, and is there something that you wanted to talk about more specifically?
I'm sorry to hear that, of course, insomnia is a bear in a hive.
Yes, a better and a half.
Yes, I certainly do.
And what I want to say was I wanted to set the record great because I was not fully transparent with you during our private call about some of the things.
Meaning and causing my insomnia.
Oh, well, that might be why it persisted, but okay, go ahead.
Isn't another, but I'm I'm I guess I'm ready to be.
Can't.
Now, because I think I learned a lot and I'm hoping to have what I've learned maybe be able to help.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Your audio is cutting in and out a bit.
I'm not sure if you can get any closer to a router or if there's anything else that's using your bandwidth or anything like that.
Oh.
Oh, after such a stirring beginning, could we have lost him?
Christopher?
Yes, go ahead.
I could just hear you again.
Parent with you about during our call was my addiction to marijuana and this feedback, negative feedback circle because, you know, this wretched to where I would use marijuana to help kind of.
Okay, Christopher, I don't know if you can hear me, but you're cutting in and out.
And it's going to be really tough to have the conversation if your audio is coming and going.
Can you hear me at all?
Well, that's a shame.
That's a shame.
Okay.
Is that better?
I don't know.
I could just hear you then.
Why don't you tell me a little bit about your marijuana and we'll give it one more try.
Otherwise, you'll need to get a better internet connection before calling again.
I'm moving closer to the router as you suggested and I'm hoping that that will do the trick.
Are you on speaker phone or how are you communicating to me?
Yeah, you have some kind of correction on your audio device that you need to be speaking at a certain volume in order to be heard.
Otherwise, it kind of cuts you out.
So I'm not sure if you can fix that or not and turn off any sort of auto gain or something like that.
No, that's okay.
Last Hail Mary attempt and maybe I can try to call in on the cell phone maybe later on and maybe that might be more sufficient.
Okay, let's give it one more try because obviously I'd love to help and if not, we'll try it another way another time.
Is that okay right now?
Again, it's really hard to tell until you keep talking, but go ahead.
Then I'll try again another time.
Okay, all right.
I appreciate that and I'm, you know, I was concerned that a conversation that we had had not helped you with the issue.
So I was, of course, really happy to help again.
But if you did withhold from me an essential issue that you were dealing with, which is, you say, your marijuana addiction, Then it would certainly explain why the call was not as helpful as it could have been.
So you're certainly welcome to call back if there's some other way we can get to you.
All right.
Mazenko Zenko ZN ZENKO And Zenko was his name if you wanna fill my ears with your thoughts and fears.
Hear me up.
Can you hear me please?
Yes, go ahead.
Hello, hello.
Oh, Stefan, glad to talk to you again.
We were actually talking about a couple of weeks ago and you are an enormously inspiring man.
This one conversation with you directly inspired me to write three short stories about you.
Fantastic.
And I put them all in the book that I promised to send to you and I sent it to you.
My question is, did you receive my book in the email?
I have received the book.
I have not read it.
I'm currently in the throes of working to finish my own new book and I don't have a lot of bandwidth for reading other people's work, but I should be done.
Hopefully in about two weeks, I think I will be done my new book and then I will have bandwidth to read other people's work.
Oh, thank you.
Can I just shortly outline for the other listeners what is it about?
Sure.
Wonderful.
So in the book, I heavily draw onto your work of UPB.
And I make a case that there is a hierarchy of levels.
And let's say UPB inside your mind is logic.
Then you zoom out the picture a little bit.
And UPB in the family is peaceful parenting.
Then you zoom out again and UPB.
upb in the economy is free market capitalism.
I illustrate that right in the beginning with the short story Basil the Prospector where you as or a young man in the Canadian wilderness is gold prospecting and he has to go alone and he receives an airdrop of a stack of maps.
So he has to sort the maps from the most general area to the most zoom in and they all look the same.
They all look confusing.
So he has to know which map is for what altitude and for what navigation, staking the claim in the area or directly sifting the gold very close up.
So this is my initial premise of the book.
Very cool, very cool.
I appreciate that.
And I certainly will find it fascinating to read a work of fiction wherein I am a character.
It'll be like a nightly dream, but waking and vivid.
Stefan, no respect meant to your wife, but after listening to you for 15 plus years, it is possible you have children in the world or people who know you better than their own parents, better than their own father.
Well, how do you feel about that?
Well, I mean, I appreciate that.
I'm not sort of trying to outstrip anyone's relationship with anyone else, but I do like to set the bar pretty high.
for, you know, honest, direct, and open communication.
I mean, we can speak so much to each other that we don't say.
You know, there's this old phrase, most men live lives of quiet desperation.
And, you know, one of the things that I really can't stand over time, and couldn't, I don't really have it in my life anymore, but I couldn't stand when I would get together with people.
And it would just be an endless patter of inconsequential small talk.
Now, not everything has to be deep.
I get that there's variations.
You can't have sound without the present and absence of sound waves, right?
And so I get all of that, but when it's just relentless.
And I've talked, of course, to countless people over the years who, you know, they get together with their families and it's just sports ball, maybe a little bit of politics, a little bit of gossip and the weather and, you know, here's what I did.
And there was a woman, I remember, reading about many, many years ago, who had a grandmother who would just call up and she would call it a little bit of ham, a little bit of toast, these kinds of conversations, because the grandmother would call up and would say, Oh, here's what I had for lunch.
I had a little bit of ham, I had a little bit of toast, I had a little bit of mustard, but the mustard was a little bit low, so I had to switch to Dijon.
And we'd just talk and talk and talk.
This endless, vacuous drivell of empty syllables that drive your soul from your body with their inconsequentiality.
And I have a character in my new book, Shane, who is a recovering drug addict.
And one of the things he's self-medicating for is he would be cornered or rather sacrificed to his mother, who was highly garrulous, who had loguria, and she would just kind of It is a way of driving someone out of their body, out of their personality.
Because you're kind of stuck when you get people who just yammer and talk about nothing in particular and don't invite your response.
Because what do you do?
I mean, you either try to respond, in which case they get annoyed at you for interrupting.
You tell them that they're being rude, in which case they're going to start yelling at you because, for some reason, this compulsion to talk and about nothing and not listen, it angers people when it's interrupted because it's their addiction.
or you try to escape, in which case they'll follow you.
And it's really, it's really an impossible situation.
And this sort of transfer of helplessness.
People are helpless with their addictions, and they then transfer that helplessness to others by putting other people in impossible situations.
And people's foundational experience of life transfers in countless ways.
Whenever you interact with them, someone who's kind of depressed is going to, you know, they're going to kind of talk to you like they're carrying a heavy burden.
You know, they're fine, they're okay, but, you know, things could be better.
and what are you supposed to do?
They have no animation in their voice, and there's kind of an affectation of the young to some degree these days.
When I talk to young men in particular, there's this kind of way of talking that's just kind of flat and without any particular energy or animation.
Or people who are manic.
People who are manic will just kind of talk, get really excited, and they'll just tell you all these things, and they wind you up, right?
And all of that.
And people who are themselves empty will empty you out, usually with an endless stream of empty words and provocations.
People who are angry will attempt to arouse anger in you.
And of course, I can see this all over the place in the sort of mildly soulless hellishcape that social media has turned into post COVID.
You can see people, you know, well, I'm shocked at your utter lack of biological knowledge, but I will attempt to instruct you, you know, just as goating smuggins, a provocation because they're angry and they're helpless to control their anger.
So they want to make you feel helpless in response to their provocations.
And yeah, it's wild.
So all personalities attempt to infect you with their fundamentals.
I mean, I suppose probably true of me too me too, except I'm trying to, quote, infect you with depth, reason, honesty, and evidence.
So philosophy, morality, hopefully.
So that's why you have to be really careful with the people you have in your life.
Everybody's coughing up their innerts and attempting to infect you, hopefully for the better.
You know, I think some people's coughing up their innerts can help reinforce your immune system and make you healthier and stronger.
But most people will just cough up their innerts and coat you in blood and goo and occasionally puss and make you sicker thereby.
So I hope that I'm putting out a good standard for communication is something.
I'm always striving for because I think every day that you spend without any meaningful conversation is a day that is uselessly subtracted from the precious stack of days that are extremely finite that you have remaining.
So I really do appreciate that and I look forward to reading your book and I really do appreciate your effort into writing it.
I know of course how tough it is to work on these things and I thank you for your communication.
Thank you, Stefano.
All right, take care.
Thank you.
All right, we'll go with Hank.
Oh, he's gone.
Oh, there's an error.
Mim, if you want to unmute.
mute and again I will beg and request people Honestly, you can get a headset for 20 bucks from any sort of store.
Just get a headset, it's a little bit easier to hear and it's certainly easier to process after the fact.
Yes, Mim, go ahead.
Oh, hello, hello, Steph.
It's a great privilege, man.
I was just looking at your tweet from yesterday talking about movies and I would love to hear your thoughts.
Have you ever seen the movie Kingdom of Heaven?
Kingdom of Heaven?
I don't think so.
Isn't it?
One about Crusades with the guy who made the elf from Lord of the Rings.
Kingdom of Heaven?
Is Peter Jackson?
Is that the one?
I'm terrible with actor's names.
What's the name of the guy who made Paddets of the Caddy Bean and the Elf from Lord of the Rings?
Oh, oh gosh.
Um, oh yeah, he married to Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, right?
Orlando Bloom, perfect.
Yeah, he's the main character.
Perry's got some great hair.
Yeah, go ahead.
Have you seen this movie?
I don't think so.
Can you just give me the rough story?
Yeah, I I know by reading movies, right?
I'd like your opinion because in this movie, it starts where he's a blacksmith, right, in France, and a Crusader appears and says, I'm your father and would you like to come to Israel with me to fight in the Holy Land, right?
And I would like to know your thought if he defends natural law this movie because at the beginning he has on a saying in his blacksmith that says What man is a man that does not make the world better place, right?
Which is a utilitarian point of view.
And when he goes to the Holy Land, he's offered to take the place of the king, which is a cruel king, right?
So in my view, adhering to natural law.
Is that a defense of natural law this movie?
Well, I suppose.
I may have seen it, but I think it was quite forgettable for me, which doesn't mean anything.
I just because I think that's the one where is this the movie where there's a scene where someone learns a new language just by sitting around a campfire or something like that?
And I think, oh no, that's interesting.
That's the thirteenth warrior, right with Antonio Banderez.
Oh, that's a different one?
Okay, sorry, sorry.
Okay, well, I'll check it out.
I'm looking for good movies and I really can't do the modern stuff.
Modern stuff is either ridiculous superhero movies or existential endless horror.
And I just, it's either goofy junk food for the brain or, you know, soul destroying horror of existence and I just really can't.
do either one in particular.
So, but I will check it out and I appreciate that.
I suppose, you know, if somebody says, you know, well, you should make the world a better place, it's, I'm sure there's more to it in the movie, but just, you know, that kind of phrase, it's unarguable and therefore uninteresting and unhelpful.
So one of the things that I always look for in a philosophical argument or an approach is, as I said last night, does the person apply it to themselves?
Because if they don't apply it to themselves, I have no interest in following their reasoning because it's just manipulation then.
And also, can I do something practical with it, right?
Can I do something practical with the advice or arguments that are being put forward?
And if somebody says, well, you should make the world a better place, it's like, okay, but how, in what manner, to what degree, using what approach, what does better mean, and so on.
I get the world, I understand that.
I certainly understand the concept of place, but better is too subjective to be.
It's like, be good.
It's like, okay, but what does goodness mean and how do you achieve it and so on it's sort of like uh thinking that i'm a genius at business because i say you know the important thing is to make more money than you spend and it's like yeah well okay that's kind of taken for granted but how under what circumstances how do you deal with difficult customers and how do you retain high-talent employees without uh making them so overpaid so to speak that everyone else gets resentful like these are all big challenging deep what do you what do you even build that people want so
um Generic advice is too broad to be useful and it doesn't teach you how how to deal with the blowback of trying to make the world a better place and how far should you go?
You know, maximum philosophy, right?
Maximum philosophy.
There's this old joke that I remember from Jerry Seinfeld, not the show but the his comedy routine where he was talking about you know maximum strength Tylenol that doesn't sound at all like Jerry Seinfeld it's not whiny enough but you know maximum strength Tylenol it's like so so basically what they're saying is this amount of Tylenol will kill you so bring it back just a bit maximum strength right before it kills you and of course I think I remember that as I remember some of these jokes because that's sort
of my approach to philosophy do maximum philosophy until they're gonna kill you and then pull back a little bit.
Because if you're dead or whatever, disabled in some manner, you can't really do maximum philosophy.
So it doesn't teach you any of these particular balances.
But I appreciate the recommendation and I will certainly look into it.
Alanda Bloom is actually a pretty good actor.
I mean, it was not easy to do the Legolas stuff.
The boy is springy, let's put it that way.
All right, James, if you want to step up, fill the bit waves with your brain waves.
I'm all ears.
If you're speaking, I cannot can't turn it up because I gotta protect that ear.
Ain't going out, Brian Wilson style.
So I don't think I can hear you.
I'll just give you one more second.
Going once, going twice, my friend.
Christopher, are we going to try again?
Did you call in with something else?
Hello?
Yes, sir.
Oh, hi.
Yes, sorry.
I just wanted to introduce myself.
And regarding recognizing talent, I'd have to say I think people, we actually fall short with people realizing potential in people like me.
But it's also the person has to realize it in themselves and get their unique view out there.
And then I think there's ones that will realize the limitless potential.
Yeah, that's me.
Okay, that's some pretty broad categorizations there.
Can you narrow it down a bit for me, please?
I don't know.
I'm new to this.
I don't know what you mean.
