But I will say that there's a guy there who's got my name with two X's on the end who's uploading my material and even taking subscriptions.
And I told them they didn't care.
So then I figured, okay, well, if he's allowed back on, I guess I am too.
So who knows?
I didn't get my old channel back, which is a bit of a shame, but it'd be nice to have those tasty million plus subscribers.
But nonetheless, I mean, I don't really think about it, but it's good to be back.
All right.
So happy to take your questions, comments, conversations, issues, challenges, and so on.
Let me just stop before we go in.
Joe has asked a question, which is any last words about Scott Adams.
Scott said the doctors told him his chances of recovery are pretty much 0%.
Well, it's it's it's obviously it's a sad thing.
He is a brilliant and courageous and benevolent and incredibly helpful and generous, multi-talented, stone-freaking genius who suffered more than his fair share of hardships.
His stepson died of an overdose.
He, I think, separated from his first wife slash girlfriend.
And then Christina Basham left him quite quickly.
I think he took the vax to go on a honeymoon and then it just didn't, the marriage didn't work out.
So he is such a force of nature and so brilliant and so generous and so kind to take and synthesize the principles of success.
And there are not very many people on the planet who have succeeded in the same way or to the degree that Scott Adams has succeeded.
So the fact that he's willing and very kindly and generously sharing all of these principles of success and clarity of thinking, he's very philosophical, he's very deep, and he's very funny.
I mean, the laughter that he brought to me when I was in the business world, I did a tribute to him a couple of months ago, is really quite deep and powerful and extraordinary.
I remember sitting on a bus with my brother reading about individuals, and we were just half-pissing ourselves laughing to the point where we were getting glances from the purses and the stewardesses.
And it's one of the good memories that I have with my brother.
And I did get to have a couple of conversations.
I think we did two shows together.
We did Scott Adams, not my brother.
And we did a Christmas show together.
And I've, of course, listened to his work.
It's extraordinarily tragic.
And he is, of course, handling it with a degree of grace and courage and strength that is hard to imagine improving on, to be honest.
Like it's hard to imagine.
We should all die if he's dying, which he seems to be, but we should all die a death as productive, as courageous, as ennobling, as benevolent, as helpful, and frankly, as inspiring because he's only 67, 68 years old.
And of course, he's been an exercise guy for his life.
I always remember he was saying once about he doesn't really gain weight.
And he says he was at, I think, some seminar on some guy who was overweight.
And he said to Scott Adams, basically, there was a conversation about weight.
And the guy said, well, the reason I'm overweight is I love to eat.
And Scott Adams is like, I don't really love to eat.
It's just fuel.
And so on.
And yeah, he's done amazing good in the world, you know, arguably highly influential, if not downright responsible for Trump 2016 and Trump 2024, one of many things that he's achieved over the course of his life.
Scott Adams was working at Pacific Bell, learned a lot about the corporate world, faced an upward ceiling to his career.
He was told by a number of different managers, three or four, that he simply couldn't progress because he was a white male.
And of course, those of us who are white males have a particular rage and hostility towards DEI, which has blocked our upward mobility and forced us to other more creative things, which is great, but it's not like everyone has the capacity to do that.
But he then moved into cartooning, was an incredibly successful cartoonist.
There was a Dilbert cartoon show, which I never particularly warmed to, but Kathy Griffin was in it, oddly enough.
And he opened restaurants.
He once or twice ended up pretending to be a super consultant in the business world with a wig and all of that, which I thought was remarkable for.
You know, you think of artists, cartoonists, and so on as kind of shy people.
I think he ended up getting out of the restaurant business because there were too many legal issues or lawsuits or something like that.
And, you know, then he just picked up political commentary and live streaming and so on.
He's written very deep and brilliant, funny and helpful, best-selling books.
He's been a father.
He's influenced politics.
He's moved in the highest circles of American power, amassed a considerable fortune.
And then, of course, he told some brutal and blunt truths about race relations that got him kind of canceled.
Wonder what that's like.
And he took it with great grace and strength and so on.
And, you know, it's a funny thing.
And I don't mean to speak for Scott here, but, you know, so much of what you consider a tragedy at the time is a blessing in disguise.
Never, ever, ever underestimate what worst luck, what you call bad luck, has saved you from.
Oh, that girl, she broke up with me and I wanted to stay together with her.
And then you end up marrying the woman of your dreams like I did.
And then all of the breakups that were bad or negative before end up being great, wonderful, and positive.
I feel very much like life just kind of corners certain people.
So for me, and again, I'm not trying to make this about me, but I think Scott and I would have this somewhat in common is that I didn't really want to do philosophy.
I wanted to be a playwright, an actor, a novelist, maybe a poet.
I didn't really want to do philosophy at all.
But the world just cut off my avenues of escape.
I got funneled into this gig.
Now, in hindsight, it was the best thing, but everything that kind of funneled me towards this gig, this calling, this job as a public philosopher, everything that funneled me towards this was a negative for me.
But as somebody in my life pointed out many years ago, does the world need another software executive or does it actually need a moral philosopher?
Does the world need another actor or playwright?
Or does the world need reason, virtue, evidence, and self-knowledge?
Move to where you are the least replaceable.
You know, I was just cleaning out some part of my basement the other day and I came across a silver platter from 2004.
It was the Microsoft Partner Awards program, wherein my technical achievements as a Microsoft partner were recognized, the excellence of my coding and the technical work that I had done.
I received an award.
And, you know, that was nice.
Good to be recognized, I suppose.
But there are lots of software people.
There are lots of actors, lots of writers, lots of novelists, but very few white male novelists.
We were.
So like the white male novelist stuff, that was all sort of fenced off.
Couldn't get there.
Couldn't do it.
Wasn't allowed.
Wasn't allowed.
Got the most amazing reviews from my books, from editors, but could never get published.
So learning how to judo your bad luck into opportunities is something that Scott Adams is very good at.
And he has lived a life of really a singular utility and courage and help to the world.
And, you know, I will say this to the younger people, like, this is the year I turn soisson.
I turned 60 this year.
Thank God I was not 57.
No, I'll be 67 when the meme comes around.
But I remember when I was younger, I was still in my teens and I was looking at the cover of Zenyetta Mondata where the police all like the band, the police, Sting and Andy Summers and Jew Copeland all look like they're having a blast and you're envy and all of this in Lotus Position and doing fun things in the tropics and all of that, touring the world and all of that.
And I remember thinking like, okay, this is cool, don't get me wrong, but there's going to be a time where the people a little bit older than me are just going to start dying.
And of course, I can't call Scott a friend.
I can't call him a mentor.
I can call him someone that I have distinctly admired over the course of his public life, his integrity, his resolution, his communication skills, his courage.
I mean, he opened up vistas of ways of looking at the world that I never really would have thought of or have occurred to me.
And I can't think of a single time that I listened to his live stream that I did not get significant value and learn something very important.
He has a way of turning and tilting his mental apparatus to bring the world into focus.
