Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 1758 Scott Adams： Today We Will Sip A Beverage And Look On Brighter Side Of Life. Join Me

00:00:00.360 And welcome to Coffee with Scott Adams, the highlight of civilization.

00:00:06.320 And today we're going to put the positive spin on all the terrible things.

00:00:11.160 Does that mean we're bad people?

00:00:13.520 Well, some of us are, frankly.

00:00:16.320 But no, not necessarily. Not necessarily.

00:00:20.880 You could take a day off from the tragedies.

00:00:23.900 You can, unless you're personally involved.

00:00:26.880 But if you'd like to just take a little mental, oh, let's say, floss, this would be the place to come.

00:00:34.500 And all you need to kick it off right is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or a chalice or a stein, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind.

00:00:43.520 Fill it with your favorite liquid I like, coffee.

00:00:47.500 And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure.

00:00:52.400 It's the dopamine here in the day, the thing that's already getting you a little bit of a tingle.

00:00:56.880 Admit it. A little bit of a tingle.

00:01:00.240 Go.

00:01:05.500 All right, I have a provocative thought.

00:01:11.800 What if the Supreme Court never rules on Roe versus Wade, after all?

00:01:15.760 You know, we saw the leak, but we also know that the leak could be in the form of a document that was passed around to see if people would support it or, you know, what the best argument would look like.

00:01:31.800 But what if, what if, instead of just waiting for the right time to release it?

00:01:39.420 Because apparently these big decisions, they wait for a certain time of the year, which is not now.

00:01:46.320 So somebody can fact check me on this.

00:01:48.420 But is it at the end of the session or something?

00:01:51.960 Sometime in the summer?

00:01:53.780 Is it August?

00:01:54.940 I forget.

00:01:55.380 August, October?

00:01:56.560 Whatever it is.

00:01:57.160 So there's a time when they do the releasing of the big decisions, and this is not yet the time.

00:02:02.960 So it could be that we haven't seen it, because it's just not the right time.

00:02:08.640 On the other hand, what if they floated this thing just to see what the public reaction would be?

00:02:16.600 What if?

00:02:18.500 Oh, somebody says June?

00:02:20.380 No, I think, really, June?

00:02:24.120 Oh, about June 30th, the end of June, somebody's saying.

00:02:28.820 Okay, well, I'm sure you're smarter than I am about Supreme Court stuff.

00:02:33.460 So let's say end of June.

00:02:35.960 Let's say that that's right, just because I read it in the comment, and how could that be wrong?

00:02:41.740 So maybe they floated it, and they thought, no, it will tear the country apart, so let's back off.

00:02:50.240 Do you think there's any chance that that's going to happen?

00:02:56.200 Or that the decision is substantially rewritten?

00:02:59.600 I don't think that's going to happen, but do you think there's any chance?

00:03:03.980 Any chance that you just won't see it, and there'll never be an explanation why?

00:03:09.860 Very, very low chance.

00:03:12.740 Very, very low, but not zero.

00:03:16.100 Not zero.

00:03:16.820 It could actually happen.

00:03:20.240 And it could be that the public opinion is something they factor in.

00:03:24.800 Now, here's why I think the Supreme Court should factor in public opinion.

00:03:31.400 Because they're the last credible institution, and they're under assault.

00:03:37.600 They're credibility.

00:03:38.980 If you lose the Supreme Court, your whole system is in a lot of trouble, right?

00:03:44.740 So it could have a cascading effect.

00:03:48.600 So I do think that the Supreme Court would take the health of the republic and the credibility of the court itself

00:03:55.360 as a higher priority than the technical rightness of a decision.

00:04:01.260 What do you think?

00:04:04.300 Let me forget about this question.

00:04:07.000 You know, just forget about Roe versus Wade for a moment.

00:04:08.700 Do you think, in general, this statement holds that the Supreme Court justices would favor the integrity and credibility of the court and the system

00:04:19.860 over any specific ruling?

00:04:25.120 I'd say yes.

00:04:26.580 And can you think of anything that would be more of a shock to the system than the Roe versus Wade ruling?

00:04:33.920 Well, let's say that the majority court are Republican-leaning or conservative.

00:04:42.440 Do you think that the justices who would be presumably the ones overruling it,

00:04:49.260 do you think those justices would be happy to have a Democrat elected president again?

00:04:56.080 Or do you think that they would prefer getting a Republican president?

00:05:00.280 Because think about the human beings who have to sign that thing.

00:05:05.360 On one hand, it would be, you know, a feather in their cap, I guess, forever.

00:05:11.180 Something maybe they've always wanted to do.

00:05:13.540 They'd be at the center of history.

00:05:14.880 There'd be lots of reasons to do it from their perspective.

00:05:19.240 But there'd also be a good reason not to do it if they thought it was going to rip the system apart.

00:05:25.100 Because as the justices have pointed out, the states will just make their own rules anyway.

00:05:32.520 So whatever happens is going to be at least more localized.

00:05:34.960 It's not like the biggest deal in the world in some sense, right?

00:05:39.700 It'll take a while for state laws to become whatever they're going to become.