So when you're talking about when I was talking about in the business world, so in the business world, you have your very high performance, right?
The Pareto principle people who just produce weirdly efficient productivity, right?
So there are coders that I would manage who would code 10, 20 times better, faster, and more efficiently and more valuably, or in a more valuable manner, than other coders.
Yeah, but I need to code.
Sorry, sorry, hang on, hang on.
You're asking me, hang on, hang on.
Hang on, hang on, hang on.
You're asking me for clarity, so let me be clear.
Don't interrupt me, but I'm trying to be clear.
So one of the challenges in business is you need a bunch of coders.
And there are a couple of coders who are real stars.
They're absolutely essential for the business.
And you have to pay them more because it's unfair to pay them less because they are much more productive and therefore just justice and fairness requires that you pay them more.
And their skills are largely invisible to the less skilled.
Their skills are largely invisible to the less skilled.
And so paying them more and giving them higher status and giving them greater appreciation will often bring out resentment from the other people who aren't as skilled.
It's sort of like the extras in the movie are all jealous of the leading man, right?
They want to be the leading man.
They want to be Brad Pitt.
They want to be Leonardo DiCaprio or whatever.
you can't only have stars because you need supporting people.
You need supporting coders.
You need people to do the drudge work.
And so one of the challenges in business is managing talent and making sure that you retain the stars while at the same time managing the resentment of those who are far less talented because they can get quite sabotagey and they can get quite angry and resentful of the stars in the business.
And this is true in sales as well, right?
You have some people who are just just incredible at sales they have that magic gift that gift of the gab the green thumb with regards to money and there are other people who have to kind of grind along and and support them and they just don't make nearly as much money and how do you manage their resentments because you need both people.
So that's one of the challenges in managing a high skilled meritocracy in the business world.
And so, yeah, but, but, so how do you do that is a big, complicated, and challenging thing.
And so if you have general, uh, you know, it's important to make money in business.
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but how, right?
That's, that's the challenge.
Sorry, go ahead.
Can I, can I talk?
Okay.
First of all, uh, here's the thing.
Have you ever thought of someone who is the richest person in the world, yet goes down the road and just has an espresso and water?
Have I ever thought of that specific specific thing or is it in general the Napoleonic argument that no matter how wealthy you are, you can only have one dinner?
No, yeah, it's like you have to psychologically teach someone from wherever if you believe in the high power of God.
That person has to be psychologically tortured to the point where they finally appreciate life completely and then no matter what is thrown at them for a reward, they remain faithfully humble and they use most of their money for what's it called?
Philanthropy.
Sorry, but why is it better to use your fortune for philanthropy.
Because if you strengthen mankind, you raise them up to your level.
Okay, but that that's just a that's just a fortune cookie.
I mean, so the richest man in the world, let's say, we'll call him Bob, I think it's Elon right now, or it could be different.
So Bob has a zillion dollars.
Are you saying that it is better for him to give it away to charity rather than continue to invest in his business?
Well, he has to be selective because he has to give it to talent that he know will grow talent.
Okay, but this is all generic.
Talent that will grow talent.
Is it better for Bob, the richest guy in the world, to create jobs or to give money to people?
The core thing starts from education.
Okay, no, no.
See, we're having a conversation.
What that means is I ask a question and you try to answer it.
Okay.
So you don't just have your own side speech as if I didn't say anything, because that's a little rude, right?
Okay, sorry.
Okay, what was my question?
Just repeat it, please.
Okay.
See, you gotta listen, all right.
Is it better for Bob, the richest guy in the world, to create 100,000 jobs or to give money to 100,000 people.
Jobs.
Right.
So philanthropy generally is giving money to people rather than creating sustainable jobs that earn them money, if that makes sense.
No, that's what I was trying to articulate.
I just didn't have the verbiage.
Okay.
So there's an argument, of course, that when Bill Gates switched from business to philanthropy, he went from doing some real good in the world in terms of building better software and helping make people more efficient and so on.
To, well, not so much good in the world.
And I would sort of argue, I don't, of course, can't read his mind, but I would imagine that.
Yeah, well, that's what when the hang on still talking.
That when the government, when the DOJ went after Microsoft for antitrust violations, which had previously bled IBM dry for like thirteen years of endless investigations, when Bill Gates was punished for his success, I think he turned into kind of a super villain, so to speak.
And I think he really wanted almost revenge against the world that punished him for his success because he was, he bundled Internet Explorer, the browser, in with Windows at a time when a lot of politicians had invested into something called Netscape Navigator, which was an old browser and cost like 30 bucks, if I remember rightly.
And so Bill Gates was punished for his success.
And I think he then decided to quit the business world and become a supervillain.
I'm not saying that's conscious.
I'm not even saying it's true.
It's just my particular idiot theory.
But he would have been better off in the world, would have been better off if he'd continued at Microsoft rather than start funding some pretty nefarious stuff around the world.
Yes, I agree.
All right.
Is there anything else that you wanted to mention?
No, no, no, no.
I just think people must become more conscious that, um...
Well, I mean, but that's just generic advice, you know, be more conscious that your actions have an effect.
I mean, how does that help somebody?
Hang on, how does that help somebody with any specific task?
Because, you know, what we have in life are not generic approaches, but specific tasks.
So how would your advice, and listen, I'm not saying you're wrong.
I mean, I think it's fine to be more conscious, although I'm not exactly sure what that means in your context.
But how does that help people with their specific tasks?
Okay, have you heard of the theory of foundational roots?
Uh, no.
So basically, um, the ones at the tippy top are raised up on, um, all the legs of the machine and one cog you trip out can have a catastrophic cascade upwards.
How much do you think you're communicating in ways that other people understand?
Uh, it's been very difficult for me to get my views across here.
I'm, I'm usually quite, and I I would love to help you with that.
I really would, because obviously you're a thoughtful fellow and you care about the world.
But I'll tell you that there's very little content in your communication that is comprehensible.
So you said something about the elites being raised to the level of the elite.
elites being raised by the cogs of the machine.
Okay, I don't know what you mean by elites.
I don't know what you mean by cogs.
I don't know what you mean by machine.
If something goes awry, something bad happens.
Well, that's by definition.
If something goes awry, something bad happens.
So what you need to do, and this is my humble suggestion, is assume, right, this is the blank slate communication.
Assume that people have no idea what you're talking about.
Okay.
And that you need to deliver your information.
brick by brick because what happens is you're basically sky dumping a whole bunch of bricks and calling it a house.
Can I say something?
What you need to do is build things brick by brick.
So if you want to make a particular point, you have to define your terms and go step by step and ask people if they understand every step, rather than giving them the very complicated final conclusions which don't make much sense to people.
Okay, can I just say something?
Okay, I wrote a concept in 2019 and I have reworked it and now reworked it even better with AI to make it creative, artistic, comprehensible.
And it's basically a book I want to publish that I think will have huge impact for like a logos worldview is the same as Star Wars and Harry Potter and all that.
So I'm trying to get like funding for that.
I'm sorry, what's your question?
No, no, no, no, no, I'm just sorry, I'm just putting, I'm just saying that like, I don't know, I think the world of the arts is heavily influential on people.
Oh, so you've written a book that you want to get published and you need funding for that, is that right?
Yeah.
And why do you need funding for that?
Because I went through a really bad patch.
I nearly.
I drank myself to death, had a near death experience, was in coma, went to rehab, now I'm sober about three months.
I've somehow incorporated into myself the act of losing weight through it's almost automated.
And I've lost about twenty, twenty two kilograms in three months of ninety percent diet.
And yeah, and yeah, it's a lot to explain.
My gosh, I'm sorry to hear about that.
How long were you a heavy drinkavy drinker for?
Mostly all my life.
And also, I had a really bad stint with cannabis.
And at 22 I was, had a psychotic episode, which I won't, don't really get into the details of people.
And then, uh, yeah, and I've basically been on antipsychotic drugs for about 18 years.
And, uh, yeah, I've had a few weird relapses and they thought me schizophrenic.
But now the psychologist and psychiatrist re-diagnosed me when I was cleaned off everything.
And they say I'm some type of autistic, like savant or whatever.
Oh.
Sorry for these kinds of troubles.
How was your childhood like as a whole?
There was a significant event when I was four, five or six.
Yeah, it involved a neighborhood boy.
I'm sorry, it involved what?
It involved a neighborhood teenager male.
oh, you were molested as a child?
Yeah.
I'm sorry about that.
How long did that go on for?
I'm not too sure.
I'm still trying to regain the memory, but I don't know if I should regain full memory of it.
Was it violent, um, directly or just predatory in that horrible way?
I actually don't even remember.
I don't think it was too violent.
I'm not too sure.
I can't really remember it.
And what was your circumstance with your parents that they were unable to protect you from this predaation?
Well, the neighbors lived opposite us and they just let us play together.
And the child was a teenager and he influenced me heavily.
Like, I think he wrote code for my DOS or something.
And like, that was back when I used to play like Doom and Worms and stuff like that.
So, yeah.
So your parents let you at the age of four or five go and play with a teenage boy regularly across the street?
Not across the street, just over the wall.
Okay, over the wall, whatever.
So your parents were like, yeah, it sounds great.
Why don't you go and play with the teenage boy as a four or five year old?
Something like that.
I mean, I can't quite remember, but it must have been because they don't say they have memory of it.
I mean, why would they do that?
I'm not too sure.
Well, it's a it's a bad idea, isn't it?
Well, I mean, what on earth, what on earth would a teenage boy have in common with a four year old kid who's not related to him?
Like, what would he, what on earth would he really have to do with that?
Like, I mean, that's not a healthy situation for your parents to put you in?
Yeah, I know, but I don't blame them.
It's just, you know, this happens in life.
There's pedophilia in the world.
Well, okay, everyone knows that that's in the world and that's why you have to protect your children.
What do you mean, you don't blame them?
What I don't understand.
Well, it's it's a gray zone because, you know, the law wasn't well defined back in 1980 whatever.
And, you know, it's a gray zone between if the abuser is not even, is still a teenager and stuff, you know, it's just too much of a gray zone.
What do you mean, it's a gray zone?
It was traumatic.
Yeah, but also I I I I didn't let people know until I was much older.
No, it's the lowest my shoulder as well.
Okay, but why didn't you have a relationship with your parents where something ugly and unpleasant is happening to you?
You say, Hey, mom and dad, something ugly and unpleasant is happening to me.
I don't want to go back.
I don't want to be involved in this.
This is bad.
Or why wouldn't they notice if you've been preyed upon, why wouldn't they notice the change in your mood?
The fact that you were unhappy, the fact that you were stressed, the fact that you didn't want to go, why wouldn't they notice that?
I don't know.
Did they did they themselves have substance abuse issues?
My dad, you could sort of classify him as a semi or I'm not or sort of alcoholic and he smoked heavily and my mom you mean sir cigarettes yeah and my mom was old school British so she was never really crazy born in 1942 when you were abducted so your mother was not did not notice that you had a change in mood when you were being molested well I didn't really ask her that no no I'm asking you I mean I
I don't know if you've ever spent any time around kids, but kids'moods are pretty easy to read.
They wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Oh, okay.
You know, if your kid's unhappy, they'll mope around.
They'll not be animated.
They'll not be fun.
They'll not be making jokes, right?
So if something bad happens to your kid, as a parent, you know that.
Yeah, but I don't know.
Like I said, my memory is really bad.
A lot of my memory is bad.
Well, your memory, is it it because of the drinking and the marijuana probably yeah because i mean i was excessive you know blackout and super stoned and everything Do you know much about the relationship between child abuse and adult addiction?
Um, sort of, yeah.
Do you think that your addiction may have something to do with self-medicating the trauma of a damaged childhood.
Yes, no, I fully realize that.
And that's why they've diagnosed me with multiple substance addiction as well.
Right.
And what is your relationship like with your parents now?
My dad died of pancreatic cancer in 2007, which also, hopefully, affected me.
That was before the psychotic break at 22.
And my mom, I'm living with her at home, the same house in Cableview, Cape Town.
I'm journeying with forty this month.
And yeah, and we love each other.
Okay.
Well, I said you wouldn't have much opportunity to get too angry at your mom if she's putting you up and paying the bills, right?
Well, no, I'm contributing heavily to the bills because I got a master in chemical engineering and I work at a wastewater plant up the road for the city of Cape Town that's getting a 5.2 billion rand upgrade.
And why are you living, are you living with your mom because of the mental issues or is there something else?
There was something ingrained in me when my dad died.
He said, look after my mom and sister.
He said, look after mom.
This was like 17, 18 years ago, is that right?
2007.
Right.
Okay.
Well, but what about your life?
I mean, is the rest of your life going to be taken care of your mom until she dies or do you get to have a life of your own?
Well, there's a part of me that wants to take my concepts and try and make as much money as well.
Well, not, well, it's not, well, it's about money, I suppose, but the thing is that I could take her with me wherever I go, but I don't know if that would be a thing, you know, there's also in the future my sister might come back from England and sort of stay with her and then there were plans that maybe I could do my own thing.
So, I don't know.
But what about, I mean, do you date at all?
Have you dated?
Do you want to get married and have kids or anything like that?
That's a weird one.
Dating is fears, but supremely weird.
Sort of six months, a couple of six month relationships at twenty.
And then like after I was twenty two, I went about twelve years abstinent.
And then after twelve years, I had a recidivision of schizophrenia.
And then I suddenly became more outgoing and couldn't drink alcohol and slept with two different women.
And then COVID hit and I went back into hibernation and my craziness went away and then the drinking started but I was long off cannabis but still on drugs.
Oh, and that's when you drank to the point you said you ended up in coma?
Did you have alcohol poisoning?
Is that what happened?
Oh, I've had that a few times in life, but this was more hektic since I was drinking on a lot of drugs.
