Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 3096 - The Scott Adams School 02⧸17⧸26

00:00:00.000 Steven is the first one again.

00:00:01.900 All right, bookish.

00:00:03.160 We're going to give people a minute to come in and we are going to get going with a very

00:00:08.260 exciting guest professor today.

00:00:11.400 Yep, there he is.

00:00:12.800 Some of you might know him, some of you may not, but you're all going to be lucky today

00:00:17.520 to be here with him.

00:00:19.100 So you know how it is.

00:00:20.700 Before we can do anything on this show, we need to do something first.

00:00:25.880 Okay, here we go.

00:00:27.540 Are you guys ready?

00:00:28.340 Let's do it.

00:00:32.380 It's going to be another amazing day today.

00:00:35.760 I don't know if you're ready for it.

00:00:38.000 Are you ready for all the amazingness?

00:00:40.060 I'm all crooked.

00:00:41.600 It's going to be coming at you.

00:00:47.220 Oh my gosh.

00:00:50.800 Good morning everybody and welcome. 0.98

00:01:00.760 Hey, shut up to me. 0.90

00:01:03.680 Every now and then my second feed comes alive. 0.99

00:01:07.060 I don't know why.

00:01:07.740 Well, welcome to Coffee with Scott Adams.

00:01:11.540 The best time you've ever had in your life.

00:01:13.380 If you'd like to take it up to a new level.

00:01:15.460 A level that nobody can even understand with their tiny, shiny human brains.

00:01:20.420 All you need for that is a cup or mug or a glass of tank or chalice or steinac and teat and

00:01:24.260 chug or a flask of vessel of any kind.

00:01:27.060 Fill it with your favorite liquid.

00:01:28.660 I like coffee.

00:01:30.180 And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure.

00:01:32.400 The dopamine of the day.

00:01:33.460 Thing makes everything better.

00:01:34.420 Let's put some of them in a sip.

00:01:37.220 Have us now.

00:01:38.640 Go.

00:01:43.840 Meanwhile, all of the lazy podcasters have taken the morning off.

00:01:50.620 My goodness.

00:01:51.760 My goodness.

00:01:53.260 Do you feel sorry for them?

00:01:54.760 I have energy.

00:01:56.460 So that was our Scott.

00:01:58.480 That was on 10-20-24.

00:02:01.220 Yes, I feel sorry for anyone who's not joining us today, especially.

00:02:07.080 I just want to quickly remind everyone that this is the Scott Adams School.

00:02:11.740 This is streaming from Scott's platforms and channels.

00:02:14.700 Thanks to Shelly, who's letting this go on with us.

00:02:18.720 Scott Wish.

00:02:19.820 My name is Erica.

00:02:21.260 I am joined today by Owen Gregorian and Marcella.

00:02:27.980 Good morning, you guys.

00:02:29.020 Good morning.

00:02:29.720 And our very special guest, I am so happy and honored that you're here with us.

00:02:36.420 Before I fully introduce you, you guys, Stefan is amazing.

00:02:42.220 Okay.

00:02:42.400 This is what I want to say about Stefan Molyneux.

00:02:44.980 He's a philosopher, probably one of the best and most downloaded.

00:02:49.920 I think a million downloads is what I'm seeing.

00:02:53.220 Stefan has a website called freedomain.com.

00:02:59.840 We'll put it in the chat, freedomain.com.

00:03:02.780 And I want you to know that I've been aware and we've, many of us have been aware of Stefan

00:03:07.720 for many, many years.

00:03:09.180 And he was also in Mike Cernovich's documentary called Hoax, which we talked about the other

00:03:16.240 day.

00:03:16.580 He's had the pleasure of interviewing and being interviewed by Jordan Peterson, Jordan's funny

00:03:25.080 cousin, Jesse Lee Peterson, Noam Chomsky, Dave Rubin, Dinesh D'Souza, Peter Schiff, David

00:03:33.340 Friedman, Candace Owens, James O'Keefe, Steven Crowder, Joe Rogan three times.

00:03:39.220 And, um, one of our favorites, Mike Cernovich.

00:03:42.960 Okay.

00:03:43.620 So he, if you haven't met him, you're going to meet him now.

00:03:46.780 And what I want to say to anyone who was worried about having Stefan on because he was canceled

00:03:53.120 once for thinking freely and speaking freely is that's exactly why we love you because our

00:04:01.940 speech is free.

00:04:03.060 Our thoughts are our own.

00:04:04.340 And if they make you uncomfortable, open your mind a little more and enter the world of philosophy

00:04:12.180 and our special guest, Stefan Molyneux, thank you for being here with us.

00:04:17.300 Thank you for the, thank you for the invitation.

00:04:19.400 It's great to be here.

00:04:20.580 We, um, sent out the link of your beautiful words and tribute to our beloved Scott Adams.

00:04:28.240 And he obviously meant a lot to you.

00:04:31.040 And I think it would be appropriate if we could just open thinking about Scott and maybe telling

00:04:37.940 us how you first became aware of Scott and Scott with you and what his words and wisdom

00:04:44.660 meant to you.

00:04:46.100 Uh, yes, I would be happy to.

00:04:47.780 And it's funny because I got a little blurry eye just seeing him again.

00:04:53.300 And so, uh, yes, I'd be very happy to unpack my heart and in tribute of Scott.

00:04:58.200 Uh, I actually became aware of him when I was in graduate school.

00:05:03.380 Uh, of course Dilbert was in the papers and I was an avid reader of, I don't know, I guess

00:05:08.000 we can call them newspapers for those who are under 40.

00:05:10.500 You'll have to ask your parents, uh, what, what they were, but they were great for lining

00:05:14.060 bird cages the next day and getting the propaganda delivered on ink straight to your eyeballs.

00:05:18.360 So I'd read Dilbert and find him very amusing of course.

00:05:22.000 And then after graduate school, I got into the business world and very quickly became

00:05:27.480 a pointy haired manager, actually became a chief technical officer at a software company

00:05:32.640 that I co-founded.

00:05:34.240 And I remember some of my employees would occasionally read Dilbert in this samistat subversive way,

00:05:40.400 like they were reading Solzhenitsyn under Stalin or something like that.

00:05:44.180 And, uh, I pointed out that I actually had a Dilbert calendar in my office.

00:05:49.920 I had Dilbert pictures on the wall and that actually got me a great degree of credibility

00:05:54.880 as a manager.

00:05:56.420 Like I was on their side.

00:05:57.560 I was one of them.

00:05:58.360 And of course I rose up through the programming ranks and I actually, at one point was going

00:06:03.280 to grow my hair out a little and tufted up because I was still dark back then.

00:06:08.520 And I found that Scott's takedown of corporate fluff and language was a beautiful and philosophical

00:06:18.000 thing.

00:06:18.420 I always found it to be deeply philosophical, like a lot of absurdist thinkers.

00:06:22.820 And Scott very much pointed out the absurdity of office life, the, the pomposity, the, the,

00:06:28.940 the verbiage, the catchphrases, the fear of HR, uh, you know, uh, catbird being the sort

00:06:35.740 of the id that the conscience that could speak its mind because it was safe being a cat.

00:06:40.520 In other words, as long as you're a pet, that's not domesticated, you can speak your mind.

00:06:44.800 And, uh, you know, all of the various characters really burned themselves into my brain.

00:06:49.460 I remember being on a flight and, and, and Scott as well, because he was a hilarious cartoonist,

00:06:54.160 like one of the best that ever was and underappreciated, of course, as a comic writer, because most people

00:06:59.520 know him from the comic strip.

00:07:01.280 But, but his books were staggeringly good.

00:07:04.620 As a bit of a writer myself, I just admired just about every sentence.

00:07:08.880 And when you write yourself, like if, if you, if you're a weightlifter and you see somebody

00:07:13.880 lifting a great weight, you feel it like, you know, because you've tried to do that same

00:07:18.200 thing and seeing the leanness economy, precision, and focus of his prose and knowing as a writer

00:07:24.820 that he probably sweated blood, you know, there's an old saying about writing.

00:07:28.160 It's, it's easy.

00:07:28.800 You just, you just stare at a blank piece of paper until beads of blood form on your forehead,

00:07:32.840 knowing how much Scott sweated over every sentence.

00:07:36.960 Maybe it came easier to him, but I think he talked about how he worked very hard to make

00:07:40.300 it precise and hilarious.

00:07:41.980 I remember being on a business trip with my brother.

00:07:46.720 Oh gosh, this would have been 35 years ago.

00:07:50.200 And we were reading about individuals and it was hilarious.

00:07:56.940 And we, we saw a reflection of all that we criticized in authority coming out from Scott

00:08:03.700 in such a benevolent way.

00:08:05.460 I mean, even the pointy head boss has his own charms and Scott's obvious affection for

00:08:10.560 the characters was, was really a beautiful thing that we can love people and also love

00:08:14.320 the absurdity that is within them means that we don't have this sort of Ayn Rand perfectionist

00:08:18.580 mentality of who we have affection for.

