0:00 - Post-Pandemic Reflections
6:45 - Rediscovering the Power of Massage
12:05 - Indulging in Self-Treats
20:08 - Musings on Fast Food Quality
24:19 - Grocery Store Revelations
28:45 - Rant on Laziness and Food Choices
35:19 - Lazy Men and Feminism
37:58 - Road Trip Eats
40:46 - Loneliness and Food
43:46 - Feeling Unsatisfied
45:29 - Georgian Delicacy
47:54 - Air Frying Trend
48:54 - Exposing Truths
56:22 - The Art of Judgment
59:55 - Hypocrisy and Criticism
1:05:10 - Mukbang and Morality
1:09:52 - Christian Hypocrisy
1:15:49 - Provoking Conflict
1:19:11 - Foundation of Respect
1:37:10 - Hypocrisy and Salvation
1:47:34 - Life Without Philosophy
1:51:42 - Sacrifice for Integrity
1:54:01 - Losing Soul for World
1:58:08 - Desire to Corruption
1:59:44 - Enslavement to Adulation
In this podcast episode, we delve into post-pandemic experiences and the challenges of restarting activities after lockdowns. The conversation begins with an exploration of the significance of massages for relaxation and muscle tension relief, highlighting the benefits of physical relaxation in coping with mental challenges. The host shares a recent intense massage experience, stressing the importance of active engagement in the process. The discussion then transitions to a reflection on the decline in food quality, prompting listeners to share their thoughts on restaurant experiences and guilty food pleasures. Various topics are explored, ranging from treating oneself with massages to the impact of diet changes on taste preferences.
The focus of the conversation shifts towards a detailed discussion on food and diet, with a reflection on past eating habits, particularly at fast-food chains like McDonald's. The speaker raises concerns about the health implications of processed foods and advocates for consuming real, unprocessed foods for overall well-being. Societal attitudes towards cooking, laziness, and the relationship between loneliness and food consumption are also explored. The speaker encourages making conscious, healthier food choices and discusses personal struggles with overeating.
Moving on, the host delves into a wide array of topics encompassing nutrition, societal issues, philosophy, and Christianity, with a particular emphasis on judgment and hypocrisy. Personal experiences with food choices, societal influences on health, and the complexities of judgment within Christianity are shared. The importance of love and understanding in navigating judgmental behaviors and societal dynamics is highlighted through thoughtful observations. The discussion branches into theology, morality, and the challenges of upholding Christian values in a judgmental world.
The speaker then tackles the dynamics of online interactions, specifically on platforms like Twitter, where hostile exchanges are prevalent. Advocating for a respectful and constructive discourse, they stress the significance of aligning interactions with Christian values, even when faced with differing opinions. Emphasizing the need for accountability, self-reflection, and humility in interactions, the speaker urges approaching conflicts with love and curiosity to foster understanding and positive change. They call for adherence to professed values and beliefs, promoting a discourse rooted in love and understanding.
Concluding the segment, we explore the importance of aligning actions with Christian values in conflicts and the necessity of showing love and humility in interactions. The speaker challenges individuals to reflect on their behavior and seek redemption when needed, advocating for integrity and accountability in discussions. Discussions revolve around the challenges of upholding principles over personal gain, combating the allure of fame and sentimentality that may compromise one's values. The segment wraps up with gratitude towards the audience and a reminder of the enduring value of moral integrity in societal interactions.
[0:00] Good evening good evening welcome to the 12th of april 2024 and we are talking, philosophy looking good yeah i finally got around to buzzing my hair today and okay let me let's try it on this post-pandemic we're in the post-pandemic world which means bird flu is coming for the election anyway we're in a post-pandemic world, what took you the longest to start doing again after the pandemic let me ask you that what took you the longest to start doing again after the pandemic maybe we can say visits to Wuhan in terms of that but I'm curious what is it that stopped for you with COVID or the lockdowns or the the pandemic, and then took a while for you to start up again. I'm curious, because I had one just today, and that was painful as hell. It was lavender murder. It was de-bouldering the back, and it was quite something. So I'm just curious, what did you guys, what took you the longest to get started again? If you have, I mean, was it dating? Sit-down restaurants? Is that a question, or are you telling me? I don't know.
[1:22] Still haven't really been to a movie theater. Ah, eating at restaurants. Yeah, that took a while, I guess. I remember, of course, in Canada, being kicked out of a mall with my daughter. I think it was my birthday. And I was there having lunch with my daughter and they demanded proof of vaccination and they kicked us out into the cold. It was quite something. It was quite something. thing so i used to get more regular massages and i think personally i think massages are very good good things to do because for some reason for some reason we have these these muscles and these muscles are kind of interesting because these muscles they contract contract, and then that's it. They just stay contracted. It's like you have back muscles that decide to say, I'm going to contract, and then I'm just going to stay contracted.
[2:26] That's it. You may think that you want to unknot your muscles. You may think that your muscles are contracting and relaxing. And in general, right, you've got your biceps, which pull the arm, You've got the triceps, which pull the, but you, you don't, it doesn't just stay contracted, right? But apparently with your back, and I'm not a big sitting guy, like I'll sit for these shows, but I walk around for call-in shows. I walk around for some of the donor-only live streams. I walk around for the solo shows. I'm a walking guy. I'm 15 to 20,000 steps a day. I love to walk. So I'm not like sitting over a computer all the time. My posture is not bad. I did the Alexander Technique when I was in theater school many years ago, and that sort of helped remind me to have some decent posture and so on. But apparently, apparently, when you have a back, you just...
[3:17] Muscles contract and stay contracted anyway. So for the first time since COVID, I went for a massage. Do you guys do massages at all?
[3:31] Steph, latest podcast on job interviews was great. I luckily heard it before my interview. The guy interviewing me said my interview was good. It was great. Oh, the Alexandra technique? So the Alexandra technique is based on the idea that the children move in alignment and we as adults tend to sag. Tag so uh the the teacher i had was like you know if you if you sit down you'll notice you sit down twice like you sit down and then you just kind of sit down again and you kind of hunch over you want to keep your back straight you want to walk like your your head is floating and your body is hanging, from your uh from your neck right so rather than pushing your head up walk like your head is floating like a helium balloon and your body is falling in a sense or hanging underneath it and And that tends to be much better for your posture. So I used to, gosh, many years ago when I was single, I used to have these lovely Sundays.
[4:24] I would get up, have some nice lazy brunch, maybe work on some writing. And then I would go to an hour and a half of Ashtanga yoga. And then I would go for an hour and a half of aromatherapy, which is massaging with essential oils. and it was really, really just, I would just be liquid at the end of that. If you live a life of challenge, physical relaxation, by that I don't just mean napping, but physical relaxation is really important. If you live a life of challenge, if you live a life of pushing yourself, I won't necessarily say stress because that's sort of negative connotations.
[5:03] But if you live a life of challenge, you are going to have a fight or flight mechanism without the release, particularly intellectual challenge, your body doesn't always know the difference. And in fact, sometimes generally doesn't know the difference between a predator and social disapproval, right? So if you think there's a predator around, your body's going to tense up. And if you challenge social narratives, you disagree with people and so on, your body tenses up and it can be quite hard to untense it, which is one of the reasons I do my stretches every day. I do my exercise i do like about about eight hours of exercise a week um some of it of course is quite productive um and i would say i'm probably doing 45 minutes of weights every second day half hour of cardio in the intermittent days so i mean so you just need to find a way to physically relax your body when you are involved in contentious social issues because otherwise your body's going going to tense up, blood flow is going to diminish, and it kind of affects your whole posture and way of being and your thought. I mean, it's important to stay physically relaxed when you are mentally challenging yourself and others, in my humble opinion.
[6:16] So I used to go to massages fairly regularly. I fell out of the habit. I felt, and what I also, have you, do you ever get these massage guns? I got this massage gun, which helps to some degree. It's not bad, but it can't really dig in and it can't get, it tops the shoulder blades of where I carry a fair amount of tension. So I've been doing the sort of shoulder shrug exercises and you can get some stretching in there, but not as much as you want. You can get some of it with the pain, I call it the pain gun, like the massage gun, but you can't get it all.
[6:45] So anyway, today, um, well, my wife gifted me with a massage and so I went in for a massage and let me tell you, let me tell you just a little smidge. It wasn't exactly quite the same as corrugated iron, but it wasn't exactly the opposite of that either. She's like, oh, I think I found another kink as she shoulder slammed herself down on my back. And I'm, I have a fairly decent pain tolerance. And so for me with a massage, it's kind of like, do it until I'm crying, but not crying blood. Like somewhere, like it turns a little pink, the tears turn a little pink, maybe back off a tiny smidge. Do it until the screams are bearable. What kind of massage? I don't know. Just, uh, it was a, it was not, uh, it wasn't just a spa massage. Like it was a, I really, I want to relax my back kind of massage. Yeah.
[7:46] And she, the woman used this lavender oil. I said, oh my God, what kind of oil is this? She says, oh, it's a lavender oil. And I'm like, I've never had intense pain smell so good.
[8:00] I mean, unless you love the smell of cordite and shredded limbs, like that's really amazing. And I said, um, I, I, I both hate and love what you're doing. You know, she's like, yeah, that's, that's pretty common. You'll hate me now. You'll love me later.
[8:14] And, uh, so yeah, it was, it was sort of a sports massage. Yeah. It was a more of a therapeutic massage. It wasn't just a, you know, push rocks around your back kind of thing. It was, you know, kind of therapeutic and really nice, like really nice afterwards. That was great. So, yeah, I'm, I'm back on massages. And, uh, that means I'm back on pain edging because, and here's the other thing too, if you get a massage, this is sort of my, my tip. Don't be passive. So don't be passive because if you've got knots built up in your body, as I did for four, four years plus no massage, then you, when you get massaged, you can't be passive and you can't resist the pain. You've got to embrace the pain, you know, fight club style. And what you also have to do is you have to work to tell your muscles to damn well relax, right? You have to order them around. You have to say, hey, man, I appreciate the tension. I'm sure it kept us through some stuff, but you've got to relax. So you've got to have your muscles rise to meet the pain and open like flowers under the pain so that they actually relax. Because they can't relax, like the masseuse can't relax your muscles if you're not helping, I think, at least not nearly as well. So just remember to just really, and you know, I know it's not super cheap. I sort of negotiated a good rate because I try to negotiate just about everything.
