Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1666 Scott Adams： The Only Original Thoughts About Ukraine, Goes Well With a Beverage

00:00:00.000 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and everything in between, and in addition.

00:00:09.480 This is really the culmination of an entire lifetime for you, but more importantly, this

00:00:18.240 is the culmination of over 15 billion years of the universe's evolution.

00:00:27.200 Whoops.

00:00:27.840 YouTube, you can hear me now.

00:00:32.120 Thank you, Paul.

00:00:33.720 Your system is working very well.

00:00:37.160 I appreciate that.

00:00:38.920 So, here's what you missed, YouTube, when my microphone was not plugged in.

00:00:47.160 What you missed was, you've come to the best place in the world at the best time, and congratulations.

00:00:51.840 Would you like to take it up a notch?

00:00:53.100 And would you like to learn something about Ukraine that you never really understood

00:00:58.640 before?

00:00:59.720 Well, this is the place to come.

00:01:01.360 And all you need is a cup or mug or a glass, a tank or a chalice, a canteen, a jug or a

00:01:04.820 flask, a vessel of any kind.

00:01:07.620 Fill it with your favorite beverage.

00:01:09.440 I like coffee.

00:01:11.140 I like coffee.

00:01:12.200 What?

00:01:15.020 You're kidding me?

00:01:16.160 YouTube is still bad sound?

00:01:21.760 Huh.

00:01:23.600 Okay.

00:01:24.360 Well, it's all I can do, I think.

00:01:28.320 So, we're plugged in.

00:01:31.700 Let's see if I've got any.

00:01:35.740 Oh, good over there?

00:01:36.780 Okay.

00:01:37.220 Sound is good.

00:01:37.780 So, here's what's going on in the world.

00:01:42.580 Now, as promised, I'm going to give you the most unusual take on Ukraine and Russia that 0.84

00:01:50.660 you've ever seen.

00:01:52.420 Is that worth staying around for?

00:01:54.060 Because everybody else is going to be talking about the same topic today.

00:01:57.040 So, today has to be the best one.

00:02:00.920 Was there something missing?

00:02:03.260 Was there something missing?

00:02:04.660 Was it the dopamine high of the day?

00:02:08.240 Was it the thing that you're all here for?

00:02:11.460 The simultaneous sip?

00:02:13.220 Okay.

00:02:13.840 Here it comes.

00:02:14.680 Go.

00:02:18.740 Wow.

00:02:19.400 Everything is polywumpus today.

00:02:23.580 You've heard that term?

00:02:26.100 Is that a term?

00:02:27.560 Polywumpus?

00:02:29.000 It's possible.

00:02:30.040 I just made that up.

00:02:30.800 Well, we're in the Ukraine fog of war stage, and that means that 100% of the things you 0.95

00:02:37.780 hear in the news are fake.

00:02:41.420 Do you remember yesterday when I saw some people on social media picking up on the fact

00:02:48.100 that apparently the Ukrainians were putting up stiff resistance?

00:02:54.180 Do you believe that?

00:02:55.280 How many of you believe that the Ukrainians killed 2,800 Russian troops in one day?

00:03:04.000 That was a claim by one of the pro-Ukrainian people.

00:03:07.900 And totally stopped the Russian incursion.

00:03:12.600 So, that was something I was hearing, I think, yesterday.

00:03:15.880 At the same time when actual military people were talking, I forget which ones it was, but some

00:03:24.940 people who actually knew what they were talking about said, let's get this straight.

00:03:30.040 There's no comparison between the Russian army and the Ukrainian army.

00:03:33.480 If the Russians have not gotten what they want yet, it's just because they're staging. 0.85

00:03:39.240 It's just not time yet.

00:03:44.640 So, there's probably nothing that can be deduced by any one-day report on whether the Ukrainian

00:03:52.280 resistance is being effective or not.

00:03:55.780 I would say that we probably can say with some confidence that the Ukrainians are insanely 1.00

00:04:03.280 brave.

00:04:03.820 I don't even know if that's a compliment, honestly, because there's bravery and then

00:04:10.440 there's, you know, going too far, isn't there?

00:04:13.480 But if Russia thought that the Ukrainians were just going to bend over, it doesn't look like

00:04:20.860 that's going to happen.

00:04:22.140 I'll tell you one thing that Ukraine got out of this so far, and maybe it won't be enough 1.00

00:04:28.340 and maybe it won't be anything.

00:04:30.020 But so far, they definitely have our respect.

00:04:35.460 Am I right?

00:04:36.880 Like, there's nobody watching Ukraine saying, oh, we don't think you guys are good or smart

00:04:42.760 or awesome.

00:04:44.380 Pretty much everybody's looking at Ukraine and saying, now that's a country.

00:04:49.500 Like, that's what you want to see.

00:04:52.240 There's some fighting spirit there.

00:04:54.620 At the same time, I don't want to see them fight for nothing.

00:04:57.080 Right?

00:04:58.920 Do you want to see them fight and die for, you know, what might be a foregone conclusion?

00:05:04.580 Nope.

00:05:05.800 So it's a tough situation.

00:05:07.680 Here's some things around that topic.

00:05:10.520 So New York Times was reporting that the U.S. had been meeting with China for a long time,

00:05:17.300 I guess months, and trying to get China to help talk Putin out of invading.

00:05:23.660 And China's response was to share the American intel with Russia.

00:05:30.040 Now, that's the story.

