Real Coffee with Scott Adams - Episode 806 Scott Adams： Coming To You From Space Force, Zero Gravity, Coronavirus, Fake News

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Oxygen good.

00:00:44.900 Artificial gravity turned back on.

00:00:49.220 Well, as you can tell, I'm here in the Space Force Command Center, orbiting Earth, geosynchronous orbit.

00:00:58.540 And a lot of you don't know this. Space Force was actually formed decades ago when we found alien technology.

00:01:07.900 We've been using that at Area 54 for a long time.

00:01:13.780 And of course, Space Force has been up and running for decades, but only recently.

00:01:19.880 President Trump decided to try to make it legitimate, so he announced it as if it were just starting.

00:01:26.900 Not really.

00:01:28.060 The truth, and I'm here to tell you, is that many of us have been in Space Force for a long time.

00:01:37.000 I'm actually an admiral. I'm an admiral in Space Force.

00:01:43.060 But all of the people in Space Force had to take secret identities because the public wasn't supposed to know.

00:01:50.940 We have all this alien technology that we've been weaponizing.

00:01:54.600 And so they said to me, you need a cover, some kind of cover story.

00:02:01.120 And I was like, I don't know. Like, what kind of cover story?

00:02:03.980 And they said, anything you want.

00:02:06.000 And I said, well, what if it's some kind of job where I'm not even qualified?

00:02:10.780 And they said, doesn't matter.

00:02:12.920 You could be totally unqualified.

00:02:16.260 Totally, oh, you're thinking of Area 51?

00:02:18.380 No, Area 54 is where they keep the good stuff.

00:02:22.320 Area 51 is where they tell you the good stuff is.

00:02:27.340 But if you were actually going to storm that area, once you got inside, you'd see just cardboard cutouts and stuff.

00:02:35.160 And you'd be like, I swore. I thought there were aliens here.

00:02:38.660 No, it's Area 54 is where the real stuff is.

00:02:42.720 51 is just a diversion.

00:02:46.080 So I've been in Space Force for years.

00:02:48.380 My cover story is a cartoonist.

00:02:51.500 Weirdly enough, the fact that I can't draw very well didn't tip off anybody, that it was just a cover story.

00:02:59.540 But now you know.

00:03:01.680 So I thought I'd take a few questions later after I talk about some of the news up here in space.

00:03:09.620 And there isn't much news, probably because it's the Super Bowl day.

00:03:14.760 But I'll tell you what we got.

00:03:16.240 I am absolutely amazed that CNN continues to do something that you would think just couldn't be done, which is to completely make up news based on taking a quote and a context,

00:03:32.360 even when the rest of the context is publicly available and everybody's seen it.

00:03:38.520 It's the weirdest thing that they can get away with it.

00:03:40.680 They are no longer just reporting news that isn't true in some cases.

00:03:45.260 Instead, they've started conjuring reality out of nothing.

00:03:50.760 So in the case of Alan Dershowitz's testimony, they continue to take that one sentence out of context where he was talking about a specific example with Lincoln

00:04:02.700 to act as though he's generalizing that to Trump, which is not what he was doing.

00:04:08.360 He was making, I'm not going to go over the arguments, but let's just say that they completely make a fake argument for Dershowitz.

00:04:15.000 And then C.C. Cupp, in writing on CNN.com today, this must be maddening for Dershowitz.

00:04:26.600 I can imagine what he's thinking.

00:04:29.160 Imagine seeing that your opinion, the one that you argued so well in front of the world, has been mischaracterized.

00:04:38.020 And then after they mischaracterize it, this is so clever and despicable, it's just funny.

00:04:48.580 First, they mischaracterize him, and that's only stage one.

00:04:52.700 After they've mischaracterized it into something that's ridiculous, then they say, the majority of experts say his argument was ridiculous.

00:05:01.580 And you know what? The majority of experts would say that the argument that they mischaracterized is ridiculous, at least the mischaracterization is ridiculous, but not his actual argument.

00:05:17.720 To the best of my knowledge, nobody in the world has actually argued with him.

00:05:24.420 Well, I can see in the comments that there's something you're missing.

00:05:27.040 Doesn't it bother you? Doesn't it bother you? Your addiction is now so deep that you need the simultaneous sip, and all you need for that is a cup or a mug or a glass of tank or chalice or stein, a canteen, a jug or flask, a vessel of any kind.

00:05:42.420 Fill it with your favorite liquid.

00:05:44.500 I like coffee.

00:05:45.840 And join me now for the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better, the simultaneous sip.

00:05:53.140 Go.

00:05:57.040 Oh, yeah.

00:05:59.340 And all you need is an S.E. cup, as somebody said in the comments.

00:06:05.420 So, what did I call her?

00:06:07.460 C.C. cup?

00:06:09.520 I think I called her a C.C. cup, not S.C. cup, which is funnier.

00:06:15.940 Much funnier.

00:06:16.660 All right.

00:06:18.460 So, what does it mean when CNN can make news and the stuff that you could just look, anybody can look, and see it's made up?

00:06:30.220 All you'd have to do is listen to Dershowitz explain how they're mischaracterizing his opinion.

00:06:36.420 You could look at what he said originally.

00:06:39.560 It's easy to, it's so easy to know that it's completely made up, just like the Charlottesville Fine People thing.

00:06:47.740 But, man, this morning I got into it with somebody who alleges to be an MIT professor.

00:06:51.880 Now, this is interesting because I don't think you can be an MIT professor unless you're pretty, pretty smart, wouldn't you say?

00:07:01.280 Okay.

00:07:02.860 And so, this professor apparently has never watched any, I'm just guessing, never watched any news source other than the ones that present the fake news.

00:07:15.800 So, at first, this professor thought, oh, this quote from Dershowitz is actually accurate, but it's taken out of context.

00:07:22.840 It had to do with one example about Lincoln.

00:07:24.700 It was not a general comment.

00:07:25.920 And so, and he was, so I argued with him a little bit because I was curious, how could somebody that smart be so easily fooled?

00:07:38.020 And it turns out that it's really obvious in the context that he'd never heard the other arguments.

00:07:46.900 Think about that.

00:07:48.040 Imagine, imagine if you were watching this whole, you know, impeachment stuff, or even just the whole Trump administration.

00:07:56.500 Imagine if you had never seen the alternative arguments.

00:08:00.820 You'd only watch CNN.

00:08:03.460 You'd probably think it was true, right?

00:08:05.860 You'd probably think that the way they characterize Trump and his comments and stuff is actually accurate.

00:08:11.120 So, I felt sorry for him.

00:08:12.160 All right, there's a rumor that, a continuing rumor, that, this is a new one, instead of Hillary saying that she wants to be president, the rumor is, speculation really, more than rumor, that she would potentially agree to be Hillary's vice president.

00:08:31.940 I'm sorry, that Hillary would agree to be Biden's vice president. 0.97

00:08:35.500 Now, I'm going to say not.

