Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1718 Scott Adams： Musk, Murder, DarkMAGA, Masks And More. A Meaningful Morning

00:00:00.000 Oh, good morning, everybody, and welcome to, that's right, the best day of your life.

00:00:12.760 A highlight of civilization and possibly the best thing that's ever happened in any part

00:00:18.020 of the metaverse.

00:00:19.300 As far as we know, that's my claim, and look for a fact check on that.

00:00:24.480 I'll bet you, you will not see any fact checkers who consider that false.

00:00:30.000 So go to Google, and, you know, Google fact check, and see if it's wrong, or have they

00:00:37.260 decided to let it pass?

00:00:39.340 Yes, I believe it is the best day of your life, and all you need is a cup or mug or a glass,

00:00:43.060 a tank or chalice or a stein, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind, fill it with

00:00:48.060 your favorite liquid, I like coffee, and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, it's

00:00:57.120 the dopamine hit of the day, it's the thing that makes that tingle on the back of your

00:01:01.480 neck.

00:01:02.960 It's, yeah, the simultaneous sip.

00:01:05.680 It's going to happen now.

00:01:07.280 Watch what it does to you.

00:01:08.800 Go.

00:01:09.000 Oh, yeah.

00:01:14.160 Oh, that's so good.

00:01:15.960 So good.

00:01:17.740 It feels like a hike in the woods, doesn't it?

00:01:23.360 All right.

00:01:25.720 Do you know what I like?

00:01:27.040 One of the best feelings in the world?

00:01:29.500 Have you ever had a sneezing attack when you were in a forest?

00:01:32.460 You know, normally if you have to sneeze, you're usually around people, and then it's

00:01:38.020 this big awkward thing, especially during COVID, and you're doing the whole, and then you spray

00:01:47.580 yourself, and the entire experience is very unsatisfying.

00:01:52.460 But if you've ever been like completely away from everybody, you're just literally in a

00:01:57.440 forest, and a sneezing attack comes on, and you just let it fly.

00:02:02.320 You're just like, ah, shoo! 1.00

00:02:06.020 How do you feel?

00:02:10.420 You feel good.

00:02:12.080 It's like one of the best feelings.

00:02:14.180 There are very few times when you don't have to, let's say, respond to other people's social

00:02:22.040 pressures. But a good sneeze in the woods, well, that'll set you free. You'll feel good all day.

00:02:30.840 So if you haven't tried that, go try that now. Here's a question that I've been wondering.

00:02:36.560 What is the exact ratio of fake news to real news, fake news over real news? Do the math.

00:02:44.460 What would be the proper ratio before you could be called a conspiracy theorist?

00:02:49.860 Would it be 10%? Suppose 10% of the things you said turned out to be unfounded conspiracy theories.

00:03:00.280 Would that be enough to call you a conspiracy theorist? About 50%. About 50%. Would you then be a

00:03:11.980 conspiracy theorist? Suppose more than half of the things you reported or talked about, more than half,

00:03:19.860 what if more than half of them were at least, well, let's say incorrect because of the context

00:03:25.900 they're given. Would that feel like you should be called a conspiracy theorist? Well, I don't know.

00:03:34.280 But the news today is that several of Alex Jones's company, I guess three of Alex Jones' companies,

00:03:44.040 have filed for bankruptcy. Now, this is actually a legal financial technique. It doesn't mean he's losing

00:03:51.500 money. Some people will read it that way. But he's been called a conspiracy theorist by Bloomberg and CNN.

00:04:02.300 And I'm thinking to myself, especially CNN, what is the ratio? Are they claiming that he's got a higher ratio of

00:04:12.140 incorrect news to correct news? Maybe he does. I'm not even judging. I've never done the analysis.

00:04:21.840 So I don't know. But it begs the question, doesn't it? What if both of them are squarely in the category of,

00:04:31.080 well, you know, that's a little conspiracy-ish, isn't it? You know, am I right or wrong that CNN pushed

00:04:39.960 the Russia collusion hoax forever? I'm pretty sure they did. I think there were quite a few hoaxes that

00:04:49.840 they pushed as real. How many of the hoaxes that CNN promoted did Alex Jones believe?

00:05:00.380 Yeah, what just happened to you right there? How many of the hoaxes that CNN promoted, and there

00:05:07.040 were a lot of them, big ones, the drinking bleach hoax, the fine people hoax, the, you know, the

00:05:12.880 Russians bounty on American soldiers hoax? I mean, it just goes on and on. But how many of those did 0.88

00:05:20.560 Alex Jones say, well, yeah, I believe that story? How about none? How about none? Do you get any credit

00:05:28.480 at all for being able to spot the other side's conspiracy theories? Right? Yeah, CNN acts like

00:05:36.340 they're the only ones who can spot a conspiracy theory. I'm pretty sure Alex Jones spotted a few

00:05:41.340 on them. Pretty sure. And we're going to talk about somebody else who spotted some sketchy

00:05:48.400 behavior on CNN in another segment. So, anyway, so Alex Jones is responding, I think, because

00:05:58.840 he lost some lawsuits, or one lawsuit, about the Sandy Hook story. So, I don't need to get into that,

00:06:08.980 but he made some claims that did not hold up, and some people proved that they were injured in court.