00:05:44.580 But they don't really have to rule on this, do they?

00:05:47.400 They can just punt.

00:05:49.300 They can just kick that can down the road forever.

00:05:51.220 However, so if I were to predict, I will predict that it'll be exactly what it looks like.

00:05:58.140 I'll predict that there will be a ruling and it looks just like the draft.

00:06:02.300 But today is, let's say, good news day.

00:06:08.060 I know some of you want it to be overturned.

00:06:10.040 But the good news would be that it protects the system.

00:06:16.180 That's what I think.

00:06:17.920 It protects the system.

00:06:19.120 So you might argue that you'd rather put the system at risk to save that many of what you think are babies.

00:06:28.500 That wouldn't be a ridiculous opinion.

00:06:31.740 The one thing about the whole abortion debate is that, am I the only one?

00:06:38.260 I'm sure I'm not, right?

00:06:39.960 I would imagine this is closer to universal.

00:06:42.580 That you have some respect for the other side.

00:06:46.240 Would you say?

00:06:47.020 Maybe far more than other topics.

00:06:51.880 I would say that's true.

00:06:53.460 No matter which side you come down on, you have to respect the other side.

00:06:57.080 I think in this topic, you have to respect it.

00:07:00.820 Especially if they show their work.

00:07:02.260 I'll tell you who I don't respect.

00:07:04.380 Someone who won't show their work.

00:07:06.820 You know, this is why I believe it.

00:07:08.780 I know it has some costs.

00:07:10.900 Here are the benefits.

00:07:11.740 I prefer these benefits to these costs.

00:07:14.700 You know, if you can say it outright, then I'm going to respect that opinion.

00:07:18.680 Even if I disagree with it.

00:07:20.300 But as I've often said, I have a penis.

00:07:24.320 For those of you who are not aware of that.

00:07:27.720 And I don't think that my opinion on abortion should be in any way persuasive.

00:07:33.640 So, it's better if I don't give it to you.

00:07:36.840 Just stay out of it.

00:07:38.260 And whatever women want to decide, or the public in general who wants to get involved, I will back it.

00:07:45.200 You know, whatever gets decided.

00:07:46.900 I'm okay with it.

00:07:49.000 All right.

00:07:50.200 Because that means the majority.

00:07:52.020 You know, I'm going to go with the majority on this one.

00:07:53.620 Because when you have a question that just can't be settled, do I think the outrage was enough to pressure a change?

00:08:02.420 That's a good question.

00:08:03.980 I don't believe that the risk of violence in the streets would prompt the change.

00:08:09.840 Because I don't think there's that much risk of that.

00:08:12.000 I mean, there would be some, but it wouldn't be.

00:08:13.900 And I control.

00:08:15.980 I think that the Supreme Court would know that making this ruling would be interfering in a presidential election.

00:08:23.620 Because it could change the result of the presidential election.

00:08:27.780 Do you think they might wait until after the presidential election?

00:08:34.680 Think about it.

00:08:36.000 Now, somebody who's smart, give me a historical ruling on this.

00:08:42.160 Can the Supreme Court, or do they, as a precedent, do they take into consideration that what they're doing might affect how people vote?

00:08:53.620 Especially in a presidential election.

00:08:56.240 Do they take that into account?

00:08:59.500 Because I would think that the Supreme Court would time any decisions to have the smallest impact on politics.

00:09:07.180 Which would suggest that they would make this kind of a decision right after an election cycle,

00:09:12.760 not right before a two-year cycle with both a congressional race and a presidential race.

00:09:17.840 Right?

00:09:22.660 So, events always change elections, but not something this big and not directly coming from the Supreme Court.

00:09:29.580 I think that might matter.

00:09:31.560 We'll see.

00:09:32.620 So, I went to watch Top Gun last night.

00:09:34.960 How many of you have seen the movie Top Gun?

00:09:37.900 It's the first time I've been excited to see a movie.

00:09:40.940 In, I don't know, years.

00:09:42.120 And, so here's my review.

00:09:46.000 Totally delivered.

00:09:47.840 It totally delivered.

00:09:50.420 If you say to me, Scott, there were many cliches in that movie, I will say to you, yes, there were.

00:09:59.120 But, they did all the good ones.

00:10:02.580 Those are the ones you go to movies for.

00:10:04.700 It's not that there are cliches.

00:10:07.040 They all have cliches.

00:10:08.960 It's just that some are good ones.

00:10:10.820 Like the, you know, the noble person who sacrifices.

00:10:14.440 Well, that's a good cliché.

00:10:16.300 I'll watch that all day long.

00:10:18.140 You know, the person who was afraid, but then they became brave.

00:10:22.000 I'll watch that all day long.

00:10:23.760 Yeah, it makes me happy.

00:10:25.320 I don't like it when somebody is tied to a chair to be tortured.

00:10:29.100 That's just bad writing.

00:10:31.480 Really?

00:10:31.840 You can't get through an entire movie script without somebody tied to a chair.

00:10:37.100 Like every other movie.

00:10:39.020 Top Gun, nobody's tied to a chair in Top Gun.