00:08:20.960 Um, and I just found him to be a wonderful creative thinker and kind of a Loki based chaos agent.

00:08:30.060 And so let me explain what that means that I hope I won't monologue too long, but I came

00:08:36.400 from sort of a strict boarding school, Anglo-Saxon precision semi military, got to bounce a quarter

00:08:44.660 off your bed, everything has to be perfect, which, you know, from a software standpoint,

00:08:49.620 from a business process and coding standpoint, you need that kind of strictness.

00:08:53.480 And then into this sort of regimented life of, you know, revelé and morning marches in my mind

00:09:02.520 comes this absolute madcap chaos agent, uh, who, who smashes that in, in very, very healthy ways.

00:09:10.000 It's like that old, you know, everybody needs to bleed.

00:09:12.620 That's how the light gets in.

00:09:13.740 And I found that Scott's absolute irreverence without rage, because a lot of people who are

00:09:21.260 irreverent, like, you know, the sex pistols, you know, they have this kind of rage to them,

00:09:24.400 but his absolute irreverence and his absolute skepticism, absent rage and hostility was a

00:09:30.800 beautiful thing.

00:09:31.520 And it got me a lot more, you know, that bell curve, you need some order, you need some chaos

00:09:35.340 in this life.

00:09:36.800 And he dragged me from sort of that one valley all the way to the, I think where I sit now,

00:09:42.780 which is a, hopefully a decent combination of that Aristotelian mean, not too much order,

00:09:46.420 uh, because then you're, you know, like the 6,000 year Chinese society that never evolved 1.00

00:09:51.040 and not too much chaos.

00:09:52.920 Otherwise, uh, you, you can't plan and execute on anything.

00:09:56.380 And I think he kind of helped drag me to that middle point of sort of, uh, ordered creativity,

00:10:02.300 uh, because I think he, he was an obviously ridiculously disciplined fellow.

00:10:06.800 I mean, I would hear him talk about his day and I would just feel like, what have I done

00:10:10.800 with my time getting up at four o'clock in the morning and voluminous notes for every

00:10:15.640 show and organize this.

00:10:17.140 And then I'm have this project and I have this project and I'm open this business.

00:10:20.240 And I'm just like, wow, I mean, it's a nice life.

00:10:23.540 If you only have to sleep four hours a night, good for you.

00:10:26.020 That's not my particular, uh, circadian rhythm, but, uh, just, uh, his productivity.

00:10:30.460 And then, you know, reading about the restaurants that he opened and things that he did, uh,

00:10:34.880 just a ridiculously skilled person in every venue and a genuine love for humanity.

00:10:40.340 And one of the rare voices speaking, of course, about optimism for the future, which is so,

00:10:45.420 so, so important.

00:10:46.240 It's really impossible to fix the birth rate.

00:10:48.180 If people are just doom scrolling and waiting for the end of the world, either from a

00:10:52.020 eschological Christian sense or a sort of economic libertarian sense.

00:10:57.000 And what, what a welcome a voice in the landscape.

00:11:00.360 And of course, I, I, as he got more and more sick, I found it hard to watch, of course,

00:11:05.020 I mean, everybody did that, that's sort of goes without saying, uh, because it is very,

00:11:10.000 very hard to watch, you know, the, the gods of fate snuff out such a bright candle in such

00:11:14.480 a difficult way.

00:11:15.640 And, uh, his, but his courage in, in facing that, uh, I, I did, um, uh, write to, uh, to

00:11:22.720 Scott and just say that one of the greatest things that he did was to help remove people's, 1.00

00:11:28.200 excuse me, fear of death because he had, you know, we, we all wonder how we're going to

00:11:36.280 die, particularly I'm going to be 60 this year.

00:11:38.760 So we all, you know, uh, there's a lot more in the rear view than there is in the road

00:11:42.780 ahead.

00:11:43.640 And we all wonder how it's going to be.

00:11:45.160 And everyone's like, Oh, wouldn't it be nice if I die, die to my sleep or, you know,

00:11:47.820 maybe got hit by a bus unawares or something like that.

00:11:50.280 But that's not how most of us are going to die.

00:11:52.060 Most of us are going to die in a slow decline that we know long time ahead, what's going to

00:11:56.300 happen and we all wonder how we're going to deal with it.

00:11:59.940 And when we are emotionally invested and wrapped into someone's mind, which we are, you know,

00:12:04.000 every time we meet on the internet, our neurons merge together.

00:12:07.020 It's like two galaxies coming together with this great effect on each other.

00:12:11.080 And the fact that he faced his death with courage, with resolution, with integrity and

00:12:19.380 continue to work and continue to do good all the way up to his end has given me, uh, you

00:12:25.900 know, as much comfort as you can have in the face of death to realize that it can be an

00:12:30.220 enriching experience.

00:12:31.040 It can be something that gives you great focus, depth and power.

00:12:35.320 And while it is certainly something not to relish and embrace, of course, I'm sure Scott

00:12:39.940 never woke up and said, I'm glad of the richness that my illness has given me.

00:12:43.380 But out of great wrongs, out of great, I won't say injustices because it's an accidental

00:12:49.220 thing, but out of great suffering can come great gold.

00:12:54.080 And that given that there's going to be suffering in life, no matter what, and life ends in

00:12:58.560 suffering, the fact that he has taught us how to wring gold out of sort of the descending

00:13:02.940 black capes of death's advance has given me at least, and I think countless others, a

00:13:08.520 great degree of courage and a lessening of the fear of the inevitable end.

00:13:15.500 Having seen someone march heroically into the final battle we all face, you know, spraying

00:13:20.640 flaming arrows of wisdom in every direction has given me, uh, uh, some real peace of mind,

00:13:26.680 uh, looking down the road.

00:13:28.060 So I can, sorry for the long speech.

00:13:29.740 I hope that makes some sense, but that's sort of what I got out of it.

00:13:32.780 And then just seeing him again, it's like, it does make me emotional because I was very

00:13:38.000 honored to have talked to him.

00:13:39.020 Now I, I, I noticed a lot of parallels in your life and Scott's in terms of some of the things

00:13:45.840 you've been through.

00:13:46.320 I mean, you also have been talented in many domains.

00:13:50.320 Um, you had a huge following on your free domain and still do, I think, but you know,

00:13:54.740 you went through a bunch of cancellation, probably one of the most severe other than maybe Alex

00:13:58.720 Jones, where like every single platform demonetized you and de-platformed you at the

00:14:03.480 same time, um, and probably for similar reasons to what Scott was doing, just kind of speaking

00:14:08.640 an uncomfortable truth, um, that, you know, inflamed a lot of people.

00:14:13.600 Um, how did you deal with that?

00:14:15.500 And, and, you know, what was that like for you going through that process?

00:14:21.260 Well, Scott's perspective helped me a lot.

00:14:25.800 I mean, the, the power of the reframe is almost thermonuclear.

00:14:31.760 I mean, that there's a phrase in Hamlet that ever since I was in theater school, sort of

00:14:36.880 rotated around in my brain, right?

00:14:38.160 There's nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

00:14:42.220 And I'm not quite that far, you know, that, that you can be out of an airplane and think

00:14:47.020 that you're on a wonderful ride at Disneyland.

00:14:49.020 I don't think that you can go quite that far.

00:14:51.200 And I don't think that Scott would, would think that either, but the power of the reframe

00:14:55.680 is really, really important.

00:14:58.080 Uh, oh, there's another phrase, which is, uh, uh, never underestimate what worst luck

00:15:03.200 or bad luck has saved you from.

00:15:05.300 So, uh, if you look at, uh, philosophers throughout history, and I would certainly put Scott in

00:15:11.800 the category, uh, at least, I mean, he was such a multifaceted person, but definitely philosophical,

00:15:16.460 uh, being in God's Debris is, is a very philosophical work.

00:15:19.500 Like, so, uh, truth tellers are very much treading, uh, a tightrope, a line.

00:15:29.200 Uh, this is, uh, all the way back to Socrates, of course, the, the, the Holy Trinity of the

00:15:33.160 foundation of Western philosophy, Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato were all persecuted, uh,

00:15:37.900 by the state, early scientists, Galileo, and so on, uh, tortured.

00:15:41.500 Uh, and so, and, and Oscar Wilde said it very memorably.

00:15:45.140 If you're going to tell people the truth, you have to figure out how to make them laugh.

00:15:47.640 Otherwise they'll kill you.

00:15:48.580 Now I was not blessed quite Scott Adams sense of humor.

00:15:52.600 So, uh, I, I make a joke and it's a fantastic way to bring a pin drop silence to the room.

00:15:58.000 It's a, it's a gift.

00:15:59.100 It's a gift.

00:16:01.020 So I knew that there was this line that you have to walk in telling the truth.

00:16:07.180 Uh, and I suppose it's something like therapy where if you have, uh, some real selfish monster

00:16:13.060 as a therapist, I'm sure you have to tell them that truth slowly over time, because if you

00:16:17.040 tell them too much, they'll just rage quit and, and so on.