So this was like losing motor function and slamming my head.
Oh, okay.
So you were you were on psychedelics and drinking, which is, as far as I understand it, not the recommended approach, right?
Yeah.
And I kept the drinking hidden as well from, you know, work and stuff.
I mean, were you still living with your mom?
She must have known you were drinking.
No, no, no, no, no.
Yeah, she did.
She didn't stop me.
Why didn't she stop you?
Because I was kind of convinced her that it's my only way to kind of enjoy myself because in my recidivism I lost a lot of close old friends.
I'm sorry, I still don't quite understand why your mother didn't move heaven and earth to prevent you from almost dying of alcoholism.
Well, that's the thing.
They did move heaven and earth after that happened.
No, no, before, before, before.
Oh, I don't really know.
She also wanted to keep it secret, probably the stigma of alcoholism.
Yes, but I think most parents would say, I will accept the stigmatism if it keeps my child alive, because, as you said, you almost died multiple times from alcoholism, and your mother didn't do much, if anything, it sounds like, to prevent you from drinking or to try and get you help.
Yeah.
I mean, that's not good, is it?
Well, I guess not.
But, uh, yeah, I still love her.
Okay.
Well, you might want to check out my free book, Real Time Relationships.
I have a pretty good definition of love in there, and it may not be quite what you think're experiencing, which may be codependence or something like that, but I wish you the very best.
I'm very sorry.
Go ahead.
No, no, no.
I have heard about that, like the witch and apple stuff.
Right.
So I'm very sorry for what you experienced as a child, what was inflicted upon you.
It is a massive negligence on the part of parents to not track their children's happiness.
And it is very hard to feel important and valued and loved as a child if your parents don't even notice that you're being molested and keep sending you back over.
To be molested, that's woeful, incompetent, destructive parenting.
And it angers me, and I'm not you, and it didn't affect me in the way that it affected you, but you may in fact not be self-medicating trauma.
You may in fact be self-medicating anger.
But I certainly wish you the best and I'm very sorry for what happened to you and I'm glad that you're working and are productive.
But you may want to think about the life that you want for the next fifty years because you're probably going to live a good old half century more and it may not be ideal for you to just be taking care of your mother because it doesn't sound like she did a whole bunch of taking care of you.
And I'm not sure that we owe people a lot more than what they've ever provided to us.
All right, but I appreciate your call and I wish you the very best.
Yeah, thanks.
Do you have any advice for what I should do about my book?
Your book?
Well, I think it's going to be tough to change the world in a positive way if you don't have any particular moral judgments of the people around you, because then I think it's going to be an avoidance of moral judgment in the book.
It's harder to be stricter with characters in a book than it is to be with people in our own lives.
So if I were on your shoes, I would work on my moral judgment of the people around me and yourself, of course, to some degree, and use that to make the moral clarifications in the book even stronger.
But I certainly wish you the best.
You may not need a lot of money to publish a book.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's a crazy funny place where I'm right now because I've basically used up what debt I had or used up what credit I had or you know what.
And then I went through a whole reform with the experience.
So yeah, I'm on the uphill now.
So I'm hoping it'll be good.
Okay, well, I appreciate that.
And you can, of course, release chapters for free online.
You can read them as audiobooks and publish them.
You could read a chapter or two as an audiobook and publish it in various places.
And there's ways that you can get people interested in your book.
Of course, you can publish the book and ask for donations, which is a pretty good way.
It's easy to publish on places like Amazon as well.
So there's lots of ways that you can get a book out these days in particular without needing a lot of money in terms of investment.
You can, of course, you can use AI.
Sorry, I'm sorry.
I've been wondering about things of holding on to ownership like copyright and stuff.
Yeah, I mean, I'm a moral philosopher.
I'm not a copyright lawyer and I certainly don't know.
what the rights or what the laws are in South Africa.
So you'd need to look that up and figure that out.
I can't I can't answer anything like that.
But again, I really do appreciate the call and I wish you the very best with your project.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Denying Singularity.
You are up in the air.
I hear something.
I hear nothing.
Oh, it's funny.
I don't.
You hear?
Yes, go ahead.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
I'm totally sorry.
I didn't realize I was up to speak.
I was curious.
I've never joined in one of this.
I've been a long time fan of yours, actually, very, very long.
It started precisely, but it was definitely founding probably like 2015, I want to say 2015, prior to the first presidential election between Biden, I believe.
Wait, 2015, there was Clinton and Trump.
Clinton and Trump, yes.
I'm sorry.
I got the No, no problem.
The election backwards.
It was a very confusing set of elections, wasn't it?
But yeah, one of your favorites, one of my favorite series of yours that you ever did, and I spread it all anywhere I can was The Truth of McCarthyism.
I think it was the most brilliant thing that you've ever done, uh, with the fall of Rome, uh, the Roman Empire.
Um, I was a firm believer.
I held your views on the Carthaism as well.
I looked into it.
And I seriously think he needs to be exonerated as one of the most, uh, prominent, uh, politicians of our time, really.
Well, I'm curious also, like I said, this is the first time I've never really called into anything.
But, uh, big time fan of yours.
So, you know, if anything, this is the one I would want to talk to you.
So I was wondering if there's like a topic of conversation for this or anything like that or is it just free range?
It's totally free range, whatever is on your mind.
And I appreciateciate that.
It really, you know, when you dig into the McCarthy thing, you really realize just how absolute bullshit our history is, how it's been written by sociopathic liars pumping up their own side and attacking as evil anyone who tries to expose their evil.
The McCarthyism, and it's called The Truth About Joseph McCarthy, and you can find it at fdrpodcasts.
com fdrpodcasts.
com.
I repeat that because you should just bookmark it and all of that and you can subscribe to the feed there for the shows that I do.
So fdrpodcast.com just do a search for McCarthy it'll show up and you can scroll down and look at the video and it is a real black pill about history because when I was of course growing up McCarthyism is a witch hunt and he was crazy and he saw communists in the strawberry jam and he was in deranged and he was wrong and and it it became you know like it became a word to indicate a crazy irrational witch hunt and he was lambacid it's just a complete lunatic And
of course, then Roy Conn both was instrumental in McCarthy and, of course, in Nixon.
And then when you start digging into how Nixon was taken out by similar forces because Nixon was robustly anti-communist, of course, one of the most anti-communist presidents until Trump.
Trump also had his Ray Cohn mentorship when he was younger as well.
And so when you dig into the truth about McCarthy, which took a long time to come out, because of course, after the Soviet cables were declassified after the fall of the communist Russia, it took a while for them to be translated and published and so on.
And so it is now absolutely indisputable that it...
Oh, it's truly a behemoth.
Oh, it was an absolute Yeah.
And this, this is in the, this is in the 40s, right?
Right.
This is like, this is like 80 years ago.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's not, it's not gotten better since.
And so this is the problem.
Whenever you have the state, then whenever something becomes powerful, it gets infested by power seekers and power controllers and power mongers.
Like social media gets big and in they come to censor everyone who disagrees with them.
And the McCarthy thing is just incredible because when you realize the truth about Joseph McCarthy that he was right and he was lied about and slandered and driven into an early grave, I think through stress and attacks and so on, you know, everyone forgets he won a defamation suit against the newspaper.
I think he won $11,000 back in the day about an extraordinarily defamatory article.
Doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter.
And so the truth has been out about McCarthy for easy 30 years.
And you know, you've got all these people, oh, we're really into historical revisionism.
But it always means taking the good and turning it into shit.
It never means taking the lies and exposing them as lies.
So when you get to the truth about McCarthy, you know, I paid in time, sweat, blood, and money for a graduate degree in history where I was taught that, you know, McCarthy was a crazy witch hunter and Nixon was the most corrupt president trademark in the history of the republic.
And it's like I just, I basically paid to have a whole canon series of lies fired directly into my spine.
And it was kind of a ripoff.
because I'm sure that nothing has changed since.
So you just, you get into McCarthy, you realize the truth, and then it leads you to Nixon.
And of course, we've all seen the Trump thing.
And you just realized that just about everything you're told about in history is the exact opposite of the truth.
Sorry for the long speech.
Go ahead.
No, you're fine.
I love it.
I love it because it is, I mean, it's not, it wasn't the topic on my mind, but I just wanted to bring it up as a reference that I think it's one of your most brilliant podcasts you've ever done.
And it's very, very I suggest everyone listen to it.
Like I said, it's the one thing I send out to everyone.
Like, you, you have to listen to this.
You have to understand Joseph McCarthy begin to unravel what this kind of operation becomes at a certain point of like corruption and power.
Like it's just.
Well, and how, how unthinking academics are.
They just parrot.
Yeah, they just parrot whatever the popular notion is.
And to go against the popular notion is they're just too cowardly to do it.
Sorry, go ahead.
No, I was going to say unfortunate.
So I'm significantly younger than you.
I'm only like 37.
Not significantly, but definitely a generational gap.
It's feeling that way, brother, these days.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
I mean, time is getting compressed, technology is getting faster, communication is getting more rapid.
So yeah, things are going generations are I mean, I remember mine was considered Y prior to social media.
And then now we're all millennials, but there's a vast difference between pre and post social media of just my generation.
So yeah, it's getting more compressed and more noticeable in shorter time.
Well, and my generation was the last generation raised in a high trust society.
And that's really, you know, we really, we really see what's changed and how much things have changed.
How my mom put it, she's a past sixty, but how she put it, it was ignorance, bliss, like blissful ignorance, very high trust.
You understand exactly what's going on.
And even in my school years, like in high school, while you're studying this, you know, in university, you know, it was the same thing.
I was the same thing getting blast in my spine.
I was getting blast in your spine was McCarthy was, you know, this hysteric, hysteronic, you know, crazy man running around accusing everyone of being communist sympathizers.
But this is at the same time, I don't know, you're probably familiar with this, but at the same time, our like, entire military apparatus was trading and selling like, basically all our oligarchical elites, private type industries were like trading technology to the Soviet Union, like selling it out right from under us.
Yeah, as Julian Ethel Rosenberg took the, yeah, took the nuclear secrets and handed it to the genocidal communists.
So one of the craziest trail in American history.
Propping up the Soviet Union for decades longer than it should have existed.
It's all the Soviet Union is what I actually was raised, my godmother fled Stalinist Russia, by the way.
So she really enjoyed that, the carte d'eatzle.
Oh, that's good.
That's good.
Yeah.
The true history really has yet to be written.
I mean, of course, I can chip away at stuff, but the true history has yet to be written.
And it is, you know, it's the old question of do you lift the carpet and see what's underneath?
You know, if it's just a bunch of roaches and, you know, filth and like, do you?
really want to know how much you've been lied to?
Because once you know how much you've been lied to, you're out of a Platon's cave, right?
And then how much do you have in common with the people who still believe the lies?
Do you want to unplug for the matrix?
Do you want to leave the cave?
It's a tough call.
It's a tough call.
When you enter a higher dimensional order of thinking or a higher dimensional order of perception, you never will.
It's just reality.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
That would be equivalent to them.
When you exit the Platon's cave to reality, you can't regress.
You can't go back down.
Once you've seen both, you can't go back to the third.
And you can't proceed.
And yeah, I mean, a mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original shape, right?
And the more you process the truth, the facts, reason, and evidence, the less you have in common with the deluded NPCs who believe that they're wise because they parrot the lies.
It's a rough situation.
I mean, for me, it's well worth it.
don't look back because I'd rather have the challenge of dangerous solitude than the emptiness of unlived conformity.
And it's a real challenge.
the privilege of being yourself.
And I just you, you can't have an identity if you're just infested with falsehoods.
And I'm here for a short time and I want to be as much of myself as possible.
I would chalk that up as self-actualization as impossible and out of those circumstances.
But to get to the actual, I enjoyed the rant, by the way, but I actually did have an exchange with you briefly, very randomly, and it was kind of miscommunicated some things, but it was you.
It was about consciousness and about MRI scans or CAT scans showing consciousness, displaying consciousness.
And I think that is not evidence of consciousness per se.
And there was a slight back and forth on that about Grock and consciousness.
I don't know if you remember that slight exchange.
I do.
But yeah, so that's actually, if you don't mind, I'd actually like to touch on that slight exchange.
I should.
Because like I said, it was, I sort of miscommunicated it and like, I'm not good at very simplistic putting things in simplistic terms or notions that are my own theory, I supp'm sorry, I want to interrupt you, but I just want to say very briefly that translating complex abstractions into everyday language is like learning a new language.
And so if I've spent forty years learning Russian and you haven't really studied Russian, it's going to be tough for us to communicate in the same kind of way.
So taking lots of abstractions, complex things, reducing them to analogies, to fairly simple syllogisms and so on without losing the power of the complexity is something I've been studying for over forty years.
So the fact that you're not as good at it, it's perfectly sensible.
You've been doing other things for that time, which have been productive in other ways.
I appreciate it.
But yes, so in just a basic nutshell, my personal theory is that consciousness does not operate in a function.
Like if you want to destill it down, if you want to look at it in sort of the biomachine sense, the transhumanist sense, I suppose would be the common nomenclature nowadays.
It's not just simply input output.
It's not just simply working off of classical physics.
And MRI scans just display classical physics of the brain of the organ.
Consciousness itself works on more of a quantum sense.
It's a quantum mechanical property.
It's in the sense that it's also humans are individualized through socialization.
Yes, we're individuals.
That's also my part of it is yes, we're individuals, but that individualization comes through socialization, gets reinforced through socialization.
So they have a delicate play and balance to each other.
And the reason I don't believe consciousness can ever occur in artificial systems created and this is where Grock comes in, created by man is because it's a lower order of man by nature and by that nature they don't none of these AI tech pros even have a sound theory of a mind they can agree on that's part of the issue and just because you see and again that's why I related it to wave particle because it's it's not
just simple classical physics like you're not just simply your body your organ.