[9:32] But it's one of these things. Um, I sort of hate to say it because it's such a marketing cliche, but it's one of these things like, well, because I'm worth it, you know, and there is a little bit of truth to that. I mean, let me, let me ask you guys, let me ask you this. How do you treat yourself? Um.
[9:53] How do you, do you, do you treat yourself with anything? I used to be a little bit on the sugar side. Oh, I've been so good. I give myself a treat, kibble, kibble, kibble. But how do you, how do you treat yourself? I did view this massage as a bit of a treat for myself. And, uh, I, I'm, I'm going to do one or two more just to make sure the kinks are all gone. Cause sometimes afterwards you, you retense back up, but yeah, what is it that you guys do to treat yourself? How did you negotiate? Just wondering. Oh you just ask um you just ask uh you know is if i buy a bunch could i get anything less is that your very best price you know just anything and a lot of a lot of places won't do that and that's fine right but but some some people pain edging naughty why is that naughty to be on the edge of something is all right do you offer bulk do you offer bulk discounts i should do that while flexing, do you offer swole discounts? Usually not treating myself at all. Now that's an interesting question. That's an interesting question.
[11:09] You say, I treat myself with good restaurants, self-care products and a drive just for the hell of it. Yeah. Usually not treating yourself at all. You treat yourself with fancy coffee. Yeah, yeah. I like a cold, a nitro cold brew with the foam on top, but I don't have those too often. Greetings from Charlotte, North Carolina. Thank you for all that you do. So yeah, it's, um, I personally think it's actually kind of important. A warm bath. Boy, how decadent. You're pretty much Marie Antoinette, unless it's a warm bath of whiskey and milk. dog. My doctor put me on milk, cream, and alcohol. It's a good blue sun. So I did, well, I did until that show about treating myself like a dog. No, I get that. So it's not necessarily a reward for, oh, I've done something good. I'll reward myself with something. But are you worth, you know, some sort of positive and special treatment?
[12:05] So for instance, if you have someone in your life, it probably is the case that you like treating them with something nice and I guess you care about yourself and especially if you're single I think it's kind of important to treat yourself with something nice that way as well, thanks haha I'd like to get a really high quality meal or buy something I've wanted for a long time ah meals meals meals meals.
[12:33] I don't know, man. I don't know if I'm getting older, my tongue is dying in my mouth, or food is just turning to absolute crap. But I honestly cannot tell you the last time, I mean, some home-cooked stuff has been nice, for sure. My wife makes some great meals. But in terms of going out and tasting something and being like, oh, that's so good. Am I, is it just me? Is food quality as a whole, even in nice restaurants? I don't go to them that much, but is food quality just fallen off a cliff over the last five, five or six years? I don't know, man. Like I, I can't honestly remember the last time I tasted something like, Oh, that's so good. Uh, what's your favorite home cooked meal? Well, tonight, uh, my mother, uh, sorry, my, um, uh, my wife made me, there's something Freudian for you. If you want, my wife made me a spiced salmon. Salmon, that's really good. Spiced salmon and salad. It was really nice. It was really nice. You think food quality has definitely gone down?
[13:41] Ah, yeah. I think it has. I do remember in the past, like in my business days, I used to go out for some fantastic meals. Because, you know, when you're courting Fortune 100 or Fortune 500 companies, you've got to show them a good time, even show them a little egg. I remember going to these little Hobbit holes on the far side of San Francisco with one of the salespeople and having one of the best meals of my life, like steak and, and, and incredible mushrooms. And, uh, it was just a fantastic, but.
[14:17] I just, and even when my daughter and I used to enjoy going to the keg, we haven't been in a long time, but every now and then we'd go, and I just remember the bread being great, the meat just being delectable, like melt in your mouth and buttery and great. It's not just your tongue, food has been crapped. Relationships I used to visit, the same food, tastes not as good. I mean i don't want to be one of these guys like one of the things i envy about my daughter is when we watch a movie and she's not big into movies but if we do watch a movie, um it's incredibly predictable for me because i've seen a bunch of movies right and so it's incredibly but for her it's like relatively new.
[15:09] So and I was just wondering if the same thing had happened to my tongue or maybe well I had COVID did it leave something with my tongue I don't think so, but yeah food that I I just used to like or places that I used to go it's just like eh you say your dad's a chef we talk about this a lot, it's very rare to be like, I could not have made this better and it was totally worth it when eating out, even before COVID, crippling restaurants, right? Is it just me or does anyone else feel itchy after eating fast food? Oh, I hate to be that guy. Ooh, I hate to be that guy. But I honestly can't remember the last time I ate fast food. When did I last eat fast food? Probably six months ago. I just wanted to express my younger sister's appreciation for your peaceful parenting book and say it's brought the two of us closer. I'm truly grateful. Well, Bob, that's wonderful to hear. Thank you. Food will be worse with the new California minimum wages for restaurants. Yeah.
[16:18] Oh, James says, unless I'm really careful, restaurants give me bad indigestion. So I usually end up eating something I cook myself and it's hard to be, oh yeah, that was totally worth it. Three to four times the sticker price. Yeah. I have cream on my apple. Thank you. I love those restaurants where you pick out the exact fish to eat. So fresh and tasty. Oh yeah. Like the places where they cook at the table, right? That's also kind of neat, but yeah, I don't know. Is it, is it soil degradation? Is it mineral exhaustion? It just feels like even, even vegetables. I used to like, really love vegetables, fruits, not so bad, but it just feels like, it feels like I'm eating food that's kind of half simulated, if that makes any sense. You know, like there used to be a joke that Steve Martin told about McDonald's and it would be something like, you know, you go to McDonald's and you think like in the back, there's just one big vat full of the same stuff. You know, here's your burger, here's your fries, here's your packaging, here's your change. Like as it got progressively more absurd as Steve Martin comedy tended to before he seemed to lose his sense of humor when he got tinnitus on the set of Three Amigos. But it feels like food has been freeze-dried and shipped to the International Space Station where I've unwrapped it in zero gravity.
[17:39] And it just feels or it tastes just a little bit bland it feels like it's full of half styrofoam filler or something like that it's not terrible and i've never been a massive foodie but i just, really felt that food used to tickle my tongue a whole lot more than it does now joe says i did go to restaurants outside the west recently and the food was good.
[18:02] Oh, so you mean not like a Thai restaurant in your city, but a Thai restaurant in Thailand, right? So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I certainly hear from my American friends that the food is like half poison. I shouldn't laugh because it's pretty bad. But I do hear that kind of stuff. Popeye's fried chicken is my guilty pleasure. I did try Popeye's once. And it's weird that everything's the same color, right? everything's the same color you get chocolate milk and everything's brown, and i couldn't i i couldn't do it it was too i mean i get it's a guilty check and it's way too much breading and way too little chicken for me so, it sort of feels like if you're on a diet i can remember what was it um.
[18:56] Matt Damon was talking about a diet that he went on for some movie he made with Meg Ryan. And he was like, yeah, you know, uh, chicken and salad, you know, unseasoned chicken and salad for like months. And that is what he was eating. It just feels like a little bit like I'm on a diet now. Of course, I'm expecting my, my, my taste buds are adjusting a little bit from cutting back a lot on sugar.
[19:21] Uh, somebody says in Canada, check out our butter. It's full of palm oil. I tried Irish Kerrygold butter and it actually is like all butter can actually spread it on toast at room temperature. Uh, see there's lab grown meat now and who knows what else? What a burger is great. The patties take like actual beef. Yeah. Yeah. In and out is good. It's just overrated. I recently found out they had a foundation for the prevention of child abuse, although I don't know that much about it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So sorry. Sorry, it's not a particularly philosophical topic, but I just would love to. I felt so sick after eating McDonald's, after eating healthy for months. Yeah, I think the last time I ate something at McDonald's, I like took a bite and it tasted half like cardboard.
[20:08] Board i opened it up and it was just some like it was the flat styrofoam burger a real thin slice of pickle and a little bit of ketchup and mayo and like a really sad piece of lettuce and i was like oh this is like i mean it's not exactly like a gulag dish but it's not exactly the opposite of a gulag dish either.
[20:36] There's the old favorite diet, the seafood diet. Whenever I see food, I eat it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I didn't use to mind McDonald's quite as much. I went through a non-McDonald's phase for a long time, but then, you know, they got some salads back and the filet of fish wasn't too bad, but I just can't do it. I can't do it. It just feels like, it feels like with McDonald's, It feels like way more is going in than is ever coming out. I have that feeling like my body is, it's sticking to my body in some way that I'm just not sure about. Of course, I don't think it's true, but it feels that way. It feels that way that I'm getting some inner shellac coating that it will not, will not leave me except maybe, maybe when I'm. Uh, cremated, maybe stick to your ribs. It feels that way. Almost, almost a little bit like shouldn't my, shouldn't my poop be bigger? I, I had a meal yesterday. No, because you've got a second skin on the inside made of leather. Try to Dunkin' Donuts bagel the other day. The bread tastes like chemicals. Yeah. So yeah, Dunkin' Donuts is, they used to have these, I remember this in the States. They used to have these little bites that have cream cheese in the middle, and it left this aftertaste like it had been dipped in kerosene or something like that. All right.
[22:03] Does your daughter still like growing stuff? It's nice having some fresh stuff from the garden. Yes, she still does like growing stuff, but of course, growing season is not too great. Don't eat Taco Bell if that's the case, LOL. I don't know that I've ever eaten Taco Bell. I just remember the phrase toxic hell, which of course I'm sure is unfair, but, I don't think I've ever eaten Taco Bell. Food in Thailand, even American food, tastes better on average than in the USA. It has more flavor and better quality. Superior service in Thailand, for sure. Fast food in USA makes me feel gross, like I ate artificial food. Pickles thicker than a patty at McDonald's. It does feel that way, right? McDonald's used to be a happy kid's place. Now it feels like an adult going through a phase of depression. Ah, let's see here. Every British person I've met likes the fillet of fish. I mean, if you have to eat something at McDonald's, it's probably not the worst thing.