00:05:32.420 Does that sound true?

00:05:34.760 And what do you make of it?

00:05:36.960 You know, I kind of just read the headline.

00:05:38.880 But if you just read the headline, what kind of intel do you think we shared with China

00:05:46.020 that they shared with Putin?

00:05:47.880 And do you think it was anything important?

00:05:50.980 You know, anything that they didn't already know we could see?

00:05:53.720 I mean, it was probably nothing but satellite imagery, right?

00:05:57.300 What the hell else were we going to show China?

00:06:00.120 Do you think we went over and said to China, look, we don't usually share our sources and

00:06:05.720 methods, but we really need your help?

00:06:08.760 So just this one time, we're going to show you how our entire intelligence agency works.

00:06:12.960 So you'll get on our side on this Putin thing.

00:06:16.100 And then China sold us out and gave all our sources and methods to Russia?

00:06:21.800 Well, I don't think so.

00:06:23.420 This looks like a complete fake story, doesn't it?

00:06:26.880 Fake, not in the details, but how the details are told.

00:06:31.540 Because can you imagine that we actually, literally, gave China some intel that would have surprised

00:06:41.160 Russia? 0.61

00:06:43.020 You know, did Russia see this from China and say, whoa, we did not know the Americans could 0.96

00:06:48.740 see things from the air?

00:06:51.620 What's a satellite?

00:06:52.580 Now, obviously, we also had things like, you know, captured signal intelligence and stuff,

00:07:02.340 presumably.

00:07:03.200 But do you think we shared all that with China?

00:07:05.960 If we had satellite pictures of massive military might heading toward Ukraine, don't you think

00:07:12.360 that would have been enough?

00:07:15.260 Plus his public statements.

00:07:16.840 So this looks like a complete fake story.

00:07:20.980 It looks like a war propaganda story to me.

00:07:27.140 All right.

00:07:28.340 There's a story that the Ukrainian government asked the citizens to change the street signs.

00:07:35.860 Now, I don't know if this is true either.

00:07:38.940 I guess there's going to be one theme for the show today.

00:07:41.880 Just assume that everything I tell you might not be true.

00:07:44.780 Because it's something I heard from sources that are in the fog of war, and they're all

00:07:50.940 liars.

00:07:52.560 So just assume none of it's true. 0.96

00:07:55.020 But it's not going to be less interesting.

00:07:58.020 It should be.

00:07:59.460 But it won't make it less interesting.

00:08:03.160 So allegedly, I saw this in a tweet by Christo Grazev, that Ukraine's interior ministry asked

00:08:10.480 residents to take down street signs in order to confuse oncoming Russian troops.

00:08:15.440 Sounds like a good idea.

00:08:16.820 But then the state road signs agency went one step further, and apparently all the directions 1.00

00:08:22.840 on the street signs are going to be changed to go fuck yourself, presumably in Russia. 1.00

00:08:28.440 Do you believe that? 1.00

00:08:33.800 I don't.

00:08:35.600 I don't.

00:08:36.820 Because first of all, if you were legitimately trying to confuse the enemy, you would change

00:08:42.800 the signs to something that looked believable but wrong.

00:08:47.100 Right?

00:08:48.340 Isn't that kind of obvious?

00:08:49.580 Because if you really were doing this for military reasons, and this story were, you know, with

00:08:55.580 any shred of truth to it, you would, yeah, you would move the signs, exactly.

00:09:01.720 You wouldn't even destroy the signs, you would just put them in different places.

00:09:06.260 Obvious.

00:09:07.220 Most obvious thing, right?

00:09:09.200 Now, I'm sure that Russians also have GPS, so what's the difference?

00:09:13.300 Right?

00:09:13.840 As you're saying in the comments, if you have GPS, what the hell do the road signs have to

00:09:18.180 do with anything?

00:09:19.580 And so, and so, true story or fake story?

00:09:25.840 I think it's a fake story.

00:09:27.840 What do you think?

00:09:29.600 I'm going to go with fake.

00:09:31.120 All right.

00:09:31.400 All right.

00:09:35.960 One of the things that Russia has going for it is that because it's the energy source to

00:09:41.360 Europe, Europe can't go that hard on Russia because it doesn't want to lose its energy.

00:09:46.580 So, even the talking about taking away the SWIFT access, you know, the access to international

00:09:55.060 banking through this electronic system that moves money around the major banks.

00:10:00.000 If Russia has taken out of the electronic distribution part of the banking system called the SWIFT, it turns

00:10:09.340 out that that's not going to make that much difference because even what we're contemplating is carving

00:10:14.960 out the part where they can't pay for energy.

00:10:18.400 So, energy would not be included in the sanctions.

00:10:22.260 So, Russia could still use the SWIFT system, you know, to sell their energy.

00:10:27.440 And that's the main thing they sell.

00:10:29.760 So, the whole SWIFT thing might not make that much difference.

00:10:33.580 I saw an article on GZero that's quoted somebody suggesting there might be a 5% dip in Russia's

00:10:43.920 GDP if they get taken off of SWIFT.

00:10:46.760 But I'm not even sure it would be that.

00:10:49.120 And I'm not even sure anybody could estimate it.

00:10:52.900 So, getting back to the pipeline.

00:10:55.720 If Russia is kind of held, is holding Europe captive because it controls energy, how can

00:11:03.420 Ukraine ever get anything done?