You know, like those pieces of art where you have to, you walk and they slowly sort of come into focus and then you see the picture with the long sort of stringy sculptures or whatever and corkscrews.
He had that kind of mind and he could have, of course, turned that to great corruption and profit.
And instead, he chose to take the necessary borrow me arrows of outraged evildoers and turn it to the good.
You know, What he sacrificed in his advocacy for Trump in California, of all places, really should not be overestimated.
To be pro-Trump in that circumstance, in that environment, in that situation, was extremely difficult.
And he had a lucrative public speaking gig.
He would, you know, because in tech, if you can get Scott Adams to speak, it was a sort of in-joke, very funny thing, and very positive thing.
So, again, great cartoonist, great comedian, great writer, great public speaker, and great live streamer, politically savvy.
I mean, honestly, other than song and dance, which maybe he could do, I know he was learning the drums at one point, he was able to do it all.
And that's a remarkable thing.
And to face a fairly gruesome demise with a level of courage and honesty and directness and integrity is not an easy thing to do.
Life has its troubles, but the final trouble is when all the other troubles vanish.
And I was thinking the other day and thinking about when I heard the news about Scott Adams, I was thinking about, I'm sure you've had this where you get a little ding on your car, like you turn too quickly.
I remember scraping my car underground garage many, many years ago.
It was my first car, and I was really quite upset by it.
And all of these sorts of things that go in in your life that are minor annoyances, oh, I ordered this thing, but it went to the wrong address.
Oh, it's kind of annoying, or whatever it is, right?
Like all the things that go on in your life that are minor irritants or even not so minor irritants don't really matter.
They don't really matter.
Because towards the end of your life, everything that you were troubled about seems inconsequential when you look back on it, right?
This is the old argument that life has to be lived forward, but can only be understood backwards.
So all the things that you were bothered by and troubled by, and I've mentioned this before when I was in high school and the yearbooks would come out, we would all gather around and, oh, how's my photo?
You flipped your phone.
How many times do I show up in the yearbook?
How's my photo?
And now all of those pictures, which were so important to us at the time.
I mean, they just lie rotting in a basement somewhere, never to be seen again.
Doesn't matter.
All the ups and downs, the stresses and strains, the difficult bosses, the betraying friends, as you it's like we're charged up with this fuel of pettiness and resentment.
We go up and then it all just falls away and then we end up floating in space.
Dead.
And as you look back over your life from the end of it, the things that bothered and troubled you are problems you would give anything to return to anything to return to.
So, I mean, for me, I could be 59 and look back at 39 and say, hey, great song.
And also, I could wish I was back there and fix it.
But instead, I choose to say, well, I'm 59.
What if I'm 79 or 89 and get to come back to now?
That's what I want.
That's what I want.
And it is true that the people of my youth who were of similar ages are getting old and crippled and disabled and sick and dead.
And it came for Scott.
And it's coming for me.
And it's coming for you.
And I understand you can't live your entire life from the view of your deathbed back.
But please boomerang there from time to time to make sure you don't overly wallow in negativity, stress, worry, and pettiness.
And recognize that at the end of your life, you would give anything to be back where you are right now.
And you may have to sacrifice, as Scott did, friends, perhaps family members, for the sake of telling the truth about politics.
You may have to sacrifice a lot to tell the truth.
But in the end, what you remember is the pride of telling the truth and not the storm and stress of the blowback for honesty.
The storm and stress comes and goes.
What is left behind, though, like an iron statue in a retreating tide, what is left behind is the pride of telling the truth.
And Scott Adams told a lot of difficult, unpleasant, ugly, challenging, and essential truths.
You can't get a better legacy.
There is no better legacy than telling the toughest and most necessary truths in the face of a scratching, beating, biting, poisoning, and catapulting world.
Tell the truth.
When you tell the truth, the good people will flee.
Sorry, when you tell the truth, the bad people will flee and the good people will gather.
I hope.
I can't guarantee.
But there's no other way.
Don't get stuck in this mid-place where you tell people the truth and then they reject you for it and scorn you for it and roll their eyes and whatever.
And then you just kind of hang around them anyway.
Because then you neither have the connection of good relationships nor the possibility of getting away from bad relationships.
So Scott, if there's anything I can do.
I mean, I face the illness that you face, although with much better odds, which is pure luck, sheer luck.
People say you fight this disease.
You fight.
No, you don't.
You don't.
You take your medicine and you hope for the fucking best.
It's all you can do.
He's been battling this.
No, your body, hopefully, your body gets better or your body doesn't.
And there's things you can do.
You can be healthy.
You can have a positive attitude.
These help a little bit for sure.
But in the end, it's just a roll of the dice, man.
So yeah, Scott, if there's anything I could do, honestly, just let me know.
You've given a lot to the world, and it must be of great comfort to Scott to realize just how much affection there is out there for him.
And we should all be won't say us lucky, but we should all earn all of that.
Thank you, Erica, for the donation.
I appreciate that.
You can, of course, make my New Year's even better with a freedomain.com slash donate donation.
All right.
Notice me, Sempai.
Yes, Rod.
I see you.
Just as when I look down in the shower.
All right.
In marriages, is it more important to have similar political, religious, or philosophical beliefs?
No, philosophical beliefs.
See, philosophy is a methodology for separating truth from falsehood, good from evil.
Fundamentally, good from evil, but in order to get good from evil, you need to go true from falsehood.
So if you have a methodology for resolving disputes, then you can resolve anything.
Reason and evidence, right?
You can resolve any dispute in a marriage according to reason and evidence.
Oh, says someone, it's so good to see you back on YouTube.
Happy New Year from Tasmania.
I appreciate that.
Is that a real country?
I wasn't sure if that was fictional.
I think it's real.
Probably best not to share the same profession, says someone, a scum like Bertolt Brecht Steph.
Better as a Titan philosophy.
Well, I appreciate that.
If you want to read more about what an evil scumbugger Bertolt Brecht was, Paul Johnson's book, Intellectuals, is great for this.
If I remember correctly, Joe says, I think Scott Adams said he lost like $100 million for supporting Trump.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Somebody says, think about how many people loved Trump before he ran for president.
They all called him a friend.
Yeah, for sure.
Yep.
Obama even wrote a glowing dedication in one of Trump's books.
A few years later, he detested him, makes you think.
Yeah.
Scott crushed all the loser things so nonchalantly all you could do was chuckle with him.
Yeah.
I love this tribute to Scott.
Thank you, Stefan.
Happy to see you back on YouTube.
I appreciate that.
And if you want to, yeah, if you want to talk, you can just, of course, join the show on YouTube.
California has passed a law to seize Bitcoin left idle on exchanges.
After three years of inactivity, assets can be taken by the state under unclaimed property laws.
Well, I guess they want people to really want people to buy and sell because the holders have not given them any tax revenue.
That's no good for the state.
All right, let me just post here.
Yes, Timpoo wears a binny.
I'm aware.
I am aware.
All right.
Did that go everywhere?
I do not know.
Yes, yes, it did.
