Real Coffee with Scott Adams - September 21, 2022

Episode 1873 Scott Adams： Dilbert Canceled In 77 Newspapers, Maybe As Face Of Anti-ESG Sentiment？

Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 16 minutes

Words per Minute

145.13618

Word Count

11,093

Sentence Count

915

Misogynist Sentences

7

Hate Speech Sentences

17

Summary

Summaries are generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ.

A woman who identifies as a woman has gigantic prosthetic breasts. It's either the greatest prank ever, or someone who doesn't give a fuck about what you think. And if that's the case, I've found my hero.

Transcript

Transcript is generated with Whisper (turbo).

Misogyny classification is done with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny.

Hate speech classification is done with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target.

00:00:00.000 Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the best thing that's ever happened to you in your whole damn life.

00:00:09.900 It's called Coffee with Scott Adams, and I don't think there's ever been a finer moment in the history of, well, the universe, really.

00:00:20.420 How would you like to take it up a level?

00:00:22.900 I think you would. Yeah, let's take it up a level.

00:00:25.360 All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank of gel, a sustain, a canteen jug or a flask, a vessel of any kind.

00:00:32.780 Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee.

00:00:36.360 And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine at the end of the day, the thing that makes everything better.

00:00:44.780 It's called the simultaneous sip, and it happens right now. Go.

00:00:52.420 Oh, so good.

00:00:55.360 So good.

00:00:59.740 Well, today only.

00:01:02.840 Normally, you know, I've got two feeds going at the same time.

00:01:06.020 So one from YouTube and one from the subscription service Locals.

00:01:11.520 Normally, I allow the Locals feed to be open to other people just during the live stream.

00:01:18.280 But today, I'm going to close the local stream to everybody except subscribers, because I might have some stuff for them that I don't want to share with the rest of you.

00:01:31.940 Anybody notice anything trending today on Twitter?

00:01:38.580 You know, it's going to be an interesting day when you wake up and you check the news.

00:01:46.840 Let's see what's in the news.

00:01:49.120 Oh, it's me.

00:01:51.780 It's the damnedest feeling.

00:01:53.120 Like, you wake up in the morning, what's new?

00:01:56.800 Oh, shit, it's me.

00:01:58.300 So if you're not aware, I tweeted yesterday that Dilber got canceled in 77 newspapers.

00:02:05.980 I'll talk about that right after I talk about a far more important story.

00:02:12.040 That'll be my second story.

00:02:14.260 The first story.

00:02:16.360 Have you seen the story about the woman who's a teacher with enormous prosthetic breasts?

00:02:23.320 Now, you've probably already seen the story of sort of yesterday's story, so it's a little old already.

00:02:30.660 But I just wanted to weigh in with this one positive thought.

00:02:34.920 Now, if you haven't seen the visuals, the actual visual of it is sort of the story.

00:02:41.260 So it's a woman who identifies as a woman.

00:02:45.800 But if you were to look at this woman, you'd say to yourself, hey, that looks like a man wearing a wig.

00:02:53.620 But that's unkind, and that's not the point.

00:02:56.540 That's just the visual.

00:02:57.720 The other part of the visual is that this woman is wearing gigantic prosthetic breasts with super prominent nipples.

00:03:09.180 Now, when I say gigantic, I don't mean double D.

00:03:13.080 I mean like beach ball size.

00:03:14.600 It's like, I don't know if there's actually any human beings who would have her body size and that breast size, so without prosthetics.

00:03:25.220 So the prosthetics, and we don't know the story.

00:03:29.240 So here's the best part of the story.

00:03:31.660 It's either a really good prank, like a really good one, somebody who's really committed to the prank.

00:03:39.980 Now, I don't know if that's the case.

00:03:41.460 But if it is the case that this is a prank, I found my new hero, I so hope it's a prank.

00:03:51.420 I really do.

00:03:53.640 Because I want it to be the best prank ever.

00:03:57.180 Because if it is a prank, it's a really good one.

00:03:59.760 It fooled everybody.

00:04:01.300 I mean, even people who reported it thought it might be a prank, but I'm going to go with it anyway.

00:04:05.120 But here's the other possibility.

00:04:08.940 The other possibility is it's totally legit.

00:04:13.180 And this is a person who is just living their preferred truth and doesn't give a fuck what you think about it.

00:04:21.640 And, you know, if that's the case, if that's the case, hero, hero.

00:04:30.660 There are only two possibilities here.

00:04:32.800 This is either the greatest prank ever, hero, or this is somebody who doesn't care about what you think, to such an extent, hero.

00:04:43.400 Hero.

00:04:44.900 That's all I have to say about it.

00:04:46.660 There are only two possibilities, and they're both hero.

00:04:52.320 I love this woman.

00:04:57.280 So, I don't know.

00:04:58.380 No matter what else you think about it and how it connects to the bigger stories in life, I don't think it does.

00:05:04.800 I mean, you can make it connect to everything else.

00:05:06.700 But I feel like this is a story about one person, right?

00:05:14.700 It's a person who identifies as a woman.

00:05:19.580 That's all I do.

00:05:21.160 Anything else would just be us speculating.

00:05:23.860 But I love the fact that either way you speculate, it's a win.

00:05:27.620 So, that's not the only one this week.

00:05:29.560 Here's another one that's a win.

00:05:30.860 My favorite story, maybe of the whole year, would be the shipping of the migrants to Martha's Vineyard.

00:05:41.440 Most of you love that, right?

00:05:43.600 How much did you enjoy just the political theater entertainment of that whole spectacle?

00:05:50.700 You loved it.

00:05:51.680 You loved it.

00:05:53.040 Now, what did the Democrats think of it?

00:05:56.860 Did they hate it?

00:05:58.440 Not really.

00:05:59.920 Not really.

00:06:00.440 They didn't hate it.

00:06:01.680 Because they got to show that they could take care of them.

00:06:04.560 Now, they did it in their way which the right criticizes.

00:06:08.400 Hey, you have the military.

00:06:09.600 You take care of them.

00:06:10.820 But they did show empathy.

00:06:12.900 They did take care of them.

00:06:13.940 And then they get to complain that the Republicans are all a bunch of Nazis and they're acting badly.

00:06:23.300 So, the Democrats got their talking point.

00:06:25.780 And they also got to act like heroes because they didn't reject them.

00:06:30.400 I mean, not right away.

00:06:31.680 The right is arguing, well, you rounded them up in 24 hours and took them to an army base.

00:06:36.120 But they were all well-fed and happy.

00:06:38.900 Now, what about the immigrants themselves?

00:06:40.720 Well-fed and happy.

00:06:42.220 Did they feel like they were political pawns?

00:06:44.620 No.

00:06:45.120 I think here's the thing that the general public doesn't understand about the immigrant population.

00:06:55.360 But the people who have been sort of marinating in it for years, as I have, you know, where I live, where I live, you're always around the immigrant population.

00:07:06.820 And here's what I can tell you if you're not.

00:07:09.860 They're awesome.

00:07:12.060 They're awesome.

00:07:13.620 It's some of the best people you'll ever meet in your life.

00:07:16.420 And here's a perfect example.

00:07:18.140 You wanted them to be all worried about wokeness and political stuff and rightness and who's right or wrong and who's using people as political pawns, because that's what you're thinking about, right?

00:07:31.860 They're not thinking about that.

00:07:33.980 They're just, hey, everybody's being friendly to me.

00:07:36.300 Hey, I made it to America.

00:07:37.940 Gosh, this wasn't as hard as I thought.

00:07:39.960 I'm on an airplane.

00:07:41.080 I've never been on an airplane.

00:07:42.080 The immigrants are in a completely different headspace than you can even imagine.

00:07:51.540 You can't even imagine.

00:07:53.440 Like, they're basically in the headspace that you would want more of, not less of.

00:07:58.500 You'd want more of that.

00:08:00.500 You know, this is why I'm more pro-immigration than many of you are.

00:08:05.980 Because the people coming across, I get to see them up close, right?

00:08:10.100 Now, of course, there are criminals and terrorists, and you need some control over who gets in.

00:08:15.400 I'm not arguing that.

00:08:17.340 But I'm saying that as a population, they're way more awesome than you give them credit for.

00:08:22.580 Way more awesome.

00:08:24.120 In attitude and work ethic and just a lot of ways.

00:08:28.700 They're just this pretty awesome group of people.

00:08:32.400 And let's not be NPCs.

00:08:35.160 Let's not be NPCs.

00:08:36.640 Because what would the NPCs say in this conversation?

00:08:39.240 What's the most obvious thing to say?

00:08:41.940 What's the most obvious thing to say in this conversation?

00:08:46.000 But, but, but, they're illegal.

00:08:49.580 You don't need to say that.

00:08:51.660 It doesn't add anything.

00:08:53.420 We all know that.

00:08:55.360 Does it sound like I'm arguing for illegal stuff?

00:08:58.220 No, I'm not.

00:08:59.680 You didn't need to say that.

00:09:00.980 You don't need to say, but, but, illegal, every time there's a conversation about immigration.

00:09:08.600 You really don't.

00:09:09.740 Because everybody gets that part.

00:09:11.660 That's never the part that's, you know, in question.

00:09:15.380 I mean, you can disagree on it, but everybody knows that's the question.

00:09:19.260 All right.

00:09:21.980 Here are some more ways to spot NPCs.

00:09:25.140 I tweeted this today.

00:09:26.640 You could use it, too.

00:09:28.040 If you see my tweet, take a screenshot of it.

00:09:31.580 Because every time somebody acts like an NPC, don't engage them.

00:09:37.400 It would be like talking to the, your lawn sprinkler.

00:09:41.340 Oh, the lawn sprinkler seems to be moving.

00:09:43.500 I think it's alive.

00:09:44.480 Let's have a conversation with it.

00:09:45.800 No, no, talking to an NPC is like talking to a lawn sprinkler.

00:09:50.920 Just because it's moving doesn't mean it's listening.

00:09:54.880 All right.

00:09:55.960 So here are the ways.

00:09:57.400 One, the NPCs have no accomplishments or stories.

00:10:01.600 No accomplishments or stories.

00:10:04.400 It's like their history doesn't exist.

00:10:07.420 They believe art is not subjective.

00:10:10.320 This is the funniest part.

00:10:12.180 They believe there's something called good and bad.

00:10:14.840 about art or humor or movies or drama or music or books.

00:10:22.880 That's not a thing.

00:10:24.400 There's just stuff some people like and some people don't.

00:10:27.260 That's it.

00:10:28.740 If you believe that it's a yes-no situation, you're an NPC.

00:10:34.580 And they're binary thinkers in general.

00:10:36.480 My team good, your team bad.

00:10:38.420 So they don't get any nuance.

00:10:40.300 There's no such thing as nuance.

00:10:43.400 They say the most obvious things one could say in this situation.

00:10:47.280 So when I talk about Dilbert getting canceled in newspapers, what do the NPCs say?

00:10:51.960 What do the NPCs say when I tweeted that Dilbert got canceled in a bunch of newspapers?

00:10:58.040 Oh, I'm sorry, Garfield.

00:11:02.400 Right?

00:11:03.720 The NPCs flooded in to say, I'm sorry, Garfield.

00:11:08.680 Or to say, well, I guess that's because it sucked.

00:11:14.020 The most obvious things that anybody can say.

