[0:05] They'd be good i have successfully felt up the camera all right zim thank you so much for your tip zim says thanks again for all you do steph i'll be sending some more as of recently i've been very hooked into your content and it has helped me tremendously through these times staying sane and rebuilding my approach to the challenges in my life well evening james thank you very much Thank you very much for your kind words.
I really, really appreciate that.
Find the code on social media. Thanks for all the great call-in shows of late. Thank you.
[0:44] I'm using really old glasses here. That way you get less fisheye, but I can't see what the hell I'm doing.
Thank you for the tip. I appreciate that. Donation for the call-in shows.
Yes, we've got some really cool stuff. Topics. A border standoff?
Oh, I don't know. You guys don't care about my wee little thoughts about politics.
What could that matter to anyone?
I might as well piss into a hurricane and call myself a rainmaker.
So, yes. All right. So, yeah, questions, comments, issues, challenges.
I am absolutely thrilled to hear whatever you have to talk about, whatever you want to talk about whatever is on your collective bork brain brilliant mind you care, you care i knew you cared, uh the border well i mean.
[1:47] Would anyone have signed the constitution if it meant that you couldn't defend your own territory?
Of course not. Of course not. So people are about to lose language, right?
I mean, I said politics was no longer a language-based occupation a couple of years ago, and that really does seem to be the case.
So did you hear that the Argentinian president made it illegal for the government to call its services free?
Can you imagine? Can you imagine?
[2:20] What, 40 minutes of true philosophy would do if every child was exposed to it about the age of 12.
Like, just 40 minutes. Just give me 40 minutes with your children. Just give me 40 minutes.
That's all. You can have open borders or a welfare state, but not both. Yeah.
Yeah. So, I mean, just imagine, imagine if people, if children around the age of 12, you'd want it around the age of beginning of the real age of reason and puberty and so on.
They just told the simple facts, the simple facts about the world that they live in, that they're massively in debt, that no politician is responsible for bad decisions, that people can start wars, unjust wars and suffer no negative consequences.
In fact, they even still get their pensions that the teachers are paid for by force, that all laws are enforced by force, and anyway.
[3:20] It would blow their minds that there's no such thing, that the only thing that backs government currency is force, that banks don't have to hang on to your assets, that Social Security or retirement benefits are a complete pyramid scheme.
Honestly, you could just give kids 40 minutes in the tens of thousands of hours of education that children receive.
Ah, but you know the difference between mitosis and meiosis.
Oh, so yay. Yay.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but you're taught nothing about the law in schools.
Isn't that wild? I mean, none of this is accidental, right? None of this is accidental.
Ah, but without the government, who would be propagandized? Who would be miseducated?
Who would be distracted? Who would be felt up by teachers?
[4:12] Who would be sexually abused? Who would be, I mean, who would be trapped in a virtual-style-like prison with their tormentors and bullies? Who? Who?
Without all of these things, how could it happen?
Oh my gosh. Can BlackRock and the NSA print fiat to buy 51% of Bitcoin and launch that attack? Nope.
No. You can't buy 51% of Bitcoin because the price, when people were buying, the price would just go up so enormously, people would track who was buying it, and nobody would accept it.
[4:52] No no uh but they would and they would create their own fork and just nobody would follow them off you go go enjoy now listen guys oh my god don't make me rant this.
[5:07] You understand perfectionism is suicide right you understand that perfectionism is suicide well what if what if what if if?
Stop undermining Bitcoin, for God's sakes.
Stop it. What if? What if? What if?
Stay on the Titanic or get on the lifeboats. That's it.
That's all we've got. Oh, but the lifeboat, it might be chilly.
The lifeboat could have leaks. The lifeboat might only have two weeks worth of saltwater taffy, and there might not be enough crackers.
God almighty, we've got a lifeboat, people, for the first time in human history.
As currency collapses, we have a lifeboat.
And you're out there. Well, what if? And what if?
Show some fucking gratitude people i'm begging you if you can't be grateful for bitcoin you're missing some circuitry.
[6:22] If you can't be grateful, like unreservedly, worshipfully grateful for Bitcoin and the absolute genius of Satoshi Nakamoto.
If you can't be grateful for that, and you got a nitpick at that, you will never be happy with anything.
If you're not happy for Bitcoin, I don't know what you can possibly be happy for.
You know, the submarines of money printing torpedo and have torpedoed every single civilization in the history of the world.
And we have not just a lifeboat, but a rocket ship.
[7:21] Somebody's saying that 51% of Bitcoin is $400 billion?
Wrong! You are absolutely, completely, and totally wrong, and you need to think a little bit before you answer with such crap. Think a little bit.
Why is 51% of Bitcoin not $400 billion?
Why?
It's not even close to that. It's not even within a parsec of that.
Why are you completely wrong and shouldn't talk about things you don't fucking understand?
Why? Why should you not talk about things you don't understand?
Of course, it gets bidded up.
If anybody wants to buy 51% of Bitcoin, the price will be almost infinitely higher than $400 billion.
And you see, the moment that people understand that an entity is buying up Bitcoin with the goal of destroying it, they will simply refuse to sell.
So stop talking about things without thinking. Stop talking about things without thinking. Yeah, 51% isn't available for purchase.
Oh, my God.
[8:43] It's literally like saying, well, I mean, gosh, if somebody bought a lottery ticket that pays off a million dollars, why wouldn't you just give them $10 for it?
I mean, they bought it for $5, you buy it from them for $10, and you've just given them 100% profit.
Yeah, it's hash power, too. to Antonius Antonopoulos is the guy to look up with regards to fork attacks and all of this kind of stuff.
But shit, man, I don't know what to say.
If you're not out there evangelizing with massive grateful passion about Bitcoin, but you're nitpicking and undermining and what if, and what if, and what if, I don't know.
You should, you should, you should stop talking about it because you don't understand it you don't understand it you don't understand it.
[9:40] The planet is falling into the sun but space aliens have come by with a beautiful rocket ship that's like a massive sandals resort inside and you're like i don't know i mean that artificial sun that's in the spaceship i mean i don't know that i have enough sunscreen for that, So I'm not sure...
I'm not sure that that's... What if... Okay, just go with me here.
What if I get on your lovely spaceship and enjoy rocketing around the stars in perfect luxury, but I get a sunburn?
Huh? Think about that? Huh? What would...
[10:25] Oh, my God.
And Bitcoin, it's not held by the people who hold it, it's held by the miners and the nodes. And why would the miners and the nodes want to hand over their Bitcoin, to someone who wants to destroy the entire value of everything they've spent years building? Nope.
[10:51] And you understand if it hasn't happened now, it's never going to happen.
Isn't that in my view, right? I'll say my opinion is never going to happen, but you need to be, on your knees before the bust of Satoshi Nakamoto, giving that brilliant, hopefully still alive genius, all due props for the salvation of human value.
See, you know what happens, right?
Human beings get a certain amount of economic freedom. They get the division of labor. They get property rights. They have a somewhat functioning court system.
And they bring great wealth.
Bring great wealth. Create great wealth. And then the ants, the parasites, the erosion. People just come in and feast and take it away.
Like fucking Satoshi Nakamoto is like Gandalf on the bridge with the Balrog of Fiat.
You shall not pass!
[11:58] He is a giant intellectual moat all around the value that we have accumulated our lives.
You realize, you understand, of course you understand, that we are enslaved by those who surreptitiously steal our income through money printing, right?
[12:34] Speaking to people about Bitcoin, and I'm not kidding about this, I'm not kidding about this, speaking to people about Bitcoin is an act of love and salvation.
It is an act of love and salvation.
If you know that, like, let's, I want you to hear this. I want you to hear this. Understand this.
[13:06] Your parents live five houses down. You love your parents. They're wonderful people. They're great.
And you overhear at a bar a whole bunch of scar-faced, lupus-headed, thuggish criminals, all planning to go in and perform a home invasion, tie up your parents, rob them blind, and beat them up, right?