00:06:15.160 They proved it anyway, at least to a jury satisfaction. So, he owes lots of money to people who claim to be

00:06:20.800 victims of his so-called conspiracy theories, at least one specific one. And so, when you file for

00:06:31.080 bankruptcy, you're really just trying to give yourself protection against a big lawsuit or a big

00:06:37.340 specific problem. It doesn't mean that he's cash negative or that he's losing money. It just means

00:06:43.920 he couldn't pay all of that money all at once, or he chooses to find some way to, you know, weasel out of

00:06:50.520 it. So, it's more of a financial technique. The only thing we can know for sure is that he's not

00:06:58.560 making so many millions of dollars that it's worth it to him to just pay a few million to make it go

00:07:04.680 away. So, we don't know exactly what his financial situation is, but don't assume that it's bad just

00:07:12.280 because he uses this financial technique. That doesn't mean he's in trouble financially.

00:07:16.700 Well, how about this? A Florida judge just put the kibosh on mask mandates. And at least the TSA,

00:07:32.960 for example, is dropping them. And now Uber and a number of other places are dropping them, but

00:07:38.260 they're not being dropped everywhere. So, there are some cities that are keeping them on local mass

00:07:43.260 transit, for example. And not all of the airlines have weighed in yet, but most of the airlines are

00:07:48.120 going along with dropping the requirement. Can we take a moment? I mean, it's not over-over,

00:07:59.940 but it's going to be. Because, you know, the slippery slope works in both directions, right? Now,

00:08:06.280 we're heading back to something closer to normal. Now, I never believed that we would have to wear

00:08:13.280 masks forever. Did any of you? How many of you believed? Yeah. Somebody I'm seeing in the comments,

00:08:23.080 I don't know if this is true, but somebody say it was a Trump-appointed judge. Was it a Trump-appointed

00:08:29.180 judge that made that decision? Is that confirmed, or is that just a Twitter thing? And a lot of

00:08:36.080 people say yes. So, let's treat it like it's yes. Isn't that kind of perfect? Remember I told you

00:08:44.420 that one of the prediction methods I use is if things work out too perfectly like a movie would

00:08:51.320 work out? It might tell you you live in a simulation, but for some reason it predicts. We so often end up in

00:08:58.040 a situation where that could only happen in a movie. There's another one. I'll tell you later about

00:09:05.320 when I got wrong. So, I don't have much to say about this except that, thank God. Oh, my God.

00:09:19.000 And, by the way, congratulations to all of you. Congratulations. You know, I know some of you

00:09:26.060 fought the mandates, and thank you. So, for everybody who pushed back against the mandates when it was

00:09:32.500 really clear, you know, once it began clear that they were over-applied, thank you. Thanks for all

00:09:41.080 the citizen pushback. Thanks for being on the right side, in my opinion. And thanks for being active,

00:09:49.940 you know, at least making your thoughts known. You know, I've always told you that I can't speak

00:09:56.640 for other countries, but in the United States, the public does run the government. We just sort of act

00:10:04.060 like we don't know it. The only thing the public has to do is agree. If the public agrees, they can get

00:10:11.060 what they want. Our system pretty much guarantees it. Maybe not on day one, right? But if the public

00:10:18.100 is all on one side solidly, they're going to get what they want. So, basically, this is a victory of

00:10:23.160 the public. Because who knows what the government would have done on its own, right? Who knows?

00:10:29.460 But we do know that the public pushed it until it broke. I mean, I think that's just what happened.

00:10:36.000 I think that anybody who makes a decision to unmask is doing it in the context of knowing

00:10:43.620 that the public has had enough, right? It's going to get violent if it goes too much longer.

00:10:51.080 So, it took way too long, but here we are. So, let's at least celebrate the good news that is by far

00:10:59.340 not complete. And by the way, are you having the same impression that I am? The fact that the

00:11:06.740 employees, generally, you know, the lower paid people on the scale of these big companies and

00:11:13.720 restaurants and stuff, the fact that they still have to wear masks when the people they're serving

00:11:18.240 do not, is just grotesque. I don't know why Black Lives Matter or anybody who cares about, 1.00

00:11:25.960 you know, the lower end of the income spectrum. I don't know why they're not making a bigger deal

00:11:31.580 about that. I mean, it's viscerally disgusting. I mean, to me, it feels like walking onto a 0.66

00:11:37.520 plantation in the days of slavery, like what it would feel to have such obvious signs of unequal

00:11:46.060 treatment of human beings, right? Obviously, it's not like slavery. So, before somebody goes wild and

00:11:52.300 says, oh, you compared mask wearing to slavery. No, no, no, no, no. It's just an analogy.

00:11:59.340 Yeah. Settle down. Settle down. It's not the Holocaust. It's just masks. But in terms of the 0.58

00:12:06.760 both of them giving you a visceral feel, I don't know. I can't get past it. And tell me if this makes

00:12:15.640 it worse, if you say somebody who's black and underpaid and wearing a mask, when you're not, 0.58

00:12:24.920 doesn't it make you feel a little extra creepy? You know, maybe you shouldn't, because again, 0.78

00:12:30.840 that would be a bigoted, right? It would be bigoted to have any opinion about the color of

00:12:35.780 the person wearing it. But, you know, we're still primed that way. You know, we're primed by

00:12:40.780 the news, our own history of slavery, et cetera. So, you do see it that way. At least I do. Like, 0.99

00:12:47.200 it gives it that little extra, ugh. Like, what the hell are we doing? Like, how do we allow it?

00:12:53.640 Yeah, how do the rich people allow it, honestly? Like, everybody should be complaining about that.

00:13:00.860 The lack, I guess it more than other things, shows a lack of consideration for other people.

