[0:00] Good evening, everybody. Hey, Pinch Punch First Day of the Month, and it is Friday Night Live.
Good evening, good evening, good evening. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thank you for dropping by tonight.
We have much to chat about, most of which, of course, I hope is generated by you, because I'm doing my hair.
I'm doing a new series called Wrestling with the Dead, wherein I take impactful quotes that hit me hard from philosophers who are dead, so you got the whole point of their work there's nothing that they're adding and i've done roger scruton i've done democratus and i've done thales the latter two ancient greek philosophers and things that i found that really hit me hard over the years many years ago my brother got me a book on great thinkers and it was like a massive book of like great quotes from great thinkers which i I used to think about and read about a lot. I used to read it a lot.
Like, you know how you pick up your tablet back then? I'd pick up this massive tome and work through it. And of course, I remember a bunch of stuff from it.
So I'm digging up those quotes and going over why they hit me hard.
[1:13] Very interesting. Very interesting stuff. So I hope that you'll check it out.
Right now it's going out to donors.
When I've got a bunch of them together, they'll go out to the stream.
It's kind of nice when you have them in sequence rather than scattered.
Uh i i guess somebody says i guess i'm just really tired of people not being able to handle what is true and supposed to help them so that's interesting.
[1:44] That's interesting. Sorry, I'm just reading some comments here.
Blunt helpful truth is kind of tough, right? Blunt helpful truth is kind of tough.
[1:58] Blunt helpful truth is kind of tough. Most times, people will attack you in order to dominate you.
People who criticize you in order to help you are kind of few and far between.
And people who do it in a way that can be encouraging is interesting.
Steph, I've been listening to you for years. How did I not know you had a brother?
Well, I mean, technically, I have a brother. I haven't talked to him in decades.
And, you know, it's not his particular issue or fault that I have some level of prominence, so I don't mention him much.
But yes, technically, biologically, I do have a brother.
My brother from the same mother or another mother. I don't know.
Sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I wonder. All right.
So let us get to.
Well, I mean, I guess we could ask, where's Bitcoin? coin.
Not bad, not bad at all. 87, 7, 84, sorry, no, 87, 84, 7, 23. Don't, don't panic.
Don't get too excited. That's Canadian. That's Canadian.
So, uh, thanks for those links. I'll, I'll check them out.
[3:22] Uh, I saw someone complained about you censoring comments. They wanted the stream to be be pure speech, free speech zone. Yeah.
You know, this is a mock of somebody who's acting in bad faith.
A censorship is a government term, right?
Censorship is a government term where you are thrown in jail or banned for exercising free speech.
And so when people say censorship what they're doing is they're trying to move you into the position of state actor because you found something they said not like just really unpleasant and nasty and i mean i i don't know man if you if you're sitting at a park bench and some guy sits next to you and he smells like nine miles of old ass don't you uh, don't you move? I mean, isn't that just kind of a thing, right?
Don't you move? So, censorship, no, I just...
You know, somebody's peeing in my swimming pool and I'm removing them from the property, man.
It's like you're throwing me in prison. It's like, no, just don't pee in the swimming pool. That's all.
Just don't pee in the swimming pool. That's all I'm asking.
[4:47] So, it's very interesting.
So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, if some girl, you don't want to go out, right?
If you don't want to go out with some girl, are you confining her?
Are you kidnapping her? Are you restricting her? Are you throwing her in prison?
No, you're just choosing not to associate. Nothing wrong with that.
[5:15] Yeah, if somebody's on your front lawn screaming that you're an a-hole at the top of his lungs and telling falsehoods about you, wouldn't you ask him to leave or remove him? Or, oh, you're fascist. It's like, no, just no.
People who smell really tend to be aggressive from just my experience.
Yeah, I mean, a bad scent is a mark of a real lack of empathy and social skills. right?
So it's like people with really bad breath. I mean, married people with really bad breath. That's incomprehensible to me. How could you be married with really bad breath?
Wouldn't you? Thank you. I appreciate that.
Was criticized at work recently for turning down single moms.
It's basically the biggest red flag out there.
And what's that mean? The guy who says no single moms. If you were, if you were a catch, the baby daddy wouldn't have left. If you were a catch.
Yeah. Men stepping up to have to.
Men stepping up to have to fix women's bad choices. That's the tale.
This tale is all this time.
So. Very interesting.
[6:25] Just today for you. Yeah. Okay. Mad, right?
Um, somebody needs to step up and help me raise my kids.
Jaden is my world. Isn't that sort of the mean? And yeah, it's like, no, you know, it's, they're kind of like journalists in a way. Like I've been through a bunch of economic ups and downs.
I've been in companies where they've been layoffs and so on.
And you just, you suck it up, you deal with it and you go find something else to do. but only when journalists get laid off, it's like the end of Western civilization.
Oh my gosh. Somebody says, went to the dentist, took my daughter for a checkup, then to an orthodontist and got some blood work all last month, not a male worker in sight. Yeah.
Yeah. This tip does show up. Thank you, ATM. I appreciate that.
Yeah, it's really, it's really sad. It's really sad because keeping males out of the workforce, it prevents them from having families, right?
You can't provide, right?
And it's really sad. It's really sad.
You know, through most of our evolution, certainly under Christianity and under monogamy, for most of our evolution, people could just get married and have kids, have jobs.
I mean, there was war, and I get all of that, so I get all of that, but...
Wow.
[7:53] Yeah, that's wild.
That is just wild.
[8:03] All right.
You heard Patrick Gower, the TV presenter who interviewed you and Lauren Sutherland in New Zealand, is probably going to lose his job in June. June.
I must tell you that as priorities in my life go, I probably thought of Patrick Gower about three years ago.
Steph, do you think we will have World War III?
Well, I mean, they're trying to get Ukraine into NATO, and that's a red line.
So, I mean, this is like, I'm not on politics. I'm trying to lay the foundation for the next cycle of civilization.
Newshub is going under.
Well, I'm sure he's a resourceful fellow. I'm sure he'll land on his feet.
[9:00] All right. Okay, let me, I've got some Bitcoin stuff to talk about.
If you have any questions that you want to deal with, I'm perfectly happy to respond to them.
I'm just going to hit you up with some info.
Bitcoin had its biggest monthly green candle ever in February of 2024.
Its biggest monthly green candle plus 19.8K is the biggest green candle ever, which is up, right? I mean, wowzy, wowzy, wowzy.
Let me see. I'm going to see here. I'm going to save this.
I'm going to just give you this so you can see it because it really is something.
Thing. It really is something to behold.
It really is something to behold. It's a beautiful sight.
It's a marvelous night for a moon dance. All right. Send. Yeah, it's pretty wild.
[10:16] Out uh will we ever will you why i don't talk with my brother no it's it's not yeah it's it's unfair because i have a public platform and he doesn't so and it's honestly it's so long ago and so irrelevant by life at the moment so and remember my brother and i spent significant portions of our childhood apart he was in england i was pinned to the sinking raft of my mother's brain in canada yes snowden did say he's edward snowden said that his belief was that a particular nation state will be revealed as having secretly buying bitcoin and i assume that will be i told you there was there's going to be a country that's going to welcome the refugees from statism so So everyone will own it without knowing it. 1% in all Fidelity's 401ks.
And I think it's going to go up. I mean, I think that that rise is going to go probably 3% to 5% over the next year or so. I don't know.
I don't know. It's just my particular guess.
I have no inside knowledge. I can't predict the future.
Not anything to do with advice. It's just my particular opinion.
All right. So let me get to...
It's not like I have too many tabs open, but it's also not exactly like I have too few tabs open. Ah, there we go. All right, so yes, biggest candle ever, right?
[11:40] Oh, here's an interesting one.
The most female video game genre player base, right?
So what is the most female video game genre?
Do you have any thoughts about that?
If you had the opportunity, would you turn any of your books into a movie or series? Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely. I would spend a hundred million bucks on making almost into a series.
It's fantastic. It's a fantastic book.
But you can't make art these days without all the DEI stuff, so it just would be untrue to the time.
[12:25] No, it's not home building. It's match three games. Match three games are the biggest.
So um almost 70 percent of people who play match three games like candy crush or whatever are women uh family or farm simulators 69 casual puzzle 42 women atmospheric exploration 41 interactive drama interactive drama also known as modern dating uh 37 percent and uh then And the least female video game genre is sports, followed by tactical shooters, racing, first-person shooters, grand strategy, MOBA?
I don't know what MOBA is. Turn-based strategy, open world, science fiction, MMOs, massive multiplayer online.
MOBA, M-O-B-A. I'm sure you guys would tell me what MOBA is, right?
M-O-M-A, MOBA. No, Pokemon? No. Nope. Yeah, Candy Crush, yeah.
[13:27] I've played a lot of Candy Crush. Does that mean I am one moment?
Yes, absolutely. It absolutely does. Don't look down. Something may have despawned.
So, but, uh, it's, it's all the social construct as we know, it's all a social construct as we know. Uh, right.
[13:52] Uh, here is a, um, you know what? I, my, my daughter refused to explain this meme to me and she's all grown up.
