Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1649 Scott Adams： Mandates Dropping, Our President is Not Mentally Capable, Putin is Trapped

00:00:00.000 of the day. And the best moment of the best experience of the day. Right now, it's gone.

00:00:05.240 It's gone. But it was pretty good while it lasted. Hey, how would you like to take it up a level?

00:00:10.800 And I think we need to drink our morning toast to the truckers. How about it? Anybody in for

00:00:19.580 the truckers? Let's support the truckers, support the citizens who want to end the mandate.

00:00:25.140 Let us claw back our rights. Claw them back, I say. Now, you might say, claw them back? I never left

00:00:33.200 them. Well, whatever you want to call it. Let's get things back to normal. And we're going to make

00:00:38.840 the government do it for us. But first, all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass of tank or a

00:00:44.200 chelsea, a canteen jug, a flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like

00:00:49.960 coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure. The dopamine of the day, the thing

00:00:56.140 that makes everything better, even the mandates, eventually. We'll get there. Join me now for

00:01:02.320 the unparalleled sip. Go. Yeah, it is the best part of your day. That's right. That's right,

00:01:12.800 it is. So, let's talk about all the things that are happening. Rasmussen had a poll.

00:01:20.560 Which, again, I think it delves deeply into understanding the psychology of the human mind.

00:01:29.960 Most polls just tell you some data, but not this one. This one goes a little deeper.

00:01:34.880 It asked two questions. Three, actually, but two that I care about. And it talked about the

00:01:41.220 ABC suspension of Whoopi Goldberg and how many people agreed with this suspension.

00:01:45.920 Before I tell you the answer, how many people, cross-section of the country, America, how many

00:01:54.060 of them thought ABC should suspend Whoopi? What is your guess? 25%.

00:02:00.060 The answer was 54%. Are you a little shocked by that? Does that sound wrong? 54% thought she

00:02:12.380 should be suspended? For what? Having a historical imperfection in her understanding? What? 54% think

00:02:25.360 you should be canceled for that? Well, does it get crazier? Wait for it. Wait for it. You don't think

00:02:33.480 it gets crazier? Oh, it does. Same poll. Rasmussen also. Same poll. Actually, I think they asked

00:02:43.640 them at the same time, but actually, I don't know for that for sure. But the question was

00:02:49.360 asked also, do you think cancel culture has gotten out of control? Now, remember that 54% 0.98

00:02:54.960 of the people who answered said that Whoopi should be suspended? And then they asked, has

00:03:00.480 cancel culture gotten out of control? And 67% said yes. So two-thirds of the country thinks

00:03:08.360 this cancel culture has gone too far, while 54% think that Whoopi should get canceled.

00:03:15.200 Wait, what? How can both of those things be true? But there's human beings for you. So

00:03:25.220 what does it really come down to? It really comes down to, do you like Whoopi Goldberg? You

00:03:30.880 know, or are you on her team, basically? It has more about politics than her, I think. So

00:03:36.540 people are happy to cancel people who are on their team, right? If somebody's on your own

00:03:42.460 team, or you don't want them canceled, but if they're on the other team, you're like, you're

00:03:46.660 all about cancel culture, aren't you? Not you specifically, but apparently the public.

00:03:52.260 Now, this brings me to me. And I would like to say something to some of you, but many of

00:04:00.140 you have already blocked and canceled. How many of you have tried to cancel me in the last

00:04:08.440 two years for my opinions? A lot. Yeah. A lot of my audience has tried to cancel me

00:04:14.920 for a difference of opinion. Literally a difference of opinion. Now, much of the thoughts about me are

00:04:23.680 based on something that never happened. So most of what people are mad about me are literally

00:04:29.040 things that didn't happen. So every day somebody says, well, why were you so pro-mandate? And

00:04:33.500 I'd say, that never happened. I don't even know who you're talking about. And they'd say, you were

00:04:38.200 really pushing those masks. And I say, that never happened. I've talked about them. I've never

00:04:45.180 promoted them. About you pushed, you really, you were in the bag for the vaccine makers, to which I

00:04:52.520 say, who are you talking about? That literally never happened. But it doesn't matter. I still get

00:05:00.540 canceled. So I've lost 25%, something like that, of my audience just because they disagreed with that

00:05:07.800 opinion. So when you're criticizing the other people for canceling, just be aware that it's not

00:05:16.060 always the other people canceling, right? There's a whole lot of canceling going on. And it's basically

00:05:21.620 just people you disagree with at this point. I'm not even sure canceling is real. Let me go further.

00:05:27.680 I don't think cancellation even happens. I think it's just team play. And if a team can get away

00:05:34.680 with it, they do. And if a team can't get away with it, they don't. But there's no cancel culture.