00:13:10.780 In such a, like, fundamental way that it's just disgusting. It's one thing if you say,

00:13:18.180 you know, I don't want to raise my taxes to give it to other people. Because that, you can explain

00:13:23.720 that in terms of the system works better if everybody has to, you know, look out for themselves,

00:13:28.920 if they can, if they have the ability. But this isn't one of those times. It's not like there's any

00:13:35.300 larger system that's being supported by it. Nothing's being supported by it. It's literally

00:13:41.120 just discriminating against people who don't have power. That's it. It's just power. It's an

00:13:47.160 absolute, brutal, disgusting, disgusting use of power. Anyway. 0.92

00:13:53.920 So, do you all know who Malcolm Nance is? He had been until recently one of the voices or

00:14:05.660 contributors on MSNBC. If you don't know who Malcolm Nance is, this story won't be nearly

00:14:13.120 as funny. But apparently he quit MSNBC and he joined the Ukrainian International Legion to

00:14:20.740 go fight for Ukraine. Now, he was in, apparently he's a Navy veteran. I guess he was a linguist

00:14:28.940 or something. I don't know if Malcolm Nance ever saw any actions. Can anybody confirm that?

00:14:37.020 Because he doesn't exactly look like, at least if he was in the Navy, I don't know if he saw

00:14:43.560 any ground action. But there he is pictured in his camouflage and he's got his little name

00:14:49.680 there and he's holding his weapon. And he said he just couldn't stand, you know, reporting

00:14:56.440 on it and not doing something. So he decided to go over there and do something. And aren't

00:15:03.560 you saying to yourself, somebody says he's 61 years old. That feels about right. What do

00:15:10.680 you suppose it is he's doing over there exactly? I don't even know what to think of this. Now,

00:15:19.060 the most logical thing to think of it is not that he's helping Ukraine, but he's maybe getting

00:15:25.500 ready to write a book. You know, he's trying to cash out on it. He's a fluffer, somebody says.

00:15:31.360 Intel gathering? I don't know. CIA stuff, somebody says. I don't know. I feel like there would

00:15:40.540 be a better way to do almost everything. Translation? As a translator? What languages does he speak?

00:15:49.680 Does anybody know what languages Malcolm Nance speaks? He probably speaks a few languages,

00:15:58.440 I'm guessing. Anyway, I don't even know what to say about that story. All I can say is if you know

00:16:06.200 him, and if you know the things he said on MSNBC, he is one of the consistently crazy sounding people.

00:16:15.600 Like on a scale of one to Keith Olbermann, you know, where Olbermann would be like the top

00:16:21.800 of the crazy scale, he'd be sort of a full Olbermann. You know, some people would be like

00:16:28.780 a half Olbermann, but he'd be like a full Olbermann. We'll talk about him a little bit too.

00:16:37.120 All right. Let's see. What else has happened? Remember I told you that if you wanted to predict

00:16:45.220 who's going to win in Ukraine, that the only number that matters at this point would be the

00:16:51.080 number of Switchblade and other drones they have. And I said, if they have enough drones,

00:16:58.200 and presumably they could train people fairly quickly to use them. I don't know how long it

00:17:05.220 takes to, if your life depends on it, how long does it take to learn how to use a drone?

00:17:10.000 A day? I don't know. So 300 Switchblade drones are being sent to Ukraine. So how many Switchblade

00:17:21.400 drones, these would be things which can hover over a target for several minutes, I guess,

00:17:27.460 or half an hour or 10 minutes, whatever it is, and get a really good idea of what's down there

00:17:32.020 before they dive down and destroy it. But they're suicide drones. So you get to use them once,

00:17:39.220 but they're pretty good. But it's sort of one and done. So now they have the ability to make 300

00:17:46.880 Russian assets explode, including maybe some assassinations of generals or whatever.

00:17:55.060 Would 300 successful attacks change the course of the war? I don't think so, right?

00:18:04.060 It wouldn't even be like a dot. Because when the Russians do these bombing runs, aren't they doing 0.93

00:18:11.120 thousands and thousands? By the time Russia's done, how many bombing runs will they have made?

00:18:18.060 Like 30,000 or something? It's a gigantic number, isn't it? Because they're just continually going.

00:18:24.160 Right? So it seems to me that if the numbers we're looking at is hundreds, you know, the low hundreds of drones,

00:18:35.120 then Russia gets what it wants. Am I right? Somebody says they've done 1,500 missile strikes that Russia has. 0.55

00:18:45.400 And the missiles are just being a small, small percentage of the blow-up stuff they're sending over there.

00:18:53.400 The exploding stuff. All right. So this doesn't look good. If I had to guess, without having any military

00:19:02.100 experience whatsoever, which I think I demonstrate every single day, I don't think that Ukraine could win 1.00

00:19:09.580 without 5,000 drones. Suppose they had 5,000 switchblade drones. Could they win? I mean, if 5,000 of Russia's

00:19:24.200 more important assets blew up, I don't know. That feels like that would start to make an impact if they were the

00:19:32.980 right assets at the right time. Suppose they used all of them to take out their supply lines.

00:19:38.360 Would they just rebuild them as fast as they were being destroyed is what wouldn't make any difference?

00:19:43.880 Maybe. But I feel like you could stop an army with 5,000 successful drone strikes. No.

00:19:52.840 If you took out the right stuff. Because remember, it doesn't matter how much stuff Russia has. 0.91

00:19:57.380 It only matters how many of it you have to take out to cripple the whole deal. And that would be a much

00:20:02.640 smaller number if you chose correctly. So somebody is pointing out that my military expertise seems to be

00:20:15.400 limited to how I feel. And you are correct. But you agree with the basic idea, right? The basic idea is

00:20:22.940 that some number of drones is definitely not enough. But some number of drones is definitely enough.