Okay, so yeah, if you want to join there, and I'm sorry, we had somebody who wanted to talk on X.
And if you wanted to come back, I don't want to expand on something I just posted today on X.
I will deal with it once I deal with the show about the replies.
But I will continue to hammer the atheists about their lack of belief in objective morality.
Are you still anti-voting?
I'm 50-50.
Honestly, I'm 50-50.
It depends whether you're an accelerationist or not.
If you are not an accelerationist, then voting for the right will draw your society's decay out for longer.
you are, if you are an accelerationist, then I guess vote left and it will all end maybe before you become, maybe before the smart people become a real minority.
Any tips on thriving in cold weather?
Yeah, you've got to have a winter sport, man.
You can't just peddle home the whole time, right?
You've got to have a winter sport.
Skiing, skating, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, to bargaining if your kids are younger, although Izzy and I will still go to bargaining with my wife from time to time and some friends.
So you've got to have something that gets you out and has you enjoy.
I even quite enjoy hiking in the woods in the winter.
I think it's very pretty, and it takes me back to my time working up north.
Drama is sadly full of alcoholic abusers.
Harold Pinter may have been an exception, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was dirt on him too.
Yeah, Harold Pinter, a British playwright, of course, famous for the Pinter Pause.
I was in a play of his once and I played the lead in a Harold Pinter play.
Very challenging language to humanize.
It's very dehumanized language.
I do not consider him a positive.
I do not consider him a positive force in humanity.
I also would check out freedom.com slash books.
My novel Dissolution is now up there.
And you can check it out.
The print book is coming soon.
Actually, mine is on order.
It's just going to come in in the next week or so.
I just want to check the print version, but my novel Dissolution, which I'm very, very pleased with, is available now at FreedomMan.com slash books for free.
All right.
Let me just see what else I had for y'all.
Y'all.
Yo.
And listen, here's the thing.
Here's the thing, too.
Like, don't hesitate to let people know how much you care.
right?
So don't, never, never underestimate how much impact you can have on others.
So So if you feel warm towards Scott Adams and he's impacted you in a positive way or other people, for heaven's sakes, let people know.
It matters.
Because you may think, oh, well, Scott Adams, you know, he's lofty.
He's very wealthy.
He's very skilled, very smart, very talented, very, and all of that.
I mean, what does he need?
But, you know, we're all just people in the end, right?
All just people.
You know, there's an old lines as well.
No matter how rich and famous you are, everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time.
And you can use that to diminish potential, but we are all fundamentally, in the end, just people.
We have a lot of the same concerns, a lot of the same worries, a lot of the same hopes and dreams, a lot of the same angers and frustrations.
We have far more in common as people than we have in differences as individuals.
And think, like if you're a boss, right?
If you're a boss and you have some employee, maybe he's a couple of runs down on the ladder.
And if That employee, a couple of ranks down on the ladder, has had a positive experience of you as a boss in whatever context, right?
Like maybe you've mentored his boss or his boss's boss and it kind of flows down, or maybe he sees you give speeches and is really inspired, or maybe he reads articles that you've written and is really interested.
Would you say, Well, I don't care about that two layers down underling telling me what a great job he thinks I'm doing?
Of course you do.
Of course you care.
So if you care about someone, even if they seem unfathomably distant or higher up or whatever it is, if you care about someone, don't let them die without you saying so.
And I can tell you this: that with Scott Adams, every positive note means a huge amount.
This is why I've been open about my admiration and how much what he's done in the world really moves me because everything that someone has sacrificed for, that they're appreciated for, makes it worthwhile.
Makes it worthwhile.
Don't think you're unimportant in the eyes of anyone.
Your positive experience, your clear communication, your expression of thanks for value provided, particularly with Scott Adams, as he's providing it free of charge in his Coffee with Scott Adams shows.
Tell him.
Tell him, Bro is sailing into the Great Beyond.
He's given up a lot of comfort, a lot of companionship, and he's kind of staring down death with one big cyclops beady eye bearing down upon him.
And whatever you can do to give him companionship and comfort and appreciation for what he's done would be, I am absolutely sure, most humbly and gratefully appreciated by Monsieur Ladam, by Monsieur Adams.
He's taken a lot of bullets.
Taken a lot of bullets.
I mean, I haven't lost $100 million of telling the truth, I can tell you that.
And don't think that, well, he's busy, he's too important, he's too famous, he's too that, he's too.
Please just send him a message saying the value that he's provided to you.
Because when you are flowing over that waterfall into the great nothing of forever, thanks, Kerry, I'll be with you in a sec.
When you are flowing over that waterfall, and he's at this point, he's got, he can't swim.
Like we swim against the tide, the tide always takes us.
We swim against the riptide, the riptide takes us out to sea forever.
We swim against the waterfall, but he is now unable to swim.
He's just driftwood, he's deadwood going over the waterfall.
So when you're dying, you look and you say, What have I left behind?
What have I left behind?
What footprint, what imprint have I left?
Is it a footprint like most people leave, like just a footprint or two in the sand, a wave comes and takes it away within a couple of waves?
Or is it something more permanent and deep, powerful, meaningful, impactful?
Let him know.
Let him know that his sacrifices have not been in vain, but have really created a better world as a whole.
All right.
I can't spend the whole show sniffling back tears out of my respect for good old Scott, but let me instead get to our good friend Carrie.
Oh, it's been a little while since we've heard from this fine lady, unless some Somali scammer has taken over her account.
No, I'm here.
Hello, hello.
How are you doing?
Great.
Thanks for doing this for Scott.
He's been part of my lot for probably 10 years now, I guess.
You know, he's just, he's so consistently there every single day, even now, you know, with what he's struggling through because he loves people.
He, you know, during COVID, when people were locked in, his main concern was, I have to be here every day so that people aren't lonely, so people aren't scared, so people aren't confused.
He was a voice there for us every day.
Yeah.
And that's no small thing.
The lockdowns were brutal on people as a whole, particularly for young people.
And he gave people a lot of comfort and a lot of companionship and a lot of connection.
Yes.
And he always, I've heard him say, if you have a compliment for someone, which is kind of what you were saying, it would be a grave sin to not tell that person.
If it comes to your mind, you need to say it.
You know, there's an opportunity there.
It's such a waste if you don't let that person know a compliment or how you feel about them.
You know, so like tonight, I'm not feeling real great tonight, but if I could ever talk to Scott and just let him know how much he means to everybody and how him sharing this journey with us and letting us see the grace that he's going through with it, you know, he could have turned, he could have not shared it with us.
And when he started to go, you know, when he really started to struggle, he could have shut off his stream.
He could have said, okay, guys, I'm going to go handle this with my family or however he wanted to handle it.
But he didn't.
He's on there every day, sometimes with a tube in his nose or coughing and just trying to be there to keep everybody going and still being so smart.
Like his brain is just amazing.
He's still on top of everything that's going on and still offering all this wisdom and things we're going to be thinking about forever.
Like his impact, even when he's struggling and can barely get on live in a hospital room, he's still impacting the world.