00:11:17.260 All right.

00:11:17.640 So let's talk about the news.

00:11:23.540 Bloomberg has an article about Dilbert becoming the voice of anti-ESG sentiment.

00:11:30.720 Now, I didn't read the article because it's a subscription.

00:11:35.080 But Bloomberg's a pretty big entity.

00:11:37.500 And if they start talking about Dilbert becoming the voice of anti-ESG,

00:11:42.580 then that means I got the attention of the people in the business world.

00:11:47.640 So the business world now is aware, and becoming more aware,

00:11:52.060 that the Dilbert take on ESG is to mock it.

00:11:57.240 Now, just to be clear, I love the objectives of the ESG.

00:12:01.700 Who wouldn't want, you know, less CO2 if you've got a choice?

00:12:06.800 Who wouldn't want, you know, better social behavior?

00:12:12.680 Who wouldn't want a company that represents the public

00:12:16.020 in terms of its governance, et cetera?

00:12:18.460 I want all of those things.

00:12:19.680 Those are all great things.

00:12:21.060 But what I make fun of is how people implement good ideas.

00:12:25.600 You know, management is a good idea.

00:12:28.480 Right?

00:12:29.060 You can't have big companies without management.

00:12:32.220 But I mock management all the time.

00:12:34.140 Is that because I think companies should have no management?

00:12:37.500 Oh, it's about how they do it.

00:12:39.960 It's not that you shouldn't have it.

00:12:42.240 So the same with ESG.

00:12:44.560 I don't mind that people have, you know, lofty opinions

00:12:47.480 about how to make the world a better place

00:12:49.400 and that corporations should be pitching in to do that.

00:12:53.340 It's just that when you throw CO2 in with racial governance

00:12:58.760 and say it's like one big score,

00:13:02.100 you get some weird behavior.

00:13:03.620 That's the funny part.

00:13:05.580 All right.

00:13:07.500 So now Dilbert is really now the most prominent target critic of ESG,

00:13:16.820 which, as you know, is being pushed by the largest financial entities.

00:13:21.560 Big hedge funds and BlackRock and people like that.

00:13:27.320 So the big financial entities tend to like ESG

00:13:31.200 because it gives them, by the way, here's the most general problem with ESG.

00:13:37.400 If you know anything about business, it goes like this.

00:13:40.900 You never want to insert anybody between the business and the customer.

00:13:46.440 That's all you need to know about ESG

00:13:48.240 because that's what they're trying to do.

00:13:50.760 They're trying to essentially govern how the company works

00:13:54.820 independent from that company's relationship with its customers.

00:13:58.620 And any time you put somebody between a business and their customers,

00:14:03.040 you don't get a good result.

00:14:05.700 It's the same with government.

00:14:08.800 I acknowledge that some government regulation of companies is just necessary

00:14:14.540 because capitalism is messy.

00:14:16.880 Some is necessary.

00:14:18.320 But I think we'd all agree there's something that would be too much,

00:14:21.400 too much government getting involved

00:14:23.960 and getting between the customers and the company, basically.

00:14:28.000 So that's the problem.

00:14:29.220 You don't want to have too many bosses.

00:14:31.680 Have you ever worked for a big company where they say,

00:14:33.940 I'm your boss, but you're also a dotted line report to this other group?

00:14:39.060 How does that work out?

00:14:40.600 That never works.

00:14:42.360 Having two bosses?

00:14:43.920 Well, what it does work for is the employee.

00:14:46.780 It works for the employee

00:14:47.880 because the employee can always tell each boss that they don't have time

00:14:50.600 because they're working for the other boss.

00:14:53.540 You ever do that?

00:14:55.180 In a corporation when you've got a dotted line report to somebody else

00:14:58.140 and your boss gives you another project

00:15:00.060 and you say, ooh, I'd love to work on that.

00:15:04.320 Boy, would I.

00:15:06.100 But I've got this other thing that I'm doing

00:15:08.700 for the other boss that you assigned to me.

00:15:11.060 Remember when you gave me the other boss?

00:15:13.300 That other boss has filled up my schedule.

00:15:15.080 I wish I could do something about it, but I can't.

00:15:19.640 So that's the problem with ESG.

00:15:21.640 It's the wrong chefs in the kitchen, too many chefs.

00:15:27.800 Coincidentally, while Dilber is being

00:15:30.880 the most notable critic of ESG

00:15:34.980 and while large financial entities are the biggest promoters of it,

00:15:40.440 did you know that most newspapers are owned now

00:15:43.060 by large financial entities?

00:15:45.080 Did you know that?

00:15:46.920 Hedge funds, investors, basically.

00:15:50.000 People just investing just for the money of it,

00:15:52.980 not for any other reason.

00:15:56.120 And one of those big financial entities,

00:16:00.360 I don't know what kind of business they're in, actually,

00:16:01.940 but they own, among other things, I guess,

00:16:04.680 they own a big chain of newspapers,

00:16:06.640 the fourth biggest chain of newspapers.

00:16:08.820 And they have 77 papers

00:16:10.560 that are all part of one financial entity.

00:16:13.520 And they decided to revamp their comics page,

00:16:18.460 make it smaller, add in some things,

00:16:20.740 and subtract some things.

00:16:22.400 And one of the comics that got cut is Dilbert.

00:16:26.880 So Dilbert won't be in 77 newspapers.

00:16:29.900 Now, some people said,

00:16:34.600 my God, is that because of what you've been saying politically?

00:16:38.720 To which I say, how would I know?

00:16:41.600 I would have no way to know that.

00:16:44.260 Because I don't have direct contact with the newspapers.

00:16:47.220 Like, that goes through the syndication process.

00:16:50.620 So they don't talk to me.

00:16:52.780 Now, when a newspaper cuts a comic,

00:16:56.700 especially if it's, let's say, a high-profile comic,

00:16:59.740 typically they give a reason.

00:17:03.160 And it's an obvious reason.

00:17:05.280 It would be a reason like,

00:17:06.940 the readers don't like it.

00:17:09.960 You know, sometimes they run a poll.

00:17:11.820 The poll is, you know, highly unscientific.

00:17:14.360 It's just who decides to answer the poll.

00:17:17.660 So sometimes they give a reason.

00:17:19.680 They'll say, oh, it was low-rated.

00:17:21.340 Sometimes they might say,

00:17:22.560 it doesn't really fit our kind of reader.

00:17:24.520 You know, maybe we're more rural.

00:17:26.760 Dilbert is more of an urban thing, they might say.

00:17:30.060 Something like that.

00:17:31.560 In this case, no reason was given.

00:17:34.680 Okay, no reason was given.

00:17:36.440 No reason was offered.

00:17:39.380 So that doesn't mean they don't have a reason.

00:17:41.300 And it doesn't mean that the reason is anything but financial.

00:17:46.720 I just know that typically I would hear a reason,

00:17:50.120 but in this case I did not.

00:17:52.060 For whatever that means.

00:17:54.500 Now, some people said,

00:17:56.720 oh, wait, you're making this seem as if

00:17:58.780 they canceled you for some reason other than the comic.

00:18:05.940 To which I say, I didn't say that.

00:18:08.320 I'm just telling you what's happening.

00:18:09.440 You should know that I was at great risk of being canceled

00:18:14.760 because of the content I was putting out.

00:18:16.840 And I told you that in advance.

00:18:18.420 I told you in advance my odds of getting canceled

00:18:21.240 are very high right now because of the content.

00:18:25.800 And you can confirm that I signaled in advance

00:18:29.060 a very high likelihood of being canceled.

00:18:32.480 Now, at the same time that I was signaling to you

00:18:36.360 there was a high likelihood of being canceled,

00:18:39.000 the fourth biggest chain just canceled me.

00:18:42.280 That doesn't mean that one led to the other.

00:18:45.580 You get that?

00:18:46.680 It doesn't mean that.

00:18:47.460 Not necessarily.

00:18:49.140 Now, some people said, Scott, Scott, Scott,

00:18:51.800 I work in research.

00:18:53.640 Somebody said this on Twitter.

00:18:55.400 I work in research.

00:18:56.600 The way these decisions are made is you do your research,

00:19:00.520 you find out what the customers like,

00:19:03.500 and then you get rid of the ones they don't like.

00:19:06.320 But why are you complaining?

00:19:08.400 If the market has spoken, the market has spoken.

00:19:12.160 There's nothing else to this story.

00:19:14.480 Well, let me tell you how it really works.

00:19:17.220 They don't have any data.

00:19:19.020 They don't even try to gather that data.

00:19:21.260 For 30 years, I've been saying,

00:19:24.620 why don't they gather some data?

00:19:26.980 Because when I first started,

00:19:28.300 I thought Dilbert was more popular

00:19:29.840 than the newspaper thought.

00:19:32.160 So I was always, if you had some data,

00:19:35.000 you could see that people like my comic

00:19:37.060 more than some other data.

00:19:42.480 Yeah, the Elbonian revenge, maybe.

00:19:46.100 So anyway, the first thing you need to know

00:19:47.760 is it's very unlikely that data

00:19:51.240 had anything to do with the decision

00:19:52.620 because newspapers just don't use data that way.

00:19:55.920 Never have.

00:19:56.920 Believe it or not, they never have.

00:19:58.920 So how does somebody make a decision?

00:20:01.480 Who do you think made the decision

00:20:02.960 about what was in and what was out?

00:20:05.460 In all likelihood, one person.

00:20:09.260 In all likelihood, one person made the decision.

00:20:12.480 Now, it had to be confirmed

00:20:14.140 by probably a few different bosses.

00:20:16.960 But it's very typical in that industry

00:20:19.520 that they'll trust the person

00:20:21.060 that they gave the assignment to.

00:20:24.040 So if they say,

00:20:25.160 your job is to figure out

00:20:26.200 which comics we're going to keep

00:20:27.580 and which ones to go,

00:20:28.960 and then they come back with a recommendation,

00:20:32.000 generally the recommendation

00:20:33.000 would just be accepted.

00:20:35.100 I mean, that would be the normal way

00:20:36.180 a newspaper would do it.

00:20:37.520 So often it's just one person.

00:20:40.460 Right?

00:20:42.000 Now, if somebody said,

00:20:43.400 well, probably they got rid of Dilbert

00:20:44.820 because it costs more.

00:20:47.380 So they're getting rid of the expensive stuff

00:20:49.180 to save money.

00:20:50.380 Which would make sense in most cases, right?

00:20:52.980 Do you think that?

00:20:55.180 Well, let me tell you about the economics of comics.

00:20:57.980 They cost almost nothing to the newspaper.

00:21:01.060 They're so cheap.

00:21:02.080 Do you know what it costs for Dilbert

00:21:04.000 to run in one newspaper for one day?

00:21:06.820 Give me a number.

00:21:07.760 What do you think?

00:21:08.640 What do you think is the number,

00:21:10.260 the dollar amount that one newspaper pays?

00:21:13.140 And of these 77 newspapers,

00:21:14.780 these would mostly be local,

00:21:16.500 smaller markets, right?

00:21:19.020 Yeah, it's something like $10.

00:21:21.120 It's something like $10.

00:21:23.140 Oh, no.

00:21:23.860 I'm sorry.

00:21:24.240 $10 a week.

00:21:25.420 Not per day.

00:21:26.480 I'm sorry.