You hear them, and then they leave.
Do you say anything to your parents?
[13:51] You understand, the thieves are coming. The thieves are already in the house.
The thieves are already stealing your money.
Why wouldn't you say something if you know?
Oh, yes, it's all about you. Oh, but my parents, it's about my parents. I don't like my parents.
Yeah, yeah, let's make it all about you. Fuck the analogy.
Fuck learning anything. Let's just make it all about you.
My parents. No, no, it's an analogy. Analogy, an analogy.
What if you didn't eat breakfast yesterday? Well, I did. It's a joke.
No, it's not a joke. You're just saying it's a joke because you're called out.
Because it's not a joke. Because a joke would be funny, and that's not funny.
Hate my parents, though, narcissistic boomers. That's not funny.
Don't be one of those guys. Don't say something stupid and then, oh, no, no, it's just a joke.
Don't be one of those guys. Man up and don't leave your actions in the lurch and own what you did. Own what you did.
[14:53] I can't relate. It's an analogy. It's not about you.
If you don't have anyone in your life that you care about, I think that's a deadly shame, and you probably shouldn't listen to the next part of the conversation.
If you have anyone in your life that you care about, you talk to them about Bitcoin.
Right? You talk to them about Bitcoin. I think. I mean, I would. Why wouldn't you?
[15:37] The thieves are taking, the thieves are pillaging, the thieves are already in the house and you won't, there's no one you'll call.
There's no one you'll call to try and help. I mean, I've been talking about this for 12 years.
I've tried talking to everyone here about this for 12 years.
But you understand if your parents, you hear that people are going to break into your parents' house, tie them up and steal their stuff.
And you're like, well, you know, I don't actually have any actual confirmation.
And hey, you know, what if they just get the wrong house?
And you understand that that's just a fundamental act of hatred and contempt towards your parents.
In my view, in my view, my opinion.
If you're sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Bitcoin, without understanding what you're talking about.
[16:44] That strikes me as an act of profound destruction, destructiveness, contempt.
You're spreading rumors, about the unworthiness of the lifeboats and pretending that the ship isn't sinking.
I mean, just understand this analogy. If you know the ship is sinking, you're on the Titanic, you know the ship is sinking, and you just walk it around saying to everyone, oh, no, no, no, stay down here.
I mean, everything's totally fine. Oh, you know, none of those.
None of those lifeboats are seaworthy. I mean, just stay here.
Here, hey, more drinks for my friends, right?
What would you be? Kind of a killer, right?
David says, I tried telling my mom to get Bitcoin. She was a deer in the headlights.
Yes, but you understand, that's not, your conscience is whether you talk about it, not how, whether people listen to it, because you have no control of whether people listen to it, other than, you know, put the case forward as positively and pleasantly as possible.
[17:58] Your conscience is to talk about it. It is not whether people listen or not, because that's outside your control. Does that make sense?
How did you gain conviction? Just get browbeaten? How did you gain conviction?
Just get browbeaten? I don't understand what that means.
Do you mean how did I gain conviction, about Bitcoin? I don't know what that, Sorry, I'll just have to wait for you to explain because I don't know what that refers to. I don't know what that means, sorry.
[18:36] I hope, I absolutely hope and pray, I hope and pray that you have people in your life that you care enough about to talk about crypto, to talk about Bitcoin.
Now, if you don't have people in your life that you care about enough to talk about how to save, the products of their lives. Like, what are we? We are the products of our lives.
And if the products of our lives, our savings, are just getting eaten away through inflation, our lives are being stolen from us through time and we're being enslaved retroactively.
You know, if the slave catchers are coming around and you're not telling people to hide, don't you kind of want them to be slaves?
It is a profound... I mean, this isn't specific to Bitcoin.
It's about moral issues of every kind, but it is an act of love to warn people about predation and to help them avoid being stolen from.
So when people nitpicking about Bitcoin, what I hear, what I hear very clearly is, I don't have anyone in my life that I want to save.
[19:57] What a lonely brutalized and I mean that with sympathy what a lonely brutalized and horrifying existence to have no one in your life that you want to save.
[20:14] That everyone you know is being swallowed up by a giant wave and you're like eh Could be some jellyfish in there.
Could be kind of stingy. I don't want to get any rashes.
Oh, God, that's heartbreaking.
That's heartbreaking. Who are the people in your life that you desperately want to save?
I don't know what it means to live in any kind of happy way if you don't have people around you you're desperate to help and save, I don't know what that means I don't know what that refers to I don't know what that is to do with it.
[21:25] I'm asking you about anti-arguments to Bitcoin.
No.
You confront people in the way that I'm confronting the nitpickers here.
You confront people and say, what are you doing?
And if people don't want to hear the arguments for Bitcoin, Man, this is going to hurt.
It's a very sad thing. It's a very sad thing.
[22:10] You know, my dentist said, oh, you need to wear nightguards.
Do I want to wear nightguards? I do not. Do I wear nightguards? Yes, I do.
Dentist says you need to get a water pick maybe put a little bit of mouthwash and make sure to spray because you still have your wisdom teeth and you're 57 so maybe spray a little bit around the back what do i do i do it i want to lose another 10 pounds i'm a little stalled at 187 so my daughter's been studying a lot of this nutrition stuff so i've just said okay you choose my diet if you don't mind like would you mind helping out she's like yeah happy to she's the the authority now.
We go in some place, my wife says, you need to dress more formally.
What do I do? I just dress more formally. Do you understand?
Why do you have people in your life who question your expertise?
What? Oh my god. Why do you have people in your life who question your expertise?
Who nitpick? who oppose, who undermine, who...
[23:25] I don't understand. Life is just so much more efficient when you trust people, isn't it?
Isn't it just so much more efficient when you actually just trust people?
[23:48] Josh says 2015 ish i gave bitcoin to at least four friends and publicly invited everyone on my facebook 50 plus to meet up and learn about it i showed all my family about it no one really cared so i moved on don't talk to any of them anymore yeah because it's not bitcoin they're rejecting it's you it's not bitcoin like um if i if i say to my wife i'm going to buy another another computer, what does she say?
Oh, don't you already have some? I don't know. It seems odd.
You don't really need one. Why don't you just repurpose one of the older computers?
She doesn't say any of that. Why? Well, of course she doesn't.
What does she say? Yeah, go for it. Because she trusts me in what I buy.
Right? My daughter says, I need this dress for a dance. What do I have to argue with her? No, she knows what she wants. I don't know what she needs.
I So we'll go, yeah, I trust her. Go ahead, buy it. Go ahead, buy it.
[24:45] Don't you have people in your life, you just say, you should buy Bitcoin.
They're like, yeah, how much?
You're smart at this kind of stuff. You've studied economics.
You've studied history. You understand philosophy. You understand currency.
You've studied all this stuff. I haven't.
So yeah, I'll buy it.
Because I trust you.
All these people around, they've got all these negative cases against Bitcoin.
Do they know what they're talking about? They don't. They're just repeating some garbage, series of syllables that they read on some mainstream media, craptastic misinformation article site.
[25:28] I mean, I've studied a lot of econ. Took some of it in university.
Studied a lot of history. Have a graduate degree in history. in history.
[25:44] And I say to people, I don't say to people to buy a cell, I just say, you've got to look into this.
Now, if someone in my life were to say, do you think I should buy, I'd say, you know, I think you should. I mean, I can't tell you what to do, but if I were in your shoes, I would.
Don't you have people in your life where you just have this efficiency of, okay, yeah, okay, oh yeah.
Someone else says, I asked about Bitcoin 401k and people got terrified.
No one talked after I broached it.
Right, so they're not rejecting Bitcoin, they're rejecting you.
Everyone I talked to about Bitcoin in person that I didn't have a strong ties to either thought I was a scammer or filthy rich. Okay, so they're just rejecting you.
[26:42] Yeah. Don't, don't you have experts? They just say, do it. And you're like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. I'm in.