Cartesian duality I guess can you can look at it through that lens philosophically if that makes more sense but, but more of a physics, like an actual tangible reality sense.
I don't know if I'm kind of relaying this better or not.
Don't help me out if I'm confusing you or if you need me to Well, I mean, look, it's it's a it's a pretty series of words.
Consciousness operates at a quantum level.
Okay, I mean, I suppose that could be the case.
I don't know that that's been proven or established.
I'm not even sure how you would prove or establish it.
But without a doubt, MRIs show the presence of electrical activity in the brain, biochemical activity within the brain, and that's evidence of consciousness.
It's not consciousness, but it's evidence of consciousness in the same way that in the brain.
the same way that if you take an X-ray of a bone, there's the bone.
It doesn't mean that you can walk on the X-ray as if it is actually a bone.
It's just a representation of the bone.
And so I do accept that AI is not human.
I mean, AI is literally a double-layer NPC.
Number one, it's absorbing all its information from people who are mostly NPCs, because most people are NPCs.
And I include, of course, historians, philosophers, journalists.
They just parrot the usual.
And so they're being fed with NPC type-outs, and they are literally NPCs because they're they are non-players pretending to be char characters.
They are pretending to simulate human intelligence in the way that a good NPC does or a good character in a novel that makes you laugh and cry and all of that kind of stuff, but it's a nonplayer character.
And so AI is a it's NPC squared because all of the inputs or most of the inputs are from NPCs and it has no consciousness or creativity of its own.
So yes, it is a useful tool, but it can't think to save its life and never will be able to.
Right.
And actually, philosophically, it actually scares like the focus on AI.
I know people, I don't, I don't personally see it.
I have a Christian moral framework, a very deep Christian moral framework that I grew up in.
And I know most people see like, you know, their fears are like Skynet or some weird thing like that happening or Roco's Basilisk or whatever, but I, it's to me in my sort of viewpoints on consciousness and mimicking humans and trying to essentially remake man in man's own image, if that's understandable, like that would be from my Christian viewpoint, I guess.
Yeah, it's like a false god or a golden cup.
Right.
And well, what I see happening from it is actually an existential crisis nuclear bomb going off within the consciousness of humanity as a whole as that function, as that quantum function, not on an individualized level, but sorry, you you you you're saying that AI is like a nuclear weapon.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay.
You can't, you can't, it's no point stating the conclusion without stating the reasoning, because then either people agree with you, in which case what's the point or they don't agree.
What's the point?
Or they don't agree with you, but you can't convince them because there's no reason.
Okay, I can state the reason why I believe that as well.
The reasoning I believe that is because, again, you're talking about implementing the system for human scale problem.
And what I mean by human scale No, no, I don't I don't know about implementing the system for human scale problem.
You gotta speak to me like I speak to me like I'm five years old.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Do you want to know how to communicate better?
That's how.
Yeah, absolutely.
Feel free to interject and tell me to switch it up any time.
Well, if I don''t know the definitions of the words you're using, there's no point continuing to build the argument forward.
Let's reverse then a little bit from there.
So, I'm sorry.
What was the last thing I'm trying to think?
What the last thing I'd say was I got derailed from that.
Well, we may not want to do this in real time and we do have a bunch of callers and I do want to try and get to the end of the queue for one second.
Oh, no, no, no.
I think, look, I think it's, yeah, I think it's a very interesting idea.
Let's put it on hold, you know, organize your thoughts and your definitions and all of that.
Let's not try to do this on the fly and call back in because I certainly think it's there.
Certainly, I think it's a fascinating topic and obviously a very deep and thoughtful guy.
And so I wouldn't go, I'm going to move to another caller, but you know, well, you're certainly welcome back when you've got this stuff a little bit more in order.
And I don't mean in your own mind, I just mean in terms of communicating not just to me but to the general audience as a whole.
So really do appreciate your support and glad to have had you around for the last decade, bro.
And I look forward to the next conversation.
Do you mind if I leave off on a tangible point?
It's your thoughts.
I can't know in advance whether I mind or not, but I'll trust your judgment.
Okay.
So yes, the push for.
artificial intelligence is to basically get it inundated in all systems for her business, all that kind of stuff.
And to basically have everybody's lives inundated with some sort of artificial intelligence system.
And they believe the people who are fighting these systems believe they're going to essentially solve all the world's problems.
That's where I was getting to the sense that you're not, they're not going to actually solve the world's problems because these problems are human scale problems created by humans.
And a lesser order system cannot solve a problem of a higher order creator.
That's what's going to eventually lead to an existential crisis because we're going to be self-reliant on those lower order systems to solve our human scale problem, our social problem.
I think AI is helpful when it comes to looking at facts, but the people who ask AI to do their thinking for them are abandoning what is most essential about their humanity.
So I appreciate that.
Now I'm going to switch to someone.
It's interesting to see them show up here.
More interesting than Stefan Molyneux is the name of the account.
And when occasionally I would dip in to x before I sort of came back officially.
I'd do a search for me, see if there was anything cooking that was of interest, and I would see this account a lot.
So yes, more interesting than Stefan Molyneux.
You were talking to Stefan Molyneux.
Interest me away, brother.
What's on your mind?
Oh, it took me a moment to unmute.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Yes, thanks.
Yes, a conversation that I remember where Izzy said something is objectively true when it clearly wasn't.
It's what inspired me to put that objectively true statement as my display name.
Sorry, what did Izzy say that was objectively true that wasn't?
Oh, I have a memory that Izzy said about something that wasn't actually objectively true.
Izzy was teasing and saying, it's objectively true.
Ah, okay, okay.
So, yeah, what's on your mind?
How can I help you today?
No, I thought I'd just mention about the name.
But yes, I do want to speak about something that...
i feel is important it's um a very short text exchange i had with one of my sisters she is in a she's in a country on the other side of the world.
And she messaged me that another of my sisters, who is in the same city where I live, has a problem with the inverter.
So for the listeners, for people who are not in this country, an inverter is very important because it converts power back from a battery so that you actually have power when there is no power in the city.
I'll carry on.
She said that they're having problems with the inverter and that my brother in law is really getting agitated about it.
I replied to the sister on the other side of the world to say, those of us, and I was including myself, who have significantly harmed our own children, should, if we suffer, count that suffering as justice.
And that was my response.
I'd like your comment.
I'm a I'm a little bewildered.
So we went from I think we've called the generator here in North America.
So we went from your sister on the other side of the world, excuse me, having a problem with a piece of equipment to we have caused our children to suffer and we should suffer in return and I'm I feel that there's a few steps missing in my understanding of the exchange okay let me repeat it um it wouldn't intervene no no no hang on hang on okay no I I understood what you said so repeating it won't fill in the gaps right if I
say uh one two six seven and you say there's some numbers missing and I say no no I'll repeat it one two six seven that doesn't address the missing numbers so what is it that you and your family have done to harm children maybe I can sort of start with understanding that generally spanking And okay.
So you and your sisters spanked your children, is that right?
Yes.
Okay, and how did you spank?
I mean, that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
What was the general, generally, how did the act manifest in your children's lives?
Well, in my case, I just lost my cool and hit my children, so in my case, it wasn't spanking in the Christian sense that my sisters may have done it.
And how did you hit your children?
Oh, I remember one incident in particular.
I can't remember others, but I've been arguing with my wife and my son.
was quite young, five, six.
He was very keen to play with a dried bamboo stick.
There had been a misunderstanding.
I'd wanted a green piece of bamboo to make a bow and fashion some arrows and we could play bow and arrows.
And he swung the dry bamboo stick around and smashed the light fitting in the living room.
And I grabbed that stick when I went out there because of the crash and I broke it in pieces and hit him with it.
And I terribly, terribly regret that.
Gosh, that is I'm very sorry that happened.
How were you disciplined when you were a child?
My mother would spank me.
How often?
I'm not sure, but I would say maybe a few times per year.
I tried really hard to avoid getting any physical punishments.
I would lie or deceive in one way or another.
So it hurt me more by making me deceptive and lying.
Then to me the physical punishment actually hurt.
Well, and of course if you're fearing violence from your parents and then you lie and deceive them, you're emotionally distant from them, which makes you feel unprotected out there in the world, right?
Yes, of course.
I got bullied in school.
I got bullied here and there.
I never would complain to them because, you know, it wouldn't have been heard and understood.
Right.
Okay.
And when your mother would, sorry, when your mother would spank you, how would she do that?
How did that manifest?
She liked to say, this is going to hurt me more me more than it hurts you.
And I distinctly remember times when she bent me over her knee and pulled my pants down and spanked me.
And then she would hug me afterwards and say how much she loved me.
And did her love for you manifest in other ways?
That she took delight in your company, she sought you out, she enjoyed conversation with you, she enjoyed playing with you.
Did her love for you manifest in other ways?
Not in any of those ways.
I mean, she fed me, but you know, you can't get food in prison.
That's not.
Yeah, you can't get food in prison.
That doesn't do much to show.
I totally agree.
Fully agree.
So what do you think was going on in your mind when your son swung the bamboo, broke the light fixture?
He was in a separate room.
Of course, was when he broke the light fixture, did like a shower of hot glass fall down around him?
Was he in physical danger in that way?
Yes, but I was not concerned about that.
I So what do you think was the thinking that was going on when you decided to grab the bamboo and hit him with it?
I was in a state of anger.
I didn't think about anything except my anger and a way to release it.
I had just to.
Just to explain something, there's this thing called Marriage Encounter, a Catholic initiative, which, because at that time I was attending church, I still thought I had faith, and my wife and I would write notes to each other to express our feelings, but it had come to a point where the only feeling I ever felt to express in writing was anger.
And was that anger about your life, towards your wife, towards your kids?
So what was the anger directed at?
Well, my mother, my father, and I didn't know it.
I took it out of my wife.
I took it out of my children.
It's horrible.
It's funny.
And listen, I really sympathize with your suffering and it's actually very noble to suffer in this kind of way because it is how we change course.
And how old were you when you hit your son in this way?
In my twenties.
And was your wife?
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Oh, he was born in 1987.
Our daughter was born in 1986.
Okay.
And what was your wife's ph philosophy of parenting and punishment?
Don't hit them, just scream at them.
Oh gosh, I I would rather get hit in general than scream at, uh, as a whole, uh, but that may just be my particular personal preference.
So she was a real screamer.
Did she call them names or just frighten them with that volume?
Um, screaming and ridiculing.
I thought it a a joke at the time when she loudly told our son that he is a horrid little man and his response was, I'm not little.
And I guess, I guess why he said that.
Because he was by implication accepting the other, right?
Well, yes, and he recognized the power disparity and didn't like it.
Right.
And how did your kids deal with or the increased power that kids always get when they hit their teens?
How did your kids play out that way?
My wife had taken them away from me by then.
And I recently learned.
that she continued to scream at them.
Oh gosh, so you got divorced and you lost custody, is that right?
Yes, I got divorced.
I didn't try that hard for custody because I didn't want the expense.
I chose not to sue custody.
It's difficult.
It's stressful.
And I wasn't actually a better parent than her at that time.
But didn't you have to pay and I'm sorry for this, of course.
Didn't you have to pay alimony child support given that you didn't have custody?
Was it really going to be that much more expensive to share custody?
I I. There's an Afrikaans saying, and yes, there are obviously the English words for it, but I'm not Afrikaans either, but there's this Afrikaans expression, hardahad, meaning you make your backside very tough.
And that's really how I treated the legal system.
I let them arrest me more than once, have me in prison, you know, waiting trial more than once.
I don't think you let the system arrest you.
It's kind of against your will, isn't it?
Well, I could have avoided it by cooperating, as they call it.
Oh, like so you In other words, giving in.
Say again?
You resisted arrest, that's what you mean.
No, I I got arrested twice and still didn't pay the money.
And I got I got a suspended sentence for not paying not paying child support.
And I still didn't pay child support.
And at some point, my ex wife left the country with the children and took them first, I think, to USA and then to New Zealand.
Oh gosh.
So when was the last, I mean, do you have any contact with them now?
The contact is finished now.
I kind of burned up.
Well, my daughter contacted me.
We had contact on Facebook and I'm sorry.
Well, last year was the last because she came to this country to visit her grandmother.
And when I asked her about morality, I asked my daughter about morality, she referred me to It more or less said, Scientists are to be the new priests of morality.
So I sent her that comment back.
And then she decided to change her plans and not come and see me.
Sorry, she sent you a book on morality that was important to her.
You read the introduction and sent back a critique.
Yes.
I did that because the introduction made it clear that the author outlined it that morality should be determined by scientists.
Okay.
Yeah.
And did you what was your relationship like with your kids?
Sorry, I don't even know how old they were when your wife left and what's it like been in general what's it been like with them in general since that time and how old were they when your wife left?
They were eight and seven when she left.
And you had very little contact with them after that, is that right?
Occasional contact in person.
Yeah.
And, and, yes, very little in general very little.
And she left the country after two or three years she left the country.
Which I mean., you certainly could have thought that, right?
I was blindsided on that.
So, um, okay.
And it And how, how, sorry, how has your contact been with your kids in the, uh, I guess, little over thirty years since?
Also very little contact, but now, um, the older child, the girl child, will not be contacting me again, as far as I can tell.
Is that because you sent back the criticism of her book on morals?
talked further than that.
I asked her why she didn't just synthesize for me the morals that she'd been taught by That is her mother's mother.
But sorry, did you appreciate the moral back and forth that you had with her when she was in her thirties?
Yes.
Did you apologize, take responsibility for your deficiencies as a father over the thirty years since they left?
Yes.
The year before last, I sent her a number of voice messages with my sincere apologies.
