Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1269 Scott Adams： Masks, Coups, Rick Wilson Clones and More Scary Stuff

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, come on in. Come on in. Yeah, it's the best time of the day. It's time for

00:00:06.780 Coffee with Scott Adams. And as luck would have it, I'm Scott Adams. You came to the right place.

00:00:14.360 How can you make this day better than it's already going to be? It's going to be a good one.

00:00:20.080 I know you don't believe it yet, but there's a good day ahead for each and every one of you,

00:00:25.600 guaranteed. Or double your money back. But all you need to make it a good day is a cup or mug or a

00:00:31.520 glass, a tank or a chalice or a canteen, a jug or a flask or a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your

00:00:37.140 favorite liquid. I'm partial to coffee. And join me now for the dopamine to end of the day, the

00:00:42.320 thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip. And just watch what happens

00:00:47.400 when we do this. You ready? Go. Well, yeah. That's the good stuff. Well, everything's looking up

00:01:01.040 today. Do you remember when we used to have, what was the name for it? It was called news? News.

00:01:10.100 You've heard of it, right? It would be you'd wake up in the morning and something that President Trump

00:01:15.900 had said on Sunday had caused the whole world to be on fire and people's hair was up. And then

00:01:22.900 Monday, you'd wake up and you'd say, yeah, let me dig into this news. This is a meaty, juicy,

00:01:30.240 good quality news. And then Trump decided to go silent.

00:01:35.460 And the news decided to just stop covering news, as far as I know. Or the news all stopped. Or

00:01:47.720 the only news that mattered was about Trump. I don't know. So we're going to have to dig

00:01:53.820 deeper to get the news. Because there isn't much of it. Of course, the world did not stop

00:02:01.160 producing news. But the news business isn't really that interested in the old kind of news. They

00:02:09.620 like Trump news. And they should, because that's the good stuff. Let's talk about a few things that

00:02:14.640 are going on. Because we live in a simulation with lots of code reuse, we see stories that look like

00:02:23.060 other stories. Or they tell us something about those other stories. Or they're just weird

00:02:28.100 coincidences. Such as, we just had a protest slash insurrection slash, some say, a coup

00:02:37.600 in the United States. Or a coup attempt. Now, the smart people don't say that. But a lot of people

00:02:44.060 do say it. At the same time, the country of Myanmar, which Fox News calls Burma, what's up with

00:02:54.500 that? Have you noticed that? You go to the Fox News page, and it's a story about Burma. But if you

00:03:01.400 go to CNN, it's a story about Myanmar. I feel as if they can't both be right. Are you telling me that 1.00

00:03:09.260 the news doesn't know the name of a fucking country? Which one of them is wrong? 1.00

00:03:14.280 Oh, do you know? One of them is wrong, right? Because the country only has one name.

00:03:25.540 And the news is reporting it as two different kinds of countries. So I'm going to guess that

00:03:32.640 one is politically correct, and that what might be what CNN is using, Myanmar. And I'm guessing that

00:03:39.200 one of them is politically incorrect, which is maybe where Fox News is. But that said,

00:03:47.180 after seeing the Myanmar or maybe Burma situation in which the military just took over for the

00:03:55.060 civilian government, and they say it's going to be martial law for a year, these things often don't

00:04:01.420 last just a year, but we'll see. So I decided to put together a guide for people who can't tell the 0.63

00:04:09.160 difference between a coup and a protest. So here's my little guide. I tweeted this. This is for

00:04:17.460 journalists, because sometimes you just can't tell. You'll be looking at a situation, and you'll be

00:04:23.660 like, wait a minute, is that a coup attempt? Or is that some kind of a protest with some lawbreaking?