This is a meme. Actually, it's kind of funny. God creating dogs.
God, your man's best friend. dog it's pretty sexist god no man is in every fuck it you can't talk dog can't speak and chocolate kills you that's pretty old testament u.s energy department to cancel its mandatory survey of bitcoin minor energy use following a lawsuit u.s energy department to cancel its mandatory survey of bitcoin minor energy use following a lawsuit they were trying to get the miners to tell them everything they were doing and so on right uh okay so let's just do a couple i'm just gonna going to check, see if any big questions have...
MOBA, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. It's like League of Legends.
Okay. Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Thank you.
MOBA. All right. So I don't think any particular questions have come in just yet. So I'll do a little bit more.
I'll do a little bit more of Tweety Tweets.
[14:57] I thought I'd... Okay. Red flags and males. Are you ready?
Red flags. This is It's just an account called RadFemFuture.
Have you ever seen, it seems like the largest women on the planet wear that t-shirt that says, I've seen the future and it is female.
And female, I assume, is feminist for diabetic.
All right, so red flags in males. Bald.
Broke. Over 30. Over 160 pounds. Has kids. Shy.
Nerdy. Depressed. Never had a girlfriend. Is in a band. Has a podcast. Wears plaid shirts.
Posts. Shirtless. Selfies. Gym bro. can't cook hates his mom mama's boy plays video games on social media too many opinions watches, oh watch his point that's the corn on the cob is that watch his porn so yeah good luck threading those needs it's like those japanese game shows where you have to contort yourself into various shapes just to get through the game so red flags and males ah yes yes yes um yeah so for a woman woman to have standards is empowering for a man to have a standards is a hating women.
[16:07] Do you know that in, I guess, geology or ancient, ancient, ancient history, there is something called the Carnian Pluvial Event.
The Carnian Pluvial Event, which sounds just like a plum festival where you try and stick as many plums up your ass as possible.
I did look that up. There is one, but it's not this.
The Carnian Pluvial Event, it rained for about 2 million years, also known as England. England.
So, one paper estimates that for every 111 boys who are circumcised, one case of urinary tract infection can be stopped.
Most UTIs either go away on their own or can be treated with antibiotics and only about 3% lead to serious complications.
So, just wanted to mention that because I have...
Oh, Bitcoin is about to flip silver. This was from February 29th.
[16:59] So, yesterday, uh bitcoin was at 1.23 trillion market cap silver 1.27 trillion so bitcoin is about to flip silver and i think it was yesterday that a bitcoin moved to, uh the russian ruble moved past the russian ruble uh bitcoin is now the 14th largest currency in the world like holy crap bitcoin past the russian ruble and it's now the 14th largest currency in the world.
[17:32] Russian ruble is 15th, Mexican peso is 16th, Saudi rial is 17th. It's just wild.
[17:43] Peter Schiff wrote, the national debt is now over 34.4 trillion dollars.
It's risen over 400 billion in the past two months.
That's a pace of 2.4 trillion per year. It's a bit slower than it's been, but still about 500 billion faster than official estimates.
He says, I expect the pace to pick up soon.
Japan's both, right? Right. So Japan, I'm fascinated by Japan. Love to visit.
Let me know if you live there. A host of freedomain.com. But Japan is absolutely fascinating.
And Japan is the dying side of massive government intervention into the economy.
Japan has not had a free market economy in probably 30 or 40 years.
It's just zombie corporations propped up by government spending.
Japan, at least the last time I checked, had the highest per capita national debt. It's just mad.
Absolutely mad. Somebody wrote this. It's pretty good.
I think this is getting, it's a message from, somebody says, I've been buying cryptocurrency and everything online says it's going up, but my portfolio is not going up.
What do you mean? My balance is staying the same and not going up like everyone else.
Which cryptocurrencies did you buy? The United States one, USDC.
[19:12] Yes, it will infect Deutsche Bank. This is a good meme.
Alex Trebek, right? Jeopardy. Something you can describe in detail that almost everyone agrees with until you say its name. Answer. Anarchy.
[19:29] In the U.S., 14.5% of men are six foot or taller among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
58% are six foot or taller. It's a four times increase.
3.9% of men are six foot or taller among Fortune 500 CEOs.
30% are six foot or taller. 7.6% increase. Yes.
Yes. It's funny, you know, I'm taller than average.
I'm like a hair under six feet. I'm six foot when I'm startled.
But I've known some really tall guys.
And, I mean, Izzy's male friends are like giraffes.
And it's wild. You know, when you're looking down to someone, they really have to, in a sense, punch above their weight for you to take them seriously. It's a very unconscious and very sad thing.
And I've really worked to try and not do this, but...
All right. 83% of tattoo inks contain hidden ingredients linked to cancer and organ damage, according to a study.
83% of tattoo inks contain hidden ingredients linked to cancer and organ damage, true or not, don't know I think tattoos are just about the saddest thing in the world I love this one, you cannot challenge what we said today the science you cannot hold us accountable for what we said yesterday because the science changed the science, really, really, very, very sadly very, very sadly true.
[20:57] Oliver L. Velez wrote on the 29th, I just clicked on it and it took me back to the very top of my bookmarks because, because either bad coding on the part of Twitter or bad coding on the part of the browser and I want to click something I don't want to refresh just take me to where I want to be I just don't, Why don't they do user cases? I don't know. Try clicking on something.
See if you get to see it. Crazy. All right. I think I'm back here.
[21:34] Almost. Almost. We call it vamping. There we go. He says, stop trying to time Bitcoin.
Just stop it. This is again, I'm just reading this. Not my advice or my perspective, but it's very interesting.
Stop trying to time Bitcoin. Just stop it. Listen, I've been referred to and sometimes hailed as one of the best traders and market timers in the business.
Barron's ranked my market prowess, says this guy, number one in the United States in 1998.
Dow Jones dubbed me the messiah of trading back in 1999, and I'm the one telling you to stop trying to trade Bitcoin. It can't be done, especially by you.
I've done the work. I ran the studies. I've done all the backtesting for you.
You simply can't do it. You can get lucky, but consistency will elude you.
WSBitcoin is telling you the same thing with hard data. Take a look. Stop it. it.
DCA, dollar cost average weekly and smash buy when you have some free dirty cash you don't need. The end now. Hashtag Stack Harder.
[22:32] So, crazy.
And so, WSBitcoin says, even if you had perfectly caught the bottom of each month with your $1,000 per month dollar cost averaging, you'd still only have 0.713 and change Bitcoin stack so far.
I still don't think they'll ever make it to a whole coin.
And this someone, he says, he wrote this back in the day, someone who just started DCAing $1,000 into Bitcoin into Bitcoin, we'll probably never reach a whole coin.
So, very interesting.
All right. Is it against peaceful parenting to put a child into school against their will?
[23:30] Well, what do you guys think? If the child really doesn't want to go to school and you put the child in school, is that a violation of peaceful parenting?
[23:43] Uh, Steph, is it normal that I'm opposed to dating waitresses, nurses, stewardesses, or any woman with a very stressful job?
Uh, well, I'll tell you this. Waitresses are famously crazy.
Nurses are famously crazier.
And I dated a, well, a purser once, so.
I'm not, I'm not saying I have any empirical evidence to the contrary. As a whole. As a whole.
All right. uh dj says and i will i haven't forgotten uh zimp your question about anxiety i think it's anxiety more than worry uh hey steph i listened i listened to a lot of psychotherapists mental health professionals on youtube and i've noticed the pattern many have been divorced at least once or their relationships have been dysfunctional while having all that knowledge and professional experience one therapist has divorced three times shouldn't they themselves be better at had relationships.
Well, of course. Yeah, of course they should. Of course they should.
[24:42] It would be fun to visit, but it seems depressing to live in Japan.
Yeah. The only thing saving them is their 50% savings rate.
I don't know that that's saving them. I think that that 50% savings rate is, in fact, giving the government more collateral to borrow against.
Hello from Jacksonville. This is over in Rumble. Says, Truth Seeker. Thank you.
Uh, let's see here. Good evening from Houston. Hello, Houston. Love that town.
Pretty hot and pretty humid. I remember I said this years ago, like I remember my first business meeting that I had in Houston way back in the day, I come out of the airport and I'm like, oh man, somebody has been idling a truck here and this is like, oh, this is so muggy and kind of stinky.
And I kept walking and I'm like, wait, I think this is just Houston. oh god, Obi-Wan was wise to hide your twin sister from me alright.
[25:49] Steph, why do you think that Japan's economy hasn't collapsed yet after years of government intervention?
I don't understand what that question means.
I mean, they just get young people to work harder and they just borrow more money. I mean, when people stop lending the money, then the economy will have to change, right?
Uh tattoos come from mayores trying to intimidate another tribe there's something inherently intimidating about them well sure because tattoos are saying i am willing to endure excruciating pain for social display uh it's appalling oh boy go look look at some of the habits of the mayores i remember people got kind of mad at me about that when i talked about that uh in in my tour of australia and almost new zealand got there just didn't get to the venue because of bomb threats But yeah, people don't like to, uh, don't like that.