[23:04] Ah, McDonald's also adds beef flavoring to their fryer oil, so vegetarians are still consuming it in a way, yeah? Whole Foods lists their ingredients in the prepared foods area, So that's better than most. Good to catch my second ever live stream. Thank you so much. Obi-Wan don't know me. I appreciate that. Technically a Saturday morning live stream here in Australia. I appreciate that. And thank you for the tip. Of course, tips are welcome. We'll get to the philosophy in a second. But first, I'm afraid I have a rant. I had a rant. It kind of bubbled up when I was chatting with my daughter today. So we can do P for philosophy or R for rant. P for philosophy or R for rant. Oh gosh, I know it's bad, but I miss Long John Silver. Speaking of British food, greasy, salty, breaded fish. It looks like the pirate ranting winds.
[24:12] All right, let me ask you this. Let's say you live in America. Let's just say you live in America. We'll talk to our American friends.
[24:20] So this could be the case in Canada. It could be the case in other places. So in America, what percentage of the grocery store would you possibly buy from? Like what is absolutely off limits? You stalk by an absolute jaw-dropping, gobsmacked wonderment at this stuff even exists, let alone it's in public, let alone people buy it, let alone they consume it. Have you got a percentage in your mind? The outer aisles and less-than-lead salts are maybe 10%, less than 10%. Permission to swear, please, 5% or less. Permission to swear, permission granted. Yeah, I'd say 5%.
[25:09] What kind of salty-ass sugar-spangle-eye-candy-brain-rotting-food-consuming-leprosy-producing crap are people eating in the grocery store. I feel like the grocery store is a few people who are going to survive and everyone else clustered around the middle, stuff in their face with highly colored, no image, shape or color found in nature, lists of ingredients that go on longer than the Gettysburg Address or your average encyclopedia. What the hell are they putting in their bodies?
[25:48] What the living F are people putting in their bodies? Go down one aisle, and it's like, cookies. All right, I guess people like cookies. Fuck, more cookies? Cookies and cookies? More cookies? Holy shit, it's a whole aisle of cookies. A little bit of Fig Newtons thrown in. A couple of Raspberry Newtons thrown in. And it's like, oh, God. And then at the end of the aisle, it's like, Like, you can buy two dozen mini donuts for $8. I was like, and I'm like, okay, okay, okay, fine. I'm going to turn, I'll turn away from the cookie aisle. Because, you know, you've got to get from one end of the store to the other, sometimes down the middle. So then you go up another aisle, and it's like, wow, that's a lot of brightly colored bags. What do we got here?
[26:43] Pretzels, not great, not terrible. Like, oh, okay. Okay. Sour cream and fart onion chips and ketchup and Satan chips and more chips and more chips and a couple of heavily salted rice cake. Oh, good. Some more chips. Oh, and just in case you can't get enough sugar, salt, and fat in the chips, here's some dip that is basically solid at room temperature that you can barely move with an oar. You dip your chip. And this also goes on. Oh, wait, no, no, hang on. There's Cheetos as well. Lots of different kinds of Cheetos. And then there's some super spicy stuff that I wouldn't touch with somebody else's 10-foot pole. And it's insane. And then you turn around, it's like, ooh, chilly, am I in the Arctic? I'm in the Fortress of Solitude? No, no, where I am, in fact, is the giant frozen food section. section, the giant frozen food section. Now frozen food seems to me, we had some food, It had some kind of nutrition to it, some kind of taste to it. But what we've decided to do is chill it to absolute zero to replace all of the taste and nutrition with what approximates intergalactic cardboard.
[28:11] And there's aisles and aisles and aisles of this stuff.
[28:19] It's like garbage when it's not frozen, but then they make it even worse by freezing it. And the freezer section is sometimes four aisles. I mean, am I wrong about this? I'm going to get totally sexist here. Maybe it's bad. Don't care.
[28:45] How lazy are women getting? I'm just curious I mean, you guys are out there You date, you're married or whatever My wife's old school So she cooks a lot And she's very hardworking And she loves it And it's great for all of us But you're out there, Like, when I look at that frozen food section And I look at all of the instant foods And the crap food and the garbage food It's like, okay So it takes quite a bit of work To make a good tasting meal, or you can just nuke something full of sugar, fat, and salt and call it tasty.
[29:32] Bread, yeah, I think bread is a war crime. So bread is... I try not to buy food where the ingredients have names that would be considered a stroke among my ancestors.
[29:50] Riboflavin, monosodium, glutamate. Okay, so if you would be considered either possessed by the devil, speaking in tongues, having an epileptic attack or a stroke, broke, if you are pronouncing the stuff I'm putting in my body, maybe I shouldn't put it in my body. Meat, veg, bread. But if the ingredients are something that sounds like you are trying to summon an ancient Egyptian to accursed your enemies or a magical spell to get rid of gonorrhea, pretty much shouldn't be in my body. So yeah, it just goes, yeah, flour, salt, Well, water and yeast is bread. Yeah, I mean, my daughter and I will make bread from time to time. It's really not that complicated. And it doesn't need a whole lot of stuff. Because isn't it to some degree, cheese, yes, cheese. Isn't it to some degree that keeping things well preserved is making them less digestible? Again, I'm no scientist, so I don't know. But it seems to me that more preservatives equals less easy to digest. Because more preservatives means flies can't digest it. Other things can't digest it. It can't decay.
[31:03] I mean, if flies don't want it, why would I? If bacteria doesn't want it, why would I? I mean, was it Norway or Finland that some McDonald's closed down like 26 years ago and they kept the last burger and it kind of looks the same after 26 years? Oh, you know, you see these memes Memes of like, this ice cream doesn't melt. You would eat all that frozen canned shit growing up. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, this crosses into politics, but there is a war on against the Amish. Natural grown food not controlled by government or grown with their approved pesticides or herbicides, GMO products. Well, the war against the Amish has been going on for a long time. And it has a lot to do with vaccines, right? And of course, for those of us, of course, who followed anything to do with COVID, according to the mainstream narrative, there should be no Amish people left because they should have all succumbed to the Wuhan flu. And.
[32:16] They're not there, right?
[32:20] Somebody says, I ate 72-year-old Korean war bread. What are you, stick, sex, and hammer? Rations that were just flour, butter, salt, and honestly, it tastes better, than some modern commercial equivalent at the store. Interesting. Can't sell raw milk in Canada. Yeah, I know someone who part owns a cow so they can get the raw milk. Yeah, like what's wrong with raw milk? My wife is not a great cook. when we first met. She says she's learned we use a service called Gusto to deliver fresh food and recipes so it's really helpful. Helped us to eat better. I still have a sweet tooth though. Yeah. Yeah. What was a super interesting theory? Somebody says, I remember a leftist woman telling me poor people are fat because they're poor. Well, I don't think that's the case. So a friend of mine educated me about this a long time ago. He said, that's an interesting thing. He said, If you're snacky, go into a store and buy a banana. One banana. It cost you like, back then it was like 15 cents. Where it was like 50 cents for a bag of chips or 75 cents for a candy bar. I was like, just go buy a banana. It's 15 cents. One banana. One banana, two banana, three banana, four. Somebody says, my fiance is the best cook on planet earth. She performs literal magic in my view. And he was right.
[33:42] And he was right. You can go and buy a banana. get your potassium.
[33:51] So why are poor people tend to be overweight? I mean, maybe it's an intelligence thing, but in general, and maybe it's a health thing or whatever, but I think in a lot of things, like what's two things that, all other things being equal, two things that poor people have in common that explains both them being poor and them being overweight weight is that the food that requires the least labor is mostly the worst for you, right? That the food that requires the least labor is often the most bad for you, right?
[34:30] So it's, so I think it's, I think it has a lot to do with laziness. It has a lot to do with laziness. And that laziness I think is why they don't particularly want to work to make quality food and also why they don't really make much money, So, uh, and laziness, have you ever, have you ever lived with a woman who's kind of lazy, or entitled or views equal contributions of somehow beneath her?
[35:19] That's an interesting thing. Now, of course, there are men who are lazy as well. And the lazy men are, you know, like it's porn and video games, right? So that's, that's, that's, I'm not, you know, it's not, not trying to bag on women here, but if you ever have, and, and the laziness is funny because she can't just say, don't want to, don't feel like it, no energy, no motivation. What she has to say is it's against my principles, right? It's against my principles. and, it's a, I'm a feminist. So, okay. Don't really want to work in the UK. It's takeaways, Chinese fish suppers, Indian food. We have takeaways next door to takeaways on the high street sometimes. Yeah. Well, that's the secret eaters show, right? The, the, this is British show that the, the hostess says to people who say, why I can't lose weight or I keep gaining weight, even though I'm eating 1200 calories a day. And she actually has private eyes follow them around and record everything they eat. They know that they're being videotaped in their own homes, but they actually follow them around when they sneak out. And they're all like 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 calories a day and all that kind of stuff, right?
[36:32] Trying to stretch a dollar, cake mix can feed many people. Starch like rice potatoes, terrible for you, but most volume of food for limited dollars. Short-term wise, long-term foolish. Cake mix can feed many people? What are you talking about? Cake mix can feed many people. But cake mix isn't food. I don't know what that is, but it's not food. It's, you know, 400 mouthfuls of polysyllabic chemicals and sugar. Or cake mix. It's not food. Cocaine can feed many people. No, not really. Starch like rice and potatoes, terrible for you. I don't know. I go back and forth on the carb thing. Honestly, I go back and forth. I mean, I'm half Irish. If my ancestors hadn't been able to eat potatoes, we'd have had to eat the English. Well, I'm sure we did sometimes.
[37:25] Women are proud of the fact that they don't know how to cook nowadays. Right. Right. So that's a status symbol, right? That's a status symbol for women. You're high status if you don't know how to cook, because it means that you can hire people or you can attract a man who's wealthy enough that you won't need to cook yourself, right? But this is an old movie, not a great movie called First Wife Club. And one woman is saying to another woman, I mean, I, I, I cooked, I did this laundry, I cleaned and they say you cooked and cleaned and did laundry. She's like, well, I supervised.
