[0:00] Good evening. It is the 13th of February, 2024.
We've shifted the show to Tuesday from Wednesday, because Wednesday is, in fact, as you know, Valentine's Day.
My wife and I, of course, are much to the lovely and elevated sentiments of our daughter, hopeless romantic, so we'll be doing romantic stuff.
And I, you know, much do I love talking with you. Valentine's with my wife, I'm afraid, is taking slight precedence. So tomorrow night's show is canceled for want of love.
And we may, in fact, even hug in front of our daughter.
And then she will pay lots of money to have us stop doing that. It's a beautiful thing.
There's a Babylon Bee article, something like, Mother embarrasses teenage son by existing in public.
All right. So let me just get to your comments. Hello and welcome to everyone.
Thank you for dropping by tonight. A real pleasure.
Real, real pleasure. And I, you know, it's such a pleasure to be, like, genuine pleasure. Genuine pleasure to chat with you guys tonight.
So, hey, Steph, what do you think about turning down clients?
I had a client who was willing to pay a lot for my work but wouldn't give me any information about the job unless I locked in first. No.
No, no, no. So the business world is full of scams. The business world is full of scams.
[1:26] And don't get involved with anything like trust your gut right trust your gut if there's shady stuff that feels like it's going on shady stuff is going on and people are like well i just take a step further well i just take a step further right like everyone gets these spam emails that seem legit and you know it's like eh you know no not so much right so i just you got to trust your gut with this kind of stuff uh wouldn't give me information i won't give you any information about the job unless you're locked in first that's a absolute like there's nobody does business like that who's on the up and up at all so uh the good news is he's not a client the even better news is that he'll never be a client and thus uh get you to work on his illegal website or whatever he's doing, right? I'm just guessing, right?
Uh, Hey, uh, Steph, thanks for everything. Many years with you.
Now you are the man. However, my wife does not agree.
I assume that's because to your wife, you're the man, not me, which is exactly how it should be.
If we get a question good enough, I will Hulk style tear off my shirt, even though I haven't really worked out today. I just went for a long walk with my daughter.
So, um, Hey, Peacemaker.
Nice to meet you. Hey, He says, hey, first time catching you live on Locals.
You've been a great inspiration for me. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
[2:53] Uh, thank you for the tip. Hello there. I will put a question forward.
I like it when people tell me what they're doing, when they're doing it.
On the subject of Christian principles, forgiving those who despitefully use you.
Who spitefully use you? Once more, please check your typos.
Forgiving those who spitefully use you. Forgive your enemies.
Is that something that UPB can slash will support?
Without a judge to to leave judgment to right the wrongs, to balance the scales of justice.
[3:29] Okay, so this is a good test of UPB principles.
This is a good test of dealing with UPB principles.
So if we say, forgive your enemies is UPB, forgive your enemies is universally preferable behavior, does that pass.
[3:56] The two tests of UPB? The first is somewhat informal, but very helpful.
And the second is more formal and often not needed.
So the first test is the coma test. So you must forgive your your enemies. Okay.
So can a man in a coma forgive his enemies?
He cannot. Well, a man in a coma is refraining from rape, theft, assault, and murder. So he's fulfilling UPB principles that way.
[4:23] Can a man in a coma forgive his enemies? Nope.
Can't do anything. And UPB tells you what not to do.
It doesn't tell you what to do because what to do, if UPB tells you what to do, it's a positive prescription then UPB can't be universalized.
Yeah, it can't be UPB because then you'd need to always have enemies to forgive.
And also it's asymmetrical, right? So you have Bob the wrongdoer and Doug the victim. Should Doug forgive Bob?
Well, Bob can't forgive Doug because Bob is the wrongdoer and therefore not both Bob and Doug.
It's impossible for them to achieve forgiving your enemies at the same time.
They can't simultaneously because it's asymmetrical. One person has to be the good guy. One has to be the bad guy.
And if you have a moral principle, which requires one person to be the good person and the other person to be the bad person, you don't have a universal.
You've not got the you in UPB. So no, it can't be.
So it doesn't follow either one of those.
And once you get used to coma tests and universality, Coma test and universality.
Joe, I'm so sorry to hear that. I will get to that. I'm so sorry to hear that.
We will get to that. I promise you.
[5:47] So, let me ask you this, why do you think one of Jesus' most famous commandments is, to forgive your enemies? Why do you think one of Jesus' most famous commandments is to forgive your enemies?
[6:18] Well, not just to forgive, but to love your enemies.
Why would he say that? And it's famous because it's very much against our instincts, right?
So why would Jesus say that?
Can you explain that? I can forgive and also want to be forgiven. How is that not UPV?
Sorry if the question is silly. No, that's totally fine. That's totally fine.
So just while we get people typing in their answers about the whole Jesus thing, how I can forgive and also want to be forgiven.
So let's say that you are having a fight with a guy named Bob, right?
You are having a fight with a guy named Bob and the commandment is, is it UPB for you to forgive Bob?
Well, it can't be UPB because Bob has no reason to forgive you, right?
So if you are forgiving Bob, Bob can also be in a position to forgive you because Bob has to have done some wrong to you, right?
[7:15] So Bob can't achieve UPB because Bob has no need to forgive you.
You have a need to forgive Bob.
Bob did wrong to you, and therefore in the moment of forgiving Bob, you are exercising something that Bob can't also do.
So you can't both be moral at the same time. Also, what happens right after you forgive Bob, you can't be good anymore.
Universally preferable behavior means independent of time and space.
Independent of time and space. and if it requires one person to be bad in order for the virtue to be achieved it can't be universal right because people who have wronged you can use that against you because abusers want to get away with bad behavior and jesus enables that forgiveness doesn't preclude justice as usual let's make it about me i say this as a hopefully vivid example of a virtue that i try to enable as a virtue i I try to enable or manifest at least.
So would you say that I am a reasonably happy and positive fellow?
[8:25] Would you say, hit me with a why if you think I'm a reasonably happy and a positive fellow?
And this is going to be a rant, by the way.
Now, if you don't, that's fine. If you see hidden disco balls of mirrored bitterness deep in my eyeballs, you can certainly say that.
But somebody, so most people are saying yes. One person says no, that's totally fine.
So I would say, I would say reasonably, reasonably. Your mate Dave says, no, I'm not.
Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I mean, that's fine. It could be that I'm unreasonably relatively positive and, and, and happy.
Okay. Most of your stuff is negative.
Interesting. Okay. Most of your stuff is negative. All right.
Um, so, but that's not why I didn't ask about my work. I was asking about myself.
Right. Am I not, is the work that I produce, right?
Because if I'm a critic, right, it's, it's like, if, if you're a person who really enjoys critiquing movies, uh, you can be very happy.
While putting out criticisms of others, right?
[9:31] You strike me as reasonably positive. All right, now, hit me with a why as well if it's also fair to say that I have suffered maybe even slightly more than my fair share of injustice, hostility, lies, falsehood, slander, and nonsense, attacks, deplatforming, misrepresentation, and all kinds of crap on the internet and in the world.
Is it fair to say that I have been unjustly treated, despite having very good motivations for most of what I do?
Do you think that it's fair to say I have been unjustly treated in the world as a whole?
[10:10] Oh, God, yes. Oh, God, yes.
I think that's fair to say. I think that's fair to say. Now, so is it the case that I have forgiven my enemies?
Have I forgiven my enemies? How can I be reasonably positive and happy, having been treated so unjustly, unjustly.
How is that possible? Have I been fulfilling the biblical commandment of forgiving my enemies if I remain positive and happy despite despite endless and unjust attacks.
Yes, you don't actually have to repeat the attacks here. You can, I'm just saying.
Right? So, you haven't sought justice.
That's interesting. I'm not sure what seeking justice would mean in this context.
[11:33] Are you ready to get dark, hot, and heavy right away?
Are you ready to get dark, hot, and heavy right at the opening of the show? Because this...
How can you forgive when there's no one to ask for forgiveness?
I don't know what that means.
Are you ready? Are you sure? Okay. Do me a favor.
Hit me with whether you want shirt on or shirt off for this rant.
In other words, hit me with an O for on or an O for off.
I'll take either one, O for on or O for off, just to tell me whether you want shirt on or shirt off for this particular rant.
I may even take my glasses off. off. I may even, in fact, unscrew my nipples so that you can see my gills.
[12:34] It's a tough call. Oh, right. It's, ooh, it's a tough call. It's a tough call. Shall I tease you?
Shall I tease you?
Oh, yeah, baby.
Oh, yeah. That's the good stuff.
That's what happens when I get a couple of donations early on. Oh.
All right, this may even be a semi-standing rant.
How is it possible to remain positive and happy after being unjustly lied about, slandered, misrepresented, kicked off, ostracized, exercised?
How is it possible for this to occur?
Have I forgiven my enemies? I have not forgiven my enemies.
However, they're not my enemies.
[13:30] Oh, the subtlety of theology. They're not my enemies. not my enemies. They don't hate me.
Honestly, nobody hates me. I'm far too likable. I'm far too enjoyable.
I'm far too charming. I'm far too funny. I'm far too engaging.
I'm far too positive and I'm far too happy. Nobody hates me.
It's a simple fact. People might see and type and edit and lie, but they don't hate me. They don't hate me.