00:05:41.300 There's just people trying to cancel each other. And sometimes it works. So there's no good and bad

00:05:46.080 people when it comes to canceling. Everybody's bad. That's my opinion. Biden is being asked to take a

00:05:51.500 cognitive test. And I guess nearly 40 Republicans, including Ronnie Jackson, who used to be the

00:05:58.900 president's physician, Trump's physician. They're all bringing it up. And even James Rosen asked the

00:06:06.580 question. I like how he asks it. He goes, I'd like to raise a delicate subject, but with utmost respect

00:06:12.480 for your life accomplishments and the high office you hold. That's about as well as you could ask

00:06:19.320 that question. Think about what it's like to ask the president of the United States in public

00:06:25.540 if he is mentally incapable. That's a pretty delicate thing, isn't it? But look at the, I don't know how

00:06:32.260 much time he spent on the lead up to the question, but I'll bet he spends a lot of time. I'd like to

00:06:36.920 raise a delicate subject, but with the utmost respect for your life accomplishments and the high

00:06:41.700 office you hold. Now that is how to ask a question. That is how you ask that question. Nicely done, James

00:06:48.600 Rosen. And he said, a poll released this morning by Politico, a morning consult, found that 49% of

00:06:54.720 registered voters, remember this isn't, this isn't just Republicans, but 49% of registered voters

00:07:01.520 disagreeing with the statement, Joe Biden is mentally fit.

00:07:06.920 And when Rosen asked Biden why he thought so many people believe that, Biden responded,

00:07:13.280 I have no idea.

00:07:17.240 That feels like a confirmation.

00:07:21.300 I have no idea. I feel as though a mentally fit person could have answered that question a little

00:07:27.820 more, a little more capably, a little bit better. For example, they might have said, oh,

00:07:33.760 that's mostly politics and people believing things out of context. I might have said, yeah,

00:07:40.580 you can make anybody look ridiculous with video edits. You might say, oh, I think my age is starting 0.90

00:07:48.140 to show a little bit, but my decision making is still solid. You're all in good shape. There are so

00:07:54.060 many ways to answer that question, but I have no idea is the only one that makes it sound like it's true,

00:07:59.760 that he's mentally incapable. So he picked that one. And why is it that we've gone this long without a

00:08:08.820 cognitive test of the president? Now, what would the percentage of the public need to be

00:08:15.280 that strongly suspected the president was not mentally fit? What percentage of the public

00:08:20.540 should pretty much automatically trigger that kind of test should pretty much automatically trigger

00:08:24.080 that kind of a test? 25? 25 might be too low, because I think you could get 25% of anybody to attack

00:08:36.620 any president, right? How about 50%? If 50% of the public was concerned about the president's mental

00:08:45.280 health, don't you think that should trigger a cognitive test? Now, maybe, you know, 50% based

00:08:52.040 on three different polls or something like that. But shouldn't we have some kind of a standard?

00:08:58.100 I'm not even sure 40% is high enough, because 40% ends up being really close to the political party

00:09:05.380 number. You need to get a bunch of people from the other team, or I don't think it counts.

00:09:11.120 And at 54%, you're getting a bunch of Democrats, right? I think. Unless it's just all independents, 0.87

00:09:19.840 I suppose. But I think 50% should be our cutoff for automatic cognitive tests. And why can't we

00:09:30.100 make that a standard? It doesn't have to be a law. But, you know, there are certain standards,

00:09:36.020 such as presidents give you their tax returns and things like that. So we do have things that are

00:09:40.760 just standards we agree are reasonable. And I would like to put it out there that if you're over 50%

00:09:47.740 in national polls, maybe you need three polls, just to make sure you don't have an outlier poll.

00:09:54.860 But let's say if you have three polls that put you over 50%, automatic cognitive test. Who would

00:10:01.620 disagree with that? And by the way, it should apply if it's Trump, it should apply if it's anybody,

00:10:07.040 right? I'm not taking sides. Does anybody disagree with that? Now, I'd like to remind you that prior

00:10:14.420 to Trump running the first time, I always said that we shouldn't have presidents that old. So I was

00:10:21.780 never in favor of anyone Trump's age being president. I'm just not in favor of that. But it happens.

00:10:28.120 You disagree. Bradley disagrees. Interesting. Oh, how about test everybody over the age of 75?

00:10:35.660 Well, you know, I'm not sure that's necessary. I used the example of Chris Wallace yesterday. I was

00:10:41.700 amazed to find out he was 75. Do you think Chris Wallace needs a cognitive test?

00:10:46.640 You know, joking aside. Yeah, okay. Joking aside, though. Come on. I know you're being political

00:10:54.420 now. But joking aside, he doesn't need a cognitive test. I don't think so. Well, okay, maybe you think

00:11:01.720 so. All right. Let's see what else is going on here. So Rumble, the competitor to YouTube,

00:11:12.380 that's a free speech kind of an entity. I guess I should disclose that because Rumble partnered

00:11:19.320 with locals, I think I have some kind of shares of something. So I have some kind of conflict of

00:11:26.060 interest in this that you should be aware of. But Rumble has offered $100 million to Joe Rogan if he

00:11:33.340 leaves Spotify and goes to their platform. Now, how smart is that offer?

00:11:38.100 Now, you know that Spotify is being asked to fire Joe Rogan and it's a lot of pressure,

00:11:46.360 et cetera. But how smart is that offer? Assuming that they can come up with $100 million. I don't

00:11:53.600 know how you do that. But I suppose if Joe Rogan wanted to come over, they could raise $100 million

00:11:57.740 pretty easily. Yeah. It's like the smartest thing you've seen today. Because if Joe Rogan says no,

00:12:03.640 then Rumble got a whole bunch of free publicity. If he says yes, then it's even better.