00:16:19.660 So you kind of have to slowly need the truth into people through their epidermis or something

00:16:24.840 like that, because very few people can look at, you know, sort of bald truth straight up

00:16:28.420 without losing their minds or being hyper reactive.

00:16:30.600 And people program that way, of course, to, to react to certain words and phrases in, in

00:16:35.520 a hostile manner.

00:16:36.220 So, you know, the rage of the mob is something that we all have to surf when you're trying

00:16:39.720 to bring some truths to the shore.

00:16:41.460 And one of the things that I thought about when I was canceled, which as you say, was

00:16:48.860 pretty brutal and extensive, but one of the things that I thought about was how can this

00:16:55.140 be beneficial to me and to the world?

00:16:57.820 And, and also how might it have been worse if I was not?

00:17:02.980 In other words, if you are walking, you know, let's say you've got your headphones on and

00:17:07.120 you're rocking out to some classic beats and you're about to walk in front of a bus and

00:17:11.940 someone violently tackles you and throws you to the ground.

00:17:17.140 Oh no, I've been assaulted.

00:17:18.700 And then the bus swings by and you're like, I've been saved.

00:17:21.600 I've been saved.

00:17:23.100 Lord above.

00:17:23.720 Thank you.

00:17:24.180 I'm going to name five children after you and, and three of my pets and a goldfish.

00:17:28.920 So what worse luck?

00:17:31.140 And of course, this was brought home pretty, pretty vividly last September, of course, when

00:17:36.080 Charlie Kirk, another person that I worked with to some degree was, was gunned down because

00:17:41.500 in my speaking tours, I've had to face the same death threats and bomb threats and had

00:17:45.840 to have security and so on.

00:17:47.060 And then there was another fellow who was beaten to death in France.

00:17:51.000 And so what worse luck has my bad luck saved me from?

00:17:55.740 So I chose to view the deplatforming in, in two ways.

00:18:00.720 Number one, and, and this was an effort of will because part of you is just like, oh no,

00:18:04.760 my life's, you know, my life's work off YouTube, which I had, um, I don't know.

00:18:09.420 I think you had almost a million followers at that point.

00:18:11.580 Well, they've never let me get to a million because they didn't have to send me a plaque.

00:18:14.720 Apparently they would have to produce by selling their children's kidneys because they just 1.00

00:18:18.420 did not want to give me that plaque, which I understand.

00:18:21.180 But no, I had, uh, gosh, uh, yeah, I've had almost a billion views and downloads and

00:18:25.280 it was sort of, you know, 15 years of life work.

00:18:27.080 Now, I mean, I still have the videos and so on.

00:18:28.660 So it's not like it's all erased, but it was definitely rough.

00:18:32.160 And part of me was, um, you know, that there is that tendency, that undertow to feel like

00:18:36.460 a victim, to feel like I've been so hard done by and how dare they.

00:18:39.480 And you look at all your options and so on.

00:18:42.120 But then I thought, okay, so what are the positives that can come out of this?

00:18:46.520 And, you know, thinking of Scott to some degree.

00:18:48.900 So I chose to took two positives.

00:18:50.460 One was, uh, liberation, liberation to pursue what I want, because when your audience goes

00:18:57.000 down by say 95%, you can say, oh no, I've lost 95% of my audience, which, you know, happened

00:19:03.020 for a while.

00:19:03.680 Or you can say, I'm now not playing stadiums.

00:19:08.520 I can play jazz clubs so I can do my jazz.

00:19:13.280 Cause I've always wanted to do jazz, man.

00:19:15.140 Cause people were seeing me for like the yesterday, all my troubles seem so far.

00:19:18.700 They were seeing me for the greatest hits, right?

00:19:20.180 Which was fine.

00:19:20.740 And I enjoyed that play the stadiums, play your three chords and, you know, rock on Cleveland.

00:19:25.340 And I'm like, okay, so I've been delegated to jazz clubs so I can do the jazz.

00:19:29.280 So I started writing a fiction, which I hadn't done for a long time.

00:19:32.800 I started reading audio books of my old novels, which I absolutely loved to do to, to sort

00:19:36.980 of bring those from the draw and out into the world.

00:19:39.440 I got to do more core philosophy, which I had done politics for a long time, which was,

00:19:46.100 you know, very powerful.

00:19:46.700 But again, that's where, uh, that's where the lasers are on the forehead, right?

00:19:50.720 So, uh, I got to do jazz.

00:19:53.000 So that was a real benefit.

00:19:53.980 I was liberated from stadiums, which I know sounds kind of funny, but, uh, if you've always

00:19:58.900 wanted like, like sting, you know, when he was in the police, uh, he would do all of

00:20:02.140 his stadium tours and then he toured smaller places with his jazz bands for a while.

00:20:06.420 And, uh, he seemed to like the jazz.

00:20:07.940 So I liked the jazz and that was number one is it liberated me to do more of the core philosophy,

00:20:12.980 uh, like the nature of reality, metaphysics, the nature of knowledge, epistemology, and

00:20:17.120 so on, which I've always really loved.

00:20:18.300 And which, which is going to have the longest lasting effect because I was thinking of people

00:20:22.980 like Mark Twain and Mark Twain had for decades, the newspaper column, nobody gives the rats

00:20:28.460 behind about his newspaper column anymore.

00:20:31.100 Cause he, but, but that's what people wanted in the time.

00:20:33.300 And, but because he focused so much in the here and now, he had much less to offer the

00:20:37.300 future because all of those events have come and gone.

00:20:39.240 So I was liberated from the sort of hamster wheel of the here and now, which has great

00:20:43.400 effect in the present, but almost no effect in the future to doing more core philosophy,

00:20:47.260 which has, uh, you know, less effect in the present, but much greater effect in the future.

00:20:52.780 I mean, Plato, uh, the philosopher, uh, ran for office in, in Syracuse and, uh, was, uh,

00:20:58.860 ended up being sold into slavery because that's what happens when philosophers get into

00:21:02.540 politics.

00:21:03.540 He was going to be a slave for the rest of his life, except for one of the people out 0.93

00:21:06.540 there buying slaves happened to be one of his former students who paid 400 drachma to

00:21:10.540 liberate him and then returned him back to his life of philosophy.

00:21:13.480 So politics is a bit of a, a bit of a filthy game and snow white and pure, you see.

00:21:19.660 But anyway, so, so I was liberated from that, got to do more core philosophy.

00:21:23.100 That was number one.

00:21:24.100 And number two was, um, you know, I was, I was knocked out of the way of an oncoming

00:21:28.760 bus because a lot of people have hit pretty ugly ends, uh, who've been involved in politics

00:21:34.760 throughout history.

00:21:35.760 And of course we've seen that much more.

00:21:37.760 So, uh, I think the de-platforming, uh, liberated me to do the jazz.

00:21:41.760 I love, which has a greater effect in the future.

00:21:43.760 And also it, uh, uh, got me out of the way of oncoming bullets and other, uh, social and

00:21:50.760 political and legal repercussions or whatever has been happening to people.

00:21:53.760 So, uh, I, I really do.

00:21:55.760 I don't know if this sounds odd.

00:21:56.760 I absolutely kiss the hem of the garment of the people who canceled me.

00:22:00.760 It was a liberation and a reminder, almost if the gods of the future were reaching back

00:22:05.760 in time, they'd say, Steph, lots of people can do politics.

00:22:08.760 Not so many people can do metaphysics and epistemology.

00:22:11.760 Do your thing, do the thing that's going to help us the most in the future.

00:22:14.760 Not the thing that changes people the most in the present, because of course, interfering

00:22:19.760 with power 50 years after I'm dead, they're not going to bury me.

00:22:22.760 They're not going to dig me up and do it again.

00:22:24.760 Right.

00:22:25.760 But if you interfere with the, you know, come not between the dragon and his wrath is that

00:22:29.760 line from King Lear.

00:22:30.760 If you come between political people and their goals, they have a lot more power to affect

00:22:35.760 you than you have to affect them.

00:22:36.760 But if you really work on core philosophy and morality, that really changes the future.

00:22:42.760 So it was a big plus and I'm enormously thankful for it.

00:22:45.760 Scott, same way.

00:22:46.760 I believe he felt liberated and he felt he had the creativity shackles taken off of him.

00:22:56.760 He didn't have to answer to the publishers of the papers anymore.

00:23:01.760 And I think he had like a breath of fresh air once he realized, wait a minute.

00:23:07.760 I mean, it was, I think it was, um, who came to his house that day?

00:23:11.760 They, they went, oh, it was Joel Pollack went to Scott's house the same day Scott got canceled

00:23:16.760 and was hesitant.

00:23:17.760 Should I go?

00:23:18.760 Like, is he going to be upset?

00:23:19.760 You know, what do I do?

00:23:20.760 And he's like, no, we're going, we're his friend.

00:23:22.760 We're going to show up.

00:23:23.760 And Scott just said to him, like, I'm good.

00:23:25.760 I'm okay.

00:23:26.760 Like, this is all good.