Yeah, it is an astonishing amount of will to be able to continue to do what he's doing because, of course, the tendency for a lot of people is to cocoon to Armadillo to protect the quality of what's left in their life.
And he's just, man, he's just, there's going to be no bullets left in the chamber when he gets laid to rest.
He's giving it his all.
And that is intensely admirable.
And it is, of course, a great honor to his audience that they've earned it.
You know, something Freddie Mercury said many years ago that he can only sing as well as the audience wants him to.
And having an audience that's worth doing that for is really amazing.
It is really a treasure.
And yeah, you're right.
You should, I mean, again, I don't want to make this about me, but just, for example, if you've been listening to this show for a while, you know, how often do I say how much I really, really appreciate this audience and those who followed me over and those who make what I do possible, not just in terms of listening, in terms of donations and support and sharing.
And you all have taken some bullets for your support of me.
I've taken some bullets for support of the truth.
And it is a great tribute to his audience that he cares about them that much.
And again, I'm sure the feeling is mutual for a lot of people.
So please, please, just let him know.
Just send in the message and make sure that he's aware of the kind of impact that he's had because that's people with very big hearts and very broad minds very much want to leave an impact.
They want to leave a positive impact in the world.
And the best comfort I would imagine that you can give him, especially because, you know, he's not married.
He hasn't talked a lot, as far as I know.
And you've listened more, so correct me, of course, if I'm astray, but I don't think he's talked a lot about all the people who were there with him in hospital.
I think he is facing some of this stuff alone.
And to have your impact come back to you in that way is really, I think, as great a comfort as can be provided.
Yes, every day at nine here, I look to see if he lights up on X.
And then when I see him light up, I'm so happy.
I'm like, oh, he's here today.
He feels good enough to come on.
And sometimes he's not on very long, but it means the world to everybody that loves him.
Well, and of course, you know that one day your conversation ceases.
One day there will be no more shows for me.
One day there will be no more shows for Scott Adams.
One day he's not going to be live streaming and he may intend to come back.
And he can't.
Right.
Because willpower can only take you so far when your system is collapsing in the way that his is.
I mean, it sounds like this, what's it plufacto has not worked.
It sounds like he's not going to regain use of his legs.
I think his pain is at a manageable place, which is good.
But every day that there's a live stream is kind of a miracle, and it probably won't be long until there isn't.
So, and don't, I mean, kind words don't do much good after people are gone.
Yes.
And when you first, sorry, go ahead.
I was going to say the way that he has given so much of himself and just been honest, you know, with what he's gone through.
And the humility that he's showing now to let people see what the process of decline in your body is when your mind is still so sharp, you know?
But I like, I can see the same qualities in you where when you're sharing stories about your childhood and your mom and hurtful things, and you're trying to help the world and you want your legacy, your impact to go on to eternity as well, as it will, you know?
And Scott's put out so much information as you're doing, you know, so I know you understand his motivations.
He loves people like you love people.
Yeah.
And if you have a gift of thought, originality, and communication, it's not yours in particular.
I mean, as I've sort of said, I mean, I view what I'm able to do as a collective gift that just happens to be passing through me.
You know, like I said this on X the other day, and there seems to be some proof in this.
We don't have thoughts.
Thoughts have us in the same way that dreams can instruct us in ways that we can't even really anticipate.
And so I think that his generosity probably has something to do with realizing his good fortune in what he's able to.
think, what he's able to analyze, what he's able to understand, and what he's able to communicate.
Because that combination of skill sets, high intelligence, and the ability to communicate to the general audience and creativity and originality and value in thought is a very, very rare combination.
And he has it in such powerful ways and to such a powerful degree that I think, I don't know, obviously, but I think he would say, I've been, I've worked hard, but lots of people work hard.
I've also been lucky.
And that's true of me.
It's true of most people who succeed.
Lots of people who work hard.
Not everyone succeeds.
Yeah, to have that skill set.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, no, no, go ahead, please.
To have the skill set that he has and the love for people together is what is so impactful.
Right.
And to sacrifice personal relationships for the sake of the common good is rare.
Because you have to love people in order to want to take the bullets for the common good.
You have to love the general potential of humanity.
You have to love the future.
You may not like every single person, obviously, you come across, but you have to have a great deep and powerful love of humanity.
And the more you work for the benefit of humanity and the more you exercise your powers of communication and truth-telling for the good of humanity, the more your enemies attack your relationships.
The more they try and destroy your reputation, destroy your source of income, destroy the affection of those around you, try to turn people against you and so on.
So you have a very big, mighty lion heart like Scott Adams does.
You care enormously about the world and you love humanity as a whole.
And that very love is part and parcel of what makes you vulnerable to attack.
Right.
Right.
How heartbreaking when he says, I lost all of my friends when I supported Trump.
Right.
Right.
And look at the impact he had getting him elected, at least once, if not twice, like you said.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, he did a lot.
He did a lot politically.
And, you know, it's easy to say, and I fortunately went through the friend scouring, the fake friend scouring.
You know, there's usually if you're in pursuit of any kind of honesty and integrity, there's a time in your life where the stowaways get found and thrown off the ship, right?
Like the people who are just with you for the wrong reasons or with you to hold you back or hold you down or maybe parasite off your success.
The false friends, you go through that process.
I fortunately went through that before I became a public figure.
But I think he went through that after he became a public figure and he found out how many fairweather friends you have.
You know, it's an old Dr. Phil saying, like the friends are the ones walking in the door while everyone else is walking out.
Right.
And I think because it happened for him later in life and after he'd already developed a lot of success in other areas, then I think the problem was he lost his existing friends.
And it's tough when you're older and particularly if you're famous to get and find new friends.
You know, you can do it, but it's really tough, especially if you're famous like he is.
You just, you don't meet that many people when you get older.
And the people that you meet, they're far away or they're really busy with kids and grandkids and they don't have much time to hang out and so on.
And so what he gave up was prodigious, was enormous.
And as you age, you need people in your life.
I was saying this on X, I think, yesterday or the day before.
People are like, well, you know, I've got to be a strong, independent person, whether it's male or female, whatever.
It's like, but you can't, bro.
You can't because you get into your 60s, 70s, 80s.
You're going to get old, creaky, sick.
You might get arthritis.
You might get dementia.
You might.
I mean, I've known people whose fathers took 10 years to die.
I knew one guy.
His father was a great runner and very healthy.
And then when his mind started to go, his body didn't.
And it took forever.
I mean, it was just, it was horrible.
And there's a whole lot of not fun at the end of your life that you need people in your life who really care about you and who you really care about to mutually support each other.
You know, the last 20 years of, let's say, 65 to 85, they ain't the same as 20 to 40.
They're really not the same at all.
You are creaky.
You are infirm.
You need people in your life.
You know, one slip, you can break a hip.
And if you're out of reach of your phone, man, you can just die on the ground.
Like you need, need, need people in your life.
All of this independence that people have, it's all well and good.