00:20:28.240 And it's definitely not 300 drones is enough. I don't think you have to be a military expert to

00:20:35.880 know that, right? That's definitely not enough. But is 5,000? Now, I don't know the answer to that

00:20:43.720 question. But I don't know. I don't think anybody does, right? So he says, so you have no idea what

00:20:51.940 you're talking about? Yeah, I do. I know it's really hard to stop a switchblade drone. And I know

00:20:57.820 that 300 is not enough. And I know that logically, some number would get you anything you want.

00:21:05.800 So, I mean, that seems fairly straightforward. Now, of course, if Russia wanted to win badly

00:21:13.000 enough, it probably wouldn't matter how many drones there were. They would just level Ukraine. 0.55

00:21:19.380 All right, let's talk about this weird five-year lag between Trump sounding crazy and Trump a proven

00:21:26.940 right. So I saw a tweet from Jim Jordan, Representative Jordan. And he said, the CIA knew as early as

00:21:35.120 2017, five years ago, that the Trump-Russia collusion data was not technically plausible and was user

00:21:43.120 created, both of those in quotes. So those are based on the actual investigation. That's not just

00:21:48.320 Jordan's opinion. That's what the investigation has turned up so far. And I thought to myself,

00:21:56.360 is that? I wonder if that rule of thumb will hold, that about five years from the time that Trump says

00:22:04.500 something's bullshit, you find out that it was. Because here's some of the other things. When was it 0.94

00:22:10.900 that Trump first said Germany would be hostage to Russia's energy policy? Around five years ago?

00:22:19.280 Now, it's not when he first thought of it, but it's when he first said it in public and got mocked,

00:22:24.280 let's say. About five years ago. How about the idea of making the United States energy independent?

00:22:31.120 Right? He was saying that around five, six years ago. About China being our biggest problem

00:22:40.400 and needing to, you know, get business out of there and be tough with them on business and stuff.

00:22:48.060 About five years ago. How about all the noise he made about the border being important? About five years

00:22:55.780 ago? Everything about crime? About five years ago? You know, when he first started talking about

00:23:03.020 everything? Basically, all you have to do is take Trump minus five years and you can find out

00:23:10.600 everything that's important and big. So here's something I have some questions about. There's

00:23:17.880 apparently a hashtag slash movement called dark MAGA. Hashtag dark MAGA. It involves themes in which

00:23:27.140 Trump related images are being treated as, you know, just red and black, scary looking images. And

00:23:36.840 I've heard it described, and I have a real question here. So here's where my skepticism is turned up.

00:23:44.140 I've heard it described as a movement that's waiting for Trump to return to seek vengeance on all those

00:23:51.220 who hurt him or Republicans, I guess. Now, certainly there are plenty of Republicans who have that

00:23:59.260 mindset. Can't wait for Trump to get reelected and clean out the swamp. But, you know, the swamp didn't

00:24:07.320 get that cleaned out last time, did it? I don't remember a lot of swamp draining going on. Not a lot

00:24:14.400 of that happened. In fact, the swamp drained Trump is, looks like what happened. But this is how it was

00:24:24.580 described by one tweet. Or is this CNN? I think CNN said this. Behind the movement, this dark MAGA

00:24:33.660 movement, they're calling it, there's no single identifiable group or a clear ideology. G-Net,

00:24:40.740 whoever that is said, many of the messages posted by dark MAGA supporters incite violence and contain

00:24:46.500 misogynistic and or racist comments. Dark MAGA. Now, you might remember that in 2016,

00:24:54.840 I called out the word dark as something that was probably expert made. And I had guessed that maybe, 0.90

00:25:01.200 you know, Robert Cialdini, who has advised Democrats for president in the past, such as

00:25:09.200 Obama. They probably, somebody like him, came up with that, because it's so sticky, you can make

00:25:15.440 everything fit into it. It's like, oh, Trump said this. Well, that's kind of dark. Oh, a Republican

00:25:21.480 said that. Oh, that's a dark image. And that if you just get this idea of dark in people's minds,

00:25:27.480 dark just brings with it all the scary stuff. Right? So, um, it seems to me it would be a branding

00:25:38.060 mistake for pro-Trump people to use dark in their, uh, branding. Now, I think it did work in the case

00:25:49.120 of deplorables. And if you're black in America, it probably does work to use the N-word as sort of, 0.83

00:25:58.160 you know, owning, owning the word that was so painful in the past. So you can take something 0.91

00:26:02.740 that was used, that used against you and flip it around and use it as a badge of, you know,

00:26:08.420 strength or something, I guess. So sometimes you can do that, but I don't think this is a good

00:26:13.200 application of that. In my opinion, uh, the MAGA people, if they wanted to win, should stay as far

00:26:20.780 away from the word dark as they possibly can. Because what is the biggest issue that, uh, anybody

00:26:27.940 who might be a little bit, you know, independent on this, what is the biggest issue they have with

00:26:32.300 Trump? That he's scary and dark and, you know, he just scares the crap out of people. The way that 0.99

00:26:41.320 Trump won the first time was by being super provocative and aggressive. Is that the same

00:26:46.980 way he would win the second time when the polls have him beating everybody already? We're doing

00:26:51.860 nothing. He doesn't happen to do anything and apparently he's ahead in the polls. Should he use