00:23:28.760 I will say your cancellation Stefan came when canceling became like the new thing.

00:23:34.760 And it was like trying to behead somebody, you know, we're going to de-bank you, de-platform

00:23:39.760 you, make you, you know, disappear from the world.

00:23:42.760 Um, and then I think by the time it got to Scott, he just realized like, oh, I'm just

00:23:48.760 going to be even more free than I already was.

00:23:51.760 And I'm just going to relish it and run with it.

00:23:53.760 I love that.

00:23:54.760 Marcel, I think you had a question too.

00:23:56.760 Stefan, go ahead.

00:23:57.760 I just want to mention very briefly that maybe there was a bit of a trade.

00:24:00.760 So maybe watching me be de-platformed and still have a great time gave Scott less fear

00:24:05.760 of de-platforming, watching him die and, and be courageous with it.

00:24:08.760 So obviously, uh, uh, I get the much better end of the deal, but, uh, maybe there was

00:24:13.760 that bit of a, if you will.

00:24:16.760 It's an honor Stefan to talk to you.

00:24:20.760 Um, I'm an Ayn Rand objectivist.

00:24:23.760 So that's, that's where I come from.

00:24:26.760 Um, and you're a great philosopher.

00:24:29.760 Um, and I wanted to know who was your favorite philosopher and why.

00:24:33.760 Oh, Ayn Rand.

00:24:34.760 Yeah.

00:24:35.760 Oh yeah.

00:24:36.760 Oh my gosh.

00:24:37.760 Let me to Aristotle.

00:24:38.760 Do you want me to be in love with you?

00:24:40.760 That's a great answer.

00:24:41.760 The fountainhead for like the fourth time at the moment, because I get something new from

00:24:44.760 it every time I read it.

00:24:46.760 So, oh yeah, no.

00:24:47.760 Um, Ayn Rand without a doubt was the one, you know, it's funny that there's a, the woman 1.00

00:24:54.760 who taught Helen Keller after she taught Helen Keller, who was of course, blind, deaf and,

00:24:59.760 and mute.

00:25:00.760 And she taught her language, tracing things on her hands, a great movie about this.

00:25:04.760 And people asked Helen Keller, like, what was it like before you had language?

00:25:09.760 And she said, you know, just a chaos of sensations and blurs and static.

00:25:13.760 There was everything with scraps and colors and thoughts.

00:25:16.760 And it was all, and for me, prior to philosophy, I mean, that was me.

00:25:22.760 I mean, morally speaking, I, I couldn't fully accept the religious training that I got quite 1.00

00:25:28.760 intensively, uh, growing up because I could very much see that religion, uh, Christianity

00:25:33.760 was not in the position to stop the evils that were accumulating in the world.

00:25:39.760 And so I had to look for something else.

00:25:41.760 And a friend of mine was really into the band Rush.

00:25:43.760 The drummer from the band Rush was really into Ayn Rand.

00:25:46.760 And he's like, Hey man, you should read this book.

00:25:48.760 And I just had this vague sense of like, ah, some sort of science fiction, you know, woman, 0.54

00:25:53.760 a woman who wrote science fiction.

00:25:54.760 So that was sort of unusual because he handed me Atlas Shrugged.

00:25:57.760 Uh, but, uh, I thought, well, that's, that's a bit of a doorstop.

00:26:00.760 Maybe I'll, maybe I'll try ordering a slightly smaller meal first.

00:26:04.760 And yeah, I, I read, um, I read the Fountainhead and it just, I mean, it just hit me like an absolute

00:26:10.760 ton of bricks.

00:26:11.760 Then of course I plowed into Atlas Shrugged, uh, We the Living night of January 16th and,

00:26:15.760 uh, Anthem and all of her nonfiction work.

00:26:19.760 And, and I was just like, uh, voracious, voracious.

00:26:21.760 And the, the world came into focus.

00:26:24.760 The, the, my mind, which had been spinning in a void hit the ground and had traction because

00:26:30.760 connecting the mind to reality is foundational for productivity.

00:26:34.760 Your mind is there to change things in the world.

00:26:37.760 It is not there to amuse itself.

00:26:39.760 It is not there to preen itself or to show off to itself or to languish in its own inner

00:26:44.760 sensations.

00:26:45.760 Those are fine in, in emergencies, but you've got to actually get out there and do things

00:26:49.760 in the world.

00:26:50.760 But you have to know that what you're doing in the world is good, not exactly.

00:26:55.760 Right.

00:26:56.760 Seems right.

00:26:57.760 Uh, it has approval.

00:26:58.760 Heaven help you.

00:26:59.760 If you have approval these days, right.

00:27:01.760 The purpose is to actually do things in the world, but in order to have confidence and

00:27:06.760 not be a psychopath, psychopaths have constant kind of confidence.

00:27:09.760 So that's have confidence because they're narcissists and nobody else exists for them.

00:27:12.760 So there's nobody to oppose them.

00:27:14.760 But if you have a conscience, you don't want it to tell you after the fact that you've

00:27:19.760 done wrong, you need to know ahead of time with reasonable assurances that what you're

00:27:22.760 going to do is going to be good in the world and through objectivism.

00:27:25.760 And then, you know, to some degree, uh, spiced up with the Aristotelianism because

00:27:30.760 Ayn Rand, of course, was a huge fan of, of Aristotle.

00:27:32.760 She named the three books in Atlas Shrugged after the three laws of logic.

00:27:36.760 So, uh, it gave me attraction in the world.

00:27:39.760 It gave me a clarifying way to organize my thoughts and to look for contradictions and

00:27:45.760 inconsistencies.

00:27:46.760 And it gave me reasonable assurances.

00:27:48.760 It can never be a hundred percent, but reasonable assurances that what I was saying, what I was

00:27:53.760 doing in the world would actually be good rather than blindfoldly throwing a ball and

00:27:59.760 hoping you hit a target.

00:28:00.760 You may, but it's purely accidental and you can't reproduce it.

00:28:03.760 So she gave me some reproducible skill in predicting the fact, the moral effects of my

00:28:07.760 actions.

00:28:08.760 And then sadly, it took me an embarrassingly long time to actually bring the philosophy

00:28:12.760 into every one of my personal relationships.

00:28:14.760 And after that, uh, it was, it was good because, you know, there's the world, right?

00:28:18.760 And there's the people you grew up with and the people you're friends with in high school

00:28:21.760 and your family.

00:28:22.760 And, you know, not, not many of them come along that journey of reason and virtue and

00:28:26.760 integrity.

00:28:27.760 So it's funny that you pick and ran because she was mostly canceled the whole, her entire

00:28:34.760 life because she's still not considered like a sophisticated philosopher in a philosophy,

00:28:41.760 uh, in universities.

00:28:43.760 You know, when I would bring her up in my philosophy classes, the, the, the professor would be like,

00:28:48.760 Oh no.

00:28:49.760 So you, you, it goes back to the theme of being canceled and being in this row kind of sense

00:28:57.760 where you are like outside of society in a way.

00:29:01.760 And that kind of brings in like Scott being canceled, you being canceled and feeling that.

00:29:06.760 Um, it's just interesting to me.

00:29:08.760 Well, of course, uh, academia has as its pinnacle, Michelle Foucault.

00:29:13.760 Yes. 0.89

00:29:14.760 And now Michelle Foucault, the most skin crawlingly repulsive.

00:29:18.760 Like if Ayn Rand would write him as a villain, people would say, Oh, come on.

00:29:21.760 I mean, Ellsworth too.

00:29:22.760 He was bad enough.

00:29:23.760 Michelle Foucault.

00:29:24.760 I mean, he was a completely void of any virtue.

00:29:29.760 Absolutely. 0.97

00:29:30.760 Hedonistically narcissistic, a disease spreader, drug addict, BDSM fetishist, uh, whose, uh,

00:29:39.760 the accusations, I won't even get into them here, but, but even the things that aren't 0.97

00:29:43.760 accusations and are validated is that he was one of the most skin crawlingly repulsive 1.00

00:29:47.760 human beings to crawl the face of God's green earth.

00:29:50.760 And he is the most cited thinker.

00:29:53.760 And, and, and, uh, it's, it's wild.

00:29:55.760 It's wild because all the French intellectuals who wanted to lower the age of consent to 0.83

00:29:59.760 about four minutes after birth, I mean, just absolutely repulsive human beings.

00:30:03.760 And these are the people and you can't have both.

00:30:05.760 You can't have both.

00:30:07.760 You can't just go north and south at the same time.

00:30:10.760 No problem. 0.98

00:30:11.760 You can't have these absolutely repulsive, hideous human beings at the pinnacle of your 0.97

00:30:16.760 moral and intellectual edifices. 0.82

00:30:18.760 And then also bring in that smoky voice Russian goddess of reason known as Ayn Rand and have 1.00

00:30:23.760 not duke it out to the death.

00:30:26.760 Oh my gosh.