And it's all very nice and this and that and the other.
Now, Scott Adams, of course, is wealthy enough if he doesn't have people.
And I'm sure he does have some, but if he doesn't have people who can do everything for him, at least he can hire people, but most people can't.
You need people in your life.
You need people to retire.
You need people to help support you.
You need people to, you know, you get that, you don't want to be the saddest person in the world at the age of 75.
You're going for some operation.
They say, who's going to pick you up?
But it's like, I don't know, Abdul from Uber Eats is going to deliver me home.
Well, you need someone at home.
Well, I don't have anyone.
Like, that's a really sad existence.
And so, yeah, what he sacrificed in particular, I mean, he was in his mid-late 50s when he basically took a flamethrower to his entire social circle in pursuit of his support of Donald Trump.
That is a huge, huge deal.
It's kind of hard to understand when you're younger, but it's a very, very big deal when you're older because you can't just snap your fingers and resurrect a circle of new people.
Right.
And he incorporated trying to help people to get away from loneliness by going and finding friends.
Like how many shows has he done where he said, you know, here's a way to go meet people and also have value so that you can get friends.
You can't get friends by not adding value, you know?
And he just really talked a lot on how to get friends and how to not be lonely.
And then so the people that were lonely, he was there every day.
And then he also did, you know, the locals things and he had groups.
I've heard him talk about where it was just a bunch of lonely people at night and he was there with them.
You know, they do their little deal and just really concerned about people sitting home with no one.
And then also, you know, his idea about you pairing up college-age kids with some elderly kids.
You know, that was a good idea.
So where the elderly people have people actually living in there and then people that are just wanting to get through school or, you know, still single have a place to live for cheap.
And they could also help that person out.
Yes, companionship, companionship, companionship.
Life is in its final essence and most fundamental form, all about relationships.
And I was once touring a house.
A friend of mine who had some money was looking to buy a house.
I was once touring this house.
It was magnificent.
Magnificent.
Beautiful, beautiful place.
Huge, you know, big, big pergola and gazebo and swimming pool.
And yet he was alone.
And I was like, it's nice.
It's, you know, if you're going to have to be alone, better in a place like that than some sub-basement one bedroom like I've had to live in from time to time.
But it's, you can easily be alone in a palace and the money can't buy you love, right?
That's an old, obviously an old idea.
And yeah, he really did work to create and enhance human connection because we get this illusion of self-sustainability when we're younger, particularly if we don't have kids, because then we can pour all our resources into just maintaining ourselves.
But he really did pour a lot of resources into creating a community.
And that's really has saved people's lives.
You know, a lot of people killed themselves over the course of the pandemic.
And I don't want to blame them.
Obviously, who knows what they were suffering.
But for a lot of them, it's like, I'm independent.
And it's like, but you don't know what's coming.
You don't know what's coming.
You don't know that some assholes are going to release some stupid virus in Wuhan and then the Democrats are going to say, everybody should come in and go down to Chinatown.
And right?
If they just closed those borders, they would have cut the death rate by 97%.
So you don't know.
You don't know if you're going to get into some car accident and lose the use of your legs for six months.
You don't know.
You need to plan for the bad times.
And you cannot assume that life is only good times or even average times.
Highs and lows, right?
Highs and lows.
And I think he really did, he absolutely saved people's lives by creating and maintaining a community over the course of COVID because there are a lot of people who, either through their own misjudgments or bad luck, bad circumstances, ended up kind of locked up in their rooms for two plus years in a form of solitary confinement that is sort of specifically engineered or designed in a way to drive people mad.
So absolutely, absolutely saved people's lives.
And that's the hell of a thing.
Yes, I'm sure there's other people that want to share how much they love Scott.
And I appreciate you so much, as always.
Thank you very much.
I really appreciate you dropping by.
And of course, happy new year to you and to yours and all of that.
All right.
So let me get, where can we get a signed version of peaceful parenting?
I have no plans to offer that.
It's just too much of a hassle to have it sent here and then for me to send it on and all of that.
So, you know, if I'm ever back out in the world without getting threats, maybe, right?
Any plans to do one of your great art conversations with Dr. Pesta anytime soon-ish?
I think that's a great idea.
Thank you for the reminder.
Will there be a print version of your novel, The Future?
Best novel I've ever read.
Well, thank you.
That means a lot to me.
I do kind of drop my books into the void a little bit, like I write the books and I sweat over the books and I care enormously about the books and I drop them off and I get very little feedback.
So I appreciate that feedback.
Yes, there is going to be a print version.
Somebody says, I'm no actress, Def, though I imagined you would have experienced you would have experienced with Pinter's work.
Yeah, I was I played the lead in a pinter play called A Slight Ache.
Powerful stuff.
Oh, sorry.
I did a short scene from The Servant when much younger.
Powerful stuff.
They'll thoroughly degenerate in the face of actionable philosophy.
Yeah, that's true.
Seven, your opinion.
What are the largest challenges in age gap relationships, say 21-year-old female and 31-year-old male, and how to overcome it?
Largest challenges in age gap.
I think the largest I ever had was seven years.
That's right.
I was two.
No.
The largest one I had was seven years.
I don't have a good answer for that because I haven't really dated in a 10-year age gap because that's like a third, 21 to 31, right?
Or if you look at percentage adulthood, right?
18 to 21 versus 18 to 31, it's pretty small.
So I don't have a good answer for that.
I'll think about it and maybe I'll do a show on it, but I don't have experience and I haven't done any research.
And there's nothing in particular that comes to me philosophically.
So I apologize, but I don't think I'd have much value to add in that.
Jose, sorry, Jose, Joes, Jose says, how do you deal with people, whether in person or online, who make it obvious that they believe that the last person to comment wins the argument?
Well, let them have it.
Letting people who are petty, letting petty people have their victories is essential for mental health.
Because otherwise you just get drawn in, drawn in, drawn in, drawn in.
So letting petty people have their victories is really important.
Hey, enjoy.
Enjoy your victory.
Fine.
Well, I guess you can't just respond to this.
You can't just don't.
You just have to let yourself walk away and let people think they've won.
Honestly, let people think they've won.
I mean, the number of times where I've won a debate and other people were like, well, Steph got owned in this debate.
I know I won it, right?
I mean, let them have their victory, whatever, right?
If they're that petty that they believe they're right when they're wrong, life will take care of people for you.
Life will take care of people for you.
I tell you this, having lived a good number of decades at this point, life will take care of people for you.
The people who are petty, the people who are vicious, the people who are aggressive in the wrong way, and people who are abusive, people who are manipulative, the narcissists, the selfish people, life will take care of them.
You don't, they go to hell.
They don't need to die.
They go to hell.
What we do in life echoes in eternity?
No.
No, it doesn't.
I know, I know, so what's that from?
Gladiator.
No.
What we do in life echoes in eternity?
No, for most people, it doesn't.
If you're just some NPC that regurgitates propaganda and attacks who you're told to hate and pretends to love who you're told to have affection for, what you do in life doesn't even echo in the here and now.