00:26:56.740 the same strategy of ultimate provocation? Well, it depends if he, if he can adjust strategy to fit a

00:27:05.120 situation. Have you seen evidence that he can, he can radically change his approach

00:27:10.680 to fit a new situation? Uh, yes and no. It's not really clear. Trump is famously flexible. I mean,

00:27:24.920 he used to be a Democrat and then he became a Republican, right? That's pretty flexible. But

00:27:29.840 that's also historical. You know, once you become president and you, you got there doing a certain

00:27:35.400 technique, it's kind of hard to stop doing the thing that worked. Even if you think it might be

00:27:40.860 time to, you know, destroy your old self to build a new self for the new challenge, you end up fighting

00:27:47.300 the last war the same way. Or you end up fighting the new war as if it were the last war. It's, it's one

00:27:53.880 of those human, human, uh, let's say impulses. I would call it a failing except that it's sort of

00:28:00.200 universal. We all do it. You're always fighting the last war. Let me, let me put it out there. If,

00:28:07.340 if Trump could act any way that works and he were not a slave to his past, if he could be anything

00:28:13.840 that would just be good, what would be by far the number one thing that would get him elected

00:28:19.100 for a second term? Number one would be play nice because his, his followers would know what he was

00:28:29.420 doing. They'd say, Oh, I get it. He's just playing nice to get elected, but he's still Trump. You

00:28:35.560 know, once he gets elected, he's going to still do all the things he wants to do, but he could

00:28:39.140 radically change the way he talks about things. Talking about the border, he could simply talk

00:28:44.580 about the pressure it's putting on the low income people at the border. The pressure it's putting on

00:28:50.320 black Americans. And just leave it at that. He, he doesn't even have to make a big deal about 0.96

00:28:55.980 building a wall. He doesn't have to, because his case is already won. When he started out with the

00:29:03.020 whole wall thing, in my opinion, it was brilliant persuasion because he was trying to make a big

00:29:09.180 impact and draw all the attention to him on that subject, but he succeeded. Now everybody understands

00:29:15.660 this whole border thing is a problem. Stop arguing. You know, this is a classic case where you don't want

00:29:22.540 to sell past the close. Trump has the close. He closed the sale without trying after office. By

00:29:31.600 leaving office and showing that the alternative to Trump's policies were a disaster, he closed the

00:29:36.780 sale. He can let the press do it for him. He should now stop selling. Stop talking about a wall

00:29:43.860 because that will only piss people off. Build a wall. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Build the wall

00:29:50.580 because he already won that argument. You don't need to argue the thing you already want.

00:29:55.800 Just, you know, quietly start it up again. If somebody asks you, and they would ask,

00:30:01.700 are you going to rebuild the wall? The proper answer is not build the wall, build the wall,

00:30:07.200 you know, jail Hillary Clinton. That's just old. The new answer should be, we should do a variety of 1.00

00:30:14.580 things that work. But yeah, I think the border wall is important to beef it up in areas where we have

00:30:21.620 a special problem. Over time, maybe we could get the whole thing walled, but we certainly want to do

00:30:27.060 whatever works as quickly as possible to get it under control. Am I right? Because who's going to argue

00:30:33.720 with that at this point? Because even the Democrats agree with a little bit of wall makes a difference.

00:30:38.640 Even they agree with that. So just agree with the Democrats. Say it's a huge problem. And everybody

00:30:45.540 knows what you're going to do about it. They all know that he's going to do the same thing he did

00:30:50.260 last time. There's no mystery. You don't have to rub it in. You don't even have to make a big deal

00:30:55.900 about how right you are. Because it's just in front of everybody. They can see it. He would make a big deal

00:31:01.720 about it. Now, Trump's big asset is that he could absorb all of the energy from the press. So if you

00:31:14.860 were doing that again, is that still the right thing now? Because I think he got too much energy,

00:31:21.280 really. Maybe he could tone down the energy and he would still have energy the other side by a mile.

00:31:28.220 Well, here's another thing Trump was right on. So the murder rate in America is way up,

00:31:37.860 but it's especially shocking in black populations. So the black American murder rate shot up 43% 0.90

00:31:45.680 in 2020. So the beginning of the pandemic and when there was a lot of Black Lives Matter stuff. 1.00

00:31:52.620 So after the Black Lives Matter movement, it's stated a very clear intention to improve the

00:32:01.220 impression of, you know, the value of black lives and also to improve their situation and to make it

00:32:08.820 especially, more than anything, especially safe in terms of the police and, you know, physical safety.

00:32:15.160 But the outcome was exactly the opposite and in a big way, that the murder rate just shot up and the 0.86

00:32:23.340 black, on black crime especially, is through the roof. It was Trump right that, you know, keeping the 0.95

00:32:33.180 police well-funded and doing what we used to do would be better than defunding the police? Probably so.

00:32:40.840 Probably was right. All right. Let's talk about Twitter. Rasmussen did a poll and 39% of American

00:32:50.520 adults believe it would be good for Twitter if Musk bought the company. So 39% are on Musk's side about

00:32:58.440 buying the company. 22% think it would be bad for Twitter. Now, I think a better question would be

00:33:05.380 bad for America or good for America. But bad or good for Twitter is an interesting way to put that.