[37:59] So, Egg McMuffins aren't too bad on a road trip. Interesting.
[38:12] Let's see here. Ah, people are wanting to rant over there as well. Excellent. Excellent. Cake feeds people instant and cheap but never claimed it's real food. I get that. I mean, that's semantics, right? You can eat it and it has calories, but it's not really food because it's just empty calories, right?
[38:48] Many decaf coffees are processed with methylene chloride, which is toxic. Yes, I have looked into the decafs and mine are okay. But it seems to me that the world is kind of divided between the donuts and the centers, right? So the people who shop around the edge of the grocery store and the people who commit suicide in the middle. And that seems to me the big divide. The people who eat food and the people who eat whatever passes for food food in the middle of the grocery store. The nutritionists and the hedonists.
[39:39] And that seems to me to have a pretty big, big effect. I think it's really tough to get fat eating real food, and I think it's very, very hard to lose weight eating processed food. The only time I venture into the center of the grocery store is when I need plastics or chemicals. It seems to me it's just this giant biochemical half neurotoxin experiment on, the most of humanity that doesn't know much about anything to do with eating, it's just so bizarre but i think also because populations have grown in many places this is a lot to do with mass immigration but population have grown a lot of places to the point we just just need to feed more people. And so you're going to strip more soil. You need, uh, more filler. You need more, um, preservatives and so on to the point where I just think that it's like in the realm of the hung, in the realm of hungry ghosts, where the more you eat, the hungrier you get. And I think if you eat a bunch of stuff and you still feel unsatisfied, you're just going to eat more.
[40:47] Well, and I was also reading this article about loneliness and food. Have you guys ever ever noticed or thought about this particular connection, loneliness and food.
[41:03] And I find that really quite fascinating, that there are a lot of people, there are a lot of people who eat out of loneliness. Have you ever known someone like that? Or maybe you're someone someone like that, where the dopamine that we'd normally would get from social interactions, we then turn to get from food. I try not to buy anything in a brightly colored box. I try not to buy anything with extended ingredients. I try, and again, I'm not some perfect eater or anything like that, but I try to, uh, eat, uh, at home. I also try to eat, you know, at restaurants, of course, you can always, usually you can check the calorie count if it's a fairly, like if it's any kind of chain or whatever it is right but yeah just uh and i'm i'm a guy who i never feel full i think it's just an adaptation from growing up poor you just never feel i just have to tell myself to stop eating i don't get the signal from my body like oh that's it more than enough you should just stop eating because you're satisfied i just don't i don't get that chemical so.
[42:06] I i'm like the thomas covenant from the the thomas covenant series sorry that was a bit redundant Stephen R. Donaldson, he's a leper, right? And he's got a continually, he's a VSE, visual search of extremities, right? Do I have any cuts or bruises? Because I can't feel. And so I have to say to myself, this is how much I'm going to eat. I'm going to stop eating, but I never feel full. Most people don't need enough protein, and protein is the body signal that you've eaten enough. Yeah, I got to tell you, I just find this stuff annoying. You could be totally right, but it doesn't make any difference. I can have a meal of mostly meat, which is tons of protein, and I still don't feel full. So people who just have, well, it's just this. Just eat more protein, and you'll feel full. It's like, I just find this stuff annoying because, and this is not to do with you. I apologize to you, but just in Twitter in general, or social media as a whole, you just everyone is like well just do this or it's because of that or it's seed oils or it's no carbs it's just like it's not that simple nutrition is quite complex and your body adapts to everything i don't even trust the fruits and vegetables in the store probably full of chemicals too well of course uh we buy organic uh fruits and vegetables and wash them anyway which you know might be magical or whatever right but you know i assume that sooner or later they're going to put put MRNAs in grapes or something. I don't know.
[43:26] So it is, and I've never had a situation where I can be at a buffet. Like, you know, if every now and then I've overeaten, I still don't feel full. Like I objectively have eaten like, I don't know, 3000 calories or something mental like that, right? Just occasionally, like you're just absently snacking or eating or whatever, on a cruise ship or someplace where there's a buffet.
[43:46] I think I've gone to like two cruises in my life. And I'm like, I don't feel full. Somebody says, uh, I definitely go to food in times of stress or sadness was overweight as a child too. Yeah. Went to Pizza Hut today, but it's okay. Only once a month, max. Pizza Hut has the best pizza for me in a lot of ways. I used to work at, I haven't eaten it in a while, but I used to work at a Pizza Hut in my teens. It's fantastic. Fantastic.
[44:15] Skip sugar, fat, salt, palm oil, seed oil. So much of the store gets left out. Obviously, if government cared, they would subsidize healthy stuff and tax the junk. It never happens. Well, the government likes you being tired. And if you don't get good food, you're tired. And you don't have any particular energy to question or rebel, right? So, what, skip fat? I don't, what's wrong with fat? What's, I mean, have I missed, have I missed this? Because you know that the sugar industry like literally paid people in the government to say that that fat was the uh was the silver culprit right so, with most produce you can clean them with white vinegar or store strawberries in a mason jar and they last longer right.
[45:10] According to greenpeace your average apple has hundreds of thousands of particles of plastic in it, sucked into the tree by the roots. Soil and environment is polluted with plastics. Yes, the microplastics thing seems to be quite a big thing, and it really doesn't matter. You can go to some freshwater stream in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, you're still going to get microplastics in your trout.
[45:30] You've got to try Georgian-style kachapuri with egg, one of the best things ever. And where would I get that?
[45:47] Yeah. And isn't lifespan beginning to decline again and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, the, uh, the joys of the industrial revolution increase in lifespan, we seem to be on the downward side of that as a whole. So I hope that you're spreading the word to people about, uh, food and the dangers. I'm no nutritionist, so this is just my personal opinion, but I hope that you will catch a putty. That's how you say it in Georgia. Oh, now what's on my mind. Damn it. All right. So that's it for my rant about food. I don't remember any of my ancestors picking anything that came either in flakes, powder, or a box.
[46:32] So, I'm not a fan of food. I think of the current food pyramid now says cereal is healthier than steak. I don't know if the government has our best interest. Of course, look, the government always has your best interest at heart. That's why they're trying to figure out. Exactly why autism went from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 33 or something like that? What do you think about the economy these days? What do you mean? What economy? I don't think there is an economy. I think there's a bunch of illusions. I think there's a bunch of debt. I think there's a bunch of nonsense ideological props that make things seem to move around, but I don't see an economy. I don't see an economy. I see an illusion. I see a lot of fascism, a lot of corporate and government interweaving of power, but I don't see an economy in the way that I would understand it. I'm not just talking about donations on the show tonight. Although donations on the show tonight would be nice, but...
[47:44] Somebody says, sorry, my protein comment was about people eating junk food and not feeling full. Not your experience with feeling full. I wrote that just before you mentioned your own experience with eating and not feeling full. Oh, you mean eating meat? No problem. I appreciate that.
[47:54] Good rant. It's way too easy to fry up some meat, throw some flour on it with some vegetables, broth, and spice it for something really nutritious. Yeah, my daughter's into air frying now. For real, for real. Kellogg's created dry cereal to kill the sex drive. He was a religious zealot with ideas about purity of spirit and body. He was like hysterically anti-masturbation, right? I think that's, which is odd because the guy who is against masturbation invented a cereal that comes in quite handy. Anyway, enough of that. Thanks for talking about sucralose the other day. Switch to a protein powder that uses monk fruit much easier on my stomach. Erythritol is my nemesis. I can't do erythritol. No cap. Yeah. I was showing my daughter this meme the other day, which was somebody had taken Breaking Bad and dubbed in Gen Z language and Riz this and then the other and skibbity dibbity whatever it is. And it was really, really, really funny.
[48:55] Steph, have you watched any Ryan Dawson? He's exposed 9-11 and Epstein pretty thoroughly. I don't think I ever have watched any Ryan Dawson. I don't really watch the political stuff anymore. The time for reason is passed in that realm, so.
[49:12] Although I have been, I mean, what are my, what are my weaknesses? I wonder how well do you know your host? How well do you know what are my weaknesses?
[49:27] Singing songs too high for me, certainly. I found that not mixing water with my meals really helps the digestion process. I always wait at least 30 minutes to eat food after I drink water and do not drink water for roughly one hour after I eat. Eat uh james james gets that yeah i'm afraid it is it is it is gossip now now listen only fans ladies becoming born again christians is not a bluetooth yes uh gossip uh sugar and carrot cake and singing songs too high for me so have you been following any of this uh nala pearly things back and forth.
[50:12] Have you been following? I don't want to bore you guys if it's not of interest to you. But I find it quite interesting. There's a lot of theology, a lot of philosophy, a lot of morality, a lot of empiricism, but a massive trove of juicy gossip. I mean, philosophy. Philosophy is what drives me. That's the key. Yes, I have. Hell no. Look, we've got a nice divide there. See, there are people who shop outside the grocery store, people who shop in the middle, and people who follow this or not. It's very interesting, not as much recently. Well, well, well.
[51:00] So, I am Gen X. Yeah, me too. Even when we divide boomers between two generations, Gen Alpha slang is as beyond me as reading cursive and analog clocks are to them. Yeah, they're taking analog clocks out of schools now. What's the philosophical take on this nasty gossip? Well, here's what I'm getting. Christians have a very uneasy relationship relationship with judgment. You ever notice this? Judge not lest ye be judged. Well, God's going to judge you. Oh, and by the way, you need to judge whether something's coming from the devil or God. Oh, and also you have to judge whether something is sinful. And that's not just because it feels good because things that feel good are not necessarily sinful and things that feel bad aren't necessarily virtuous. So you've got to have a lot of discretion and judgment. You see, So you've got to judge virtue from vice, because Satan's always tempting you. He's always trying to get his slithery fingers into your priestly collar and separate you from the divine.