Forgive my enemies. I don't have have any enemies they don't hate me what do they hate the truth themselves anybody who interferes with their power they don't hate they don't hate me like if if you have a drug addict and you stand between the drug addict and his drug he hates you no he doesn't hate you he doesn't hate you he might rail against you yeah mad at you and shake his fists at you he might even, try and headbutt you or take out a bread knife and threaten you but he doesn't hate you.
[14:29] He doesn't hate you. He hates anyone who gets between him and his drugs. You understand?
It could be anyone. It could be the Pope. It could be a Haitian migrant.
It could be anyone. Anyone who stands between the addict and his drug is hated.
What the addict hates is the interference with the drug. Does not hate the person.
Does not hate the individual. It's not fucking personal.
It's not personal. do you think any of the shit that's said about me is personal and it's a just and fair and righteous evaluation of my character oh my god let's go after the guy who's into peaceful parenting and science and facts let's go after the guy who interviews experts let's go after the guy who's anti, childhood abuse and genital mutilation yeah that's the guy let's get him, let's get after the guy who writes poetry and loves Shakespeare.
Yeah, that's right, I mean. No, it's not personal.
It's not personal.
[15:41] It's not personal because anyone who said what I said would be hated the same.
And we know that because people who say what I say is hated the same.
It's not personal. I don't have any enemies. I don't. I have no enemies.
I have nobody who hates me.
To know me is to love me. Honestly, I have nobody who hates me.
And this is why, I mean, why on earth would you let liars and cheats and scoundrels and villains convince you that their hatred had anything to do with you?
I mean, do you think my mother hated me?
She didn't hate me. She actually quite liked me and loved me in her own way from time to time. It didn't hate me.
Didn't hate me at all. Right? And I know that because it's not personal to me.
Not personal to me.
[16:41] Hatred is a form of lust. It is a form of lust.
Now, lust dehumanizes the object. So, let's say you're a boob guy, right?
Elon Musk just posted about this. Let's say you're a boob guy.
Now, if there's a woman with a great rack, you are aroused by her boobs.
But it's not her. It's not personal to her. her. It's dehumanizing in a way.
Because it could be anyone with those boobs that you would lust for.
I mean, assuming some age restrictions, right?
That she's a young adult.
It's not personal to that person.
Someone who's really pretty. You're attracted to the prettiness, not the person.
Because anyone who looked like that or anyone who's that pretty you will also be attracted to it's not personal and we go through this absolute tumbleweed sock in the dryer chaos of lives because we take everything so fucking personally, ugh.
[17:56] Where you take everything so personally. Oh, that guy's got a real problem with me. He really hates me.
No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't.
[18:17] It's a form of vanity to think that people's hostility towards you is about you.
It's a form of vanity. Vanity is thinking everything's about you and you're super important and you're the main character. No. No. No.
If your girlfriend is cheating on your best friend and you tell...
If your girlfriend is cheating on your best friend and you tell your friend, that his girlfriend is cheating on him, does she hate you?
Of course she does. Is it personal? Nope.
Not at all. Because she would hate anyone Anyone who told her boyfriend that she was cheating on him, right?
Does the criminal hate the cop who arrests him? He does not.
He might say, I hate you, you, whatever, right? But he does not hate the cop who arrests him. He hates being arrested. It's not personal to the cop.
[19:17] It's not personal to the cop. People hate the consequences of other people's actions, which is not the same as saying they hate that person.
People hate the consequences of other people's actions, which is not to say they hate those people. So let me give you an example.
[19:38] Whoop, whoop, right?
Driving along, going over the speed limit, cop pulls you over, right? And you're like, oh man, such a drag, I can't afford this.
Whatever, I can't handle the points I don't want my insurance to go up, this is bad, bad, bad right cop comes in and you're like, oh man I can't stand this cop, and he's got you dead to rights.
[20:04] You go back and forth with the cop. And finally he says, Right, son.
I'm going to let you off with a warning this time, but letting up on the lead footer, right? And you're like, oh, thank you, officer. Oh, and you feel such sweet relief.
Now you love this guy. He's the best cop ever, right? You've gone from hating this cop, fearing this cop, to loving this cop, singing his praises.
You'd give him a great Yelp review if he had food.
I couldn't even smell. The donut dust on his nose. He was so great.
I burned the shirt off with the intensity of my self-protection.
Why would you imagine other people can see beyond their own ass hair and see you beyond the foliage of their own, often, degradation?
You don't even show up in their world. Only the effects of your actions show up in the world.
You are only important to most people insofar as you affect them, not in and of yourself, quite yourself, you as you.
It's you as it affects them. You hate the cop when he thinks he's going to give you a ticket.
You love the cop when he lets you off with a warning. You see, you only judge him relative to his effect on you.
[21:29] You buy the lottery ticket, you win $1,000, you're desperate for money, you give the store owner a big hug.
Oh, you're so great, man. You love him. You love all of humanity.
Everything's wonderful. I've got money.
Do you love that store owner? You do not.
Whereas the next guy who comes in and shoplifts and the store owner catches him and calls the cops, and let's assume this isn't California, he might actually be in some trouble. trouble.
That thief, he hates that store owner.
Man, it's going to get me in trouble with the cops.
Damn him. So you love him because you just won $1,000.
The next guy hates him because he's shoplifted and got caught, right?
It's the same guy, isn't it? It's the same guy, isn't it? Same Same store owner.
One person loves him. The other person hates him.
Because all they care about is the effects the store owner has on their lives.
That's all they care about.
[22:41] There's your nip. Make sense?
Make sense? And two, two nips, yes, it is in fact two nips, asterisk that you can see.
I'll let you go on that mind journey on your own.
20,000 leagues under the 200 chest hairs for the win.
[23:11] People don't hate me. They don't. They hate the effect I have on their lives, which is to say they hate the effect that the truth has on their lives.
Right?
Anyone tell that I had a little bit of a nap this afternoon?
I believe you can. But this is, in fact, decaf coffee.
People don't hate you.
I mean, assuming you're a decent person, right? They don't hate you.
If I say to people hey family relations are voluntary and if you've been abused you don't have to see your abusers well that gives abusers less hold over their victims, do they hate me? no they don't hate me they don't know me and nobody can hate me right the virtuous can't be hated, the effects of the statements of the virtuous on the lives of the immoral can be hated but you can't hate virtue, you can't.
[24:27] Let's say you have a good police officer in the neighborhood and you're a good person. Will you ever hate the cop? Nope. You'll be thankful he's there.
Thank you, officer. Hey, here's a cup of coffee. Like when I lived downtown on Tecumseh many, many years ago, there was a coffee shop on the corner and they had a standing policy, free coffee and donuts to the cops.
They loved having the cops by.
They loved the cops being there. They loved the cops being in the neighborhood because they wanted their property to be protected and they were very happy to have the police officers there.
[24:59] If you're being robbed in an alley and a cop comes running down the alley, you're super thrilled.
The guy robbing you is super unthrilled.
You love the fact that the cop is running down the alley. The other person hates that the cop is running down the alley.
You love the cop for what he's doing. The criminal hates the cop for what he's doing. See, it's completely subjective.
I mean, you could say that the cop in protecting your property rights is doing a good thing.
I get all of that but you understand that the emotional reactions, have nothing to do with the cop's nature if the cop turns and so you can you can see this flip you're getting robbed cops running down the alley and it turns out that the cop is in league with the criminal and the cop robs you again, now you were happy now you're unhappy and then the criminal was really unhappy until he saw it was his buddy the corrupt cop and then they both rob you and he's happy and they right up and down, what's the objective nature of these feelings, Baaaaah!
[26:03] Tell me I'm wrong. I'm happy to hear.
Do I forgive my enemies?
I have no enemies. Now, the truth has enemies, or to put it another way, the effect of the truth on the moral, sorry, the effect of the truth on the immoral has the immoral hate the truth, or rather they hate the effects of the truth on their lives.
Are you with me? Hit me with a Y if you're following along.
I know this sounds annoyingly condescending. I just want to make sure it's making sense, but I don't want to repeat where it's unnecessary.
[26:48] Wait, I'm going to grab a little inspiration. Tweek! Purple nurple myself.
People don't hate me. They don't hate the truth. They hate the effects of the truth on their life.
And hatred, you know what hatred fundamentally is?
Hatred is the inability to rebut. Hatred is the inability to rebut people.
Hatred is what Satan turns up in the furnace of your soul when he can't overthrow the arguments that are unseating him.
We wish to murder those who we cannot answer.
We wish to overthrow those whose rationality overthrows our pettiness and falseness.
We wish to destroy the courageous, not because they're courageous, not because of them themselves.
We wish to destroy the courageous because they make us feel cowards.
[28:02] Immorality is foundationally and fundamentally selfish. That's bad if you're under their power, but it's good if all they're doing is insulting you because that's the nature of evil.
It's fundamentally selfish. They don't care about me. They care about the effects that what I say has on their life.
And if the effects of what I say, plus other people's free will, has a negative effect on their life, they hate the negative effect.
They can't answer, so they insult. I mean, ad hominem 101, right?
[28:40] You'd be completely shocked at how few people know you, understand you, care about you, evaluate you objectively.
You'd be shocked at how few people know you at all.
I mean do you think my quote critics on the internet I'm sorry to be laughed but do you think they know me at all do you think that they understand me at all do you think that they care about me at all nope no all they care about is the negative effects that my words have on their life.
[29:20] I hate whatever politician alright yeah well no you don't You don't.
You hate the effect that that politician has on your life.
You've got to be precise about these things.