00:04:32.900 I can't tell. So I put together a handy guide, and it goes like this. If what you're watching involves

00:04:41.300 the military, well, that's a coup. Myanmar or Burma is a good example. The military took over for the 0.91

00:04:52.100 civilian government, that's a coup. When the military is involved, or somebody's military is involved,

00:04:57.680 that's a coup. But if the event you're watching involves a Viking hat, not a coup. In fact,

00:05:12.020 I don't know, in the history of humanity, has anybody ever worn a Viking hat to a coup? Well,

00:05:19.220 maybe in Viking days. Maybe. Maybe they wore a lot of Viking hats back in Viking days. But no,

00:05:29.720 if you see no military involved, but there is a guy in a Viking hat who seems to have done pretty well

00:05:36.840 in terms of how far he got in the protest, that's most likely not a coup. That's most likely a protest

00:05:46.540 in which things got out of control and some laws were broken. Now, apparently Democrats are really

00:05:55.160 bad at coups, at least the military kind, because they believe that you can take over the country

00:06:03.380 with zip ties. Now, if that were possible, we could save a lot of money on our military expenditures,

00:06:11.760 because we could just say, well, why would we need battleships and F-35s when we've just shown

00:06:20.840 that you can take over a country with a handful of zip ties and a Viking hat? If that's all you need

00:06:28.320 to conquer a country, I believe we're overspending with our bombs and our bullets and stuff, which have

00:06:34.820 no apparent use, because it's totally practical, according to CNN and MSNBC and New York Times,

00:06:42.420 and these are credible organizations, it's quite possible to take over a country with zip ties and

00:06:49.860 maybe some clubs. Yeah, because if you can, if you can take over an empty room, such as a room in the

00:06:59.400 capital, if you can control an empty room, you can control the whole country. Yeah. And if you could

00:07:07.100 take a hostage, let's say a politician, and you could keep them hostage, well, we would just surrender.

00:07:14.760 We would just surrender. I would say to myself, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going to hurt Mike Pence?

00:07:20.260 Unless I abandon the Constitution, because I have to save Mike Pence. Is that how it works? Or would

00:07:30.000 we say, I'd sure hate to see anything happen to Mike Pence, but what are you going to do? I don't

00:07:39.420 think we're going to give up the country. I don't think a hostage would be quite enough to overthrow the

00:07:46.640 government of the United States. But suppose you say it wasn't just the Vice President. Suppose they

00:07:52.300 had taken the President hostage. No, it still doesn't work that way. We would still let them kill

00:07:59.340 the President. We would. We wouldn't like it. We would be very unhappy about it. But we're not going 1.00

00:08:08.200 to let them conquer the country to save one life. It doesn't really work that way. So for all the dumb

00:08:17.140 people who thought there was something like a coup that happened, I would call that the big lie. Now, 0.99

00:08:23.000 I know that the Democrats are trying to use that phrase, the big lie, in another context. But I think

00:08:28.460 the big lie is that there was a coup attempt. When obviously, demonstrably, logically, factually,

00:08:37.820 and in every way that you can look at a situation, nothing like that, even remotely like that happened.

00:08:45.840 There was nothing in that zip code of being a coup. You really need to kind of bring the military if

00:08:52.620 you're going to do the coup thing. You don't bring zip ties and a Viking hat. That's just the rule. I don't

00:09:00.160 make the rules. All right, Alan Dershowitz apparently is one of those people who can, by the nature of his

00:09:07.980 job, I guess, teaching at Harvard or something, that allows him to nominate people for the Nobel Peace Prize.

00:09:14.680 I didn't know how that worked. But apparently he's a nominator, and he nominated both Jared Kushner and

00:09:23.440 Alan Dershowitz did. He nominated Kushner and Avi Berkowitz, who works with Kushner, for their work with

00:09:32.540 the, you know, the Israel and the Arab nations and the Abraham Accords. What do you think of that?