00:12:13.540 It couldn't get much better than this. Yeah. So I know Dave Rubin was part of the decision. I don't

00:12:22.500 know who else was part of it. But I always say this about Dave Rubin. He does a lot of smart stuff,

00:12:27.360 if you haven't noticed. He's somewhat consistently on the smart side of things. So I'm not surprised

00:12:36.520 he was in the room when this idea came about. It was just a smart thing. You can't lose with

00:12:42.500 that offer. So I saw a number that I don't believe. Somebody tell me if this is, just do a fact check

00:12:50.160 on there. Because the tweet didn't have a source. But I saw a tweet that said 90,000 trucks have

00:12:55.880 registered for the convoy in D.C. Is that even possible? I don't believe 90,000. Do you?

00:13:07.200 It was his idea? I'm seeing somebody say it was Dave Rubin's idea. I would not be surprised.

00:13:12.060 Okay. So 90,000 truckers? Is that real? I don't think so. But let's say there are a lot of them.

00:13:26.120 Meanwhile, there are trucker convoys all over the place. You can read all about them. But

00:13:30.500 if you thought this trucker convoy thing was going to be brief and then go away, apparently not.

00:13:37.960 Apparently the trucker thing is just growing. And it's growing internationally. And this is what

00:13:44.200 I call productive pressure. This is productive pressure. It's a great time to be alive, honestly.

00:13:51.920 I think this is a good lesson for the children who are watching it. It's a tough time to be a kid,

00:13:58.400 masks and all. Really tough time to be a kid. But one of the things the kids are going to get out of

00:14:02.780 this is watching the adults navigate this situation. And what we hope they're watching

00:14:07.960 we hope is they're watching the adults fight like hell to claw back their rights, especially for

00:14:16.800 the kids. Now, you hope the kids remember this, don't you? Don't you hope they remember this?

00:14:23.280 Because these truckers are fighting for them. And they're fighting against their governments,

00:14:29.260 what they think are oppressive requirements. And they're putting the energy into it.

00:14:36.300 This is the best fight you will ever see. Because both sides are trying to protect the public.

00:14:45.060 Now, you could argue one side is being too political. The side, in this case, not being

00:14:49.400 Democrat or Republican. But the side being anybody who wants the mandates in place. More Republicans,

00:14:54.780 or more Democrats than Republicans. But what is better than a fight where everybody's trying to win

00:15:03.520 the best outcome for the public? That's really good. That's productive. So this is the kind of protest

00:15:10.320 that is nothing but productive. The government requires this kind of public involvement to do what

00:15:16.480 it probably wants to do, which is get back to something like normal. But we need to push it.

00:15:22.040 It's not going to happen on its own. Do you know what governments are really good at?

00:15:26.460 Creating new rules and policies. They're good at creating new ones. You know what they're bad at?

00:15:36.260 Ending anything. Right? Bad at ending Vietnam. Bad at ending Afghanistan. Bad at ending anything. 0.65

00:15:45.260 Right? I think you'd all agree with that. Governments are good at starting, bad at ending.

00:15:50.100 Do you know who's good at ending things? The public. Right. So what you're seeing, on one hand,

00:15:57.580 it looks like, you know, some kind of a fight. You know, there's some kind of fight happening

00:16:01.520 between the governments and the people. That's not exactly what's happening. That's not exactly

00:16:07.240 what's happening. I think another filter on this is that it's a handoff. Basically, the government

00:16:13.580 needs the public to do what the public is doing, push hard, so that the public, so the politicians

00:16:20.040 have the cover to do what they probably want to do, which is get back to normal. Now, I've never

00:16:25.100 believed the politicians want us to be oppressed forever for nefarious reasons. And if there are,

00:16:31.500 if anybody has that opinion, it's not just your rank and file members of Congress. You know,

00:16:36.820 they're not thinking that. So, you know, if some do, they're not the ones who matter for this.

00:16:43.580 So, I think we should be seeing this as sort of two parts working together. Our government being

00:16:52.060 a good starter, our public being a good finisher, and the government is starting to hand off.

00:17:00.080 As you see the dominoes falling, you know, one state after another announcing the end to

00:17:04.080 mandates, you're starting to see the handoff. And there's nothing wrong with that. So, we should

00:17:11.960 see it as a fight only to the extent that you have to fight for freedom, but it's not a fight against

00:17:18.020 each other. That's one of the things we all have to understand, and I think we do, because these

00:17:23.200 protests have been largely peaceful, right? So, this is brother against brother, sister against sister.

00:17:30.280 This is not a fight fight. This is a handoff. And if you treat it as a handoff, it's the public that

00:17:38.420 can claw back their rights, not the government. The government can't give us our rights back. We

00:17:43.260 have to go get it. And now it's time. The hardest part was waiting, wasn't it? The hardest part was

00:17:50.100 waiting for the right moment. Because if you start too soon, you lose your credibility. If infections are

00:17:55.620 going through the roof, and you're trying to get back your rights, well, it's a weaker argument.