You've got to be precise about these things. You don't hate whatever structure, whatever power, whatever. You hate the effect they have on your life.
Why is hatred dependent on knowing your true self? I have no idea what that means. It's quite the opposite of what I've been saying.
So, don't take it personally. If you take it personally, you're mistaking the mechanics of the interaction.
You're mistaking the mechanics of the interaction.
[30:28] When most people say, I hate you, they're saying, I hate how your actions make me feel.
I hate how your actions make me feel. That's all.
You know, the sour grapes guy who asked the girl out, she says no, and he's like, oh, she's not that pretty anyway. Well, he hates, doesn't hate her. He just hates the feeling of rejection.
So forgive your enemies. To me, one of the foundational wisdoms about that, and it's a very interesting phrase, love your enemies.
Your enemies teach you, who teaches you? And this is an interesting question. I don't know the answer.
I have some suspicions, certainly not anything conclusive. Who teaches you more, about virtue?
The good or the evil among us? The good people or the evil people among us?
Who teaches you more about virtue?
The moral or the immoral?
Which is another way of saying which sensation teaches you more about safety? Pleasure or pain?
[31:53] Are we virtuous for the sake of pleasure or are we virtuous to recoil from evildoers?
Are we moral? And we can say not the entirety of our journey, what first propels us into the quest for virtue and for wisdom?
What first propels us in that direction?
Is it a love of virtue and a desire for abstract happiness, ten years down the road? No.
Almost never. I've never heard of such a thing.
I've never heard of such a thing. I can scarcely imagine such a thing, which doesn't mean I'm right. It could be a complete failure of imagination on my part.
What first propels us on the journey, to virtue? I think almost always you will find it is a horror at and a recoil from, the vicious, maggoty corruptions of evil.
[33:06] Did you become good because you valued virtue and you wanted to achieve, goodness down the road, sometimes five years, ten years, or more?
Or did you have your face pressed into the sucking chest wound, the maggoty virulence of stone evil, and ran screaming a thousand miles in the other direction, woke up when you stopped screaming because your throat was bleeding and you went, holy shit.
[33:42] I think I made it to virtue. Running away from that horror.
I think I made it to virtue.
Now let's keep going. This is great.
Was it a laborious climb to a summit you couldn't see?
Or were you simply fleeing the rising blood tides of drowning immorality?
Somebody says Somebody stop me Somebody says Christ had enemies They hated him They tortured and killed him They made him suffer immensely He forgave the ones who hurt him Who hated him, Why separate the actions of man From thoughts that made him do those actions If people don't hate you, But they hate the behavior Aren't you removing the importance of the will of the man, of the man, man's who did the virtuous behavior.
[34:44] My God, people, could you not fucking proofread? Is this an impossible thing?
If people don't hate you, but they hate the behavior, aren't you removing the importance of the will of the man, man's who did the virtuous behavior?
I don't know what that fucking word salad is at the end there, so I'm just going to ignore that.
People don't hate. People don't hate. my behavior. They don't hate me.
I'm on a phone. So? Oh, you have excuses.
Oh, no, you have excuses, and therefore you don't have to do basic proofreading.
Ah, criticism leads to excuses. How mature. How mature. You can just say sorry.
On the man, I typed it twice by accident. I don't care that you typed it.
My issue is not that you typed it twice by accident. Stop giving me these soy boy excuses.
My issue is that you didn't proofread it before you sent it.
They waste everyone's time.
The fact that you made a mistake is not the issue. The fact that you didn't proofread is the issue, and the fact that you're not just saying, oh, sorry, but you're giving me all these mealy-mouthed excuses.
People don't hate virtuous people. They don't hate virtuous actions.
The virtuous, because they're selfish. Evil is selfish. Therefore, it only hates that which causes is it a negative experience.
[36:09] Evil only hates that which causes a negative experience.
The drug addict, you stand between the drug and the drug addict.
And you prevent the drug addict who's jonesy for the drug, you prevent the drug addict from getting hold of the drug. Does he hate you?
No. Does he hate your actions? No.
Because if you were doing the exact same actions four feet to the right, he'd be free to get his drugs. He doesn't hate the actions. What does he hate?
He doesn't hate you because if anyone was standing there, there he'd hate that person too. He doesn't hate your actions because if you were doing it four feet over, he wouldn't care.
But if anybody else was doing the same actions, he would hate that too.
It's the interference with getting the drug that he hates. It's all about him.
It's nothing to do with you.
It's nothing to do with you. Now you can say, ah, yes, but I am responsible for my actions.
I get all of that. I get all of that. But from the standpoint point of the immoral person. It's not you.
That's freedom.
That's freedom.
[37:19] It's not about you. When my mother was beating me, did she hate me? She did not.
Did she hate? Was she trying to punish me? She was not. Was she trying to make me do better things? She was not.
She was doing none of those things in any way, shape, or form.
Something happened that made her feel bad, and beating me made her feel better.
[37:51] Something happened that made her feel bad, and beating me made her feel better.
[38:05] Hatred? Oh, hatred is grooming for violence. Hatred is the fire that you set under the kettle of your heart so that it whistles into violence.
Hatred is usually a dress rehearsal for a murder.
Collective hatred is a dress rehearsal for mass murder.
Hatred is talking yourself into violence.
[38:31] Yeah, it is a desire to destroy. which is why it's engendered when people can't answer your arguments.
People do evil largely on the supposition that they won't pay for it.
And when it looks like they might actually end up paying for it, they get really angry.
If I'd have known ahead of time, like if a bank robber knew ahead of time that he was going to get caught, he wouldn't rob the bank.
There's no point. he wouldn't rob the bank if you knew for certain that the girl was gonna say no to you asking her out you wouldn't ask her out, evil is done on the premise that it won't be punished, so when you quote punish evil by giving consequences, they feel fooled I abused my kids if I'd have known that some jerkwad, bald-headed, giant ostrich-thumbed, speckle-headed philosopher was going to come along and say that you don't have to spend time with abusive people, maybe I wouldn't have abused my kids.
[39:53] They're enraged at being caught because they did their evil on the assumption they could could get away with it.
Which is why withholding negative consequences from evildoers is embedding them further in immorality.
[40:16] Evil is a soul destroyed by greed. When somebody with true compassion and a benevolence of spirit comes along, they know it's win-lose. But it's not personal.
Evil is weak, love is powerful. that's not even remotely true sorry evil is very powerful have you not looked at the world lately evil is very powerful evil is very powerful that's just a hallmark card that people gaslight themselves to pretend that they're in less danger than they are and be careful of that, my skin is strong the lion's claws are weak it's like that's pretty dangerous.
[40:59] My mother didn't hate me because if I'd have been anyone else, she would have beat that too. She would have beat that kid too. Wasn't personal to me.
Wasn't personal to me at all. I had, I was just a body. I was a punching bag.
I was a, an emotional tampon, whatever you want. I was just something to vent on.
It wasn't personal to me because do you know what, unbelievable danger you're in if you, let's say that your parents were abusive.
Or teachers or whoever, right? Or people on the internet. Let's say that your parents were abusive and you think it has something to do with you.
You can never fucking escape it. You can never escape it.
Because it has something to do with you, which means it sticks to you.
Like a tattoo on your stomach lining. It sticks to you.
It's embedded within you. You can't get away from it. Because it was about you.
But the truth of the matter is, if you were abused as a kid, it didn't have anything to do with you.
So you can walk away from it, leaving no stain, no trail of blood, had nothing to do with you.
[42:18] Energize a bunny your way back out of that, had nothing to do with you.
Wasn't personal. It wasn't about anything you did.
Or anything you didn't do. It wasn't about obedience or rebellion or not putting the dishes away or not cleaning up your room or not getting an A on your test or anything like that or getting up early or getting up late.
It had nothing to do with that.
[42:46] You want to know what it was.
You want to know what it was. If you were abused.
[43:01] Most times, you have a headache. I mean, you'll try a little massage or whatever.
You have a headache. For me, for me, could be anything for others.
For me, I don't know. I rarely get headaches, but every now and then, you know, you sleep funny or whatever, you wake up early, got a bit of a headache, right?
So, you know, I'll work out. I'll stretch it out a little bit here and there.
But, but, after a while, I'll just take an aspirin or whatever, right? And that's fine.
It's fine.
What is my emotional relationship to the aspirin?
The aspirin is an object that makes me feel better. And that's fucking all.
The aspirin is a thing that takes away my pain. And that's...
[44:04] I have no value for the aspirin other than take away my pain.
If I don't have any aspirin, I'm maybe mildly annoyed or whatever because then I got to go and get some aspirin.
And it's not personal. I don't hate the aspirin now.
I can tell you get headaches. It's a kind of creepy thing. I get very few headaches.
Everyone gets headaches, don't they? You get a cold every now and then.
People are... I don't know, it's kind of funny.
So, I have no personal relationship to the aspirin. I don't care about the aspirin.
I don't think about the aspirin. I don't check in with... Hey, aspirin, how are you doing today?
I know it's been a while since we've had anything to do with each other.
I just wanted to check in and see what's new.
Sorry you suffer from this condition. Aren't you an odd bird?
I take, I mean, honestly, I'll take an aspirin for a headache maybe three or four times a year.
[45:21] I don't have a personal relationship with the aspirin. I just use it when I need to feel better.
Abusive parents don't have a personal relationship with you.
They just use you. When they need to feel better.
When they need to feel better.