00:33:13.220 All right. But 26% think it would not make much difference if the richest man in the world,

00:33:18.640 whose intention is to change the lever that moves all of free speech, which is really the operating

00:33:25.700 system for civilization. 26% think that that wouldn't make much difference. No, no. No, only the most

00:33:35.380 impactful entrepreneur of our lifetime who's got a stated goal of really, really changing things

00:33:44.740 and already has his teeth into it. 26% think that's not going to make much difference. I mean, how much

00:33:53.220 difference could it make if Elon Musk owns the company? What has he ever done that surprised you? Right?

00:34:00.580 26%. 26%. 26%. If we were to round that, it's about 25%. 25%. I think Elon Musk wouldn't make much

00:34:16.480 difference if he bought Twitter. For those of you who are just joining us, I always point out that 25%

00:34:23.620 of people polled get every answer wrong. I don't know if it's the same 25%. I worry that it is.

00:34:34.020 I'm concerned that it's always the same 25%. But I'd like to think it's a different 25% for each 0.93

00:34:39.780 question. Well, so there's, as I tweeted cryptically, there's sort of an I am Spartacus thing happening

00:34:49.700 right now. And if you know the reference from movie Spartacus, Spartacus was hiding among the slaves and

00:34:58.260 when the Romans were asking for the Spartacus to stand up because they didn't have facial

00:35:04.660 recognition back then, so they couldn't tell who was Spartacus in this crowd of slaves. Somebody who

00:35:10.020 was not Spartacus stood up to accept whatever punishment Spartacus would have. And they're like,

00:35:16.420 okay, you know, I guess if you say you're Spartacus, come here, we'll kill you. And then somebody else 0.99

00:35:20.740 stood up. And then slowly, everybody stands up and they're all Spartacus. So, you know, it's kind of

00:35:28.580 like famous movie scene. And I'm watching what I would call a subtle Spartacus movement in which people

00:35:36.420 who have tremendous influence in society, but they're not elected. It's just people whose opinions are going

00:35:45.380 to move your opinion more than other people. They're starting to emerge. I told you that Naval has

00:35:55.220 just sort of very subtly weighed in and said, of course, we're going to fight over Twitter. Of

00:36:01.700 course, we're going to fight. He didn't say what side he's on, because he doesn't. He famously is

00:36:08.020 non-aligned left or right. But do you think he's against free speech? Do you? Do you think he's

00:36:17.140 against free speech? I don't think so. I don't think so. But the most surprising one?

00:36:24.980 Jack Dorsey. It wasn't surprising that the news says that Joe Rogan isn't strongly backing

00:36:31.220 Musk for buying Twitter. You weren't surprised at that. But interesting that it's a major story,

00:36:38.340 right? Because Joe Rogan's influence and credibility is now so big that the fact that he endorses somebody

00:36:46.740 for a specific action is national news. I mean, who else does that? How about Bill Maher? Bill Maher

00:36:55.700 is also pro-Musk in terms of buying Twitter. Interesting, isn't it? I guess he's Spartacus too.

00:37:05.220 So, but the most interesting Spartacus is Jack Dorsey, who on Twitter, of all places, has now insulted

00:37:16.260 Twitter's board of directors for their competency. So there was a post by somebody else.

00:37:25.700 In which the user quipped that the company's early beginning was mired in plots and coup among

00:37:32.020 its founding executives. And I guess Jack Dorsey liked that. But then he gets in a little back and

00:37:38.980 forth with Brian Stelter of CNN. And he also talked about how CNN had faked a news report in Ferguson,

00:37:53.140 and Jack Dorsey was there and watched it live. So he actually was there in person in Ferguson during

00:37:59.060 the riot situation there, and watched CNN trying to incite some trouble to get it on camera.

00:38:06.340 And I would imagine that's the sort of thing that changes you. So here's what's news about it. First of

00:38:12.580 all, to have Jack Dorsey publicly criticize the board of directors of Twitter as the problem with

00:38:22.260 Twitter. And somebody asked him, are you allowed to do that? And he said succinctly, no.

00:38:28.100 Are you allowed to criticize the board of Twitter? No. And then he did it. It's I am Spartacus. It's

00:38:40.100 basically a whole bunch of people who are just done. They're just fucking done. They're done with 0.99

00:38:46.180 being gaslit by everyone. Right? It's not just Fox News. It's not just CNN. It's just fucking

00:38:53.300 everyone. Just everyone's gaslighting everyone. And there appear to be some very influential people 1.00

00:38:59.220 who are just done. They're just done with that. So yeah, I can't say this? Okay, I'm gonna do it.

00:39:04.980 I can't endorse this guy? I'm gonna do it anyway. Bill Maher, I can't endorse somebody who's, you know,

00:39:10.580 not all on the left. Well, I'm gonna do it anyway. So there are some Spartacai. That's the plural of

00:39:17.300 Spartacus, if you didn't know. So the Spartacai are starting to line up. I will add my own, you know,

00:39:24.980 tiny Spartacus influence to say I'm 100% behind Musk buying Twitter. 100%. I don't have even the

00:39:32.980 slightest reservation about that one. And I would argue that there's nobody really, really smart who

00:39:42.340 disagrees with Musk buying Twitter. Or at least I haven't seen one. So I've seen people, you know,

00:39:50.500 I've seen Max Boot say it's a bad idea. You might see some people who are purely political say it's a bad

00:39:57.380 idea. But you can't count that. They're just being purely political. But tell me, just show me somebody

00:40:04.580 who's sort of not famously political, an independent thinker with an IQ over 140.