I sent them on Facebook with my sincere apologies for what I was've done, which I, I honestly, honestly, truly regret.
And yes, um, not hearing.
Why, why, sorry, why, why voice messages?
Why not a conversation?
Um, I don't think, uh, I might, I don't think at that time I'd actually try to press voice call on Facebook to get through to a voicemail.
There's other way, come on, man.
You're a, you're a smart guy.
There's other ways to contact people.
Uh, so why not a conversation?
Because a voicemail, you're kind of in control, and it's a little bit of a bomb if they don't know it's coming, right?
And, and you don't know how they're receiving it, and you don't know what their thoughts are.
So it's kind of one-sided to just leave voicemails with apologies rather than have a conversation and ask the other person how they're doing, what they're thinking, what the effect is of what you're doing, that kind of stuff.
Yes.
I definitely could have done better.
I was wrong to just do that.
I could have pressed voice call.
I didn't have another channel to contact you on.
It was only Facebook.
But I could have pressed voice call and I could have got you.
Well, you could have just sent her a message and said, you know, there's something important that I want to talk about.
I'd really appreciate it if there was a way I could have a conversation with you and so on.
Because, I mean, the issue is it's somewhat one sided because it was on your preferences and then the voicemails are also kind of one sided.
It may not be quite enough to break the pattern, if that makes sense.
Yes.
Okay, so and that's your eldest.
What about the I think there was one who was a year younger, a child.
Yes.
And what's happened with that?
I his Facebook page, he's changed his first name from a male first name to a female first name.
The implications I'm not 100% sure of, but I'm guessing.
Yeah, I think we we can be fairly certain.
Yeah.
Okay.
And have you had any contact with that child over the decades?
Well, I I think I've tried to voice call him on Facebook Messenger, but I'm not even sure.
I did send him a text, you know, I can't oh yes, I can't text him on Facebook Messenger, so I also can't call him.
So I was only So what I did was I sent a I put a comment on Facebook, which is unfortunately rather public, but I put a comment because I understand he has some heart issues.
So I put a comment to say that I'm really glad that he is still alive.
Well.
And did you ever get remarried or have any more kids?
I did get married a second time.
I did not have any more kids.
Well, I mean, I'm obviously really, really sorry for the way that this has played out and I guess your kids are in their late thirties or whatever it is, so, you know, parenting days are long in the review.
Yes.
And do I assume that the kid who's potentially trans has not had any kids?
What about your daughter?
Oh, actually, he did have children.
He married and he had children.
Ah, okay.
Yeah.
And then this is relatively recent.
that people, well, I noticed that I was puzzled by having a friend with my surname, a Facebook friend with my surname with a name, you know, a first name I didn't recognize.
And sorry, I think you asked me something and I didn't pay attention.
What, what did you ask me?
Oh, did your daughter have any kids?
No.
When I had a conversation with her, she seemed to say she wasn't, you know, the impression I got was that she's not planning to have children at all.
Okay.
Well, I am very sorry for the situation as a whole.
Did your second marriage last?
No.
Oh, I'm sorry about that.
How long were you married for the second time?
I think also about ten years, same as the first time.
And how old are you now?
63.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
And how long have you been single for?
I'm not single.
I just didn't get married again.
Oh, okay.
So you're with the woman.
Okay.
Yes.
And does she have any kids?
No.
Never had.
Okay.
Okay.
Now listen, I'm obviously very sorry for that as a whole.
Um, my well, you know, my my father, um, largely fled and I'm not even, you know, that blaming him that much.
It's all so long ago now.
But if the mother is unstable and the father doesn't fight to protect the children, the children are going to have some resentment, right?
Whether it's conscious or unconscious.
Absolutely.
I, as I said, I'll take it for myself that, you know, the suffering I have in in all of this is justice and nothing more than that.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's funny and, and I, I'm with you in this that we have things where we look back and we say, what was I thinking at the time that I'm willing to live with this level of suffering now?
Right?
I mean, people who like they smoke a lot or they drink a lot and then they get health problems later in life.
It's like there was no drink or cigarette that's worth this, right?
So one of the challenges in life is that we make decisions at the time that are mostly avoidance, and we all do this, at least I know I have, it's mostly avoidance.
And then what happens is we end up regretting things later and the pleasure of the avoidance is long past, but the suffering of those decisions remains very vivid.
Absolutely.
I appreciate the sorry, go ahead.
It took me so long to figure out after listening to you for a number of years, it took me still long to figure out that my parents did evil.
I kept thinking of them as good Christian people without getting it that they did evil and I also did evil and they were responsible and I'm also responsible for the evil I did.
Right, right.
Well, I appreciate your honesty about this.
I certainly think that that will help other people hopefully make better decisions.
And this applies to all of us, right?
I mean, that we make bad decisions and we should be honest about those in the hopes of preparing other people to make better decisions.
All right, I appreciate that and let's move on to Camilla.
Now I want some tea.
Camilla, if you want to unmute, I am all ears.
Are you with me?
Camilla.
Oh, hello.
How's it going?
Oh, good.
You have come hither, Camilla.
Good.
It's going well.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
I was just wondering if you are familiar with Boris Walter and his work.
I am not.
Oh, okay.
He's a psychoanalyst, but he's been going into more hypnotherapy and past life regret, depression.
I was wondering what your thoughts on that is?
I think hypnotherapy can be interesting.
I think hypnotherapy is kind of like if you have like a tooth that needs a filling then you take the novocaine and then what you're supposed to do is improve your oral hygiene habits to the point where it doesn't come back.
So I think hypnotherapy can help people relieve particular symptoms, but I still think you still need to do the deep work of figuring out your childhood and your unconscious and all that kind of stuff.
So I think it can give people temporary relief, which is good, but it should lead them to deeper work.
As far as past lives go, no.
No, I have no belief whatsoever in the validity of souls that pass from life to life and have memories of previous lives or anything like that.
I mean, obviously, the lives of our ancestors live within us.
And we can see, of course, that when people go through particular massive stressors, that the stressors, the sort of heightened fight or flight response shows up even in their children and their grandchildren.
So when you subject, you know, as Europe was subjected to two world wars, well, I guess not just Europe, but the world as a whole, those kinds of stressors have sort of permanently altered the epigenetics and genetics of Europe.
And so this is one of the reasonsons why Europeans have a certain higher level of anxiety even decades after these wars.
So I do think that our ancestors live within us in terms of even down at our genetic level, but I don't believe that there are ghosts or spirits that pass from generation to generation, if that makes sense.
Yes, it's very interesting because one of his first recordings, they went so far into their ancestry that he spoke a very ancient Egyptian, Shumerian, Mesopotamian language.
So it went viral on TikTok.
And then there was a, I don't know what podcast he was on, but then he started to go into how he would do these past life regressions.
And at the beginning, he felt an imposter syndrome because he didn't really know.
I mean, there's no validity, obviously, as you are mentioning.
So he was having a difficult time going through it.
But the interesting part was when.
Some sort of entity would come through in the past life regressions and then would say, hey, I need to leave because I'm not going to leave.
because your patient's heart and then the patient would wake up and be like, what the fuck was that?
Like, I felt like I was having a heart attack.
So you were talking about, I guess, bio biomarkers and all this kind of stuff.
So, I would just like to know more of your thoughts on these things.
Sure.
I mean, with regards to past lives.
Potencial.
It would not be super complicated to test.
So, I'm sure you've heard of the Rosetta Stone, which was a stone that was found that had two different languages.
and Egyptian hieroglyphics.
And because researchers knew the two other languages and knew that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were a translation of that, that's when they first were able to figure out what hieroglyphics meant before that.
They didn't know.
So the way that you would be able to prove something like past lives is you would have some sort of regression that would provide validated knowledge that could occur.
in no other way.
So for instance, before anyone knew what hieroglyphics were, they would have had people do around Egypt or wherever, they would have people do past lives regression and then they would have them write down what the hieroglyphics meant and that would be a pretty pretty certain way or at least be strong evidence of information that was retrieved from past lives in in the same way that if my long down the road descendants um
let's say that people had lost knowledge of english and my descendants were past lives and they came back and told everyone what these English words meant and so on which is not something that they could get so there would be tons of archaeological and historical questions or facts that would be resolved through access to past lives.
But to my knowledge, this has never occurred.
And when people say, oh, somebody spoke an ancient language, I mean, I don't, I don't believe it.
I mean, I don't.
And you say, well, no, but I saw it, it's real.
And it's like, well, but there's a lot of elaborate cons in this world, and there's a lot of money to be made from having people believe things that aren't scientifically validated, because the question would be, where is the knowledge stored of an ancient language?
I mean, if you've ever had to learn another language, it's really complicated and difficult, and a slow and brutal process.
And the idea that you have within you knowledge of other languages or other skills, then people wouldn't bother to learn piano.
They would just go back to some ancestor that knew piano and unlock that ability.
They wouldn't bother to learn other languages.
They'd just go back to some ancestor that knew that language and unlock that ability, and it would be so much more efficient to do things that way.
So rather than studying math, you would simply go through past life's regression to some one of your ancestors who was good at math and unlock knowledge that way rather than having to go through the rather tedious process of learning math over many years.
So I don't believe that there's a whole bunch of hidden knowledge within us that, I mean, that we have instincts and so on, which are very good, but there's lots of ways in which it would be much more.
efficient to simply unlock knowledge that is buried within us from the accumulated, you know, thousands of years of generations of various skills rather than actually learning things, but people do actually have to learn things because that other method doesn't really work.
Yes.
So if we are established that we are in a very mistrusting portion of society right now or wherever we are on the timeline, then how could we be certain that what you have just said is true?
Because if you're going to go back and say we don't have that direct evidence, but everything's been re-written or lost or hidden, how do you go on?
Well, sorry, perhaps just to be annoying.
Please.
Perhaps, I mean, I did put out a couple of different standards by which we would be able to establish that past lies were valid.
I'm not sure if you remember what it is that I put forward, but how would we know something is true?
Things are testable.
Knowledge claims are testable.
So if the knowledge claim is that we have accumulated knowledge of a thousand generations locked in our minds, well, that would be testable right you would simply look for knowledge that could not be achieved in any other way that explained the facts of history or was able to translate the rosette stone or you know there would be certain understanding of cave paintings or they found these ancient games that sort of like dice games or board games and nobody knows what the rules are and
if somebody were able to explain the rules in a way that made sense and so on or if there was some new stone or carving with an unknown language, you would simply have people regress to a time when somebody knew that language and they would be able to translate it perfectly and then that could be applied to new things.
In other words, we wouldn't have to wait for the Rosetta Stone to figure out what hieroglyphics were.
We would simply test people, we would regress them back to when that knowledge was there, it's all in their brains.
And also it would be much more efficient to unlock knowledge rather than to learn things.
Yet we don't do that.
So there's a lot of different ways to test whether past lives would be a valid concept or not.
And it would require, of course, I mean, the problem the past lives things, it requires a soul.
And the challenge with the soul is it's an effect without a cause it is consciousness without any material, let's say, substrate, or that there's no material cause to consciousness.
It is conscious.
It's like having a shadow without anything blocking the light.
It doesn't really make any sense.
Consciousness is an effect of the physical brain.
And to say that consciousness can exist independent of a physical brain is like saying gravity exists independent of mass, or a shadow exists independent of something blocking the light.
The shadow and the gravity are an effect of mass, and consciousness is an effect of the physical brain, and therefore it's not a incorporeal ghosts that can jump from body to body, if that makes sense.
So you're saying that it isn't, it has to be attached to the physical and it cannot be separate.
Well, that's correct.
Yeah.
I mean, because consciousness is in fact a very specific, like we never find consciousness in the absence of a physical brain that's alive.
Can we, like we've never had any example in science or evidence or empiricism of consciousness without an attendant physical brain, because if that were the case, we would have certain proof of ghosts and gods and all kinds of stuff that would completely turn science on its head because we would have an effect of matter without the cause of matter.
Consciousness being an effect of the physical matter and energy of the brain, we would have an effect called consciousness with no cause called matter, which would be, I mean, unbelievably stunning in the realm of physics and would completely rewrite our entire sense of the universe and would be entirely in contradiction to everything that has ever been learned about the nature of matter and energy.
So it's obviously a pretty high bar.
to pass to to get these kinds of things.
So we're talking about the metaphysical and the 5D.
A metaphysical I get?
Five D, you might have to break out for me.
I don't know.
I think it's just another term for consciousness.
But what I'm trying to get at is how are there so many, I guess, experiences and now with AI you can take all the data and summarize those experiences.
How much more experiences do we need for it to become a valid fact?
Well, a valid fact is not people's reporting, right?
Hearsay is inadmissible in the Court of Reason, right?
I say, I talked to God yesterday.
I mean, that's a fine hypothesis, but it's not accepted as true just because someone says it.
We have a bar for proof because, and of course, I'm not putting you in this category, but there are a lot of liars in the world, a lot of people who are crazy in the world, a lot of people who hallucinate, a lot of people who believe that they're having metaphysical, otherworldly or other universe experiences, which you can actually, epileptics, for instance, can have these things.
You can create religious imagery in people's minds simply by applying electricity to a certain portion of the brain.
So people lie, they misinterpret, they're crazy,.
They have hallucinations.
And so we can't take self-reporting as a fact.
I mean, that way, all somebody would have to do is point at someone and say they committed a crime.
We just throw them in jail.
But we have to have a standard of proof because we know that people lie or misunderstand or are crazy or who hallucinate or who have, you know, could have psychosis or schizophrenia.
And genuinely, they might even be able to pass a lie detector test.
But it's still not true.
So are you familiar with Dr. Thomas Sass?
Yes.
I actually interviewed him, believe it or not, so many, many moons ago.
Yes.