Uh, somebody says, uh, I'm six three and I've noticed it's incredibly helpful with disputing potentially violent altercations just on size alone.
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Uh, one of my family members went crazy with tattoos last year, tried to talk, but he didn't want to hear it.
[27:11] All right.
Children have to be somewhere so maybe not against peaceful parenting really, children have to be somewhere so you can force them so what's the test as to whether something, is against peaceful parenting, what's the foundational test, what's the test as to whether I mean you shouldn't need to ask me right, it's pretty simple example.
[27:54] How do we know if something is against peaceful parenting?
Yeah, do you need aggression to enforce it?
I remember once you went to Vancouver and couldn't speak, I was so damn mad because I got this VIP, yeah, I'm sorry about that, I really am.
Yeah, I mean, do you need violence or aggression in order to achieve your goal?
Do you initiate the use of force, right?
So if your kid, let's say your kid doesn't want to go to school, right?
And they say to you, I really don't want to go to school. Okay.
And let's say, well, you have to go to school. What do you do?
What do you do? You pick them up. What if they fight back? What if they claw at you? What if they bite you?
Are you just going to manhandle them, put them in a, some sort of hug yourself, crazy person suit, and then throw them in the back of the car and then dump them at like, what are you going to do?
Well you have to use aggression or threats or intimidation or escalation or something to get your way right, i mean it's a pretty good litmus test right it's a pretty good litmus test uh would you do it with an adult right so let's say that you want to go to a museum and your wife doesn't go want to go to the museum do you force her her?
[29:19] Do you force her? Do you just like, no, we're going to the, no, you, you, you got to be somewhere. You're going to the museum. Do you force her?
I hope not. Right. But if you ask a girl that she doesn't want to go with you, do you, do you make her go with you?
No, you don't make people do things. You don't force people to do things.
So, uh, it's, it's, I mean, am I wrong? I mean, Tell me if I'm oversimplifying, but it seems to me fairly simple.
I'd want to be forced to brush my teeth in an old people's home.
I'd want to be forced to brush my teeth in an old people's home.
Do you mean if you have serious dementia?
Is that what you mean? Like if you have lost 75% of your brain function?
Is that what you're talking about?
Do you think old people don't know how to brush their teeth?
Have you been around old people? I don't understand this question. Sorry, Dave.
I appreciate you being here on your birthday, but I don't know what you mean.
[30:23] Oh, so if you have a severe mental disability. Yeah. Okay. I get that.
Do you think that children have a severe mental disability?
I don't know. Like, do you think that children have the equivalent of dementia?
If you were sectioned, you mean if you were there involuntarily, if you'd lost your mind completely and been put into a home because you couldn't be trusted around the house.
[30:45] So you have late stage alzheimer's or dementia is is that is that your equivalent to childhood, have you been around kids they're wicked smart they're wicked smart very smart i don't kids are rip smart and i mean i've obviously have a very intelligent child but i've been around a lot of kids they're all pretty whip smart so i don't know how you would be comparing a school-aged child who i guess is five or six years old i don't know how you'd be caring comparing a school-aged child to somebody whose brain was mostly gone from dementia so i don't i don't follow again i'm happy to have it explained but i don't follow the analogy feels like edge case shenanigans to justify coercing kids yeah yeah you you can't i mean i'm no expert i assume you can't reason with someone who's got late stage dementia so maybe you have to uh brush their teeth for them.
[31:47] But because they would have no power of attorney they would have no legal independence they would be entirely wards of caregivers and so on right so they'd be on their last legs and, their life is over pretty much assuming they're not going to recover it's just a decay and they're probably six months from death so i mean yeah i guess it's uh maybe you got to brush your teeth I don't know.
[32:12] So you think someone with late-stage dementia is at the stage of a four-year-old or younger? Do I think that? No, of course not. No, no, of course not.
But why are you talking about going to school with a three-year-old where they're not at school? Sorry, I don't follow.
Children can be reasoned with. Children can be reasoned with.
Children can make their case. Children can tell you what they want.
And children know themselves. and have fairly decent ideas of their own self-interest if things are explained to them properly.
[32:54] So I don't know what case would you say, like what would you say to a kid who doesn't want to go to school? What case would you make to that kid?
Oh, you have to go to school because, because why?
Why do they have to go to school?
Thank you, Duncan. Love you back. Appreciate you dropping by.
Thank you for being here.
So.
[33:24] The non-aggression principle applies to people capable of ethics.
Now, capable of ethics means that you can compare a proposed action to an ideal standard.
[33:38] You can compare a proposed action to an ideal standard.
Now, five-year-olds can do that, four-year-olds can do that, six-year-olds can do that, absolutely. I mean, are they perfect moral philosophers?
No, nobody is, certainly not me.
But yeah, they can do that. They can absolutely do that.
Now, somebody who's got late-stage dementia and is drooling on themselves and can't recognize their own hand, And, well, yeah, they can't compare proposed actions to ideal standards, so they're not covered under the non-aggression principle.
I mean, they're still fully human, of course, and you have to treat them with respect and dignity as best you can, but, yeah.
Babies understand morality when they're eight months old and mathematical reasoning about 18 months. They have way more neuroplasticity and neurons, too, just not as much experience. Yes, that's right.
Because it might be impossible to provide for the child if they're not at school, if both adults are working at home school. Oh, come on, man.
[34:34] Oh, come on.
If both adults are working, they can't homeschool. Okay, here's your birthday present, Dave.
You should really, look, this is my advice to you. You know, listen, brother, I'm here to help. I'm here to help, but I'm going to be firm.
[34:51] You need to think through things yourself before dumping all of these silly questions on other people.
Right. Right. So the people who other people want to help are the ones trying to help themselves. Right.
[35:12] So, if you say, listen, I've tried this, that, and the other, but I just can't solve the problem, fantastic.
Fantastic. Fantastic.
It's like if you're a teacher and some kid comes up and has been trying to solve a mathematical problem, like you're a math teacher, kid comes up and says, I've been trying to solve this mathematical problem, but I just can't sort it out.
And they've got like pages of scribbles and notes and annotations.
Then you'll help them, right? But if they just come up with a blank page and say, yeah, I can't get it, why would you want to help them? They're not trying to help themselves.
If you want people to help you in this life, try to help yourself first.
But don't put all the work on the other person.
You did think about this earlier on today.
[36:06] And you couldn't answer these questions. Would you force a child who really doesn't want to go to school, would you force them?
Well, of course, you'd have to force them. It's a violation of the non-aggression principle, a violation of peaceful parenting.
Now, And the number of people who absolutely have to work two jobs to pay for daycare or school or to have the kid go to school, the number of people who absolutely cannot afford for one person to stay home, it's virtually zero.
It's virtually zero.
[36:48] This is the answer to life, where there's a will there's a way give a man a why he can bear almost anyhow.
[37:03] This is an old business cartoon I mentioned it before I saw this in the Harvard Business Review like decades and decades and decades ago and it burned itself into my brain and has been a foundational driver of my life ever since, it was one business executive looking at a whole bunch of business executives who themselves look stunned and stupid and he was saying okay gentlemen Hannibal got elephants over giant mountains with that in mind someone think of something.
[37:37] Our ancestors survived famine, plague, pestilence, war, climate change, you know, all of the things that went on.
And we're like, we're like the second or third wealthiest generation in the entire history of this four billion year lifespan of carbon-based life forms.
And we're like, well, I can't possibly stay home to care for my child for a couple of years because I have to work. That's just a lie.
That's just a lie.
[38:11] I'm not a troll, it's just I like to have a laugh sometimes. Oh, so, sorry.
This is, uh... Oh, so this is not a serious question? You're just joking?
Okay, well, I'll ignore that then, and I'll just get on with the answer.
[38:24] You can find a way. You can find a way. Life finds a way, right?
Dinosaurs spliced in from frog genes can find a way to reproduce.
You can find a way to stay home with your kids.
Oh, well, you know, but we both want to have a three-bedroom apartment.
You don't need a three-bedroom apartment. How many of our ancestors had three-bedroom apartments? How many of them? How many?
They lived in fucking caves. Man, they lived in mud huts.
Oh, yes, well, you know, but I need three. I need a place to work out and I need a Tai Chi room. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
[39:03] Find a way. Make it happen. Do the math.
Yeah look at the free domain presentation truth about daycare yeah fdrpodcast.com, just do a search for daycare truth about daycare people make almost nothing after the expenses of having a second car, of gas insurance repairs maintenance work clothing often lunches out daycare costs you make almost nothing.
Literally, women are dumping their babies in daycare to be raised by strangers for two fucking dollars an hour, if they're lucky.
[39:50] Yeah, a woman making $100,000 a year ends up making about $15,000 after all the costs.
And I go through this math in my novel called The Present, which you should absolutely read or listen to. It's becoming more urgent now than ever.
So the idea that two people have to work that's just a lie.
[40:10] It's just a lie.
Somebody says, oh, Dave says, my mom worked in daycares recently and it was creepy.
She said the three-year-olds were not interacting with each other in playtime, showing how unnatural the environment was.