[26:54] Someone says, when I brought Bitcoin up with my friends or family, those on the left say it's for criminals and traffic money spewing what they hear on mainstream media.
And those on the right think it's a secret CDBC that is going to track everything.
And I point out it's decentralized. They don't believe me.
Right when you are an expert in something, I'm telling you becoming an expert in something is a great sorting mechanism, for your relationships when you become an expert in something, and people dismiss you it means they don't trust you they don't have the mental capacity or the humility to recognize expertise when it's talking at them right in the face.
And they don't listen. They can't subjugate their ego to somebody with more knowledge than they can.
They're always right, and they can fuck off. For my life, for my life, they can just fuck right off.
I mean, I will submit to other people's expertise on a regular basis, people I trust, of course, of course.
And why would I want someone in my life that I don't trust? Right?
[28:13] You know, a guy I know call him Bob his name's not Bob a guy I know many years ago taught me a huge amount he taught me a huge amount about a wide variety of topics, super brilliant guy ended up with like two advanced degrees like just brilliant guy, but I wish that the knowledge transfer had been mutual because his personal life turned out to be kind of a mess, a mess, a big mess.
I know how to be good in relationships. I know how to be a good friend.
I know how to be a good husband. I know how to be a good father.
I mean, that would be bare minimum for a moral philosopher, wouldn't it?
I think I live a pretty happy life despite, ooh, I don't know, just a setback or obstacle or two thousand.
And, you know, one day I'll talk about all the setbacks that me and this show have had, which you know of about 20% probably.
[29:23] Yet I chuckle on. I think with positivity, with good humor, with happiness. And.
[29:35] I can't even tell you the last time I talked to someone who didn't trust my advice in something that I'm good at and they're not.
Like, let me repeat this again. I can't tell you the last time I had someone in my life who didn't trust me in a subject I'm knowledgeable about and they're not.
I mean, do you argue with your dentist? Do you argue with your doctor?
Do you argue with your chiropractor or your personal trainer or your physiotherapist or whatever?
I mean, do you argue with that?
Schwarzenegger writes a book on lifting weights and building muscle and you're like, no, I don't think, like you're some 98 pound weakling and you're lecturing Arnold Schwarzenegger now, maybe a few less artificial enhancements, which he may have been on in the 70s. they have a quadruple bypass or something.
But no, honestly, people, in my view, in my life, anybody who rejects my expertise, in areas that I'm knowledgeable about and they're not, why on earth would I want them in my life?
It means they don't recognize excellence. They don't recognize competence.
They don't have humility.
They can't subjugate themselves to anything. They're vainglorious. They're dangerous.
Why?
[31:00] People are just spouting platitudes, not be attacked. The only risk I see to Bitcoin is the 51% attack, and I'm asking about it.
No, you're not. No.
[31:18] You're absolutely not. Because you see, if you were concerned about the 51% attack, tag, you would have looked it up years ago.
But instead, what you do is you come to a public place and talk about this FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt, right?
You could have looked this up years ago, years and years and years.
This question has been asked and answered. I remember being at a Bitcoin conference in like 2012 and Antonio Antonopoulos was asked I asked this question like 12 years ago.
I remember him giving this sardonic applause. Oh, off you go on your own chain.
Nobody's going to follow you. Nobody cares.
So you're not interested in the answer because you wouldn't wait for this show in 2024.
You would have looked it up years ago.
Somebody says, I love asking friends for recommendations they have more knowledge in.
[32:34] Let me just get, yeah, sorry. A lot of comments, which is good, which is good.
Not being trusted by my family as an expert in the fields I was an expert in was some of the harshest rejections. They're not in my life anymore.
People who don't recognize my expertise and things that I'm good at and they're not.
They're simply broadcasting that they're vainglorious, megalomaniacal narcissists who can't ever subject their vanity to any external standard.
Incredibly dangerous people.
They're exploiters. They're users. They're selfish. They're just, ugh, gross.
Yeah, expertise is incredibly efficient. Incredibly efficient. Of course. Of course.
What do we think happens to the dollar? See, again, I mean, why?
You don't need to ask this.
[33:36] We don't have to think what happens to the dollar. Just look up all the history of fiat currencies.
You don't need to come and ask these semi-brain-dead questions. You honestly don't.
You honestly don't. Don't come to a graduate school and ask, don't come to a graduate class in mathematics and say, but what is two and two?
Do two and two make, what do two and two make? What do we think happens to the dollar?
What happens to every fiat currency?
The setbacks series sounds great. Well, it may sound great to you, it may sound great to me.
I approach everything from first principles. Okay, good for you.
It's like, yeah, so when Izzy says, the ducks are wobbling, they need some niacin, do I argue with her? No.
She's read on ducks, she's read all the books on ducks, she knows how to take care of ducks. It's like, off we go to get some niacin.
My daughter says, I really want to try konjac jelly. I'm like, I don't even know what that is, but I trust you, let's go get some konjac jelly.
Sigh.
There are countless videos about the 51% attack and why it is extremely unlikely.
[34:56] Someone explain it then. No. Stop being jelly bones. Stop being rubber bones.
Other people don't owe you basic education that has been transmitted and repeated literally tens of thousands of times across the internet. People don't owe you.
They don't owe you educating you about a thing. Now, if someone comes to me with a completely basic question that has been answered tens of thousands of times, across the internet, it means that they're too fucking lazy to go and look up the answer.
Now, if they're too lazy to look up the answer, why would I bother giving them an answer? They don't care about the answer that much.
If you were concerned about the 51% thing, you would have gone and looked up all the answers.
But you haven't. You haven't gotten to look it up, so you don't care about it.
So what are you doing? Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Yeah, Google that for you. Yeah, yeah. oh my gosh.
[35:51] Oh that's funny I'm really worried about this oh have you invested like honestly there are five minute videos that will explain to you the 51%, yeah I'll drop now and watch the YouTube link now well I mean the truth about Bitcoin is good but no just, Andreas Antonopoulos has said the dollar has already succumbed to a 1% attack.
Oh, just ask, say, Vietnam around Soros what happened to an attack on the currency.
I mean, the US dollar is infinitely more vulnerable to attack and has been attacked than Bitcoin will ever be. Right?
[36:36] Someone sent one on the 51% attack? Oh, no, somebody sent one about the truth about Bitcoin. Oh, that was a different one. Okay, sorry, sorry. Sorry.
Yeah, so I just, if somebody is, like if somebody comes to me and says, can you define UPB?
I'm like, hey man, I got a whole free book about it.
I got presentations, I got PowerPoints, I've got a summary in Essential Philosophy.
So it's like, well, I don't really want to read a free book.
I don't really want to watch a 20-minute presentation. It's like, then you don't care about the subject. You don't care.
And what I dislike about it is the lying. I'm not saying it's conscious, but in my view, it absolutely is lying.
[37:16] I really am worried about this 51% attack.
Oh, okay, well, have you looked up the rebuttals? No.
Then you're not worried. So then, what are you doing? You're just spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It's manipulative.
Honestly, I've really made a vow this year to be frank with you guys, right?
[37:46] No country for old men was terrible i mean other than the serial killer was kind of interesting right uh but no no country for old men maybe i'll do a review of it but yeah it was it was just incomprehensibly terrible coen brothers right i don't like their movies man all right, somebody says i grew up with a father that was big into get rich quick schemes mostly in small more cap stocks.
My brothers and I got the bug too. It cost me huge financially, but I learned my lesson.
Now my brothers and I are big in crypto, Bitcoin largely from these lessons.
Of course, mostly no one listens to us, but I can blame no one.
I know I surely don't necessarily have the history to be trusted.
And if he wasn't being frank before, this is going to be lit.
So do you know why you tell people about bitcoin, and even if you know that they're not gonna even if you know they're very unlikely to listen to you do you know why you tell people about bitcoin i mean deep down you've got to understand this this i'm absolutely gonna go go hard on if people disagree that's totally fine could be wrong but why why do you tell people about bitcoin.