[52:06] So you've got to judge. Isn't that right? As a Christian, I mean, we've got lots of lovely Christians here. As a Christian, don't you have to judge all the time? Judge your own thoughts, judge your own actions, judge the thoughts and actions of others, judge your children, judge your pastorate. You have to judge all the time because Satan's constantly trying to tempt you into sin, so you've got to judge what is devilish and what is virtuous. You heard the Q&A about no sex before marriage. Very insightful, yeah. You depict this rather well in your novel, The Present, with Oliver and his mother. That's a total lie. I depict this fantastically well.
[52:48] I understand the phrase as judge not lest you be judged by the same standard. So, Christians, you have to judge because you can only get into heaven by making the right judgment, right? And do Christians think that the devil has no interest in infiltrating the church, right? I'm just out of curiosity. I mean, do they think that God has set up this fiery spiritual moat around the church so that the devil or devilish impulses cannot get anywhere close to the church?
[53:31] But I judge, and I want to be judged by the same standard. I would judge something as irrational, and I want to be judged by the same standard. I judge something as abusive, and I want to be judged by that same standard as well. So, it seems to me that the way that the devil would infiltrate the church, is through pretend repentant sinners. So the devil would say, he is an obvious sinner, obvious sinner. They're going to claim redemption and everyone has to accept her or you're too judgy.
[54:22] Isn't that how the devil would work? Because that way, there would be no barrier to hypocrites and grifters and exploiters coming into the church. Because anyone who tried to set up any kind of barrier and say, I'm going to need a little bit more than your words, right? Wouldn't the devil enter the church church through false conversions and false repentance. The devil would love to use your own standards and principles against you. Sure. Sure. Sure. Now, the infiltration of the church by devilish elements would be job one of Satan, right? So Satan would love to infiltrate the church, and the way he would do it is take somebody who was an obvious sinner, have that person repent or claim to repent, and then say that that any Christian who had any skepticism about this repentance is devilish.
[55:45] Tim says a much less known verse. Corinthians 6, 1 Corinthians 6, 2-6. Do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life. The Lord's people will judge the world.
[56:22] Isn't having a high barrier to entry the only way to maintain the integrity of an organization? The devil wants you to not judge, I would say. Well, sure. Well, but that's the hypocrisy, right? So, in the epic fight between Nala and Pearl, all the Christians, and they don't seem to be aware of this, and I won't say all, a lot of the Christians and non-Christians, But the people who are judging Pearl incredibly harshly are judging her incredibly harshly for judging others, and they don't seem to notice this hypocrisy at all. You are a terrible person for judging this sinner as potentially wanting. And it's like, what? What are you? Okay, so you've no problem judging someone, harshly, negatively, critically.
[57:40] You've no problem judging people harshly because you're judging Pearl harshly. So, on principle, you can't say that Pearl's judgment of Nala, which is not that she's a sinner, but that there's evidence that the conversion is not 100% yet, right? To put it mildly. So I don't understand. I don't understand how people's brain work in this way. This is the philosophical aspect of it. I mean, shouldn't you have some inkling that you're a rank freaking hypocrite, for judging others harshly because they judge others at all? I mean, some of the language I've seen come and pouring towards Pearl is downright abusive. And it's all like, Like, how dare you judge this person you witch with a capital B? And it's like, you're judging. Like, how do you not notice that?
[58:42] How do you not notice that? I don't understand this aspect of humanity that is an absolute black hole void of the perception of everlasting hypocrisy.
[59:06] How dare you judge her, you bitch? You're so intolerant. You lack faith. You're hypocritical. You're so intolerant for judging this person. You're judging this person. What is the matter with people? I don't... I don't get it. And I'm not trying to be, like, naive. Like, I get it. You know, be as innocent as the dove and be as wise as the serpent. but this is where my big, breaking point is with most of humanity. Has anyone pointed this out? I haven't seen anyone point this out. If judging people is bad, don't judge Pearl.
[59:56] Clearly, right? If judging people is bad, don't judge Pearl. So why? Why is that impossible possible for people to understand. Oh, judgment is bad. Judging people negatively is bad. And I don't think that Pearl is judging Nala with any particular negativity. She's just saying there's data points which should give us pause.
[1:00:23] And she has these data points and you can look into them. I don't want to reproduce them here because she puts them better than I do, but she She has these data points that give a pause. Oh, and by the way, it seems like she was on a show with a black fellow, a very wise and smart guy, who's got some of these data points. Oh, and he got banned on X. Not banned exactly, but it's a permanent suspension, whatever that means, right? So why is it, oh God, why is it after thousands of years of philosophy and hundreds of years of psychology, people don't have any clue that they're rankly violating their own principles in what they're doing. They don't have a clue about it. Jesus says, love your enemies. And they're all pouring abuse on Pearl, like they've never heard that. You know, Pearl and Sidney Watson going back and forth and Lauren Chen and all that, all getting into it. And it's like, love your enemies. Don't judge. Isn't that? So why is there hostility?
[1:01:45] I mean, everybody knows this, right? Love your enemies. If you think that Pearl is wrong, you should be responding to her with love and compassion and curiosity, right? Jesus forgave those who tortured him, had him drag his own cross through the streets. Crowned him with thorns, blood pouring down his neck and into his eyes, nailed him to a cross where he hung for days. He forgave them. Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. And these Christians.
[1:02:35] Seem to me, to be attacking each other, in ways that are hard to process and comprehend. And it's so against Christianity. Now, I don't view what Pearl is doing as anti-Christian at all. I mean, to evaluate sin and sinners and to keep yourself safe seems to me a very wise thing, right?
[1:03:16] And if you are a Christian, and you think that Pearl is wrong, then should you not respond to Pearl with love and gentle curiosity and instruction? To defend a sex worker and attack a rather charming volleyball player who has zero nudes, I don't follow. I'm genuinely curious and humbled before this confusing spectacle of Christian attack upon someone who's pointing out inconsistencies in someone who's claimed to have been converted. I don't understand it. I don't understand, how nobody's pointing this out.
[1:04:32] You're supposed to love your enemies. So, if somebody asks you for your shirt, you give them your cloak too. If somebody asks you to walk a mile with them or orders you to walk a mile with them, you walk two miles with them. If somebody strikes you on the cheek, you turn your other cheek to them, you forgive your enemies, you love your enemies. Shouldn't this preclude hostile, destructive attacks and acts of temper?
[1:05:10] I'm genuinely baffled. And this is an old baffle for me. And listen, I'm humbled, I'm kneeling before the edifice of the hive mind here to be instructed on these very deep matters. On these very deep matters. I don't understand how hostile, judgy Christians call themselves Christians. I don't understand it. They lie, they misrepresent, they attack, they abuse, they undermine, they judge, they are hostile. I don't understand how judgy, hostile Christians call themselves Christians. And I'm not trying to play dumb here. I don't understand it.
[1:06:13] Somebody says faith without works is dead jesus told the woman caught in adultery go and sin no more if you have changed stop sinning well no i understand that there's a transition period and and you know you don't you know immediately become perfect and all of that but, i don't i don't understand, how judgment and hostility, figure out in Christianity. And again, maybe that's something I'm missing, but I don't know.
[1:07:08] Oh, this is where the whole mukbang trained. Oh, yeah, mukbang. My daughter told me about that. Most will to power, most people aren't moral, just self-gratification seekers. I mean, I hear what you're saying, but why is it that there doesn't even seem to be a conversation with people who say, you're kind of attacking Pearl for criticizing Nala. If criticizing Nala is bad, then attacking Pearl must be worse, right?
[1:07:52] Does this make sense? It's a principle thing, right? If criticizing Nala is bad for Pearl, attacking Pearl must be worse, because criticizing is less negative than attacking.
[1:08:14] And I'm not asking for Christians to be perfect. Of course not. Far from it. I mean, Lord knows I'm not perfect. And that's an impossible standard that we shouldn't try to pursue. But what I don't understand, genuinely don't understand, is why people aren't pointing out this blindingly obvious hypocrisy and this absolute reversal of Christ's message. Why is it worse? Because they say they know the standard but then break it. No, so criticizing someone is not abusive. But attacking someone is. A coach criticizes you. He's not being abusive. Telling the truth about someone is not abusive. Lying about someone is. Objectively evaluating Evaluating the facts about someone is not abusive, but attacking that person for doing that is abusive. So it's worse.
[1:09:34] Someone says, Twitter seems to bring out the worst in people. Perhaps it exposes people for who they really are. People must feel safe to take their social mask off there. Again, I'm just trying to sort of figure this out. Why isn't anyone as a whole saying.
[1:09:53] Like, guys, stop attacking Pearl, because even if you think she's really wrong, you're attacking her for criticizing someone, and therefore if you attack Pearl, you're very hypocritical, and also jesus said to love those who oppose you to love your enemies so well she's not loving nala okay okay let's let's say that she's uh sinning pearl let's say she's sinning i mean whatever right let's say she's sinning but then you don't if criticizing nala is a sin then attacking pearl, is compounding that sin now the devil gets two and a half sins for the price of one, and you're not following love your enemies me. Now, Pearl is, to my knowledge, and I don't know, I haven't obviously watched everything she's done, but I don't know, and I don't know her religious beliefs. I have a belief, but I don't know them. So, I haven't seen her say, okay, so if criticizing people is a sin, then attacking me is a sin. It's a greater sin. If me pointing out that Nala raised her OnlyFans prices four times after her conversion, which seems to be a fact, if me pointing that out is a sin, then you attacking me for telling the truth about someone has to be much more of a sin.
[1:11:22] So, how can you call yourself a Christian if you attack someone you disagree with? I think Pearl is trying to coach the church. That's my impression. Well, I think Pearl, by her own statements, is trying to save the church. And I don't really follow her argument, not because it's a bad argument or it's over complex. You can usually handle those. But I think that Pearl is saying that the interest that young men have in the church has declined by 50% over the last while and that the church is not going to do well with these kinds of standards.
[1:12:12] I think she's saying that there's negative effects for the church. Now, if you have a belief, do you know, if you want to discredit a belief, if you want to discredit a belief system, and particularly a moral system, what's the best thing to do? If you want to discredit a moral system, what's the best thing to do? What's the most powerful thing that you can do?