00:11:06.100 Because basically, they're not going to get as much help as they need.

00:11:10.460 It looks like Europe's strategy might be to be a little bit too slow.

00:11:16.080 And then, I saw Andres Beacow say this on Twitter, that maybe Germany's strategy is to say, 0.98

00:11:21.920 yeah, we'll help, yeah, we're going to help, let's help, oh, it's too late, oh, darn. 0.89

00:11:33.120 Well, there's nothing you can do now because Russia already owns Ukraine. 0.84

00:11:37.060 So, it might actually be an intentional European strategy to pretend to be helpful, to literally

00:11:44.180 pretend.

00:11:46.060 Yeah, to slow walk it, exactly, the corporate word for it, to slow walk it.

00:11:50.260 And just say, oops, too late.

00:11:54.480 Thanks for the energy, Russia.

00:11:56.520 Too bad, Ukraine. 0.99

00:11:58.500 Now, if you were Ukraine, now you do want the goodwill of the world, and they seem to

00:12:03.080 be playing that card pretty well.

00:12:05.100 You don't want to lose it.

00:12:06.840 But on the other hand, you don't think you would make, you would take that card off the

00:12:12.840 table from a military perspective?

00:12:15.720 Because if somebody, whoever, blew up the key pipelines so that Europe didn't have energy

00:12:23.260 anyway, would Europe then be free to act because they would have nothing to gain?

00:12:29.940 They didn't have energy anyway.

00:12:33.060 I don't know.

00:12:34.320 And could anybody get to the pipelines, or are they so well protected?

00:12:37.480 And if they're so well protected, why don't you make the whole country out of that?

00:12:43.160 That's the old joke about the black box on the airplane.

00:12:46.400 Airplane crashes, but the black box seems to always survive.

00:12:50.520 And then all the jokesters say, well, why don't you make the whole plane out of that black 1.00

00:12:54.200 box stuff?

00:12:54.780 Same thing about the pipelines.

00:12:58.140 If the Ukrainians can't get to the pipelines that are crisscrossing the country because 0.91

00:13:03.080 they're so well fortified, you should make the whole country out of that stuff, whatever

00:13:08.260 it is, magic.

00:13:09.960 I don't know.

00:13:10.280 Is there anything that you can't dig?

00:13:12.440 You can't dig a hole and get to it.

00:13:15.040 There's no maintenance.

00:13:16.860 There's no maintenance access anywhere.

00:13:19.380 No pumping stations halfway anywhere.

00:13:22.620 It just seems to me there would have to be some kind of access.

00:13:28.660 All right.

00:13:30.920 Anyway, that's just an open question.

00:13:32.500 It doesn't look like anybody's going to blow up any pipelines.

00:13:36.860 Here's one way to look at Putin, and then we'll go to the whiteboard, and I'll explain

00:13:43.080 to you exactly what's going on.

00:13:45.500 Have we not been confused about what the hell is Putin's objective?

00:13:50.680 Right?

00:13:50.960 Because I would say that our media is so unreliable and scattered that they never really told us

00:13:58.360 what's going on or why.

00:14:01.320 Why do you think that our media did such a bad job?

00:14:04.680 Do you think it's incompetence or something else?

00:14:09.020 Just incompetence or something else?

00:14:10.940 For now, those are your only two choices.

00:14:13.320 The first something else could be any category.

00:14:15.900 Incompetence or something else?

00:14:17.280 Why did we not know what the hell Putin was up to and why?

00:14:25.300 Okay.

00:14:25.780 I'm seeing your answers are all over the place.

00:14:29.140 Okay.

00:14:30.760 I think there's at least a little bit of something else and a little bit of incompetence.

00:14:35.460 So, you know, it's easy to say any large organization or any group of people is going to have plenty

00:14:42.620 of incompetence in it.

00:14:44.140 That's easy to say.

00:14:45.980 But it feels like something else.

00:14:49.340 And do you know what that something else might be?

00:14:51.580 Let's dig a little deeper.

00:14:53.440 What do you believe the something else is?

00:14:55.840 Go.

00:14:56.860 In the comments, what do you think?

00:14:58.860 Somebody says money, Burisma, something about Ukraine and the Bidens, people are saying.

00:15:05.760 Just reading your comments.

00:15:07.480 Corruption, Biden connection.

00:15:12.780 Putin and the Soviet Union and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:15:17.060 Okay.

00:15:20.580 Here's one possibility.

00:15:21.880 Have you heard Putin's version of events?

00:15:27.720 Putin's version of events is that the United States has been the aggressor and has been

00:15:33.880 getting closer and closer to encircling Russia with NATO and has been a bully since the Soviet 0.99

00:15:43.260 Union fell.

00:15:44.060 And that Russia has been belittled, embarrassed, and pushed by the United States for decades.

00:15:55.820 And when they reached a certain line, they had pushed too far.

00:16:01.380 Can somebody give me a history lesson?

00:16:04.820 Was Georgia ever considered for NATO?

00:16:09.780 Can somebody, because I don't have good history, so I'm seeing some yeses there and then some

00:16:18.480 noes.

00:16:19.380 Yes or no?

00:16:25.620 I guess I'm seeing maybe there was some discussion about it, it looks like.

00:16:30.560 It looks like there was some discussion about it as opposed to any formal process.

00:16:35.040 So, and then, and then Russia moved, right?

00:16:39.780 Putin moved on Georgia.