Yeah. You're not supposed, I mean, I worked in a daycare for years.
We had 25 to 30 kids, all aged five to 10. And it was me and one other person.
I worked in a daycare for years. I negotiated with my school, because this was in high school, I negotiated with my school to get out of school 15 minutes early, saying, hey, man, I got to pay rent. My mom's gone.
So I got to leave 15 minutes early from school so I could make it to the daycare by the time I needed to be there.
And then I worked summers in the daycare and took the kids all over the city and had a great relationship with the kids. I liked them. They liked me.
But it was sad. I'd have to stay with the kids whose parents were late. Ooh, man.
It was so sad. They're just trying to prop up their spirits.
[41:15] They're just leaning miserably against the wall like sad, broken puppets waiting for their indifferent parents to show up.
All right, come on, get in the car.
[41:26] Just sad. Yeah, if you can't raise your kid, I gotta work.
No, you don't. No, you don't. You don't have to work.
Just take a smaller place take the bus for god's sakes i mean these people my mother worked when i was younger she had two kids we had no car we had a cheap apartment we took on no vacations.
[41:54] Uh we were we were short of cash all the time sometimes i didn't have lunch money I'd either have to go hungry or wear the elastic band of shame which says that you still got lunch but you hadn't paid for it.
I mean, we were short of everything, including money, but we made it. We survived.
We would occasionally go and see movies.
I had a couple of birthday presents. But yeah, we just cut back on everything. thing.
Just spend less money and spend more time with your kids.
All these people, well, I got to work. No, you don't. You don't.
That's just a lie. That's just a lie. Just a lie.
[42:48] The other day, I wondered about if kids sometimes call their female teacher's mom by accident, because unconsciously they recognize their teacher does more parenting than their biological mom. Yeah.
All it takes to collapse a civilization is to break the intergenerational bond.
That's all it is. Snip. You're done.
Everything else is just waiting.
So if you can this is the boomer thing right the boomers were programmed to not sacrifice for their children i mean you have boomers now who are like well i'm gonna spend my kids inheritance i'm gonna spend my money no they they should tough it out like i did, after running up massive national debts the boomers are like well kids should tough it out Like I did after voting for massive job killing policies.
The boomers are like, well, my kids should tough it out.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's really sad. So you get parents to stop sacrificing for their kids, and the kids don't want to listen to the parents.
Who the hell are you to tell me how to live? You fucked up our entire culture.
[44:14] Zim says, I remember when my dad was over an hour late to pick me up from daycare because he was watching Terminator 2.
Oh yeah, my dad used to punch me in the head and beat me when I was bruised all over and had to go to the ghetto school so the doctor wouldn't report my dad to the police after a physical. Sorry about that, man.
I'm so sorry, that's just appalling. I mean, you grew up in a war zone.
Without even companions, without even medals, without even training, without even brothers in arms.
[44:51] All right.
[44:54] A vice about worrying.
So, in my experience, right? I'm just talking about my experience.
In my experience, I hear people say, what about the risk of living in a low-income place with rising crime rates under one income? I suppose the answer is country living.
Just find a way. Just find a way.
I mean, it's half a decade, right?
That's the important stuff, right? Your kids' personalities are largely formed by five years. A year's five, right?
And there's lots of cheap places you can live that have low crime.
There's lots of places you can live that are cheap, that have low crime. Tons of places.
[45:37] So with regards to anxiety, maybe, just maybe, your anxiety is trying to tell you something.
We often will fight off stress or worry or anxiety like it's some enemy that we shouldn't have. And of course, in popular media, it's always just sociopaths without fear, right?
[45:56] It's just sociopaths without, this is the coolest thing, right?
Sociopaths without fear, right? This isn't some Jack Reacher, it's always the same thing, right?
Like Jack Reacher is like Tom Cruise, here's this guy, and he's got four guys around him.
And he's like, guys, you don't want to do this, guys, it's not going to end well for you guys.
You really don't want to, you know, and he, and then he just takes them all down. and it's all just so boring and predictable.
[46:23] Maybe tell people to watch Wednesday's Bitcoin talk where you discuss budgeting.
Yeah, spend less. Spend less. It's pretty simple.
I mean, look at all the money I poured into my studio.
Spend less. Yeah, just watch yesterday's show, 28th of February, 2024.
Sorry, day before yesterday's. And just do that.
What would be your choice for a low-income living situation or place in the U.S. for one-income parents?
What the hell? Okay, now this is an example of you being completely, totally lazy. How on earth could I answer that question?
How on earth could I answer that question? I don't know what you do for a living.
I don't know what markets you need access to. I don't know what your budget is.
I don't know where you want to live. I don't know what your preference is for temperature.
Like, how? I couldn't possibly answer that. This is an example of, well, teacher, I can't do the homework.
You do it for me. It's like, no, you got to. I mean, come on, man. That's a funny question.
Uh yeah the sociopath pill yeah so all of these people in the mainstream media have no fear right and what's the definition of the hero the guy who has no fear right the superman the guy who has no fear when does batman ever look scared when does batman have anxiety right.
[47:38] Or or any of the heroes right thor doesn't have any anxiety other than the fact that his biceps are bigger than most american women's calves no only slightly bigger no they're smaller smaller.
So I messed that one up. It happens.
[47:55] So we are constantly having for us the ideal of no feelings, no emotions, blank, dead-eyed confidence, like all the mission impossible stuff, just blank, dead-eyed confidence. The same thing with, um.
[48:15] Oh, Matt Damon plays that guy.
You know, the Bourne, yeah, Jason Bourne, right? Jason Bourne.
I mean, there's some movie where Jason Bourne is like just fighting and, you know, he never gets spongy brain.
He never gets his nose broken. He never loses teeth.
Like if you fight repeatedly, that's going to happen.
And they always come across guys that they're just vastly superior to.
And what they're doing is they're programming you to say, fear is a weakness.
Don't think they just say that. Fear is a weakness.
Anxiety is weakness.
Really? Really? Anxiety is why we're all here.
Particularly those of us from northern climates where our ancestors had to deal with the cold of winter.
[49:12] We'll be fine. Fine, you don't need to worry. We got more than enough food for winter. I mean, there'll be food around, man. Chillax, you know.
I'm getting so wound up about everything, man. You gotta learn to relax and have fun, man.
Take a, smoke a bowl, sit by the fire. We got some Cat Stevens guy on the guitar.
It's gonna be fantastic, man. Let's just watch the sparks fly into the night sky and join the stars above.
Listen to the sound of the waves, man. You're running around like chickens with your head cut off. Just trying to gather, gather, gather.
Oh, we gotta have more prepared food. we gotta have more jams and cucumbers, we gotta store up this off.
Gotta learn how to relax and enjoy yourself, man. So you can die like us when the frosts come.
You understand? Anxiety is why we're here.
[50:02] And all that media does as a whole is get us to equate anxiety with weakness.
With fear.
Anxiety is why we're here.
That's why we're here. You can't eat that. Hey, kids, put that food down.
No, no, you can't eat that. That's a seed crop.
So we need that to plant in the spring. I don't care if you're hungry.
Like, I'm sorry that you're hungry, but you gotta, we can't eat that.
That's anxiety, right? I'm frightened.
[50:41] No, anxiety is why we're here. Anxiety is something to be listened to.
And all they do in the media is to try and train you to view anxiety as weakness, and to discount it, go with the flow, yeah, it always ends up with going with the blood flow, right, but, oh, you're so uptight, man, you gotta loosen up, have fun, learn to have fun, it's all you see, like the stoner comedies coming out of Seth Rogen, I'll just, you know, know the Adam Sandler, all of this just like trip your way into the future, bumble your way into the future, blindfold your way into the future.
It's just a way to get you to give up your standards, to not look down the road, to not plan, to not have anxiety, or to tell yourself that your anxiety is cowardice or fear or some mental hangup or just insecurity and something to be pushed down and ignored?
Well, just think back to our ancestors late summer, right? Think back to our ancestors late summer.
Got a long ass winter coming. You don't even know how long it's going to be.
It's going to be almost no hunting and almost no crops. So what are you going to do?
And you got seven kids. What are you going to do?
[51:59] Somebody says, I never understood this discourse around anxiety because I just always thought, doesn't everyone have anxiety?
You just deal with it. Ah.
So that's the vanity signal, right? Well, you just deal with it, man. Everyone has to just deal with it. What does just deal with it mean?
What does that mean? Just deal with it. What does that mean?
What does that mean? How is that helpful? How is that giving anybody any illumination or any path?
Just deal with it, man. Just deal with it. It's easy. Just deal with it.
I mean, maybe you can unpack what just deal with it means, but it's kind of an insulting phrase, right?
Because some people have a difficult time dealing with fear and anxiety and telling them to just deal with it makes them feel worse.
It makes them feel worse, right? I don't understand why this is a problem. Just deal with it.
Like that's kind of a chilling lack of empathy, to be honest with you.
And this is fine. If If you don't feel any particular empathy for people suffering from anxiety, I get that.
But maybe don't lord it over how you have no problems with it. Just maybe.