[1:12:44] It's not to oppose it. It's not to disprove it. It's not to attack it. It's not to under, how do you best discredit a moral belief system? Proclaim loudly that you believe in it while not living it. Yeah. Do the opposite. No fine contradictions. No, no. I mean, there's tons of contradictions in most belief systems, but that doesn't matter yet. You proclaim loudly that you follow this belief system and then you act terribly, right? You act in opposition to the belief system. You proclaim that you follow a belief and then you act terribly while loudly proclaiming your adherence to this belief. leave. Steph, you have a way of making me see things in a way I could never by myself. Well, I appreciate that. I do have a bit of a gift that way, and I appreciate your kindness. Thank you.
[1:13:53] Right. So if I wanted to discredit peaceful parenting, I would loudly proclaim peaceful parenting and then openly abuse my daughter, right? Unthinkable, incomprehensible, but that's how you would do it, right? So what's really tragic is, okay, so who's going to do more damage to the church? Let's say this Nala thing, it's just a grift or a ploy or a play. I don't know, whatever. I can't read minds. But let's say that is the case. What is going to discredit the church or Christianity more? Is it going to be this woman or the infighting of people doing the opposite of what they claim is their moral beliefs? Huh.
[1:14:57] The question of can you be redeemed is absolutely foundational to morality because morality always starts with people who don't believe that morality and have often done the opposite, right? So the question of can you be redeemed is really powerful and really foundational. You can't spread a philosophy without adherence. However, some adherents are there pretending to believe the philosophy in order to discredit it. And also, some people come into an environment in order to set people against each other. And they love to watch the fight.
[1:15:50] Have you ever known people like that? that they have an absolute genius for provoking hypocrisy and conflict. We've seen this so many times throughout the years in this convo. Yeah, it's definitely come and gone in this convo. I mean, I remember many years ago, in the old, old, old forum from like 2008, a professional troll, I'm not kidding, a professional troll came in, I didn't know this at the time, and basically talked about the joys of of hookers and blow, the joys of hookers and drugs. Oh my gosh, James, you were there for that? Do you remember? It was Krakatoa. It was nuclear, what happened.
[1:16:47] Oh, you missed that one. Yeah, he came in talking about prostitutes and drugs and how great and all of this, that and that, right? And there was this eruption of people who were, criticizing this perspective and other people who were rapidly defending this and wow, that was something else. There also, of course, would be people who would come in who were determinists and very cocky and aggressive about it and they're just experts of getting under people's skin and turning them against each other what does professional troll mean was he actually paid by someone i can't remember honestly but he did say that this was his job it was more than a hobby um so i don't know i i honestly couldn't remember this is like, um 16 years ago but yeah he was um he definitely was like he targeted the community he came in and he was just an absolute expert at riling up hostility and bringing out infighting. And, let's watch you and him fight or let's watch you and her fight is really foundational to a lot of really disturbed personalities.
[1:18:13] And resisting that that is the only chance you have. James, I was a very easy target for getting troll-baited. Well, I was, you know, back in the day, too. None of us really had any experience about this in 2006, 2007, so it was all inventing as we went along.
[1:18:38] So, So... Maybe I should say expert troll because he'd done this with a bunch of other communities and was very, uh, I found this out sort of later, but yeah, he targeted some, an expert troll, like not, it wasn't just, I'm, I'm a shit poster. Like he was dedicated, professional, an expert had targeted a number of communities. So I should probably say an expert troll. And.
[1:19:12] To be able to resist this kind of stuff is pretty foundational to your community getting respect. I mean, can you imagine if, so Pearl has her criticisms of Nala and imagine if people were like, hey man, I really get where you're coming from. I really want to hear your evidence. Lay it all out for me. We need better social media. Yeah, no, we just need peaceful parenting, and then we won't have this stuff, right? And, you know, I love that. But they would say to Pearl, I love that you're concerned about the community. I love that you're concerned about the church. I love that you're concerned about the potential risks of bringing a woman in who absolutely adores sleeping with married men into a bunch of married men. I understand your concerns. Like, lay it all out for me. Let me hear. And, you know, then listen to that data. listen to that, and then say, you know, here's my counter, like to come in and have a respectful conversation. Can you imagine what that would do to the prestige of Christianity? This is what I don't understand.
[1:20:20] And it's really, honestly, it's just like a wave of sadness in me about this, is how absolutely selfish do you need to be to have this petty, vicious infighting when a civilized conversation would be the greatest draw to converts known to man?
[1:20:47] Tim says, Jesus said there's always going to be tears among the wheat, or false believers among the true believers, and it's important that true believers can recognize the false. I think this whole thing is good for the church because it's educational for the true believers about the false. I appreciate Pearl for highlighting the problem. Now, it isn't the problem, in my opinion, it's the endless support of simps.
[1:21:09] I guess. I think that I would would imagine that most of the people who are defending Nala are people who are postponing their own salvation. And therefore they want to believe that there's an avenue by which they can be saved. And I view this salvation as essential to philosophy, to be saved from ignorance, to be saved from pettiness, to be saved from distraction, to be saved from being easily sucked into the the more of the Borg evil hive mind, right? Independence of thought, integrity, virtue, love, all of these things to be saved, right? We all need to be saved, right? I mean, I was saved from my mother's craziness by philosophy. I was saved from a bad marriage by the chance comment of a friend's girlfriend, a potential bad marriage. I was saved from a fate for me worse than death, which was to take my gifts and placed them in service of corruption.
[1:22:16] But what's really sad for me is everybody knows that if they responded to Pearl's facts and criticism with love and curiosity, that other people would look at that and say, that's an incredible thing to see. And that would bring more people to Jesus, more people to God, more people to Christianity, more people to reason, more people to curiosity. It would be an act of salvation in the world.
[1:22:53] But they would rather indulge in this petty, silly vengeance rather than show the power of their beliefs and bring people greater respect for Jesus, the Church, God, and salvation. The people who would do that don't use Twitter. Well, that's a cop-out. I know I'm not using Twitter, but I did for many, many, many years. He says, we've got a similar sort of situation with Crowder's divorce proceedings. I agree that this stuff damages the reputation of Christianity. I haven't really been following the Crowder's divorce proceedings, but it does seem like there's accusations of manipulation and infighting, and was he an abuser? So it is, well, even the divorce proceedings with Crowder and his wife are both staunch Christians. They waited until getting married to have sex even, which is obviously quite unusual in the modern world. So let's say that they can't get along for whatever reason, then why would there be any contention in their divorce? Because you're supposed to love your enemies. They should both be overly generous with each other and the lawyer should be saying, no, no, that's too much. Don't offer so much. And then they should both be like, well, it didn't work out, but love your enemies. Like, I don't understand where this contention comes from.
[1:24:15] Like, my mother was petty and vengeful, but she was not religious. And I learned about Christianity and was a Christian for many years. And one of the things, and there's sorrow in me about this as well, because maybe it was a bad idea, but I'll tell you. One of the things that turned me off of Christianity was not seeing Christians act poorly. Lord knows, again, that happens to all of us, and I'm not going to judge a belief by its inconstant adherence. But it was seeing Christians who acted poorly who couldn't be called out by the principles of Christianity. Christianity.
[1:25:08] So, if I were a Christian in this conflict, and let's say I had, oh, I'm so mad at Pearl or mad at whoever, right? I'm so angry. Say, okay, well, that's a sin, the sin of wrath, right? That's bad. And Jesus commands me to love my enemies, so I'm going to reach out with love and affection and positivity. And now it's all like, well, she ducked out on a debate. No, I didn't. My grandmother died, and it's like, oh, my God. God, what are you doing? Well, you never got back to us. Well, I didn't see the message. Like, what are you doing?
[1:25:48] And has anyone said this is all a sin? Right, if judging people is a sin, then judging Pearl even more harshly than she's judging Nala is more of a sin, so you shouldn't do that. Like it's bad therefore you shouldn't do it right isn't it's bad therefore you should it's bad by your standards i'm not making up these standards these are the standards that you claim to live by, so you should live by them do you know what i mean, i was joking with my daughter she went to the grocery store today and i'm like please bring Bring me some granola. No, dad. Oh, come on. No, dad. It's got added sugar. Fine. Then get me some yogurt parfaits with granola. So we were just joking about it, right? She's like, no, by your standards, you don't have added sugar. So I'm not buying you granola.
[1:26:39] But that's what, it's like, I understand that people fail their beliefs. But shouldn't they attempt to meet their beliefs when reminded does that make sense i i'm i'm sorry i i'm frustrated because i'm not putting it as well as i want to i'll get there i i this is like it's like a big hexagon hexagonal thought in my cube brain or something like that i just can't get, where i want to get to linguistically which is not common for me but it's an interesting challenge challenge.
[1:27:21] It's like if somebody says, I really, really want to diet. I'm just desperate to diet. Got to lose weight. And then they say, I'm going to have me half a cheesecake. And you say, well, hang on. Sorry, aren't you supposed to diet? What are you talking about? This is the right thing to do. Yeah. Should they welcome being reminded of their beliefs? If somebody says to me, you're not being rational or you're going against the evidence, I'm like, oh, thank you, thank you Yes, that's what I want to do.
[1:28:01] You're sinning by attacking You're sinning by infighting You're sinning by discrediting Christianity By not loving your enemies You're discrediting it You're putting your own, Somewhat, in my view, demonic vanity In front of that which is good for your soul, for Jesus, for God, for humanity, for salvation.
[1:28:24] So why aren't the Christians saying to the infighters, and I'm not putting them all in one bag, like, oh, they're just, everyone's fighting. I think there are better and worse people in it, but that's not particularly important. What is important is why isn't everyone saying, you guys got to stop the fighting. This is very unchristian. This is not what Jesus would do. You could, like, what are you doing? You're Christians. Stop, stop this. Like, I understand that Satan is tempting you with anger, but you have to love your enemies. Like, you can't say you've got to apologize to Pearl. Like, you're doing the wrong thing here. Like, by your own standards, by your own values, you're Christians, and you're attacking someone, claiming that it's bad to judge people. That's hypocritical, right? And hypocrisy is one of the biggest sins, because it is the chasm through which all of the other sins rush. It's the hole in the dam which bursts the whole thing open. Because once you don't care about hypocrisy, all you can do is mimic virtue, which discredits virtue more than if you were openly corrupt. So this is what I don't understand. I understand failing your values. I don't understand why nobody's calling this out. Why? Why aren't people saying, whether it's public or private, it. But why aren't people saying, this is all a sin? You can't be attacking. You've got to love your enemies. Like, what are you doing?