00:30:28.760 I, I, uh, you know, I also see a parallel with you and Scott just being sort of very rationally

00:30:34.760 focused in terms of, you know, you think of yourselves as very rational people and maybe

00:30:37.760 more rational than average.

00:30:39.760 Um, and Scott seemed to go in this other direction with hypnotism and persuasion and essentially

00:30:46.760 coming to the conclusion that people are not rational 90% of the time.

00:30:50.760 And that includes him and you and me and everybody.

00:30:54.760 Um, and so he seemed to move in this other direction of kind of trying to appeal more emotionally

00:30:59.760 or, you know, with visual language and different things.

00:31:02.760 Um, and I, I guess my perception of you is that you went the other direction in terms

00:31:07.760 of sticking to the rational side.

00:31:09.760 Um, I don't know if that's true or not, but I wanted to see what you had to say about

00:31:12.760 that and like maybe how you approach persuasion.

00:31:14.760 Yeah.

00:31:15.760 Well, Scott bugged the ever living crap out of me about that really did.

00:31:20.760 He really did because here I was with all the, my lovely crystalline syllogistical theories 0.54

00:31:25.760 that are all written out and validated and, and, and logic treed and all that kind of stuff.

00:31:29.760 And, uh, Scott was out there communicating with people in a sort of very effective, uh, metaphorical

00:31:35.760 and, and florid language and understanding persuasion.

00:31:38.760 And he, he bugged the living crap out of me as usual because he was kind of right.

00:31:43.760 I mean, it's all very well to have these, these big theories, but if you can't get them out

00:31:48.760 there into the world, again, that's sort of the mind that's spinning, but not hitting the

00:31:52.760 tarmac and getting somewhere.

00:31:54.760 So in, uh, watching Scott, of course, uh, emotional persuasion, uh, analogies, and also, you know,

00:32:02.760 you kind of have to be a reasonable and happy person in order to sell, uh, you know, the,

00:32:07.760 the classical Socratic formula, no reason equals virtue equals happiness.

00:32:11.760 I think that comes out of Ayn Rand as well.

00:32:13.760 And so, yeah, he, he bugged me cause I'm like, Oh, who cares about hypnotism?

00:32:18.760 I'm right.

00:32:19.760 Who cares about convincing people?

00:32:21.760 I, I don't have to do anything, but be right.

00:32:23.760 And it's like, you kind of do though.

00:32:25.760 You kind of do it.

00:32:27.760 It's because I was in marketing as well.

00:32:29.760 So I originally built software products and then I ended up out in the world selling them.

00:32:33.760 And it took me an embarrassingly large amount of time to say, huh, great software products,

00:32:37.760 no marketing.

00:32:38.760 What happens to those exactly?

00:32:41.760 Right.

00:32:42.760 So yes, he was very, very keen in his analysis.

00:32:45.760 Sorry, keen.

00:32:46.760 I mean, sort of razor sharp in his analysis of persuasion.

00:32:49.760 And, uh, I came, you know, he predicted Trump's win as did I, but he came from it from a persuasion

00:32:54.760 standpoint and I came from it from another direction.

00:32:57.760 And of course, without the persuasion, without the ability to engagingly and enjoyably communicate

00:33:02.760 to people, it's like, you can write the greatest song, but if you only play it in your own toilet,

00:33:07.760 it ain't getting to number one.

00:33:09.760 What, what, um, direction did you come from with Trump?

00:33:14.760 Oh, I mean, I just knew that the American population was desperate to have borders and to have less

00:33:20.760 immigration.

00:33:21.760 And that when you are in academia and you're in the media, you are in a tidal wave that

00:33:29.760 feels like it's not moving because it's moving so rapidly.

00:33:31.760 You're in it.

00:33:32.760 Like, you know, you think of a little plankton in a tidal wave.

00:33:34.760 Do they even really know that there's a tidal wave until it hits, right?

00:33:36.760 A tsunami.

00:33:37.760 And so, um, because Scott and I didn't come out of academia, uh, I mean, I did a graduate

00:33:43.760 degree, but, um, I didn't stay in academia.

00:33:46.760 We, we could see from the outside, the tsunami of the, the, the woke stuff, the left wing stuff,

00:33:52.760 the, the really centralized planning stuff, the, um, and anti white stuff and all of that.

00:33:57.760 We could see all of that being outside.

00:33:59.760 And the view from inside was like, you know, it's like the fish, you know, the old thing.

00:34:03.760 Well, water, what water, you know, this lukewarm, you can't feel it.

00:34:06.760 And so we could see a momentum and a direction and a fear in the general population that we

00:34:10.760 shared, I think, uh, because we were outside the, the sort of bubble and, but we were seeing

00:34:16.760 the direction of momentum.

00:34:17.760 So we could see that the Trump was standing before that saying, you know, like Gandalf on

00:34:21.760 the bridge, like it shall not pass.

00:34:23.760 And so we could see that, I think, I don't speak for Scott, but I could certainly see that

00:34:27.760 mechanism and people in the media and people in politics and people in the arts.

00:34:32.760 I mean, and in academia, they couldn't because they didn't understand what it was like from

00:34:36.760 outside the tsunami, so to speak.

00:34:38.760 So I, I I'm the one on here.

00:34:41.760 That's the, everybody knows.

00:34:42.760 It's always like, please help me stay calm.

00:34:44.760 I worry about the world as most people do.

00:34:47.760 And, you know, Scott would always talk about, you know, don't worry about these things.

00:34:52.760 You know, it's a slow moving disaster.

00:34:55.760 And we're very good at seeing the disaster ahead of us and being able to pivot personally

00:35:02.760 with the things I'm seeing, like, especially after watching the amazing speech that Rubio

00:35:09.760 gave and the disastrous responses from people like AOC.

00:35:14.760 Um, I feel like we aren't slowing the ship fast enough, especially when we have politicians

00:35:23.760 who are in another country, trashing the country they're supposed to represent. 0.99

00:35:27.760 Same with the, some of the Olympians.

00:35:29.760 Um, and it's become like the thing to be doing.

00:35:33.760 So how help me and the people on here like me who worry, uh, I'm like an Italian grandmother.

00:35:40.760 So what, what do we do collectively?

00:35:44.760 Like, what can you prescribe to us to help us stop this ship from hitting the iceberg?

00:35:52.760 That looks like we're going to, to me, it looks like, you know, we lost borders for a long time.

00:35:58.760 It's going to take a very long time to remove these people.

00:36:03.760 Um, you know, when, uh, when bad people leave one country and come to another country, they're

00:36:09.760 still bad people.

00:36:10.760 So now we're being overrun with gangs from all over the place.

00:36:15.760 And well, we know, we know what's happening.

00:36:17.760 So what do we do?

00:36:18.760 Because I am very worried, Stefan.

00:36:20.760 I'm very worried about our country and I'm worried about the world because how many times

00:36:25.760 do people say like, I'll just leave.

00:36:27.760 I'll just move.

00:36:28.760 Really?

00:36:29.760 Where are you going?

00:36:30.760 Like, where are you going?

00:36:31.760 So what do we do?

00:36:32.760 Right.

00:36:34.760 Well, I mean, for over 20 years, I've been talking about parenting and I know that parenting

00:36:40.760 is a slow, it's a slow process, right?

00:36:42.760 Obviously.

00:36:43.760 Uh, I think most of us here, uh, well, we would all understand that.

00:36:47.760 So I, uh, peaceful parenting.com is a free book on the philosophy of parenting.

00:36:52.760 Uh, and that has produced, of course, now I've been talking about it for over 20 years.

00:36:56.760 So some of the people I talked about very early on, their children are now adults.

00:36:59.760 My daughter is going to be 18 this year.

00:37:01.760 So to, to raise children in a peaceful, negotiated and rational fashion, it makes them completely

00:37:07.960 immune to political temptations because politics is about forcing people to do stuff.

00:37:11.960 And if you raise children with reason, uh, with evidence and with negotiation, then they

00:37:16.960 don't have the urge to force people to do stuff.

00:37:18.960 And they are kind of immune to other people, forcing them to try to do stuff as a whole.

00:37:22.960 So there's a whole mindset thing that you can do about that.

00:37:25.960 I do understand it's, you know, perhaps a little late in the game, you know, plant a tree,

00:37:29.960 uh, because you're looking for some shade that afternoon is not necessarily the best approach,

00:37:33.960 but I would certainly keep, keep focusing on that.

00:37:36.960 And even people who have teenage children can change their parenting approaches.

00:37:39.960 So the philosophy of parenting is, is one of the things that I've really worked hard

00:37:44.960 to add as value as a thinker, because philosophers have talked about everything under the sun,

00:37:51.960 except, you know, the most moral mission that every human being is ever involved in, which

00:37:55.960 is raising children.

00:37:56.960 That's the most moral thing.

00:37:57.960 And I think philosophers have been, well, a lot of them are, I wouldn't say, but a lot of them

00:38:02.960 were, uh, not, uh, not, not overly blessed with the ability to charm women and, and so on.

00:38:09.960 And so they ended up a lot of them single, a lot of them isolated.