00:21:27.140 Not per day.

00:21:28.240 It's more like $10 per week.

00:21:30.440 Now, a lesser comic might be $7 per week.

00:21:36.880 A big paper might be $25 or even more.

00:21:41.840 Now, I haven't looked at the numbers for a while.

00:21:43.540 There might be a little inflation in there.

00:21:45.360 So maybe it's a dozen dollars versus $8

00:21:47.860 or something like that.

00:21:49.400 But let me tell you,

00:21:50.220 one thing they did not do,

00:21:52.460 it was not basically a cost decision.

00:21:55.400 So the one thing I can tell you for sure

00:21:57.160 is it wasn't based on cost.

00:22:00.440 Because Dilbert costs about the same as everything else.

00:22:04.820 So it was probably one person's decision.

00:22:07.540 It probably wasn't about cost.

00:22:09.860 It was more about, I don't know,

00:22:12.260 any number of things.

00:22:13.360 Who knows?

00:22:14.140 But a business decision.

00:22:15.380 So it, but in terms of, no,

00:22:23.660 when I said the $7, that's for a small paper.

00:22:28.900 So I don't know how many of the 77 were small

00:22:31.280 and how many were big.

00:22:33.660 But one of the biggest papers was the St. Louis Dispatch.

00:22:37.060 I think that was probably the biggest in the chain,

00:22:39.320 and they canceled it as well.

00:22:40.440 So, we don't know why it happened,

00:22:47.340 and I'm not making the claim

00:22:48.980 that it was because of politics.

00:22:51.440 But I can tell you that Dilbert was the most,

00:22:55.280 probably, the most popular comic

00:22:58.180 that got canceled in that group.

00:23:00.920 Probably.

00:23:02.100 But I don't have data either.

00:23:04.260 But when I say most popular,

00:23:05.660 I mean probably most popular within a segment of readers.

00:23:09.340 The trouble with comics is

00:23:11.100 they tend to address a segment each.

00:23:14.640 There are no comics that apply.

00:23:16.060 Well, Calvin and Hobbes, I guess,

00:23:17.740 apply to everybody.

00:23:19.020 But mostly comics are like,

00:23:20.680 here's a comic for a family.

00:23:22.160 Here's one for, you know, about a pet.

00:23:25.540 Here's one about a single woman, right?

00:23:28.460 So comics usually go for a category.

00:23:31.880 If you tell me that the category of cubicle workers

00:23:35.600 has a more popular,

00:23:39.200 let me say it this way,

00:23:40.900 office workers.

00:23:42.160 If you tell me there's a more popular comic

00:23:44.640 among people who have a,

00:23:46.080 let's say, a job with an office

00:23:47.660 than Dilbert,

00:23:49.940 I would be very surprised.

00:23:53.360 And the category of people

00:23:55.260 who go to work in an office is enormous.

00:23:57.220 So if you can explain

00:24:00.960 why they would take away

00:24:02.060 probably the most popular comic

00:24:04.180 in one of the biggest demographics

00:24:06.400 at the same time

00:24:08.980 that the other ones

00:24:09.680 were the ones that people didn't read,

00:24:12.260 that looks like the situation.

00:24:15.780 But it's possible

00:24:16.740 they had some data I'm not aware of.

00:24:18.980 Very possible.

00:24:20.440 It's possible

00:24:21.140 that they had some considerations

00:24:22.380 I haven't even thought of.

00:24:24.260 It's possible.

00:24:24.880 I don't know.

00:24:26.880 So there's no way to know

00:24:27.920 what's behind it.

00:24:28.940 But I will tell you

00:24:30.880 that the only time it ever happened

00:24:32.480 was when I did things

00:24:33.960 that I told you in advance

00:24:35.220 were likely to get me cancelled.

00:24:38.220 So I just know

00:24:39.160 the timing was interesting.

00:24:45.080 I don't like to give out

00:24:46.160 on financial numbers.

00:24:47.640 So I'll say that the impact

00:24:49.160 on me is substantial.

00:24:52.860 It's not like

00:24:53.680 get out of the business substantial.

00:24:55.860 It's not like

00:24:56.560 I make less money

00:24:57.940 than most people substantial.

00:25:00.700 But it's substantial.

00:25:03.100 There are thousands of newspapers.

00:25:05.360 But 177 is a big chunk.

00:25:08.680 All right.

00:25:11.680 There's a...

00:25:14.800 I got into a conversation about this

00:25:17.140 that led to the conversation

00:25:18.660 about how white people

00:25:21.400 are doing real well

00:25:22.820 in corporate America.

00:25:24.840 So there was a gentleman

00:25:26.240 who looks...

00:25:27.720 I don't like to assume

00:25:28.840 people's identification,

00:25:30.980 but based on his profile,

00:25:32.760 I would say he's a black professor

00:25:36.240 at a college.

00:25:38.800 And I told him

00:25:39.800 that I lost two jobs

00:25:41.740 in my corporate days

00:25:43.020 because I was a white man

00:25:44.520 and that my bosses

00:25:46.420 in both cases

00:25:47.300 told me directly,

00:25:48.780 we can't promote you

00:25:50.000 because you're a white man.

00:25:52.200 And he said,

00:25:53.280 prove it.

00:25:55.740 And then I said,

00:25:56.940 how about I do this?

00:25:58.320 I'll tweet this conversation

00:25:59.860 and I'll let all

00:26:01.340 of the other white men

00:26:02.260 who have worked

00:26:02.780 in corporate America

00:26:03.800 tell you about

00:26:05.260 their experiences.

00:26:06.240 So you don't have

00:26:06.960 to believe me.

00:26:08.460 I will give you

00:26:09.080 an avalanche of people

00:26:10.180 with similar claims.

00:26:11.620 Do you know what he did

00:26:13.220 as the avalanche

00:26:14.120 started coming in?

00:26:15.340 He challenged

00:26:16.220 every one of them

00:26:16.900 to prove it.

00:26:21.260 All of them.

00:26:23.500 Now, I think he ran

00:26:24.800 out of steam

00:26:25.400 after a while.

00:26:27.100 But I did it just

00:26:28.180 to trigger his

00:26:28.780 cognitive dissonance.

00:26:30.400 And I wonder

00:26:31.040 which way it'll get triggered.

00:26:32.800 Is he going to go away

00:26:33.800 thinking that hundreds

00:26:34.620 of people lied to him

00:26:35.580 on Twitter?

00:26:37.760 Because he might.

00:26:38.800 He might go away

00:26:39.440 thinking, oh my God,

00:26:40.540 hundreds of white men

00:26:41.920 just lied to me

00:26:42.780 directly on Twitter.

00:26:45.180 Probably.

00:26:46.640 I mean, he thought

00:26:47.100 I lied to him.

00:26:49.080 And he challenged

00:26:50.480 me to prove it.

00:26:51.760 And I thought to myself,

00:26:52.740 I wonder if I could.

00:26:54.740 I mean, I know the name.

00:26:56.740 I can remember

00:26:57.520 one of my bosses.

00:26:59.200 The other one

00:27:00.080 I might be able to find.

00:27:01.720 I mean, I could probably

00:27:02.440 hunt down my actual bosses.

00:27:04.540 And I could ask them.

00:27:06.380 And I'm reasonably sure

00:27:07.560 they would tell me

00:27:08.500 exactly what I said.

00:27:11.640 I mean, they were

00:27:12.080 in the room too.

00:27:13.380 Why wouldn't they?

00:27:14.960 And neither of them

00:27:16.380 work for these companies

00:27:17.380 anymore,

00:27:17.980 so they have nothing

00:27:18.840 to lose,

00:27:20.100 nothing to gain.

00:27:21.660 It would be sort of

00:27:22.520 interesting, wouldn't it?

00:27:23.620 I'm actually thinking

00:27:24.320 of hunting them down

00:27:25.180 and doing it.

00:27:26.700 But I offered

00:27:27.640 an easier way to test.

00:27:29.680 I said,

00:27:30.340 why don't you ask

00:27:31.220 any white man

00:27:32.200 who has worked

00:27:32.800 in corporate America?

00:27:35.620 Don't believe me.

00:27:36.760 You don't have to

00:27:37.240 believe me.

00:27:37.740 Just ask any white male

00:27:39.240 who works in a big

00:27:40.980 corporate enterprise.

00:27:43.740 Ask them if they've been

00:27:44.580 discriminated against

00:27:45.640 directly.

00:27:48.600 Just find out.

00:27:49.660 Find out for yourself.

00:27:50.480 You don't have to wonder.

00:27:51.860 You can just ask.

00:27:53.040 I'll bet you've got

00:27:53.600 a neighbor.

00:27:54.300 I'll bet you've got

00:27:54.820 a neighbor you can ask.

00:27:58.460 So the whole

00:27:59.420 prove it

00:28:00.020 was obviously

00:28:01.180 somebody who knew

00:28:02.360 that cognitive dissonance

00:28:03.620 was coming

00:28:04.140 at him hard.

00:28:05.060 and

00:28:06.320 he's struggling

00:28:09.580 to survive this.

00:28:11.760 Because

00:28:11.900 imagine how much

00:28:12.860 that would

00:28:13.240 mess up

00:28:14.140 your entire

00:28:14.600 worldview.

00:28:16.440 Imagine being

00:28:17.460 a black

00:28:18.500 American

00:28:19.100 adult.

00:28:21.240 You grew up

00:28:21.940 believing that

00:28:22.900 the one thing

00:28:24.120 that's clearly

00:28:24.760 true

00:28:25.200 is that for

00:28:26.180 the last

00:28:26.600 25 years

00:28:27.640 it was a good

00:28:29.120 deal to be

00:28:29.640 a white man

00:28:30.380 and a bad

00:28:31.660 deal to be

00:28:32.140 a black man.

00:28:32.760 Let's say

00:28:33.800 you grew up

00:28:34.280 for 25 years

00:28:35.280 that was your

00:28:35.740 point of view

00:28:36.220 and then you

00:28:37.280 see a tweet

00:28:37.940 in which

00:28:38.820 hundreds of

00:28:39.820 white men

00:28:40.280 tell you

00:28:40.840 that that

00:28:41.260 wasn't the

00:28:41.680 case.

00:28:42.740 And they

00:28:43.180 give you

00:28:43.640 direct

00:28:44.800 specific

00:28:45.680 examples.

00:28:47.240 Yes

00:28:47.520 I did not

00:28:48.560 get this

00:28:48.960 promotion

00:28:49.380 they told me

00:28:50.060 because I was

00:28:50.600 white.

00:28:51.460 Yes

00:28:51.740 I was qualified

00:28:52.780 for this

00:28:53.300 but they said

00:28:53.820 I couldn't

00:28:54.180 do it

00:28:54.420 because I'm

00:28:54.940 white.

00:28:55.860 What would

00:28:56.500 that do

00:28:56.780 to your

00:28:57.000 mind?

00:28:58.200 If your

00:28:58.840 mind thought

00:28:59.340 you had spent

00:28:59.960 25 years

00:29:00.960 in one

00:29:01.580 environment

00:29:02.140 only to

00:29:03.480 learn that

00:29:03.940 wasn't

00:29:04.360 where you

00:29:04.780 were.

00:29:05.820 You were

00:29:06.220 in a whole

00:29:06.680 different world

00:29:07.340 that whole

00:29:07.740 time and

00:29:08.300 never knew

00:29:08.680 it.