You know, if somebody's stuck in a wheelchair, just say, man, just get up, walk around. I don't know what the big deal is. What's the problem?
It's kind of a jerk move, if you don't mind me saying so. It's just a bit of a jerk move.
And rather than saying, gosh, you know, I'm sorry about that. Right? Right.
[53:29] Yeah you're fine walk it off walk it off yeah there was a recent movie where currently mark waldberg is a great family man was a former high-level assassin his past comes back for him and he just flips the switch and starts killing people again to protect his family in the end his family is stronger together totally wretched movie yes but that appeals to both the male fantasy that you can murder and be a great guy and also the female fantasy that a man can murder and be be a great guy right so you know if somebody is suffering from something you don't suffer from you can either lord it over and say well it's not my issue i don't know what the problem is it's a bit of a dick move or you can say gosh you know that's tough i can imagine that would be tough uh tell me more or you cannot talk you know you don't have to you don't have to respond to everything all the time.
But, you know, this, I don't get it. It's not a problem for me. Just deal with it. Eh.
Yeah, it is, you know, like the guy who's, you know, 6'2", with the super good looking and all of that.
[54:43] Who says, you know, just go up and talk to girls, right?
It's like, well, it's not quite the same thing. He says, oh, I have a lot of empathy for anxiety, but I feel like sometimes it comes from a place of overthinking.
So the answer is to just move.
Oh, is that the answer? I like to move it, move it. I don't have anxiety.
Give it away, give it away, give it away now. Is that your answer? Just move. Oh, look.
Just stop overthinking. So what I'm going to do is take something that's positive, I'm going to add the word over to it, and then I'm going to just tell you to stop doing that.
Because that's, you know, it's just something you can do.
I mean, maybe you have more control over your brain than anybody else.
But, I mean, isn't it the case that if you have a reasonably open relationship with yourself that sometimes you have thoughts and sometimes thoughts have you?
Have you seen the recent male models who created a podcast and said, looks are not everything?
[55:50] Yes, for sure, for sure. Or like the pretty women, I made fun of this years ago on the show, the pretty women who are like, you know, I just asked the universe for things.
I just put that out there. I just put the vibe out there and good things happen to me.
It's like, because you got tits. It's like, yeah, it's the same thing. It's just relax, man.
You worry too much. Quit overthinking things. Get over yourself. yourself.
What are the useless things that people say when you have challenges in your brain?
What is it that people say? You just, you got to get out of your own way, man.
What does that mean? Am I time shifted and I'm running into my own ass?
I can't get out of my own way because my ass looks fantastic in those jeans.
So yeah, but what do people, what do people say?
It's just useless. You just, you got to let it go, man. You just got to let it go. You got to let it go.
What does that i mean like i'm not i'm not holding on to something it's just you know you gotta find some way to distract yourself you gotta probably just find some way to distract yourself, take up a hobby i'm sorry don't be laughing somebody said when i said i'm anxious to a doctor the doc said doc said no don't be anxious just doc, I'm sick. Well, don't do that.
Yeah, that's no good. No, like honestly, the, the not sick thing is pretty the key to health.
Like if you could just don't be sick and you'll be healthy. So that'll be $300.
[57:20] Oh my gosh.
Got to shop on the perimeter of the grocery store, bro. Yeah.
If I haven't heard them all yet, let it go. I've heard 99% of them. Yeah.
You just, you got to stop being so down on yourself, man. You got to, you got to be positive towards yourself.
Oh, that's it. Okay. Got it. Yeah. I never thought of that. I never thought of that.
Sometimes you meet people who have anxiety, but don't exercise, for example.
Okay.
[57:57] So maybe they don't know maybe they've never been told maybe their doctor and everyone around them has never made that connection for them so you would say that's sympathetic you know boy, i have sympathy for that um and if you've got studies just yeah man up man up is a big one oh touch grass yeah touch grass yeah for sure oh god steph not a funny subject but you're making making me laugh for sure right our male model sean o'price said being a good person who fights bullies of what is what makes someone attractive right right yep absolutely being a male model makes you like your male model because you're really attractive and i of course i then base this kind of personality with some sympathy in the character of arlo from my novel uh the present which again you should really you should really check it out it's more important now i have depression and i exercise a lot not a cure-all i'm sure it helps to some degree based upon the studies that i've read but um i mean can you imagine if you just played bingo cards steph's calling like if i was like giving the worst advice or feedback known to man get a man up Let go of the past Stop blaming people Take responsibility, Get over it Get out of your own way Stop overthinking Stop living in the past.
[59:24] I'm going to read off another bunch of bland stupid fortune cookies in the hope of me feeling superior and you feeling worse Oh, are you feeling down?
Let me tell you that it's completely ridiculous that you're down and the problems aren't even that bad and they're easy to solve Oh, do you feel worse?
Well, my job here is done done. Off I go to save the day.
Oh, wouldn't that be great? Oh, wouldn't that be great?
I noticed a reduction in anxiety and difficulty sleeping from taking high-dose thiamine supplements.
I can't speak to that, but what is your anxiety trying to tell you?
I mean, it's not demonic possession. What is your anxiety trying to tell you?
I have found fear to be enormously helpful in my life.
It's a good thing. It's good to listen to. it's good to reason with it's good to follow I mean you don't give it to dictatorial power over your life of course but your fear is there to help you.
[1:00:37] Thank you thank you Dharamath, yeah I don't, how about we have the humility to realize that everybody's struggling with something everybody's struggling with something something.
I mean, can you imagine? I actually know, a friend of mine had to give a public speech and he was nervous about it.
So I'm like, ah, you know, I give speeches. I used to give speeches all the time. It's easy. Just blah, blah, blah. It's like, that's a dick move.
That's a dick move. I mean, if you're a great singer, just say to someone on seeing well, like, what does that mean?
Oh my gosh. I mean, if you, if you're a guy, you know, you, you, one of the 10% of guys who gets to old age with a full head of hair and you're like, well, you know, I, I think it's keratin supply.
You know, it's like, well, I just, I exercise.
It's like, no, you just, it's just, your genes are lucky. I mean, or unlucky, depending on how much time you want to spend on your hair.
But you know, I didn't go bald through any fault of my own. It's just genes.
Right. And I, listen, I have no complaint about the genes that I got. Holy crap.
[1:01:52] Uh somebody says i used to have extreme social anxiety and i think it was because i was just afraid of people due to being around so many aggressive people during my childhood yeah, sorry about that uh simph says i go hiking all over the mountains and it can definitely help me feel better but it doesn't solve the problem i have genuine things to be concerned with in my my life and I just feel like the tarry hands from the pit of despair that is the pastor reaching up oh tarry hands pull me back right um I mean the one thing that can help with anxiety is, just get things done you know if you postpone things that you know you have to do and I'm not perfect this way either obviously right but I try and sort of tell myself look if I'm not particularly feeling great because there's something i need to do and i haven't gotten around to doing it if i just get it done it's usually not nearly as bad as i think it's going to be it's often done faster than i think it's going to be and i generally feel better afterwards, so if there's things that uh that you need to get done i think it could be helpful to focus on that but then the question is why do you why do we procrastinate right and i've got a whole show on procrastination.
Again, fdrpodcast.com, that might help.
Procrastination usually has to do with a feeling of helplessness and being punished.
[1:03:18] For doing things, quote, wrong as a kid, right? You wash the dishes wrong.
Can't you stack this dishwasher properly?
You cut the grass all wrong. There's salt all over it. Like, just, okay, I don't want to do things because I'm just going to get yelled at.
Like, why would you want to?
Yeah, abusive will tell you to just deal with it. Abusive people will just tell you.
So I'm not talking about anyone in this chat, of course, but I'm talking about the mainstream media saying to you that just deal with it, just get over it, just whatever, right?
Or they show, you know, people who don't feel fear are sociopaths, right? I mean, it's one of the characteristics, as far as I understand it, as an amateur.
It's one of the characteristics of a sociopath, you don't feel fear.
And so you see all of these heroes, they don't feel fear, they stride in, rush in where angels fear to tread, they don't have any fear.
Okay, but they're sociopaths.
So they're whole wiring, they don't feel attachment, love, affection, empathy.
[1:04:11] So they say, well, you know, here's a life without fear, and it looks pretty good, right? right?
Adventurers and James Bond and chicks and motorcycles and fights you always win and, you know, saving the world.
Like, hey, a life without fear is fantastic. It's beautiful. It's wonderful.
But you understand that everything that reaches you from the mainstream media is kind of abusive.
They're trying to get you to love sociopathy, right?
That's what most media is about. I mean, fiction in particular.
They're trying to get you to love sociopathy. People who don't feel fear.
[1:04:48] Why do they want to get you to love sociopathy? Well, that's pretty obvious, right? We all know the answer to that one.
[1:05:02] A lot of people who went through trauma almost have ADHD-like symptoms into adulthood.
Oh, ADHD-like symptoms into adulthood and can make it very hard to operate.
Learning this was helpful to me.
Pro-sociopath messaging in media feels like a way to get women to like soldiers.
[1:05:26] It could be, it could be, I don't think it's that narrow.