00:08:42.020 Now, here's the thinking, and then I'll tell you why it's cray-cray.

00:08:46.960 The thinking is that Hillary so wants to be Trump that she would take the vice president position and then bring the entire Clinton machine to bear, and that would be enough, you know, Biden plus Hillary Clinton. 0.98

00:09:02.420 And maybe it would.

00:09:03.500 And I'm not even saying that wouldn't be a strong package.

00:09:07.280 It would probably be a pretty strong package.

00:09:09.820 And people, and the speculation goes that she might want to do that because being the first woman who's vice president is still breaking a barrier, so she would own that. 0.99

00:09:24.300 Here's what I think.

00:09:26.340 And she's already said that she's not going to run for president.

00:09:29.400 I don't think she would say that directly, unless she meant it.

00:09:33.500 And, of course, the play would be that she wouldn't bother running for vice president unless she thought she could run the show from there, or she thought that Biden was going to fade fairly quickly and she would just have the top spot because of constitutional order. 0.99

00:09:49.220 Here's why that's why that's not going to happen.

00:09:53.840 This is my prediction.

00:09:55.020 I don't believe that Hillary Clinton, from a psychological perspective, from an ego perspective, I predict that she could not accept running for the second spot.

00:10:10.320 Yeah, I just, I don't imagine it.

00:10:14.860 I also imagine that she's enjoyed not being in government these past years.

00:10:21.700 It's hard to be that age and be sort of retired and enjoying yourself, even though you're giving speeches.

00:10:28.900 It's all just stuff you want to do, and it's just fun, and you don't really need the money, and I think she's just enjoying herself.

00:10:35.280 So the first factor is, it's kind of hard to get back in the game after you've been out of it for a while and you're that age.

00:10:42.640 Secondly, Hillary does not solve Biden's problem. 1.00

00:10:48.980 What's Biden's biggest problem?

00:10:51.860 He's old.

00:10:53.340 He has said himself that he's going to pick somebody young for his vice president.

00:10:59.080 I think he means it.

00:11:00.760 I think he would not pick somebody who would be in their 70s if elected, if what he's trying to show is that, well, I've got a backup plan because I'm too old.

00:11:10.480 So it doesn't make sense, and it wouldn't get the minority vote necessarily, although Clinton did get a lot, so it wouldn't be terrible in that way, but it wouldn't satisfy having a person of color on the ticket. 0.83

00:11:29.280 So I say that Hillary is very unlikely to take a second position, and here's the last reason why. 1.00

00:11:35.840 Imagine if she lost. 0.64

00:11:37.220 Imagine how much it hurt to lose to Trump, but imagine if she lost twice.

00:11:49.320 Think of that.

00:11:50.640 What if she lost twice?

00:11:53.340 That would be devastating.

00:11:55.340 I don't know that she would put herself in that position.

00:11:58.240 All right, let's talk about the coronavirus.

00:12:00.140 I have a very controversial, provocative thought.

00:12:09.260 I like to say in advance, there's nothing racist about this, at least nothing intended that way.

00:12:16.200 So if you misinterpret it that way, that's on you.

00:12:20.380 And here's the thought.

00:12:21.320 Apparently, there is now the first report of somebody dying outside of China from the coronavirus.

00:12:31.000 And the first thing I looked for, and it was easy to find, is that the first person who died outside of China was ethnically Chinese.

00:12:40.780 And here's the question.

00:12:43.040 I'm just going to put it as a question right now.

00:12:45.820 Has anybody who is not ethnically Chinese died from the virus yet?

00:12:52.380 I know people have gotten it, and I'm sure that would include people who are not ethnically Chinese.

00:12:57.860 But I kind of need to know that fact before I feel I have a full opinion about what's going on here.

00:13:04.620 Now, I've heard, and I don't know if this is completely true or sometimes true or it depends on the situation,

00:13:15.300 but I have heard that there can be different viruses that might affect different ethnicities differently.

00:13:22.940 Let's not – don't take that as a fact.

00:13:25.860 Take that as something I heard.

00:13:27.900 But, yeah, most of the people dying are going to be compromised or older, which is sort of the same thing.

00:13:38.960 But I'm just going to ask the question.

00:13:42.800 Is anybody going to die who's not ethnically Chinese? 0.95

00:13:47.520 Because remember one of the mysteries that I've been hammering on?

00:13:51.220 The mystery was, why was the United States not as concerned as we thought they should be, meaning our government?

00:13:59.820 Why was our government not that concerned compared to how concerned we were pretty sure they should have been?

00:14:06.480 And now apparently they're making the right move and banning travel, for a few weeks anyway, from China.

00:14:13.640 So at least our government caught up and got with the program.

00:14:17.020 Why do you think it could have been slow?

00:14:18.660 Why do you think the United States government is still saying it's a low risk for our country?

00:14:25.060 Is it possible?

00:14:26.360 Just speculation.

00:14:27.960 Is it possible they know that it doesn't transmit as well outside of an ethnic group?

00:14:34.480 Now, I'm just going to put that out there because some of the conversation is about whether or not there's something unique about this virus.

00:14:42.840 Could it be man-made?

00:14:44.340 Could it be weaponized, et cetera?

00:14:46.720 Or, apparently there's no evidence of that.

00:14:49.800 So the rumors you've seen about it being escaped from, you know, a biolab or something, apparently there's no evidence of that.

00:14:59.300 But let's keep watching.

00:15:00.640 There's, maybe it's me, but there's something about the whole situation that just doesn't smell right beyond the fact that it's an obvious, you know, big problem.

00:15:11.920 There's something about it.

00:15:13.300 I don't know what it is.

00:15:14.060 You can smell it before you can see it.

00:15:16.620 In a related story that you would not think is related, but it is.

00:15:22.200 So the U.S. has banned six more countries from being able to enter the United States or be part of the green card lottery as it's known.

00:15:31.620 So those countries are Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan, Myanmar, Myanmar, Myanmar, Myanmar, Myanmar, Myanmar.

00:15:43.880 Literally the first time I've ever said that word, Myanmar, Myanmar.

00:15:48.880 I've read it many times, literally never said it.

00:15:53.980 All right.

00:15:55.120 So here's why this story about immigration and the coronavirus story are actually the same story.

00:16:04.520 Because what is the difference between an idea virus and a physical one?

00:16:10.560 So the reason for banning immigration from these, you know, so-called banned countries is that these are places that we imagine bad people could be in the mix and we wouldn't be able to tell if they're bad people.

00:16:28.460 It's exactly the same as a plain load of people coming in from China, you know, regardless of where they're born or what nationality or ethnicity they are. 0.69

00:16:40.160 It's a plain load of people that we can't tell who might be infected with the virus and who can't.

00:16:46.340 So how do you treat it if there's a big potential risk and you can't tell who's innocent and who's not?

00:16:51.880 Well, if it's a virus, you quarantine and you temporarily block until you can figure out what's going on, get a handle on it.

00:17:01.800 If it's the idea virus of being a terrorist, it's exactly the same in effect.