So no, what we do in life echoes in eternity.
That's what you should aim for.
But to do that, you've got to take some bullets and take some risks and take some hits.
Most people are just hiding out like mice under the foot of dinosaurs.
They leave no impression anywhere.
Joe says, oh, regarding Scott, I think he is pretty much alone.
He has a nurse come in to help him.
He said his ex-wife Shelly, he trusts the most and will handle his estate.
Nothing matters when we die.
We will not even know we lived.
Right.
Well, that's true.
Yeah, for sure.
There are no friends but associates that benefit from the relationship.
Yeah, for sure.
Somebody says, my grandmother didn't take care of her finances and got Alzheimer's.
Luckily, my father was a VP of a software company.
He must have put half a million dollars into sustaining his mom for 15 years.
Oof.
Oof.
That's rough, man.
That's rough.
That's really rough.
And it is tragically common.
Well, what are you going to do if you get Alzheimer's?
What are you going to do?
If you don't have kids, if you're not married, if you friends, I mean, I say this because I love my friends, but friends don't cut it.
Friends don't cut it.
Friends are for shits and giggles.
Friends are for I need help moving.
Friends are for want to go and see Avatar.
Friends are for complaining from time to time.
Friends are for barbecuing.
Friends, and that's fine.
Nothing wrong with it.
Great stuff.
And I've had this rant before, so I'll keep it short, but it always bothers the shit out of me when there's some stupid sitcom or movie where the woman is panicking because she's pregnant and the guy's taking off.
And she's like, I'm just scared.
I'm going to go through this alone.
And all her friends are like, no, you won't go here alone.
You won't go through it alone.
We'll be there for you.
No, you won't.
No, you won't.
You won't be there for her.
Are you going to go over three times at night when the baby won't sleep?
Of course you won't.
You got a hot date on Saturday, but your friend is like, oh, I feel lonely and my baby spit up and I need someone to take care of my baby because I really need to shower and do the laundry.
You're not giving up your date to go over and hold her baby.
I mean, you'll be there from time to time, your birthdays, but you are going to go through it alone unless you have your person with you.
You are going to go through it alone unless you have your people with you.
Those are usually married, blood relations.
Married or blood relations.
You're going to go through it alone.
Friendship is fine.
Friendships are like condiments.
They add to life.
You can't live off them.
Good luck trying to sustain 2,500 calories a day from salt and paprika.
Now they add the spice.
It's important.
Nice to have salt.
Nice to have paprika.
I'm partial to basil.
Hashtag middle name.
But it's a spice.
You can't live on it.
So plan for the second half of your life.
Plan for getting old.
I mean, what are you going to do if you start to, I mean, most people call senior moments, right?
Most people start to lose their concentration.
They start to lose their follow-through.
What are you going to do?
No one will be there for anyone when they are decrepit.
Oh, yeah, they will.
Yeah, they will.
Steph, why do you think the tech bros are crying about all tax?
They literally funded the Democrats that always advocated for taxing billionaires.
Do the tech bros think the Dems were just kidding?
Yeah, well, the tech bros.
I mean, what did they do when I got to your platform?
Did any tech bro stand up and say, hey, you know, we'll keep you afloat.
We'll do this.
We'll do that.
We care.
You're a free market guy.
You've constantly defended the wealthy from additional taxation.
You've constantly pointed out the truth about how many taxes we do pay.
You've constantly defended the free market, which allows us to gather all of this money.
Hey, you got really hit hard.
Why don't we step in?
It's not like there aren't any rich people who know me.
So they don't.
So the mob can have them.
And it will.
Yeah, the mob can have them.
Fuck them.
I'm not defending them from a wealth tax.
If they like the left will stand by their fucking serial killers, and the tech bros can't even behind the scenes stand by their heroes, then the left should win.
I mean, whether they should or shouldn't, they will.
They will unless people step up.
You know, wouldn't it have been neat?
And whoever gets deplatformed, I'll just take me as an example, right?
So wouldn't it have been neat if I got deplatformed and I got a call from some guy saying, hey, you know, I'm going to set you up with a giant studio.
I'm going to get you this.
I'm going to get you that.
And, you know, because it matters to me, right?
I got all this money.
And now they're just going to give it to the government.
They could have given that money to people to set them up with studios and reach and advertising and anything.
Now they're just going to lose it anyway.
It's going to go to the government.
But it could have gone to people who would defend their asses in the only arena that matters, the moral arena.
But no, they want to keep their money and not take any risks.
Fuck it.
Life is risk.
And you decided not to step up, not to help out the people who were defending your spotty asses.
The free market advocates and the reminders to everyone that billionaires are not exploiters.
Billionaires are not thieves.
It's a free market accumulation.
And the billionaires and the millionaires pay massively disproportionate amount of taxes to people who constantly push back against the mob that wanted to take your heads and put them on a fucking stick.
We stuck our necks out to defend and protect the rich.
And what do they do?
Nothing or fund Democrats or make, oh, let's not get specific.
So rather than fund the people who were defending the wealthy, the talented, the Pareto principal princes in the free market, rather than defend those people for a million or two million dollars.
they now have to give $50 million to the government.
Good deal, guys.
Well played.
Well done.
Rather than give a mill or two to people who've been deplatformed for protecting your asses, you now get to give $50 or $100 million to the government.
Well played.
Well played.
Sorry, it's just, it's funny.
Oh, it's funny.
All right.
C programmer says, my dad is six years older than my mom and has to work into a 70, so my mom has healthcare until Medicare kicks in.
Have a plan for that.
Friendships are like condiments.
Brilliant.
Oh, thank you.
Hey, Steph, do you have any tips responding to praise?
Say thank you.
I really appreciate that.
At least he's not bitter.
Don't be a douchebag.
Don't be a douchebag.
I was laughing.
The tech bros even imported a bunch of H-1Bs that vote like 90% Dem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you want to keep your money for the government rather than support people who are protecting you, I mean, then go ahead, do it.
And listen, honestly, I don't even think I would have taken the money because I'm pretty happy with the setup I have.
I'm not sure how what I do would be enhanced with some big giant studio or something like that.
I don't know.
I don't even think I like some, you know, zillionaire calls me up and says, I mean, in the past, I would get these kinds of offers from time to time, but some zillionaire calls me up and says, hey, I'm so sorry you were deplatformed.
I get that you defend the rich and pushing back against the mob and all of that.
You know, here's a, I don't know, a million dollars to whatever, write out a starter studio or travel or do your documentary.
So whatever it is, right?
I don't even think I would have taken the money.
I prefer to be independent.
I do.
So it's not for me.
It's not like, oh, it's only that, but it would have not been fucking retarded to offer it.
That's all.
But no.
No.
We're not going to do that.
With this Nick Shirley video going viral with the Minnesota daycare fraud.
Yeah.
Been pushing the NCAP.
Yeah.
Sure, sure, of course.
Yeah.
I mean, the idea.
Come on.
These Somalis in Minnesota.
Come on.