00:16:41.840 And then Ukraine, the conversation comes up about NATO, and now we've seen that he moved.

00:16:48.720 And I was trying to understand the motivation.

00:16:52.140 So, first of all, from Putin's telling, he tells it like a victim.

00:16:59.120 He tells it like a victim.

00:17:00.780 Now, nothing I say should suggest I'm agreeing with Putin, okay?

00:17:04.900 I'm just saying his telling is that he's a victim, and that he's been literally bullied.

00:17:11.020 Now, I saw an article from 2014 that was in Atlantic Magazine by Joseph Burgo.

00:17:18.900 And he had a theory back then, hypothesis, that Putin is a narcissist, and his, you know, one

00:17:28.820 can assume that his own sense of ego is tied up with Russia in general, and Russia's history,

00:17:35.700 and Russia's legacy, and everything else.

00:17:38.800 Now, what would cause somebody to become a narcissist, according to many experts?

00:17:45.400 Do you know what turned somebody into a narcissist?

00:17:48.640 Being bullied.

00:17:50.660 Do you think Putin ever got bullied as a kid?

00:17:54.280 Almost certainly.

00:17:55.800 Yeah, and there are reports of it, but who knows.

00:17:58.540 And that apparently he reacted very aggressively against bullies as a kid.

00:18:03.800 Now, again, nobody can confirm that any of this is true.

00:18:07.400 I'm not even sure we know anything about his childhood, really.

00:18:10.640 But that's a report.

00:18:12.480 So follow with me to connect some dots.

00:18:15.720 If he were bullied, that would turn him into a narcissist, allegedly.

00:18:21.240 A narcissist would be overly sensitive to how people view them.

00:18:26.900 And then here's the weird part.

00:18:29.600 When somebody is a narcissist, they have a certain set of behaviors that are so baked in,

00:18:36.060 it's very much like alcoholics.

00:18:37.760 If you've ever known more than one alcoholic, did you ever say to yourself,

00:18:44.140 well, that's weird, they act the same.

00:18:46.500 There's like these set of behaviors that are only alcoholic behaviors,

00:18:50.100 but two complete strangers, and you add the alcohol, and they act the same.

00:18:55.220 Well, narcissists are like that. 0.62

00:18:59.080 The specificity of how they act is just weird.

00:19:01.720 Like, you could take one from two sides of the world,

00:19:05.100 and you could tell what they're going to do before they do it.

00:19:08.720 They're that predictable.

00:19:10.140 And here's one of the weird parts.

00:19:13.900 Projection.

00:19:15.760 Now, I've actually said that it didn't exist, and people were just making it up.

00:19:20.640 And everybody was just like, yeah, you know, people think the same.

00:19:23.860 So, you know, obviously, I think you might be thinking a little bit the same as me.

00:19:28.200 And I'd always discounted it.

00:19:30.460 But there's a special kind of projection that only applies to narcissists,

00:19:36.000 which is a weird kind.

00:19:39.680 Now, a weird projection would be like this.

00:19:43.760 If somebody said, let's say you blamed a narcissist of running over your dog,

00:19:50.840 and you say, you ran over my dog, what would the narcissist say first? 0.99

00:19:55.020 No, I didn't, because they're liars. 1.00

00:19:57.020 They're always liars. 0.97

00:19:58.200 No, I didn't.

00:19:59.460 I did not run over your dog.

00:20:00.720 Then you say, here's video.

00:20:02.740 I've got video from five angles and, you know, ten witnesses that you ran over a dog.

00:20:10.400 Here it is, right here.

00:20:11.340 Look at it.

00:20:11.780 There's your face.

00:20:13.080 There's you in the driver's seat.

00:20:14.480 There's my dog.

00:20:15.220 You're running over it.

00:20:16.520 There's no doubt about this.

00:20:17.720 What does a narcissist say when given absolute proof?

00:20:24.080 Always.

00:20:25.260 They say, you ran over my dog.

00:20:27.240 And the narcissist would say that, even knowing that you don't own a car, and the narcissist never owned a dog.

00:20:34.840 And you'd say to yourself, I don't know what's happening here.

00:20:39.860 This is weird.

00:20:41.640 How could you be blaming me of the exact thing I'm blaming you of when you don't even own a dog and never have?

00:20:49.580 And the narcissist will keep with that story.

00:20:53.300 And you'll say to yourself, I don't even know what's going on here.

00:20:56.420 And then do you know what the narcissist says?

00:20:59.480 I think maybe you should seek professional help because you're starting to lose it.

00:21:05.500 That's the checklist.

00:21:06.920 It goes just like that each time.

00:21:08.480 So as soon as it's obvious that the narcissist is completely denying obvious reality, they'll tell you that you've lost your mind.

00:21:17.600 And you can't see what's right in front of you.

00:21:20.560 Now, yeah, gaslighting you, that would be called.

00:21:24.460 So look at what Putin's done and how this has all developed.

00:21:29.040 And I'm going to go to the visuals here.

00:21:33.420 Now, I'm not great with geography, so just roughly speaking, there's this big mass called Russia.

00:21:41.720 And the first offense to Putin's, let's say, his ego was when Georgia sort of hangs down here.

00:21:51.240 So Georgia started talking about maybe being part of NATO, so Russia, you know, jumped right in and controlled it.

00:22:04.040 But now you've got Ukraine.

00:22:13.620 Ukraine.