00:09:39.620 Do you think that the Nobel Peace Prize is appropriate? I would say I've never seen one

00:09:48.640 more appropriate. Never seen one more appropriate than this. Now, we don't know how it'll all go,

00:09:57.020 blah, blah, blah, right? Anything could go wrong. But can you even think of anybody who did something

00:10:04.680 more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize? I can't think of anybody. I can't think of a historical

00:10:10.880 example that was more appropriate to the Peace Prize. Now, I'm going to give you a little behind

00:10:18.320 the scenes information that I maybe wouldn't have mentioned if Trump were still in office. But most

00:10:25.600 of you know I got to visit with the president, President Trump. And I was invited in to talk to

00:10:33.500 him in the Oval Office. It was kind of the coolest thing that ever happened to me. But while I was

00:10:38.740 there, I was with Avi Berkowitz. And he organized it and just made sure I got introduced to the

00:10:48.560 president. And he was with me in the room when we were chatting. And it is so, so cool to just have

00:10:58.640 met somebody and spent, you know, spent a little time talking to somebody who just got nominated

00:11:04.780 for the Nobel Peace Prize and totally deserves it. Like, no doubt about it. No doubt about it. Deserves,

00:11:11.740 you know, he and Jared Kushner. And I met Jared Kushner. Well, I'm going to tell you this story.

00:11:18.780 So there's some stories that I wouldn't tell you in public, except that the president's now moved

00:11:28.980 on. And, you know, you feel like you can tell some things because they're not terribly important.

00:11:33.520 But when I was waiting to meet with President Trump, I was in this outer office, you know,

00:11:40.140 that you're sort of waiting to get into the inner office. And Jared Kushner came through. And he was

00:11:47.600 with another gentleman. And he apparently recognized me and introduced himself. And I guess a number of

00:11:56.120 people in the White House had read my book, Winn Bigley. And so they were kind of generally familiar

00:12:03.680 with me there. So Jared Kushner stops and says hi, introduces himself. And then this is the part I

00:12:11.480 probably shouldn't tell you, but it's just funny. So I will. He was with, I believe it was the

00:12:16.960 Mexican finance minister. It was a high official in the Mexican government. I think it was a finance

00:12:27.520 minister. I'm not positive. But somebody at about that level. And Jared introduces me to him as, you

00:12:35.020 know, the Mexican, I don't know, finance minister or some job like that. And then he just jokes, he goes,

00:12:41.560 he's here to pay for the wall. And he laughs and I laugh. And it's just funny to be in the middle of

00:12:50.720 history, you know, just actually standing in the White House, talking to Jared Kushner, and, you know, a high

00:12:57.480 representative of the Mexican government, and just having a joke about who's paying for the wall. Now, I

00:13:05.280 wouldn't tell you that story if they were still in office. But, you know, it's just a funny story.

00:13:11.120 Because to see, to see the, I guess, I guess there's a bigger point here. So having met, you know,

00:13:21.840 Jared Kushner, I got to, you know, chat with Ivanka a little bit, as she, you know, brought me into the

00:13:28.400 Oval Office, got to talk to the president a little bit. I'll tell you one thing that all of those people

00:13:33.980 I mentioned have in common, crazy social skills, like charismatic social skills. When you see it up

00:13:41.800 close, like you can really feel it. People who just have another, another gear, they can just sort of

00:13:49.020 control a room. And, you know, they've got charisma and stuff. So they all have that. And that was an

00:13:55.620 amazing, fun day. Anyway, so congratulations to Jared and to Avi for the nomination. I hope they get it.

00:14:03.980 All right. One thing you don't know about this Myanmar or Burma situation is that the reason

00:14:13.080 that the military took over is there were some complaints that the election might not have been

00:14:19.800 quite fair and fraud free. Yeah, there was some concern that the election was rigged.

00:14:26.720 But I don't want to be canceled from social media. So I'd just like to say in public now, just say it once

00:14:36.680 and get it over with. In my opinion, the winner of the presidential election in Myanmar was Joe Biden.

00:14:44.740 And there is no court that has ruled otherwise. I don't believe any American court has said that

00:14:53.760 Joe Biden did not win the election in Myanmar. So I think we have to be open minded about that.