00:17:11.280 The effect of it is exactly the same.

00:17:13.460 It's a big population.

00:17:15.280 Most of them you assume are fine, just like with the virus.

00:17:18.640 A plain load of people come in from China, almost all of them are going to be free of the virus, but you don't know which ones.

00:17:27.540 So why is the medical situation so different from the idea virus situation when they both have those same qualities?

00:17:37.300 Now, I don't like to argue from analogies, but I'm not even sure this is much of an analogy.

00:17:43.640 It's so exact in terms of how you would handle it, and now the fact that the United States is handling those two situations roughly similar.

00:17:54.120 In other words, we're doing something bad for 99% of the people so we can stop that 1%.

00:18:00.640 Here's my point.

00:18:05.280 I believe that it's going to be much easier for the administration to get away with these travel bans from the various countries,

00:18:15.040 the ones that we think have some terrorist risk.

00:18:19.040 It's going to be a lot easier for that to be accepted by the public because the public thinks in terms of analogies.

00:18:26.540 The public thinks in terms of stories and precedents and past examples and patterns.

00:18:33.920 And since this pattern is being formed with the coronavirus, that pattern is going to accidentally spill over into immigration.

00:18:45.420 And here's my prediction.

00:18:46.460 The outcry over being tougher on immigration is going to be substantially reduced because people watched the coronavirus situation

00:18:59.720 and because they agreed that you had to be bad to all the innocent people to stop that 1%.

00:19:06.160 Once you've agreed that that's okay, to be bad to 99% of the people just to stop the 1%, then it's still okay.

00:19:16.640 It generalizes, at least in people's minds.

00:19:19.820 You could argue they're not the same, so you treat them differently.

00:19:23.020 I wouldn't disagree with you on the details, but people's minds are going to treat them as the same.

00:19:31.500 So, that's about all that's going on right now.

00:19:37.780 I'm going to take some questions.

00:19:39.100 It looks like some people are lining up to ask me some questions.

00:19:44.500 Let's do them in no particular order.

00:19:46.700 Cheryl, you're coming at me.

00:19:49.780 Cheryl.

00:19:52.580 Cheryl, do you have a question?

00:19:56.400 Cheryl.

00:19:58.520 Cheryl did not have a question.

00:19:59.960 Cheryl went away. 0.90

00:20:02.860 So, I'm going to pick Lina. 0.94

00:20:07.680 Lina, can you hear me?

00:20:12.180 Hello, Lina.

00:20:13.140 Do you have a question?

00:20:14.000 You're live.

00:20:15.480 I am live, but I'm not Cheryl.

00:20:18.820 I said Lina. 0.82

00:20:20.020 Lina.

00:20:22.460 Do you have a question?

00:20:23.460 Yes, can you tell me more about how this all, the coronavirus, yes, can you tell me how that all relates to this anti-vaccine?

00:20:37.420 Oh, so the question is, how does the coronavirus relate to the vaccination and anti-vaccination?

00:20:45.640 I'm not sure that we should make too much of that.

00:20:51.420 I appreciate the argument that says, if you're going to be cautious about one thing, you should be cautious about another.

00:20:59.440 So, I think, you know, there's a little bit there to make a political argument, but I think you could ignore one when you're working on the other.

00:21:07.240 So, I would just treat them as separate.

00:21:10.120 There's a little bit in common, but not enough to make something of it.

00:21:13.660 That's what I'd say.

00:21:14.540 Okay, thank you for the question.

00:21:17.420 Got a bad connection there, anyway.

00:21:19.300 Let's see if we get a better connection from Aris.

00:21:26.260 So, Aris, come at me, Aris, with your question.

00:21:34.220 Aris? 0.95

00:21:34.940 Hello, Aris.

00:21:35.760 Do you have a question for me?

00:21:38.620 Sales pitch, if you want to let me do that real quick.

00:21:41.760 Not really.

00:21:43.120 Okay.

00:21:43.480 So, tell me what you're going to sell, and I'll tell you if I want the pitch.

00:21:47.060 I was going to make the argument that capitalism is already dead, because I have some friends that they're more socialist on the socialist side or outright communists.

00:21:56.860 And I want to get this into a sales pitch form to kind of convince people to kind of drop that a little bit.

00:22:03.040 Does that make sense?

00:22:04.140 Yeah, I don't think the audience is ready for that, but let me engage on that topic.

00:22:09.120 I have a theory, hypothesis really, that the people who are pushing the deep socialism that borders on communism and the anarchy and stuff like that, I feel like they're treating it more like a lifestyle and more like theater.

00:22:26.300 Right.

00:22:27.200 And that if you actually sat anybody down with no witnesses and say, oh, look, look, Bob, I hear what you're saying, I get it, you like to march and stuff, you hate the president, I get it.

00:22:37.580 But do you really think this system would work for the country?

00:22:42.540 I don't think anybody really thinks it.

00:22:44.840 So, it feels not real.

00:22:47.800 I have a hard time taking it seriously.

00:22:49.720 And I'm pretty sure that the serious people in the government don't take it seriously either.

00:22:57.700 Now, I suppose we could get caught off guard.

00:23:01.220 It could be that there's a whole generation that's brainwashed to the degree that they don't know it's not serious and that they've bought into it.

00:23:09.960 So, there is risk.

00:23:11.900 But anyway, thanks for bringing up that point.

00:23:14.500 I want to hear a little bit more questions so that we can hear more from me.

00:23:19.100 Thank you.

00:23:19.720 All right.

00:23:21.480 So, the reason I didn't want to do that is I know most of you are watching these periscopes because you want to hear more from me and wherever that's the case.

00:23:33.820 Cassandra, are you there?

00:23:36.000 Good morning.

00:23:37.060 Do you have a question for me?

00:23:39.620 I'll tell you how much I love you and our simultaneous sips in the morning and how much I appreciate you.

00:23:46.760 Well, thank you.

00:23:47.960 Thanks for telling me.

00:23:49.000 I appreciate all of you, too.

00:23:51.380 And I'm going to take your question now, Cassandra, but thank you for that.

00:23:55.080 Have the best day.

00:23:56.760 You, too.

00:23:58.420 All right.

00:23:59.160 Let's get some questions here.

00:24:00.960 Be provocative.

00:24:01.640 Come on.

00:24:03.420 Give me a hard time.

00:24:05.360 Joshua, I know you can do it.

00:24:08.440 Joshua, do you have a question for me?

00:24:10.240 Thanks for having me on.

00:24:18.120 I appreciate it.

00:24:18.680 My pleasure.

00:24:19.480 What's your question?

00:24:21.160 Yeah.

00:24:21.380 So, you know, as I'm reading the books, I've read all your recent books with you.

00:24:27.300 And can you just tell me which one has been your favorite and which one you think they would be good for my kids as they were growing up to read?

00:24:35.800 Well, yeah.

00:24:37.520 So which of my books is my favorite?

00:24:39.520 And that would depend, you know, what aspects of it you're going to talk about.