I have no feelings about the aspirin. I have no relationship to the aspirin.
I use the aspirin to feel better.
The aspirin, if it was conscious, would say, I love helping Steph, man. man, I'm just sitting here in this dark-ass bottle just waiting.
My purpose is to help Steph feel better. Steph, he's forgotten about me maybe, but he really cares.
And oh, look, I'm being lifted up. Oh, listen, he's figured out the childproof container.
Glorious sunlight is pouring in. He's picking me up, putting me on his tongue and downing me with a glass of water.
I am at one with the sky god Steph. We are united.
We are combined. We have merged.
I dissolve and make him right no it's just I need a pill down it goes.
[46:44] That's all.
[46:50] Bad people have a negative experience of what I say and not just what I say but how I say it and all of that right and so they feel put down and so they insult me virtue insults them they insult the virtuous, it's a form of leveling and it's a form of self protection against virtue, so people who tell falsehoods about me, in my view, are inoculating other people against the truth and virtue that I am talking about. Of course.
I mean, of course. Of course they are.
And what else would they be doing? I mean, maybe a few of them transition to virtue. I consider that quite unlikely, and it's possible. But what else would they be doing?
Evil wants to flourish. Evil wants to control. Evil wants to rule.
Evil wants to have power. And if virtue gets in the way, then you have to inoculate people against virtue.
So what you do is you stick as many negative labels to the virtuous person as humanly possible in order to protect your own evil self-interest.
And to make sure fewer people get exposure to the truth. Of course, it's not personal.
It's not about me, it's not about you.
Because they can't think outside themselves. They can only think in terms of their own interests, their own preference, their own benefits. And that's fucking it.
[48:19] Stefan, I can never repay you for your amount of knowledge transferred to me.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
You can try. Free domain dot com slash donate. Help me buy a shirt.
Forgive your enemies. enemies, they're not your enemies.
They're not your enemies.
Jesus said morality is universal and accessible to everyone, right?
Did that harm some people's interest? Apparently.
Did Did they hate him? No.
Did they hate his words? No.
No. They hated the effect that his words had on them.
That's it. They hated the effects that his words had on them.
[49:26] So it's all about them. It's not about Jesus independent of them.
It's about Jesus' effect on them.
I mean, let me ask you this. How many people are angry at the theology of Thor these days?
How many people are angry at the theology and moral arguments of the high priesthood of Thor or Heyerdahl or Hera, or Loki, big debates fights anger are people saying oh my god we've got to have hate speech laws so that those Thor adherents don't say improper things about Hera, You kind of can repay him for all this amazing knowledge. Thank you for the tip. I appreciate that.
But you follow? So listen, there were times when there were massive fights, wars, religious conflicts, torture, murder, over what the priesthood of Thor was saying.
[50:45] Why aren't those fights happening now? because nothing that the priesthood of Thor is saying, has any effect on any evil people at all. So they don't care.
Tim says he was also the first to dignify and respect children. Yes.
I'll just do it short, says Zimpf. I had to be the punching bag, stress ball for my family's unresolved issues.
Right. Now, punching bag and stress ball is great.
Imagine if the punching bag were sentient it would say lord above holy thor why the hell does everyone hate me i'm getting gut punched five thousand times a day what did i ever do to these people i'm just sitting here leathery giant penis shape hanging from the ceiling it's already kind of uncomfortable i had a crick in a minute and i could actually use an advil why the fuck does everyone just come up and punch me in the gut all day what the hell they must be full of rabid, anti-punching-bag hatred.
They must think that I murdered their cat and am responsible for every dire thing in their life. They just beat the shit out of me, and I don't know why.
[52:03] You don't hate the punching bag. It's just what you exercise on.
Abusive parents don't hate you. You're just what they exercise on.
Just getting a workout, loosening up the shoulders, warming up the vocal cords, Freddie Mercury style.
It's hard not to make it personal when they've expended so much effort to convince me and others. Otherwise, of course, yeah, I get that.
That's why I'm doing half an hour on this, because it is hard.
It is hard. to not take it personally, because part of the cruelty is you internalizing the cruelty. You understand?
You're easier to rule when you police yourself.
[52:47] You're easier to rule when you police yourself. You're easier to abuse if you abuse yourself.
Break your will, break your spirit. That's the whole point of this color revolution, is to break your spirit, break your will, break your will to resist.
So part of the abuse is getting you to abuse yourself and they do that by saying it's you you're the problem i'm doing this because of you and what you did and your personality and your disobedience and your mess and your lack of studying and your talk back of course, i get that and i'm telling you it's all a total lie, it's all a complete and total falsehood and fiction and nonsense none of it is true None of it is real. You were not hated.
You were just used. Like a punching bag. Like an aspirin.
Like a vomit bag on a plane. You ever see those little things you're digging around as a kid, you're so bored?
Oh, is this a comic? No, it's just the safety instructions we got.
[53:56] Oh, it's a vomit bag. You ever get sick of that vomit bag?
Right. The vomit bag is like, why do people hate me so much that they keep pouring the stomach contents on me?
It's acidic. It's uncomfortable to get thrown in the garbage.
Why? It's like, no, you don't hate the vomit bag.
You don't hate the barf bag. You just need some place to put your barf. It's not personal.
You're not morally judging the barf bag. It's just convenient.
And you, if you were abused, you were just a barf bag for your parents.
They didn't hate you. they just used you because they got to have some place to put their barf and they sure as hell ain't going to deal with it themselves.
So you have to suffer, you have to pay. It's not personal.
If you interfere with the actions, plans, projects and well-being of evildoers, they will F you up.
It's not personal. It's not personal.
[54:49] You know, it's just business. It's an unholy business, it's an evil business, it's a nasty business, it's an abusive business, it's just business, it's not personal.
The attacks on me, it's just business, it's not personal.
Otherwise it'd be like, oh God, my wife loves me, my daughter loves me, my friends love me, audience members, y'all love some of the stuff that I do.
How is it possible that I could be so loved and so hated? How is that possible?
[55:30] What a paradox.
You know, when you take a medicine, let's say you take antibiotics, right? Your body loves that you're taking antibiotics.
How does the bacteria feel that you're taking antibiotics? Oh, we're melting. We're dying. I hate these antibiotics.
What's good for your body is bad for the bacteria, the infection.
Infection, your body's happy, the infection is unhappy, right?
When you wash your balls, let's talk about that, when you wash your balls, there's a lot of bacteria that gets washed away. You ever seen that meme?
How women shower and there's a body with red all over it?
How do men shower? There's three red spots, balls, armpits, and the rest of of it is, eh, water will take care of it. Rinsing will take care of it.
Do you know how unhappy your ball bacteria is when you wash it?
When I use one of those giant pulley cranes to haul back my foreskin, right?
No, do you know, I mean, every time you blow your nose, you've got a cold and you blow your nose, all those cold viruses are so mad.
But your body's happy, hey? Hey, that's why we're getting all this snot and get rid of the viruses.
[56:56] How can medicine be so loved and so hated? But that's all medicine.
All medicine is loved and hated.
It's loved by your health and it's hated by the illness.
If we can't hate people, can we love them?
You know, try and follow what I'm saying and stop spitting up all of these fortune cookie Panda Express deputies.
Is up the downness of sidewaysness really when you think about it?
Can we really be both in and out at the same time?
Is there a difference between up and down? Is there a difference? Is there really?
[57:40] Now, it is true that hatred is the shadow cast by being lovable because to be truly lovable, you have to do good in the world.
For people to love you, you have to do good in the world. doing good in the world means interfering with the preferences actions and plans of evildoers and they'll hate you for that but they don't hate you they hate the interference with their blah blah blah right so yeah, hatred is the shadow cast by virtue, again if an illness was sentient and you come up with a great cure for an illness the illness will hate you because the illness wants to, expand right the cancer hates the chemo I get it your body loves well it doesn't love the chemo but it's fine cancer hates the chemo.
[58:35] The tobacco farmer hates the nicotine patch.
You said we can't be hated. Yes.
Sorry, I'm just going to have to not, I don't know. You're not following the conversation. You're just trying to jump out of it.
I said hatred is the shadow cast by virtue in the world.
I don't see how that contradicts what I said before, but I guess you'll have to be listening with more than half a needle to follow that.
So just take, listen, do me a favor. This is the BC Duff 12.
Take yourself a little bit of a break from posting. If you could just do me a favor. No one hates me. So does anyone love me?
I don't know. I don't even know you. I mean, how am I supposed to know?
Stop making it about you. Stop making it about you.
Stop making it about you Thanks Tim, I appreciate that.
[59:40] Don't be an ass, But I have an ass So in a sense I be an ass Because to be assless Would to be British, Alright All right.
[1:00:00] I'm confused by B.C. Duff. Yeah, he's aiming to just draw people away.
He's a fog thrower, right? So he's aiming to draw away the clarity of what I'm saying with endless, pointless, non-questions. So just, yeah, ignore him.
Sorry to be rough, but yeah, just ignore him.
If you could, I would appreciate that.
[1:00:23] Does this make sense? Is this, this is why I'm free of hatred.
If you, I have an arse and I am British. No, then you'd be an arse.
Just kidding. Your mate, Dave.
I don't know why that was vaguely Australian, but hey, two of the colonies as always.
[1:00:45] So forgive your enemies.
Why just say, see, everyone says that, Jesus says, oh, forgive your enemies. What else does he say?