00:40:14.340 It's pretty high bar. Show me somebody who's who's a history of independent thinking, an American,

00:40:20.660 with an IQ over 140, who has any problem with Musk buying Twitter. I'll bet there are not many of

00:40:28.580 those. I'll bet they're not mine. Let's take, let's see, Warren Buffett. I haven't heard from him. I

00:40:38.740 don't think he's made any comment, right? I'm not sure he will. But do you think Warren Buffett, who is

00:40:43.700 very clearly in the Democrat realm, do you think that Warren Buffett, if asked, would say it's a bad

00:40:51.620 idea for Musk to take over Twitter? I don't know. He might make some general statements about, you

00:40:58.740 know, billionaire control of the media or something. But I've got a feeling he would not be against that.

00:41:05.380 I don't think anybody above a certain IQ with a history of independence, I'm not talking about

00:41:10.660 somebody who's actually a politician, but people with a history of some independent thought. I don't

00:41:15.140 think any of them are going to be on the other side. Could be wrong. We'll see.

00:41:26.340 So the other thing that Jack said, Jack Dorsey, you tweeted at Stelter because Stelter was

00:41:33.940 criticizing Tucker Carlson. So Brian Stelter of CNN goes after Tucker Carlson in a quote and said,

00:41:42.580 Tucker Carlson is always selling the same thing. He's selling doubt. And I think he was pointing

00:41:47.620 to somebody else's article on that. So he's selling doubt. And then Jack Dorsey responded to that tweet

00:41:55.380 by saying, and you all are selling hope. Now, how many of you, how many of you believed

00:42:04.820 that Jack Dorsey was just, you know, he's just a Democrat and probably pretty AOC-ish. And that's

00:42:11.940 it. So that's how you understand him. He's just, he's just a Democrat. How many of you thought he was

00:42:16.900 just way over there on the left? I don't think that's ever been true. Let me give you a little

00:42:25.460 test. Who is the person who has most publicly been saying, and for years now, has been saying

00:42:33.460 that Twitter should change its algorithm so that the users have an option of what to do with it? So

00:42:39.060 it's not up to the company what you see. Who is the most famous person who has been criticizing

00:42:44.020 Twitter's algorithm for the last several years? Jack Dorsey. Jack Dorsey is the most vocal,

00:42:52.740 you know, at least, you know, noticeable person who has been criticizing Twitter's algorithm

00:42:59.220 and the way they do it. And how long was he still at Twitter when that change was never made?

00:43:06.020 Have you been watching that? Because the first time he said that, I thought, oh, obviously they're

00:43:09.780 working on that now. Because the CEO doesn't say we need to do this, unless they're working on it,

00:43:16.180 because it's just software. I mean, certainly within the doable category of things, right?

00:43:22.740 But then Jack Dorsey leaves and criticizes the board. It sounds like we're finding out maybe one

00:43:29.300 of the reasons, certainly not the only one, but we might be finding out one of the reasons he left.

00:43:34.260 It might be that he had a problem with Twitter's free speech management and that he had suggested

00:43:40.340 an obvious way to address it. Very obvious. The obvious way to address it is to let people choose

00:43:47.380 their algorithm and just make it obvious what they get if they choose it. And he got ignored.

00:43:54.100 Well, I don't know if ignored is the right word, but he was not successful in getting that at the

00:43:58.500 company he ran. And then he left. So I feel like the board may have, this is just speculation based

00:44:08.660 on your reading from the outside, which is pretty dangerous. But the speculation is that maybe the

00:44:14.180 board prevented him from fixing the company in a way that any reasonable person would think was a good

00:44:20.260 idea, give people control over the algorithm. How in the world do you argue against that idea? I've never

00:44:27.060 even heard anybody argue against it, have you? Have you heard a counterpoint to that suggestion? Oh no,

00:44:33.780 don't give users full access to the algorithm that would give them exactly what they asked for.

00:44:38.820 Who exactly is on the other side? And he still couldn't get that done. That tells you everything,

00:44:44.180 doesn't it? And I think that's why he's going full Spartacus. I think he called his time exactly right. 0.99

00:44:52.820 Because with Musk's move on Twitter, this is exactly the right time for an independent thinker,

00:45:03.380 who I will surprise you by telling you he is. Surprise, he's an independent thinker.

00:45:09.220 And he called his timing perfectly. This is exactly the right time to do it.

00:45:15.140 So watch that space. That's going to get better. Better and better.

00:45:24.820 I love, as much as I don't like the black MAGA meme, I suppose the people who are doing it 1.00

00:45:32.660 probably just like the look of it. It's kind of, you know, it's kind of awesome looking. But I would

00:45:38.340 back away from anything that could be used that easily against you. However, I'm seeing the phrase

00:45:45.300 COVIDians used a lot by the people who are mocking the people who are too afraid to drop the mandates

00:45:52.900 mostly and the masks. But Colin, you remember the Branch Davidians in Waco? They were a splinter 0.98

00:46:02.820 Christian group. I don't know what to call them. But it was a religious group, sort of a cult. 0.58

00:46:12.020 But calling the people who were afraid to take off their masks, the mask COVIDians, 1.00

00:46:19.140 is just so clever. It's not really persuasive. I don't think. I mean, not in a way that matters,

00:46:25.540 because people are just going to do what they want to do now. So, you know, I'm not even sure

00:46:30.260 persuasion matters. Okay. So I'll just say that I love that branding, the mask COVIDians. All 0.92

00:46:46.260 right. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes my prepared remarks. Again, one of the all time,

00:46:54.340 most insightful and greatest things you've ever seen in your life. And it makes you feel good

00:47:00.180 too. Where else could you go to become smarter and better looking at the same time? Almost nowhere.