00:18:00.300 Even if you think the mandates didn't work, it's still a weaker argument, because other people think

00:18:05.400 they did. So, finally, finally, the data is in the point, and Omicron, and vaccinations, and all that

00:18:13.280 other stuff. Finally, we reached the point where the public can take the handoff. And they are.

00:18:19.380 They stepped up. So, you're seeing something that looks like a fight, which is, in my opinion,

00:18:23.880 everything working the way it's supposed to work. It's working exactly the way it's supposed

00:18:28.560 to work. And it looks like it's on schedule somewhat, meaning that in the next several

00:18:33.220 weeks, we're going to see big changes of getting back to normal, just the way it should work.

00:18:38.640 So, if you're feeling down about any of this, it's all heading in the right direction. And

00:18:45.880 it's not going to stop. So, the public have taken control exactly as they were supposed to

00:18:51.880 do. This is everything working the way it's supposed to work. Just slower than you want

00:18:56.000 it. It's just slower. That's the only problem.

00:18:59.200 Well, one of my favorite hobbies, as I said before, is watching Ben Shapiro annihilate people's

00:19:06.660 bad arguments. And here's one that just made me laugh. So, you know, there's the, there's,

00:19:12.980 is it, is it Flores, the gentleman who's challenging the fact that the NFL coaches are all white while

00:19:21.000 70% of the players are black. And if you hear that statistic without any context, you'd say to

00:19:29.820 yourself, well, that's a pretty obvious discrimination. And if they can fix it in

00:19:35.180 basketball, you know, basketball has roughly the, you know, a good number of black coaches

00:19:40.560 that seems to make more sense with the number of black players. So, Ben Shapiro tweets in response

00:19:48.980 to, you know, why aren't there, you know, if 70% of the players are black, why don't we have any black

00:19:56.100 coaches? And Ben Shapiro tweets, 70% of NFL players are black. What are the odds? Because he was 1.00

00:20:02.820 responding to a tweet that said, what are the odds? Now, here's the beautiful part about this.

00:20:10.180 Ben doesn't need to complete the argument, because, because it just sits there complete the way it is.

00:20:15.660 Here's the complete argument. Either both things are racist or neither.

00:20:22.640 It's either racist that 70% of players are black. How in the world does that happen by accident?

00:20:28.440 Or it's racist that we have no black coaches. Again, how the hell does that happen by accident? 0.98

00:20:37.200 Right? So here's the problem. You can't have it both ways. You can't have it both ways if you're

00:20:44.000 even trying to be smart. The only way you can try to be smart is to say they're either both racist

00:20:50.080 or they're not, both not. You just can't have it both ways. You can't have, hey, there's nothing to

00:20:57.520 see here. 70% of the athletes are black. And then, you know, there's nothing to see here. It just doesn't 0.99

00:21:03.840 work. So I think if Shapiro took the argument further, he would get into, hey, you're racist

00:21:10.560 territory. But just putting it out there is just hilarious. Like the argument doesn't need to be

00:21:15.940 completed. It could just lay there and let people deal with it. Anyway, that always amuses me.

00:21:24.260 More about Ukraine.

00:21:28.680 Was I one of the first people you saw, and I can't remember if I read it first, so this is just one

00:21:35.720 of those cases I do need to check my memory. Was I one of the first people to say Putin is really

00:21:43.200 screwed? Because he can't attack and he can't not attack? Well, he doesn't have any options. I guess 0.98

00:21:49.380 other people must have said that. But I'm starting to see that as more of a mainstream opinion.

00:21:55.200 That I think Biden's winning. Right? It looks like Biden actually played this, maybe. I mean,

00:22:03.460 it's way too early to know. But at the moment, it looks like the Biden administration

00:22:08.620 may have played this perfectly. Now, I don't know, that's not to say that Trump or somebody

00:22:16.420 else wouldn't have done better. We don't know that. But at this point, it looks like Putin

00:22:23.360 really can't attack. It looks like we've made such a clear price for that, that it would be

00:22:30.640 crazy. Now, one of the things that you forget about is that Russia requires chips. They require

00:22:37.140 microchips and they require a lot of specialized equipment that maybe they could get from China,

00:22:42.200 but they'd wish they hadn't. So the argument is that Putin either needs to be, let's say,

00:22:50.280 a little buddy of America or a little buddy of China. Because it's, you know, it's just the, 0.75

00:22:58.220 I don't need to give you the whole reasons. But by the time we get into space, Russia is going 0.96

00:23:03.020 to want to have a partner. And at least some thinking, I read this morning, and I forgot who

00:23:09.260 wrote it, but there's at least one school of thought that says that Putin would prefer to be

00:23:13.920 allied with the United States. What do you think of that? What do you think of the, and I think this

00:23:20.240 would just be more speculation. Do you think it's true that if Putin had a choice, he would rather

00:23:27.980 have a strong association with the United States compared to China? Now, I suppose you'd want a 1.00

00:23:34.640 strong association with both, I guess. But Russia has more in common with China, somebody saying. I

00:23:41.200 don't know. I don't think so. Because I think culture is closer to the U.S. and that matters

00:23:46.480 more. And race, too, frankly. You know, you hate to say that race is in every single story, but it's

00:23:52.980 pretty much in every single story. I think that the Russians just have more, just more, I don't know, 0.97

00:23:59.640 feel for the United States. I'm guessing. Governing philosophy is similar. I don't know. I'm not sure that

00:24:08.760 that binds any two countries. Any chance we could be allies with China? I don't think so. I don't think

00:24:16.480 culturally that's going to work. Not in the short run. All right. Well, so I would say again that we

00:24:26.040 have a situation here where Putin requires a creative exit strategy. And a creative exit strategy

00:24:32.900 would look roughly like this. Making it look like he got something but not giving him anything.