[1:29:51] You can't do this and call yourself a Christian.
[1:29:57] Possible theories. Kids are taught not to call out their parents and fail to learn how to do so once they grow up. Maybe. But eternal souls hang in the balance of these interactions. Eternal souls hang in the balance of these interactions. This is why I have a problem. And again, it could just be my problem. But if you can't act better when you contradict your own highest stated values, when heaven and hell, not just for yourself, but for others, hangs in the balance, how could this work?
[1:30:44] I mean, obviously, Nala likes attention. Obviously, she likes attention. attention. So one of the ways in which she would be redeemed is to give up her greed for attention, which means she wouldn't be on people's shows.
[1:31:03] If most people are failing values, then would they even want to call them out? Well, I wonder if it's the accumulation of things, right? So if you've acted out and been mad and nasty towards someone online and you say, well, it's a real sin. And then other people say, well, you did it. And maybe they don't want to have that uncovered, or something like that, right? Tim says, always wise, sometimes people visibly violating their stated values is a good thing. The Sanhedrin having Jesus crucified being the biggest example. Well, but Jesus was crucified to pass the message forward of love your enemies, and so those who claim to follow Jesus, who attack other people for asking questions or having having objective criticisms, are sinning. And why is, again, I'm not on Twitter other than I read a couple of things, but why I haven't seen anyone saying, guys, this is all incredibly sinful. I mean, you people who've attacked Pearl are being extremely hypocritical and you need to apologize to Pearl. Right? Right.
[1:32:15] You need to, like, you're sinning, and you're discrediting God and Jesus and Christianity, which is imperiling other people's souls. You're imperiling your own soul by falling prey to the sin of wrath. So do the right thing and apologize to her. You can't attack her for criticizing someone else. Because if criticizing other people is bad, then you've just sinned by attacking Pearl. You need to reach out to her with love and affection and curiosity. And bring her to wisdom through affection, not through attacks and you didn't call back and you skipped this debate by making up a trip you never went on. Like, that's a sin. That's bearing false witness, isn't it?
[1:33:01] What am I missing? Maybe this has all been happening, but I've not heard anyone say anything about it. I've not seen anything. I haven't been following it, obviously, a huge amount. but why is no one saying this obvious moral contradiction of attacking someone who's criticizing someone else why is nobody pointing out that even if you view pearl as some terrible person i don't but let's say you do then you should love your enemies i i don't understand what the point is of the belief if you can just abandon it at will and nobody ever calls you out on it and it doesn't matter to you and you never circle back and you shouldn't you be praying, for what to do in this situation shouldn't you if you're a christian shouldn't you be praying let's say you're mad at pearl shouldn't you be praying jesus guide me jesus take the wheel what should i do now if jesus says as he does as he would.
[1:34:05] If you view Pearl as someone who's doing wrong, you have to love the sinner. You don't have to love the sin. You can hate the sin, but you love the sinner and you approach her with love and curiosity. You love your enemies. So if you view Pearl as an enemy, you have to overcome your animal nature, your satanic nature of anger and the desire to attack and humiliate. You have to overcome that and you have to approach Pearl with love.
[1:34:33] So, either the people who were attacking Perl are praying and Jesus is telling them this, but they're not listening, or they're doing the opposite, in which case I wouldn't view them as Christians, right? I mean, if you say, I follow the Atkins diet, and then you eat a diet of barbed wire and ball bearings, then you're not following the Atkins diet, or if you eat the opposite of of everything that Atkins diet tells you to eat, you're not following the Atkins diet. So if you're praying and Jesus is saying, approach somebody you disagree with strongly with love and affection and curiosity, as Jesus would say, but you do the exact opposite, then how are you a Christian? Or they're not praying, in which case, if you don't pray for guidance in times of moral challenge, how are you a Christian? Again, I'm sure this is all explainable in some obvious way that I'm not seeing. But I don't understand, why nobody's really appealing to Christian values in a Christian conflict.
[1:35:50] And I'm totally happy to be corrected on all of this. But I don't see how it works, and I don't see people pointing out, most Christians are not participating, but they should participate. They should participate.
[1:36:20] I would argue that it's almost a moral duty to participate because people are out there discrediting Christianity by acting in the exact opposite way that Jesus commands, while claiming to be Christians.
[1:36:39] Stop it. Love your enemies. Apologize.
[1:36:47] And if you won't apologize, accept that you are going against Christianity. If you won't apologize for an attack while saying that it's bad to attack, if you won't apologize for the hypocrisy, if you won't apologize for falling prey to the sin of temper, for the sin of rage, of wrath, then you're just not following Jesus. You need to admit that. I'm doing the opposite of what Jesus commands.
[1:37:10] Why is nobody saying that? What am I missing? What am I missing? Why is nobody saying that honestly if somebody who said he was a big fan of me, if somebody who said he was a big fan of me and a prominent person said he was a big fan of me and he was out there advocating for spanking I would say no that's not correct, no no no no no that's wrong no no no no that's a violation of the non-aggression principle it is the initiation of force it is anti-UPB it is anti-science it is anti-psychology it is anti-mental health.
[1:37:46] I mean, would I not get involved? And if you have a public battle that is pretty ugly between a large number of Christians, and this is a big topic. Like, don't kid yourselves, guys. This is a big topic. And Christianity and Christians right now are under the spotlight. And people are looking and saying, does it work?
[1:38:19] Because the left says, hate your enemies. The right says, love your enemies. But if what the right is doing is kind of indistinguishable from what the left does, what's the point? It's an imaginary divide. Tim says Jesus showed the true values of the Sanhedrin the people attacking Pearl don't value loving your enemies and Pearl is making that visible in a similar way the people attacking her are like another Sanhedrin no but they're Christians they're not a Sanhedrin they're Christians, so if you're acting in an anti-Christian fashion why don't people say you're acting in an anti-Christian fashion you need to reverse your behavior, I mean, why aren't people saying that? Why aren't they saying you're violating and reversing the foundational commandments of Christianity to love your neighbor as yourself and love your enemies in particular? You're violating the basic tenets of Christianity. You are a Christian. You need to apologize, and you need to figure out how you got into this sinful state, and you need to find some path to redemption.
[1:39:42] I think the reason I don't get involved is because the horde of nonsense is so huge. Each post Pearl does has like 2,000 crazy comments underneath. Do you not think that Jesus faced any kind of crazy? I mean, Jesus faced insane crazy imperialistic Rome.
[1:40:02] And you wouldn't necessarily get involved to change the people themselves. They may be in sort of a demonic grip in a way, right? I'd use this as an analogy, right? But you would say, this is not unchristian, this is almost anti-christian, right? Wouldn't this be the case? Again, I defer to people whose theological expertise vastly outstrips mine.
[1:40:29] But wouldn't you say to those people attacking Pearl, well, no, no, you're Christians, you have to love your enemies. Look, what are you doing? Well, we're allowed to judge sinners harshly, well, that's what Pearl's doing, so then why would you be attacking her? Right? What are you talking about? I mean, isn't it very simple? Isn't it very simple? If Christians are allowed to judge sinners harshly, then Pearl's criticisms of Nala would be justified in the faith. And of course if if i were to be looking at somebody who's i don't want to talk about manala in particular because it's a generalized thing if i were to be looking at someone, who was a convert to christianity if i if i were judging that i would say, the first thing that needs to be done is an absolute welcoming welcoming of criticism and an absolute acceptance of skepticism.
[1:41:42] If I've been anti-a belief system and then I joined that belief system and people are skeptical, I would say, of course you are. I would be too. I can completely understand that. That makes perfect sense to me. And it would be crazy or silly to not be skeptical of me. Of course. Of course. Of course you're skeptical. It makes perfect sense. I've not had a perfect transition. I have been very harsh towards these belief systems in the past. Let's say i i joined roman catholicism tomorrow and they said well look at all these things you said that they're negative towards yeah absolutely you you're right you're absolutely right and i completely understand your skepticism i encourage you to cross-examine me i encourage you to wait, to let me prove myself of course you're going to be skeptical i would be in your shoes as opposed to? How dare you question my... That's not how you do it. That's not how a rational person would approach an opposite belief. Right?
[1:42:55] Well, I mean, I can tell you what I really think. No, I probably shouldn't. But deep down, I'll tell you what I really think, if you like. It's going to be good. What is it like? I'm looking again. 20 bucks. It's a 20-buck donation tonight. You know, I'm working pretty hard here for close to two hours. And it's funny because I went to my email and I thought it was a donation. But no, no. Somebody just canceled their subscription. So I thought it might be a donation, but no.
[1:43:40] All right? I would appreciate a tip if you find what I'm about to say of value. But this is this community without their philosopher. This is this community without their philosopher. Because if I were still within this community, I would be saying all of this to the community, and this is the community without their moral philosopher.
[1:44:28] I mean, I knew a lot of these people to one degree or another, sometimes in the past, right? And yeah, this is the community without the objective moral philosopher to remind people of how to be good. This is what happens when a community abandons, I won't say it's conscience because everybody has a conscience, But this is what happens when a community abandons and betrays a pretty effective moral philosopher that was in their environment, if that makes sense. Because what appears to be blindingly obvious to me appears to be virtually impossible for everyone else. Not you guys, of course, but in general. What seems to be blindingly obvious to me appears to be virtually impossible to everyone else. Isn't that wild? This is the dissident community without their philosopher.
[1:45:40] Thank you for the donation. I appreciate that. Thank you. But tell me if I'm wrong.
[1:45:52] Now, of course, if this community is having this massive fight, this battle, and they know about a moral philosopher, and some of them, I've even done shows with some of them, Wouldn't they say, well, we're having this conflict. It seems to be escalating. It's quite unpleasant. But we have a moral philosopher and kind of an expert in conflict resolution and negotiation. Why don't we call him? Do you know what I mean? Why don't we call him? This guy deals with these kinds of issues. And, of course, the offer is open. If anybody wants to call me about this conflict, I'd be very happy. I could work it out. with you guys very easily or at least it wouldn't take long and you know i would absolutely promise to not record to not report to not say a word to not not have anything i i i can be the soul of discretion i am as full of secrets as the titanic is of bones and uh i would absolutely do that but they this is life without philosophy this is life without objective morals this is life without conscience accountability this is life without people reminding you to live by the the standards you impose upon others.