We are, but poor refugees from the other side of the world.
Hey, where are all these millions of dollars coming from?
Can you imagine?
Your broke friend shows up in a Lamborghini.
Wouldn't you have a couple of questions?
Of course, the whole community's in on it.
Come on.
Of course they know.
But you can't.
I mean, how are you going to prosecute 100,000 people?
You can't do it.
It's overwhelmed the system, right?
You can't do it.
Fraud is tough.
Fraud is tough.
Because fraud has something to do often with intention.
So yeah, a system that is designed for low crime cannot handle high crime.
And it certainly can't handle 10,000 people defrauding at the same time.
You don't have the prosecutors.
You don't have the lawyers.
You don't have the judges.
You don't have the infrastructure.
You can't do it.
You can't do it.
but the rule of law, that's nice if most people obey the rule of law.
All right.
Let's get back to any other questions or issues, challenges, problems.
I don't mind if we don't have a super lengthy show today.
I did a fair amount of work on the show.
Oh, just the bookkeeping and the administrivia and all of that.
I did point this out today, though.
There were times in human evolution when 17 females reproduce for every one male.
In other words, 94% of males failed to reproduce.
Men have not evolved to say no to sex.
Women have.
What do I play hard to get for my wife for about 35 seconds?
Okay.
Oh, and didn't they just busted a diploma mill in India where they just printed diplomas, fake diplomas?
None of it's real.
None of it makes any sense at all.
All right, any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems?
Somebody say, how's the weather?
Cold as the witch's tit up here, let me tell you.
It's nasty, it's ugly, it's cold, and that wind will tick your teeth and freeze blast them out your eardrums.
What is the best way to bridge the political dichotomy in the USA?
At the interpersonal level, I mean, between family and friends on different sides of the bridge.
Well, anybody who's left on the hard left wants you dead.
Well, how do you bridge that divide?
They want you dead.
So what you do is you ask people, hey, what do you think should have happened to the unvaccinated under COVID?
And if they say anything about camps or confinement or solitary, you're not allowed this, that, and the other, take the rights away.
There's no negotiating.
We're past the day.
The time of arguments is long gone, like, just so you know.
Like, this is a hard, it's hardening into a soft counter civil war as a whole.
You are not in the position, in my humble opinion, you're not in the position of negotiation.
You're in the position of find your fucking allies and don't have people around you who are going to rat you out.
You know, imagine you're in the UK and you post something kind of savage because there's been some other migrant attack or some other terrorist thing.
And you post something kind of savage.
And then you're like, ah, it was a bad idea.
But your brother-in-law who's super woke has seen it.
Ooh, super.
And he's, what's he going to do?
He's going to report you to the police and then you could end up in jail.
We are not in a place of negotiation.
We're in a place of have your allies, have your enemies, and know who the fuck is who.
Dangerous.
I mean, if you have ever looked into the Stasi files or the East German secret police files, like one in five people were collaborating with the state and ratting on their neighbors.
You know, when the Americans were in Vietnam, they put a bounty up, right?
They said, oh, if you know somebody who's Viet Cong, we'll go and shoot them.
And it turned out that people just called up the Americans and said, oh, yeah, that guy over there, totally Viet Cong, totally Viet Communist.
It turns out he was just a guy who was sleeping with their wife or a guy who they owed money to.
They just wanted him taken out.
Like they just, the USA became like just ironed hitmen for local grudges and grievances.
Right?
So you better, you better find your allies, man.
You know, out of the argument, still great, because even within your allies, you're going to need to negotiate.
But the idea that there's negotiation as a whole in society, they're not negotiating.
I mean, in America, the left brings people in, and then they make sure that they can vote without any barriers.
And then in return, they let them rip off the taxpayers.
You think there's negotiation that's going to happen from that?
Oh, no, but you see my chart and the bar and the, you know, the eight times more welfare goes to people who are immigrants in places where there's no voter ID.
You know, in Minnesota, someone can come and just vouch for eight other people.
Just vouch for them.
Oh, yeah, they can vote.
Off they go.
The Somali daycare thing, they gave like $35 million back to the Democrats.
It's just money laundering and shit.
Well, you're going to negotiate with that.
Come on.
How would you recommend dealing with irrational in-laws?
You can't deal with irrational people.
You can contain them.
You can ignore them.
You can escape them.
That's it.
That's it.
If you have power, you can contain them.
You can ignore them if they're around.
But the best thing of all is to not have irrational people in your life.
I wish facts were enough, but simply impossible to communicate beyond the bias.
People, they don't want facts.
They just want free shit.
They don't want facts.
They don't want reason.
They don't want efforts.
They don't have morals.
They just have a desire for free shit.
You know, I mean, I was saying this about the modern world, is that the story of the modern world is intelligent people don't breed well in captivity, but unintelligent people do.
One of the worst things that happened to the West was the invention of the television that beamed foreign children starving to death, usually through government decisions, programs, restrictions.
So it beamed, you know, the bulbous-bellied foreign children starving to death into the hearts of women who reacted, throw money, make that bad scene go away.
There's a reason why we were not allowed as a species, we didn't evolve the ability to see on the other side of the world, because it gives you pathological empathy that's almost never reciprocated.
I mean, imagine being invited into the richest country in the world with the most opportunities possible and then just stealing the living shit out of everything and everyone.
Imagine.
Imagine.
All right.
Let's see.
Any other questions, comments?
I think we're good, and I really do appreciate you guys dropping by today.
Freedomain.com slash donate.
Freedomain.com slash donate.
Don't forget shop.freedomain.com for your merch and peacefulparentingbook.com or justpusefulparenting.com.
Both the long version and the condensed version are out.
My wife forces me to spend time with her family.
They have CNN on the TV all day and they never engage in or invite intelligent conversation.
What do you mean your wife forces you?
What are you talking about?
I don't understand.
I find your channel highly refreshing.
Thank you, good sir.
You're welcome.
What do you mean your wife forces you?
Don't go.
Just don't go.
I don't understand.
Forces you?
What does that mean?
What does that mean?
I do not know.
What mean?
If nobody has a gun to your head, you're not forced to do anything.
Don't blame your wife for your lack.
My wife throws a fit.
So?
Let her throw a fit.
I don't understand.
So let her throw a fit.
I don't understand.
Yeah, my wife throws a fit if I say, I don't want to go.
Okay.
So then you have to have a conversation with your wife and say, no, I don't want to go.
I find them boring.
I find them kind of offensive.
I find that they're wasting their lives.
I find that they don't think.
I find that they're spreading propaganda that is actually dangerous to the future of our children.
I think that they're toxic.
I think that they're dangerous.
I think that they're negative.
And I think that they're kind of bad.
No, witnessing.
Okay, do you want me to lie, honey?
It's a fundamental question in any relationship.
Do you want me to fucking lie?
Is that what's needed?
Is that what you want?
I don't want to go.
I don't want to go.
Well, you have to.
No, I don't.
Let's be factual.
You have to go.
I really don't.
My wife is an Asian immigrant.