00:24:45.340 But my book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, I hear from people.

00:24:51.440 I've been wondering how to even tell this story in public.

00:24:55.100 And I think I can start to tell it now because there are enough people who would back me on it that it doesn't sound crazy.

00:25:01.900 Every day I hear from people who read that book sometimes a few years ago and tell me that it's changed their lives.

00:25:10.160 I've heard people losing 80 pounds, people getting off of opioids.

00:25:14.420 I've heard people getting huge raises, changing their social life around, going from depressed to happy.

00:25:21.540 I mean, ridiculous stuff, really.

00:25:23.280 I mean, such kinds of improvements that it's a little bit mind-boggling and I don't even know how to process it.

00:25:30.460 It's more than I would have ever imagined.

00:25:32.860 Now, why I like that, not just because people are having great experiences by it, but I wrote it for that purpose.

00:25:40.040 And there was sort of a deeper purpose on top of that.

00:25:45.480 I mean, it was meant for anybody to read to improve their life and it appears to be working very well for that.

00:25:52.260 But it was written specifically for my, at the time, 14-year-old stepson as a way to capture everything I knew in a friendly form that I thought I could get him to read.

00:26:03.320 He did not finish that book before he died of a fentanyl overdose, but it was written for him for a very special purpose.

00:26:13.920 So I guess I had more of my heart and soul into that book because even though I was writing it for the public,

00:26:20.600 it's often the case that you write a book for one audience, an audience of one, with the assumption that that is generalizable.

00:26:29.040 And it was written for that one person, my stepson, and he's not with us anymore.

00:26:33.440 So when I hear other people whose lives have been changed, it gives meaning.

00:26:39.220 It gives meaning to the effort.

00:26:42.360 It gives meaning to my stepson's life.

00:26:45.060 Because I'm not sure I would have written it the same or maybe as well if I hadn't been writing it for somebody that I cared about that much.

00:26:53.100 So that one's the most meaningful for me, and if you were going to sort of looking for a starting point for my books that are non-Dilbert books, that's where I would go.

00:27:04.860 Yeah, that's the one that I read as I started my real estate journey, so thank you for that.

00:27:10.180 So, yeah, you're another example.

00:27:12.340 A lot of people telling me that the talent stack idea and the systems over goals are just life-changing concepts.

00:27:19.380 Absolutely.

00:27:20.200 That's what I was hoping.

00:27:20.980 Thank you so much for your question.

00:27:22.580 Thank you.

00:27:23.660 All right.

00:27:25.220 Yeah, the reason I have trouble talking about it is that it doesn't sound believable.

00:27:30.780 If you actually saw the types of messages I'm getting, they don't translate.

00:27:35.640 If I simply told you what people are telling me, I don't think you'd believe it because they're so ridiculously transformational.

00:27:47.240 People have changed in very fundamental ways.

00:27:50.000 All right, caller, can you hear me?

00:27:55.160 Hey, do you have a question for me?

00:27:56.560 Yeah, I'm an expert.

00:28:05.820 I've been divorced once.

00:28:08.700 So, I would give you these tips.

00:28:12.540 You've probably, at some point, you could correct me if I'm wrong, talked yourself into the fact that you could never be happy, you know, again, because, you know, you found that one love and it didn't work out.

00:28:26.140 And how can you move on?

00:28:27.700 And I would give you this one advice.

00:28:30.580 Because I don't know anybody over my entire life.

00:28:34.080 I've never met anybody who got a divorce.

00:28:37.020 And then five years after the divorce said, you know, I wish I hadn't gotten that divorce.

00:28:43.200 I've never heard of it.

00:28:45.080 Not a single time.

00:28:46.360 By the time people make this change, it's time for the change.

00:28:50.580 Because it's so hard.

00:28:52.060 Getting the divorce is so much work.

00:28:54.540 It's so much pain that nobody does it until they're ready.

00:28:58.580 And I'm going to guess you're ready.

00:29:01.120 Are you ready?

00:29:02.520 Oh, yeah.

00:29:03.360 I'm actually kind of enjoying the process.

00:29:04.600 Yeah, enjoying the process.

00:29:07.320 I can tell you that the first year after being married, when I could wake up and do anything I wanted, just anything I wanted, as long as it was legal, was an amazing feeling.

00:29:21.480 And I enjoyed it.

00:29:22.460 But you also get to the point where you need something.

00:29:24.960 You need something more substantial.

00:29:27.300 You know, it's sort of like, hey, you know, you're off your diet.

00:29:30.520 You can eat all the junk food you want.

00:29:32.560 And so for a couple weeks, you're gorging on junk food.

00:29:36.000 But eventually, you say, you know, this isn't the way I want to live my whole life.

00:29:41.200 Some people might.

00:29:42.640 But it wasn't fulfilling to me.

00:29:44.880 So I'm engaged again.

00:29:46.740 And I'm very happy about it.

00:29:48.880 So good luck to you.

00:29:50.180 I think your future life looks better than your past.

00:29:54.940 Well, congratulations on your engagement.

00:29:57.100 Thank you.

00:29:57.760 Take care.

00:29:58.980 All right.

00:29:59.820 Let's see what else we got here.

00:30:02.560 It's funny.

00:30:04.960 I look at your faces and your – before I choose somebody.

00:30:08.820 I'm trying to pick somebody who will challenge me the most.

00:30:13.920 Let me see if I picked correctly.

00:30:17.760 Hello, caller.

00:30:18.500 Can you hear me?

00:30:19.080 Can you hear me?

00:30:23.740 Yes.

00:30:24.020 Hi, this is Damon.

00:30:24.760 I'm calling you from Denmark.

00:30:26.600 Hi, Damon from Denmark.

00:30:28.140 Do you have a question for me?

00:30:29.360 Yeah.

00:30:29.860 I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this whole virus and it being a bioweapon and having

00:30:37.900 patents on it and all that.

00:30:40.460 Yeah.

00:30:40.820 I just wanted to know what are your thoughts on it.

00:30:43.280 Is it something politics or something?

00:30:46.120 Well, you're talking about the coronavirus?

00:30:48.200 Coronavirus, yeah.

00:30:49.220 Yeah.

00:30:49.400 There's no evidence that I've seen, in the news anyway, that it's a bioweapon.

00:30:56.380 But there is just something about this.

00:31:00.160 You know, there are all kinds of things that make this a little different.

00:31:04.140 One is that it seems to be affecting people in China more than here, but it's too early

00:31:10.340 to say that's real versus it's just early in the process.

00:31:13.240 Secondly, the rate of growth looks unnatural, meaning that you'd expect a bioengineered virus

00:31:24.240 to be more viral than something else because you would make it that way.

00:31:28.640 So it's so extreme and it probably is way worse in China than it's being reported.

00:31:36.720 I think almost certainly we can say that, that just the extent of it is concerning, you know,

00:31:44.100 because we know we could make such a thing.