00:10:43.380 Now, I think that Tom Cruise is the one who gets the credit for the quality of his movies.

00:10:51.060 He's obviously working with the best producers and writers and everything.

00:10:54.360 So, you know, his staff is, you know, super talented.

00:10:56.500 But I feel like he must be looking at the script and saying, you know, take out this tied to a chair part, unless he has those in Mission Impossible.

00:11:07.040 Maybe he has some of those.

00:11:07.960 I don't know.

00:11:09.120 But I feel like, because he has so much control over his movies, he's the one who's getting rid of the bad cliches and keeping the good ones that are the reason you pay for the movie in the first place.

00:11:18.640 It was a good thing.

00:11:19.920 I would have said half an hour shorter.

00:11:22.760 It was a little too long.

00:11:23.940 Now, I have to tell you this, since I've been uninterested in movies and I don't really go to music festivals and stuff like that, that I think this is the first time that I can remember, since the beginning of the pandemic and even longer, that I was in a crowd.

00:11:41.020 An unmasked crowd.

00:11:45.200 And I didn't realize how long it had been.

00:11:47.860 And I have to admit, there was some part of me that thought, uh-oh, am I going to get COVID from being in an unmasked crowd for the first time in two and a half years or whatever.

00:12:01.240 It turns out, I did not have to worry about that.

00:12:05.660 Now, the other people had to worry about it because it turns out I have COVID.

00:12:08.880 But I didn't know that at the time.

00:12:13.020 And so as I was watching the movie and toward the end of the movie, I was thinking, why does my body hurt so much?

00:12:20.840 Why does every muscle in my body hurt while I'm just sitting here watching the movie?

00:12:26.460 And then it started to grow.

00:12:28.880 And I was like, I think my fingernails hurt.

00:12:31.800 I don't have much hair, but what I have is hurting.

00:12:35.740 Why does everything hurt?

00:12:38.880 And I had a little bit of a dry cough starting to form.

00:12:43.200 So I immediately went home and tested and, yep, I got the COVID.

00:12:49.280 So the irony is, I did not have to worry about catching COVID at the movie theater, but the people next to me, they should be worried.

00:12:56.300 So if you happen to be next to me, if you happen to be watching the 345 showing in Dublin on the IMAX theater, and you're sort of toward the right in the middle.

00:13:14.880 Now, I feel really bad about this, but the people that sat directly to the left were masked.

00:13:24.600 I don't know, maybe you saved them, who knows.

00:13:30.380 So let me tell you what last night was like.

00:13:34.160 Because you're going to ask, I did have the initial two, the initial two vaccinations.

00:13:40.580 So I'm not boosted, because I thought, well, I'll just get that Pfizer pill or whatever it is, if anything comes up.

00:13:48.600 So I go home last night, and I'm thinking, man, I've got to get me that Pfizer pill, or whatever it is, the one you get.

00:13:57.240 And, you know, so first of all, you're on the phone for an hour to get your health care provider, and then they say they'll book something.

00:14:03.840 So I've got to have a Zoom call with a doctor after I'm done with this.

00:14:08.500 And then I'll get a prescription, and then I don't know how I'm going to get it, because I'm basically quarantined.

00:14:14.580 Not basically, I'm quarantined.

00:14:16.000 So it's this giant pain in the ass.

00:14:20.380 Now, wouldn't you think that at this point, I should make a phone call and say, I just tested positive,

00:14:27.840 and some of that Pfizer pill shit would just show up on my doorstep?

00:14:33.120 Is there a reason there isn't somebody literally driving that to my house?

00:14:36.840 Because I've got to wait 24 hours to get the pill that you need to take right away?

00:14:42.080 What?

00:14:43.560 What?

00:14:44.840 Really?

00:14:45.240 I have to wait all that time to get a pill that they're definitely going to give me.

00:14:51.280 You know, it's not like they're going to say, what, you have this certain condition?

00:14:54.620 You can't have this pill?

00:14:56.340 There's nothing like that.

00:14:58.460 Right?

00:14:58.680 I mean, I don't have any weird conditions that would fit into that.

00:15:03.920 So I would say the system's kind of broken if it takes you a day to get to the thing that you need to get right away.

00:15:09.380 Now, last night, I would say that I was, the best phrase would be writhing in pain.

00:15:16.640 So if you're wondering what it's like to get Omicron after you've had a couple of vaccinations, writhing in pain for, I don't know, 10 hours or so.

00:15:28.340 My temperature was dysregulated, so I had the chills so hard that it hurts your muscles, like you're chattering. 1.00

00:15:38.780 And then you immediately sweat, and then you immediately go to chills.

00:15:43.940 So I couldn't have a blanket on because it'd be too hot, and I couldn't take it off because it was too cold.

00:15:50.900 And there were only two conditions, blanket on, blanket off.

00:15:54.420 So all night long, I would take it on, take it off, take it off, and I don't think I slept more than a couple hours last night.

00:16:02.100 So it was a horrible, horrible night.

00:16:07.200 However, it turns out that four bongs and two cups of coffee, largely cured, largely.