00:14:59.860 But there you go. The funniest story this week, maybe, although we got some funny ones. The funniest

00:15:09.720 story this week is about the Lincoln Project. Now, there's an accusation, an allegation about one of

00:15:17.520 the founding members. And the allegation has to do with grooming underage men for sex. That's the 0.89

00:15:25.640 allegation. I don't know anything about what did or did not happen there. That's just the allegation

00:15:30.980 that's out there. But the members of the Lincoln Project are not so popular among the people who may

00:15:39.740 have been pro-Trump in the past. And watching them deal with this is kind of fun. I have to admit,

00:15:49.900 you know, it's kind of fun. And the best part is I saw a picture of the four founders. And they all

00:15:57.440 look like Rick Wilson clones that went wrong. They're all these middle-aged sort of, you know,

00:16:05.600 don't go to the gym kinds of bodies, you know, dad bodies, bald head, I think three out of four of

00:16:13.260 them have facial hair. They kind of look like Rick Wilson was the prototype. And then they did some

00:16:21.700 cloning experiments. And they're like, let's call this one Steve Schmidt. It's a little too big,

00:16:28.860 a little too tall. And then they got another one. It's like, he's pretty good. But we don't like the

00:16:34.220 message he's sending to young men. Let's try again. Try another clone. And it's just that other guy

00:16:41.080 whose name I don't know. And I thought to myself, how would you like to be in a group

00:16:48.280 in which you were being called a clone of Rick Wilson? I don't know. I would quit that club.

00:16:58.320 The minute I found out I was Rick Wilson's clone, I'd say, get me out of this club. I don't want to

00:17:04.660 be Rick Wilson's clone. So there are these four clones in the Lincoln Project that are trying to

00:17:10.200 explain why one of the clones went bad, allegedly. But while it is certainly true, and it is 100%

00:17:20.420 true, that there are four individuals, and any allegations true or not true about one of the four

00:17:28.480 should not have any impact on the other three, who did not, were not involved in this activity,

00:17:35.780 alleged activity. And there's no evidence that they were even aware of it, at least at an operating

00:17:42.740 level. Maybe they heard rumors or something. So we can't say anything about the other three.

00:17:48.780 But we do live in a world where those Lincoln Project people, they did try to say that the Republican

00:17:58.080 Party, the Trump supporters, were sort of all the same as the worst among them. That's sort of a

00:18:06.680 precedent, isn't it? That all the Trump supporters are kind of just as bad as whoever the worst Trump

00:18:13.800 supporters are, be they racist or idiots or whatever. And I think that's the standard that we should 1.00

00:18:21.500 embrace. Rather than fight against it, just say, you know, you got a good point. If you're a group of

00:18:28.500 four people and one of you has been accused of heinous activity, well, I think we can apply that to the

00:18:36.480 other three. I don't make the rules. I don't make the rules. I just apply them the way they've been

00:18:44.120 presented to me. If the rule is that everybody in the group is as bad as the worst member, well,

00:18:50.200 then you're all Rick Wilson. See what I did there? You thought I was going to say you're all that

00:18:55.440 bad one who got accused of stuff? I was going to go there, but it was funnier when I said you're all

00:19:01.160 Rick Wilson. Because it's hard to imagine anything worse than being Rick Wilson.

00:19:11.200 Anyway, the fact that they all look like the same guy is just hilarious to me. All right.

00:19:16.440 Let me talk about masks. And I think I'll watch my Twitter followers decline as I'm talking about

00:19:26.920 this. Let's see how low it gets. You can open up. All right. I got 604.1 thousand followers.

00:19:36.280 We'll see what it looks like at the end of the day. All right. Let's talk about masks and whether

00:19:43.280 they work. First thing you need to know is, how would I know? How would I know? Am I a doctor? No.

00:19:54.280 Have I studied masks used exactly the way they're being used for the pandemic? No, I have not.

00:20:00.800 Have I done a deep dive on all the research? No, I've not. But watch me have an opinion anyway.