00:22:14.260 Ukraine, which I think you can see what's developing here. 0.98

00:22:25.800 If you're Putin, Ukraine and Georgia form the genitalia of Russia. 1.00

00:22:36.000 So it's literally the cock and balls of Russia. 0.99

00:22:38.240 And so if Russia were to lose some of the little dingleberry countries that were just not that important, he can live with that. 0.99

00:22:50.520 It's embarrassing, but you can live with it.

00:22:53.780 But NATO said, hey, Putin, since we picked off some of these little unaligned countries and we put them to NATO, 1.00

00:23:02.620 NATO, how about our next step, logically, would be to cut off your fucking balls and cock in front of the world. 1.00

00:23:13.100 I can't see what problem that would cause. 1.00

00:23:16.300 Do you? 1.00

00:23:17.420 Let's just cut off your entire cock and balls while everybody's watching and see if that gets a reaction from you. 1.00

00:23:24.580 Do you know why? 1.00

00:23:25.960 Because he only appreciates toughness.

00:23:29.500 He only appreciates toughness.

00:23:32.040 Right?

00:23:32.620 So isn't it smart to do the most humiliating thing you can do to him in front of the world because he only appreciates toughness?

00:23:42.860 Except he doesn't like bullies.

00:23:49.100 He doesn't like bullies.

00:23:52.100 Did we know that about him?

00:23:55.520 Maybe we should have.

00:23:56.620 Now, because his system is not a democratic system where he doesn't have to worry about losing power, this is personal. 0.97

00:24:06.560 And, you know, even though it's a weird coincidence that these two countries form the cock and balls of Russia, 0.97

00:24:14.300 I think you see my point, don't you? 0.97

00:24:16.920 When you say to yourself, why is Putin acting irrationally, it's because we made him act irrationally.

00:24:25.220 Do you know who else would act irrationally?

00:24:32.340 Now, ladies, I'm going to ask the men to explain this to you.

00:24:37.520 You may not be aware of this. 0.99

00:24:38.880 One of the things that makes men act irrationally and sometimes angry is any threat whatsoever to our cock or our balls. 0.99

00:24:49.400 We don't even act rational after that. 0.99

00:24:53.540 We're just sort of mad.

00:24:55.480 We might do some stuff to you if you threaten any of that area, that situation.

00:25:02.100 And so, without all the details of history of all the slights and abuses we have dealt to Putin,

00:25:10.040 let's go all the way back to 2008 when Putin asked if he could join NATO.

00:25:14.860 Yeah.

00:25:17.820 Now, we've talked about that before, but why did this only recently come up?

00:25:24.460 I would guess it's the same reason that our media has not informed us well about Putin's motives.

00:25:32.260 I believe that our CIA and our intelligence agencies are heavily staffed with Russia experts,

00:25:39.740 just sort of a legacy from the Cold War,

00:25:42.060 and that all the Russia experts needed something to do.

00:25:46.700 And they'd all come to the belief that the only way that Putin would respond is if you could, you know,

00:25:54.220 close him in and put the pressure on him.

00:25:57.860 He literally asked to join our club.

00:26:01.060 He literally asked to join NATO.

00:26:03.440 Does that sound like the guy who couldn't get along if you wanted him to?

00:26:10.120 I mean, is Russia getting along with China, or are they hacking each other all the time?

00:26:15.440 I don't know.

00:26:15.860 Maybe they are.

00:26:17.200 But I feel like Russia gets along with other countries.

00:26:22.320 Am I wrong?

00:26:23.800 Doesn't Russia get along with other countries? 0.84

00:26:25.840 I feel as though the CIA fucked up so badly in reading the room, if you will, 0.87

00:26:38.220 and tried to overthrow, literally tried to overthrow Putin, 0.97

00:26:41.820 literally tried to embarrass him,

00:26:43.500 literally tried to pick him apart one part at a time to destroy Russia. 0.85

00:26:48.540 Why were we trying to destroy Russia?

00:26:53.380 Well, what was the purpose of that?

00:26:58.300 And is everything that we see just Putin reacting exactly the way you would expect somebody in his situation?

00:27:06.000 It looks like it to me.

00:27:08.200 I mean, it looks exactly like how you would expect somebody to react in that situation.

00:27:12.400 Now, on top of that, here's my big breaking news.

00:27:17.860 This is just my opinion.

00:27:20.240 But one of the weird things about narcissists is that they will accuse you of, as I said,

00:27:26.560 the exact thing that they're doing. 0.93

00:27:28.440 Did you see that Putin just accused the Ukrainian government of being a bunch of drug addicts? 0.61

00:27:34.980 Did that catch your attention as an unusual accusation?

00:27:43.140 I don't know if I've ever heard that before, have you?

00:27:46.240 Has anybody ever called an entire government a bunch of drug addicts

00:27:50.280 and then used that as a pretense for attacking?

00:27:54.360 Do you know what that sounds like exactly?

00:27:58.420 That sounds like a narcissist projecting.

00:28:02.060 And how do you interpret that?

00:28:03.440 There's one way to interpret that. 0.97

00:28:07.140 That Putin himself is a drug addict and is telling you. 0.97

00:28:10.800 Telling you in the most direct way a narcissist can. 0.97

00:28:14.460 The way a narcissist tells you what they're up to is they blame you for doing it.

00:28:19.580 That's how you know.

00:28:21.700 That's the trick.