00:16:18.620 You know, I'm still quarantined, so I'm going to take it easy, but I feel fine.

00:16:23.600 So, you know, I'm not exaggerating when I said, I was really sick last night.

00:16:35.280 Like, I was really sick.

00:16:37.700 You know, stomach, head, throbbing, everything.

00:16:41.800 Next day, I'm fine.

00:16:45.340 So, that happened.

00:16:48.020 Gavin Newsom has COVID.

00:16:49.620 He's more vaccinated than I am, so maybe he'll do better.

00:16:51.980 Or maybe not.

00:16:54.480 Maybe not.

00:16:56.780 All right, here's some economic optimism.

00:16:59.220 Does anybody want some economic optimism?

00:17:01.760 Anybody?

00:17:03.400 Economic optimism, number one.

00:17:06.200 Employment rates, still very good.

00:17:09.740 And this will be the ultimate test of the Adams economic theory that I'm naming at the moment.

00:17:16.820 That as long as your employment rate is good, you can kind of figure out everything else.

00:17:22.640 You know, it won't be comfortable.

00:17:24.600 But you're not going to be, you know, in desperate starvation straits.

00:17:29.220 As long as everybody is working, for the most part.

00:17:31.760 And that's our current condition.

00:17:33.900 But we have unprecedented kinds of, you know, inflation and supply chain problems,

00:17:40.300 and maybe nuclear war, and energy shocks, and you name it.

00:17:44.700 But there is reason to be optimistic today.

00:17:48.460 Number one, the Shanghai-China lockdowns, they're starting to ease them.

00:17:53.000 Which is good news.

00:17:55.940 If they ease them more, then China gets back online. 0.96

00:17:58.940 So that puts the supply chain, at least that part of the supply chain, a little bit stronger basis.

00:18:05.260 There seems to be a slowdown in the housing market for the purchase of new homes.

00:18:14.080 Which apparently is what the Fed wanted.

00:18:16.520 So they raised interest rates to slow down that market.

00:18:19.220 It doesn't get too far ahead of itself, too bubbly.

00:18:22.420 It's pretty bubbly.

00:18:23.160 So, that's good news.

00:18:26.000 I mean, it sounds on paper, if you don't study economics on paper, that sounds like bad news.

00:18:30.600 It's like, wait, the value of my house will be less or something.

00:18:34.820 But, in the current situation, you don't want any big bubbles.

00:18:39.980 Right?

00:18:40.280 You want things to be predictable.

00:18:42.180 So it's better that the housing market cools off.

00:18:45.180 That's all positive.

00:18:46.840 Very positive.

00:18:48.580 So now we've got the supply chains, which haven't starved us yet.

00:18:51.980 seem to be kicking into place.

00:18:54.340 Now, there is, there is, we get warning noises about beef.

00:18:59.680 Might have less beef, etc.

00:19:02.080 But don't you think that the alternative protein markets are going nuts right now?

00:19:08.340 If you're in the business of making any kind of alternative protein,

00:19:12.560 I'll bet you're doing okay.

00:19:14.640 So I think there's going to be a whole resurgence in how we eat and the whole thing.

00:19:20.160 Like, has it ever bugged you how many times food has to change hands before it goes into your mouth?

00:19:26.580 Like, you get that the farmer has to grow it, right?

00:19:29.520 But then it, you know, gets washed and puts in containers and it's shipped and it puts on a shelf.

00:19:34.640 And then you take it off the shelf and you put it in a cart.

00:19:36.720 You take it out of your cart, you put it on a conveyor, you take it out of the conveyor,

00:19:40.380 you put it in a bag, you put it in the bag, you put it in your thing.

00:19:42.880 You take your thing, you put it in the cart, you take the cart,

00:19:45.160 and now you put it on the counter, take it out of the bag, put it in the...

00:19:48.060 And then you've got to take it out of the container and we need it.

00:19:52.040 That is all...

00:19:54.720 That is all so inefficient.

00:20:00.640 Something tells me that we're going to figure out how to make food local.

00:20:05.240 Maybe 3D printers?

00:20:07.660 Maybe.

00:20:08.720 Yeah.

00:20:09.520 Maybe everybody will just get a big pile of protein and carbs and put it in their printer

00:20:14.800 and have a perfect meal every time.

00:20:16.700 Maybe.

00:20:17.200 Who knows?

00:20:17.560 Now, you might say to yourself, Scott, Scott, Scott, I will never eat a food that comes out of a printer

00:20:25.760 to which I say, how is that different than soup?

00:20:31.140 It's no different than soup.

00:20:33.040 It's just a bunch of stuff put in a bowl that tastes good.

00:20:36.440 So just put it in a printer and it just spits out the food a different way.

00:20:40.560 So yes, you can make 3D printed food extraordinarily tasty.

00:20:51.960 So that's the good news.

00:20:57.140 Are you thinking what I'm thinking, that the supply chain is getting solved and we just don't know about it?

00:21:04.500 Or is it getting worse and worse and there's going to be some gigantic catastrophe?

00:21:08.620 Because I feel like the news likes to report impending disasters.