00:20:09.760 Here is the dumbest opinion. All right. The following opinion, if you hold this, is just stupid. 0.99

00:20:18.480 I'll tell you why. But first, I'll tell you it's stupid. Number one, stupid opinion. Masks do not work. 1.00

00:20:26.540 That's just stupid. Number two, stupid opinion. Masks definitely work. Stupid. That's a stupid opinion. 1.00

00:20:38.240 So the two stupid opinions, which you should not hold. Masks definitely work. And masks definitely 1.00

00:20:46.260 don't work. Those two are stupid. All right. If you hold either of those opinions, I'm hoping that you 1.00

00:20:54.120 will improve on those opinions. I mean, it's okay to have a preliminary opinion, but maybe you can

00:20:59.880 shade it a little bit. All right. If you hear somebody saying, as this, there's a video of a doctor

00:21:06.780 saying that masks don't work and he only wears his mask to make people feel good, but that masks don't

00:21:13.940 work. That's a stupid opinion. It comes from a doctor, but it's not less stupid because it's stupid 1.00

00:21:22.140 on the surface. Here's, and one of the examples that he used in his stupid opinion is that if you took 1.00

00:21:30.780 a bunch of dirt and you threw it against a chain link fence, sure, some of the dirt wouldn't get 0.99

00:21:39.900 through because it hit the chain part. But that so much of the dirt would go through the chain link

00:21:45.780 fence, it would be as if the fence were not there for all practical purposes. What do you think of

00:21:51.160 that opinion? Is that a wise opinion that maybe you agree with or you don't, but is it a rational,

00:21:58.400 good thinking? No, it's not. It's not because the virus doesn't travel on its own, which is what

00:22:11.660 the analogy of throwing dirt against the fence would imply. The analogy that should work is that the flea is

00:22:19.860 on the dog and the dog is trying to get through the fence. In this case, the dog is the water particle.

00:22:26.740 Can your water particles get through your mask? Well, why don't you test it? Hold your mask up to

00:22:34.240 your face and sneeze. How much of the water got through the mask? Now sneeze without the mask. Does the

00:22:43.540 same amount of water get through? No. Now take your mask and go up to a window and go

00:22:50.080 and breathe on the window. Does the window get as fogged up as it would if you didn't have the mask

00:22:58.500 on? No, right? It's very, you don't have to be a scientist to know that the mask is stopping

00:23:07.760 water particles. You can test it yourself. Literally, just walk up to a window and breathe

00:23:13.780 on it with a mask and then without. Tell me if there's a difference. I think there will be, right?

00:23:19.960 So if the water particles are clearly being limited by the mask, not stopped, but limited.

00:23:27.720 If we know that the virus travels on the water particles and we know the water particles are

00:23:33.760 mostly getting stopped by the mask. You can test it yourself at home. What are the odds that the mask

00:23:41.020 stops the water particles, but then the virus just flies off at the end and goes freelancing through

00:23:48.500 the atmosphere? It's not a thing. As far as we know, it's not a thing. So here's how to know who to

00:23:55.780 believe about masks. If somebody says, masks don't work, boom, stop listening to them. They're stupid.

00:24:04.620 If they say, no tests show you that masks work, stop listening to them and anything they ever say 1.00

00:24:11.760 for the rest of their life. That's stupid. Now, it may be true that we do not have high quality, 1.00

00:24:18.560 randomized, controlled tests of masks specifically in this coronavirus context. That could be true.

00:24:25.780 And probably is true. But that's not telling you anything about masks not working. It just means

00:24:34.060 that we haven't studied it in this context. And it would be hard to study it because of ethical

00:24:38.680 concerns, right? You couldn't put somebody without a mask around the virus because you'd be putting

00:24:46.760 them in harm's way and that's not cool for a test. Or at least you assume you might be putting them in

00:24:53.360 harm's way. So here's how to know who is telling you something to believe about masks and who to

00:25:00.020 ignore. Ignore everybody who says they definitely don't work. Ignore everybody who says they definitely

00:25:07.000 do work. And pay attention to anybody who uses the following words. Risk management. Friction. Water

00:25:19.800 droplets. Viral load. If you hear any of those words when somebody is saying pro or con masks,

00:25:29.700 listen to them. Listen to them. Because they know what they're talking about. Now, they could be wrong