00:24:40.260 Or it could be giving him something in return for some other thing that has nothing to do with

00:24:46.040 Ukraine. So it seems to me that the real deal may not ever be known by the public. Much like the

00:24:52.980 Cuban Missile... Are there any historians here? Historians, please help me out. My understanding

00:24:59.900 is that the Cuban Missile deal was a secret deal. That's true, right? What the public thought the deal

00:25:07.640 was is not what the actual deal was. There was a deal behind the scenes. So will we ever know what the

00:25:14.640 deal is? And should we? I'm not sure we should. You're incorrect, Scott, John Cook says. Incorrect that

00:25:25.480 it was a secret deal? Say more about that if you're sure about it. But the point is whether the Cuban 0.90

00:25:33.860 Missile Crisis was secret or not, we could certainly make secret deals. And I think we have to get

00:25:39.660 creative now. And I would love to know what's being bandied about. The thing we would want

00:25:44.660 most, I think, is some help against China in the future. So we gave up missiles in Turkey, but I

00:25:59.680 think there was more than that we gave up. I think there was even a deeper secret than the missiles in

00:26:04.780 Turkey. I think that was the fake out part. All right. So anyway, we'll see what happens 0.57

00:26:12.360 there. But I think something creative might come out of that that might be positive.

00:26:16.200 Meanwhile, NBC is on track for the lowest Winter Olympics ratings of all time. Yay.

00:26:26.600 Are any of you watching even one event in the Winter Olympics, which I call the Thanks for the

00:26:33.000 Fentanyl Olympics? Nope, nope, nope. I will not click on a link. I will not. I won't even turn on my TV

00:26:42.420 so that it accidentally tunes to that network as I'm flipping through the channels. Does anybody flip

00:26:48.540 through channels anymore? Is that even a thing? I just use apps. I don't flip through channels anymore.

00:26:53.660 Yeah, I don't have channels either. I just have apps.

00:27:01.300 The two very old cold that are very much still in charge and must keep the farm before Russia. 0.93

00:27:05.640 Now, you know, you think that Biden and Putin both have to be gone before we could be friends

00:27:11.040 with Russia? Maybe. But I think they're both flexible enough.

00:27:14.720 If it made sense.

00:27:20.200 So, how about a hand for the public?

00:27:26.880 So, what has the public done recently?

00:27:29.480 Well, the public is tearing down the mandate walls. 0.99

00:27:35.100 It looks like the public has told NBC to go fuck themselves if they're going to cover the 1.00

00:27:41.200 Olympics. That's the public. That is not our government. That is the American public doing 1.00

00:27:48.240 what's right for fentanyl, for the Uyghurs, for our economy, because of the Wuhan lab, potentially. 1.00

00:27:55.840 And this is the public talking. So, the public has decided.

00:28:00.960 And how about the cancellation of Joe Rogan? Do you think that'll happen?

00:28:10.820 Nope. Nope. Won't happen. Do you know why Joe Rogan won't be cancelled?

00:28:16.800 The public. The public. Yeah, the public seems to be taking charge of the country.

00:28:22.720 Am I wrong? The public has decided that Joe Rogan will either stay or get a raise.

00:28:30.460 Am I right? The public has decided Joe Rogan is either going to stay at Spotify or he's going

00:28:37.000 to get a raise. That's it. The public has decided the mandates are coming down. They're coming

00:28:42.520 down. The public has decided we didn't want to be in Afghanistan, no matter what it took,

00:28:50.080 basically. We got out. The public has made a lot of decisions this year. And they're not bad.

00:28:59.080 They're not bad. So, good for the public. I'm watching some very, very bad political analysis

00:29:11.300 happening. And I have to call it out. And this is where I get cancelled by my own audience.

00:29:17.200 Please stop saying, oh, Democrats, I guess the science changed because now you want to

00:29:25.160 get rid of the mandates or the masks anyway. Does that make sense? To make fun of the Democrats

00:29:31.520 and say, oh, I guess the science was different last week when you wanted masks, but now the

00:29:37.040 science has changed. Does that make sense? No. No, it doesn't make sense. The data changed.

00:29:43.920 The data changed. The science didn't change. Whether the science is good or bad, it never

00:29:52.180 changed. The data changed. And when the data changes, do you keep the same decision? Of course

00:29:59.860 not. So, if all you're seeing is people saying, oh, it looks like Omicron's a new game. Vaccinations

00:30:06.220 have hit a certain rate. Natural immunity has hit a certain rate. We're all going to get it.

00:30:11.540 Omicron seems to blast through everything. All of the data is different. All the data

00:30:17.860 might be wrong. That's another problem. But please, please, it just, I hate when people

00:30:24.880 who largely agree with me have bad arguments because I feel like it makes me look bad.