[39:03] Why do you tell people to prep why do you tell people to get some food in the basement why do you tell people i mean i wrote a whole novel about this called the present which is free and you should listen to or read it free domain.com books you want things to go well for them no i mean yes of course that but no not because you want things to go well for them because as i said even though they're very unlikely.
[39:31] Lots of ad hominem was kind of pathetic TBH. Oh, to be honest is a phrase I hate.
I mean, every time you don't say to be honest, I just assume you're lying.
To find out whether they respect you, now introducing Frank Molineux here.
So when it skyrockets, they can't blame you for not telling them.
Practice and hope for solidarity and brotherhood beyond the state and faith in humanity over deficit, a defeat in poverty and depraved morality.
[40:02] To keep your conscience clear because you care for them so that when the dollar falls, your conscience is clear.
Yeah. Who got it? I bet you I know who got it.
I hate usernames. Got it. So I don't have to open the door when they come knocking. Right. That's right.
That's right. That's right.
So the reason you tell people to, let's say, you've got friends, neighbors, and winter is coming, and you tell them, man, this is going to be a hard winter. I've seen the signs.
I've went through one of these before. I'm an old guy. You've got to lay up extra food.
You've got to lay up extra food. You absolutely have to. And you work to convince them. You offer to help them.
Now, if they don't lay up extra food, you can keep your door shut.
You follow?
If people don't listen to your good advice, you are relieved from helping them in the future.
If you've got an uncle who chain smokes for 40 years and you beg him on your knees to stop smoking and he keeps smoking and then he gets sick, you are free of obligation to care for him.
I'm not saying you can't, obviously do whatever you want. I'm just saying you're free of obligation.
The reason you give people good advice is so you're not responsible when they don't take it. You're free.
[41:31] Yeah, they'll come after your resources if they don't prepare.
Right. And you have to have a reason to lock your door.
You have to have a reason to lock your door.
[41:58] Right. You understand that we only are who we are as a species because our ancestors were able to lock the door.
And why were they able to lock the door? Because they gave good advice.
And when good advice is offered and good advice is not taken, you are relieved of obligations. Okay, let me ask you this.
If you want to get it, do you want to get it really vivid? I don't want to milk.
I don't want to milk.
Conversation. There's part of the conversation.
I put a few hundred dollars in Bitcoin at the peak and sold half trying to build conviction.
So, all this for a couple of hundred dollars.
I'm a total gambling addict, man. Oh, I just hit rock bottom.
What happened? Did you lose your house, your wife, your kids, your health? No.
I'm down $3.90 in penny ante.
[43:26] Oh my gosh, all this for a couple hundred bucks actually few of them because you already sold half all this for $150 oh my god I'm sorry but that is hilarious that is hilarious, hey hey let me ask you this have you ever had a friend who's going into a relationship that isn't going to go well and you say I don't think this relationship relationship is going to go well, right?
I don't think this relationship is going to go well. And they're like, no, no, no, she's great, man.
She's great. Yeah. She's got a couple of forehead tattoos and, she's got piercings. Like she fell down a flight of circular stairs, carrying a tackle box.
And she's an untreated victim of sexual abuse, but she's got a rack and a half.
So man, man, she's great, you know, she's great, she's, you know, she's going to go to therapy, it's going to be fine. You're like, no, man, it's bad, right?
No, he said he spent a few hundred at the peak. No, no, no, read, read carefully.
He said, I put a few hundred in Bitcoin at the peak.
At the peak, which means at the high price, right?
[44:49] So, hit me with a why. Why have you ever had a friend who doesn't listen to your good advice about a relationship?
[45:03] She got a tramp stamp called deposit here.
Yeah, I mean, most people have gone through this, right? right?
[45:18] So, you pour heart and soul into trying to get him to not make a bad decision, right?
But he goes ahead, he doesn't listen to you, right?
So, he's saying, I don't, respect your perspective you're wrong i'm right i don't respect your perspective right now what happens when that your friend gets his heart broken she cheats on him she gives him an std there's a pregnancy scare whatever happens right she she becomes a stalker she goes nuts what happens and your friend calls you and said oh these terrible things are happening and it's It's so bad and it's so, right?
[46:09] I don't help people. I don't help those people.
Why would I? They don't respect me enough to take good advice.
Why would they respect me enough to get comfort or share their problems?
I mean, if I'm bad at giving good advice, if I'm bad at helping them, then I clearly can't help them when they break up.
Do you see what I mean?
I, hey man, you're just jealous, right? You just don't want me to be happy.
I understand where you're coming from, but I have magic, crazy, healing penis juice.
So it's like, okay, so you believe that I can't help you, that I don't have your best interest at heart, and that I'm somehow undermining or wishing for your unhappiness, or like I have some negative thing, and I don't know how to help you.
Is this what you tell me? I don't know how to help you.
So then when she breaks your heart, don't come to me, because you've already told me that, that I don't know how to help you. Do you see what I mean?
If someone says to you, you don't know how to help me, then don't come to me with any problems again in the future.
[47:31] It's not Andrew Antonopoulos, it's Antonio Antonopoulos, I believe.
He came on this show many years ago and then I think he had some negative, experience or thoughts and never came back I can't remember it was a long time ago but he's still a very smart guy and a very good communicator and he was a guy who was into Bitcoin for many years but actually didn't have any Bitcoin it's kind of strange.
[48:07] Oh, do we go into this? Do we go into losses?
Andreas, sorry, Andreas Antonopoulos. Thank you, Jared, I appreciate that.
Andreas Antonopoulos. Well worth listening to, very good communicator.
Or, you know, just read Steve Saylor or Michael Saylor, or Michael Saylor, or whatever.
If I don't have credibility with the people in my life, could that be my fault for not communicating my expertise properly?
Andreas is kind of like Nick Carter. They both support regulation of crypto.
Well, there is no way to have an asset without regulation in the current semi-fascistic economic system, right?
I mean, that's just a practicality. And of course, they're not ANCAPs.
They're not voluntarists. They're not that way, right?
[49:01] He's into social justice. Yeah, maybe. Maybe, but he still knows the answer to the 51% problem.
If I don't have credibility with the people in my life, not communicating my expertise properly, okay, so let's say that you have not communicated your expertise properly.
What does that mean?
If you say you should look into Bitcoin and they don't look into Bitcoin, What does that mean that you haven't communicated your expertise properly?
[50:02] Yeah, I, I don't, you know, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if If I'm a smoker and my doctor says, stop smoking, do I then say, well, you haven't communicated this in the proper way? What does that even mean?
Perhaps they don't know how much I've studied the topic. So you say, I've studied this topic a lot. And because they trust you and care about you, they believe you.
[50:35] It took me two years to convince my ceo to buy some bitcoin he finally bought like two to three bitcoins, It took you two years to convince your CEO to buy some Bitcoin. Are you crazy?
Sorry, I don't understand this plan. What are you talking about?
Help me understand. How many hours did you spend trying to convince your CEO to buy some Bitcoin?
Just out of curiosity, how many hours did you spend? 10, 50, 100?
To me, crypto is a mindset shift. People see it like you're trying to push another stock on them. It takes time and diligence to get through to them.
No, it doesn't take time or diligence to get through to people who trust you.
It doesn't take time and diligence. Look, it takes time and diligence to sell a complex software system to a new client. I know this because I've done it.
[51:54] Please please i'm begging you don't send me a dollar i i feel absolutely wretched if that's your last dollar man save it for some ramen noodles please please please please don't don't send me don't send me that i i i feel just terrible i just feel terrible, no people should trust you, oh you know a lot about oh you know a lot about bitcoin you think it's something i should be interested in okay i'll you know send me some videos i'll watch, i'm still trying to figure out how much time did you spend trying to get your ceo to buy bitcoin.