00:25:36.200 and they could be right. In fact, two people could disagree and still be talking about all those

00:25:42.300 things. Water molecules, viral load, friction, risk management. All right? So that's what you should

00:25:53.140 listen for. People who talk in terms of risk management and viral loads and stuff know what they're

00:25:58.380 talking about in terms of a rational way to look at the question. Doesn't mean they're right, but at

00:26:04.660 least they're thinking right, even if they get the wrong answer. Now, the other thing I get is, what

00:26:09.580 about Dr. Fauci, who once said masks are not perfect protection? Somebody sent this to me just moments

00:26:18.600 ago before I got on here, saying, look, Fauci himself, here he is, his own words. Prior to saying the masks

00:26:25.460 masks were important, he said it would be an illusion to think that masks are perfect protection.

00:26:31.740 So was Fauci lying when he said masks are not perfect protection? Or is he lying now when he says

00:26:40.660 masks are recommended? So which is it? Is one of those not true and the other is true? That masks are not

00:26:48.660 perfect protection. That's what he said originally. And now he says you should wear them. Those are the

00:26:55.120 same fucking thing. There's no difference. They're not perfect protection, but you should wear them. Do 1.00

00:27:03.820 you know what else is not perfect protection? Your seat belt, but you should wear it. Do you know what

00:27:10.660 is not perfect protection? The lock on your door, but you should still lock it. Somebody might try to

00:27:20.040 get in through the window, but you should still lock the door. All right. So when Fauci said they're not

00:27:25.980 perfect protection, he admitted later that it was in the context of hoping that people did not hoard

00:27:32.100 the necessary limited stuff that the healthcare workers needed. Once he admitted that that was really

00:27:38.780 what was behind it, then he took his earlier statement that they're not perfect protection

00:27:43.960 and he kind of put that in a different context, which is viral load better than nothing probably

00:27:51.760 makes a difference. All right. What about the people who say, but Scott, Scott, Scott, how many times do I

00:27:59.080 need to show you this graph of this certain state or this certain country? And here's the point where

00:28:06.600 they introduced the masks and look, infection still went up. So there's your proof that masks don't work

00:28:15.140 because the places that use them, they did not get better outcomes than the people who didn't.

00:28:22.660 Scott, that's obvious. Mask here, mask there, same outcome. Ah, proof. Right?

00:28:31.000 No, that doesn't make any sense. The fact that you compared two places, one had masks and one didn't,

00:28:39.440 and they got equal outcomes proves nothing. Absolutely nothing. And if you think it did,

00:28:46.400 why did you think that? Because there's so many things that are different about those any two areas

00:28:51.700 that you don't know if it was the masks that made a difference or not.

00:28:55.020 Now, where would be a place that you would have guaranteed required masks? What kind of a situation

00:29:02.780 would have mask requirements? Well, I think it would be a place where they knew there would be a lot of

00:29:09.920 virus problems. And so if they had a hotspot, they would, of course, say you better wear masks

00:29:16.660 because it would be even worse if you don't. So what would a hotspot look like if it was only,

00:29:23.020 let's say, 90% as bad as it could have been because they did wear masks? Well, it would look

00:29:28.720 like not so good because it's 90% as bad as it could have been. Maybe the masks made 10% difference.

00:29:35.680 Would you know the difference? Because you don't know what it would have been. You only know what

00:29:40.400 happened. You don't know what it would have been without the masks. And if you don't know that,

00:29:45.400 you don't know anything. So to compare a place that had a hotspot, so of course they had masks,

00:29:51.780 the correlation is hotspot causes masks. Right? That's the correlation. It's a hotspot,

00:29:59.720 so that causes a mask requirement. Another place is not a hotspot so much, no mask requirement,

00:30:06.620 but they also have infections maybe because they don't wear masks. So if you had two places with the

00:30:12.100 same outcomes, could you then declare that masks work or they don't? Nope. No. And if you think you can,

00:30:20.580 then you don't know enough about how to analyze things and how to compare things properly. You just

00:30:27.040 can't do that because you don't know what would have happened for the same situation with no masks.