00:21:14.600 So I've got a feeling that reporters are looking into the impending disasters and not finding them.

00:21:20.780 Or, or do they have some kind of orders from the government to not report on it?

00:21:26.740 Because it would cause a run on certain things and it's better if you didn't know.

00:21:30.040 Don't you wonder why there's no reporting on the cataclysmic supply chain effects that are right ahead of us?

00:21:39.640 Because these should be, these alleged cataclysmic things should be happening over the summer, maybe, by the winter.

00:21:47.380 That's pretty soon.

00:21:48.260 So doesn't it make you think that we've already figured out workarounds?

00:21:54.700 Or am I wrong?

00:21:56.420 Maybe we're just getting by with fewer choices and it didn't really make much difference at all.

00:22:01.220 Just some companies can't deliver their product, but others deliver more and so you're fine.

00:22:06.000 I know.

00:22:06.340 So I've got a feeling that the supply chain thing maybe isn't that big a problem, you know, in the end.

00:22:15.880 We'll see.

00:22:16.800 And not that it isn't a big problem, but that we're so good at making adjustments in a trillion different ways and everywhere in the system.

00:22:24.680 I think we'll just get past it.

00:22:27.900 All right.

00:22:30.060 Does everybody like the optimism yet?

00:22:31.700 So I've been talking about these small homes that you can put up for $30,000, $40,000, you know, a little home that's got a bathroom and a kitchen and a bedroom.

00:22:42.500 And you can just ship it to the site and assemble it.

00:22:45.460 Well, one of them is called Boxable, and Dave Rubin was informing me by tweet today that Elon Musk has an investment in Boxable.

00:22:53.960 So he's one of the investors.

00:22:55.020 So even Elon Musk is in this growing field of the homes that you can just slap together from kits, basically.

00:23:06.580 So, you know, I've been telling you that this is going to be the big thing.

00:23:12.100 They won't look exactly like these version 1.0s, you know, in the same way that your automobile today does not look like a Model T.

00:23:19.540 But when you see how popular these are, poorly made.

00:23:26.120 Now, when I say poorly made, I only mean compared to what they will evolve to.

00:23:32.260 They're not poorly made for, you know, today's technology and stuff.

00:23:35.480 But what they will evolve to will be amazing.

00:23:38.700 They'll be way better than what you're living in now.

00:23:42.440 If I haven't mentioned this before, there's a planned community, a neighborhood that's built to be free from cars.

00:23:49.540 So you can walk everywhere.

00:23:51.880 So if they design it so that all the stuff you need is in walking distance, and they have, like, I guess, electric scooters and electric bikes and stuff you can just grab and go.

00:24:02.160 Free public transportation.

00:24:05.200 So it's Cul-de-sac Tempe, Tempe, Arizona.

00:24:08.700 And the organization is called cul-de-sac.com.

00:24:12.420 So they're actually designing communities to make them more livable, car-free.

00:24:16.400 But is that enough?

00:24:21.100 I mean, I love the fact that it's a car-free community.

00:24:23.880 It's sort of like college.

00:24:25.120 That was kind of a car-free community.

00:24:27.720 But I feel like that's just one variable.

00:24:32.100 Like, what about making us less lonely?

00:24:35.140 What about making us safer?

00:24:36.880 I mean, it might do those, too.

00:24:38.200 But they don't talk about that stuff.

00:24:40.140 Because those are all the things that make, you know, what about being cheaper?

00:24:43.100 You know, what about being affordable?

00:24:45.360 What about being, you know, more green?

00:24:47.000 It sounds like it's pretty green.

00:24:48.680 So we'll give them that.

00:24:50.300 Anyway, I think these are the big trends.

00:24:55.160 On Axios, writer Erica Pandy tells us that one in three Americans, adults, don't get enough sleep.

00:25:03.660 And enough sleep is defined as seven or more hours a night.

00:25:06.680 Is there anybody who gets more than seven hours a night of sleep?

00:25:12.620 In the comments, how many of you get seven or more hours per night?

00:25:18.860 Wow.

00:25:20.600 Wow.

00:25:21.420 A lot of you do.

00:25:24.020 I'll be darned.

00:25:25.120 I don't even know it was possible.

00:25:27.740 I mean, like, by the time you wake up at 7 a.m., you know, I've already worked on two careers.

00:25:35.000 So I don't know what you guys are, you're missing a lot.

00:25:40.960 But, on the other hand, apparently you will live longer than I will, and you'll be happier and healthier.

00:25:47.460 So, good for you.

00:25:49.060 So keep up that sleep.

00:25:51.800 But apparently Americans are getting less and less.

00:25:54.040 And here was a tip that I've seen before, but this is so useful, I thought I'd share it with you.

00:26:00.020 Here's a simple tip to improve your sleeping that has one interesting characteristic.

00:26:06.320 Well, two.

00:26:07.440 It's super easy to do.

00:26:10.180 And number two, you're not going to do it.

00:26:13.660 You're not going to do it.

00:26:15.280 Neither am I.

00:26:16.420 Here's that good advice.

00:26:18.460 Stop looking at your screens 30 minutes before you try to go to sleep.