Forgive them, Father, for what? Forgive them, Father, for what?
What is he saying on the cross, on Calvary?
What is he saying? What does he say very explicitly, very powerfully?
Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. do.
They know not what they do.
Evil people have convinced themselves that they hate someone, and that's completely false.
They know not what they do. They don't even know that they They don't hate people.
They only hate whatever interferes with their interests, which can't be universalized.
[1:01:59] I don't know if you've ever lifted the lid and peered into the furnace heart of the morally and spiritually broken among us.
Have you ever had that experience where you really, really get to see, the hell that is going on in the ashen remains of the shattered hearts of the evildoers among us.
Have you ever? I've seen it a couple of times. Oh.
It's absolutely appalling. It's absolutely horrible, heartbreaking, wretched. It is a pit of despair.
It's dark and scary.
You know, probably one out of 10, one out of 20 people, you know, they never came back from COVID, right?
They stayed home and stayed alone and not coming back.
It's a permanent self-exile. the last.
[1:03:26] So if you've ever seen what goes on in the hearts of the truly broken.
[1:03:40] It's a form, this hysterical attacks, this torrents of verbal abuse, which often is designed to escalate to physical abuse by self or others, right?
The sophists goad the mob into attacking the truth-tellers.
[1:03:59] They know it's a zero-sum game. If virtue wins, they lose. If they win, virtue loses.
And they're just willing to do whatever it takes. See, virtue is kind of hobbled, right?
Virtue is kind of hobbled because we have honesty as a core value.
So we're kind of hobbled, right? If you can tell the truth or lie versus you can only tell the truth, well, imagine a poker game where you weren't allowed to bluff ever. You wouldn't win.
You wouldn't win. Imagine playing a soccer game where you couldn't fake that you were going to kick somewhere.
You couldn't pretend that you were going in one direction and then switch direction to another. You couldn't misdirect. You couldn't do any of that.
You know, one strategy that I deploy in tennis is I pretend I'm going to hit really hard and then I just bink.
What if you had to point everywhere you were going to throw the ball, and football.
COVID is really the most, COVID and its reactions is really the most under-processed, psychological event in modern times and possibly even in world history.
[1:05:21] I'll do that another time.
Do you feel do you feel like you'll feel that this is why i'm trying really trying to get people to not dissociate from this topic i'm begging you focus on what i'm saying because if you get it you won't believe the weight that gets lifted from your shoulders when you know it's not about you it's not personal it's not attached to you it could have been anyone you were just a body in the way you have the they have the personal relationship with you that the average boxer or has to a boxing pack.
[1:05:59] It's not personal. It doesn't stick with you. It's not about you.
If you focus on what I'm saying and you get it, you won't believe, what weight will be lifted from your shoulders.
And how it's, look, what I'm saying is fundamentally not even about the past. It's about the future.
If you don't take the lies of evildoers seriously or personally, they have no power over you.
They have no power over you. It's wild. It's truly wild.
Because they're looking for people they can infect.
Okay, imagine if you were, this is an analogy, of course, I'm not comparing human beings to viruses, but if you were a virus and you got to choose to infect two people, you'd want to infect the person who hadn't had you before.
Because now he's got antibodies.
And if you're a virus, you want to go to the virgin flesh, not the protected flesh.
Yeah, maybe we'll do a donor-only post-COVID show. A lot to talk about.
[1:07:20] You will be, like, when you stop taking, when you stop taking the words of evil people seriously or personally, maybe seriously if there's significant danger, but you certainly start taking it personally, then you're protected. I'm trying to protect you guys from evildoers, and evildoers will sniff out whether you're inoculated, and not taking it personally is the ultimate inoculation. Does this make sense?
There were a lot of comments, and I will get to the other issue that was raised earlier.
Thoughts on the super bowl thoughts on the super bowl.
[1:08:07] Ah giant man children chasing after pigskin on government-funded astroturf bullshit field, start stop start stop stop stop start stop stop stop i actually went bowling with my family and I'd completely forgotten that it was Super Bowl Sunday because I'm not 12.
So we went bowling and there was Super Bowl up on the TV.
Now the commercials were kind of funny. The one with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Matt Damon.
The Dunkin' Donuts one. It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny.
Tom Brady was in it too. I didn't recognize him. But...
[1:09:01] Yeah, I mean, cheering for your own tax enslavement is the business of most sports fans.
Yes, Steph, I think I've taken things way too personally over the years and I allowed myself to remain susceptible to the abuse because that's how I was quote trained. Yeah, for sure.
Good afternoon, Liberty Garden. Welcome.
Reademain.com slash donate if you'd like to help out the show.
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[1:09:40] Tell me how this isn't absolutely fine stuff.
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Great stuff. And it helps. Well, it more than helps.
Love your enemies. Who taught me more about virtue? School or mom?
Who taught me more about virtue?
School or mob? Thank you, Yuntis. I appreciate the tip.
Who taught you more about virtue? Your teachers or your abusers, if you had them, assuming they weren't one and the same, those who harmed you or those who taught you? Who taught you more about? out.
[1:11:00] Thank you, Existert. I appreciate that. I took my dad's abuse personal because he only did it to me and not my other five siblings. Ah, but he did.
Ah, but he did.
If you're locked in a jail cell with four other people and you watch one of those people get the the shit beaten out of him for disobeying a guard.
You think it doesn't have any effect on you? He's the example.
I mean, one of the reasons, of course, that I was deplatformed was so that people wouldn't talk about the stuff I was talking about.
They're like, oh, that's what happens if you talk about the stuff Steph talked about.
So it wasn't personal, just an example. Everybody had to shut the fuck up and get in line about these topics. It's not personal.
My abusers didn't teach me about virtue. They taught me to be deceitful and self-destructive.
That's one way of looking at it.
That's one way to look at it.
[1:12:09] McCree says, great stuff is always a weight lifted for sure.
They taught me to be deceitful and self-destructive.
I completely don't agree with your assessment of your own history, which I know is annoying, and I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying I completely don't agree with your assessment of your own history.
And mindset is everything. How we define things is everything.
[1:12:48] Let's go to what you say. My abusers didn't teach me about virtue.
They taught me to be deceitful and self-destructive. Well?
Nonsense. Nonsense.
You weren't deceitful, and you weren't self-destructive. You did what you fucking had to do in order to survive.
And if you insult yourself for that, they win, and you, and the truth, and the world, loses.
You did what you had to do in order to survive.
[1:13:30] Well, I remember when I was lost in Algonquin Park and I had to eat a squirrel.
I didn't actually have to eat a squirrel. I was, in fact, lost in Algonquin Park, though. But I had foil-wrapped salisbury steak.
Didn't have to eat a squirrel. But let's say you did have to eat a squirrel.
Oh, my God, I can't believe this. You did what you had to do in order to survive.
Why you wouldn't give yourself a medal for that is beyond my comprehension.
You did what you had to do in order to survive. And guess what?
You're here. You made it.
You made it.
But you're going to look back and say, oh, the wrongs I did in order to survive.
[1:14:20] Did you want to be in that situation? Bet you didn't. Did you do what you had to do in order to survive? Bet you did.
I can't believe I stabbed that bear that was trying to rip my scalp off.
I'm never going to be a good vegan.
Sorry, I don't mean to laugh because it's child abuse. But holy shit, man.
The fuck are you doing labeling yourself with all these negative terms when you survived?
Two decades of child abuse.
Holy shit. Give yourself a fucking medal. if not a medal, at least a fucking break.
[1:15:06] Of course I lied to my mother. Of course I did. Oh, she taught me how to be deceitful.
It's like, no, I lied to survive. Of course I did.
If you're a Jew escaping Nazi Germany and you give false papers, oh, I'm so deceitful. It's not you surviving.
You're surviving. Isn't that a good thing?
Isn't that a good thing? If you're in a situation of violence, abuse, and injustice, and you lie?
I'm now branded as a liar. Oh, no.
Yeah, you lied, because that's how you live. Am I wrong?
How dare I, as a tiger, imitate the tall grass and be dishonest about what I'm pretending to be tall grass when I'm not actually tall?
Okay, yeah, you try announcing yourself and see how many, how well you survive.
[1:15:58] But when I was an adult, I was self-destructive in a peaceful way.
Yes. Yes. You know, when someone yells in your ear, sometimes your ear rings for a while, even though they're not yelling anymore.
I get you. It can take a while to overcome a bad childhood, but you don't overcome it by calling yourself deceitful and self-destructive.
Like having to eat worms and drink your own pee when lost in a jungle. That is oddly specific.
Yes.
[1:16:28] You're welcome, my friend. You're welcome.
Ah, God Thief says, I can see now how I personalized what others did to me, only preyed on my lack of self-esteem.
God, you guys are horrible to yourself. This helps empower me in seeing I had a whole lot more power than I thought. Your lack of self-esteem?
What a load of crap you guys are talking tonight. Holy crap. left.
I lack self-esteem. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't lack self-esteem.
Oh my God.
You had to pretend to be broken so you weren't beaten.
I get it. Political prisoners do it all the time. People in prison do it all the time. You had to pretend to be broken so you wouldn't get beaten.
Everybody does it. It's not personal. Stop insulting yourself.
Stop thinking you chose was in any of it.
You didn't lack self-esteem. You had to fake low self-esteem so you wouldn't get beaten.
[1:17:39] Thank you, shirtless deaf. You are welcome. Thank you for the tip. I appreciate that.