00:31:46.700 But it doesn't make sense that China would make a weapon and use it against itself.

00:31:52.080 I can't really see some other country, you know, trying to infect China in this way. 0.77

00:31:57.840 I mean, we do some bad stuff to each other.

00:31:59.680 The theory that I like, like is the wrong word because it would be terrible.

00:32:09.480 Let me take back like.

00:32:12.140 The theory that, and this would just be a conspiracy theory, you know, we've talked about how the

00:32:18.340 fentanyl coming from China is revenge for the opium wars.

00:32:23.400 A lot of people say that.

00:32:24.500 So you can imagine, again, this is just, I'm just, none of this has any evidence, right?

00:32:33.020 So nothing I say next should be taken too seriously.

00:32:36.720 But could there be somebody who knew how to make a virus who had a family member die of fentanyl?

00:32:45.400 Just put that out there.

00:32:47.080 What are the odds that given, I don't know, 50,000 Americans and who knows how many from Europe

00:32:53.860 or whatever, maybe in China too, how many people have died from illegal fentanyl that

00:32:59.580 came from China?

00:33:01.420 Just a question.

00:33:02.980 With all those people, was there even one person who was a surviving, let's say, family member

00:33:09.600 of all those people who were killed by Chinese fentanyl?

00:33:13.100 Was there even one of those people who knew how to make a virus that would kill mostly ethnic 1.00

00:33:19.960 Chinese people?

00:33:20.720 I hope not.

00:33:24.540 I certainly don't want to live in a world where that happened.

00:33:28.580 But you can't rule it out.

00:33:30.460 You can't rule it out.

00:33:31.260 You know, 50,000 people would touch a population of, I don't know, maybe a million people would

00:33:36.580 be a family member of those people who died.

00:33:39.280 If you count, it's 50,000 a year.

00:33:41.740 So that adds up pretty quickly.

00:33:44.160 Probably at least a million people.

00:33:45.720 Out of a million people, is there not one of them who was willing to engineer a virus

00:33:51.320 and drop it off in China?

00:33:54.240 Probably not.

00:33:55.640 You know, if I had to bet on it, I would very easily bet that it did not happen.

00:34:00.300 It's just an ordinary virus like every other one.

00:34:03.060 But because of the crazy way the world is, you have to ask yourself that question.

00:34:07.660 You can't rule it out on the surface.

00:34:11.500 Now, of course, I don't know how hard it would be to bioengineer a virus like that.

00:34:15.700 So maybe it's so hard that that's a ridiculous theory.

00:34:18.120 But I'll put it out there.

00:34:21.080 Anyway, that's all I got to say on that.

00:34:22.760 I don't think we're going to find out it's any kind of bioengineered weapon.

00:34:27.100 But it's terrible that we can't rule it out.

00:34:30.700 Exactly.

00:34:31.500 All right, Scott.

00:34:32.220 Thank you.

00:34:32.720 Thank you very much.

00:34:33.840 And just one thing to note.

00:34:36.100 In Denmark, there's been, as far as I have heard, there's been two cases of the virus,

00:34:41.240 but there's still no China ban.

00:34:43.660 And that's kind of weird.

00:34:44.520 I just want every country to ban China or the flights until we know what's going on.

00:34:50.440 But nothing's happening here.

00:34:52.520 It seems like an enormous political risk because every leader that does not do a ban

00:34:58.460 has to answer why the other countries did.

00:35:01.520 And if the countries that did the ban have a measurably better outcome than the people who didn't,

00:35:08.480 I don't know how those leaders keep their jobs.

00:35:10.920 I really don't.

00:35:11.540 To me, that would be a lose-your-job decision.

00:35:14.840 Because you're seeing the other people doing it the right way.

00:35:17.420 And I would have said the same thing about Trump.

00:35:19.580 I think he was way too slow on this.

00:35:21.900 But if he hadn't done it at all, you'd have to ask yourself if he's your president for the next cycle.

00:35:27.600 Anyway, thanks, Damon.

00:35:28.660 All right.

00:35:29.100 Yeah, you too.

00:35:30.120 Bye.

00:35:32.660 All right.

00:35:33.300 Let's take some more.

00:35:36.000 Oh, do-do-do-do.

00:35:38.640 Barry looks like he's got something to say.

00:35:42.020 Barry?

00:35:43.180 Barry, can you hear me?

00:35:44.520 Hey, what's your question, Barry?

00:35:49.060 Well, question about loser think.

00:35:52.200 In the book, you say there's about a dozen opinion shapers in the country, about six on either side.

00:36:01.200 You revealed on Twitter that Zucker is probably one on the left.

00:36:05.700 Can you talk about who the opinion shapers are?

00:36:07.560 Well, it was more of a conceptual point, and it's based on observation.

00:36:14.660 One of the things that happens when you start dealing in politics and you become, let's say, somewhat notorious, as has happened to me in the last few years, is you start learning things about the nature of reality that are very disturbing and can't be communicated.

00:36:34.600 They actually can't be communicated.

00:36:36.980 So there are things I know that I just can't tell you, and I know they're true. 1.00

00:36:41.420 I mean, they are, by their nature, something you can determine to be true independently, and you don't have to wonder about it.

00:36:48.260 But the real way the world works is that there are just some people who determine what the news is, and then within politics, a few people who determine who's going to run, who gets what money, et cetera.

00:37:02.480 Now, there are lots of people who are playing in that game, hundreds and hundreds and thousands.

00:37:08.300 But I believe that the ones who are best at it and the ones who have the positions where they have the most influence, like Jeff Zucker at CNN, he can literally determine what CNN considers the news that day.

00:37:23.120 You know, as I was talking earlier in the Periscope, they've decided that their news will be to misinterpret what Alan Dershowitz said, so they can continue the fake news that the impeachment was illegitimate, et cetera.

00:37:38.080 And probably somebody at the New York Times has that power, probably one or two people at MSNBC, and then, of course, Washington Post.

00:37:49.100 So you very quickly, after the first, you know, five or six media outlets, you get down to people who are just not that important.

00:37:58.720 You know, once you're down to, you know, the third or fourth level of news outlet, they're not news makers.

00:38:06.240 The firms like CNN and New York Times and Washington Post are considered the ones who decide what the others cover.

00:38:16.340 So, yeah, there are about six on each side.

00:38:18.380 Now, Trump, of course, is, you know, one of the people who just is shaping reality.

00:38:24.340 And they're probably, I don't know, I couldn't name them, but they're probably half a dozen people who advise him or have some influence on the process.

00:38:34.460 You know, somebody at Fox News, obviously, et cetera.

00:38:37.760 So, yeah, something like 12 people are the ones who have the most influence over everything.

00:38:43.480 Not the only influence, but by far the 80-20 influence.

00:38:48.380 Does that answer your question?

00:38:51.240 Oh, you went away.

00:38:53.000 I lost him.

00:38:55.740 All right.

00:38:56.540 Let's look at – I'm going to take Carl.

00:39:04.460 Carl, can you hear me?