I have great respect for Dr. Sass and his caustic sk skepticism was a welcome scrub to the general goo of modern psychology.
Yes.
So I am referring to a subset of data that's found on errorwood dot org comma and my interests were to see if there was a common theme when you start doing psychedelics in large quantities.
And there was, according to Grok, who I used, there was a common theme of the oneness and the source and everything that you see online.
So I just find it very interesting that Boris Walter and his practice is now being able to talk to some entity that's coming through his patients.
No, he's not.
No, he's not.
He's not able to do that.
He may claim that he's able to do that, but he's not because if you're able to talk to an entity that is possessing patients, then the entity should have certain knowledge of things that the patient cannot possibly know.
And that's never been established.
Yes.
I would suggest you listening into his podcast.
It's very fascinating.
That's me.
I'm sure it's entertaining, but I would view it as little more than entertaining.
Now, do you mind if I ask you a little bit of a sideways question and I'm happy to continue the topic?
Okay.
Let me let me ask you this because I have a hypothothesis which is probably nonsense, but you know, I always like the nonsense.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
So I always like to take my hypotheses and how old are you at the moment?
I'm 37.
37.
Okay.
So let's say when you were 20, how would you rate your or how do you think people would rate your attractiveness on that good old one to ten scale?
My attractiveness, like your physical attractiveness, your appeal.
Oh, I don't know, five.
Okay.
And what do you think would, and again, I appreciate your honesty about this and hopefully this will make some kind of sense in a minute or two.
Of course.
What would you say, what was it about you that people would subtract these points for?
Well, I grew up in East Vancouver, so the people that I would associate myself with, and I was not of the average, I guess, beauty that was surrounding us.
Were you overweight at that time, or was there something else that would subtract from your general appeal?
I don't know.
I can't remember how But you can remember if you were overweight, can't you?
It was only seventeen years ago, right?
Seventeen, twenty.
I don't know.
I've been an athlete, so my weight has fluctuated up and down.
Okay, but at 20, were you relatively athletic or let's say 18?
Yes.
Okay, so I assume that you had a good physique and a good figure and all of that.
So I mean, I have a general thesis.
Again, it's probably nonsense.
It could be true, could not be true, but I have a general thesis that attractive women are indulged in beliefs that are not empirical because men want to date the women.
And if you contradict a woman, then she'll be less likely to date you.
And I think that's why women are left to drift in sort of mysticism and spiritualism and astrology and, you know, other sort of psychic stuff and, you know, some of this kind of supernatural, superstitious, other dimensional stuff.
I think that women don't get a lot of bluntness and criticism with regards to their thinking because there is the, well, I don't want to disagree with her because she's cute and I want to date her.
And so that was sort of a general thesis that I have because I sort of can't help but notice that, you know, all of these people who it's usually women who are like, the universe provides.
And, you know, there were very pretty women with really nice figures and all of that.
It's like, well, yeah, it's not the universe providing.
It's men, you know, offering up stuff in the hopes of getting a date or something like that.
So that's why I was sort of curious about that.
Yes, that's not my experiences at all.
So your dating history is, what, fairly scant or are you married at the moment?
No, no.
Okay.
And what was your longest relationship?
Ten years.
Gosh.
What age to what age?
Oh, sorry.
I have to think I was twenty.
Hang on.
Just ask your past life guy.
I'm sure he's monitoring.
Just kidding.
Go on.
Around twenty two to thirty two.
twenty two to thirty two.
Um, did you want to get married or have kids or what?, what happened with that?
He cut his balls off.
See, this is why I find these shows still very interesting to do after twenty years, because you could have paid me a million dollars to guess what you were going to say next, and you could have given me a year in which to guess it, and I never would have been, he denied himself.
That would never have been part of my thinking.
He was very mad.
Um, probably not as mad as his balls were though.
Um, okay, uh, so did he transition?
Is that what happened?
No, he just didn't want more children.
He had Oh, so hold on, you're talking about vasectomy, not a physical removal of his testicles.
So excuse me, yes.
I'm not gonna equate it to.
It's just a little different, okay.
Okay, all right.
So after Ted, at what point in the ten year relationship did he get the vasectomy?
He was already, he had a previous marriage and three children.
And when we first got to know each other, he of course lied.
So by the time that I was already madly in love, I was like, you know what, maybe I just don't, you know, it's not in my cards and blah, blah, blah.
Sorry, you were madly in love.
A horrible.
And then, hold on, you were madly in love.
I really appreciate your openness with regard to this and this is not over.
certainly helping me and I really thank you for it.
So how long did you know him before you found out that he had kids?
About a year?
A year?
So was he separated from his kids?
He didn't see them or?
No, it's just it was long distance, right?
So it was easier for him to hide his infidelities.
Well, hold on.
But he was divorced at that point, is that right?
No.
Therefore, was he still married?
Yes.
No, but was he still married when he was dating you?
Yes, but they were separated.
Okay.
So what was it that you found attractive about him at twenty two?
He made me laugh.
Okay, was he tall, dark, and handsome?
Did he have a particular physical appeal to him for you?
No.
Okay.
So you fell in love with him because he was funny.
He was hilarious.
Okay.
And I mean, you just pay a comedian, it's way less expensive on your heart, but what about like, so when you found out that he was a pathological liar, is that an unfair way to describe him?
Um, I wouldn't say pathological liar.
I just was young and didn't ask the correct questions.
Well, do you think hiding the fact that he's still married and has three children for a year is a lot of lying?
Of course, but okay, so let's just say you're naive and you're like, oh no, I get the naive stuff, but so when you found out after a year that he had lied in massive, foundational and important ways, and you were 22, how old was he when you started dating?
When he was older, I don't even remember how old now.
Five years, ten years.
It blows memories out, you know?
Well, no, you gotta, you gotta learn from the past, right?
Because you don't want to keep repeating it.
So he was, I assume, five, ten years or older or something like that.
So after you found out, this is the fascinating question for me with regard to women, and Lord knows men make these mistakes too, but I happen to be talking to someone of the fairer sex persuasion.
So when you found out that he had lied to you in foundational and horrible ways, how could you stay in love?
He was the only person that I've ever met that was able to think outside of the material.
Sorry, able to think what?
He was just interesting and funny.
But a liar.
Oh, everybody's a liar.
No, that's not true.
Come on.
Okay.
I mean, I know you grew up in the what, the east side of Vancouver, so I'm sure that you were exposed to some fairly low rent specimens growing up, but no, not everyone's a liar.
I mean, you must have been quite shocked and appalled that he had led you in these foundational ways.
It's to be expected.
So you've never known people who don't lie?
In these horrible ways?
I would hope I've known somebody who doesn't.
No, but you can't remember anyone who's more been lying to you for a year about having three children.
So would you say that you expect people to lie?
Yes.
Right.
So that's my point about past lives, quote, therapists.
They're just liars.
See how we've come full circle?
Full circle.
It was just very I was just thinking because he's not my therapist or anything.
I found him on the internet.
I just found it interesting because the audio that he has, I guess, given up as evidence was very interesting.
And a lot of the people who he does refer to, you know, who knows, he's probably lying.
But he does say that he can't use their names because it's professional suicide.
Well, I don't know about that.
I mean, I'm sure he could work with his college and get release statements.
I read about therapists who talk about their patients, maybe not by name, but certainly with details.
So the last thing I'll say, the last thing I'll ask is, so you're 37.
Do you want to get married or have children at any point in the future?
I do have one child.
Yes.
I don't think I'll be having more.
And was this a child from the ten year or something after?
He didn't have balls.
No child from that man.
Oh, yeah.
So, but you can get vasectomies reversed.
But no, I certainly appreciate the correction.
I would not, but it's okay.
It wasn't meant to be.
No, my son's father, we'd about seven, seven years now, I guess.
And are you still with the father?
No, he's highly immature.
Was he a liar to you?
Of course.
Okay.
So I'll tell you the reason I'm asking all of this and again, I really appreciate your openness.
I really want to help you not be lied to.
Oh, I think so.
So the way that you end up not being lied to is you are very skeptical because when liars approach, say, you.
Say you, what they look for is, are you credulous?
In other words, do you believe stuff just because people say stuff?
Or do you have objective skeptical standards in the world?
And so when you talk about believing past life stuff, then what liars do is say, Oh great.
So this woman doesn't have any standard by which she can detect liars, so I can have my way with her.
I don't believe that.
No, it was just interesting because it goes to that belief that there's this awakening on life.
No, no, but but but if you don't have skepticism and say, look, people have to prove that, and I'm skeptical.
People have to prove things.
I don't just believe or even say that things are interesting, right?
If I said two and two make five, you wouldn't say, well, that's an interesting perspective.
At least I hope you wouldn't.
You'd say, no, two and two is four, not five.
You crazy canuck.
So I would say that unfortunately when women and men too, right?
But again, talking to you, when women talk about their openness to people who are pretty obviously lying, then what happens is you end up drawing liars towards you.
And I think that's going to be a pretty dissatisfying life.
And of course, you have a child and so you need.
need not expose him to more liars or immature people or something like that.
So I think rigorous skepticism keeps the liars away from you.
It's just kind of like an unconscious thing that happens.
And so I would recommend, you know, for you, for your future and for the sake of your child, to apply rigorous skepticism because that will chase the liars away.
And in fact, they'll never even materialize because they kind of have a sixth sense about skeptics and stay away from them.
Interesting because basic self protection.
You never really believed it, but that's where it's like not clicking.
Okay.
Well, yeah, just think about it because obviously as a mama bear you've got to keep your kids safe and the best way to keep lies out of your life is to have a squint-eyed rigorous skepticism and that way they'll go and find easier prey so all right well appreciate your time i wish you the very best and thank you for bringing up a very a very interesting topic all common john we're gonna try and get to the end john if you want to unmute uh did all want to interrupt please
No, go ahead.
Oh, oh, sorry.
I wasn't expecting to be this quick.
Well, I mean, I'll make it quick myself.
I mean, it's safe.
Can we do it real quick?
says, can we even relate to it as far as relationship and all that?
I just lost a job that I love very much.
Some unfortunate thing happened with old guards clicked.
There I was, I'm still having it.
I'm sorry, you've got a bit of an accent and you're speaking very rapidly.
Do you mind just, you know, do your breath slow down and because it's a little tough to follow, but go ahead.
Yeah, so I'm a sailor.
I work on cargo ships and I just, what was the first time that ever happened to me in the five ships I've been on.
And I lost my position on that ship.
And the season is still going.
So right now I'm looking for ways to salvage what's left of it.
But I was just wondering if you had any advice as far as The best way to put the rest of my year to good use to make sure I maximize my profit and my work experience gain.
Sorry, to put your I didn't miss that word, to put your what to good use?
The rest of my working, not the working season, like the timing of the year, but basically in my case, I don't work, I don't usually go for like a full year work, I go more for like a seasonal kind of stuff where I give a big intense rush at it and I earn as much money as possible doing a harder kind of jobs and then I enjoy the rest of the year like training and boxing all that.
So yeah, I was just wondering, basically, I don't know, I just came in today because I thought maybe, so you yourself having an extensive experience on the jet market, maybe you could have a suggestion for me as far as the best way to salvage the rest of my year.
Well, is there anything that you love to do that you think might be of value to other people?
Well, I guess I'm a sailor, but I'm overall, I love working outside and working with my hand.
And I've done other.
Okay, that's a general, generic occupation.
Is there anything specifically that you like to do that could be of value to other people.
So I'll just give you some more specific examples.
I love philosophy, so I go out and freedomain dot com slash donate to help out the show, ask for donations for the work that I do Socrates style.
So I love to do philosophy and love to have conversations about meaningful topics.
So I do that out there in the world.
Some people like to comment on politics.
There's ways to monetize that.
Some people like to play video games.
There's ways to My personal interest essentially.
Yeah, yeah.
So something that you love to do that could be of value to other people.
In those cases, I want to play along with what you're bringing here and answering that.
But most of what I like as far as personal interests, I really don't expect any of that to be a way for me to earn money.
Because like I said, I love boxing, but I won't turn pro at any time because I'm already 29.
By this age, most pro boxers are retired, if anything.
Okay, but I assume that you're fit, right?
Well, yeah, they're pretty decently fit, especially considering the average nowadays.
okay so um you don't have an expectation of becoming a pro athlete and no no i i i i i understand that um but that's not what i'm talking about so you can look up, and I'm sure you have looked up, the fitness bros and the protein bros and the TRT bros and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
So I mean, could you, Joey Swall, yourself and become an influencer in that kind of way and encourage people to pursue fitness goals?
I have a decent physique.
So if someone would take notice on me, I guess something could be done with Eva.
Not even anywhere close to, like, the bigger guys that I know very well, not personally, but I know the name of because I've spent so much time on fitness YouTube and all that.
But it's very far from anything like that because at best, like I could, I don't know, maybe try to start competing in a local bodybuilding.
Well, hang on, hang on, hang on.
So what I'm going to suggest is, let's say that you are 50% of your way towards a really fantastic physique.
Well, I mean, you can practice in the camera and say, you know, here's where I'm starting.
Here's my goal.
Here's what I'm going to do every day.
I'm going to take you on my fitness journey.
So you don't have to be perfect.
Like, you know, there's tons of people, women in particular, who lose a bunch of weight, right?
And they'll.
do the whole journey, right?
And so you don't have to be perfect.
You can take people along on your journey and, you know, maybe just maybe you have the X factor, the it factor that people are just going to like hearing what you have to say.
And, you know, you can just keep practicing that kind of stuff.
So again, I'm not saying this is the thing, but what I would do is, you know, if you if you never want to work another day in your life, try to find a way to get paid for what you love to do.
And that would be my suggestion.
Well, I appreciate it.
I'll keep that in the back of my mind.