00:38:12.960 So they didn't really talk that much about parenting, which I think was a real shame

00:38:16.960 because that could have changed the world quite a bit.

00:38:18.960 Mm-hmm .

00:38:19.960 So you, to me.

00:38:20.960 Well, it may not have been as much of a problem back then, because back then when the

00:38:23.960 Fertility Raid died.

00:38:24.960 ...brought to life in your personal relationships, which means if people are, you know, super pro-political

00:38:29.960 and want you thrown in prison for like they, they, well, we should have hate speech laws. 0.99

00:38:33.960 Okay.

00:38:34.960 Well then you want to throw people in prison for legal speech or for speech that is not incitement

00:38:39.960 to violence or, you know, that kind of stuff.

00:38:40.960 It's not direct threats.

00:38:42.960 And so recognize that when people want to use the power of the state against you, they're

00:38:46.960 kind of enemies.

00:38:47.960 Now you can take some time to alert them to this, to wake them up to this.

00:38:50.960 Cause you know, it's like, you don't want to wake someone up by going, you want to wake

00:38:54.960 someone up a little gently, you know, stroke their arm a little, wake them up.

00:38:57.960 But at some point they do have a responsibility to wake up and people who are addicted to using

00:39:01.960 the power of the state to get their way, uh, will, will tear apart the world and you're

00:39:06.960 going to end up in a gulag.

00:39:08.960 So if they get their way, so you have to really have that line after a certain amount

00:39:12.960 of communication and moral instruction, you have to have that line where you say, no, no,

00:39:15.960 no, no, no, this is, this is not real.

00:39:17.960 This is not virtuous.

00:39:18.960 This is not good.

00:39:19.960 Uh, I call it the against me argument.

00:39:21.960 Like you support the use of violence against me, against me.

00:39:24.960 And you got to wake people up to that.

00:39:26.960 Now, if they're like, oh my gosh, I I'm against violence.

00:39:28.960 I'm so sorry.

00:39:29.960 You're right.

00:39:30.960 You're right.

00:39:31.960 You're right.

00:39:32.960 You're right.

00:39:33.960 But if they're like, well, yes I do.

00:39:34.960 And I'm happy about it.

00:39:35.960 It's like, okay, you know, like, uh, hit the eject button and, and get out.

00:39:37.960 I mean, the left is very good at this and we need to learn from the left.

00:39:40.960 Cause they do this very well.

00:39:41.960 They are intolerant of people who disagree with their views.

00:39:44.960 I wouldn't say that I would say I would be, I mean, I am intolerant of people who want to use violence against me for peaceful speech and peaceful actions.

00:39:51.960 So you got to bring these things to life in your actual relationships.

00:39:56.960 And then the plus of that, and you know, what is the opposite of worry, uh, is not comfort.

00:40:01.960 It's love.

00:40:02.960 Because if you have adversity and you have people you love and who love you, then the adversity, which is inevitable in life, diminishes enormously.

00:40:10.960 Right.

00:40:11.960 I mean, whenever you have to move, uh, you don't do it alone.

00:40:13.960 Right.

00:40:14.960 You don't try and get some giant couch down a spiral staircase with someone yelling pivot at you.

00:40:18.960 You, you, you hire people because you know, heavy loads, uh, is only lightened with good companions.

00:40:23.960 And if you live, you know, with that kind of virtue, with that kind of integrity, with that kind of directness, and you shave off the bad people from around you.

00:40:33.960 Cause you know, bad, corrupt people act as a moat to keep the good people away.

00:40:36.960 You end up sealed in this chamber of, uh, malintent.

00:40:40.960 And so if you have love, which is only possible through virtue, love is our response to virtue, uh, and nothing else.

00:40:48.960 If you have that and you have love, you know, then you can bear almost anything with grace and the inevitable negatives that occur in life, either politically or personally or health wise or whatever.

00:41:00.960 You have someone in your corner who genuinely loves you.

00:41:03.960 You genuinely love them.

00:41:04.960 You have people in your life where you have this, you know, shared strength of, you know, co co mingled affections.

00:41:13.960 That's about as good as you can get.

00:41:15.960 You know, yes, you can talk to people about politics and, and for sure, I still do that from time to time.

00:41:21.960 But if you aim at virtue, then you have the capacity to love and be loved in a very deep and meaningful way and permanent way.

00:41:28.960 I say, this is a man who's been married for 20.

00:41:32.960 Oh, I should know this.

00:41:33.960 No, I'm a man.

00:41:34.960 I don't need to know this.

00:41:35.960 23 years or something like that.

00:41:37.960 So if you have that, then you reduce your worry and also your values have a purpose and reward.

00:41:47.960 Because one of the things that Scott was, was talking about was, you know, it's difficult to be honest.

00:41:52.960 It's difficult, but there's rewards on the other side of it as a good conscience and better relationships.

00:41:57.960 And so we as individuals, we can't just go out there and, and, and change the world in the way that we want.

00:42:06.960 Which is good because if we could do that, evil people could do it and they have often a higher incentive.

00:42:11.960 So it's good that we can't do that, but we can influence people as much as humanly possible in the most positive direction.

00:42:18.960 That's the best chance we have of saving the world.

00:42:21.960 You know, like if you don't want to get lung cancer, don't smoke, you know, you won't get lung cancer.

00:42:26.960 Well, no, but it means that you have a much lower chance.

00:42:29.960 And the more that we enforce and spread virtue in our personal lives, the more we challenge people's anti-rationality and bigotry, the better.

00:42:38.960 And that's really all we can do.

00:42:39.960 And I will say this, sorry, just to close off.

00:42:41.960 Because I was kind of out in the wilderness for like a half decade.

00:42:44.960 When I came back, my, my ex account got reinstated.

00:42:48.960 When I came back to social media, holy crapola, it was a completely different planet.

00:42:54.960 Stuff was absolutely appalling, shocking, you know, people's heads would explode.

00:43:02.960 It's like, it's common discourse now.

00:43:04.960 I mean, it's, it's wild.

00:43:07.960 It's wild.

00:43:08.960 See, all I had to do was leave and everything.

00:43:10.960 I just had to step out of the room and everybody knows how to cha cha cha. 0.78

00:43:15.960 And so the, the, the, if you see this change slowly, you don't notice it as much.

00:43:20.960 You know, like if your friend has lost 50 pounds, they lost it over time and it's a little bit, but then if you haven't seen them for a while and you see them, it's like, oh my God, this is crazy different.

00:43:29.960 And discourse that is going on now.

00:43:32.960 I mean, people are routinely chatting about topics that I would have been like shaky hand typing, you know, six years ago.

00:43:39.960 And like you said, the Rubio speeches are anti-white racism, like IQ, voluntary family relations, even with parents.

00:43:47.960 Like all of this stuff is, is, is talked about, like, it ain't no thing.

00:43:50.960 And it's like, it kind of was, I think.

00:43:53.960 Yes, it was.

00:43:54.960 You know, this is like a Galileo coming forward 400 years.

00:43:57.960 I'm like, oh, everyone, I should do a bad Italian. 1.00

00:44:00.960 I don't everybody does.

00:44:01.960 So say that, that, that everybody doesn't say that the earth goes around the sun and everybody knows that.

00:44:06.960 And it's like, yeah, everybody accepts that.

00:44:08.960 It's like, I got the tortured for, you know, like, this is wild.

00:44:12.960 What has changed?

00:44:13.960 And that level of progress has never before been achieved in human history where the Overton window is like a bullet train these days.

00:44:21.960 And that's incredible because, you know, this is an old Marxist saying, like, there, there are decades when nothing happens.

00:44:27.960 And then there are weeks when decades happen.

00:44:29.960 And that this last couple of years have just been, you know, felt like you feel like one of these.

00:44:36.960 Yes.

00:44:37.960 These astronauts going through gravity by being whipped around like your skin is peeling back from your eyeballs.

00:44:42.960 And it's like, things have changed so much.

00:44:45.960 All I had to do was leave and everyone becomes perfect at that truth.

00:44:49.960 It's incredible.

00:44:50.960 How do you look at the fertility crisis?

00:44:52.960 Because that's still a huge problem in the U.S.

00:44:54.960 I haven't seen much of a turnaround here.

00:44:56.960 And it's even worse in many other countries around the world.

00:44:58.960 What do you think needs to still change to get people to want to have more kids?

00:45:03.960 Well, there's very complicated, sophisticated answers.

00:45:09.960 But what I would say, oh, we get timing.

00:45:12.960 What's the time?

00:45:13.960 Oh, no.

00:45:14.960 We got a little bit of time.

00:45:15.960 No, I'm saying the phones have to go away for families to grow, I think, all the doom scrolling.

00:45:21.960 Yeah.

00:45:22.960 So whatever the problem is in society, the solution is always less violence, less initiation of the use of force.

00:45:29.960 So, of course, the domestic population is being taxed to subsidize the non-domestic population to have a lot of kids.

00:45:37.960 This is happening all across the West.