00:30:32.980 You only know what did happen with masks. The reason that we rely on randomized controlled tests

00:30:40.760 is because every other kind of test is misleading. You get that, right? The reason that there is a gold

00:30:47.760 standard scientific test with randomized components and controlled and you've got the base case you're

00:30:56.800 comparing to, the reason you have to do all of that and then you still have to repeat it and you still

00:31:03.160 have to have it peer reviewed before you know anything is because all of the other ways of looking at stuff

00:31:09.680 are illusions. You think you're looking at something that means something, but you're not. Until you do the

00:31:17.040 randomized controlled study, it's the only way you can know you're not being fooled by what you think

00:31:23.120 is obvious, but you know, the math doesn't support it. So that's my thing on masks. If you're convinced they

00:31:32.640 work, definitely totally 100% work, that's stupid. If you're convinced they do not work, that's stupid. 1.00

00:31:42.880 But if you think that there's a good risk management argument for them based on viral load 0.98

00:31:48.880 and water vapor not going through masks entirely, I'd say that's a reasonable position even if you're wrong.

00:31:55.600 Right? Could you have a completely reasonable position that masks cause some friction and they

00:32:03.680 they should work, but then it turns out, you know, someday we do some kind of randomized controlled

00:32:08.320 study and we find out they didn't work? Would I, would I be the dumb one in this argument? No. 0.95

00:32:16.400 I would still be the smartest person in the argument, even wrong. Because that's how science works,

00:32:22.640 right? You can be a very smart scientist and then your experiment doesn't prove what you wanted it

00:32:28.640 to and then you're wrong. You could be the smartest person and also wrong, but you could be the dumbest 0.99

00:32:35.040 person and accidentally get it right because masks either work or they don't. So whichever side you're 0.97

00:32:40.880 on, there are going to be a lot of dumb people agreeing with you because there are only two sides. 0.99

00:32:46.080 All right. That was way more on that topic than I needed to say, but I feel like this mask thing 0.96

00:32:52.640 uh, it embarrasses me a little bit. It embarrasses me, uh, cause the thinking about it is just so poor.

00:33:03.840 Whatever the truth is, I just embarrassed at the thinking about it. Um,

00:33:10.480 now I saw that, uh, I think Rand Paul was suggesting that people who were immune to the virus should not

00:33:16.320 have to wear masks. Uh, so let's say somebody got the two vaccinations and waited enough weeks for them

00:33:23.280 to kick in or somebody who already had the virus confirmed and they're recovered. What would be the

00:33:29.600 problem with that? What would be the obvious problem of making everybody wear masks except those few people

00:33:38.560 who know they're immune? What would be the problem? There's a big problem. The big problem is that people

00:33:46.800 who do not have immunity would just say they did. They would just say they did. They just walk into the

00:33:53.760 grocery store without a mask and the manager would say, we require masks. And the person who just didn't

00:33:59.200 want to wear a mask would say, oh yeah, I'm immune. I got my shots. Uh, I, I had COVID, you know,

00:34:06.080 three weeks ago. I'm all good. As long as you can know with certainty that human beings are shitty

00:34:13.600 people and we will lie and we will cheat to get out of wearing a mask. I mean, half of the conversation 0.98

00:34:21.040 about wearing masks is people telling you how they get out of it, right? How they cheated the process or,

00:34:26.880 or how they, you know, put a little hole in their mask or something. So you know, people are going to

00:34:32.160 cheat. So probably you just can't have a situation where some people get to not wear masks, even if

00:34:41.880 scientifically it makes perfect sense. Scientifically makes perfect sense, but socially you just can't do

00:34:49.360 it because too many people would cheat. All right. Um, there's pretty much no real news happening.

00:34:58.240 Uh, Biden's got his, uh, dozens and dozens of executive orders that the news doesn't really

00:35:04.560 report on except the headline. It's like he undid this or he did this. Are any of them bad? I don't know.