00:29:09.520 And the

00:29:09.860 reason is

00:29:10.260 white people

00:29:10.700 can't complain.

00:29:12.100 That's part

00:29:12.540 of the deal.

00:29:14.500 Do you know

00:29:14.840 why I can

00:29:15.340 complain?

00:29:16.800 Because I'm

00:29:17.340 close to

00:29:17.740 retirement.

00:29:19.340 That's the

00:29:19.700 only reason.

00:29:20.880 Do you think

00:29:21.280 I made a big

00:29:22.540 public mess

00:29:23.320 back when it

00:29:24.320 was actually

00:29:24.720 happening to

00:29:25.280 me?

00:29:25.580 Because I

00:29:26.040 suppose I

00:29:26.520 could have.

00:29:27.000 Could have

00:29:27.940 gone to the

00:29:28.420 press,

00:29:29.540 could have

00:29:29.800 written articles

00:29:30.500 about it?

00:29:31.120 No.

00:29:31.740 No.

00:29:32.280 It would

00:29:32.520 have been

00:29:32.720 suicide.

00:29:34.140 The reason

00:29:34.760 you don't

00:29:35.020 hear about

00:29:35.400 it is that

00:29:35.960 people are

00:29:36.840 too smart

00:29:37.260 to talk

00:29:37.620 about it.

00:29:38.520 Because it

00:29:39.040 makes you

00:29:39.340 just sound

00:29:39.640 like a

00:29:39.960 whiner.

00:29:40.960 Oh,

00:29:41.560 white people.

00:29:42.580 You know,

00:29:43.220 you would

00:29:43.860 immediately

00:29:44.260 be accused

00:29:45.100 of being

00:29:45.400 a whiner

00:29:45.860 and nothing

00:29:46.980 good could

00:29:47.480 come from

00:29:47.860 it.

00:29:48.900 But,

00:29:50.260 do you

00:29:50.560 know why

00:29:50.900 I can

00:29:51.320 say this

00:29:51.880 full-throatedly

00:29:53.240 at this

00:29:53.780 point?

00:29:55.300 I can do

00:29:56.040 this in

00:29:56.360 public?

00:29:57.760 It's

00:29:58.200 because fuck

00:29:58.940 every one

00:29:59.380 of you.

00:30:00.500 Not the

00:30:01.800 people I

00:30:02.120 like.

00:30:03.260 But fuck

00:30:03.800 anybody who

00:30:04.560 has a

00:30:04.840 problem with

00:30:05.340 it.

00:30:06.180 That was

00:30:06.640 my truth.

00:30:08.060 And do you

00:30:08.340 know what I

00:30:08.640 said to the

00:30:09.460 gentleman,

00:30:10.740 whose name

00:30:11.140 is, I don't

00:30:13.040 know what his

00:30:13.320 first name is,

00:30:14.180 but I.J.

00:30:15.140 Bailey.

00:30:16.780 And by the

00:30:17.240 way, I have

00:30:18.220 nothing against

00:30:18.840 this person.

00:30:19.520 I think that,

00:30:20.460 I think he was

00:30:21.220 asking exactly

00:30:22.140 the right question

00:30:22.960 and he was

00:30:24.120 challenging me in

00:30:25.080 exactly the right

00:30:25.980 way based on

00:30:27.600 what he believed

00:30:28.280 was true and

00:30:28.980 what I was

00:30:29.440 presenting.

00:30:29.840 So this is

00:30:31.720 not a

00:30:32.020 criticism of

00:30:33.000 Professor

00:30:33.780 Bailey.

00:30:35.240 Professor

00:30:35.720 Bailey is

00:30:36.260 acting just

00:30:36.900 the way a

00:30:37.580 normal person

00:30:38.260 should act in

00:30:39.060 exactly this

00:30:39.720 situation.

00:30:40.680 It's just that

00:30:41.360 he's finding

00:30:41.880 himself in a

00:30:42.540 situation he

00:30:43.060 probably didn't

00:30:43.560 expect, which

00:30:45.140 is fascinating to

00:30:46.060 me, to just see

00:30:46.800 how he reacts.

00:30:50.600 Anyway, I think I

00:30:51.760 had some other

00:30:52.160 point there that I

00:30:52.800 forgot.

00:30:53.900 But that's what's

00:30:56.780 happening with me.

00:30:57.480 So I don't

00:30:59.160 mind telling

00:30:59.720 Professor Bailey

00:31:01.160 what really has

00:31:02.540 happened because

00:31:04.060 I can take the

00:31:06.980 heat.

00:31:08.800 Now, what

00:31:11.160 happened when I

00:31:12.020 tweeted that the

00:31:13.220 77 papers

00:31:14.160 canceled me?

00:31:15.040 What do you think

00:31:15.640 was the reaction

00:31:16.660 on social media?

00:31:17.720 Well, probably

00:31:21.840 40 to 50% of the

00:31:23.460 people on social

00:31:24.140 media had the

00:31:24.880 following reaction.

00:31:26.620 Yay.

00:31:27.680 It's about time.

00:31:28.940 Yeah, I'm seeing

00:31:29.380 that in the comments.

00:31:31.060 It's about time they

00:31:31.920 got you.

00:31:33.180 It's about time.

00:31:34.720 Boy, you had this

00:31:35.420 coming.

00:31:35.640 To which I ask,

00:31:38.900 what exactly did I

00:31:39.880 do to have this

00:31:40.380 coming?

00:31:42.720 Now, I know the

00:31:43.660 people on, so I

00:31:45.680 want to see if I

00:31:46.380 can get some NPCs

00:31:47.720 riled up here, so I

00:31:49.240 know on locals, you're

00:31:50.820 friendlier.

00:31:52.260 But, no, MAGA

00:31:54.120 isn't an answer.

00:31:55.320 Tell me what I did.

00:31:56.780 Don't tell me what

00:31:57.600 MAGA did.

00:31:58.100 I was never a MAGA.

00:31:58.900 What did I do?

00:32:00.980 Tell me, let's

00:32:08.660 say, I'm just

00:32:09.140 waiting for

00:32:10.120 something.

00:32:11.140 No, Trump

00:32:11.620 supporter, that's

00:32:13.160 just a generic

00:32:13.840 sentence.

00:32:14.820 Well, what did I

00:32:15.320 do?

00:32:17.000 Had it coming?

00:32:17.840 For what?

00:32:21.080 Nobody?

00:32:21.840 It got really

00:32:22.320 quiet on YouTube.

00:32:26.920 They consider you

00:32:27.920 a Trump guy.

00:32:28.520 Yeah, but I'm

00:32:29.940 talking about people

00:32:30.700 here.

00:32:31.140 I'm not talking

00:32:31.560 about other

00:32:31.940 people.

00:32:33.840 You know that

00:32:34.540 there are people

00:32:35.700 here on YouTube

00:32:36.360 who are just here

00:32:37.940 to hate on me,

00:32:38.560 right?

00:32:39.760 So I'm asking you

00:32:40.920 to tell me why.

00:32:42.240 Give me the one

00:32:43.160 reason that when

00:32:46.920 I wake up every

00:32:47.860 morning, literally

00:32:49.680 with the thought of

00:32:50.740 how I'm going to

00:32:51.200 make the world a

00:32:51.940 better place,

00:32:52.820 because it's sort

00:32:53.440 of the only thing

00:32:53.920 I have to do that

00:32:54.460 has meaning at the

00:32:55.120 moment, tell me

00:32:57.300 exactly how that

00:32:58.620 hurt you.

00:33:00.700 Somebody says I'm

00:33:01.560 anti-women?

00:33:02.980 No.

00:33:04.640 Literally nobody

00:33:05.440 is anti-woman.

00:33:07.620 Unless you're like

00:33:08.360 a psycho or

00:33:09.020 something.

00:33:09.800 No.

00:33:11.160 But don't just say

00:33:12.420 what I'm anti or

00:33:13.360 what I am.

00:33:14.060 Tell me what I

00:33:14.580 did.

00:33:15.640 What did I do to

00:33:16.540 you?

00:33:18.640 Was it when I

00:33:19.780 made having a

00:33:22.760 telehealth doctor

00:33:23.680 across state lines

00:33:24.720 legal, when it

00:33:25.540 wasn't legal until

00:33:26.540 I asked the

00:33:28.340 president to sign

00:33:29.080 an EO?

00:33:30.700 Was it your new

00:33:31.560 health care that

00:33:32.280 you got for free?

00:33:33.340 Makes you

00:33:33.640 sad.

00:33:36.920 Did I give people

00:33:37.880 who at least

00:33:39.280 like Dilbert?

00:33:40.580 Was it the fact

00:33:41.380 that I wrote a

00:33:43.380 book to tell

00:33:43.880 people how to

00:33:44.480 handle and they

00:33:45.880 say it worked?

00:33:48.000 Is it because I

00:33:48.920 described politics

00:33:50.000 in a way that

00:33:50.500 people could

00:33:50.900 understand it for

00:33:51.700 the first time,

00:33:52.340 in terms of

00:33:53.460 persuasion?

00:33:54.960 Tell me what I

00:33:55.800 did.

00:33:57.040 Seriously.

00:33:59.140 Give me one

00:34:00.100 example of what I

00:34:00.900 did.

00:34:01.900 Because most of

00:34:03.380 the complaints are

00:34:04.220 you are.

00:34:06.600 That doesn't

00:34:07.280 help.

00:34:07.980 You are MAGA.

00:34:09.200 Well, I'm not.

00:34:10.620 You are anti-woman.

00:34:12.500 No.

00:34:13.660 No.

00:34:14.560 I'm heterosexual.

00:34:15.380 You couldn't be

00:34:16.140 more pro-woman

00:34:17.260 than I am.

00:34:20.100 But seriously.

00:34:20.960 I'm asking

00:34:22.780 quite seriously.

00:34:24.220 Tell me something

00:34:25.120 I did that

00:34:26.840 offended you.

00:34:28.620 And it just

00:34:29.360 got really quiet.

00:34:30.640 So all of

00:34:31.160 YouTube just

00:34:31.680 went completely

00:34:32.320 quiet.

00:34:32.900 I mean, there

00:34:33.180 are comments

00:34:33.680 going by it.

00:34:34.680 But none of

00:34:35.180 them, nobody's

00:34:35.840 going to take

00:34:36.160 the bait.

00:34:37.140 Because here's

00:34:37.900 the thing.

00:34:38.800 There are a

00:34:39.520 number of you

00:34:40.040 on YouTube who

00:34:41.160 just had a

00:34:41.740 moment.

00:34:43.920 You were sure

00:34:44.540 that you hated

00:34:45.140 me.

00:34:46.360 You were sure

00:34:46.960 you had reasons.

00:34:47.860 And when I

00:34:48.180 asked you for

00:34:48.700 any, what did

00:34:49.920 I do?

00:34:50.280 There were none.

00:34:50.960 Do you

00:34:52.820 understand how

00:34:53.540 hypnotized you

00:34:54.580 have to be to

00:34:56.080 hate people when

00:34:56.940 you don't know

00:34:57.480 what they do or

00:34:58.460 anything about

00:34:59.840 them?

00:35:03.700 You ignore all

00:35:04.860 the good reasons.