00:45:38.960 It really is one of the most sinister things that I've ever seen because I'm old enough to remember when all of the Western women were said, you can't have children.

00:45:48.960 That the planet, you can't have children.

00:45:50.960 You know, it's ZPG, zero population growth.

00:45:52.960 It's so bad for the environment.

00:45:53.960 It's, you know, it's going to kill the planet.

00:45:55.960 You can't have children.

00:45:56.960 And now it's like, oh, sorry, there aren't enough children.

00:45:58.960 We need to import everyone on the planet. 1.00

00:46:00.960 And it's like, that is a brutal, sinister pivot that's not really being talked about as much as anybody.

00:46:05.960 And also, it's so painful for women to think that they got talked out of having children because it's kind of a satanic lure. 0.57

00:46:11.960 You know, dating and finding yourself and travel is way more fun than getting up for the third time to feed a baby.

00:46:18.960 You know, just do that, you know.

00:46:20.960 So I think that that's a devilish temptation of, you know, a lot of education.

00:46:25.960 Because education is pretty easy.

00:46:27.960 I mean, I was in university.

00:46:28.960 I was kind of shocked at like, what, 10 hours of classes a week?

00:46:31.960 Are you kidding me?

00:46:32.960 What am I supposed to do?

00:46:33.960 I can only get so good at hacky sack, man.

00:46:35.960 So whatever the solution is, it's less violence.

00:46:38.960 We need less coercive transfer of wealth from the productive to the unproductive.

00:46:43.960 Because in the past, smarter people had more kids because smarter people generally made more money.

00:46:47.960 They could afford to have more kids.

00:46:49.960 Smarter people generally had more kids, which, you know, did a good thing to raise the IQ of the world as a whole.

00:46:54.960 Now quite the reverse is happening.

00:46:55.960 Women in particular with more education.

00:46:57.960 Women in particular.

00:46:58.960 And I would say education in very, very loose quotes, right?

00:47:01.960 And so less subsidies for higher education.

00:47:06.960 Women and men both need to be treated equal in the workplace. 1.00

00:47:09.960 No quotas for women.

00:47:10.960 Nothing like that.

00:47:11.960 And then things will begin to change.

00:47:14.960 You need fewer people pouring into the country because then it's going to bring down the price of housing.

00:47:19.960 Because that's how it's supposed to go.

00:47:20.960 You've got a baby boom. 1.00

00:47:21.960 You build all this infrastructure.

00:47:22.960 Then there's fewer babies in the future.

00:47:24.960 We need the price of everything supposed to come down, which encourages people to have more children. 1.00

00:47:28.960 But that's all being buoyed up by a variety of government programs and policies, of which immigration is a key one, to buoy up the value of the boomers' house to give them the illusion that they haven't been robbed blind by Social Security and the decoupling of fiat currency from any hard assets. 0.66

00:47:43.960 So it's all, you know, if you want to know the real price of American currency, just look at it relative to Bitcoin.

00:47:49.960 It's dropped like 99.99% in 15 years.

00:47:53.960 40% of all the currency ever created in America was created over the last couple of years.

00:47:57.960 I mean, there's nothing there but this endless roll of toilet paper with a president's face on it.

00:48:01.960 But you've got to give people the illusion of value.

00:48:03.960 So you've got to artificially stimulate demand for housing, in particular with immigration and things like that, and restricting the building of new housing.

00:48:09.960 So housing prices have to come down.

00:48:11.960 Wages need to increase.

00:48:12.960 They've stagnated since the 1970s, since 71 when Nixon took America off the gold standard.

00:48:18.960 Wages have stagnated.

00:48:19.960 And the American economy, unfortunately, and this is true of most Western economies, it's largely illusion propped up by propaganda, debt and force because you have to use fiat currency to pay your tax bills.

00:48:30.960 So, yeah, the solution to that is less force, less compulsion, less forced income transfers, less forced hiring, less forced student loans.

00:48:41.960 And it would be great, of course, if you could discharge your student loans in bankruptcy.

00:48:44.960 That would be just delightful.

00:48:45.960 And if the universities would be off the hook and then they wouldn't dangle all of this nonsense in front of people to financially enslave them for the rest of their lives in return for having them pay for their own Marxist indoctrination that has them be completely terrible employees.

00:48:58.960 Okay, that's my answer.

00:48:59.960 So would you agree that so I'm on I'm on the kick kind of like the micro kick of forget college, you know, learn a trade, build your family.

00:49:11.960 You know, unless you unless you're going to school for something specific like you want to be a doctor or whatever.

00:49:18.960 But, you know, why come out in debt with a job you're not going to find in whatever it is that you studied?

00:49:24.960 I think to keep this country going, we need trades people now.

00:49:29.960 Everybody wants to be a tick tocker. 1.00

00:49:31.960 Nobody knows how to lay a brick or do electric anymore.

00:49:35.960 I mean, everyone that works on our house and our friends houses are, you know, my age and older.

00:49:40.960 And I'm like, oh, my God, we got to get everything done before we all die, because nobody will be left to fix our air conditioning.

00:49:46.960 You know, so I just feel like and I also feel like maybe if people do focus on a trade, you're younger, maybe you come out of college.

00:49:55.960 I mean, you come out of high school and you take an apprenticeship with a trades person and you learn a skill and a trade that you can take with you for the rest of your life.

00:50:03.960 And you start building your family faster instead of waiting of going through college and coming out in debt and definitely not being able to buy a home is one solution I feel like could happen with the younger generation.

00:50:14.960 I think that's certainly true. And I'm so committed to being a tick tocker that I will learn those cat side Korean tick tock dances. 0.99

00:50:22.960 I will be pretty. Maybe I can charge people to turn it off.

00:50:26.960 I actually would pay to see that in a leotard doing cat side dances. 1.00

00:50:30.960 You know, I could probably do them once. Just once once.

00:50:33.960 Yeah.

00:50:34.960 Sergio could probably make some version for you.

00:50:37.960 No, that's cheating. So the trades. Yeah, I think that's fine.

00:50:42.960 But I think people should very much look into entrepreneurship.

00:50:45.960 You know, generally, our history was entrepreneurship.

00:50:47.960 You say, oh, I'm a Smith in some villages like, yeah, but you still have to go out and sell your services.

00:50:51.960 And so we kind of were petty bourgeois or entrepreneurship.

00:50:55.960 So sit down with friends.

00:50:57.960 Everyone's getting together and it's like, oh, let's play Fortnite.

00:51:00.960 OK, fine. Play some Fortnite.

00:51:01.960 But also sit together and say, hey, if somebody had a gun to our head and we had to make, you know, $10,000 in two months, what would we do?

00:51:08.960 And just put that forward as an absolute.

00:51:12.960 You know, they got elephants over the mountains.

00:51:16.960 Our ancestors survived, you know, entire winters on three sardines.

00:51:21.960 You know, you can do unbelievable things if you make the priority high enough.

00:51:26.960 And of course, a lot of modern society is about distracting you from self-fulfilling and productive priorities.

00:51:32.960 So, yeah, sit down with your friends and say, OK, let's say that your dog was kidnapped and we had to come up with $10,000 ransom in a month.

00:51:40.960 What would we do? And just brainstorm about things and get your skills together, get that jigsaw puzzle together to start being able to make money.

00:51:46.960 Because once you become an entrepreneur, I mean, I've been I had my corporate jobs, but I've been doing entrepreneurship for, I don't know, like 25 years or more.

00:51:55.960 And really, there's no substitute.

00:51:57.960 And so people should be getting together, particularly young people should be getting together with their friends and say, what could we do?

00:52:04.960 Come on, let's let's just let's just whiteboard a blue sky.

00:52:07.960 And no idea is wrong.

00:52:08.960 No idea is too bad, except only fans.

00:52:10.960 So you people should be really sitting there saying rather than going on this kind of silly train track of other people's expectations and on the conveyor belt that society leads you towards, which just goes off a fiscal cliff, you know, jump the tracks and figure out what you can do on your own.

00:52:26.960 I mean, when I was a teenager, I was putting up little little signs in bus stops saying, I'll do your typing for you, because I was a pretty good typist from writing all of that.

00:52:34.960 Just anything to just figure out how you make some money, the opportunities that are available now online to do stuff to make money is is staggering.

00:52:44.960 Yeah, never, ever put a ceiling on your ambitions.

00:52:46.960 It's a kind of vanity to say I can only go so far because you don't know what is lurking in your unconscious that could be incredibly productive.

00:52:53.960 The unconscious mind has been clocked at 8000 times faster than the conscious mind.

00:52:57.960 Unleash all of that by removing any ceiling on your abilities and just figure out what you can do.

00:53:03.960 Because if you're willing to think hard and take risks, you're already ahead of 99% of the people and it's very hard to fail.

00:53:10.960 Yeah, and I, you know, a lot of people are worried about AI taking away all the jobs, but I look at the it also is a huge enabler for entrepreneurship, because to whatever extent it is going to take away people's jobs.