00:28:23.440 And my background in hypnosis would tell me the same thing.

00:28:27.540 The fact it was even on his mind.

00:28:30.300 Because it's a weird thing to even be on your mind, right?

00:28:33.500 We've all seen Zelensky a million times.

00:28:36.220 Does Zelensky look like he's on drugs?

00:28:38.980 Not at all.

00:28:41.280 Does Putin?

00:28:43.380 Does Putin look like he's on drugs?

00:28:46.420 Lately.

00:28:47.840 You know that Macron said that he seemed like a different person.

00:28:51.120 Like darker.

00:28:52.440 More intense.

00:28:53.140 Yeah.

00:28:55.820 Yeah.

00:28:57.060 Yeah.

00:28:57.540 I would say that Putin has revealed, because this is sort of a hypnotist trick, is how to know that, how to know what people are thinking.

00:29:07.360 The hypnotist knows that people reveal in their choice of words their inner thoughts.

00:29:13.540 They don't know they're doing it.

00:29:15.140 But the words that come most easily to them are the ones that are in the zone of the thing they're trying to keep from you, if you know what I mean.

00:29:22.380 So just if you look at their choice of words, you know, okay, those words come from this zone of thinking.

00:29:27.780 That's really where that's about.

00:29:29.260 So if you look at Putin looks different to me, he looks less healthy, there is some talk that he's, quote, losing it, but I think that probably comes from our own intelligence agencies, you know, so who knows if that's true, right?

00:29:46.280 So I wouldn't take it as true any story of any adversary's mental health.

00:29:53.140 You can't take any of those stories as true.

00:29:54.840 But you can observe yourself, and I tweeted this morning Putin's explanation of the great humiliations that have been heaped upon him.

00:30:05.120 See for yourself.

00:30:06.980 See in Putin's words if that looks like the old Putin.

00:30:12.120 It doesn't look like it to me.

00:30:14.520 It looks like he snapped.

00:30:16.820 And I would say there's a probability, this is my speculation, that two things have come together in a tragic way.

00:30:24.640 Number one, he got pushed too far at the same time he was taking some kind of medication that made him not want to be pushed, like extra, extra not want to be pushed, like if I'm going to snap, it's going to happen now kind of drug.

00:30:44.100 Now, I'm not going to speculate what it would be.

00:30:46.200 You know, I often think, you know, you think of steroids and prednisone, but it could be anything.

00:30:54.680 They're probably a constellation, I would guess.

00:30:58.520 There's probably a whole constellation of drugs that are, you know, prescribed for ordinary medical problems,

00:31:05.860 of which you would imagine he would be, at this point, having some.

00:31:11.060 He's that age.

00:31:11.700 And so, and so I submit to you, the two forces have come together.

00:31:20.920 The humiliation of Russia over time, that has been relentless, with him getting on some kind of change of, it could be a mental health change, that's possible.

00:31:32.240 But I think more likely, since there's a suddenness to it, well, I guess I could go either way.

00:31:39.540 But I'm going to go, I'm going to go with a, someday we will know that he's drugged up like Hitler was. 1.00

00:31:46.860 Now, Hitler was on all kinds of shit, right? 0.99

00:31:49.500 Does anybody, tell me what was Hitler on? 1.00

00:31:52.080 In his worst days, was Hitler on meth?

00:31:57.040 Because amphetamines are what make you this way, right?

00:32:04.340 Would you agree that the amphetamines, the meth, are most likely what's going to make you overreach and, you know, act out of ego?

00:32:18.060 Would that be true?

00:32:19.340 I mean, it's pretty obvious he's not on mushrooms.

00:32:23.020 He's not on ecstasy.

00:32:24.900 He's not on weed.

00:32:27.040 I don't even think he's drunk.

00:32:29.640 I think it's prescription meds of some kind.

00:32:35.000 He probably has a few months to live.

00:32:38.080 You know, I don't know if people act that way, do they?

00:32:41.140 If you only have a few months to live, do you try to get that thing done, or do you just say, you know, I just got other things to worry about now?

00:32:49.560 I don't think you'd want to work that hard if you only had a few months to live, but maybe that's just me.

00:32:54.500 CNN refers to the action in Ukraine as an unprovoked invasion.

00:33:02.240 Would you say it's unprovoked?

00:33:04.940 Go.

00:33:05.540 In your opinion, with what we know so far, is the invasion of Ukraine unprovoked?

00:33:15.100 I'm saying mostly no's.

00:33:18.580 Yeah.

00:33:18.820 And doesn't it depend, you know, I see yeses and no's.

00:33:24.460 But it depends on your definition of provoked, doesn't it?

00:33:27.360 If you knew that Ukraine was on your doorstep and your mortal enemy was going to use it to put weapons, wouldn't you feel provoked? 0.91

00:33:44.420 If somebody were, let's say, how about the Cuban Missile Crisis?

00:33:47.800 Was Kennedy provoked?

00:33:51.980 Let's ask that one.

00:33:53.640 Was Kennedy provoked by Russia, Soviet Union, I guess, the Soviet Union, with the Cuban Missile Crisis?

00:34:02.860 Yes.

00:34:03.680 Yes, we would call that provoked, even though nobody fired anybody or evaded anybody, right?

00:34:09.600 Am I right?

00:34:10.720 We would all call that provoked.

00:34:12.440 We've all been trained.

00:34:13.980 We've been taught in school that that was a provocation and that the response to it was perfectly legitimate.