00:35:06.320 I'm asking for

00:35:07.280 the good reasons.

00:35:11.720 Nothing.

00:35:13.800 Now you're

00:35:14.520 lying.

00:35:15.040 About what?

00:35:18.320 Do you see a

00:35:19.180 reason there that

00:35:19.740 I don't see?

00:35:20.160 You spread

00:35:21.540 pandemic panic.

00:35:24.360 All right?

00:35:25.280 Locals, people.

00:35:27.960 I spend every

00:35:29.400 evening with

00:35:31.400 this blanket

00:35:32.140 wrapped around,

00:35:32.840 not this one,

00:35:33.520 but another blanket

00:35:34.240 wrapped around me

00:35:35.060 specifically to

00:35:37.380 tell people

00:35:37.920 everything would

00:35:38.520 be okay.

00:35:38.980 I spent my

00:35:41.080 day, I spent my

00:35:41.100 full-time energy

00:35:42.220 for six months

00:35:44.660 doing two

00:35:46.440 live streams a

00:35:47.160 day with the

00:35:48.300 express primary,

00:35:50.280 primary intention

00:35:51.780 of calming people

00:35:53.960 down and telling

00:35:54.720 them everything will

00:35:55.900 be fine.

00:35:57.600 Now, and somehow

00:35:58.600 you went away with

00:35:59.640 the impression that

00:36:00.640 six months of work

00:36:02.600 on behalf of the

00:36:04.280 public was the

00:36:05.860 opposite of what

00:36:06.800 happened.

00:36:08.640 Isn't that

00:36:09.360 interesting?

00:36:10.200 Remember I told you

00:36:10.900 that people can't

00:36:11.540 tell the difference

00:36:12.100 between a thing and

00:36:13.200 the opposite of the

00:36:14.200 thing?

00:36:15.540 The number of times

00:36:16.480 you see that,

00:36:17.920 it never is less

00:36:19.400 mind-boggling.

00:36:21.420 Right?

00:36:21.560 I swear, if

00:36:24.460 somebody murders me

00:36:25.560 someday, my

00:36:28.340 reputation will be

00:36:29.300 I'm a murderer.

00:36:31.020 You know that,

00:36:31.640 right?

00:36:32.400 If somebody murders

00:36:33.600 me, just like

00:36:34.600 randomly, like half

00:36:36.700 of the country will

00:36:37.340 think, well, he had

00:36:38.120 a coming, he was a

00:36:38.880 murderer.

00:36:42.100 It's like people

00:36:43.200 literally can't tell

00:36:44.060 the difference between

00:36:44.860 the thing and the

00:36:45.460 opposite of the

00:36:46.080 thing.

00:36:46.960 40% of the country

00:36:48.080 will just hear the

00:36:49.440 opposite of the thing

00:36:50.260 and think that's the

00:36:51.300 truth forever.

00:36:54.320 Just stop going to

00:36:55.360 Starbucks.

00:36:57.080 All right.

00:37:00.680 Here is the

00:37:01.760 creepiest story of the

00:37:02.780 day.

00:37:04.540 There is some adult,

00:37:06.000 you probably heard

00:37:06.440 this, who ran over

00:37:07.680 an 18-year-old over

00:37:08.780 a political, and

00:37:10.160 killed him over a

00:37:11.080 political problem.

00:37:12.860 Here is the update.

00:37:15.420 Machiavelli's

00:37:15.860 underbelly, who I

00:37:16.860 talk about all the

00:37:17.760 time, his Twitter

00:37:18.960 account, you must

00:37:19.780 follow.

00:37:21.300 Do you hear that?

00:37:23.220 You must follow.

00:37:24.980 It's not optional.

00:37:26.920 It's Machiavelli's

00:37:28.320 underbelly, and you

00:37:29.920 should immediately go

00:37:30.840 to Twitter as soon as

00:37:32.200 you're done here,

00:37:32.800 unless you have another

00:37:33.580 device, and follow him.

00:37:35.580 Here's why.

00:37:36.480 If you want to see the

00:37:37.740 future, he is fucking

00:37:39.720 showing it to you.

00:37:41.320 And it will twist your

00:37:43.080 brain in pretzels.

00:37:45.480 All right?

00:37:46.120 Let me tell you what he

00:37:47.080 did yesterday.

00:37:47.800 And just take a moment

00:37:50.020 to absorb this a little

00:37:52.260 bit.

00:37:53.400 This actually happened.

00:37:54.540 This is a real thing.

00:37:55.580 This is not speculative.

00:37:57.060 This is not something in

00:37:58.220 the future.

00:37:59.420 This fucking happened

00:38:00.680 yesterday.

00:38:02.480 This 18-year-old who was

00:38:03.980 killed, there are photos

00:38:05.360 of him when he was

00:38:07.040 alive.

00:38:07.360 And Machiavelli, Machiavelli's

00:38:11.240 underbelly, animated the

00:38:13.680 photo so that you could

00:38:15.520 have a full conversation

00:38:16.920 with the deceased in which

00:38:18.860 the deceased is describing

00:38:20.420 how they were killed and

00:38:22.300 why.

00:38:24.520 And it looks not like a

00:38:27.280 computer.

00:38:28.500 It looks like the real

00:38:29.600 person talking.

00:38:30.280 You want to go to another

00:38:35.040 level?

00:38:36.940 You ready for this?

00:38:40.780 Machiavelli's underbelly

00:38:41.780 offered on Twitter, and I

00:38:43.960 assume it's a joke, just to

00:38:45.720 make a point, that if

00:38:47.900 somebody would pay him X

00:38:49.400 amount of, huge amount of

00:38:50.900 money, he would animate

00:38:53.420 fetuses who had been

00:38:55.840 aborted.

00:38:56.200 Or, if the other side

00:39:00.540 wanted to pay him, he

00:39:04.040 would show that the

00:39:05.740 babies grew up to be

00:39:06.620 assholes.

00:39:09.040 So he could take either

00:39:10.260 side, for some millions

00:39:13.140 of dollars, he could take

00:39:14.480 either side and animate any

00:39:16.220 horrible persuasion you

00:39:17.780 wanted.

00:39:18.640 Now, let me stop you

00:39:21.060 here.

00:39:21.660 I'm sure he was getting,

00:39:22.960 okay?

00:39:24.040 This was not serious.

00:39:25.080 I'm sure he was

00:39:26.600 kidding.

00:39:28.100 But he did it to catch

00:39:30.600 your brain on fire, and

00:39:31.820 it worked, didn't it?

00:39:33.760 This is now.

00:39:36.280 I don't know how much I

00:39:37.300 can reinforce with you.

00:39:39.820 He animated a dead

00:39:41.200 person to talk about the

00:39:43.500 circumstances of his

00:39:45.380 death, and it looked

00:39:47.020 real.

00:39:48.200 You wouldn't know the

00:39:49.100 difference if he didn't

00:39:49.820 know.

00:39:50.340 You wouldn't know the

00:39:51.060 difference.

00:39:52.740 So if you don't see how

00:39:54.300 this is going to change

00:39:55.200 everything, you better

00:39:58.240 catch up, because you

00:40:00.160 don't want this one to

00:40:00.880 sneak up on you, right?

00:40:03.360 This one you've got to

00:40:04.280 watch carefully, so

00:40:05.160 follow that account.

00:40:08.080 All right.

00:40:08.740 Putin, he decided to

00:40:11.600 escalate with a partial

00:40:13.500 mobilization.

00:40:15.300 A partial mobilization.

00:40:17.760 Boy, you know, those

00:40:19.180 Ukrainians are afraid now.

00:40:20.860 Oh, no.

00:40:23.020 Putin did a partial

00:40:24.000 mobilization.

00:40:25.740 Well, let me tell you

00:40:26.560 what a partial

00:40:27.180 mobilization means.

00:40:28.380 It means that their

00:40:29.260 reserves are being

00:40:31.020 activated.

00:40:32.500 Now, the reserves, I

00:40:33.440 understand, are veterans

00:40:34.780 who are retired from the

00:40:37.780 military, but if they have

00:40:39.520 special skills and stuff,

00:40:41.160 they're being brought back.

00:40:43.120 Now, what do you think

00:40:44.460 would be the quality of the

00:40:45.820 fighting force when you

00:40:47.720 bring back your veterans

00:40:48.920 veterans who can't

00:40:50.600 remember how they did

00:40:51.600 their job?

00:40:53.780 And probably they were

00:40:55.060 happier being out of the

00:40:56.120 army than in.

00:40:58.720 Then also, they're

00:40:59.860 extending the military

00:41:01.660 service of the people who

00:41:02.880 are in the war indefinitely,

00:41:06.680 basically.

00:41:07.900 So if you thought you were

00:41:09.100 going to do a little war

00:41:09.900 rotation and you had a few

00:41:11.520 months left and then you

00:41:12.460 were coming home, Putin just

00:41:14.180 told you you're never coming

00:41:15.240 home.

00:41:16.780 Now, he didn't say never,

00:41:17.780 but he said, you're not

00:41:19.560 coming home anytime soon.

00:41:21.360 You've got a war to win.

00:41:24.220 Now, let's bash that

00:41:25.600 against something I saw

00:41:27.720 today, that there's a

00:41:29.940 John Keegan's book, The

00:41:31.500 Face of Battle, and I'm a

00:41:33.980 terrible person because I

00:41:35.040 meant to note who tweeted

00:41:37.320 this.

00:41:38.840 So if you know who tweeted

00:41:40.100 this, give them a shout out

00:41:42.260 in the comments because I'm

00:41:43.420 being a bad, I'm being a

00:41:45.060 terrible live streamer because

00:41:46.260 I thought I copied and

00:41:48.420 pasted that, but I missed

00:41:49.280 the name of the person.

00:41:50.560 Anyway, there's well

00:41:53.420 established evidence,

00:41:54.360 according to this John

00:41:55.540 Keegan book, that shows

00:41:57.060 that combat effectiveness

00:41:58.280 falls off quite rapidly

00:41:59.920 within 140 to 180 days.

00:42:03.640 So if you're in a war zone

00:42:05.600 and you're fighting every

00:42:07.340 day, at the end of 90 days,

00:42:10.640 you're probably at your

00:42:12.180 maximum fighting ability,

00:42:14.860 meaning you've sort of

00:42:15.860 gotten practice, you've

00:42:17.200 gotten used to it, and now

00:42:18.780 you're at your maximum.

00:42:20.440 After 90 days, your

00:42:22.220 effectiveness starts falling

00:42:23.440 off sharply.

00:42:25.060 And it's the sharply that's

00:42:26.280 important because it's not

00:42:27.500 gradual.

00:42:28.460 Sharply.

00:42:29.620 And at around 140 to 180

00:42:31.500 days, it really falls off a

00:42:33.660 cliff.

00:42:34.720 Basically, people just want to

00:42:35.960 go home.

00:42:36.320 And the ones that are

00:42:39.380 already in the war, the

00:42:40.900 ones that are being

00:42:41.360 extended, many have been

00:42:42.680 fighting for more than 200

00:42:43.980 days.

00:42:46.440 So morale disappears at

00:42:48.140 about 140 days to 180 in a

00:42:50.440 war zone, and many of

00:42:52.140 Russian troops have been

00:42:53.020 there 200 days, and they

00:42:54.780 just extended them.