00:53:21.960 It also means as an entrepreneur, you can do a lot more and maybe have a profitable business that wouldn't have been profitable 10 years ago.

00:53:27.960 And there'll always be people, boomers, who really get AI.

00:53:32.960 And my mother was referring to her CD player as a gramophone for for many years.

00:53:36.960 So there will be boomers who were like, don't really get AI don't understand it.

00:53:39.960 And you can just use it to sell stuff to them.

00:53:42.960 I love that gramophone.

00:53:44.960 Go ahead, Marcella.

00:53:45.960 Marcella.

00:53:46.960 I wanted to ask you about your projects coming up in next month.

00:53:51.960 I think you're having a debate at Word War Debate.

00:53:57.960 Word War Debate.

00:53:58.960 Yeah, it's going to be on April the 11th in Atlantic City.

00:54:02.960 I'm taking a risk, but I'm going to go out.

00:54:05.960 I think we're going to be debating the nature of truth and knowledge, which is juicy, juicy, meaty stuff and really, really essential to get that rubber on the road of the mind.

00:54:14.960 So we'll be doing that.

00:54:16.960 I recently was in studio with Sam Hyde and we did a really, I've never been on quite a ride like that.

00:54:25.960 And that man makes Scott look like early me in terms of chaos agent.

00:54:30.960 So, but we did some really, really great, great conversations and great debates.

00:54:34.960 So I think that's coming out shortly.

00:54:37.960 And so, yeah, I'm sort of, I've been a studio band for a while, but I'm sort of back out on the road a little bit because I really, I really do love working with an audience.

00:54:45.960 I love chatting with people.

00:54:46.960 And so we're going to try and do sort of a dinner with people and all of that.

00:54:49.960 So I might have to come to Atlantic City to see you.

00:54:53.960 Oh, I would love to, you know, shake hands and, and swap, swap mine.

00:54:58.960 So I think that would be great.

00:54:59.960 So yes, that's going to be going on Atlantic City.

00:55:01.960 Word War Debate dot com is the place to go.

00:55:03.960 I don't think the tickets quite available yet, but I think they're coming out soon.

00:55:06.960 We'll drop all of that for you after the show in the chat.

00:55:09.960 And I also want to remind people that you can get peaceful parenting.

00:55:13.960 It's a book that's free, right, Stefan?

00:55:16.960 The book is free.

00:55:17.960 And there's also an AI there that's been trained on all my parenting material.

00:55:20.960 If you have specific questions, you can check out the AI.

00:55:23.960 Yeah, it's just peaceful parenting dot com.

00:55:24.960 Who doesn't want all the help they can get peaceful parenting dot com. 1.00

00:55:28.960 And Stefan's website is free domain dot com.

00:55:33.960 We're going to put everything in there.

00:55:35.960 And that's also his Twitter handle is free domain.

00:55:37.960 Or you could put Stefan Molyneux.

00:55:39.960 We'll put everything in there for you guys.

00:55:41.960 And you can go back to his website and look at all the interviews and talks.

00:55:46.960 And it's a great website, Stefan.

00:55:49.960 It's very informative.

00:55:50.960 So you have a locals community, too, right?

00:55:53.960 Free domain dot locals dot com.

00:55:55.960 So we're on locals also.

00:55:56.960 This is where I try to like wrangle you in to commit to commit to all sorts of things.

00:56:01.960 Mm hmm.

00:56:02.960 One, would you come back with us again?

00:56:05.960 Absolutely.

00:56:06.960 I mean, if you guys find it a value for me to chatterbox my way through your hour, I'm

00:56:10.960 very happy to come back.

00:56:11.960 We crave your kind of thinking.

00:56:15.960 And it's so amazing.

00:56:16.960 You might hear my cat with dementia meowing in the background.

00:56:20.960 So we totally.

00:56:21.960 My conscience.

00:56:22.960 I'm very glad that my conscience is meowing at me because that would be tricky.

00:56:25.960 It's just Stella.

00:56:27.960 And also, maybe we could do something on locals like a longer form Q&A where we can actually

00:56:33.960 take questions at Scott's locals.

00:56:37.960 And that would be amazing because there's so many questions happening for you and just

00:56:42.960 not enough time, obviously, today.

00:56:44.960 So I just want to see like, oh, and do you want to wrap up with another question or Marcella?

00:56:50.960 We want to use every minute we have.

00:56:52.960 We have three minutes.

00:56:53.960 Marcella, do you have anything else?

00:56:56.960 Oh, I have all sorts of stuff.

00:57:01.960 I'm just, I am so glad you're here.

00:57:05.960 I adore you.

00:57:07.960 And I wanted to know what your thoughts are on AI.

00:57:14.960 I think that's another realm that I'm not sure how, what your thoughts are on that.

00:57:20.960 Yeah.

00:57:21.960 So AI will replace people who don't think.

00:57:24.960 So we've got to get people to start thinking because AI is just a word guesser.

00:57:27.960 I've done whole presentations and interviews on AI.

00:57:29.960 And as a coder myself for many years, I think I understand the basic principles.

00:57:35.960 So AI turns a computer into an unthinking human being who just repeats slogans and navigates

00:57:42.960 the way through the most common and approved sentence formats.

00:57:46.960 So if you're an NPC, then you can be replaced by AI.

00:57:50.960 So you need to start thinking from first principles creatively and originally, then you can't be replaced if you are just repeating the general propaganda.

00:57:59.960 And I don't mean to criticize or bug anyone about that.

00:58:02.960 That's kind of how we all start.

00:58:03.960 We all start.

00:58:04.960 I did it.

00:58:05.960 And we all start that way.

00:58:06.960 But we're going to kind of bust out of that egg of solipsistic propaganda and get out there and really think in the world.

00:58:12.960 But the best way to protect yourself against the ravages of AI is to start to think from first principles.

00:58:18.960 I've got a whole book called Essential Philosophy at EssentialPhilosophy.com.

00:58:22.960 It's another free book.

00:58:23.960 I've got Art of the Argument, ArtoftheArgument.com to sort of teach people how to think from first principles.

00:58:29.960 And so if you're scared of AI, AI is a wonderful opportunity to stimulate you into breaking out of propaganda because that's all AI is, is just repeating what everyone has said before.

00:58:40.960 As Ayn Rand would say, the social metaphysician, the second-hander, right?

00:58:43.960 Don't be just a reflection of other people's thoughts.

00:58:47.960 And so AI is like the camera.

00:58:50.960 You don't see people painting portraits that much anymore because it doesn't take a picture, right?

00:58:55.960 So AI just reproduces what is.

00:58:57.960 You have to be a more imaginative artist.

00:58:58.960 You have to be able to think for yourself and create for yourself.

00:59:01.960 And then the more that you think and create, the more you can wind into AI itself.

00:59:05.960 I mean, AI has hoovered up all of my books and therefore I've had some adjustment to AI itself.

00:59:10.960 But there is no defense save clarity and originality because everything that is repetitive is going to be automated.

00:59:17.960 Luckily, we have people like Scott.

00:59:20.960 We have hundreds of hours.

00:59:22.960 We have Stefan who's got a treasure trove of information.

00:59:26.960 He will be back.

00:59:28.960 Everybody loves you.

00:59:29.960 They've enjoyed this so much.

00:59:31.960 So have we.

00:59:32.960 I can't thank you enough.

00:59:33.960 I hope you found this enjoyable.

00:59:35.960 And you guys, we will post the show.

00:59:40.960 I'll post it on my X feed.

00:59:42.960 And you guys, in the comments below, I'll make sure I tag Stefan in there.

00:59:47.960 Tell him how much you loved him today, what your favorite things were, and be sure to follow him and subscribe to everything.

00:59:55.960 And we'll be back on again.

00:59:57.960 Everybody said, yes, please make him a repeat guest.

01:00:00.960 So we would love that.

01:00:01.960 And just a final statement.

01:00:02.960 Just big hugs to everyone.

01:00:03.960 I said this before the show, but, you know, we're all dealing with this loss.

01:00:07.960 You guys, much more, of course, than I am being so close to him.

01:00:10.960 And just big virtual hugs to everyone for dealing with this loss.

01:00:14.960 We should all live a life as meaningful as to be mourned by millions.

01:00:18.960 And that is the greatest testament to everything that Scott did.

01:00:21.960 And thank you guys so much for keeping this conversation running.

01:00:25.960 Because for the conversation to die with Scott would be the final nail in the coffin that we don't need.

01:00:30.960 Amen to that.

01:00:31.960 Let's have a closing sip, you guys.

01:00:33.960 Thank you, Shelley, for letting us continue this.

01:00:37.960 And please, a closing sip to Scott.

01:00:39.960 As he always said, be useful.

01:00:41.960 And we love you guys.

01:00:42.960 And we'll see you tomorrow.

01:00:44.960 To Scott.

01:00:45.960 Bye.

01:00:46.960 To Scott.

01:00:48.960 Bye, guys.

01:00:52.960 Bye.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 17, 2026

Episode 3096 - The Scott Adams School 02⧸17⧸26

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