You know, what's the hang dog look that people in prison get? Yeah.
Yeah. Sure. Yeah, yeah. you have to do that because if you make eye contact and look scornfully at the gods they could beat you.
[1:18:03] Survival is quite easy when it's only verbal abuse do you think?
Nope the verbal abuse lasts the longest other than sexual abuse the verbal abuse lasts the longest, because they're attempting to break you and reform you in the image of their own evil through language and we live on language right I'm trying to change your brains with words.
I'm trying to impact your neurons with sound waves.
And a blinding forehead.
[1:18:33] I don't have a shirt on either, says the listener. Hey, nipple buddies. Pressing close.
It's really hard to break those survival patterns and find a healthy way to exist slash have boundaries. Well, let me ask you this.
You still breaking bread with the people who abused you?
Just out of curiosity. Still breaking bread, still hanging out, still doing lunch and Christmas and Thanksgiving.
In prison, there are a bunch of ridiculous rules you have to follow to stay on the good side of the inmates slash guards. but enough about public school.
Yeah, of course. No eye contact, look down, don't smile, don't laugh, don't sing, don't be happy, don't this. Yeah. Yeah.
I get it. Yeah, I get it.
You ever try to be happy around an abusive parent in a bad mood?
You ever have that experience?
You ever try to be like, just something really good happens, You're just, you're really happy and you're around an abusive parent in a foul mood. What happens?
No, I'm low contact, but do go back sometimes at holidays. So that would be a yes.
Have you quit drinking alcohol? Yes. Except when I drink.
[1:19:51] Ah.
[1:20:06] You know you don't have forever to be nice to yourself because time ticks on and we're all going to die yeah you ever try yeah you're happy you're really happy something great you're happy you just it's a great you and they're in a bad mood and it's like how how how much fun is it to be happy around a an abuser in a bad mood do you get punished for being happy yes all i seem to to, I seem to not be able to experience happiness.
There's something, no, you're just, you were punished for being happy when they were in a bad mood.
Yeah, you get yelled at, beaten down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, right.
Go be happy somewhere else, yeah.
You ever put your hand up at school and say, hey, teach, could we learn maybe something about the business world or how to do taxes or entrepreneurship or the economy or like, I gotta tell you, this Pythagorean theorem shit, I don't know how it's ever gonna help me.
I don't know how it's ever gonna mean anything to me. Can you just teach us something that's gonna actually help us in our lives?
[1:21:16] What if you said that? What if you actually said what we were all thinking throughout school? This is mindlessly boring.
I'm never going to use this. It's make-work-subjugation bullshit.
It's an exercise of power.
You know, when Stalin does comedy, everybody laughs.
It's an exercise of power. To inflict boredom on people is an exercise of power, which is why bad parents tend to be so boring.
It's an exercise of power. Can't get away.
We win, you lose.
When will we use this in real life? My classmates, every day.
Yeah, every day. Every day we're looking at the blackboard going, what the fuck is this?
I don't care. Oh, the difference between mitosis and meiosis.
That's really going to come in handy Indy, when I want to start a business and pay property taxes. So helpful. Oh my God.
[1:22:21] Being boring is an exercise of power.
Which is why you know how much I reject power because I'm really trying to be interesting while challenging.
I asked my math teacher, says someone, who is an old guy once, when will we be using this? he looked at me and said, focus on your work.
Right, it's an exercise in power.
I don't have to be useful because I got power over you. I can fail you, so I don't have to enlighten you.
I mastered the art of looking at my phone under the table without the teacher noticing.
Probably thought you were just obsessed with your own genitals, but hey, we all were. I mean by your genitals.
Zimp says any time I'd show some enthusiasm about something, parents would always try to stop belittling me in overt and covert ways To get me to lose interest. Yeah.
God forbid you be happy among the morey minds of the miserable. God forbid.
God help you if you're happy around the miserable. They will make you pay.
[1:23:29] Someone says, I only saw practical math when I went back to upgrade my education for community college.
Okay.
I don't know what any of that means, but I'm sure it's important to someone.
[1:23:51] So what did he say? The only entrepreneurs who came through the school were the most depressing guy who was super regretful about missing his children's toddler years.
Right, so they would choose you to scare you away from entrepreneurship. Right.
Yeah, if you were happy, says James, they would growl, wipe that smile off your face. Right.
Dave says, I feel I'm too broken to escape my parents' influence. I don't interview well.
[1:24:24] Oh, Dave.
Quick question. This is for everyone. A quick question.
If Dave says, I feel I'm too broken to escape my parents' influence, I don't interview well.
Do those feelings serve either A, Dave, or B, his parents?
Do those feelings serve either A, Dave, or B, his parents?
Are they even Dave's feelings?
Patriotism as a whole, not loyalty to virtue, but loyalty to the government, does that serve either A, the people, or B, the people in power?
How do you even know they're your feelings or not things that are implanted in you for the convenience of those who rule over you?
Is it convenient to your parents that you feel too broken to escape their influence?
I bet it does, and so it may not even be your feelings.
[1:25:37] My favorite part of school was lunch break. Anyone else agree?
As Zim says, I used to show up to school incredibly early and watch the sun come up over the distant mountains by myself or sometimes with a close friend.
That was my favorite time, I think. Yeah, so the only thing that was good about school school was when it wasn't school and it was something else, right?
I mean, I remember the only, I mean, I had fun in school in doing sports, uh, and a couple of times towards the end of school, like when there was nothing else to teach you, I remember we would go maybe for the last day and they divide the class into the boys and the girls and there'd be like trivia contests and skill contests. And it was a blast.
And we actually, I actually learned some cool things through the trivia. It was so much fun.
And of course whenever you have fun at school and occasionally it would happen you'd be like damn why don't we do this all the time shouldn't we be doing this more.
[1:26:40] I liked rugby in school, tennis, water polo team, swim team.
I liked soccer after school, frisbee in the quad at lunch.
[1:26:58] Yeah, I feel they're not encouraging of me to create a family because my dad fell silent when I said I was flirting with a woman on the train rather than saying, go on my son or something similar. mother. Yeah.
Yeah. So your parents, like if they're neglectful or abusive parents, your parents are terrified that you're going to meet a quality person who's going to say, what the hell have these people done to you?
Holy crap. I care about you and they've really wrecked you. So boy, I'm not friendly towards them.
The last thing they want is for you to have an ally.
Kind of tough to bully people when they have allies and all the people who don't love you but merely exploit you have one thing, and one thing that is their greatest terror, always and forevermore. Amen.
And that is, if you ever step into the golden hallelujah light of being truly loved, the whole scam and gig and con and exploitation is up. It's all done.
Everybody's exploitation of you hangs by a tiny little silver thread, And what cuts that thread is genuinely being loved.
And I tell you this from intense, vivid, 21-year, 22-year now, personal experience.
[1:28:14] And so, exploitation, the exploiters have to inoculate you against love, which is why love is so scary, why love is so dangerous, why you stumble and stutter, Horace Wimps style.
Because if you're loved, the haters will lose you.
All the abusers are doing is rendering you, as much as they possibly can, unlovable to a good person so that good people don't come into their orbit it, I'd fucking free you.
That's the simple mechanics of it. No bullshit. Straight up.
For real, for real. That's the whole gig.
You can't be loved or you'll stop obeying them. You can't be loved.
[1:29:17] Or you won't be exploited.
So this is why, if you ever start talking about a really good woman or man, they're down, they're negative.
Can't have that shit around, man.
If you're making your father a fortune in business, and he's paying you virtually nothing, right? right?
He's paying you 25 grand a year, and he's making a million dollars a year from you.
Does he want you to go to a recruiter? Does he want you to look up what you're worth?
[1:29:59] Does he ever want you to say, oh, dad, you know, I, uh, I, you know, I met this woman on the train today. It was the weirdest thing.
[1:30:06] I met this woman on the train today.
She's actually a professional professional recruiter and she was kind of curious and so i told her about my experience and uh i told her how long i've been working for you i told you the kind of stuff that i i told her the kind of stuff that i do and she's actually i mean it's just kind of goofy right i mean but you know i just thought it'd be interesting so she really wants to see my resume she says she knows a couple of people who might be interested in what i do now of course you know i love working for you and all of that um but you know i you know i think i just think i'm just going to send in my resume it.
But what's your dad going to say if he's ripping you off?
What's he going to say if you're going to send your resume to a professional recruiter or a headhunter?
What's he going to say? Don't do that. That's a scam. It's bullshit.
She's lying to you. She's probably just going to try and steal money from your bank account.
You know what? Give me your resume.
I'll hand it to a friend of mine and you'll get the straight goods.
Last thing he's going to want you to do is to try and figure out your value in the marketplace when he's ripping you off.
Hi, Tahir.
[1:31:18] Because if you send the resume in, right? You send your resume in, and this woman's like, holy shit, you're fantastic, man.
I can get you a job pulling half a mil easy. Like you're literally making a million dollars.
Anybody would be happy to get you for it. Pay you half a mil, they'll keep the other half.
Be like, wait a minute, my dad's paying me 25,000. You're saying I'm worth half a million?
Like 20 times more?
Fuck, no bullshit 20 times more you can get me 20 times the pay my own father is giving me, well your dad kinda likes ripping you off for almost a million dollars a year, he doesn't want you to figure out, what you're actually worth.
You know it's the same with love, right?