00:39:07.920 Carl?

00:39:08.320 Carl?

00:39:09.320 Carl?

00:39:10.260 Hi.

00:39:11.180 Do you have a question for me, Carl?

00:39:13.680 At one time you said the slaughter meter was at 0% that Trump would win because of the media.

00:39:20.000 And I never heard you explain why you took it back to 100% the other direction.

00:39:24.000 I don't remember what I was saying when I said it was 0%.

00:39:28.440 I don't remember the context of that.

00:39:30.700 The media was going to kill him.

00:39:32.340 They decided all the media and all the social networks were against him, and he had no chance to beat all that.

00:39:38.520 You were saying that for a while.

00:39:39.600 That doesn't even sound like something I've said, so I can't speak to that.

00:39:43.980 But I'll tell you what the current slaughter meter is at.

00:39:48.440 I think it's over 100%.

00:39:50.980 Sometimes I joke and at least say it's 400% or whatever.

00:39:54.080 But I can't see a scenario where he loses because the illusion is that the Democrats have an idea of an ideal candidate, which might have a name.

00:40:08.080 They might say my ideal candidate is Bernie or Biden or whatever.

00:40:11.900 But they have sort of an idealized version of their team.

00:40:15.900 Trump hasn't even started.

00:40:17.680 As soon as Trump has one individual target, and more importantly, all of the opposition research has one target, and it's going to be a bloodbath.

00:40:28.720 I think Trump is going to just destroy whoever it is.

00:40:33.840 Now, at the moment, he's laying down suppressive fire.

00:40:37.620 He's sort of hitting everybody who does well in the polls.

00:40:40.140 So he's going after what he calls mini Mike Bloomberg now, who, as Trump said at his rally, I've had it up to here with him.

00:40:51.420 So apparently he's going after mostly his height.

00:40:56.140 Now, if somebody had said this 10 years ago, that a politician is going to strictly focus on his opponent's height, you'd say, well, he's not going to win with that.

00:41:07.620 But we did watch him take out the entire Bush dynasty with one word or two, low energy.

00:41:15.280 So could the height thing work against Bloomberg?

00:41:18.460 It might.

00:41:19.680 But you won't know because he's gaining in the polls because he's spending a lot of money.

00:41:24.220 So you don't know if he would have done even better if not for Trump's attacks.

00:41:29.080 That we'll never know.

00:41:29.840 But, yeah, I don't see – I just don't see anybody in the race giving him a serious competition.

00:41:37.440 So 100% plus.

00:41:39.360 Thanks for the question.

00:41:44.820 All right.

00:41:45.680 Let's take Nancy. 1.00

00:41:49.140 Nancy looks like she's enjoyed a simultaneous sip or two.

00:41:52.960 Nancy, do you have a question for me?

00:41:54.340 Nancy, do you have your mute on your phone?

00:42:00.400 Because I can't hear you.

00:42:02.200 Nancy, we're going to move on.

00:42:03.520 You missed your chance.

00:42:05.960 Let's try – let's try facts are safe.

00:42:16.040 Facts are safe.

00:42:17.220 Can you hear me?

00:42:19.940 Do you have a question for me?

00:42:21.300 All right, so I've learned from the master, obviously, but I want to know when in Trump's second term do we seriously start talking about repealing the 22nd Amendment?

00:42:35.780 Remind me what the 22nd Amendment is. 0.90

00:42:38.920 Term limits for presidents.

00:42:41.260 We're never going to talk seriously about that.

00:42:43.520 No, you know, I could easily see Trump supporters and even Trump himself running that as a four-year practical joke because it would be a practical joke.

00:42:57.220 At least half the country would believe it's true.

00:43:00.360 But I've never met – have you?

00:43:02.380 Have you ever met even one Republican or one Trump supporter?

00:43:06.300 Or have you met even one who would seriously be okay with him staying beyond two limits?

00:43:13.420 Not one, right?

00:43:14.880 What's going to happen to CNN's business model afterwards?

00:43:18.300 No, but seriously, answer to the question.

00:43:21.340 Have you met even one who would seriously want that?

00:43:25.280 Like it's a joke, but anybody really wants that?

00:43:27.980 I don't think so.

00:43:29.060 I doubt it.

00:43:29.640 You know, if for no other reason, he'd be too old.

00:43:34.060 All right, but thanks for the question.

00:43:36.300 All right.

00:43:41.260 Let's go with – let's go with Perry.

00:43:48.220 What's your name, Perry?

00:43:49.600 Perry, are you there?

00:43:51.620 Perry.

00:43:52.580 Hi.

00:43:53.240 Do you have a question for me?

00:43:55.240 I'm wondering why in the trial the president's attorneys never brought up the fact that, you know,

00:44:04.400 first of all, that Obama administration spied on a candidate because the FISA court already

00:44:09.340 had come out and said that two of the four applications are invalid.

00:44:14.780 But what's that got – what's that got to do with the Ukraine situation?

00:44:19.980 Well, that's what I was going to say, too.

00:44:21.900 I mean, I know it kind of sounds like whataboutism, but it sounds like even the president's attorneys

00:44:27.620 are – what's that term, pass the sale, where they're just assuming Russia even meddled.

00:44:34.080 There still isn't a shred of evidence in the Mueller report or anywhere that Russia even

00:44:39.700 meddled.

00:44:40.140 No, that's not true.

00:44:41.900 That's not true.

00:44:43.000 What?

00:44:43.820 You apparently have been stuck in a news silo.

00:44:49.120 It is not true that there's no evidence of Russian meddling because the – now, I'm

00:44:55.140 not saying the evidence is accurate.

00:44:57.220 I'm just saying that there's plenty of evidence that their troll farm was doing something extraordinarily

00:45:04.140 trivial, but they seem to know.

00:45:08.600 And then beyond that, there's a question of the hacker who got the emails.

00:45:13.820 And so far, the government seems to be unified in saying that those were Russian hackers, so

00:45:21.720 much so that they know the names of the organization and the people who were involved, and they have

00:45:26.700 details.

00:45:27.540 Now, I don't know that you could say those have to be true, but it is an absolute false

00:45:33.420 statement to say there's no evidence of Russia interfering in the election because those

00:45:38.240 two pieces of evidence are the official government positions.

00:45:42.920 So it could be not true, but there's certainly evidence.

00:45:46.320 Right.

00:45:46.500 It wasn't the Russian government that did the ads.

00:45:49.060 And then as far as the hacking goes, they didn't give us any evidence of – they're just

00:45:54.840 telling us basically.

00:45:56.280 Well, there's an assumption with the ads that the guy who owns the troll farm is a good

00:46:02.880 buddy with Putin.

00:46:04.560 So that part we know.

00:46:06.140 So the odds that he would do this without Putin's support seems low, which is the thinking.

00:46:13.380 Now, I happen to think that's not necessarily the case, meaning if you're a troll farm, you

00:46:18.720 probably take contracts from whoever is going to pay you.