[52:46] I'm a little stunned to be honest i'm a little stunned uh he's not really answering right he slowly convinced himself by questioning me would be more accurate, but what are you doing okay let's say you spent 20 hours, let's say you spent 20 hours trying to convince him or answering questions or whatever right, and let's say your time is worth $25 an hour, that's $500 worth of time that you could have bought Bitcoin of your own. I don't understand.
[53:26] Why? Everything you do is an opportunity to, anyway, you get where I'm coming.
Maybe like 10 hours over a year.
You just, what? what? You just said it took you two years, maybe 10 hours over a year.
I don't know. I can't follow this. These changing stories are totally uninteresting to me.
You just said it took you like two years. He said, well, maybe 10 hours in one year. It's like, okay, well then I don't know what you're saying.
And I'm, uh, I'm, I'm, I've lost interest. I'm afraid because I don't like these circular stories, which lead nowhere and contradict.
And you don't even notice that you don't even notice that you contradicted yourself.
So I just assume you're being defensive. Sorry. Sorry, it's not interesting.
[54:14] So somebody says that they lost 80K on Bitcoin.
Let me just see if I can find that message.
[54:39] I did see this, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss that.
All right, I will find it.
Ah yes, if it's any consolation, I lost $80,000 in Bitcoin. This is a very sour subject for me as well. All right.
Now listen, we all make mistakes. We all make mistakes, right? Right?
So why did you lose $80,000 in Bitcoin?
I mean, I'm not going to give anybody any financial advice. I'm just curious.
Thank you for signing up. Mobius, I appreciate that.
So why did you lose the $80,000? I assume that you lost the $80,000.
I assume you lost the $80,000 because you sold at a loss, right?
Thank you, I got that tip. So, why did you lose the money?
Did you lose the money because you sold at a loss?
[56:03] You sold at a loss.
Sorry, I just want to make sure I can see who said that.
[56:32] Yes, you sold at a loss, right?
I can give you something that will change your mind about that, if you like.
I can give you a way to look at that that will change your mind about the transaction, if you like.
If you want to stay with the myth of, I lost the money.
[57:07] StephBot AI is up and running. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, if you've just signed up or you're a member of freedomand.locals, you would like that?
It's going to hurt, but it's going to be empowering, which in philosophy are two sides of the same coin.
Right? It's going to hurt, but it's going to be empowering. Two sides of the same coin.
You did not lose the money you did not lose the money you gave it away you did not lose the money you gave it away, because you sold voluntarily didn't lose the money losing the money is your wallet fell into the ocean with a thousand dollars in cash then you've lost the money, but when you voluntarily sold your money at a loss you didn't lose the money, you gave it away because you didn't want to wait for the upswing, In other words, you didn't lose the money, you sold it so that you could relieve your anxiety.
[58:14] Oh, here comes his self-pity. Are you just agreeing with people and piling on the person being attacked?
Yes, all criticisms are just a bludgeoning and an attack and a bashing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
No, you gave the money away so that you could, you didn't lose the money, you bought relief from anxiety, right?
You were watching, it was, I guess, in a big downswing in Bitcoin, you were watching the money go down, and I won't say you panicked, but you were feeling increased anxiety.
And in order to stop feeling the increase in anxiety with the value going down, you, You chose to voluntarily exchange your Bitcoin for money, for fiat, right?
But you didn't lose it. Losing is kind of accidental. This was an absolute conscious, willed choice.
[59:23] You were feeling anxiety, and you chose to manage your anxiety by selling, and I would assume you were surrounded by a bunch of people who were like, Bitcoin's going to zero, right?
Ah, Bitcoin's going to zero.
And so you didn't look at the losses.
You looked at the losses to come, and you fundamentally hedged against those losses by selling the Bitcoin in the present. but you didn't lose the money.
You gave it away. You chose to voluntarily exchange it.
There was huge anxiety. I was laid off in 2020 COVID. Wife got pregnant and I needed a get-rich-quick scheme.
My 401 was liquidated, so yeah. I don't know what that means.
I needed a get-rich-quick scheme.
Oh, so you put money in...
You put money in Bitcoin as a get-rich-quick scheme, is that right?
Do I have that right, Evan? And I say this with sympathy, I'm not like, right?
[1:00:48] All right, so I'm just waiting for him. I don't know why people take so long to respond. I mean, maybe it's delayed or something like that. I'm just asking, right?
Okay, so, oh man, I mean...
Why would you get your wife pregnant without having savings?
I had a lot of cash for my 401k, 401 liquidation from the layoff, and put it in Bitcoin.
So did you not have savings? Just yes or no. Did you not have six to 12 months worth of savings?
Because you can't make any decisions in life without six to 12 months worth of savings.
Otherwise, you're just reacting. You're like a pinball. Boom, boom, boom, bounce, bounce, bounce.
How can you make any rational decisions in life if you're on the razor's edge of paycheck to paycheck?
Huh.
[1:02:06] So, a lack of decisions in the present usually refers to a lack of decisions in the past.
The video is delayed at least 30 seconds. If Steph types Y in the chat, it takes 30 seconds until Iram asks the question. Is that right?
Is that right? I did not know that. I appreciate you telling me.
That makes some sense. That makes some real sense. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you kindly.
All right. We're just going to go another minute or two, and then we'll go donor only.
Sometimes the chat runs behind. Okay. That's good to know. Maybe I can ask him about that.
[1:03:00] So he says, working fine on local zap. All right. He says, one year talking to him, than we never talked about for an additional year.
Then he surprised me with, and was like, I finally believe, so it took two years.
Okay, so your entire two-year investment was 10 hours, and then you didn't invest for the second year, so it didn't take you two years.
It didn't take you two years. It took you a year. And now it took him another year, but it took you a year. But it didn't take you two years.
It's just not being particularly clear.
[1:03:39] All right uh so yeah so yeah you're saying that it works fine on the locals app and, i don't know it seems odd that it would be fine on the locals app but mysteriously delayed 30 seconds in in other in other apps that seems odd but you know i'm i didn't program it so just seems seems kind of strange all right i'm gonna move this to donors only i will once more more posts if you want to join.
If you want to join, you should. It's a great community and lots of really great goodies up there.
I just did, I did a total blowout show that Jared started telling me about and then just mysteriously stopped over the course of the day.
But I just finished the truth about sadism part six which was a total banger and it may in fact be done because i don't know if i can top that i just don't know if i can top that all right so we're going to supporters i'll put this over as well on tother tother platform.
[1:04:55] The lag may only be on my end part 6 is awesome well so nice of you to finally tell me alright, so yeah we're gonna go in 30 seconds to donor only and then we'll we can get as spicy as you like another another topless session.
[1:05:28] Very few decisions made in panic are ever a good decision.
And listen, we've all been there. We've all been there, where you just kind of panic and you just kind of, oh, I got to sell.
It's getting worse, you know, and all of that, right? So decisions in general made in panic tend not to be very productive, which is why if you want to have a productive life as a whole, the most productive life you can have is to try and engineer your life, so that you make as few decisions based on panic as humanly, humanly possible.
Right so now we're supporters only so to to make the best decisions doesn't require just wisdom or at least in the moment i mean that helps but to make the best decisions you absolutely have to ensure that you have as few panic trigger points as humanly possible because when you have panic trigger points you tend to make bad decisions if that makes sense so that's why i'm saying like You should probably try to make sure that you have savings.
Because if you have savings... Let me just...
Can I change this while it's live? Let's see here.
I don't know what that means.
But I've got to change it here. year.
So for the questions, it's going to be.
[1:06:55] Just for donors here. So how do I Ah.
[1:07:05] There we go. Sorry about that. Yeah, and that and and Excellente.
And...
[1:07:29] There we go. All right. I think that's done.
Sorry about this. A little bit of tech stuff here.
One last, one last. Oh, I need to turn it off in other places.
As well. As well. As well.
All right. Nice. How do I end that?
And life is a funny way of thinking upon you when you think okay.
Life is a funny way. Sorry, just one last thing. How do I turn that off?
[1:08:21] Can I do that? I don't think I can. Again.