He says, just deal with it was poorly worded for me if I was giving advice to someone anxious in real life, I would word it much differently.
Yeah, I don't understand poorly worded. So if you were giving advice to someone anxious, you would word it very differently. So why did you word it that way?
I mean, I can understand if somebody makes a joke that's a little inappropriate, because that's speaking, it's extemporaneous, but you get to type this, and you get to read it before you send it. So I don't know what poorly worded means.
I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but I don't know what poorly worded means when you can type it out.
And if you were giving advice, you were giving to someone anxious, and so you say in real life i would word it much differently so why would you word it this way, if you know it's bad advice and you get to type it out and read it before you hit send, why i mean just curious like why would you do that then why would you be sort of flippant and dismissive of the person's concerns right i mean this person is having a panic attack and telling them to get over it or deal with it i don't like i don't understand that i don't understand end.
[1:06:53] I think what you might mean to say, I don't know, obviously, but I think what you might mean to say is, sorry, I went through a vanity moment and I kind of put you down when you were feeling down already.
And that was the wrong thing to do. And I'm really sorry. I think that's kind of what you mean. I think, but I don't know.
Somebody says, even some mainstream sources will admit that ADHD is likely a misdiagnosis for complex post-traumatic stress disorder, childhood trauma in a lot of cases.
[1:07:25] Yeah i mean we we calm down with connection right when we're connected to people we tend to feel a lot of calm and isolation is very dangerous for people because you know we we've outsourced a lot of our protection to others i just wrote about this in the new part on peaceful parenting right so why do we have eyes in the front of our heads and not the back of our heads or the side of our heads well because we we hunt so we need to have good vision ahead but somebody's got to watch our her back somebody's got to watch her six right so we've outsourced rear view protection why do we sleep uh often on the ground uh because people are up watching to make sure we don't get our asses chewed off by wolves right or lions so we've outsourced a lot we've become very specialized in things and we've outsourced a lot of our self-protection to other people so if you can isolate people you make them scared like i think a lot of the fear that went on through covid had had to do with isolation.
So we tend to relax in the company of others and it tends to be quite stressful to be alone, which is why being alone is very tough on your system, right?
I mean, loneliness is the equivalent of smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day. It's very stressful.
[1:08:40] All right, let me see if I've got, uh, so, uh, it may be, it may be you have anxiety because there's something in your environment that is scary, right?
I mean, I remember when I first moved into my house, it was creaky, right?
I wasn't used to the creaks. I came from an apartment.
It was creaky. So sometimes I'd hear creaks, I'd get up at night, and I'd check the house.
Now, once I checked the house and the house was empty, I could go back to sleep.
But I couldn't just lie there hoping that there was no intruder, right?
[1:09:23] So sometimes you have anxiety, you do things to establish a sense of safety.
Maybe you're living in a bad neighborhood. Maybe there's crime all over the place.
Maybe you are spending more than you're saving, and you have anxiety about that.
Maybe you have volatile people in your life that you can't trust.
Maybe you feel anxiety about that.
Maybe you're not taking the steps necessary to secure a healthy and prosperous future. Maybe you're eating wrong. Maybe you're not exercising.
Maybe you're indulging in screen decay or something like that. that.
So maybe there are things in your life that need to change.
And your anxiety is trying to help you with that, maybe.
[1:10:13] All right. Dave says it was also that a lot of younger people were forced to live with their abusive parents during lockdowns, which increased anxiety.
Well, normally, they escape more easily. Oh, God, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
[1:10:27] Not having a girlfriend, sorry, I misread that as OF, not having an OnlyFans, has been giving me high anxiety lately.
Not having a girlfriend has been giving me high anxiety lately.
I think it's my body telling me I have to act.
I definitely should get more and better friends. Yeah. Yeah.
[1:10:49] You understand that the, if you're in your 20s, and you're not dating, other men are and other men will take the girl of your dreams, i know that there are things i need to change and most of that list you've mentioned is true, right you know i i don't have much luck trying to manage my internal state i don't have much to manage but i don't have much luck trying to manage my internal state the only thing I can do is, get things done, right?
So, you know, I woke up in the new house and it sounded like the hold of an old pirate ship in a storm.
I said, there's creaks all over the place, Mr. Marbles, and, just lying there, I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.
[1:11:41] So what do I do? Get up and check the house, then go back to sleep.
And after a while, you realize you wake up, it's creaky, no big deal, right?
Or, you know, if, you know, I got an alarm system, right?
A big, big-ass alarm system, right? Well, I had to get that because of threats, right? So you get a big-ass alarm system.
And then you say, okay, well, I've got a big-ass alarm system, and there are creaks in the house at night, and managing your internal state is like smashing the thermostat because you're cold.
Yes, and a lot of people are led off the cliff of, well, if you're anxious, you should do this, or you should do that. That doesn't actually deal with the root of the anxiety.
Like, yeah, I'm a big fan of exercise, but if you're in a dangerous neighborhood where people are getting mugged all the time and your car gets broken into twice a month, exercise ain't going to get rid of that anxiety, now is it?
[1:12:32] Somebody says, your recent Bitcoin talk also discusses distractions. Very heavy hitting.
Appreciate it. Everything is distracting you from your future needs.
Life changer for me. Thanks, Steph. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Lady says, definitely had anxiety before meeting my husband too.
Thought I was going to be single forever. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, I had some concern when I was younger that I was going to depart this mortal coil with a billion fantastic thoughts locked up in my brain that would feed only the bellies of worms, not the mind of man.
[1:13:17] That's what my novel just poor is about that fear i have a lot of great thoughts, you know it's funny i i was dating a woman many years ago.
[1:13:31] And her roommates were having a dinner party and you know this happens i think to everyone like you're just on in a particular moment like the thoughts come to you and the jokes come to you and they all land perfectly and everything was fantastic right, and i had i think i had just got my master's degree after like i had to wait like six months off to everyone else they wouldn't wouldn't give me point like they wouldn't even tell me what i got at my final till i my final exam oh sorry on my final thesis i ended up getting an a but, i was i was peppy positive and all of that and i literally had the whole table in stitches for like an hour with like stories and everything you know it's just one of those perfect nights of and it wasn't just me like other people but all our jokes fed into each other and it was just one one of these absolutely fantastic nights.
Now, it turns out that there was a producer from a fairly well-known television station in Toronto who was at that dinner. I didn't find that out till later, right?
[1:14:33] And I thought later, like, not that I expected it, but I thought in a sane universe, I'd get a call saying, listen, you're really entertaining. Why don't you come in for a screen test?
You know, maybe we can get you on a talk show or maybe we can get you like, you're really, you had the whole table in stitches for like over an hour and, you know, we should get you in for a screen test.
Right. I mean, it was just, honestly, it was a passing thought.
And it was like, of course I wasn't, they said, Oh, we're going to call.
Right. But it's just like a passing thought. Cause I was like.
[1:15:05] What orifice of the universe do I have to blow for people to respect and recognize quality? Like what?
What do I have to do for people to respect and recognize quality? Do you ever have that?
I mean, the work that I was doing, I mean, so in the art world and the academic world, I was recognized as very talented, but I just couldn't get any traction.
And really, of course, I understand now that's because I was pro-market and anti-socialist, right?
So it was It was all run by socialists for the purpose of the revolution, so I just wasn't going to get it. So they couldn't help but acknowledge my talent, but couldn't ever get any traction.
Now, in the business world, I got some traction because I could make money.
And I was pretty good in the business world. You know, I built a company from scratch with no business training and no computer science training.
I built a company from scratch to like 30 people and built software that sold for tens of millions of dollars.
You know, it was pretty good. It was pretty good.
And it wasn't just that. Like I did sales, I did marketing, I did negotiation with clients.
And so, yeah, I did pretty good. I was good as a manager and so on. I did pretty well.
So there was finally some quality. Finally some quality.
[1:16:23] What does it take for the world to recognize quality?
It's not easy.
It's not easy.
[1:16:42] Imagine the world if you were on Donahue instead of ran. I don't know what that means. No, not on Donahue, be Donahue.
Right? I mean, I'm a good interviewer. I mean, you guys have listened to, I've done hundreds of interviews over the course of the show, so.
The Smiths, The Queen is Dead, life is very long when you're lonely.
Do you think Morrissey was really that depressed in his Smiths albums? He was good looking.
Well, I don't know much about the Smiths other than How Soon Is Now, which we talked about on Wednesday, but yeah, he's famously depressed, right?
He was famously negative or sad. It's like Robert Smith of The Cure.
I just famously dour, I assume just bad, bad childhood and unprocessed.
Now, of course, when you have a lot of talent, people think that talent and the adulation of people and money and all of that is going to solve their personal problems.
That's a great fantasy. It's a demonic fantasy. It was a devilish fantasy that internal problems can be solved by external external attributes.
[1:17:51] Yeah. And I spoke at conferences. That's how I got some public speaking experiences.
I spoke at conferences back in the day in the business world.
So Morrissey had a bad childhood and he pursued external fame and talent and found that that didn't solve the problem.