[1:47:16] Thank you. I appreciate that. I watch and I appreciate that. Ground beef. But does this make sense? This is what happens in the world without philosophy.
[1:47:35] Escalation. No accountability. Nobody saying you got to stand by your values. Nobody pointing out the obvious logical and moral contradictions in what you're doing, nobody holding you to account, nobody with a good enough conscience, to hold you to account to your own beliefs. Because don't you have to have a good conscience to hold others to their hypocrisy? Right? Thanks, Tim. I appreciate that. My conscience is pretty good like if i say to people you should stand by what you believe if this is what you believe you have to act on it you have to act with integrity to what you believe, what are people gonna get me on right what what's their blowback gonna be.
[1:48:32] Right what are they gonna well you what what what What? I mean, I'm not saying I've ever been perfect, but I don't think there's some big obvious thing. You got to act with integrity to what you believe, man. I'll tell you something, man. Let's get a little personal here as we sort of wind things down and thank you for your support. Let's get a little personal here. Okay. It may be guessed. Okay. Let me ask you this. on a scale of 1 to 10 how much in general do I enjoy, attention let's be honest right I'm not going to hide any of this from you guys right on a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you think I like attention.
[1:49:23] I mean, I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, but it's a thing. About five? Yeah. Seven? Eight? Yeah. I mean, I don't mind attention at all. Let's put it that way, right? Now, I don't like it when it's like, you know, enemies with lasers or whatever, right? But, you know, in terms of like, I'm standing in front of a crowd, I, you know, I had, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of people on a live stream. and I'm like, yeah, I like that, that's good. I mean, part of it's for philosophy and part of it is for me, you know, whatever, right? So I like attention. Anybody who's in this sort of public sphere who, oh, I just hate attention. I mean, come on, let's be ridiculous. Don't be ridiculous, right?
[1:50:11] It's like someone playing stadiums saying I hate music. I mean, it's just ridiculous, right? I hate attention. Spotlight on me, spotlight on me. Now, I know that part of it is through philosophy and all. There's nothing, I mean, and I don't have any problem with it. It's just something. And you kind of have to. If I was some great philosopher and I hated attention, that wouldn't be as good for philosophy, would it? Because this is kind of how you get people is talking in live and all that kind of stuff, right? So, yes, I like attention. Now, what did I have to be willing to give up to tell the truth to the world? Myself on a one to ten of liking attention, tension? Um, probably closer to eight than seven. I don't desperately need it. I mean, obviously you have had a much smaller audience and haven't been doing live speeches for like four years plus, but what did I have to be willing to give up to tell the truth? I like attention. I like doing documentaries. I love doing live speeches. What did I have to be willing to give up to tell the truth. Yeah, my audience, attention, I grew up poor and I had to give up a lot of money to tell the truth.
[1:51:30] That's the price. And you have to be willing to give up what you treasure in order to be good because otherwise what you treasure will be used to make you bad.
[1:51:42] You have to be able to give up what you treasure in order to be good. Otherwise, what you treasure will be leveraged to make you bad.
[1:51:55] I mean, bad people study me and know that I like attention So they're like, and they know that I grew up poor and like money. And so they're like, okay, well, if we take away his audience, his reputation, his attention and his money, then he won't tell the truth. But I did. Right. But I did. So that's because there's nothing more valuable than a good conscience. Because without a good conscience, nothing else is of value. you. Yeah, what did it cost? Everything. Not everything. I mean, family and self-respect and virtue and good friends, these all, right? Because if you were good and you're made bad, you have nothing in common with anyone except the corrupt. Because the good people recognize that you've gone bad and don't want to spend time with you. The bad people recognize that that you gave up the good, which they never had, and so they have no respect for you at all. And the other corrupt people are all lying to themselves about still being good, so you never end up with any contact with anyone. It's pure isolation. Pure isolation with a bad conscience is kind of hell, right?
[1:53:19] So I know that you have to be willing to give up what you most treasure in order to become good. You have to be willing to give up just about everything in order to maintain your integrity. That's the deal. And countless thinkers, Jesus himself, philosophers, have shown us that and they leverage you through your desires to betray your principles. And therefore you have to be willing to let go of your desires in order to maintain your principles. Otherwise, you don't have any principles and you might as well just be a hedonist, right? I don't want to be in this tortured state of like, I've got these principles and I'm going to sell some of them but not others. Anyway, so.
[1:54:01] Yeah. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It's not a deal I ever wanted to make. I was occasionally tempted. I was, you know, some people would dangle a lot of money or whatever. I'd be occasionally tempted, but you just kind of shake that stuff off and you look to the long view, right?
[1:54:36] And this is why, you know, Nala, I mean, she likes attention and she likes money. And she's not giving up attention, and she's not giving up her money. Tim says, what you give up is your empirical evidence that you're more than a hedonist. Or what I show. Yeah. Yeah. If you chase the approval of others to the point where you dislike yourself, you gain neither the love of others or the respect of yourself. It's a bad deal. Because people will say, oh, we'll love you if you lie. We'll love you if you betray yourself. And then you do that, and then they just leave you. Because they got what they wanted, and they move on to someone else they can corrupt. You think there's going to be this big embrace, this big love bomb of all the people once they finally corrupt you? No. They just move on to the next prey. Eh, eh, right?
[1:55:51] Somebody says, a question, are the people behind the Every Child Matters campaign being hypocrites since A, it's based on a lie about mass graves, I don't know what that means, and two, that they don't promote peaceful parenting. Thank you. Well, if Every Child Matters, then I just did this bit in the peaceful parenting book. Look, if every child matters, then there should be no national debt. And if every child matters, then society should be working as hard as humanly possible to pay off the national debt. But they don't, and they're not. It's just an appeal to sentimentality so you can be exploited. Sentimentality is when you want the feeling of virtue without the risk of virtue. You, you know, like Bono, the asshole singer for you too. You know, he spent all of the nineties racing around the world to help Africa. And now his own home country of Ireland is being swallowed up into semi-totalitarianism and he's not saying a goddamn thing. Because he wants to sing in Las Vegas at the bowl. Fuck. How much fame, how much money, how much success is enough?
[1:57:04] I mean, was I reading the other day, the guitarist at The Edge is worth like 300 million pounds? Apparently integrity is 301 million pounds in that equation. Ugh. I just, I could, how much money, how much fame, how much success do you need to the point where you're willing to put in 1% of the energy you use to help another continent to help your own homeland? Nope. Nope. unless I've missed something big and obvious, but I don't think I have. It's really sad. It's really sad. All these people I thought were so much larger than life when I was younger. Because, you know, Bono's been political forever and talking about the troubles, and the African debt crisis and woke political, woke political, larger than life, and then he just turns out to be another paper tiger. You know, it's really sad because charisma is wanting to be liked by people.
[1:58:08] And so the people who have the biggest voice want to be liked, but then their desire to be liked is used to corrupt and silence them.
[1:58:22] I mean, Bono is, what is he, like 60 now? His voice is half shot, not as bad as Paul McCartney, but his voice is half shut. He hasn't written a hit song in like 20 years. It's all nostalgia bullshit tour of songs that they wrote in their 20s. At what point is he going to say, with all my money and all my fame and all my wealth and all my success and all my authority and all my power, maybe I can say something about what's happening in my actual home country of Ireland.
[1:59:00] No, because people so desperately want to be liked that they're just threatened with people being engineered to dislike them and they just give up the ghost. They give up their souls. And he is a very staunch Christian. So, how is it helping him? How is it helping Ireland? Ah!
[1:59:29] It's very sad when you see the larger-than-life figures of your youth turn out to be Papier-Marchais turbo-cucks, enslaved to the adulation of empty-headed people.
[1:59:45] Ah, it's really, it's really, really sad. Well, I mean, it was a form of idolatry on my part, so I'm not blaming them. It's my issue, but it's very sad. I don't know, has he talked about the... I mean, some of the hate speech, I think it didn't pass, but the hate speech stuff that's trying to be passed in Ireland, crazy stuff. But will he say anything? Doesn't really seem to say anything. Thanks, Matt. I really, really appreciate that. All right. Look at that. I keep thinking I'm going to do a short show, but you guys are too interesting and the topics are too fascinating. And I love you guys for being here tonight. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your kindness, for your attention, for your support. I will publish tomorrow the opening chapters of part three of peaceful parenting and, i hope that you enjoy it i hope you find it valuable and thanks to jared for big chunks oh that research.
[2:00:43] It got passed in scotland yeah now then they have 6 000 complaints right one of which was the prime minister mcgregor said something yeah yeah that's terrible no you hang up first right so if you're listening to this later of course free domain.com slash donate i would really really appreciate it are you going to check out the new fallout show all right hit me with a why if i should check out the new fallout show hit me with a why i'll just make a note of that, that was a great show once i get employed i will be tipping again good i appreciate that thank you thank you uh yeah thank you for the great show thank you for being here and for chatting i I really, really appreciate that. Let me just check in on Tether platforms.
[2:01:35] Do-do-do, do-do-do-do, contract is a lifelong one. Maybe. Maybe, maybe that's true. Gross. You don't think so? No? No? Is it worth trying to see, uh... Is it worth trying to see Civil War? What would you vote? Fallout fan i never played the fallout games and i'm sure they're great it's just it seems like the time commitment was rather large to learn those games it's like the red dead redemption, yeah why not that's two hours of my life that's why do you mean why not is that the one where texas and california team up i think so i don't know which states are in in which team. I'm sure it's not particularly explained, or if it is, it's going to be a mix so that he doesn't offend either, right? Glad to see the world didn't end when the sun went out. Yeah, that was funny, right? All right. Well, thank you. I will mull it over. I appreciate you guys. Have a wonderful evening. Lots of love from up here. I'll talk to you soon.
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