I don't think. Oh, the Julie. Thank you for the ice cream. That's very nice. Very nice.
Very nice. All right. I don't know how to turn that off, but what the hell?
We'll just stay over here for your questions and comments. All right. Let me go here.
[1:08:47] There was a question. What's the longest time between Bitcoin peaks? Yeah. You know, You see all these people with these graphs, and the Bitcoin does this, and then it does that, and then it does the other.
And I personally, I don't care about any of that stuff. I think it's all masturbatory, ooky-kooky nonsense.
Honestly, it doesn't mean anything to me.
Nobody can predict the future price of stocks based upon past patterns. It's free will.
It's free will. it took me a good couple of years to recruit 12 months worth of savings yes that's right, I mean Evan says I mean layoffs in the beginning of COVID with my wife just becoming pregnant at 26 years old hard not to be in a bit of a panicked state, no it's not that hard to not be in a bit of a panicked state, it's not that hard you need savings you need savings or you need a line of credit or you need people people who are willing to front you money.
You need parents who are willing to give you money or loan you money or whatever.
Like, you need a support system, whether that support system is your own savings or other people or what have you. You need those things.
Because shit happens, you get laid off, you get deplatformed.
It could be any number of things. Any number of things.
[1:10:14] Haram says, I've only begun accumulating a cushion in the past year or two. you.
I did like the motivation of failure not being an option, but like the freedom of speaking more freely. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right.
Bitcoin is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's investing in the future of freedom money. Yeah. And that which you buy in panic, you will often sell in panic.
Yeah, the price charts are astrology for men.
Yeah, that's right. Well, I mean, there's free will in the marketplace as a whole. There's geopolitical stuff.
There's the actions of various governments that are shrouded from us because of the insider trading stuff and the actions of various lobby groups and all that.
There's just way too many variables. and one of the variables free will, which can't be predicted.
So, yeah, this idea that you can predict the price of Bitcoin by looking at the past, I don't. I don't believe it for a second.
Somebody says, just to put this out there, fidelity, for example, allows you to take a loan out of your 401k without penalty.
To pay it back, it comes out of your check automatically and you pay yourself interest. The only drawback is your money is not in the market making interest, right?
Well, but if he lost 40k because he sold out of a panic, then he wasn't making money anyway.
Steph, what I'm getting at around peaks is how long I think I can maintain conviction if price stagnated for a while.
[1:11:37] Nobody can tell you what the future price of an asset is going to be.
Nobody can tell you what the future price of an asset is going to be, unless they have insider information, which is illegal.
So, to me, you can approach Bitcoin as an investment. But you need to be prepared for that frame of mind, experience in handling the associated emotions.
I'm not going that route with crypto. It's buy and hold, dollar cost average all the way. It serves a larger purpose.
Should the cushion be in fiat? Oh, I can't tell you that.
Well, I mean, the good thing with fiat is you don't have to trade it to sell it, right?
Can I get a yes, no, and how many people here have 6 to 12 months worth of savings, not including credit or 401k long-term savings?
I have 6 to 12 months worth of savings.
Yes.
Thank you for the donation. I appreciate that, Josh. Better can't.
[1:12:33] Uh, so, Steph, I'm really starting to notice the decline in quality and services in the local economy.
Seems as if people are becoming more depressed and disenchanted with life.
Are we beginning to see what life was like during the communist years of the Soviet Union? Oh, no, no, no.
A few people are, but no, it's, it's, if you, if only you knew how bad things were going to get, right?
What do you know that meme is like, I know things seem right, bad, bad right now, but they're going to get a lot worse, right?
Now, Communist years of the Soviet Union, go read the Gulag Archipelago.
Go read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Go read Cancer Ward.
I mean, no, it was brutal. Absolutely brutal.
And yeah, people are depressed. Yeah, people, I mean, isn't this true?
Don't you find this to be the case? People are just depressed.
They're just depressed.
You know, you see these videos of like high school in the 1990s and people had an energy and a positivity and an enthusiasm, even though there was nuclear war and stuff like that.
But people are carrying this massive heavy burden because the news is unrelentingly getting worse and worse and worse and worse, right?
And aggression and brinksmanship and so on, both domestically in America and overseas, is escalating, of course.
[1:13:45] Because the result of crushing free speech through deplatforming is the escalation of aggression, which is why people good at aggression are always hostile to free speech, because free speech is the opposite of escalation and aggression, so...
[1:14:07] The times that I have started to really put together savings, I end up literally getting totally blindsided.
Well, yeah, of course. I mean, that's why you need savings, because there's unexpected costs.
And I certainly do. I mean, I've had this experience in life where you get a little bit of money together and there's some bill, there's some thing that just happens, right?
[1:14:33] All right. Thank you for the tip, Kalalik. It says, I was listening to Solitude is Bliss by Tame Impala.
Huh. We don't have enough antelope-themed bands.
And couldn't help but think about you when you once described the joy you had when your mother left you home alone as a child. Perhaps you'll give it a listen.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
You were on fire this week, Steph. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for the tip.
The problem is decadence. We have too much comfort. People are depressed because they're too bored and thinking too much instead of staying busy. What?
Oh, God.
No, people are depressed because they know the ship is sinking. Come on, man.
You don't think there was decadence in the 70s? You don't think there was decadence in the 80s compared to all of human history?
Oh, my God. Please. If you have a theory about society, put it through.
Like, don't just say, well, it's this.
And you've got to put it through a critical ringer. He can't.
[1:15:38] No, it's not because they're too comfortable. My God.
The ship is sinking and they're not allowed to fix it. You're not even allowed to talk about it. You're not even allowed to notice it.
Go to the average normie and talk about the cycles of history.
Well, things seem fine to me.
[1:16:03] So people are depressed because, in a lot of ways, people are depressed because, the people who are supposed to look ahead are not able to look ahead and not allowed to talk about what's coming so people are unable to prepare deep down they know that the far-seeing people up in the crow's nest who see over the horizon of what's coming to help prepare society for disaster those people have been shot and blinded and thrown out of the crow's nest and everybody sailing through the fog blind, they are anxious they're depressed because they're anxious and they're anxious because people like me and others who are accurately and have for many years accurately predicted the way society is going and is going to go are not allowed to be part of the general population conversation.
We're not allowed to be part of the conversation. So they know that all the people who are best and most accurate at predicting the future are taking out a circulation.
[1:17:03] Right so you're driving in the fog across a field no GPS you're flying in a plane your instruments are down and it's night time and it's foggy of course you're terrified because you have no reference points you have no sense of where you're going you know like in a plane like it's wild I read this I listened to this whole podcast on the death of JFK Jr so when you're in a plane and you're like you can't tell anymore you could be spinning spiraling in one curve you don't even know you don't even know.
[1:17:41] So people are anxious because they know that when people aren't allowed to warn them of bad things, that the bad things are almost here.
Trump is not a fiscal conservative.
Yeah, I know you're being sarcastic, I assume, right? But Trump was, and I did videos on this back in the day about Trump's massive spending.
Yeah, Trump was not at all a fiscal conservative.
[1:18:21] But it's tough to be sane in a society where people are regularly driven insane by bad information, false information, lies, right?
All right. Questions, comments, issues, challenges.
[1:18:43] I had a topic tonight, which is why women, why young women are going so woke.
Massive spending on wall street didn't do as much on border as people think either no that's true i mean you ever want to see a a bitter ex-trumper go and follow ann coulter's ex-feed, steph what is your opinion on land or property as an investment prices right now are sky high interest rates have gone up and i wonder if we missed the boat.
[1:19:20] Uh well uh i i'm not sure how long the purely private property ownership of large houses is going to be fully and totally respected i think you can go look up all of that stuff so i'm not sure about any of that stuff i'm in the same boat regarding real estate i want to buy it but I'm afraid I'm getting ripped off.
[1:19:52] Well, so the choice is always between, in general, right? The choice is often between real estate and Bitcoin.