00:26:21.980 Really?

00:26:23.080 Really?

00:26:24.160 You think I'm going to not look at my phone 30 minutes before I hit the bed?

00:26:29.740 What kind of little house on the prairie world do you live in that you can go more than 30 minutes without looking at a screen?

00:26:38.440 A book.

00:26:40.180 Ah!

00:26:42.020 Get away from me with your paper books.

00:26:43.940 Yeah.

00:26:46.780 Yeah.

00:26:48.000 I guess listening to music's okay, but the way I do it, I usually have to look at a screen to select the music.

00:26:54.480 So, there's your tip of the day.

00:26:56.880 Turn off your screens.

00:26:58.180 No, you won't do it.

00:27:00.280 Let me ask you this.

00:27:02.980 Are mass shootings a big problem or a small problem?

00:27:07.680 Here's why I ask.

00:27:08.560 The news business needs to put faces and names on stories, because you would not read a story about a concept.

00:27:20.580 You would only read a story about, oh, this farmer lost their farm because of this, or this person was the victim of this or that.

00:27:29.260 So, the news needs to put names and faces on stories.

00:27:33.860 And what is the predictable effect of having to put names and faces on all your stories?

00:27:41.880 Well, the predictable effect is that the more easily you can put a sympathetic name on it, the more attention it will get.

00:27:50.700 What would excite our senses in the worst possible way more than murder of children?

00:28:00.940 Nothing, right?

00:28:01.980 That's like, that's it.

00:28:03.620 That's the highest one.

00:28:05.240 So, given that, you know, they will have names and faces, which is already happening,

00:28:09.900 it's inevitable that we would look at things with names and faces as the important things.

00:28:17.440 But are they?

00:28:19.320 Now, let me be clear.

00:28:22.120 If you or somebody you knew were a victim of some tragedy, this one or any other,

00:28:26.600 that's the most important thing in your world, for sure.

00:28:29.040 But, but, the world is full of tragedies.

00:28:35.300 Do we not get to rank them so that we know which ones we should focus on?

00:28:39.800 Because right now, the news is ranking them by how easily you can put a face on it.

00:28:45.480 That's it.

00:28:47.100 The stories you see are based on how easily you can put a face on it.

00:28:51.420 Do you know how many times, given that I'm in this business,

00:28:56.240 do you know how many times I've been asked to put a face on something or a name?

00:29:02.440 It's just the most common thing that people in this business ask for.

00:29:05.140 Okay, but I need a face and a name to make this story.

00:29:07.800 So, if there are a whole bunch of victims in the story, there's going to be lots of faces and names.

00:29:17.360 But if you were to measure the size of this problem, gun murders, versus the size of our other problems,

00:29:25.660 where would it be?

00:29:26.240 Now, remember, 20 kids, if you were to multiply it by the number of years each of them has left, on average,

00:29:36.800 that's robbing the most human spark, I guess.

00:29:42.180 So, that would be worse than 20 senior citizens in terms of number of living years that were lost.

00:29:47.840 So, it makes sense that, you know, anything with kids is a tragedy and nothing affects us more emotionally.

00:29:55.660 But, I'm trying to put it in context and I'm not sure I can.

00:30:01.540 Because, as much as I value, you know, I like to think I can rationalize things and try to take my emotion out of it,

00:30:08.640 I don't know if I can.

00:30:10.920 Because, how do you rank, like, death of children compared to anything?

00:30:16.600 I mean, it's just always going to be worse, even if it's just one.

00:30:19.980 It just will feel that way.

00:30:22.140 So, be aware that you are being, let's say, unknowingly manipulated to care most about topics that have the most faces.

00:30:35.120 And once you realize that, you can say to yourself,

00:30:37.940 okay, is this something that really, we need to get on this and change it?

00:30:42.160 Or is it not that big of a deal?

00:30:44.180 I don't know.

00:30:44.840 It'll help you figure that out.

00:30:46.600 And I don't really know.

00:30:51.260 So, if you look at even the stories on gun control, they've got to put Ted Cruz's name on it, right?

00:30:56.960 His name and face.

00:30:58.440 Got to put Trump's name and face on it.

00:31:00.760 So, everything's got to be a name and a face.

00:31:02.220 I was challenged yesterday, well, actually a number of times, for not knowing enough about Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

00:31:14.160 And so, I said to myself, well, I've got some idea what he's about, but I'll go to Wikipedia and see if there's anything, like, big that I'm not aware of.

00:31:25.860 And I have to think that when somebody else is being described, that the third party doesn't always do a good job.

00:31:34.880 But, if the way he's being described in Wikipedia is accurate in terms of his ideas, that would be interesting.

00:31:47.660 We'll tell you what it is in a minute.

00:31:51.960 So, he argues that governments are no longer the overwhelmingly dominant actors on the world stage.

00:31:59.860 And that, quote, the time has come for a new stakeholder paradigm of international governance.

00:32:04.860 So, he's for some new way that the governments will operate.

00:32:10.920 And it's something beyond governments.

00:32:13.460 So, there'd be governments plus something else.

00:32:15.820 I guess he'll describe it here.