What's it? I think Jim, Jim Carrey said this, he said, I wish everyone could try being being rich and famous and talented for a day just to realize how few problems it solves.
A long time ago, you mentioned an epiphany you had in long hammock sessions on the beach.
Now, it wasn't on the beach. I was traveling with a friend through Belize and Mexico and Guatemala, and she went to go and see Chichen Itza, and I didn't want to go see Chichen Itza again, so she left me in a town, and I ended up sneaking into a resort and lying on a hammock for four or five hours.
And yeah, the epiphany was about my family. Just I needed to not be involved.
I needed to not be involved. It's just one of these things that just landed on me. Ton of bricks, never look back.
It's wild. And this is what I mean when I say like sometimes I have thoughts and sometimes thoughts have me.
Right? I feel a tad bit. I mean, I enjoy it and it's a positive experience as a whole, but I'm a little bit chained through ability to the giant pirate ship of philosophy.
Thank you.
[1:19:17] When you have a lot of ability, you have a lot of responsibility, particularly in the moral realm.
If you have a lot of ability in the moral realm, and I'm really good at communicating philosophy to people, I don't know that there's anyone better, to be honest.
My ability to create analogies and help people understand philosophy and through a combination of intensity, analogies, metaphors, a humor and scraps of song or whatever i'm just i'm really good at you know got strengths and weaknesses right but i'm really good at communicating philosophy and lord knows we need it lord knows that's what the world needs the most and with this level of ability which i'm very happy to have with this level of ability comes a lot of responsibility responsibility.
Because if I have, I mean, I have this level of ability, if I didn't pursue it to the best of that ability, I would be tormented.
I do philosophy to drive away the demons, in a sense, right?
The demons of regret and missed opportunities and so on. And yet, this is not the life that I wanted.
Honestly, I mean, I don't know how frank to be or whether you even care, but this is not the life that I wanted.
This is not the life that I planned. And this is not the life that I envisioned for myself.
[1:20:41] But it is the life that the world needs the most.
What I wanted was, you know, a world, something in the art world.
I, you know, I wrote and directed plays. I did Shakespearean leads and all this kind of stuff.
So my life was a life in the arts, you know, with ideas around a life in the arts, maybe a life in academia.
And I enjoyed the business world as well. but this like what i do and really have been doing for the last 18 years i i don't have any regrets and i i wouldn't make any different choices but it is absolutely not the life that i envisioned for myself at all at all not even close.
[1:21:30] But when i try to look at what is objectively best for the world world.
The world does not need another playwright or actor. The world does not need another academic. The world does not need another businessman or entrepreneur.
The world needs virtue.
The world needs the closest thing to God that philosophy can create, which is universally preferable behavior.
The world needs reason. The world needs peaceful parenting. The world needs radical honesty.
The world needs facts unpacked that other people dare not touch.
That's what the world needs.
[1:22:13] And when you decide to serve the world, you have to give up your ego.
[1:22:31] I mean, I would have preferred a life with a little less controversy.
I would have preferred a life with a little less deplatforming.
I would have preferred a life with a little more control, for sure.
[1:22:53] And it's not even, like it's not even really like some big conscious thought, like, but if I sort of unpack it in my mind, I think that I was gifted with the abilities that they had and if I just used them for myself, that would be like inheriting a fortune and squandering it on vanity purchases, I know this is where I do the best for the world I just, like, there's no argument for me that can overturn that.
And if you've listened to my History of Philosophers series, you can see just why it's so laser-like and intense for me to do what it is that I do.
[1:23:51] Because, like, if not me, who? Who? Philosophers who've been around for 5,000 years or more or still hasn't tackled childhood or solved the problem of secular ethics or defined free will or love in an objective and rational manner.
[1:24:07] And it's not great that it lands on me. It's not.
I mean, it's funny, you know, because some people think I'm in this for the ego. Like, yes, absolutely. Oh, yes, nothing but ego.
But I think like everyone who takes on great tasks, there are many times you wish it was anyone but you.
Do you have that? Like if you're the truth teller in the family or you have to take on someone, maybe that you've got a bad boss that you need to take on or whatever. It could be a larger task.
It could be a relatively smaller in the world stage task, but still very important.
I mean, if you're the truth teller in the family, don't you wish sometimes, anyone, can somebody else step up? Can somebody else do this?
[1:24:57] Or, and I appreciate these, I really do appreciate these live streams and these conversations. I'm going to be straight up with you and thank you for your support and donations and all of this.
It's beautiful, and I'm always touched every time, and I really, really appreciate it.
Wouldn't it have been the end of the world in a way for me if more of my, I don't know, how would I put that?
More of my colleagues had sort of stood up, and that hasn't really happened at all. Quite the opposite in some ways.
[1:25:40] So, it's the quote, it's very powerful, from Lord of the Rings.
I wish the task had not fallen to me. I wish I didn't have to live in these times. Well, we can't choose our times and we can't choose our tasks.
This, I mean, this task, Sisyphean though it feels at times, this task seized me.
I mean, I almost feel, I am not kidding, man. I almost feel like I'm in some multi-decade epileptic fit of honesty.
It's completely bizarre. Like I've got Tourette's and I'm just saying things that need to be said that nobody wants wants to say.
And it feels at times like a possession, like I'm the puppet of something larger.
[1:26:37] Honestly, you completely can understand the religious feelings.
I just bought a book today on Catholic redemption.
I'm going to sit down and read this, see how close to my experience this is.
And I am on a passionate redemption arc from the evils of others.
I was launched on this journey by the evils of others.
It's like a beast that chases you, and you can only conquer it by naming its essence.
This show can feel like a waking dream in its passion and its intensity and its creativity.
And most times I enjoy it. I'm not martyring myself at all here.
Most times it's great. It's great.
Because the alternative is what?
What's the alternative?
[1:27:41] To have these capacities and fail to exercise them would be a curse on the incredible opportunities that were accidentally granted to me by nature or temperament or circumstances.
And choice, absolutely choice. I'm not going to just say I'm just some dominoes of prior experience, but I sure wish, like, I sure wish that philosophers had taken on these topics before.
And maybe they couldn't. Maybe before the internet, before the intimacy of these conversations, maybe they couldn't.
But I think they could have. God, couldn't they have written it and had it published after they were dead? Something.
I did this show this morning on Thales, ancient Greek philosopher.
Know thyself was his big thing. Know thyself.
Cheerful philosopher. Laughed. Know thyself. It's like, you know, you're surrounded by child abuse, child rape and slavery and the subjugation of women and the conscription of men to be slaughtered in pointless vanity battles from sociopaths in funny heads.
But know thyself, that's the important thing.
God.
[1:29:04] All right.
Do you think that if it were possible to separate your various eras into separate people, tech staff, ponytail artist staff, objectivist staff, that they would have any major disagreements? Yeah, of course.
Absolutely. If you're not disagreeing with your younger self in major ways, you fail to achieve the growth you're capable of. Sure.
Yeah. Lots of disagreements.
Lots of disagreements.
[1:29:43] I'm not going to imagine I was running for office. Oh God. Somebody says, I got daggers pointed at me by my family anytime I'm speaking the truth of our lives. Yeah.
I'm so tired of it. Yeah. I can imagine the sheer amount of negativity directed towards you could be tough to deal with for any human being, even though you obviously have millions of supporters too. Millions?
[1:30:09] I was ostracized from my entire family from my opinions. Probably not from your opinions. I think your mic might be a smidge high.
Steph is an apostle waiting to happen.
The alternative is certainly a curse of a different kind. The alternative is self-erasure, no integrity and insomnia.
I don't think any other thinker has the interdisciplinary and understanding you do.
The physical labor, the tech entrepreneurship, the art background, the psychological understanding, and the philosophical training.
I mean, I took courses on philosophy in undergrad and graduate school.
So it's a kind of unique combination of skills.
And, I mean, fortunate to have a fairly pleasant speaking voice and, I guess, a vaguely intelligent I mean, just some lucky things.
A fairly decent face, you know, not the worst thing in the world to look at.
You know, so it's just a combination of things that are just lucky.
[1:31:19] But yeah, I wish I could follow in somebody else's footsteps sometimes, as I did for many years.
Other thinkers, Aristotle, Rand, others, Socrates to a large degree.
I do wish that I could follow in other people's footsteps steps and not have to be the icebreaker all the time. It feels that way. It's the icebreaker all the time.
[1:31:41] And I'll tell you if this is interesting to you.
Obviously, I'm tempted by God, tempted by the divine, of course, because it would give me answers to things that at the moment I have no answer for.
Where are these ideas coming from? Where is this spontaneous generation coming from?
Like the analogies I pulled out this morning on my complicated relationship with the commandment to know thyself, know yourself, I don't know where they come from. I don't know how these encapsulating ideas and arguments and how they coalesce.
And like, I'm half, I have some ideas going into a podcast, a solo cast, but I'm half riding the wave of what's going on inside of me.
Now, if I were a religious man, I would have an answer that I'm divinely inspired, that I'm a mouthpiece for God to bring some truth to the world, right?
That, you know, whether you'd say this is vainglorious or not, It would be an answer for me as to what the hell is going on in my head.