I can't tell you what to buy, right? But there's options, right?
You can rent and put the down payment into Bitcoin. You can use the down payment, not put it in Bitcoin and put it in real estate. I mean, you need a place to live and all of that. that song.
I can't afford to move back to my native Florida from the price spike.
But you can, you just have to downgrade your expectations, right?
I'm in the same boat regarding real estate. Oh yeah, sorry, that was the thing, yeah. COVID was an eye-opener as a landlord, better off with Bitcoin, in my opinion.
Well, see, here's the problem, right? Home ownership, right?
Hit me with a why if you've owned a house that's not totally new.
Yes. Oops. Yes. Hit me with a Y if you've owned a house that's not totally new.
Not covered under warranty.
Little long in the tooth and things beginning to fall apart.
Yeah. Um. You know Bitcoin doesn't cost you anything to hold, right?
Bitcoin costs you nothing to hold, right? Um.
[1:21:06] How much a year have you spent on maintenance, upgrades, preventive maintenance, getting heaters, filters, ducts cleaned, roofs repaired, foundations shored up, sump pumps replaced, water heaters replaced?
How much have you spent?
I would tell you, but I'd burst into tears on what I have spent or what we have spent sometimes on a house.
[1:21:37] I mean, sometimes it just feels like you're on the receiving end of Mike Tyson bill blows.
Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. My wallet, shots fired.
Oh, yeah. Oh, and property taxes. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you pay property taxes either way. They're just baked into the rent otherwise.
But no, it can be absolutely brutal.
10K, 10 to 10K per year in my 1950s house. About 5K, but it's not that old. Not counting taxes.
Yeah. 5 to 10K a year. Cheap Midwestern area worth the privacy.
Oh yeah houses can be brutal right so when you get a house i mean everyone thinks well there's the down payment there's the mortgage there's the property taxes and you know some heating if you don't if you don't take into account the seemingly endless repairs that go on it's it can be quite mad and and sometimes heaven help you finding someone who's competent and shows up on time or even returns your calls. This is part of the general slowdown.
So you got to talk to long-term homeowners if you want to buy a house and you have to figure out the actual costs.
Otherwise, you'll budget and you won't.
It's like if you buy a 10-year-old car and you say, well, what do I need to budget for?
I need to budget for the gas, the oil, a little bit of maintenance, and that's it.
It's like, nope, car's 10 plus years old, which means bills and bills and and repairs, and bills, and failures, and bills, and repairs, and bills, and failures, and repairs, right?
[1:23:05] Do it yourself here on Home Repairs. Do it yourself here on Home Repairs. All right.
That's great. But that's not free because of all the time you had to spend learning how to do your home repairs.
[1:23:20] Florida is very bad for labor with all the wealthy people. Contractors gouge.
Florida, a friend of mine has a place, two places in Florida.
And if you ever want to get somebody from Florida to turn redder than a tomato in direct sunlight, simply talk to them about the quality of the work that's been done in their houses, especially the newer builds.
I mean they're total shitshow house of cards uh bullshit propped up with spit and glue nonsense, so uh the houses they can be relatively cheap but then you just have to fix them later at great expense at least according to him so i i never try and poke this particular wound because i'm going to listen for half an hour on all the terrible things that have happened with regards guys at the house and repairs and the builders not respecting things.
And oh, it's just, it's terrible.
Good to learn how to be handy if you don't want to hire people.
No, it's not. What are you talking about?
[1:24:21] There's no free lunch. I mean, instead of learning how to be handy, you could put extra work in or start a side hustle and then pay people out of that.
You can confirm about florida labor i have clients who tell me the same thing, yeah you know basically florida homes as is the case in a lot of places florida homes seem to be bipolar models they look great on the outside but they'll just take your wallet out through your ass, this is the damn truth cookie cutter houses in florida thrown up quick and sloppy yeah, shallow foundations on sandy loam yeah Yeah, like, I hate to be...
[1:25:05] I hate to be this total nag, but I'm just going to annoy you guys until you understand that everything is a trade-off, right?
Good to learn how to be handy if you don't want to hire people.
Well, you think it's free? You think learning how to be handy is free? No, it's not.
You got to buy the tools. You're going to make mistakes. Heaven forbid you run afoul of some regulation or piece of paper.
You ever want to have an exciting conversation with a home builder, like somebody who builds homes, ask him how the permits and regulations are going. you will be sandblasted with horror stories for uh three three plus hours.
[1:25:42] Apartments don't cost much to repair but you might have to live in the zombie apocalypse epicenter no apartments do cost a lot to repair because there's the infrastructure of the apartment building as a whole itself right hiring people is a side hustle in itself well Well, no, uh, hiring people has to be less than you doing it yourself.
Otherwise nobody would hire anyone. Right. So you, you just get your friends to recommend someone and, and all of that.
Or I mean that this, you can find good people and you just try and keep them busy.
So, yeah, I'm, uh, I'm just going to be, I'm just going to be a nag.
And listen, if it's any consolation, I do this with myself all the time where I say to myself, okay, am I, am I nuanced? Am I putting across the proper complexity?
Am I giving simple answers? Or am I talking about general principles?
Apartments with too much zombie apocalypse for raising a kid.
Terrifying. Girl nearby got murdered in a nice complex.
Surprisingly, oh yeah, an ex-boyfriend. Yeah, it's, yeah, established contractors with good reputations do exist. Yeah, for sure.
[1:26:52] I spent some portions of my life in apartment buildings, significant portions of my life in apartment buildings, and it's where hope goes to die in a hellscape of collapsed expectations. It's just awful.
[1:27:16] They're generally very depressing places because it's the single mother brigade aid or the people who've just failed to make anything of their life. It's really sad.
You know, this, this phrase that I read when I was younger, this phrase I read when I was younger, uh, and any man seen on a bus after the age of 30 has been a failure in life.
That chilled me.
That chilled me.
The apartment thing is terrible i routinely and regularly am being woken up by my upstairs neighbor right so but the problem is of course then if you're tired all day you can't make much money so you think you're saving money on rent but if you're in some noisy craptastic loser, clocked environment you're depressed you can't get any sleep like you get trapped down there because life is depressing the people are depressing and you can't get any sleep and and people are loud and it's trashy and oh my god. Oh my god.
Yeah, sometimes there's no more expensive money you can spend than saving money and living in a craptastic apartment planet.
Trash planet, right?
[1:28:46] I'm just waiting for people to catch up with their typing because apparently we had this lag. And, you know, hey, I appreciate you guys as supporters. Thank you so much.
If you would like to toss a couple of extra coins my way, I would really appreciate it. I thank you so much.
[1:29:01] Let's make sure, you know what, because you guys are here and this is donor only, let me make sure that you have, you have the truth about sadism.
You got to get this feed, man.
You got to get that. You just got to, got to, got to get back.
Step back against myself.
You've got to give this feed. This is really, really great. Yeah, freedomain.com slash donate. You can head there too.
Media.rss.com slash sadism slash feed.xml.
Steph, I'm going to send you a voice message begging you for a truth about sadism part seven.
All right, but I think I closed it off.
I know that there's still more than half of the document to go through.
Yeah, Pennywise, Pound, Foolish, there's a bunch of stuff that I got from just aphorisms.
Pennywise, Pound, Foolish is really one of them.
You've heard this a million times in call-in shows. Oh, I'm saving all this money by living at home. It's like, no, you're not.
No, because you're kind of depressed. You're kind of anxious.
You can't get a girlfriend.
You can't get enthusiastic about your life. And all that happens when your parents pay your bills is your ambition deflates.
[1:30:13] Does anyone think Rumble is free as a honeypot to ID right-wingers?
Peter Thiel production. No.
Good Lord, no. You think the government has any trouble identifying people on the internet? Really? Come on.
Living with crap families is worse than crap apartments. But then you have crap neighbors for the most part, right?
I want to get my own place. The idea of living in a pricey, trashy apartment would probably be worse than my life currently with my parents.