00:32:17.660 And he says, the time has come for a new stakeholder paradigm of international governance.

00:32:22.880 So, international, meaning across borders.

00:32:25.700 So, there'd be some kind of governing entity that wouldn't be limited to your country.

00:32:31.440 Red alert, red alert.

00:32:32.400 All right.

00:32:33.200 And then, the vision includes a public-private UN in which certain specialized units would operate under joint-state and non-state governance systems.

00:32:44.820 So, in other words, the private enterprise would be part of government.

00:32:50.360 So, you say to yourself, wait a minute.

00:32:52.120 What part of private enterprise, like a company, should be making government decisions?

00:32:59.260 Like, how do you decide what company you trust enough to make decisions like a government?

00:33:06.880 And he has an answer to that.

00:33:08.120 Here's how you choose them.

00:33:10.240 They would be self-selected.

00:33:14.960 What?

00:33:17.000 What?

00:33:18.040 A self-selected coalition of multinational corporations and governments through the UN system.

00:33:24.000 And they would select a civil society organization.

00:33:27.740 So, basically, he's saying that big companies that would self-select, they would have to volunteer to be this,

00:33:34.300 would work with the governments such as they are, which would be weakened,

00:33:40.480 across country lines to create some kind of separate organizations that run everything.

00:33:47.880 And, according to this Wikipedia article, which I can't believe is true, I can't believe this is true, honestly.

00:33:57.000 It looks like something is left out, doesn't it?

00:34:01.100 Yeah, I think there's something, like, majorly left out of the story.

00:34:06.540 Because I can't believe anybody would say with a straight face that we want to get rid of the democratic systems

00:34:14.740 and replace them with private corporations, multinational corporations.

00:34:20.960 So, not just corporations in one country, but multinational corporations that would self-select.

00:34:28.840 So, they'd decide they wanted to be in charge, and then they'd put themselves in charge.

00:34:33.320 How in the world could that be serious?

00:34:36.540 How in the world could that be serious?

00:34:41.840 What am I missing?

00:34:44.040 Is there a whole part of the story that they just don't mention here on Wikipedia?

00:34:49.660 Because this doesn't even look a little bit like it's going to happen.

00:34:53.820 Why would you even worry about this?

00:34:56.880 Is it because a lot of people go to Davos, so therefore it looks like it might actually happen?

00:35:02.660 I don't see any scenario in which the United States gives up control to corporations that self-select that want to be in control.

00:35:13.240 You're saying it's serious?

00:35:15.160 I've got a real question about it.

00:35:17.560 I feel as if there's something more to the explanation that, if you heard it, would not sound so batshit crazy.

00:35:23.920 Because remember, Klaus Schwab is, he's not only an engineer, he's an economist.

00:35:32.040 So, do you think somebody who's an engineer and an economist would come up with an idea that's so obviously bad?

00:35:38.820 I feel like there's something left out.

00:35:44.940 Unless it really is just totally crazy talk.

00:35:48.240 Maybe.

00:35:50.400 AOC is not an economist.

00:35:52.540 I wouldn't say that.

00:35:54.380 She just studied economics.

00:35:55.880 Well, maybe.

00:35:56.540 Okay.

00:35:56.860 If you want to say somebody who studied economics is an economist.

00:35:59.280 All right.

00:36:04.360 His father was a full-blown Nazi, somebody says.

00:36:07.680 Yeah.

00:36:08.280 You know, I'm not going to judge any Germans by what their parents did in World War II.

00:36:15.940 Is that fair?

00:36:17.480 But let's, you know, can we let go of that?

00:36:21.140 If somebody's parents did something in World War II, I'm going to let go of that.

00:36:26.620 It's time.

00:36:27.260 Time to let go.

00:36:29.280 All right.

00:36:33.340 What else is going on?

00:36:40.140 And there's some hoax updates.

00:36:44.060 So, this one, I don't even, I think even the hoax update might be a hoax.

00:36:48.080 I don't know.

00:36:48.840 But there's some lesser publication, lesser known publication.

00:36:52.500 I don't know if they're lesser quality.

00:36:53.820 But there are lesser known publications saying that,

00:36:57.080 FBI documents reveal the U.S. may have funded Charlottesville rioters through Ukrainian neo-Nazi group.

00:37:04.340 Documents show the ties between the Azov battalion and the U.S. rioters.

00:37:08.960 Now, I don't doubt that there's some connection between peoples, but I've got a feeling that nobody, I don't think the FBI or anybody was knowingly funding that.

00:37:21.560 But I ask you this provocative question.

00:37:24.960 Where are they now?

00:37:26.620 Where are all those people who marched without masks?

00:37:29.280 In the age of facial recognition, all those people marched without masks, and we never really hear from them, do we?

00:37:39.640 I feel like you would expect that the news would have, you know, found a few years later and say,

00:37:46.640 you participated in that march, how do you feel about it?

00:37:51.320 But I don't think you can find them.

00:37:56.860 I don't think you can find them.

00:37:59.560 I'm not so sure they were all totally organic.

00:38:04.020 I mean, I'm not denying the existence of people just like that in the United States.