00:34:23.180 We just did exactly the same thing to Russia that the Soviet Union was trying to do to us. 0.65

00:34:30.600 They were provoked.

00:34:32.680 They were absolutely provoked.

00:34:35.100 Now, I don't approve of what Russia is doing in Ukraine, just to be clear.

00:34:40.180 I'm not pro-Russia. 0.89

00:34:42.440 But it does help to understand that we provoked the shit out of them and should have seen it coming from a mile away, which we did. 0.93

00:34:51.180 And it looks like what is happening now is on top of the tragedy in Ukraine itself, which is tragedy number one. 0.97

00:35:02.340 But, well, I guess there's tragedies all around here.

00:35:06.440 I think that we're going to be gaslit in the United States to be taught that this is purely a Russian aggression situation.

00:35:24.660 And I think that's only half of it.

00:35:26.180 Putin's definitely, it looks like something's different.

00:35:31.560 You know, maybe he just reached the last straw and maybe that's all it is, but it's different.

00:35:34.980 And then other people talk about, you know, just power will keep going until you stop it.

00:35:43.060 So all Putin's doing is taking advantage of situations.

00:35:46.440 But it seems to me like the situations he's taking advantage of all do seem to have a strategic point to them.

00:35:53.640 So they don't seem crazy up to this point.

00:35:57.520 All right.

00:36:00.080 Compare how we've been treating Russia with how Trump treated Russia.

00:36:05.340 If you imagine that, of course, Russia wants lots of things, you know, wants a strong defense and a good economy and all that stuff.

00:36:14.280 But if you imagine the important thing here, if you imagine the important thing is how, you know, how Putin feels about his place in history and whether he's bullied and whether Russia has been bullied and all that.

00:36:33.140 Think about how Trump handled that.

00:36:36.320 Trump handled Putin and, by extension, Russia with complete respect.

00:36:46.960 So Trump knew how to handle this exact situation.

00:36:51.040 If my hypothesis is right, Trump knew how to handle it.

00:36:56.540 Just tell him he's a genius and Russia is awesome.

00:36:59.460 And maybe we can work with you.

00:37:01.080 That was exactly the right thing to do.

00:37:04.640 Now, who sounds scarier?

00:37:07.200 The one who says, hey, you know, you're kind of smart and you're awesome and let's work together.

00:37:11.180 Does that sound dangerous?

00:37:12.660 Or the one who says, we're going to have to put NATO on your doorstep and put a bunch of weapons in Ukraine. 1.00

00:37:18.100 And by the way, it used to be your cock and balls, but we took it from you. 0.99

00:37:22.840 Like, which one is handling that the right way? 0.99

00:37:25.000 Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't World War II happen because of the way we handled World War I? 0.51

00:37:32.620 We meaning everybody who didn't lose.

00:37:36.800 Now, is that historically correct?

00:37:40.060 That World War II happened because of how poorly we handled World War I?

00:37:44.260 And now we're watching what happened about how we handled the decline of the Soviet Union.

00:37:52.020 So Putin's point of view is that we should have been just as helpful and we would have had a good friend in Russia.

00:37:59.660 And you know what?

00:38:01.320 I'll bet that's true.

00:38:03.360 I'll bet that's true.

00:38:04.240 I'll bet if we had been gracious and helpful when the Iron Curtain fell, that we would actually have an ally.

00:38:13.940 I'll bet that's true.

00:38:15.440 Now, there's no way to know, right?

00:38:17.180 I mean, maybe smarter people have a better idea about that.

00:38:21.260 But every country that we act graceful to in victory, Germany, Japan,

00:38:30.960 am I wrong that they're now our strongest allies and that that's how you make an ally, right? 0.98

00:38:38.880 By being not a dick. 0.99

00:38:41.140 And apparently we've been a dick to Russia for years. 0.99

00:38:45.180 You know, every time we talk about Russia, we say, you know, their economy is like Texas. 0.98

00:38:52.520 It's sort of a third-rate country with nukes.

00:38:54.660 That's what they are.

00:38:55.800 That's how we talk about them.

00:38:57.060 Do you think he has any reason to want to, like, move that in the other direction?

00:39:02.460 Because here's another theory about countries and businesses and people, I guess.

00:39:07.680 Things never stay the same.

00:39:10.260 So Russia is either ascending or descending.

00:39:13.080 Would you agree with that statement?

00:39:14.680 It's never...

00:39:15.660 It's not going to just always be just Russia.

00:39:18.440 It's always ascending or descending.

00:39:20.600 And those are the only two choices.

00:39:22.040 So it looks like Putin decided to stop descending.

00:39:26.880 And he said, all right, well, I'm just going to do whatever it takes to ascend.

00:39:30.400 Because you're either ascending or descending, and my job is to ascend.

00:39:35.560 So there's a lot going on here.

00:39:39.140 All right.

00:39:39.380 What about the Switzerland option that I think is being floated at the moment, and was floated and rejected?

00:39:51.440 And I feel like the way that we're talking about this whole thing and framing it is a problem.

00:39:59.780 If, instead of saying that Ukraine is either going to be owned by Russia or dominated by NATO,

00:40:08.620 two choices that can't ever work because the other side won't let it,

00:40:14.660 why didn't we start out with saying that there's something called a Switzerland option,

00:40:20.100 and if the United Nations gives somebody a, let's say, a Switzerland designation,

00:40:25.900 then every country has to defend them.