00:46:22.120 Right.

00:46:22.260 So if the manager of the troll farm got a contract and said, hey, can you make – it doesn't

00:46:27.120 matter who it came from, can you make a bunch of fake ads and do this?

00:46:32.040 They'd probably just say yes because it's just a job.

00:46:35.100 So I'm not positive that the troll farm was coordinating with Putin, but they're Russian 0.95

00:46:40.840 and they are associated with an oligarch.

00:46:43.580 And you'd have to say that the oligarchs are part of the government effectively, even though

00:46:48.220 not officially, effectively they are.

00:46:49.920 So, you know, I can see the validity of the accusation. 0.97

00:46:55.140 Well, a judge actually ruled that Mueller was not allowed to say that they were associated

00:46:59.700 with the government because there is no evidence.

00:47:01.840 He wasn't even saying that.

00:47:03.920 That's right.

00:47:04.320 There's no direct evidence.

00:47:05.640 But the argument is still strong that we know the person who owned it is connected to him.

00:47:10.680 Yeah, I have my suspicions about that as well.

00:47:13.220 So I think they probably just didn't want to bring the Mueller stuff in there too much.

00:47:17.700 It was just a distraction and it wasn't directly on point, I think.

00:47:22.560 Everyone can watch Ukraine Revealed by Oliver Stone, an amazing film that will teach us all

00:47:27.480 a lot.

00:47:28.800 It's on Amazon.

00:47:29.520 I'll take a look at that.

00:47:30.660 Thank you.

00:47:31.540 Bye-bye.

00:47:32.160 Bye.

00:47:34.860 All right.

00:47:35.620 Let's take another question or so.

00:47:40.500 Michael?

00:47:41.400 Michael Cantor?

00:47:43.060 Come at me, Michael.

00:47:45.580 Our technology did not work.

00:47:47.700 Fail or Michael went away.

00:47:50.580 Let's talk to Doc.

00:47:53.380 Doc Wilson?

00:47:54.940 Are you there?

00:47:56.440 Doc Wilson went away.

00:47:57.680 Maybe it's Periscope itself.

00:48:00.640 Could be that these people didn't really want to talk to me.

00:48:03.460 That's the other possibility.

00:48:07.300 Let's do Jordan.

00:48:09.980 I'm intentionally picking men with beards.

00:48:15.660 Jordan, are you there?

00:48:17.040 Do you have a question for me?

00:48:18.060 This is our dating girl.

00:48:24.080 She is a moderate, so she voted for Romney.

00:48:27.120 Can you turn down?

00:48:29.000 I think you've got some volume up on something, so I'm getting some feedback.

00:48:32.920 Is that better?

00:48:34.200 That's better.

00:48:34.800 Now, you're dating a girl and?

00:48:37.340 So, she's a moderate, so she voted for Romney instead of Obama, but she has a thing against

00:48:43.760 Trump, so she considers Trump negative for women. 0.99

00:48:48.420 So, I'm really wanting good persuasion advice to go ahead and try to sway her.

00:48:53.080 Protection.

00:48:53.480 So, you should go with the protection persuasion.

00:48:58.580 If you were a woman, imagine going outside and every time you walk outside, no matter where 0.99

00:49:03.540 you are, you walk outside and you're basically in danger because men are dangerous to women

00:49:11.180 in a way that they're not exactly dangerous to other men.

00:49:14.480 So, I don't live in that world because I don't ever, I'm never afraid anywhere I go,

00:49:18.680 just period, because if you're a man, it just doesn't come up that often.

00:49:21.960 But women are in a perpetual, worried about security, about physical safety, and they 1.00

00:49:31.900 have to be.

00:49:32.420 It makes perfect sense.

00:49:34.240 So, that's probably the most base thing you could do.

00:49:38.320 So, if you make the argument that Trump is all about that, which he is, he's all about

00:49:44.280 military being so big that nobody will mess with us, he doesn't want to start a war, he'd

00:49:49.980 rather finish them, he'd rather kill the terrorists so the terrorists doesn't come here, he'd rather

00:49:54.820 be strong on crime, et cetera.

00:49:57.740 So, there's probably nothing that women need more than to know that the government and society 1.00

00:50:05.300 is going to protect them.

00:50:06.700 I would go with protection, and I would contrast that, since she's not going to have a choice

00:50:14.080 of voting for Romney, for example.

00:50:16.880 Contrast that with what any of the progressives will offer, which is really risky.

00:50:22.400 It's risky for the economy, which could be more dangerous for women. 1.00

00:50:26.760 And it's risky for security, because he would probably, you know, open the borders and reduce

00:50:34.100 the size of the military.

00:50:35.640 So, I would go for the danger element.

00:50:38.200 And I think that's real.

00:50:39.100 There's nothing, I would consider that such a perfectly valid point that you would never

00:50:45.540 be worried about, you know, being disingenuous.

00:50:48.720 So, that's the way I'd go.

00:50:49.820 I'd go with risky and dangerous, and Trump, before people thought he might be risky and

00:50:56.000 dangerous, but now we have some track record.

00:50:58.740 He's put the economy where you need it, got his trade deals.

00:51:03.780 And I was going to mention earlier, what does the public think about the fact that it's been

00:51:09.220 a few years now that we've had these bans on the countries that we can't vet the terrorists?

00:51:16.420 We haven't really had a major terrorist attack in this country.

00:51:20.500 Now, those are not necessarily related.

00:51:23.440 It's not a one-to-one relationship.

00:51:25.620 But in people's minds, they're going to say, okay, I really hated it because he was going

00:51:30.280 to do something more extreme than I thought was prudent.

00:51:34.180 But I got to say, it looks like something's working, you know, whether it's that alone or

00:51:40.000 that plus other things.

00:51:41.240 So, I think in people's minds, it's going to look better as time goes on.

00:51:47.200 So, that's my best answer.

00:51:49.260 Thanks for the question.

00:51:50.980 Thank you, Scott.

00:51:51.500 Have a nice day.

00:51:52.400 You too.

00:51:54.360 All right.

00:51:55.280 Let's take another one.

00:51:57.140 Christy.

00:51:59.160 Christy, do you have a question for me?

00:52:03.380 Christy is not there.

00:52:04.200 I will find somebody who is there.

00:52:08.180 Matt Cannon.

00:52:09.900 What a name.

00:52:11.100 I'd like my last name to be Cannon, too.

00:52:13.380 Matt, can you hear me?

00:52:14.200 Do you have a question for me, Matt?

00:52:19.020 I do.

00:52:20.200 And first of all, I just want to say your simultaneous SIP is pretty crazy.

00:52:24.520 The other day, I was in a meeting, and I got out around 10 o'clock, and I was trying

00:52:28.780 to get away to get the SIP, and I missed it.

00:52:31.060 And then today, you purposely, I think, made the SIP go a little bit later.

00:52:36.540 So, I thought that was pretty flicks of you to do that.

00:52:40.400 I don't know if that was direct or if it was an accident.