00:42:59.260 This really looks like

00:43:00.480 Russia is losing badly.

00:43:02.340 Now, of course, it's fog of

00:43:04.080 war.

00:43:04.300 You don't need to be an

00:43:06.060 NPC to come in here and

00:43:08.460 tell me that I've been

00:43:09.360 falling for Ukrainian

00:43:11.000 propaganda or Russia

00:43:12.780 propaganda.

00:43:13.600 Don't be an NPC.

00:43:15.400 Don't tell me I'm falling

00:43:16.440 for the propaganda of one

00:43:17.760 side or the other, because

00:43:18.860 we all know it's all

00:43:19.540 propaganda.

00:43:20.560 We all know that anything

00:43:21.960 I say on this topic is

00:43:23.980 likely to be propaganda

00:43:28.080 and likely to be overturned

00:43:30.260 later.

00:43:30.480 Okay?

00:43:30.800 I wonder if I've stopped

00:43:34.820 the NPCs, because I think

00:43:35.960 they're still going to do

00:43:36.680 it.

00:43:37.540 I think telling them not to

00:43:38.620 do it doesn't make any

00:43:39.320 difference to an NPC.

00:43:42.160 Let's just give it a

00:43:43.200 moment.

00:43:45.480 All right.

00:43:46.540 Did that work?

00:43:48.140 Wow.

00:43:49.260 Maybe it did.

00:43:49.960 So what it looks like is if I

00:43:54.940 were the Ukrainians, this is

00:43:56.860 the persuasion that I would

00:43:58.260 start to use on the Russian

00:43:59.960 soldiers, because I'm pretty

00:44:01.820 sure they can get, you know,

00:44:03.620 their persuasion into the

00:44:05.060 ground troops, directly or

00:44:06.900 indirectly.

00:44:07.740 And it would look like this.

00:44:10.220 You're never going home.

00:44:11.500 That's what it would look like.

00:44:15.000 You're never going home.

00:44:19.580 That would be pretty powerful,

00:44:21.080 wouldn't it?

00:44:21.860 But, if you come to Ukraine,

00:44:25.160 we'll take care of you.

00:44:26.560 If you join our side, you can

00:44:28.940 come home immediately.

00:44:30.140 Not home, but you'll be out of

00:44:31.620 the war immediately.

00:44:33.320 And we might even feed you if

00:44:35.680 you want to join our side.

00:44:36.620 But, yeah, so I don't know

00:44:44.460 what the Ukrainian fighting

00:44:46.800 morale is, but I assume it's

00:44:49.240 better, only because they're in

00:44:51.740 their home territory.

00:44:53.900 So, I don't know.

00:44:54.800 There are too many unknowns in

00:44:55.800 this to make a prediction, but it

00:44:57.600 does look like the Russian army is

00:44:59.380 collapsing.

00:45:03.980 Yeah.

00:45:04.500 And the best persuasion is one

00:45:07.000 that already fits your fears and

00:45:08.580 your biases.

00:45:09.700 Did you know that?

00:45:11.220 If you want to convince somebody

00:45:12.640 of something, tell them something

00:45:14.880 that already fits the framework

00:45:16.420 that they have in their head of

00:45:18.220 how things work.

00:45:19.860 Right?

00:45:20.340 So, you imagine that they already

00:45:22.020 maybe don't trust Putin so much.

00:45:25.000 So, then you tell them, okay, he

00:45:27.020 says it's extended, but he really

00:45:28.600 means you're never coming home.

00:45:30.960 Or you say, he says you're

00:45:33.140 extended, but the truth is you're

00:45:34.480 there's no escape route.

00:45:36.780 I don't know if that's true.

00:45:39.200 But imagine hearing that.

00:45:41.980 Putin is saying that your

00:45:43.340 service has been extended, but he

00:45:45.980 had to do that because there's no

00:45:47.200 escape route.

00:45:49.560 Sometimes it's better to give them

00:45:50.800 an escape route, I've been told,

00:45:52.560 because you don't want them fighting

00:45:53.740 for their life.

00:45:54.420 You want them to escape, to get

00:45:56.160 out of there.

00:45:56.520 You've seen UK soldiers running to

00:46:01.120 Russia.

00:46:03.080 I'm sure it's worked both ways.

00:46:07.480 Machiavelli is spelled M-A-C-H,

00:46:10.940 not M-A-K.

00:46:13.420 If you ask your digital assistant

00:46:16.860 how to spell it, just say, how do you

00:46:19.820 spell Machiavelli?

00:46:21.100 Yeah, you'll see the spelling in the

00:46:24.300 comments there, M-A-C-H.

00:46:26.860 All right.

00:46:29.460 Rasmussen says that Republicans have

00:46:32.380 more excitement about voting in the

00:46:34.300 midterms.

00:46:34.900 64% of Republicans are very excited,

00:46:37.760 and only 56% of Democrats are very

00:46:40.960 excited.

00:46:41.340 And only 38% of unaffiliated are very

00:46:47.040 excited.

00:46:48.600 So what does that tell you?

00:46:50.700 I think it tells me that the party

00:46:53.720 that's out of power is probably more

00:46:55.440 excited about voting.

00:46:57.200 Isn't that always the case?

00:46:58.940 Which is probably exactly why the

00:47:01.680 midterm elections tend to flip-flop.

00:47:04.800 So I think this is telling us what we

00:47:06.660 expect in this situation.

00:47:08.520 The ones who are behind are excited to

00:47:10.540 get in there and try to change it.

00:47:12.160 The ones who are ahead are like,

00:47:13.400 eh, we're ahead.

00:47:14.800 Eh, seems okay now.

00:47:16.520 Less excited.

00:47:17.600 And the ones who don't have a team at

00:47:19.160 all are the least excited.

00:47:21.580 Because they don't have a team to

00:47:22.900 back.

00:47:23.680 And I think in a way, this perfectly

00:47:25.900 tells you how much the team

00:47:29.180 persuasion is worth.

00:47:31.240 Right?

00:47:32.240 So if you didn't identify with a team,

00:47:35.500 a Democrat or a Republican, you were

00:47:38.460 the least likely to be excited about

00:47:40.540 voting in general.

00:47:42.480 But if you identified with a team,

00:47:44.480 suddenly you're all excited about

00:47:45.940 voting.

00:47:47.200 Now, cause and effect could be

00:47:49.140 backwards here.

00:47:49.900 It could be that the people who care

00:47:51.160 the least are the least interested in

00:47:53.700 joining a team.

00:47:55.000 But I feel like it works both ways.

00:47:56.980 That once you join a team, you suddenly

00:47:59.680 take on the excitement and the, you know,

00:48:02.740 the feelings of the team and the narrative

00:48:04.400 of the team and, um, and then you can

00:48:07.020 see it's a difference between 38% being

00:48:09.320 very excited and 64%.

00:48:11.960 And that the difference between 38 and

00:48:14.960 64 is partly that the unaffiliated might

00:48:19.560 be less political, but partly I think that

00:48:22.700 joining a team just gets you excited about

00:48:24.540 the team.

00:48:27.680 Team Mega versus Team Peddo.

00:48:29.400 You know, I don't know.

00:48:33.580 Do you think the, the pedo stuff that, um,

00:48:37.620 here's what this feels like.

00:48:39.540 I remember in 2016, the big persuasion was

00:48:44.620 cuck, C-U-C-K, as in cuckold, as in, you

00:48:49.540 know, we, we earned a bunch of stuff in

00:48:51.220 America, but we're just giving it away to

00:48:52.880 these other countries that didn't work for

00:48:54.560 it.

00:48:55.180 I guess that was the context.

00:48:56.560 And I always said, every time I heard

00:48:58.880 that, I thought, that is not persuasive.

00:49:02.220 That is so not persuasive.

00:49:05.580 And when I hear the pedo stuff, I have

00:49:07.260 the same thing.

00:49:08.520 That is so not persuasive.

00:49:10.980 It's not.

00:49:12.300 Because if you're a Democrat, what are you

00:49:13.840 going to think?

00:49:14.860 No, they're not.

00:49:16.240 It just sounds ridiculous.

00:49:17.720 If you're a Democrat, you just think, oh,

00:49:19.320 there's those Q people again.

00:49:21.780 I think it's anti-persuasive.

00:49:23.440 Because if the best you have is calling

00:49:26.340 the other sides pedophiles, then you

00:49:28.820 don't have a political problem.

00:49:32.080 Remember, when I tell you that people

00:49:33.420 come after me personally, it's them

00:49:36.460 signaling that they don't have any kind

00:49:38.020 of argument.

00:49:39.680 So if you're doing the same thing with

00:49:41.240 the Democrats, and you're coming after

00:49:42.620 them for, you know, whatever personal

00:49:45.660 things you imagine they're doing, probably

00:49:48.020 you didn't have a good enough argument.

00:49:50.040 So maybe you should work on that.

00:49:51.260 It's not supposed to be persuasive?

00:49:55.700 Well, I think different people are using

00:49:58.380 it in different ways.

00:49:59.780 There are definitely some people who are

00:50:01.080 just genuinely concerned about the issue.

00:50:04.260 And they want to, you know, float the

00:50:06.820 issue and make it a bigger deal.

00:50:08.440 And so definitely there are people with

00:50:10.520 good intentions.

00:50:12.440 But beyond that, when I saw in the

00:50:14.600 comments, somebody said we should frame

00:50:16.880 it as Team Baga against Team Pedo, that

00:50:21.020 takes the legitimate question of, you know,

00:50:23.480 grooming and whatever else, that takes

00:50:25.500 whatever legitimacy there is in that and

00:50:27.320 just reduces it to a political nothing.

00:50:30.320 So if you want to take your legitimate

00:50:32.440 concern and turn it into a nothing, make

00:50:37.000 make it political.

00:50:39.280 If you really want to help children, make

00:50:42.840 sure that you're cleanly going after these

00:50:45.240 specific bad actors and you're not going

00:50:47.920 after just Democrats.

00:50:49.460 As soon as you say all Democrats are pedos,

00:50:52.620 at least because they support them, well,

00:50:55.000 you're just being like them.

00:50:56.500 You just became them.

00:50:58.020 Because what do they say?

00:50:59.480 Everybody, everybody's a, everybody's a racist

00:51:03.220 if you're Republican, because you allow

00:51:05.440 them to be in your party.

00:51:07.420 Right?

00:51:07.680 So you're just doing the same thing to

00:51:08.980 them.

00:51:09.860 There's no persuasive ability to that.

00:51:14.800 Same as calling someone an NPC, somebody

00:51:16.920 says.

00:51:17.940 Now, the NPC persuasion has a functional

00:51:20.900 point.

00:51:22.520 Right?

00:51:23.000 The functional point is to make them stop

00:51:26.320 saying the most obvious thing.

00:51:29.340 It's just from my personal, my personal

00:51:32.640 preference.

00:51:34.780 And it worked.

00:51:36.580 When I do the NPC call out, the NPCs almost

00:51:40.580 always just disappear or they spin into some

00:51:43.620 kind of cognitive dissonance that's funny.

00:51:46.260 So you can't tell me it's a bad idea if it

00:51:49.640 works.

00:51:50.920 And it works for me in exactly the way I want

00:51:52.900 it to work.

00:51:53.660 If it doesn't work on you or for you, I

00:51:56.260 don't care.