00:40:29.780 How about that?

00:40:32.240 Just say, you know, nobody is NATO.

00:40:35.080 We're not going to put any weapons there.

00:40:36.700 But if anybody attacks one of these Switzerland neutral countries that we've designated as neutral,

00:40:43.140 and maybe they need to be neutral.

00:40:45.340 Maybe the very best thing is to have a neutral country between two countries that aren't so neutral toward each other.

00:40:52.320 All right.

00:40:56.880 I don't know if that's ever an option, but it's too late at this point,

00:41:00.460 because Russia can basically do what it wants with Ukraine in the long run, it looks like.

00:41:05.880 It looks like.

00:41:06.840 We could be surprised.

00:41:09.680 Now, so of course, now Finland and Sweden are saying that they're thinking about joining NATO because they feel a little exposed,

00:41:16.040 and Russia is, of course, saying they could have dire consequences.

00:41:21.020 Now, again, have Finland and Sweden suffered by not being in NATO?

00:41:29.840 So all this time has gone by.

00:41:34.820 Do you think Sweden has ever said, darn, I wish we were in NATO?

00:41:39.400 Because it would have cost them money, and I don't think it would have bought them anything yet.

00:41:43.520 So I feel as if we're just creating a bunch of made-up problems,

00:41:48.080 because we're bullying each other, and neither side wants to put up with bullies.

00:41:54.220 It just feels like bullying and bullying and posturing and psychological stuff.

00:42:01.020 All right.

00:42:02.800 And that, ladies and gentlemen...

00:42:06.220 Oh, one other thing.

00:42:07.940 The only other story is about Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court,

00:42:13.820 Ketanji Brown Jackson.

00:42:17.220 And I ask you this.

00:42:18.660 If we know in advance that the Liberal-appointed judge is always going to go with the Liberals,

00:42:26.820 if you know how somebody's going to vote before you nominate them, and we really do, am I right?

00:42:34.120 You know, the days where you didn't know how somebody was going to vote are kind of over.

00:42:38.340 I think we always know how anybody's going to vote on anything important.

00:42:41.960 You know, there may be some...

00:42:44.660 All right, so here's something I'm seeing here.

00:42:48.660 So Maya Gameworks over on YouTube is yelling at me, 0.97

00:42:52.720 Scott, I'm in Kiev, and the Russians have lost. 0.51

00:42:55.540 I've seen some messages go by suggesting that you've already kicked out the Russian army.

00:43:03.400 Now, no pictures?

00:43:08.160 I would have to see some pictures, and I would have to have lots of confirmation of that.

00:43:13.360 I'm not going to buy...

00:43:15.100 I mean, to me, that just sounds like propaganda.

00:43:16.600 Now, I don't know who you are, and, you know, if you're being honest, that's great.

00:43:23.200 But even if you're in Kiev, I don't think you'd know.

00:43:25.980 You would just know what's happening on your street.

00:43:27.820 You wouldn't know what's happening anywhere else.

00:43:29.660 Because we don't know.

00:43:31.560 All right.

00:43:33.500 But back to the Supreme Court nominee.

00:43:37.060 I think the Republicans should just make their little speeches,

00:43:41.920 ask their tough questions because it gets them some TV time.

00:43:45.000 But basically, they should just vote her in

00:43:47.040 because there's no mystery about any of these judges anymore.

00:43:53.420 You know what they're going to vote before they get in there.

00:43:55.760 So either they have the power to put her in or not.

00:44:04.040 Air superiority makes Ukraine the automatic loser. 0.97

00:44:07.680 I don't know about the air superiority part.

00:44:11.420 Because does air superiority help you clear a metro center?

00:44:16.780 And ultimately, they're going to have to clear street by street.

00:44:19.920 Does air power help you that much in urban fighting?

00:44:26.540 I mean, yes, I mean, it helps you some.

00:44:28.520 But is that the decisive part?

00:44:31.840 I don't know.

00:44:32.300 It seems like it's door-to-door fighting.

00:44:34.000 I wouldn't want to go door-to-door with the Ukrainians right now. 1.00

00:44:38.720 And let me ask you this.

00:44:40.920 If the Russian army came down a street with armed people

00:44:46.860 with AKs and their Molotov cocktails, 0.82

00:44:51.540 couldn't the residents just open the windows at the same time

00:44:55.260 and rain hell down on the Russian army in the street?

00:44:58.920 I guess I don't know enough about urban warfare

00:45:01.340 to know how an organized defender

00:45:04.360 couldn't easily repel somebody that way.

00:45:06.940 Not easily, but maybe effectively would be the better way to say it.

00:45:13.440 Yeah.

00:45:14.320 All right.

00:45:14.980 That is all I've got to say for today.

00:45:17.480 I think it was a success.

00:45:22.120 I believe this is the only place you're ever going to hear

00:45:25.080 the cock-and-balls hypothesis of Ukraine and Georgia, 0.80

00:45:29.700 and I think it's the only one that matters.

00:45:31.720 Am I right?

00:45:33.180 Am I right?

00:45:34.360 I think I'm right.

00:45:35.500 Best thing you've ever seen.

00:45:37.420 Thank you.

00:45:40.000 And I'll talk to you on YouTube tomorrow.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 26, 2022

Episode 1666 Scott Adams： The Only Original Thoughts About Ukraine, Goes Well With a Beverage

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