00:30:29.160 And I do think that you all need to protect your brand or your reputation because it's

00:30:35.780 important. And I'd like to do the same. I hate it when people act as if time doesn't

00:30:41.480 exist. There is a time to do something and a time not to do it. And if you do it when

00:30:46.720 the time is right, that doesn't mean you are wrong to not do it when the time was wrong.

00:30:51.780 All right? Now, you could argue that it was always the time to do it, blah, blah, blah.

00:30:56.540 But don't ignore the fact that the reason things are different is because the data is all different.

00:31:02.420 That's something you shouldn't ignore.

00:31:08.360 And how about, so here's how we're seeing it. We're seeing the Youngkin was wrong, but now 1.00

00:31:16.280 he's right, according to the Democrats. No. Youngkin made a decision when the data was

00:31:21.960 almost overwhelmingly, you know, clear that we needed to reduce the mandates. He did it a little

00:31:31.180 bit early. Other people waited a few weeks. And then they said, oh, yeah, it looks like we're safe.

00:31:38.380 I don't really think that's a flip-flop. Right? Now, I do think that the politicians are reacting

00:31:45.040 to public demand, don't you? Of course. So public demand is a new fact.

00:31:52.520 That's a new fact. And part of the science, which we've always asked the experts to look at,

00:31:58.980 is to look at all the factors. Don't look at just the virus. Look at, you know, the social impact,

00:32:06.440 the economic impact, the mental health impact, all that. Right? So one of the new factors is the

00:32:12.540 public opinion. If public opinion changed, that is a perfectly good reason for governments to change.

00:32:20.200 We shouldn't be criticizing them for changing when we cause them to do the change. That's what we

00:32:26.740 wanted. That was the whole point of it. All right. Fusion. Yet again, another story about a breakthrough

00:32:36.460 fusion, this one from the UK, they more than doubled the previous record for generating and sustaining

00:32:42.820 nuclear fusion. Now, double doesn't mean that they're an economic break even. But again, it's an engineering

00:32:50.120 problem. Climate change is kind of solved. I might be the only person who's willing to say that out loud.

00:33:03.640 Climate change as a problem that's going to destroy the world is already solved. Now, we have to

00:33:11.960 implement it. But the solution is nuclear, traditional nuclear, but the better type. Modular nuclear,

00:33:22.040 so you get the economics down. And then fusion eventually. These might all be 10, 20 year things,

00:33:28.520 but that's fine. We'll be fine. And we also have the ability to remediate whatever damage happens

00:33:35.700 between now and the time that we have plenty of nuclear power. So if you look at the things that

00:33:40.420 have been solved in the recent last years, we've all been so busy just fighting for our lives in this

00:33:48.440 COVID world, that here are a few things that you lose sight of. Climate change basically solved.

00:33:56.000 And why was it solved? Because opinions changed. Now, technology changed too, but mostly opinions

00:34:04.260 about traditional nuclear development. Why did the opinions change? Well, Michael Schellenberger was a

00:34:12.200 big reason, maybe the biggest reason. Mark Schneider, big reason, very big reason. You know, I helped,

00:34:20.280 you helped. That was the people. Do you think that the government made a solution to climate?

00:34:28.680 Nope. Greta Thunberg, a citizen, made a big deal about it. And then people like you and I,

00:34:38.560 separately, whether we were worried about climate change or not, we're making a big deal about your,

00:34:43.440 you know, nuclear needs to be part of the mix, no matter what you think, because we just need the

00:34:48.240 energy. We can't run out of energy. So you need it. So the public solved climate change, not the

00:34:54.400 scientists. Think about that. It wasn't the scientists that solved climate change. Of course,

00:35:01.460 the scientists have to build the nuclear reactors and stuff. Like, they're not irrelevant. But in

00:35:06.300 terms of the movement of the strategy of the country, that was the people. The government did not

00:35:12.620 convince the people. Did you see that happening? It wasn't the government that convinced the people

00:35:18.640 to do nuclear. That never happened. It was literally the people that convinced the government.

00:35:23.900 And that happened really in the last two years, I'd say. That is remarkable. It's like freaking

00:35:30.860 unbelievable. The biggest problem in the world, the public solved it directly by changing our opinions

00:35:39.060 on the one thing that could have solved it. So that's happening. Now, what is the outcome of

00:35:45.420 the pandemic? One of the outcomes of the pandemic is we really got a lot smarter about a lot of stuff.

00:35:53.200 Right? So, you know, we can mourn our losses. Let's not, let's not lose sight that we lost a lot of

00:35:58.760 people. But we learned a lot. And we probably will be able to get on top of maybe not just the common

00:36:07.720 cold, maybe flus. Maybe we've got a whole new set of tools for everything. I mean, medically,

00:36:14.760 we're way ahead. If the only thing that came of this was dropping the state restriction about

00:36:20.420 telehealth, I mean, that's pretty huge. There's a bunch of huge benefits that came out of the

00:36:25.800 pandemic in the same way the huge benefits come out of a war. You don't want the war,

00:36:31.080 but you do get radar out of it. You know, you get a bunch of developments.

00:36:35.100 You get the nuclear bomb if you like that. So we've got pandemics going in the right way.