[1:32:40] He knows that the gig is up. ah you don't want to use recruiters they'll rip you off son stay with me you really want to work for some stranger yeah now you understand he can't have you talk to the recruiter, he cannot at all afford to have you talk to the recruiter and it's not just about the million dollars because if you go to the recruiter, and the recruiter says I can get you a job for half a million dollars your relationship with your father you're not just quitting your job with your father.
[1:33:26] You're not just quitting your job with your father. Your entire relationship will detonate with your father because now you have to look and say, guy's been ripping me off for 10 years straight.
And you'll understand why your father was desperately, was desperate for you not to talk to a recruiter.
Because you talk to a recruiter, you'll find out your dad's been ripping you off.
Done. He can't have you go to the recruiter.
Whatever he has to do. Now, maybe you say, say, oh, well, what he'll do, you say, what he'll do is really cool. He'll just give me a huge raise.
And it's like, no, that's not going to work because that's an admission that he was underpaying you before. He can't do that either. All he can do, is fuck you up.
[1:34:11] So what does your dad do? You say, hey, dad, I got a meeting with the recruiter, Friday at lunch. I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to go see the recruiter Friday at lunch. What's your dad going to do?
Come on people I'm talking about all fathers just talking about a really nasty guy really nasty evil dad what's your dad going to do you got a Friday you got to meet with the recruiter and he knows you're going to find out what you're actually worth, and you might even sue him I don't know whatever right but his business is toast right his income is toast his money is toast his relationship with you is toast, and you're going to bad mouth him to friends to family you're going to be shocked and appalled, he's going to get ostracized he's going to lose his business.
His wife might divorce him. What's he going to do?
Oh, you know how those people are. You're wasting your time.
No, that's not evil enough.
That's not evil enough.
[1:35:10] What does your father do? The recruiter is going to lie to you.
No, you guys are too nice.
Throw obstacles in the way. What is he going to do?
You're fired if you do nope, I think there's a good chance he will ignore it and not give advice no I love you guys because you're not exploiters what's he gonna do ask you to do some shit that's all of a sudden important on that day maybe, maybe.
[1:35:43] Belittle him and tell him he's not good enough. Now you're getting somewhere, so he's going to grind down your confidence, right?
What else is he going to do? Because he can't have you show up to that interview and be likable.
Call the recruiter and say you're a terrible employee. Now you're getting somewhere.
Now you're getting somewhere. Increase your hours to get in the way of the interview.
Yeah, he could schedule some big meeting, but that's just postponing things, right?
[1:36:05] Yeah, he's going to call up the recruiter and he's going to say, so listen, my son's been talking about you. I have to tell you, I don't know how to put this because it's a difficult conversation.
Of course, I love my son, but I really do have to be honest with you.
I mean, for liability reasons as well as just, I think, business courtesy.
[1:36:28] He has, I mean, it's not a little bit of a drug problem. It's not a huge drug problem.
We've been really, really trying to help him. I've paid for his repab.
Gosh, what is it now? No, six, no, seven times. I paid for his rehab seven times.
And, you know, he's been clean for, oh, I mean, actually keep the two, two, two months and 13 days because you have to, right? Because, and this is the longest he's been clean for a while.
So we're optimistic, but it's, it's a, it's a risk.
Now he'll deny this of course. And, but that's part of the issue.
The other thing too, and the reason why I employ him and nobody else will is because over the course of his drug habit.
And it really is my fault for leaving cash around, but he did, he embezzled, honestly.
And we're not pressing charges because we care about him probably too much.
We're probably too nice. But, you know, if you've been a parent, you'll know, right?
[1:37:28] Also, when he was on drugs, we ended up with two lawsuits from women that he propositioned in, I mean I say proposition he basically just groped, cornered and not exactly assaulted but they felt extremely uncomfortable and we had to deal with that, pathological liar of course again I don't blame him I blame the drugs and you know hopefully if he's leaked he'd just do this stuff right, what else will he do oh yes if you ever go to a recruiter I will cut you out of my life forever you don't realize how kind I've been taking you on despite the losses?
Yes, but that's risky.
What else is he going to do?
[1:38:22] Let's say that you're living at his house. What else is he going to do?
Well, he's going to get you drunk the night before.
He's going to pull you out and get you drunk. He's going to make sure you don't get any good sleep.
And he's going to hide your deodorant and shaving cream in the morning.
The insanity of this is beyond me. God, I feel innocent to this kind of evil.
There is, this is reminding me of other people I've had in my life that in retrospect have pulled this kind of shit with me. What else is he going to do?
[1:39:04] Well, he's going to hide your car keys. Or maybe even sabotage your car.
He's going to be unable to drive you.
And he's going to ask a client to call you with a problem so that you're jangled, tired, exhausted, hungover, whatever.
So that you don't come across well. If he can't get you, I mean, he'll try everything to get you to not go to the recruiter.
Now you understand the recruiter is someone who loves you.
It's your person. It's the love of your life, the light of your life. Right?
[1:39:43] I mean, at extreme ends, he'll call in threats to the building of the recruiter so that everything empties out when you're in the interview.
Yeah, he'll badmouth you to other family members. Because the guy is facing, like, you know what, let's say he's underpaying you by half a million dollars a year.
Ten years, that's five million dollars that he's made from you. you.
People will do a lot to keep the gravy train going and emotionally they'll do even more sometimes than materially.
He will keep me in a beautiful home in a nice area, mostly alone to kill my motivation. Yeah. Isolate you for sure. Absolutely. And just put you down.
Oops. Someone washed your white shirts with colored towels the night before. Yeah.
Okay. I've got no underwear and can't find one shoe. Honestly, people will do a lot.
You know, People will kill for $50.
You don't think you'll get sabotaged for $5 million? Oh, come on.
Got to wake up to what evil people do, man. Sorry. Like, you just got to wake up to what evil people do.
I mean, if the past eight years haven't taught you that, I don't know what to tell you.
[1:41:02] And it doesn't stop there, right? You understand it doesn't stop there.
Because if you get through all of this, you get the job, then you're going to go for another interview for someone who might pay you half a million dollars a year. Then that person gets a phone call.
And then you also get drugged or drunk or your car is, you can't find your car keys.
And then that interview is a problem. You understand, he just wants to keep you.
So he'll sabotage someone who's going to take you away from that.
And again, we're talking, you know, this is not, of course, common, and this is not average for child abusers, but he's going to attack you so hard you're going to be too crippled to even go to the interview and perform on the job. Right.
You're going to go in there shell-shocked, you know. A woman who doesn't want you, this is more common for women, men do this too, but it's more common for women, I think.
If you are dating a woman you're living together with a woman you're married to a woman and then she feels that you're going to do something that's going to be going to be take you out of her orbit like you're going to do you're going to get some great job you're going to get some big promotion you're going to be start moving in new circles if she feels that your upgrade is going to have you look at her and say i can do better she'll just pick a fight with you the night before so you're exhausted and stressed and weirded out by the time you get to the interview so that you don't end up succeeding and then looking at her like, I can do better than you.
Your people sabotage you continually to keep you down at their level.
[1:42:31] People attack you continuously to keep you down at their level.
It's brutal. Until, until you find that one person who just loves you.
And then the whole gig is up.
All the lies are gone. all the appeal is gone all the attraction is gone all the hold is gone everything is gone, and that's why those who exploit you are so desperate to ensure, that you'll never be loved that you're not good enough nobody cares about you you're not attractive enough you're kind of a loser you're an embarrassment, you have low self-esteem they'll just keep crippling you you.
It's like hobbling a slave or breeding cows to be subservient and not fighty.
I mean, tell me if I'm wrong. Do you feel this is too harsh? I'm happy to hear.
I'm happy to hear. If I'm being unjust or unfair, I'm, of course, always happy to hear.
I mean, you're going to have a tough time talking me out of things I've directly perceived myself, but I'm.
[1:43:51] How do you know if you're genuinely unhappy or just being sabotaged for the sake of exploitation?
Yeah, and then they boast about how they were further ahead in their lives at your stage. Yeah, which of course is your job to make your kids do better than you, right? Help them.
How do you know what's yours and how do you know what's just sabotage?
How do you know what you think and feel versus what's implanted in you to keep you controlled? How do you know?
I mean, if you were to read some diary of a slave in ancient Egypt, and the slave is like, I'm worthless, I don't have any initiative, I just, I can't get anything done just for myself, I guess I'm just messed up.
You'd be like, no, you're just, a lot of the things my parents did suddenly make sense.
And I'm not saying it's conscious, it doesn't really matter, it's even worse in a sense if it's unconscious.
But yeah, that's how the game is played. Fair but dark, sabotage has been pretty constant. Yeah.
Yep.
[1:45:00] If people don't want to improve, they will fight your improvement.
If people gain resources from your low self-esteem, they will create and inflict upon you low self-esteem.
If people can exploit you because you're not loved, they're more than happy to sacrifice you being loved for them being able to continue to exploit you.
It's my fault, though, I should have been more willing to be critical towards other people's behavior rather than making excuses for them.
Oh, it's my fault. See, this is just more programming, though. I mean, you can say all this crap if you want. It's my fault.
[1:45:51] This is what's funny. And you'll get this comedy, right? The person says, it's my fault, though, I should have been more willing to be critical towards other people's behavior rather than making excuses to them.
It's my fault, I should have been more willing to be critical of others.
You understand, but by saying it's your fault, you're avoiding being critical of others.