00:47:07.460 Almost nowhere. You don't think I could make you better looking? Do you think I could use persuasion

00:47:13.700 to make you better looking? Does anybody believe I could do that? I could do that. It's easy. Because

00:47:22.660 people who are confident look better. It's that easy. So hypnosis can make you more confident. Do you know

00:47:29.780 one way you can do it? To tell you you look great and you look sexy and you've never looked better. In fact,

00:47:36.740 I can tell that you've improved your workout since the pandemic. I see you've taken it up a notch.

00:47:43.060 You're looking not only sexier, but more confident. I've noticed that your posture is better.

00:47:50.420 Now, spend a little time today to improve your posture while you're walking.

00:47:57.220 Just when you're walking somewhere, just improve your posture. And watch how you're better looking.

00:48:05.540 And it's only because I suggested it that made you think of it. And then you thought of it and it was

00:48:09.700 easy to do and you just stood up a little straighter. And as soon as you stood up a little straighter,

00:48:14.340 felt a little more confident. And people looking at you thought to themselves, well, you're a little more attractive.

00:48:21.380 So I just persuaded you to look more attractive. Literally. That just happened. Now, not every one of you

00:48:32.420 in some big way. But again, it's the law of big numbers. If there are a number of people who watch this,

00:48:38.260 some substantial number of you will think, yeah, I will put my shoulders back. And I will, I will

00:48:45.140 straighten my spine and tuck in my butt. And you will actually be more attractive. 0.99

00:48:52.500 So sometimes these things are not that hard to accomplish. So that was your, I guess that's your

00:48:59.060 treat for following to the end. Have you noticed that I sometimes put the most useful

00:49:03.300 bits at the end? Oh, it's part of my technique to make you addicted. And it's working. That's right.

00:49:15.620 Now, if you don't believe that me simply telling you through the screen that you're

00:49:20.420 sexier and better looking will work, then you haven't learned yet enough about persuasion. Because

00:49:26.900 it doesn't matter if you, if you regard the persuasion as true. It matters if you hear it a lot.

00:49:33.940 That's it. And you're hearing it because this format is what I call a mass personal experience.

00:49:41.380 So it's a mass broadcast to lots of people, but it's weirdly personal, isn't it? And because it feels

00:49:47.620 personal, because it's me talking to you, and I'm telling you that all you have to do is

00:49:53.620 straighten up your back and act a little more confident, and other people will see you that way.

00:50:00.900 It's going to have more impact than if it was something you read in a magazine or something.

00:50:05.620 Because of the nature of this, it makes it, it will make your brain act as though it worked. Oh,

00:50:13.140 here's the freakiest thing. You ready for this? This is something that I may have discovered

00:50:19.060 something, but I want you to test it. Because I only have one anecdotal experience. Please test this.

00:50:25.860 It goes like this. You have to sneeze. Back to the sneezing thing. But you can't. Let's say you're

00:50:32.660 someplace you don't want to sneeze. Last night, the cat was on my chest. I was really happy. He was

00:50:38.260 kneading into the blanket and stuff. And I didn't want to sneeze and scare her off. And so I was trying to

00:50:44.420 work her into the idea that a sneeze was coming by starting small, if I could hold off the actual

00:50:53.140 sneeze. So I started this way. I went, achoo. And she didn't move. And then I went, achoo.

00:51:01.300 She still didn't move. Then I went, achoo. And she still didn't move. And I thought, okay, now she's primed. 0.90

00:51:09.140 Because when the real one comes, it's going to be a little louder than that last one. But maybe she's now

00:51:13.620 used to it as something that doesn't hurt. And the next one will be like, achoo. But you know what 0.99

00:51:18.460 happened? My fake sneeze made my urge to actually sneeze stop instantly. And I said to myself,

00:51:31.220 oh my god, I'll bet that could actually work. Here's the hypothesis. The hypothesis is that the

00:51:36.980 sneeze is forming in your brain, not your body. And that if your brain was satisfied that you had

00:51:43.880 sneezed, it would turn off the impulse. And I believe that my fake artificial sneeze turned off

00:51:51.220 the switch to make me actually sneeze. So here's what I want you to test. The next time you have a

00:51:58.060 sneeze coming, and you're sure it's one that's going to happen, do a loud fake sneeze, assuming you're

00:52:04.240 somewhere where you can do that. Just go, achoo, and try to sell it. But it's definitely not a real 1.00

00:52:10.220 sneeze. Watch what happens to the real one. If it turns off, it's going to blow your frickin' mind

00:52:20.200 like it did mine last night. Now, I don't know if this could work for me again. And I don't know if

00:52:26.360 it was just a coincidence. But I've never stopped to sneeze before, have you? Have you ever stopped to

00:52:32.720 sneeze? I mean, the closest I've ever come is like the kind. But I stopped at cold. Like, it was a

00:52:41.100 definite sneeze, and it just, boop, gone. Somebody here says it works. All right, so you need to test

00:52:49.960 that for me, and forget, I'll forget that I asked you to do it. So test it for me. The first time you

00:52:56.480 get a hit on it, if it works, you have to message me, or put it in the comments, or tweet it at me,

00:53:01.920 or something. Because if this works, it's going to change everything you think about everything.

00:53:07.500 And it might work. So that's your test for the day. And YouTube, I will see you tomorrow.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - April 19, 2022

Episode 1718 Scott Adams： Musk, Murder, DarkMAGA, Masks And More. A Meaningful Morning

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