But yeah, no, I mean, depend on what you're talking, what kind of job we're talking about, but I love to work.
Like I said, I love being outside and just swimming and, you know, just carrying shit around.
And, you know, even having in some cases, like, someone else bought orders at me.
It's not like I love it, but I love the rush and being part of a hierarchy and a brother even more.
So I know it's going to sound cheesy, but the brotherhood, like being a part of a group of men working along the same goals.
So that's why sailing and seamanship, they became so much of a thrill for me, even beyond just the salary, which are pretty good.
So that's why I was, I really wanted to find some other option that would bring me the same thing and not having Yeah, but to do that, to do that, you're going to have to explore your options and take some risks.
And, you know, maybe you'll start something., maybe it'll go somewhere, maybe it won't, but it's sure as heck won't go anywhere if you don't start something.
So I would just, if I were in your shoes, I would take, here are the five things I do for free, which I love to do.
Is there any way that I can find a way to monetize what it is that I love to do?
And that was a general, a general advice.
It's a short life.
And of course, you enjoy the sailing, but it's seasonal.
So I guess the other thing you could do is travel to other places and be a sailor elsewhere if it's seasonal here.
But yeah, I definitely say figure out what you love to do and try and find a way to monetize it.
And of course, the internet gives you lots of options.
So, all right.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate that question.
Let's do.
Oh, by the way, thank you for your work.
I've been listening to you for years and it's really regretful.
I have to sift throughout the internet to find back your old world, because YouTube has obviously deleted most of it, but I love your Batman-in-day presentation.
It should.
Oh, thank you.
So, thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
All right.
James, you are up.
Going once, going twice.
He's not on Division.
Division, Division.
If you want to unmute, I'm all here.
I like you guys hear me.
I just want to make sure, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
So, yeah, I do that with things.
I like making words of other words like the vision and things like that.
And really quickly, I do want to say I'm very happy.
I came across this stream.
I've never been a part of this community, but it's kind of the community I think I need right now at a point in my life.
I'm 32 years old and due to like discovering some mental things that I went 32 years with ADHD, a type of mood disorder, likely bipolar and some type of neurodivergence, it seems.
we're figuring it out in therapy.
32 years of being smart enough to just kind of get by.
And now, like, my brain is starting to work the way it's supposed to, and I'm able to hold on to ideas and it's just going and going and going.
But rather than blabbing forever, I think I'll pique your interest and let you dig deeper if you'd like.
I really want to say to the last three speakers, that's all I've heard.
I really respect them.
And I think they're very brave for opening up about things that a lot of people are afraid of and wouldn't.
But I want to touch on what the pretty lady was talking about.
I kind of want to give you a little pushback on the past lives thing.
While I'm not like I don't I don't know anything.
I think things.
I have ideas.
I have thoughts.
I I know nothing.
But from what I've heard, there's a a theory and I don't recall whose it is that our thoughts come from part superpositional particles possibly collapsing in microtubules inside our neurons.
And so the way I think that works.
is we think electrical signal goes through our brains into our neurons, the microtubules possibly block out outside interaction, which scientists tend to say observation, but I like the word interaction better, and block outside interaction.
So these particles could exist in a state of superposition, but the electricity interacts with it, causing those particles to collapse into our mind.
And that is a thought or an idea, which I think come from either outside, I think particles in superposition may come from outside space time.
time and collapse into a Okay, hang on, hang on.
So are you saying that our thoughts come from another dimension?
Possibly or No, no, no, no, I'd Possibly, it's a philosophy show here, so we have to be rigorous, right?
I mean, possibly we're all inhabited by Kebler elves that no one could detect, right?
So what would it mean to be outside of space time?
And if our thoughts originate from there, let's say that we're dimension X and this is dimension Y and our thoughts come from dimension Y, is that right?
Well, there's two things that I think it makes No, no, I just, no, no, no.
I need to answer questions and not go on other speeches.
So if I ask you a question and then you go off on some other tangent, I don't get an answer.
So I'm just trying to understand your argument is that we live in Dimension X, but our thoughts come from Dimension Y, which is outside of spacetime.
Is that right?
I don't know if it's another dimension.
I think the fabric of spacetime is literally like a woven thing and our particles when they're in superposition may slip through the cracks.
But I don't know anything.
I think.
I think.
No, no.
Hang on.
Hang on.
So, but you're putting forward a hypothesis and that's fine.
I mean, we do this all the time.
And you said it comes from out, you said our thoughts might come from outside space time.
And I'm just trying to understand what that means.
So outside of space and time would not be part of our current dimension, which is bound by space and time, right?
Well, superpositional particles, they already believe that that is when they collapse or existing, they come into from a wave into a specific space.
I just add the time as like, it just makes sense in my brain, but it could be just nothing.
It could be a big nothing burger, the space time part.
It may just be space, right?
Choosing to exist from our space.
I mean, collapsing into a moment in sp, a specific space rather than a wave of where it could be.
And it may, yes, we don't know when it's in superposition exactly what's going on because we can't observe it because once you observe it, it collapses into Okay, do you think that what you're explaining makes sense to the average person?
No.
So just out of curiosity, I mean, this is a public philosophy show.
I'm not criticizing at all.
I'm just genuinely curious, right?
So in a public, if you just have this kind of word salad of insistent, ill-defined terms, do you think that you're communicating things of value to the general population?
No, but these thoughts and ideas just started over the past when ChatGPT came out because I went on a manic, I ended up smoking some weed.
It was Sativa sent me on a manic episode and it helps my focus with ADHD.
And then I was up all night on ChatGPT and I realized that I had these mental issues and I was having a manic episode and got myself into therapy.
And then I started thinking a lot more about things.
Okay, so don't do drugs.
No, seriously.
Like, in all serious.
Do not do drugs.
Especially I assume if you're, you say you're neurodivergent or have ADHD or something like that.
So if your brain is work already misfiring to some degree, whatever you want to call ADHD, like don't take drugs.
Yeah, well, I mean, I did drugs my whole life.
That's probably a big part of it.
Like, I won't, the only thing I do now is, well, I don't do anything now because other than my prescription medications because Hang on, hang on, hang on.
When did you start doing drugs?
When I was thirteen years old.
And why did you start doing drugs?
I looked up to my friend's older brother and he smoked weed all the time and I thought it was the coolest thing and I didn't have an older brother, only older sisters and I wanted to do it and thought it was cool.
Where the hell were your parents?
were like, oh, go out and play with your neighbor friends and all these things.
And that's what we were doing.
And then some of them had older brothers that were doing things and introducing us to things that they probably shouldn't have done.
Well, did your parents sit down with you and talk about the dangers of drugs and peer pressure and the fact that there are evil fuckers on the planet who give drugs to little children?
Not really because they were kind of, well, my mom is a very or a functional alcoholic and my most of my family is on drugs, does drugs or is a bad alcoholicics and my dad was zoned out on pain medicine because he couldn't get surgery to fix his heart and has to go off comedin to get his back fixed and he can't and so he was on like literal fentanyl so he was like a zombie forever but now he's not got the therapy,
lowered his NIDS doing a lot better but he smokes weed for the pain.
Okay, so you come from a family of addicts.
Is that a fair way to put it?
Yeah, and I believe it is it kind of stems from I think I have a very neurodivergent family that No, no, I don't I don't want to go down that path because I don't know what that really means and I'm certainly no expert.
Okay, so you come from a family of addicts, right?
Yes.
So why on earth wouldn't they teach you about the dangers of addiction?
You know, if you have some uncle who's a chain smoker, he's going to tell you, listen, I'm an addict, but you should not start smoking because it's really bad.
Well, I think they didn't really, they were very absorbed into their own world, my parents.
They still are.
And what do you mean, they're selfish?
Narcissistic?
What does that mean?
I think maybe a little narcissistic.
They don't really think, I don't know what their thoughts are, but for a long time they just kind of.
did not pay very much attention to us or care about her.
For instance, I was probably 14 or 15, smoking weed.
My mom knew.
And she said she didn't like that I smoked weed, but that was about as much as she said.
And I recall crying on a camping trip in bed with her while she's intoxicated, begging her to quit alcohol and saying that I'll stop smoking weed.
I won't do anything.
And the next day, it was like it never happened because that was how it was with her.
She would get drunk and stuff and forget things and not really care very much.
And okay, so with regards to your parents.
Let's just get a rough scale going here.
Minus 10 is really terrible parents.
Plus 10 is fantastic parents.
Where would you rate your parents on a minus 10 to plus 10 scale?
On taking care of the needs that we had.
And by that, I mean food, water, and so on.
No, no, no, parenting, not just giving you food and shelter.
Parenting, which means talking with you.
It means educating you.
It means giving you moral instruction.
It means teaching you about the dangers of the world.
It means actually investing in your children rather than just giving them food and shelter, which is provided by your average prison.
Yes.
I think very.
Very mid to low tier, especially when it came when alcohol was involved.
And okay, the scale is minus ten to plus ten.
I don't know what mid to low tier means in that context.
Five or ish.
They didn't.
They taught us from seeing what not to do.
And that was about the majority of the teacher.
Well, hang on, hang on, hang on.
Did they teach you what not to do or just show you what not to do through their own irresponsible behavior?
They showed us what not to do through their own.
Okay, so that's not parenting.
That's selfish.
So minus 10 to plus 10, how would you rate your parents?
Um...
3.5.
3.
3.
Okay, so they're generally positive, but not very positive.
Yes.
That's not even close based upon what you've told me.
Okay.
my mother was very loving and very and all of this stuff No, but no, no, no, no, and no.
Okay.
No, she wasn't.
Okay, you're right.
Loving parents.
Parents aren't alcoholics.
Loving parents take care of their children and warn them about dangers.
Loving parents don't sit by with indifference when their children slide into drug addiction.
It was probably like, um, lower, maybe around, um, they would maybe Okay, you were a, hang on, sorry, turn it up.
You were a drug addict or I guess if it's all in the past, uh, let's say just illicit drugs or, you know, marijuana or something like that.
Oh, no, I think it's like stuff that stuff that wasn't prescribed.
Yeah.
You were a drug addict for how long?
Um, until I met my wife in 2016, no, I stopped drugs in 2019 except for marijuana.
And then I stopped.
No, no, there's no except for marijuana.
That counts.
Okay, so I I thought you said you'd recently quit.
So you started at thirteen, you're thirty two, you recently quit.
So it's almost twenty years if I have this math correct.
No, I stopped at twenty for years.
And you did no drugs, not even marijuana.
No.
And you didn't drink.
I drank.
Okay, so let's say, for how long have you been an addict of one kind or another?
Sorry, I'm changing the I'm changing the question because I I didn't know you drank as well.
Okay.
Okay, so for how long have you been an addict?
If you started doing drugs at 13?
What defines an addict?
Chemical addiction, dependence or just well, an addict is somebody who uses a substance to the detriment of their life as a whole, the detriment of their health, the detriment of their ambition, the detriment of their money making, the detriment of their concentration, their emotional development, that kind of stuff.
Okay, so I would say until my state closed the marijuana loophole a month ago, there has been some detriment because we kind of make you lazy sometimes.
But I but other than that, like, I quit alcoholhol two years ago.
I Okay, but in one form or another, you've seen it seems to be, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, in one form or another, you've manifested an addiction for almost twenty years.
Well, no, I'm 32.
For 32 years, I've used some kind of substances in my life.
Well, I don't think we're going to count breast milk when you're a baby.
It can't be permanent, right?
Yeah, you're right, you're right, right.
I forgot.
13.
Yeah.
So yeah, about 20 years, 19, 20 years.
Okay.
So would you rate parents who raised a serial addict of 20 years duration, starting when they were still half a decade shy of adulthood?
Would you rate those as positive or negative parents?
I would call them absent parents.
Okay, absence is a negative because you can't be absent as a parent because then your kids get raised by the media, Netflix and their peers and they go to brain mush.
I was going from zero to ten, sorry.
You were going from negative ten to positive ten.
I did say it three times.
Yes, minus ten to plus ten.
Yes, my ADD is very bad even when I take my medicine.
So sometimes I miss little things like that.
I apologize.
very bad even when I take my medicine.
So sometimes I miss little things like that.
I apologize.
I would say negative five.
By the by, that's exactly where I was, which doesn't mean it's proof.
It Yeah.
Along the same lines.
No, that's fine.
So if your parents were generally negative, have you talked to them as an adult about what they did wrong as parents?
Yes.
And how did that go?
There have been positive, apologies, and especially for my dad, because my dad really did work on changing.
He was very absent in my childhood and very zombified up in.
Was you know because of the fentanyl?
Yes.
Up in and other medications they had him on.
And up until he got therapy, but see, this wasn't even for his kids.
This was him and he cheated for a decent amount.
He was a bad husband.
Sorry, what?
Hang on, why my so damn son.
So your father was on fentanyl and you're saying that he cheated on your mother?
Yes, for almost their entire marriage until he got therapy and changed his drug.
Sorry, sorry.
I thought you said he was zombified.
How can he be zombified and cheating?
He was, I mean, he was kind of like my friends would call him like he would say he's like Frankenstein, right?
He was like very dopey most of the time.
But I mean, he could have conversations and stuff.
He didn't.
No, no, but cheating.
Cheating is very active, right?
Cheating is you gotta go find the girl or the woman.
You gotta go and seduce her.
You gotta woo her.
You gotta plan.
You gotta lie.
You gotta cover things up.
You gotta cover your tracks.
You gotta erase things on your phone or whatever was going on.
So I can't quite put together in my head how your father was a serial cheater and also a spaced out zombie on fentanyl.
I mean, he wasn't like passed out on the floor, but he was very like apathetic to everything.
Very.
No, no.
He's not apathetic if he's cheating.