And I don't think there's any exception for moral self-responsibility called hashtag Asians exceptioned.
Asian exception.
No, I just, I don't want to go.
I don't want to go.
She is almost impossible to talk to.
I'm sorry.
What do you mean to talk to?
Just don't go!
Be like a pillar, right?
Try and talk the pillar into moving.
Hey, would you mind moving to another load-bearing wall?
The pillar's just not going to move.
Just don't go.
My God, I mean, read the book called You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen.
I read it as a teenager.
Just broken record.
I don't want to go.
I don't want to go.
No, I don't want to go.
But you have to go.
I don't.
I have to be attached to gravity.
I have to eat.
I have to sleep.
I have to breathe.
I don't have to go to your parents.
Well, they'll be upset.
Like, well.
Or, honey, I will go, but I'm going to tell the truth.
I will go.
Yeah, I'll go.
But I'm not.
If they say things that are just wrong and bad, if they've got CNN on and CNN is saying some nonsense, I'm going to point it out.
If CNN is saying something that's false, if they say, oh, Trump called neo-Nazis very fine people, I'll say, no, he didn't.
No.
Well, what are you listening to this trash for?
What are you listening to this garbage for?
But just don't go.
Or if you're going to go, just, oh, so, and if she says, well, I want you to go, but I don't want you to be honest, right?
Like, so your parents prefer if I lie.
They like lying.
Your parents, I mean, do good people prefer other people to lie?
Do they want me to not be myself?
Do they want me to not think and feel in my own way?
Do they want to have a relationship with me or some cardboard cutout simulacrum of a human being who just nods and smiles and has all the individuality of a salmon in your average swift current?
Don't die before your time.
Don't become a ghost before you're dead.
Don't comply with nothingness before they throw you in the ground and worms eat your eyeballs.
Her family doesn't care if I go, but she gets highly emotional if I say, I don't want to go.
Okay, and listen, you can be curious about those emotions.
Hey, you're very emotional.
You really want me to go.
Wow, that's okay.
But it's like a kid.
Oh, they've just had a candy bar.
They really want another candy bar.
And you say, oh, yeah, you really want another candy bar.
I get that.
I understand that.
I mean, it doesn't mean you're going to get one, but I really sympathize with the feeling, right?
No, Jesus.
You're never going to look back on your life and say, man, I'm glad I hit my personality from everyone around me.
Man, I'm glad I covered up every one of my original thoughts and feelings.
Man, I'm glad I subsumed and surrendered all of my independence, integrity, and virtue.
They never talk about anything interesting or intriguing.
They talk about food, and that's about it.
Yeah, well, if you're bored, don't go.
Yeah, just don't go.
And if your wife really wants you to go, well, you can always negotiate.
I mean, I'm sure there's things that you want to do that your wife doesn't want to do.
Say, all right, I'm willing to trade.
I don't want to go to your parents.
What do I get in return?
Well, making me happy should just be enough for you.
It's like, no, no, because it's not making me happy to go to your parents.
So that's off the table.
So what do I get?
If I go to your parents, what do I get?
Trade and negotiate.
Don't be a sim.
I suppose I'm just torn because I want to be there to support my wife and her children.
Well, that's bullshit.
All due respect.
That's total bullshit.
How the fuck are you supporting your children if you're showing them how to be spineless?
How to be bossed and bullied and manipulated.
I want you to come.
Okay, honey.
Okay.
Okay.
If you want it really badly, I'll do it for you.
Okay.
That's not supporting you.
You got some sons, bro.
You want them to be handpecked and pushed around and cucked?
You got some daughters?
You want them to grow up thinking that spineless simps is who they got to marry?
You want to have any respect from your children when they hit their teens?
Be a warrior!
Have some fights!
What is it with modern guys?
Jesus.
Well, she didn't want me to do anything.
I just got to do it to be supportive.
Support for women ain't you.
It's a fucking bra.
Your job is not to support women.
I have daughters.
Great.
Do you think it's healthy for them to see their mom pushing you around all the time?
Ugh!
Shitless warrior, Steph.
Maybe.
I get too many layers.
It's too cold out here.
I can't.
Oh, just stop appeasing, bro.
All you're doing is programming your daughters to be bossy witches.
Oh, God.
I'm not saying pick random stupid fights, but be honest.
I don't want to go.
Your parents make no effort to make it interesting for me.
I might have to get a divorce.
Well, I mean, don't get a divorce.
But are you saying, are you saying that if you have an opinion that is different from your wife's, she's going to divorce you?
Are you telling me that?
Your wife gets violent.
Your wife gets violent.
Well, record that shit and take the kids.
Your wife gets violent?
She beats on you?
Record that and talk to a lawyer.
Record that.
Do not put up with violence in your relationships.
Do not put up with violence in your relationships.
Ever.
Ever.
Record her violence.
Talk to a lawyer.
Why did you marry her?
Because she's pretty.
Because she was sexually available.
And listen, I sympathize.
Listen, freedomain.com/slash call.
We can do a call-in show.
It could be private if you want.
So I understand it's sensitive issues.
I'm not trying to give you any kind of legal advice, but do not expose your children to violence.
Do not put up with violence.
She throws things.
Well, that's a form of violence.
Yeah, facts.
Recording it is absolutely necessary.
Yeah?
Talk to a lawyer and figure out what your options are.
But do not put up with violence and do not expose your children to violence.
Otherwise, your children may be calling me in 15 years with, like, oh, I grew up in this house of violence and blah, Don't do that.
Don't put up with violence in front of your children.
I married her because I foolishly had a child with her when I was young and dumb.
I'm sorry about that.
And I'm sorry that you weren't given better advice.
And I'm sorry that you had unprotected sex.
And I'm sorry that you didn't have a strong father figure to tell you to keep your dick in your pants until you're certain of the quality of the woman.
But do not put up with violence in your relationships.
Do not.
It takes your soul.
It takes your self-respect.
It takes your children's comfort and peace in the present.
Do not put up with violence in your relationships.
Record that shit and look at your legal options.
I'm not telling you what to do because I'm not a lawyer.
I don't even know where you are.
Don't tell me.
But if she's violent, you cannot live like that.
I really, I really, and I sympathize.
I really do.
I'm sorry that you're in a situation like that.
But it's not helping your children if you're putting up with violence at all.
At all.
And again, freedomman.com slash call probably would be a good idea.
We can explore more options on a private call, if you like.
And I hope that you will take me up on that offer.
All right.
Have yourself.
A beautiful evening, my friends.
Massive love, hugs, and sympathies out there.
Oh, he says my dad was an extremely violent father who was a law enforcement officer.
And I'm sorry about that too, but you've got to get out of the cycle of violence.
And love you guys as an audience.
Thank you for getting us all the way to our 21st year, 20 wonderful years as a public philosopher.
Thank you all so much.
Have a beautiful night.
We will talk to you Sunday morning.
Sunday morning, we're going to do a donor-only show on locals.
And I really appreciate your time, care, and attention tonight.