00:51:57.120 It's not for you.

00:51:57.920 It doesn't work, comrade.

00:52:06.960 Well, I observe it to work.

00:52:08.820 Oh, here's the point I forgot.

00:52:11.440 Oh, I'd be so mad if I completely forgot to

00:52:13.900 tell you this.

00:52:14.640 So back to the story of the black college

00:52:18.640 professor who is challenging me about the

00:52:21.640 veracity of my claims that being a white man in

00:52:25.440 corporate America is a tough deal because you're

00:52:28.320 discriminated against.

00:52:29.360 And he, as I said earlier, he challenged me to

00:52:31.860 prove that, that it actually happened to me and I

00:52:35.300 lost two careers because of being a white male.

00:52:37.620 And I replied back, why are you denying my lived

00:52:43.800 experience?

00:52:47.920 I'm just waiting because I assume there's

00:52:50.640 applause.

00:52:52.220 I assume that wherever you are, you're applauding

00:52:54.620 right now, possibly standing, possibly standing.

00:52:58.320 Because hasn't that been the entire argument that

00:53:01.940 when the Republicans say, hey, the actual police

00:53:06.940 brutality, if you look at the stats, is somewhat, you

00:53:11.660 know, not big.

00:53:13.660 But then what do black people say?

00:53:16.100 Well, you know, you can keep your statistics.

00:53:19.100 Our lived experience is that the police are

00:53:22.460 brutalizing us.

00:53:23.700 That's our experience.

00:53:25.680 Now, I'm telling you that my lived experience was I

00:53:28.660 lost two careers for being a white male.

00:53:33.060 Does the standard not apply to me?

00:53:34.920 Does my lived experience count for nothing?

00:53:40.440 Remember I told you that the best persuasion is that

00:53:43.280 you don't debunk the other side.

00:53:46.940 You embrace their point and then you amplify it.

00:53:52.420 Embrace and amplify.

00:53:54.360 It's deadly persuasion.

00:53:55.720 As soon as you say you're wrong, you're done.

00:54:02.280 Your persuasion ended the minute you said you're

00:54:04.300 wrong.

00:54:05.280 You get that, right?

00:54:06.940 Hey, let's talk about this topic.

00:54:08.740 You're wrong.

00:54:09.860 And we're done.

00:54:11.380 We're done.

00:54:12.060 There's nothing else to say.

00:54:13.580 Everything you say after that is like blah, blah, blah,

00:54:16.120 blah, blah, blah.

00:54:17.100 Because the person just heard you're wrong.

00:54:19.500 But if you say to that person, you know, that's a good

00:54:22.160 point.

00:54:24.140 That's a good point.

00:54:26.420 You know, people's lived experience is important.

00:54:29.020 We should not diminish that.

00:54:31.960 And by the way, just so you know, I am completely

00:54:36.500 consistent because I do honor the lived experience of the

00:54:40.600 black population of the United States.

00:54:42.080 I've said that publicly.

00:54:45.620 And whether or not that matches the statistical truth, I

00:54:50.260 think that's interesting and we should know about it.

00:54:52.500 Maybe it's important.

00:54:54.700 But if your lived experience is that the police are

00:54:57.140 brutalizing you, that's your life.

00:55:01.320 So, I mean, that does matter.

00:55:04.860 It matters.

00:55:06.620 Right?

00:55:07.240 So I'm just using the same standard.

00:55:08.740 It's exactly the one I apply to other people.

00:55:12.180 So you can't get me on hypocrisy.

00:55:14.100 I'm just being consistent.

00:55:15.480 And I'm asking you to be consistent, too.

00:55:18.080 That's all.

00:55:24.300 You lost two jobs because your child drove up the group

00:55:27.720 medical expenses.

00:55:29.320 God, I hate that.

00:55:31.700 Ugh.

00:55:34.600 Ugh.

00:55:35.080 That's like the ugliest, ugliest part of reality right there.

00:55:40.980 Now, I do the same thing with reparations.

00:55:44.220 If you say no to reparations, you lose.

00:55:48.960 Because then you're an uncaring bastard, racist, or something.

00:55:53.100 So I don't do that.

00:55:55.040 I say, you know, this could be a good conversation and you

00:55:58.380 have a good point.

00:55:59.060 Certainly, the government did bad things to black people.

00:56:04.720 Nobody doubts that.

00:56:06.920 So let's have that conversation.

00:56:08.760 It's just that when you embrace it and amplify it, you end up with,

00:56:13.940 uh, what about the black African kings who sold those people?

00:56:18.260 Do they pay some reparations?

00:56:20.080 What about the people in the north who fought to free the slaves?

00:56:23.080 Do they still owe money?

00:56:24.680 So by embracing the idea and then amplifying it so you can see it in all

00:56:29.460 of its features, you end up being persuasive.

00:56:34.700 But as soon as you say, no, bad idea, well, that's the end of the

00:56:37.940 conversation.

00:56:40.640 Embrace and amplify.

00:56:43.540 I heard some people have already used the technique since I started talking

00:56:46.900 about it and with good, with good result.

00:56:56.020 It's actually my fourth career, uh, that got cut short.

00:57:01.180 Because you also have to count my Dilbert TV show that got cancelled for not

00:57:06.280 appealing to black audiences.

00:57:07.680 Because UPN, the network it was on, decided to have a, a block of, uh, black, um,

00:57:15.480 content.

00:57:16.380 So it was like sitcoms of black families and stuff.

00:57:19.520 And Dilbert was on that night and it wasn't a black content, um, property.

00:57:26.000 And so it got cancelled.

00:57:28.280 So I've lost two corporate jobs and one TV show for essentially my identity.

00:57:34.800 You used an embrace and amplify on a million dollar deal and it deleted their

00:57:43.500 top concern.

00:57:44.600 Boom.

00:57:45.820 Good job.

00:57:47.620 Good job.

00:57:49.140 Is there anybody here who has learned a persuasion trick from me that they've

00:57:54.180 used in their real life, let's say usually your career, and it worked better than

00:57:58.740 you imagined?

00:57:59.620 Like you were actually surprised?

00:58:02.040 Watch the yeses go by.

00:58:03.300 Over on the locals, um, so on locals they get more of my persuasion lessons.

00:58:10.180 It's all yeses.

00:58:11.300 It's like a flood of yeses.

00:58:12.900 So these are people who basically have learned a skill that can express itself

00:58:17.940 almost like magic.

00:58:20.260 It's not magic.

00:58:21.780 It's just technique.

00:58:23.360 But it's, it's impact on your life feels like magic.

00:58:27.380 Yeah.

00:58:27.560 Yeah.

00:58:30.380 Now, now let me ask you this.

00:58:33.300 Think about the, you know, the little nuggets of persuasion that I've taught you and the

00:58:37.940 ones you've used and all the people who are saying yes have already seen that it made

00:58:41.420 a big difference, right?

00:58:42.760 These are not small differences.

00:58:44.440 In most cases you use, you use the technique for big stuff.

00:58:48.800 Get a raised, career, you know, relationship, stuff like that.

00:58:52.820 Now, imagine me.

00:58:56.820 I learned hypnosis in my early 20s.

00:59:00.560 I've been studying persuasion for decades.

00:59:03.440 Do you have any idea what I can do at this point?

00:59:07.340 You don't.

00:59:09.180 You have no idea.

00:59:10.860 It's the only reason I'm still alive.

00:59:12.440 Because if anybody had any idea what I'm capable of, I would be killed immediately.

00:59:17.660 And I can say that out loud because nobody will ever believe it.

00:59:21.180 So that's the beauty of it.

00:59:23.420 If I thought anybody could believe it, I couldn't even say it out loud.

00:59:27.340 But nobody could believe it.

00:59:28.720 It's completely beyond the human ability to hold in your head.

00:59:33.240 I've been challenged someday to write sort of my biography that would be released after I'm dead.

00:59:45.740 So you can find out what things I've actually been involved in.

00:59:51.800 If you had any idea, you would be amazed.

00:59:57.640 All right.

00:59:58.140 And you have to assume that people seek me out, right?

01:00:01.620 Because I do this publicly.

01:00:03.940 Obviously, people have sought me out to solve problems.

01:00:07.740 And sometimes I do.

01:00:13.340 Let's see.

01:00:14.020 What else is going on today?

01:00:17.300 We talked about the woman with huge prosthetic breasts and about Dilbert.

01:00:21.560 Well, those are important things.

01:00:26.220 Yeah, I think we covered it all.

01:00:28.360 What does your agent think about you killing Dilbert?

01:00:35.240 Well, I don't have an agent.

01:00:36.120 One of the benefits of my skill stack is that I don't need a financial advisor, because I have those skills.

01:00:46.840 And I don't need an agent to negotiate, except for the book deals.

01:00:52.560 That's a special industry.

01:00:54.480 I do have an agent for the book deals.

01:00:56.160 Because the way book publishing works is that the agents are almost like employees of the publishers.

01:01:09.260 Now, not all agents, right?

01:01:11.860 But the top agents, the ones with reputations and track records, they actually do for the publishers what the publishers are not staffed to do for themselves, which is find a book that's going to sell.

01:01:23.620 So the publisher wants to talk to the agent, but not every agent.

01:01:29.080 They want to talk to the ones that always have a track record of finding and promoting good books.

01:01:34.900 So if you want to be in that industry, maybe after your first book, if you get lucky somehow, you want an agent.

01:01:44.100 Because the agent will get you a better deal than you could have negotiated yourself.

01:01:47.560 They just know how to do it.

01:01:48.440 So being good at negotiating, which actually used to be my job, one of the things you should know is when you shouldn't do it.

01:01:59.960 So when I'm negotiating for a big deal, I will always hire a lawyer to be between me and the party I'm negotiating with.

01:02:08.800 And it's not always because the lawyer has better ideas than I did.

01:02:12.880 Because usually on the business stuff, it's just my preferences tend to rule.

01:02:18.440 But the lawyer keeps a buffer between you and the other entity.

01:02:23.940 And that gives you a whole different set of tools.

01:02:26.880 Because you could ask for things through a third party that would be a little awkward to ask for in person.

01:02:33.100 Because they could just stretch a little further than you can, because they're doing it on your behalf.

01:02:38.360 But if you're in the room, it's easy to give stuff up.

01:02:41.420 Let me give you an example.

01:02:42.300 I hired a lawyer when I first got my Dilbert comic contract 33 years ago.

01:02:49.340 And so most of the things I negotiated were things I told my lawyer I wanted.

01:02:55.120 But one of the things the lawyer suggested was, well, why don't you tell them they should pay for your drawing supplies?

01:03:01.740 Like your papers and pens and stuff.

01:03:03.880 And I said, no.

01:03:07.100 That's so small ball.

01:03:09.080 Like I'm trying to do this big career changing contract.

01:03:13.040 I'm not going to have them pay for my pens and paper.

01:03:16.340 That's just crazy.

01:03:17.920 And then he said, well, why don't we just ask for it?

01:03:21.380 Because then it'll be one thing we've asked for that we have to negotiate away.

01:03:25.420 So we'll ask for it just so it becomes an asset to give up.

01:03:29.360 And I'm like, all right, whatever.

01:03:30.420 You know, it was just, to me, it was just ridiculous.

01:03:33.700 But he asks for it.