Well, because he wants he wants the side pieces, right?
He He wants to have sex with other women.
And so again, I'm sort of just trying to puzzle this out.
Forgive me if I'm missing something.
Well, he couldn't even get it up because of the medication.
And apparently he was using a fake piece over it.
Like, yes, he had a he really wanted to do Sorry, he had a fake, he had a strap on.
Yeah, like some, some kind of what from what I was told, which I should Who then?
Who on earth would tell you this horror piece?
My family is extremely overly sharers.
No, that's horrendous.
Yeah.
And your mother told you that your father had affairs and wore some sort of artificial penis?
As she figured it out, when she was figuring it out, she was in a very emotional state, I guess, and not excusing, but yeah, she, uh, I was an adult at this time when she told me this.
I don't care if you were I know.
Dead three minutes.
She shouldn't be saying that in your presence.
Yeah, sure.
But I'm I'm very like, I don't care about like you people can No, but you should care.
No, but you should care.
When she shares stuff like that, I'm like, you guys should have a better sex life and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like, no, no, you should care.
You should care.
Because that's a horrendous thing to say to your kid.
I mean, yeah, that's definitely over Sharing.
Well, no, it's it's horrendous.
Yeah, I would.
And it shows, let me sort of give you, I'm so sorry, go ahead.
I just said, I would, well, me and my wife took in her younger brother and he's a child.
He's my child, you know, and I would.
Sharing, I don't know what you're talking about.
I took in whose younger brother?
My wife.
We took in her younger brother.
We don't have any children of our own, but I would never tell him that.
That's kind of what I'm pointing at.
I would never.
Sorry, how long have you been married?
Okay, I say my wife.
We've been engaged for like the longest time, but we've been together for.
ten years and we are just like, oh, we're going to get married, but do we want a nice wedding?
Do we want this?
Do we want that?
I've been in a dedicated monogamous relationship since 2016.
Well, you've been cheating with drugs and alcohol though, right?
Which is interfering with the monogamy because she's only recently met the sober you, right?
Sure.
Yes.
And do you guys want to have kids?
No.
Why not?
I maybe inherited some of my parents' selfishness, I guess.
I want to live a life focused on us and I've always wanted that.
I generally am annoyed by kids.
I love her brother that we took take had taken in, like, but it was a circumstantial situation.
He was in a horrific situation and I love him and I don't want him to be in that.
And he is our child essentially, right?
But if he, if his father was a good father and none of the things he experienced, he experienced, it would have been great and we could have lived the us life that we wanted to.
I don't resent.
Okay, what do you mean?
I'm not sure what you mean by the us life.
Just focused on us.
And before I met her, I just wanted to live my life focused on me.
And yes, like my nephews and things like that i love them and you know no no sorry you said i thought you said the kids were annoying yeah they are but i still love them oh they're annoying but you love them okay all right did your parents seem to enjoy parenting or were they annoyed by their children's needs and preferences they seemed just unbothered by it but focused on theirs they'd be like oh okay you need this blah blah blah blah let me focus on what i'm doing okay so you're kind of living like your parents I suppose in a sense.
And your parents were minus five.
Yes.
So you're voluntarily adopting a minus five mindset.
Well, I don't think I'm living exactly the same as my par parents.
I think I've That's why I said a minus five mindset, not a minus five life.
How did selfishness work out for your parents in terms of their overall happiness?
Not good because they had a bunch of kids.
No, no.
Don't insult children and parenthood that way.
No, it was their There's a lot of, hang on, bro.
There's a lot of people who have a lot of kids who are very happy thereby.
So it's not kids.
No.
How did your parents' selfishness work out for their own happiness in their life and don't blame the kids?
Well, their selfishness would have been fine if they didn't infect other people with it if they were alone, you know?
That's the thing.
It's not the kids.
It's their fault for making the decision to have children.
Oh, so okay, so you want to be like your parents, but you think that your selfishness is going to work out if you don't have kids.
No, I want to be the way I want to be.
I want to be the way I want to be.
That doesn't have any philosophical content.
That's just like A is A. A tree is a tree.
Well, I just I have specific desires for my life and I want those, but I'm always going to put her brother above them because I love him.
Okay, hang on.
We're not talking about her brother, we're talking about your kids.
So do you enjoy life as a whole?
Yeah.
And where would you say minus ten misery plus ten very happy?
Very happy, where would you say your general level of happiness is?
I would say because I'm not where I want to be in my life currently yet, because of my past decisions and current decisions.
I just I just need a number, I don't need a bunch of footnotes.
What's a minus ten?
And I know it's not perfect, but just minus ten to plus ten.
Maybe I'm somewhere around five, four, four, five.
Okay, so you're positive about being alive, you're happy about being alive.
Obviously there's things that could improve or could be better, but you're you're happy to have the gift of life, right?
Yes, absolutely.
So why wouldn't you pay it forward?
Why wouldn't you have kids and give them the gift of life so that they could be happy like you are?
Because I can make other people happy.
I don't have to create people to make them happy.
Okay.
And what steps are you taking in your life given that you've been a twenty year addict?
Has that made other people happy?
I think that in my Don't even try.
Don't even try.
Don't even try.
I think in my wife's life.
No, no, no.
You're bullshitting me.
Yeah.
You're bullshitting me.
Because you're saying, Well, I just I make other people happy.
Not as a twenty year addict.
You didn't.
I don't make everybody happy.
Who okay?
Who was happy that you were an addict, bro?
No one was happy that I wasn't okay.
Were people unhappy that you were an addict?
But I'm more than just the addict.
Were people unhappy that you were an addict?
Sure.
Okay, so don't talk to me about your desire to make people happy.
Well, people are unhappy if I don't put the toilet seat down.
There are things I do that make people happy and there are things I don't.
Okay, let's not let's not let's not let's not get let's not get all kinds of outlandish here and compare a twenty year addiction series to leaving the toilet seat up.
Obviously it's not the same level but okay, so don't it's not even in the same bulk park.
Come on.
I've done things in my life that have made people happy.
I've done things.
Also, my goal is not to make people happy.
My goal is to live the life I want in the way I want and have the effects possible.
Well, actually, I didn't have the goals as much until more recently.
So I will say that up until recently, I made more of a negative impact, for sure, than more of a positive impact.
But the goals I have in my life, once that five moves up a little bit, are my own.
Over the last couple of months, you're starting to think about other people and making them happy.
Okay.
So let me ask you this.
If let's.
make it less personal to you.
So there's a guy named Bob.
Okay.
And Bob inherits $10 million that has been carefully preserved by his family for as long back as can be remembered, right?
Hundreds of years, right?
Now, do you think that Bob is right or wrong or good or bad, or is it positive or negative for Bob to take the $10 million that has been hoarded by his family at great suffering and sacrifice and blow it all on his own selfish pleasures?
Or should he try to keep that money and not blow it all and pass it along to his children?
I think it's his need to do what he wants, and it's up to him.
And I think it is.
No, I didn't say it's not up to him.
I'm asking what your evaluation is of that.
So people have suffered and blooded and died to hand Bob ten million dollars.
Should he try to pay it forward or would you think negatively of Bob if he took his hard won family income and blew it all on selfish and useless things?
I think if he blew it on selfish and useless things, I would think he's stupid for doing that to himself.
But I he doesn't have any obligation to anybody else.
Well, he does.
No, he does.
He does.
Because he enjoys having the ten million dollars, right?
Yeah.
So he does have an obligation because the only reason that he has the ten million dollars which he enjoys is because his family didn't blow it.
They had an obligation to preserve it.
But they did.
So the fact that he so the fact that he enjoys having these ten million dollars as a result of other people's sacrifice means that he does have an obligation.
No, it doesn't.
It just means that that he he's not nobody owes anybody anything.
Nobody.
No, but he got the $10 million, which means that his family felt that he was owed the $10 million.
So the fact that he received hang on the fact that he received the $10 million is because other people felt that he was owed that or the money should be preserved and given to him.
So absolutely he has an obligation to maintain that money.
But it wasn't just given to him.
They didn't even know what kind of people were going to come after them.
They hoarded that.
His parents did.
No, his parents did because they raised him.
They didn't know how he was going to completely end up.
They might have known how some impact would have been, but that money was hoarded for the purpose of avoiding poverty.
Yes, for the entire family.
But specifically, that's the desires of the individual who started it.
And that's what he wants.
And that's totally right.
So the people who saved all of that money, I mean, because you can live off interest from.
from $10 million, right?
Even if you just invest it at 5%, right?
You're going to get a fortune, right?
So nobody's saying that Bob shouldn't, you know, spend any of the money, right?
But you can invest that money and you can live off the interest, right?
Yes.
So Bob has an obligation to, because he enjoys living off the interest, because if you handed $10 million and you invested and you live off the interest, you can do anything you want with your life, right?
Of course.
Okay.
So he's given a huge amount of freedom and opportunity to do what he wants because of the sacrifice.
Now, if he blows all of that money, he gambles, he just does stupid shit with the money and he blows it all, then his children will have to work often at jobs they hate and they will kind of curse his name because he inherited a freedom and a economic strength that allows him to do whatever he wants.
And then his kids will end up being kind of slaves to wages and taxes and, you know, they won't have the opportunity to do whatever they want, which is since he appreciates having that freedom that the $10 million gives him, he has an obligation to provide that freedom to those who come after him because if he didn't have the $10 million, he'd be unhappy.
And therefore, since the $10 million makes him happy and gives him freedom, he has an obligation to pay that forward.
If he doesn't have the children, then he doesn't have an obligation to anybody.
And if he...
I see it as when somebody chooses to do something that is good.
I see that as something we should celebrate.
But if somebody chooses to do nothing, that is just a zero sum.
And, and, no, but I'm not saying that he's doing nothing.
No, because doing nothing would be to preserve the money, right?
I'm saying he's actively spending it on hookers blow and gambling and all kinds of frivolous and wasteful nonsense.
So okay, let me let me ask you this and we'll close off on this question.
Do you think that you have any obligations in the world at all?
No, I don't think anybody does.
Okay.
I want to talk more.
I had so many good ideas to discuss and we just focused on me.
Well, we're not focusing on you.
We're focusing on philosophy using you as an example.
Okay.
So you don't have any obligations.
So you can rape, kill, and steal and assault people at will, right?
If you get away with it.
That's actively choosing to do something.
Okay, the only obligation we have is to not, we can do whatever we want as long as we're not negatively impacting other people's freedoms.
Okay, but that's exactly what I was talking about with the $10 million, bro.
If you don't know the $10 million, you're actively impacting on your children's freedoms.
And if you choose not to have children, they don't even come into existence to have any choices at all.
So you choosing not to have children negatively impacts other people's freedoms because they don't even come into existence at all.
Inheriting something isn't a natural right that you're entitled to.
It's a it's something that it's a it's something that somebody chooses to give to you.
It's something that it's a gift.
It's not right.
And if you've been given the gift of life which you enjoy, you should give the gift of life forward.
Otherwise, you are consuming a great inheritance, an inheritance that's been handed to you for four billion years of strife and suffering and bloodshed and war and slavery and assault and slavery.
So, yeah, if you've been given a great gift of life, you should work to pay it forward because I'm telling you, bro, I listen, you're coming out of 20 years of addiction, so please don't assume that your thoughts are clear.
And I'm trying to give you elder wiser counseling here.
You can take it or not.
Hang on, hang on, let me finish.
So you can take the counseling or not.
But would you say that your reasoning has been compromised by being a serial addict since you were thirteen?
I think everybody's reasoning is compromised.
No, no, I'm not asking about everyone, I'm asking about you.
My experiences have compromised my reasoning on everything because what I've experienced have molded the things, my views and ideas and everything as everyone else's.
So yes, we are awful often.
Do you think that your specific 20 years of addiction has impacted your capacity to reason clearly?
In negative ways, I've been impacted and in positive ways.
Do you think that the negative has outweighed the positive or would you recommend twenty years of addiction for people who want to think clearly?
I agree that it has outweighed it.
Yes.
Okay.
So all I'm saying is don't be certain about what is good and right and meaningful in this life.
Not certain when you're just recovering from twenty years of addiction and be open to the possibility that you will actually be happier by paying life forward rather than selfishly consuming it yourself.
That could be true.
I don't know anything.
I think things.
I believe things.
I don't know anything.
Okay.
Okay, because you certainly seem to be saying a lot of very certain things, so I just wanted to double check on that.
All right.
My thoughts and ideas and what I think.
And I'm a flawed human being like everybody else.
We are all very wrong about many things and right about some.
And what we're right about, we don't even know because we don't know for sure.
Okay, so you should stop philosophizing until your mind clears from the addiction, just in my humble opinion, right?
So, you know, I've got a book called Essential Philosophy.
It's free.
You can go to freedomain dot com slash books for lots of books on reasoning.
I've got a great book called The Art of the Argument, which you can.
get a hold of.
So I would just at this point in your life, this is just, you know, man to man, brother to brother and so on, just say that you might not want to be all chalked full of conclusions when you're coming off twenty years of various substances that may have impaired your ability to reason.
Clearly, it's just a thought.
And we all need to humble ourselves and start with a blank slate before reason and evidence in the Socratic style.
So it's fine to say, I don't know anything, but then don't say that you're certain that what you should be is selfish, because that's an and you have no obligations, right?
So I would say be humble and that's generally the best way to advance your knowledge.
Well, thank you, everyone, for a great look at that.
We did almost three hours.
A great day of philosophy.
I really do appreciate that.
And thanks to all the callers.
I absolutely love, appreciate and respect your openness and your humility and your conversation.
It means the world to me.
Thank you so much, everyone.
Freedomain dot com slash donate to help out the show.
Have yourselves a glorious, glorious Sunday and I will talk to you soon.
Bye.
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