Why is all this stuff coming up for me? I don't know.
I can't answer.
Why am I the first moral philosopher to tackle the fundamental forge of all humanity called childhood? Why?
[1:33:07] Why me? Why now?
[1:33:16] Don't know now I could say, with reference to the divine that it's time it's God's will and I do what the good Lord tells me to and I say what the good Lord tells me to say that would be an answer, but if I had that answer I wouldn't have UPB, I wouldn't have UPB, and UPB is the thing UPB is the release from, statism in generations to come, by not falling into the answers of of the divine I explored further and deeper than I otherwise could have.
Because when you have an answer, you stop looking. You're home, you stop driving home.
So if I had accepted the solution of divinity, I wouldn't have kept looking for the root of ethics.
[1:34:45] Dave says, I think you're trolling. How do you think it's best to cope with the therapist who told me out of spite to believe something sad all the time?
I mean, if your therapist is spiteful towards you, you don't need to ask me what to do.
This is another one of these, like, the answer's too obvious to address, even though it's your birthday. Well, that's my birthday gift to you.
You know what the answer is. You don't need to ask. You're looking for sympathy.
And listen, if you want to say to me, my therapist said something mean to me, and you want sympathy, yeah, I'm happy with that.
Happy to give you sympathy I'm happy to give you sympathy but if you play dumb and well my therapist is mean to me and spiteful to me what should I do you don't need me to answer that, you don't how can you take life advice from someone who's spiteful towards you, how can you respect someone who's mean to you when you're in a vulnerable place, so there's my birthday present to you, Any other last donations, comments, questions, issues, challenges?
[1:35:54] And here's the other thing, Dave. I have long since moved on, but it has infected my thinking still.
Elon said recently on his gravestone that his gravestone would read, never went to therapy. Right.
Do you see UPB as incompatible with God existing?
No, no, not in and of itself. And honestly, I mean, you know, there are a lot of people who were scientists in the late Middle Ages, in early Renaissance and Enlightenment, who believed that they were exploring the mind of God by understanding the principles of the universe.
But they do have to deny some intervention from God in order to explore the absolutes of the universe.
Universe, and if I had accepted the divine root or divine commandments of morality, I wouldn't have explored and produced UPB, right?
If I had accepted that.
And so, not accepting state dictates or divine commandments at the source of morality meant that I could actually get to the source of morality.
[1:37:06] Now it's interesting so elon would never went to therapy i mean he may mean that sort of navel-gazing thing and i talked about that and it'll be out for donors in the next day or so you should really check out my wrestling with the dead with the commandment know thyself because i have a very complicated relationship with know thyself i think it's interesting but significantly bullshit and you can get into um you can get into that in the in the podcast but you should check that out.
So yeah, if you have any other last tips or let me just make sure I got any of these questions. Did I?
Steph, how did you know philosophy was a greater purpose prior to you having any positive impact on the world? Was it gut feeling or faith?
Well, no, I just, I've always loved philosophy.
[1:37:52] I just didn't. You know, if you're a successful actor or writer, you tend to get a fair amount of praise, right?
[1:38:00] And it's quite nice. If you're a successful philosopher, uh you get threats and attacks and all that i think your insight is amazing as you do amazing things outwardly well thank you i appreciate that i appreciate that uh thank you for everything sir simph i really don't know where my life would be without your insight you're the greatest well thank you simph and i'm really i do sympathize really with the anxiety it is tough because Because anxiety can be a paralytic when you need to move, right?
Because there's anxiety about whether anxiety is right. I mean, don't you have this? Because this is the whole push and pull, right?
If.
[1:38:48] You're nervous of your girlfriend's temper, she's going to tell you that you're just a coward, she's not that bad, and you should get over your fear.
Right? So you're like, okay, is my fear of my girlfriend's temper because she's a scary person, or because I'm a coward?
And everybody who wants to exploit you will tell you that all of your caution is an internal psychological problem. Right?
All of it.
[1:39:18] So people will always try to convince you that you're not cautious for good reason. You are neurotic.
And they will then further attack you for attacking them.
Like, how dare you be scared of me? I'm not a bad person.
You're just a coward and you're projecting your fear onto me and it's insulting and I would never do that.
So they'll actually attack you for you fearing that they will attack you.
And having people of gentleness, firmness, depth, and resolution in your life is very, very important.
It's very, very important. There are people in your life who sympathize with you and who care when you're upset, but also care enough about you being upset to strongly encourage you to find some way to overcome it.
Now, my experience in overcoming upset is is remove things from my life that are upsetting and see what's left. Does that make sense?
Remove things from my life that are upsetting and see if I'm still upset.
Not a bad approach, right? It's not a bad approach.
[1:40:30] Not a bad approach. Got a sunburn. Hey, it hurts. I should get out of the sun, right?
Maybe I should put sunscreen on and not spend as much time in the sun.
Remove things from your life that are upsetting.
See if you're still upset. You know, you ever have this where you lie back on a lounge chair or something and something sticks you painfully in the back?
Right? And you get up and you're like, did you just lie down again? No.
Turn the hell around, you say, what the hell's on this lawn chair?
What the hell's on this recliner? Maybe it's your glasses or I don't know, something, right?
Pokes you in the back. Or a scorpion, I don't know, something pokes you in the back. Right?
So, you lie back. Oh, I got a pain in my back.
Now, if you get a stabbing pain in your back when you lie back and there's nothing there, then maybe you've pulled a muscle or maybe there's something internal, right?
But the first thing you do is try and fix your environment. I wonder if anything's poking me in the back here, right? Right?
[1:41:34] Maybe there's something so the first thing you do when you're checking a pain is you look at your environment and say is there something out there that's causing the pain now if there's nothing that's causing the pain then maybe it's an internal thing but you have to eliminate external causes of negative emotional states before turning to yourself does this make sense, check your back You know, if you get a pain in your foot and you take off your shoe, there's a stone there or some sharp thing got in there, right?
Well, you shake out your shoe and walk on.
Check your environment, right?
Check your environment.
[1:42:27] I mean, if you fall down and bruise yourself, then you're going to have a bruise.
And I remember when I was a kid, you know, when you're a kid, you're just roaming around, you're doing all this crazy stuff, particularly if you're a boy.
And I remember I'd have this, some bruise or some whatever it is, and I wouldn't remember it.
And then I'd push the bruise and that would bring up the body memory of like, oh yeah, that's when I fell out of the tree, when I fell off my bike or something like that.
So for me, okay, if I'm going through some negative experience, then let me check and see if there's any environmental cause.
And I'm going to remove environmental causes and see what's left over.
And lo and behold, lo and behold, I found, things almost always got better very quickly. Right?
I mean, it's crazy to me, and this is my personal experience, and it'd be the same for everyone, right? And it'd be the same for everyone.
[1:43:20] Steph, what's the most satisfying part of writing the future, the present, etc.?
I think fidelity, the getting the characters to merge with the philosophical arguments that's a really really tough thing for me to do i think it's tough for most people do but getting the characters to merge with the philosophical arguments in the way that they did uh to me was like rachel being vanity and um well um yeah rachel being uh vanity and um.
[1:43:51] Arlo being hedonism and all of this, getting all of that stuff to work together was really great for me.
And when it all came together and just all aligned back up, it was just, it was great. So thank you. That's a great question.
[1:44:15] So maybe my fear of strenuous exercise is caused by abusive figures in my past, not my previous condition that has now been cured. it.
Yeah. So a lot of times if you've gone through a lot of pain as a child, strenuous exercise feels like abuse because it hurts, right?
It can be difficult and painful and all of that.
And I, I myself would be kind of cautious about, I myself, and maybe this is just a guy in his mid to late fifties or whatever, but I'd be kind of cautious about a lot of strenuous exercise.
It is quite easy to injure yourself, quite easy to injure yourself.
And injury is the opposite positive exercise.
I'd love to push myself harder sometimes, but I just know that when I do push myself harder, something can go awry.
And that something going awry, you can have to deal with for quite some time, quite some time. All right.
All right. Let me just see here if I've got any other questions, issues.
You can tip, of course, on the app. You can tip on the website.
[1:45:17] Somebody says, I've also come to an agreement with my mother.
I've been cruelly throwing my mother into intermediate advanced philosophy and admitted that was my mistake.
I'm glad you've come to an agreement. I hope that it's a moral and sustainable one. I'm sure that it is, but keep your eye out.
Sorry, I feel very rude to end the stream when people are typing and typing and typing away.
[1:45:48] Oh you told her to get into some philosophical books okay that's good mine even even better i'd think even better thank you uh for the stream thank you guys for dropping by tonight a real pleasure thank you for your support we will see you guys sunday morning uh 11 a.m and of course if you are listening to this you haven't donated for a while you want to join a great community to dfreedomain.locals.com is great.
I guess if you're in Brazil, you can go to subscribestar.com slash fredomain, which has the bonus stuff there as well.
And I love you guys for showing up tonight. Thank you for a really, really wonderful evening of philosophy. Lots of love from here.
Take care, my friends. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
Support the show, using a variety of donation methods
Support the show
Recent Comments