00:52:43.620 Well, that was a little bit of an accident today, because I was doing the waitlist thing

00:52:48.460 in the beginning.

00:52:49.440 But the science says that addiction is caused by unpredictable rewards.

00:52:56.880 So, if you knew that the simultaneous SIP would happen every day for sure, it would be

00:53:01.560 less addictive than if you have some scares or you miss one, you know, that sort of thing.

00:53:07.180 So, anyway, what was your question?

00:53:08.660 My question is, I was going to first ask a shoe-on-the-other-foot test question about

00:53:13.540 Alan Dershowitz, but I figure, since today is Groundhog Day and it's a palindrome, do 1.00

00:53:18.320 you have any thoughts on that, that today is 02-02-2020, which is the same forward and

00:53:23.660 backward, as well as being Groundhog Day?

00:53:27.600 And we're in a simulation with you, too.

00:53:31.200 I'm generally oblivious to random digital coincidences.

00:53:35.700 So, I don't have a comment about that, other than we humans love to find patterns, even

00:53:41.700 when there's nothing interesting there.

00:53:43.960 But, so, no, not much to say about that.

00:53:46.360 But thanks for the question.

00:53:49.500 All right, let's find another one.

00:53:54.000 Let's talk to...

00:53:56.360 Some of you have very funny names.

00:54:00.060 I'm going to go to...

00:54:01.200 Oops.

00:54:01.540 It's Bob.

00:54:03.500 I think Bob wants to ask me a question.

00:54:06.020 Bob, are you there?

00:54:06.960 Bob?

00:54:07.660 Do you have a question for me?

00:54:10.220 I can.

00:54:10.980 Go ahead.

00:54:13.360 I've read all your books, and I love them.

00:54:15.860 That's not a question.

00:54:17.180 But my question to you is, what books do you read for entertainment?

00:54:22.540 Or what periodicals are...

00:54:24.540 Or what...

00:54:25.160 More generally, what do you read for entertainment?

00:54:27.680 Oh, you know, it's embarrassing to say, but there have been years in my life where I've

00:54:33.640 written more books than I've read.

00:54:36.660 And that's literally true.

00:54:39.020 That's not a big thing.

00:54:40.500 I've sometimes published two or three books in a year and read one.

00:54:45.280 Part of it is that my attention span has reduced, just as most of you have, because of modern

00:54:51.200 life.

00:54:51.520 So reading a whole book is hard for me.

00:54:55.940 And I also have a physical difficulty reading books, which is that I fall asleep.

00:55:04.760 If I read...

00:55:06.400 When I read on the plane, I'm not good for more than four pages, and I'm sound asleep.

00:55:13.200 And it doesn't matter what the book is.

00:55:14.760 It doesn't matter how interesting.

00:55:16.560 Four pages, and I fall asleep.

00:55:18.060 Now, I think the problem is, if I had to guess, I'm visual, and I like lots of inputs.

00:55:25.500 And even though I'm a very fast reader, literally studied speed reading, I mean, I can read very

00:55:31.240 quickly, but I can't read nearly as quickly as I think.

00:55:36.060 So when I'm reading, I feel like I'm in mental jail, because my desire for input is so much

00:55:43.060 greater than the amount I can get by reading, that I feel just deprived, and I'm just starved

00:55:49.640 of intellectual excitement.

00:55:52.560 And I just fall asleep.

00:55:54.220 I just fall asleep.

00:55:55.640 So for me, reading a whole book is hard.

00:55:57.180 But the alternative is that I read a tremendous amount of stuff, mostly online, but I do a quick

00:56:05.660 dip.

00:56:06.060 I'll see an article, and I'll say, oh, that's something I didn't know about, let's say,

00:56:11.180 how viruses spread.

00:56:12.960 And I'll jump through that article, pick out the few points, and then move on to the next

00:56:17.360 one.

00:56:17.900 So I can get these mini lessons from news articles and articles about topics and Googling stuff.

00:56:25.920 And, but if you read a whole book, I hate to say it, but not every book is filled with

00:56:33.320 winning pages.

00:56:34.880 But if I'm picking on the internet what to read, I get a winner almost every time, because

00:56:38.820 you can kind of tell right away if it's something that you'll find interesting.

00:56:43.460 So that's my answer.

00:56:46.160 I don't read a lot of books, but the ones that have influenced me the most are, ironically,

00:56:52.940 one is named Influence, Thinking, Fast and Small, you know, those kinds of books are

00:56:58.800 transformational.

00:57:01.100 So I hope that was a partial answer.

00:57:03.220 I'm just not the one to recommend books.

00:57:05.260 But if you want to read about persuasion, Google Persuasion Reading List, and you'll see the

00:57:10.740 list of books that I read.

00:57:16.980 All right, let's take one more.

00:57:19.200 Let's make it good.

00:57:20.280 I need the best question asker of all times.

00:57:26.400 It's going to be Riquet.

00:57:30.480 Riquet.

00:57:31.440 Can you hear me?

00:57:32.680 Riquet, do you have a question?

00:57:35.960 Good.

00:57:36.960 What's your question?

00:57:38.980 I wanted to ask you about Latin America and the Americas, right?

00:57:45.520 So, regionally, the area around the United States, which I believe has been put on the

00:57:53.200 back burner for way too long.

00:57:55.320 I know that China is very important and everything, but there's a lot of happening on this side

00:58:04.500 of the world, and it's actually affecting us in terms of the border, of fentanyl, right?

00:58:11.640 Right.

00:58:11.860 And also, when it comes to the, maybe, Iranian influence in Venezuela, Cuba's influence around the region, what can I do?

00:58:20.940 How can I persuade people, et cetera?

00:58:22.400 Yeah, you know, I would say I'm not an expert on anything south of our border, but I've had the same feeling that you have, which is that it would be in our best national interest to make sure that our closest neighbors are doing as well as possible, and there's less crime and cartels and stuff.

00:58:42.800 So, it does feel like our resources have been in the wrong place.

00:58:47.620 Now, there was a reason for that, because we needed oil, but now that we're not dependent on Middle East oil, I would say the natural arc of history is that we'll move out of there, and I think we're going to end up getting more interested in things south of the border, but maybe that's wishful thinking.

00:59:09.000 But I agree with you. We should be working more directly on improving things south of the border for our own self-interest. That's where our greatest interest is. Thanks for the question.

00:59:19.820 No problem. Thank you.

00:59:21.640 All right. I think I've done it all for today. I hope you're going to enjoy the Super Bowl, and I'll be maybe dipping into that a little bit and watching it. And thanks for watching, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

00:59:39.000 All right.

00:59:39.600 Thank you.

00:59:40.180 All right.

00:59:41.660 Bye.

00:59:42.120 All right.

01:00:02.620 All right.

01:00:03.560 Oh! 0.60

Real Coffee with Scott Adams - February 02, 2020

Episode 806 Scott Adams： Coming To You From Space Force, Zero Gravity, Coronavirus, Fake News

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