00:36:44.460 We've got, how about homeschooling? Are you watching Corey DeAngelis just kill it? I mean,

00:36:51.460 he's just killing it, spreading the homeschool message and reporting it back and building up

00:36:58.260 public support. So who was behind homeschooling? So what's the biggest, what is the biggest threat?

00:37:06.400 Let's say, let's say, what is the biggest cause of systemic racism? Biggest cause of systemic racism?

00:37:15.340 The schools. The schools are bad. If we had good schools everywhere, then no matter what bad

00:37:21.660 situation you were born into, your odds of having a strategy out would be pretty good.

00:37:25.520 Just pay attention in school. Do your homework. You'll be fine. But we don't have that.

00:37:32.260 So now, who solved the problem of the schools being crappy? Well, it's not solved, but the public

00:37:39.140 took over because the teachers' unions, the Democrats, et cetera, just weren't going to get it done.

00:37:44.480 So the people decided that they would keep pushing for these, fund the student instead of the system,

00:37:50.540 and state after state after state, and Corey DeAngelis is a big part of this, I think,

00:37:57.180 are lining them up and knocking them down. So there are more states, almost every day, there's a new

00:38:02.940 state introducing legislation or passing legislation to put funding in the hands of the kids so they

00:38:09.260 could take their money and go to a private or just a non-public school. So the public did that.

00:38:16.000 So the public is working on, and it's very, lots of progress, on a solution to systemic racism.

00:38:25.760 Now, let me play fair. Do you mind? Would you give me permission to say something good about,

00:38:33.080 let's say, who you think is the other side, in all likelihood, based on my audience?

00:38:37.680 Why did we solve the school problem? Well, mostly just to get better schools and less CRT and all that

00:38:46.980 stuff. But I'm not sure if we hadn't had the Black Lives movement, Black Lives Matter, I'm not sure that

00:38:56.080 we would have had as much energy to fix the school system. So again, whether you're pro or con,

00:39:07.180 the Black Lives Matter messaging, it was the public. It was the public saying, hey, we think there's a big

00:39:14.220 systemic problem. And then who solved it? The public. It wasn't even the politicians. I mean, so far, it looks

00:39:21.920 like the public just pushing the politicians to fix the schools, which are the biggest source of racism.

00:39:29.520 So we are in a really weird time right now. And the weird time is this. We've fixed just about

00:39:41.640 everything. Or it's on the way to being fixed. This is one of the most optimistic moments in

00:39:49.380 history I've ever seen. But we, you know, because of the nature of the news, it's all doom and gloom,

00:39:55.140 and we've lost our rights, and Russia's going to war and stuff. But wow, are we heading in the right

00:40:00.360 direction on everything. And we're, we're freaking killing it as human beings. We just can't see it 0.56

00:40:06.800 because we're right in the middle of it.

00:40:08.140 Is mocking an effective form of persuasion? Yes, it is. Yeah, so I'm not going to say that

00:40:18.900 everything's fixed. I'm going to say that the public is moving in the right direction on just

00:40:23.100 about everything. And it's, except, you know, the cancel culture is out of control. But I think,

00:40:29.700 but I do think the public stepped up and saved Joe Rogan. And I think the public

00:40:35.400 may have to take control of cancellations too. But, but, you know, I think the market may be taking

00:40:43.160 care of that itself. You know, how long ago was it that there could not have been a $100 million

00:40:49.340 offer from another platform for Joe Rogan? Think about that. Was it only maybe, I don't know when

00:40:59.520 Rumble started, but probably they weren't big enough or didn't have enough momentum that I would

00:41:06.100 say two years ago, Joe Rogan would have had no competing platform possibly, but now he does.

00:41:13.880 So he's, he's protected because the, not only has the public in a way, in a way the public is what

00:41:21.500 created these alternative platforms because they couldn't have succeeded without a big public energy

00:41:26.980 toward them. And so the public found a way to push industry to create safe spaces that you can get

00:41:35.080 canceled and still go make money. So that's a big deal. Now, here's a topic that I saw in the news

00:41:42.660 that the government has recovered some, many millions of dollars that were stolen, was it 6 billion?

00:41:50.040 They were stolen of Bitcoin. To which you probably all said to yourself, what? How can you recover

00:41:58.800 stolen Bitcoin? You ever wonder that? Because what about all that privacy?

00:42:06.600 Now, what was it, 3 billion? 3 billion they recovered. So whatever the number was, it was some,

00:42:13.300 some big, big number they recovered. But here's the part that surprised me. How did anybody ever

00:42:19.920 think that crypto was going to be private? Why did we ever think that? Because as long as you know who

00:42:28.200 the human is who has the crypto account, you can just force them to give you the password, right?