You're literally self-detonating your entire argument in everything that you say.
I should have been more critical of my parents. It's my fault. Do you not see that?
This is the mark of of occupation, being occupied by a foreign army.
Of the exploitation of others. I should have been more critical of other people.
I'm bad for not doing that.
Sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but... Oh my God.
Oh my God.
[1:46:40] Hurt us and put a small nick in an animal's leg to make them lame.
They could not run away after. Yeah, for sure.
You don't have to build a fence if you can cripple the animals.
It makes me realize how not having anything but virtue in your life and those who surround you in your life are more than just nice words to say, I'm trying to drop down a rope to get you out of the well, because parents should if anything offer the basics materially to encourage motivation anything more is sabotage it's not about what you provide materially it's about what you provide psychologically you should celebrate your children doing better than you, my daughter is wiser in some ways than I am. I'm 57.
She's 15 years old. That is great.
I'm not saying it's not startling from time to time. It certainly is, but it's great.
I don't want my daughter to have to wait till she's in her 30s to be loved.
That's not a lot of fun.
[1:47:46] All right, short time, and then I'll finish the question from earlier. And come on, guys.
Give me a tip. This is such good work. This is such great stuff.
This is so, so good that you pretty much owe me a tip at this point.
Sorry to be frank, but if you're listening to this later, freedomain.com slash donate, this is me turning myself inside out to help you with decades of embitterly grabbed wisdom.
[1:48:14] I don't often demand, but when I've earned, I will.
Does your DNA survive through love or does it survive through hate?
That's the guy. Yeah, that's the same guy.
Listen, man, you should not be here. You should be working at the fortune cookie, fortune cookie factory. That's where you need to be.
Thank you, Sam. I appreciate that. Thank you.
That's the average middle-class family falling in love in their thirties with a lifelong partner. Yeah, better if sooner though, right?
Better sooner.
I'll just wait and see if any tips are coming in. And then I'll finish with the very serious and painful question earlier.
A listener, wrote about what.
[1:49:19] Miscarriage and he was saying that he and his partner.
[1:49:27] Have undergone a miscarriage and they are of course very unhappy about that and i i really sympathize i mean beyond words without getting into details i feel you brother i really feel you and i'm so sorry that is that is very tough that is very tough to go through and And it is, sadly, very common.
Was it 25%, 30% like a pregnancy is ending miscarriage?
This is one of the reasons why a lot of people don't talk about the miscarriage, being pregnant until they pass a certain number of weeks, 12 weeks or whatever it is. So I'm really, really sorry.
I'm really sorry. And there's no way to just, you know, there's no machinations that will erase that pain.
But I will tell you this, that the people I've talked to who've gone through miscarriages, wow, are they powerfully bonded to their children because they don't take it for granted.
They realize the fragility of pregnancy, the uncertain dice roll of achieving life.
They love their kids even more. They're even more attached to their kids.
They take even greater pleasure in their kids because they know how things can go so badly wrong.
They are are overjoyed and even further bonded when things go right.
Now, that's a really tough thing to hear and even to talk about when you're in the depths of unhappiness, which, again, I completely sympathize with, understand.
[1:50:55] Regarding what's happening at the moment, and saying, well, you know, when you have kids, I get, but I'm telling you that this will be the case.
This will be the case.
You will love the children that you have, have, all the more because of the one that didn't make it.
[1:51:20] And it is like a little death, but it is a little death. There is a grieving process.
It's very abstract, of course, because you don't see the baby other than maybe the little whack-a-whack-a-pack man on the monitor, but it nonetheless was a family member who didn't make it.
And it's very sad. And you can have rituals, you can have flowers, you can have poetry, you can have symbols to mark the loss in your heart.
[1:51:57] But the gravestones, in a sense, do help us deeply appreciate the Cribs all the more.
The deaths, that is why life is here, helps us deeply appreciate the life that we achieve and we have.
I had, between my brother and myself, there was a half-sister who my mother carried all the way and was stillborn. And she only wanted two, so my life is the result of her death.
Her death was a domino that caused me to spring up from nothing.
So the sorrow obviously is important and essential, but we talked about how hatred is the shadow of doing virtue.
Joy is enhanced by suffering. Joy is enhanced by suffering.
I mean, I wrote about this in my novel, The Present, about Rachel's father, who got a text saying that he was, he had a very serious form of cancer.
It turns out that the text was sent by mistakes, and he found that out.
He got the text Friday night, and he found out about it Monday.
[1:53:16] How sweet was that Monday? How sweet was that Monday because he feared he was dying for three days straight.
Now, of course, we don't pursue disaster in order to achieve happiness, but we can absolutely slingshot or judo disaster into a greater depth and appreciation.
[1:53:42] Think how even more overjoyed you will be to have a child after having a miscarriage.
And I'm not saying this to erase the sadness at all, because I don't believe in that.
I don't believe that you just scrub sadness out of your soul by gaslighting yourself into saying somehow there's good that can come out of it. Although there is.
We still don't want it to happen, but bad shit is just going to happen in life.
Life is a fucking dice roll over a volcano.
[1:54:09] Life is tap dancing through a fucking landmine all day every day sometimes it seems, bad shit happens all the time all the time people get sick people die financial disasters people get fired covid bad shit happens all the time people's savings evaporate and scams, bad shit happens all the time in life, and either it grinds you down or you slingshot it into a greater appreciation of when the shit isn't rolling down the hill.
[1:54:47] Must be a king. How do you know? He doesn't have shit all over him.
It's a good day. Nothing bad happened.
It's a good day. Nothing bad happened.
Would it be as good a day if nothing bad had ever happened? Nope.
I'll take the valleys in life. I absolutely will take the valleys in life, but I'll fucking use them to get to the heights.
I'm like slingshot up.
Slingshot up. As opposed to crater and augur in.
[1:55:23] I, as you know, I'm a healthy guy. No risk factors.
Ten years ago or whenever, I just got cancer. Why? There's never any answer.
I know that as a victim of severe child abuse, that I have a higher risk of these things. Maybe it was just that.
And I'm like, first of all, I'm just not going to let it kill me.
Like, I'm just not going to let it kill me. I had a new baby.
And secondly, I'm going to be so fucking healthy, it's going to be insane.
I'm going to work out eight hours a week. I'm gonna lose weight, I'm gonna not sit at a desk doing shows, all the time I'm gonna walk people don't need to see my face when I'm doing a call-in show how many people watch two and a half hour call-in shows for my reactions I'm gonna walk around cause it's better for me I'm gonna get sunlight, and take care of my teeth, go to the dentist like three times a year, slingshot that bad luck into a better outcome.
[1:56:45] Bad stuff is going to happen, man.
Bad stuff is going to happen. And your choice about what you do with the bad stuff is the fundamental definition of the happiness of your life.
You know, women broke up with me. I broke up with women.
All of that led me to my wife. Thank you to everyone who broke up with me and to everyone I broke up with.
Sorry it was tough at the time. man, did it lead to a better place.
[1:57:17] When I quit my career to start this show, very shortly thereafter, I was savaged by the mainstream media.
So I'm like, okay, well, now I'm in. Now I'm committed. Now, I mean, there's no turning back, right? So, okay, I'm digging it.
What choice do you have? You have no choice about whether bad things are going to happen to you or not. Spoiler, they will. Bad things will happen to you.
Sometimes you screw up. A lot of times it's just bad luck. Bad things are going to happen to you.
That's a given. That's a fact. That cannot be changed.
What you do with those bad things is all that matters. There is no bulletproof life.
[1:58:09] There is no disaster-free life. but there's no greater disaster than letting the disasters rob you of happiness when they don't have to when they can in fact bring you greater and deeper joy that's how you say fuck you to the inevitable catastrophes of the world you say i'm going to take that shit and turn it into gold i'm going to take that coal dust that's supposed to fuck up my lungs i'm going to turn it into a diamond i wear on my finger with pride i am going to take this sadness after a while i'll be sad i'm going to take this sadness i'm going to scoop it up i'm going to turn it into, the breath god of golden love and i'm going to use it on my future children i'm going to take the sorrow harden it into love and apply it even more to my future children.
[1:59:03] If you don't love your kids so much that they're rolling their eyes at you in their teens, you haven't loved them enough.
So I can't take away any of the sadness, of course, and I wouldn't want to. That's part of life.
You can't make it good that bad things happen to you, but you can make yourself as grateful as possible that you learned as much as possible from them.
I can't go back in time and give myself a happy childhood, but I sure as hell can.
Get as much virtue out of that shit fest as humanly possible.
And hopefully, just hopefully, help others with it too.
[1:59:45] So I hope that helps. Thank you everyone so much for dropping by tonight.
It's always a great and deep pleasure.
I did tell myself I'm continually focusing on being unrestrained.
Apparently, I'm sure it is as well. I'm continually focused on being unrestrained.
And I hope that I'm getting there. I still have a lot further to go in terms of self-expression.
So I hope you'll continue to join me on the journey as I uncork more of my language capacities and clarification capacities. capacities, passion and humor, love, caring, and support for you.
I love you guys so much for being here and supporting what it is that we do. We, right?
Jared and James and myself, what we're doing up here. I really love you guys for coming by and supporting.
If you're listening to this later, freedomain.com slash donate.
Yeah, Dave, I'll send you the recording.
Freedomain.com slash donate. Really, really do appreciate your time.
You love your care and attention.
Lots of love, everyone. Take care. Bye.
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