01:03:36.040 Negotiations happen, and it gets lost in the mix.

01:03:39.120 Like I think the syndicate just sort of forgot about it.

01:03:42.580 It was one of the things they talked about.

01:03:44.460 And then when the final thing was done, it was still there.

01:03:47.880 So this thing actually survived through, because the syndicate also thought it was so small

01:03:52.560 that it wasn't something they wanted to talk about.

01:03:55.620 And I forget what it was.

01:03:56.740 It was something like, I don't know, $50 a week or something.

01:04:00.920 So we just put in there that they'd give me $50 a week for the entire 15 years.

01:04:06.780 And every time I would get my royalty, and I'd see that little number in there, I'd laugh

01:04:13.040 and say, oh my God, my lawyer paid his entire fee.

01:04:16.980 Because over the years that it ran, it just kept racking up until the lawyer was free.

01:04:25.260 The lawyer was free.

01:04:27.200 He paid for himself just for asking that one thing that I never would have thought about.

01:04:31.360 And also the lawyer pushed them harder than they've ever been pushed, they said.

01:04:41.440 Now, you know, I wasn't there.

01:04:43.060 Sometimes people like to say that, oh, this was the toughest negotiation I've ever had,

01:04:47.120 this sort of a thing, people say.

01:04:48.580 But they were quite convincing that my lawyer pushed them harder than they've ever been pushed.

01:04:53.200 And do you know why that could happen?

01:04:57.640 It's because I know how to negotiate.

01:05:01.220 And I had a secret that other cartoonists didn't know.

01:05:06.200 It goes like this.

01:05:07.400 If you're a brand new cartoonist and a syndicate offers you a contract, it's the biggest break

01:05:12.480 you could ever have.

01:05:14.460 The last thing you want to do is screw up that opportunity.

01:05:18.740 And so a new cartoonist would say, I'm going to give them everything they asked for, because

01:05:23.000 the last thing I want to do is to make them mad, and then they'll cancel the deal, and it's

01:05:27.240 my only opportunity.

01:05:29.340 But what I knew is that they're looking for artists, and they're hard to find.

01:05:35.120 It's hard to find me, right?

01:05:38.160 So somebody who could turn a nothing into a major brand in the United States and the

01:05:44.100 world, that's very rare.

01:05:46.480 And if they think they've found somebody who could do that, even potentially, which is

01:05:50.680 what they're looking for, they're only looking for people who could maybe do that.

01:05:54.140 If they think they've got one, they're going to fight pretty hard to keep it, even before

01:05:59.420 the contract is signed.

01:06:00.840 Because remember, they have to talk themselves into it before the offer even gets to you.

01:06:05.120 So they've already talked themselves into how brilliant it would be if they hired you

01:06:08.360 or worked with you.

01:06:10.580 So I knew that I could push really hard and that they would give me plenty of warning if

01:06:16.020 they were going to cancel the whole deal.

01:06:18.180 So I just pushed and pushed and waited for them to say, okay, this is too far.

01:06:22.660 We're going to walk away from the deal.

01:06:24.220 And they never did.

01:06:25.940 They never threatened to walk away from the deal.

01:06:27.740 It was just a hard negotiation.

01:06:29.700 I got a little bit more of what I wanted.

01:06:37.780 I think you did your, oh, times 30 years.

01:06:40.620 Yeah, no, the first contract was 15 years.

01:06:43.160 So it was half of that.

01:06:46.600 And I don't think the second contract didn't have that in there because I draw digitally.

01:06:50.580 So I couldn't charge for my art supplies because I draw on the computer now.

01:06:59.620 If it wasn't King, it wasn't King.

01:07:01.480 It was United Media.

01:07:03.820 So United Media sold much of its assets and my current syndicate has those.

01:07:12.540 Yeah, the Cintiq is what I used to draw.

01:07:14.220 Did that scare you?

01:07:17.500 Did it want to scare me?

01:07:18.760 I don't know what you're talking about.

01:07:20.680 Was I scared that I wouldn't get the deal?

01:07:24.120 No.

01:07:25.520 No, so that's where the experience comes in.

01:07:28.560 I know what it looks like when somebody's getting ready to walk away from a deal.

01:07:32.360 Oh, I guess that's the most important thing.

01:07:35.200 So here's the most important thing.

01:07:36.760 If you're in a deal where you're sure the other person needs you or wants you, right,

01:07:41.480 and you're both invested, you will get all kinds of warning before somebody walks away

01:07:48.140 from a deal.

01:07:49.500 All kinds of warning, especially in a corporate setting.

01:07:52.460 In a corporate setting, they've already told their bosses the deal's going to happen.

01:07:56.920 They do not want to go back to their boss and say, okay, I couldn't get a deal done.

01:08:02.080 Everybody else can get a deal done, but I couldn't get a deal done.

01:08:05.020 So you usually have the corporate person by the nads, because once they've said,

01:08:12.300 I'm going to make this happen, and they do, they've got to make it happen, and you know

01:08:17.120 that, right?

01:08:18.420 Best episode yet?

01:08:33.500 Maybe.

01:08:35.500 How much are they authorized to spend?

01:08:38.160 Yeah.

01:08:42.620 A lot of young artists get their souls taken from them.

01:08:45.800 Well, I was aware of that.

01:08:47.200 So there was a history of abuse by the syndication companies long, long ago.

01:08:53.460 We're talking, you know, decades and decades ago, before my syndicate even existed, really.

01:08:58.340 And they would do these long-term contracts.

01:09:00.740 And once you were the cartoonist and you retired, they would just draw the comic for you with

01:09:05.280 another artist, and they would just keep it.

01:09:07.800 So the rights to the comic actually belonged to the syndication company, not to the artist.

01:09:12.380 So you could work for 20 years drawing a popular cartoon, and they could just fire you.

01:09:17.200 And then draw your cartoon with somebody else.

01:09:20.500 But that situation is no longer the case.

01:09:25.240 Oh, in terms of the direction of the comic industry, the other chains are likely to go the same way.

01:09:36.740 So there's a pretty high likelihood that Dilbert will be maybe canceled in half of newspapers in a year.

01:09:45.560 Maybe one to three years, it will no longer be a viable career, and I'll do something else.

01:09:54.320 Now, my plan, tentatively, would be to continue doing Dilbert, but on a subscription service.

01:10:03.140 Can anybody guess what subscription service I would use?

01:10:06.940 No, not only fans, but Pornhub.

01:10:22.280 Locals, of course.

01:10:23.780 Now, I haven't made any decisions about that, but the way I would likely do it would be to have a very low subscription

01:10:30.620 so that you couldn't even tell you had it, and then you could read it as long as you want.

01:10:35.840 But if I did it by subscription, I would be far more edgy.

01:10:41.180 So subscription Dilbert would be, let's say all the controls would come off.

01:10:48.240 So if you didn't think it was funny before, I guarantee you you're going to like it after I take the censorship off myself.

01:10:58.840 Because, you know, I self-censor, as any professional would, because I'm making something for a specific market.

01:11:06.700 If you're making something for a newspaper market, you are obliged to make a product that fits that market.

01:11:13.940 I try to make a product that fits that market, but also enlarges it.

01:11:20.060 So that's why I'm in the risky business.

01:11:22.020 I'm enlarging the market, and that's always a little friction.

01:11:28.040 99 cents?

01:11:29.020 Yeah, I was thinking of a dollar a month.

01:11:31.500 Well, let me ask you this.

01:11:32.800 If you could pay a dollar a month and get 30 or 31 Dilbert comics a month, would you pay it?

01:11:41.100 Now, most of you wouldn't.

01:11:42.400 I know that.

01:11:44.240 90, 90% won't.

01:11:46.720 But some of you would.

01:11:48.640 Some of you would.

01:11:49.980 And I don't think I would mix it with my current locals channel, because I think that it's just a different audience.

01:11:58.180 If it's edgy.

01:11:59.840 Now, the other thing I could do is put other people's edgy comics in there with me on a sort of a guest basis.

01:12:06.780 Not regular running, but if I saw anything that was edgy, I could put it there, too.

01:12:11.040 And maybe I would curate the funniest memes and comics and stuff and put them there, too.

01:12:19.820 You could try it for a year?

01:12:25.280 I mean, yeah, you could try it for a year for $12.

01:12:28.780 That's not bad.

01:12:32.800 Dark Dilbert?

01:12:33.540 I could create Dark Dilbert?

01:12:36.100 Oh, that's not a bad idea.

01:12:40.500 Okay, I wish I'd never heard that idea, because that's a little too sticky.

01:12:46.100 Oh, my God.

01:12:47.180 Yeah, if I leave newspapers entirely, and I go to a subscription service, I think it's going to become Dark Dilbert.

01:12:57.460 I might even rename it.

01:12:59.740 I might rename it Dark Dilbert, so that if anybody bought a reprint book, they'd know what they're getting.

01:13:05.140 In 2018, you were accepting transcendence.

01:13:14.360 I don't know what transcendence is.

01:13:20.420 Yeah, the Dark and Divisive Dilbert.

01:13:23.280 Ooh, that's interesting.

01:13:26.020 Dark and Divisive Dilbert.

01:13:27.260 Yes, in effect, I could create a comic syndication company with just locals.

01:13:41.660 Would you like to know how I would do it?

01:13:44.520 All I would have to do is make deals with any larger entity, newspaper or whatever.

01:13:51.680 And now I'd have to be out of my, this would have to be after my syndication contract expired.

01:13:58.100 So I couldn't do anything, I'm currently in contract.

01:14:01.140 But if it expired, I could run a syndication of just Dilbert through locals,

01:14:07.620 and I could tell any newspaper that wanted to run it that they can just go grab it off of there and run it.

01:14:17.700 All right.

01:14:18.300 Better get web addresses.

01:14:22.260 Well, I own Dilbert.com.

01:14:25.580 So I own the, you know, the URL.

01:14:31.660 All right.

01:14:32.300 Am I sure about that?

01:14:33.280 Yes, I am.

01:14:34.460 And that's part of the contract negotiations.

01:14:38.780 All right.

01:14:39.360 That's all for now.

01:14:40.260 I'll go talk to you tomorrow.

01:14:42.400 How many people did we get here?

01:14:44.020 Eh, not too many.

01:14:44.660 Is there anything contractually that would prevent you from launching a dark Dilbert subscription service now?

01:14:52.180 Yes.

01:14:53.680 Well, okay, I have to answer that more, more lawyerly and technically.

01:15:02.620 So I have the rights to do anything that's my own property that doesn't compete with newspapers.

01:15:12.000 So the question would be whether a subscription service that you had to subscribe to would compete with newspapers.

01:15:20.220 I think it would, because that would just be an online offering.

01:15:24.040 And I think that's covered in the contract.

01:15:25.840 So I believe I can't do that under my current contract.

01:15:29.540 But I only do short-term contracts at this stage of my career.

01:15:34.620 One to three.

01:15:35.540 I can't remember.

01:15:36.740 But my contract's like, I don't know, a year or two.

01:15:40.640 Something like that.

01:15:41.160 Does anyone subscribe to the paper only for the comics?

01:15:48.220 They used to, but I don't think so anymore.

01:15:51.100 All right, that's all for now.

01:15:53.100 I'll talk to you later.

01:15:55.260 Bye for now.

01:15:55.920 Bye for now.

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