00:42:34.320 There's some amount of jail that will make anybody give you a password. So did we ever really have

00:42:43.560 any kind of privacy? Because the government, if they have a reason, they can ask for it. If they don't

00:42:49.120 have a reason, well, what's the difference? You hack the PC that accesses the wall, yeah. There's got to

00:42:56.920 be, I'll bet there are several ways to get at somebody's crypto. And the government has the

00:43:06.000 best one. They can control the human being, and then you control everything. All right. Well, I still

00:43:13.800 think the big push for Bitcoin in particular is going to be when the public decides that you have to

00:43:19.980 have some of it in your portfolio. How far are we from that? So this is the reason that I hold it. I hold

00:43:27.840 it just as a diversification thing, so it's, you know, a small part of the portfolio. But the reason I hold

00:43:33.760 it is that there's going to be a day, and it'll happen probably in one year, where all the financial

00:43:38.960 analysts will start saying the same thing. Well, we don't know what's going to happen with crypto, but if you

00:43:44.360 don't have some, you better get some. Just a little bit, in case it becomes the only thing you can

00:43:50.360 spend. Because one possibility, you know, this is sort of the prepper in me, there is at least one

00:43:59.200 possibility that someday regular money will suddenly dissolve one way or another, and the only thing you

00:44:04.700 have left is crypto. That could happen. Now, I don't think the odds of that are very high, but that's why

00:44:11.300 you diversify. You're trying to take care of all the smaller odds. You're not trying to take care of

00:44:16.560 one big one. 30 grand for one Bitcoin, yeah. But that doesn't mean anything, because you can buy

00:44:25.580 fractional, fractional Bitcoin.

00:44:27.400 Yeah. So Nassim Taleb has a black paper on Bitcoin, and predicts it will crash. Well, how hard is that to

00:44:44.660 predict? Let me make a prediction about a financial instrument, and it doesn't even matter which one

00:44:52.380 it is. I predict it will someday crash, because I'm magic. Do you know what else will someday crash?

00:44:59.940 Everything. Do you think the market will someday crash? Yeah, of course. Do you think every company

00:45:06.540 will someday crash? So far, all of them. Gold? Sure, someday. I think everything crashes.

00:45:15.260 So I don't consider Nassim Taleb to be my, let's say, he's not my guiding star. Your mileage might

00:45:29.300 differ. Yeah, there could be something that takes out the internet, but not cash money, that's

00:45:37.600 true. But you want to be protected either way. Crypto will eventually be hacked as computing power

00:45:46.900 increases, you say. I don't know. Will the Joe Rogan stuff backfire on the cancel crowd? I don't think

00:45:54.520 it'll backfire. I think it just won't work. You know, we should also talk about people who are

00:46:01.600 partially cancelled. Because I consider myself partially cancelled. If you were to Google me,

00:46:09.580 if you didn't know anything about me, what do you think you would find out about me if you

00:46:14.480 Googled me? Think about this question. You had no prior conception. You'd never heard of me,

00:46:21.340 never heard my name. Then you go online, and you say, let's figure out who this guy's about,

00:46:25.900 what he's about. And they Google me. It's going to say I'm a right-wing MAGA supporter.

00:46:33.680 Those two things are not true.

00:46:37.780 It's going to say that I'm a misogynist because of something taken out of context.

00:46:43.960 Right? Do you know what's the only thing it won't say? It won't say I'm a racist.

00:46:49.000 Because so far, somehow I've managed to not fall into any of those traps. As far as I know,

00:46:55.880 I don't think there's anything on the internet that would say that. Now, usually those are

00:47:00.500 something taken out of context or whatever. But I don't think I even said anything that could be

00:47:04.880 taken out of context, amazingly. Amazingly. It's hard to do. But amazingly. So I think I'm only being

00:47:12.240 accused of other things. You milk toast. All right. So I would say that I'm cancelled in the sense that

00:47:25.280 my public reputation is destroyed. If I didn't already have, you know, a career so I don't have

00:47:31.900 to worry about money, I couldn't get a job. Do you know how hard it would be to get a job with my

00:47:38.360 social media record? It'd be pretty hard. I don't think any employer would want to take me on.

00:47:45.860 You know, unless it was somebody who mistakenly thought that the accusations were true and they

00:47:51.080 liked it. What brand is your shirt? I think it's an untucket. Now, can you see? What does that say?

00:48:08.360 I'm talking. I couldn't remember for a moment. You can get a job with your skills. Well, I'm

00:48:16.720 exaggerating a little bit. But my point is, can you imagine any human resources group looking at my

00:48:22.580 public record and saying, we've got to get this guy on board? I don't think it would happen.

00:48:29.720 Maybe a CEO could do it. But the HR department would say, it looks like trouble.

00:48:33.500 Yeah, I could work for my pillow and my slippers. Did you keep the Vans or did you buy shoes for

00:48:45.560 adults? I kept the Vans. Actually, it was complimented on them. I've never been complimented

00:48:50.700 on my footwear before, but randomly complimented. All right. Oh, I could merchandise T-shirts

00:49:03.040 and coffee. That's not a bad idea. I should do T-shirt merchandising. All right. That's all for

00:49:13.240 now. I've got to go do some things. And I hope you're buying into my concept that things are really,

00:49:20.760 really heading in the right direction. We're not there. A lot of work to do, but the work is getting

00:49:25.420 done. And so congratulations to all of you. Literally, sincerely, congratulations. You public

00:49:35.400 have had a great year. I mean, you're killing it. You're just totally killing it in the last year.

00:49:42.220 So good on you. And I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 09, 2022

Episode 1649 Scott Adams： Mandates Dropping, Our President is Not Mentally Capable, Putin is Trapped

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