00:35:12.960 Here's a good example of how bad the reporting has been for the last four years.

00:35:16.720 So Trump did a whole bunch of executive actions and a lot of them were environmental

00:35:23.280 actions. So Trump presumably was loosening regulations on right on environmental stuff.

00:35:32.000 Where was the, where was all the reporting

00:35:35.760 about, um, all the problems that happened because of Trump really reducing those standards in various

00:35:43.440 places? I didn't see any. Did you? Because you would think that if those standards were important,

00:35:51.440 it would be real easy to do a story, you know, a month, a few months later, uh, measure the water

00:35:57.360 quality or whatever you're going to do and find out if anything's different. See if it made a difference.

00:36:03.600 I never saw any reporting like that. And it seems like the obvious thing. If he changed something

00:36:09.840 that they would report on what that change, you know, caused, but I didn't see it.

00:36:17.520 So we don't really have that kind of a news business anymore. So Biden can just sign,

00:36:23.600 you know, dozens and dozens of executive orders. I don't know if there'll ever be any news coverage on

00:36:29.360 the ins and outs of whether there were good ideas. Because there's just sort of no real news anymore.

00:36:38.400 Uh, at least about detailed stuff.

00:36:42.960 Um, let's see.

00:36:47.760 So how long do you think Biden will get away with not answering questions from an unfriendly press?

00:36:54.800 Do you think he can get through his entire term without ever really being available to talk to

00:37:00.480 the press? Because his, uh, his, uh, spokesperson, Jen Psaki, I said this the other day, she's very,

00:37:10.320 she's very capable, obviously smart and, you know, uh, knows how to talk in public and stuff. 0.98

00:37:17.920 But I think people are going to get tired of hearing from her and not from the, uh, the president.

00:37:25.840 Until he hands it off to Kamala. What's the betting on when he makes his move? I'd say after the

00:37:31.760 midterm would be the best bet. I would think that they want to keep Biden in there through the midterm.

00:37:37.840 Uh, but that after that, there won't be a good reason to keep him. There would be a good reason for

00:37:42.480 Kamala Harris to get a little, uh, experience in the job so that she's the one who could run for 1.00

00:37:47.600 re-election. Uh, or election, I guess, if you're just, if you didn't get elected in the first place.

00:37:56.880 Uh, when will he meet other world leaders? Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, Biden hasn't met any other

00:38:02.560 world leaders. But I don't, I don't expect that will be any kind of a story. Because, you know,

00:38:08.000 Biden can put on a suit and shake hands with people. So he can handle that. Uh,

00:38:14.080 Biden delayed the moon landing, seeding it to the Chinese, somebody says. Well,

00:38:19.360 I'll tell you one thing. If Biden is not super serious about space force and especially nuclear

00:38:25.120 energy to drive, uh, space rocket ships, if he's not real serious about that stuff, we have

00:38:32.960 essentially given the future to China. And you might as well join the Chinese Communist Party now.

00:38:38.240 get it over with. Um,

00:38:44.480 didn't look so capable last conference, somebody says.

00:38:50.480 Uh, Jen is imitating Dr. Book's condescension look. All right. I'm just looking at your comments

00:38:57.200 now. Um, I don't have much else to say. Maybe there will be some interesting news today. I don't

00:39:03.520 know. We'll see. Uh, on Locals, the subscription platform, Locals.com. I put yesterday a, uh,

00:39:12.560 a micro lesson on using your physical environment to reprogram your brain. So if you're, if you're on

00:39:19.040 that platform, you can see that there, there are now dozens and dozens of my micro lessons on the

00:39:25.120 Locals platform. And they seem to be the most popular thing I'm doing there. So I'll do more of

00:39:30.160 those. Uh, how was Christina? She's great. Thanks for asking. And that's all I've got to say for

00:39:38.400 now. And I'll talk to you later. All right. Bye for now.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 01, 2021

Episode 1269 Scott Adams： Masks, Coups, Rick Wilson Clones and More Scary Stuff

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