00:38:08.560 But the event specifically might have had a little bit of theater involved that we don't know about.

00:38:16.420 Not to say there were not real racists there.

00:38:19.020 Clearly there were, which we disavow.

00:38:27.800 A few more hoax updates.

00:38:31.780 There was a Rupar edit of Biden snubbing Modi, you know, India's Prime Minister Modi.

00:38:38.560 But apparently that's just a misleading edit.

00:38:42.320 So if you see a video that looks like Biden is snubbing Modi, that didn't happen.

00:38:49.480 Here's another one.

00:38:52.360 Let's see.

00:38:52.920 Oh, there's two fake stories.

00:38:53.960 So CNN is debunking fake stories about Ted Cruz and Governor Abbott of Texas.

00:39:01.340 That feels like something.

00:39:03.420 Because I feel like they would have just ignored it before.

00:39:05.800 But fairly prominently, they debunked two claims against Cruz and Abbott.

00:39:13.220 And so it doesn't matter what they are, I think.

00:39:15.340 They're just, well, it matters.

00:39:18.800 One is, alleges to show that Ted Cruz always says the same thing after every mass shooting.

00:39:25.200 But that's fake.

00:39:26.840 So simply just, you know, fake some tweets.

00:39:28.740 And the other one showing Abbott, I don't know, did something bad that didn't really happen.

00:39:37.400 Now, here's some more good news.

00:39:39.980 It turns out that if the Russians have to compete with the Iranians to sell illegal oil because there are sanctions on Iran and Russia, this is really bad news for Iran.

00:39:55.540 So Iran at least had an ability to sell to sketchy markets.

00:39:59.580 You know, they could sell to China, but they could sell to, you know, sketchier countries.

00:40:03.260 But as soon as Russia can only also sell to those same sketchy countries, including China, it makes the price of Iranian oil go way down.

00:40:16.120 Because apparently the Iranian oil is just crap compared to the Russian oil.

00:40:20.480 If you had a choice, you want the Russian oil.

00:40:22.640 It's easier to refine.

00:40:23.520 So apparently the Iranian revenue from oil is down like 25% already since the sanctions on Russia.

00:40:35.620 And Iran was not doing that well.

00:40:38.700 So there's actually a thought that, weirdly, the war in Ukraine might lead to a tightening of the economic woes in Iran,

00:40:50.660 which would lead them to be flexible to negotiate something with a nuclear deal that made sense.

00:40:57.480 So maybe, maybe, the war in Ukraine is going to cause Iran to make a peace deal in the Middle East.

00:41:07.640 Maybe, maybe, could happen.

00:41:11.160 So that is the good news for the day.

00:41:16.100 And of course, China wins because they're getting cheap oil.

00:41:22.840 All right.

00:41:25.460 Did I leave anything out?

00:41:29.460 Somebody just got here, so I'd like to repeat.

00:41:32.760 Blah, blah, blah, blah, COVID.

00:41:35.320 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:41:37.640 That's all you missed.

00:41:38.460 Not much.

00:41:40.700 Oh, your gas is up to $5.49 a gallon in Chicago.

00:41:44.300 Oh, boo-hoo. 0.99

00:41:46.020 It's over $7 here.

00:41:48.100 I'd pay $7 for a gallon of gas.

00:41:57.340 All right.

00:41:57.920 All right.

00:42:01.660 Iran is moving closer to Russia.

00:42:03.360 I choose to live in California.

00:42:10.100 You know, strangely enough, I'm not sure I did choose.

00:42:16.680 At least Pleasanton chose me.

00:42:20.420 Long story there.

00:42:24.140 All right.

00:42:25.320 Voting for Schellenberger.

00:42:26.400 Holy, $8.75 a gallon in Vancouver.

00:42:33.760 But that's Canadian money.

00:42:36.240 Which is pretty close, right?

00:42:38.260 Canadian dollar, U.S. dollar are kind of close at the moment.

00:42:47.500 4.14.

00:42:48.540 Where do you live?

00:42:51.780 All right.

00:42:53.580 Buy crypto, not gas, you say.

00:42:55.640 Electric bikes are going to be everywhere.

00:43:08.920 All right.

00:43:09.580 Well, I'm going to go get ready to talk to my doctor

00:43:15.300 and get some COVID pills,

00:43:18.060 and I will be back in the real world in nine and a half days.

00:43:26.300 So I might do some extra live streams

00:43:29.860 because I'll be locked in.

00:43:33.260 So I might need some, like, social outlet.

00:43:36.180 So that's on you.

00:43:37.860 You're going to have to put up with me a little bit extra, I think.

00:43:41.400 All right.

00:43:42.080 But the good news is,

00:43:43.560 if that's the worst that Omicron has to throw at me,

00:43:48.160 it was a really, really bad night.

00:43:50.460 But at the moment, zero pain.

00:43:53.700 No discomfort at all.

00:43:55.720 And I will talk to you tomorrow.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - May 29, 2022

Episode 1758 Scott Adams： Today We Will Sip A Beverage And Look On Brighter Side Of Life. Join Me

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