I can't afford a house at the moment.
A pricey, trashy apartment. No, but you can get an apartment in a better neighborhood or whatever it is, right?
[1:30:55] Maybe just buy a not overpriced tiny home or travel train or RV.
[1:30:59] Well, you know, in general, cities are probably not the optimum place to be in the long run.
Just a thought I've had from time to time. The cities might not be super optimum in the long run and trying to find some way to work remotely is truly life-changing.
Now, of course, you might want to get a life partner before you go to your cabin in the the woods because can't meet a whole lot of available women on isolated hiking trails, but i would say that having the option to work remotely is one of the most important things that you can get a hold of as far as a skill goes because then you can move anywhere be anywhere and you're not constrained to cities you're not constrained to public transit you're not not constrained to those kinds of things so my approach that i can't tell you what to do that would be my approach if i was uh in your guys shoes just trying to find some way to do something where you can work remotely so get a mrs thoreau before going walden yes very true very true it's a bit rough meeting ladies in a small town in the middle of the mountains oh that's not true, how dare you say that jared you can meet tons of ladies the little old ladies who help out the soup kitchen.
There are some biddies who will take your ticket at the local movie theater if they have one.
There are middle-aged women with three children working in hardware. There's tons of women.
[1:32:26] Oh, young, attractive, quality women. Well, that's a different situation.
[1:32:37] The scary thing about moving from a city to the exurbs is how hateful and insular man And rural Americans are really concerned about rural poverty drugs.
Wait, you think the rural Americans are hateful and you're making this statement?
Imperatively, the only hateful person in that equation is you.
There are lots of nice small towns.
The best kinds of ladies are in small towns in the middle of the mountains.
Yes, but they're often married, so.
Can confirm attractive women are very difficult to pick up. Wasn't that the original topic? No, at least not my topic. Not my topic.
I don't want to live in this big city I'm in either. Remote work sounds great.
My skills are all in factories. Can't do that online.
What do you think would be good remote work?
Well, I mean, just do a search for remote work demand, right?
You can edit documents, review documents, proofread.
I don't know if you know any other languages you can translate.
There's lots of things that you could do remotely, but...
Eastern Kentucky and...
Are definitely a little unsettling, but the rest of the U.S.
Is pretty wonderful in the countryside.
[1:34:01] Learn tech work. I'm a network engineer. Well, you know, sometimes that can be a little bit of a passion that you have to start early.
The Barbie Oscar controversy was hilarious. As a writer, what you see is the key in creating so-called likable characters.
And yes, what is making these young girls so damn woke?
I'll do a separate show on the girls' woke thing because that's a big topic and I'm very, very passionate about it, of course. Because, yes, so just so you know, isn't the only person from the Barbie movie who's been nominated for an Oscar is Ryan Gosling, is Ken?
Well, of course, Ryan Gosling had a journey. He had character. He had depth.
He had self-doubt. He had enthusiasm. He got to sing and dance and fight him.
He had real range as far as that went.
But, yeah, the Barbie controversy was pretty funny.
What do you see as the key to creating so-called likable characters? Thank you.
[1:34:54] So as a writer, there's boring likable and then interesting likable.
So boring likable characters are, you know, the movie opens and they're bringing a sandwich to a homeless guy.
And then they hold the elevator for the elderly woman and ask her what floor she wants to get to.
And then they pick up two coffees in the canteen and take one to the woman who's stuck at her desk because she has to answer the phone and they just do these little, nice, thoughtful, girly things and that's how you make them likable.
It's boring likable and it's uninspiring.
The other thing, of course, what you do if you want to do macho, tough likable guy is the guy is walking across the desert, and he is steely-eyed and has no facial expressions.
And then a whole bunch of guys jump out from behind rocks in the desert.
That's right, I'm looking at you, Denzel.
Whole bunch of guys jump out from behind rocks in the desert.
And he doesn't want to fight them, and he tells them that they really shouldn't want to fight him, and it's a really bad idea, and he just wants to go in peace.
And then maybe he even offers them a bribe so that they won't fight him.
[1:36:10] And they continue to be aggressive with him. They just don't take him seriously.
They view him as an easy mark. He looks like he's just going to be a pushover.
And then slowly and regretfully, he pulls down his pack.
He puts down his pack on the ground. He cocks his head and his neck cracks.
And then people rush at him and he beats the living shit out of everyone and carves them up like a thanksgiving turkey right so so that's the other way that you make a character likable is other people assume he's weak and he turns out to just be magically and ferociously strong and somehow even though they're bullies they have absolutely no idea how strong he is isn't that wild isn't that remarkable even though their entire job is sizing up people to know whether they're able to be pushed around or not they just have no idea that this guy who's calm and doesn't break a sweat and his voice doesn't change and he's saying man we don't have to do it this way right this is the uh obi-wan kenobi in that in the tatooine is it tatooine in the bar he's like uh this little one is not worth the trouble come let me buy you a drink and blah blah blah right and then hacks the guy's arm off right so those are likable characters or admirable characters because that's a a childish ridiculous stupid stupid fantasy that people have about what it means to be tough, right? What it means to be tough.
[1:37:32] So, uh, I, I don't, I don't find that stuff particularly interesting and it takes a really, really good actor to make that even mildly interesting.
[1:37:42] So, uh, those are likable characters.
[1:37:48] And that are typical and low IQ and boring and mainstream.
If this is of interest to you, I can tell you about likable characters that are way more challenging, both for the audience and for the writer.
If you're interested, I want to make sure, because I don't know if you guys are interested in the creative process, hit me with a Y if you'd like to know how artists create characters that are really interesting and challenging.
Please, yes? All right.
Yes, yes. I do this continually. I do this continually.
So if you've read Just Poor, if you've read Just Poor, Mary O'Donnell is one of the most challenging characters around because she's quite courageous, quite foolish, quite foolhardy, brilliant, unstable, vengeful.
She's a real challenging mix.
It's a real challenging mix.
[1:38:54] Oh, the other way that you create a likable character is he's dressed nicely, he's walking through the nightclub, and all the women are gazing at him in lust, right?
This is just programming you to view him as a cool guy.
So in Just Poor, you have a protagonist and an antagonist, and they switch places.
Like, that to me is much more interesting. interesting so the protagonist is superman the antagonist is lex luther and then lex luther looks like he's going to beat superman superman ends up winning right now in just poor the protagonist and the antagonist switch places in that mary is the good person and lawrence is the bad person at the beginning and at the end lawrence is the good guy and mary is not so it's those kinds of The switches, to me, are really, really interesting.
Because I don't find it at all interesting when a character starts off noble and stays noble through the whole movie because it doesn't teach you how to be noble.
[1:39:57] So, Tom in my novel Almost goes from despair to courage.
And his brother Reginald goes from superior to, well, you see what happens at the end.
If you look at a character like Rachel in my novel The Present, I mean, she's pretty horrible.
I mean, she's really kind of vicious and petty and nasty and vain and manipulative and lies to everyone all the time.
And she ends up going through this wild journey, which scrubs from her, her vanity lies in manipulation.
Because she finally meets a man who won't let her manipulate or lie to him.
[1:40:57] I mean, at one point in the novel, he actually abandons her to near certain death because she simply won't tell him the truth and she keeps manipulating him. He's like, bye.
He actually tames her in a wild kind of way by simply refusing to allow her to manipulate him.
And she's drawn to that because her true self wants to actually stop lying and stop humiliating herself by lying to everyone and manipulating everyone, which is a sign that you're unlikable.
You manipulate people because you're unlikable. you feel or you believe or you fear that you're unlikable you believe that you're unlikable, so to me likable characters the most exciting like characters are the ones, that are strangely compelling but kind of unpleasant who then over the course of the story become people through harshness setbacks and willpower become people you can genuinely admire, Rachel at the beginning is too frail to live.
[1:41:55] Rachel at the end is an incredibly robust force of nature that has survived what few people could.
I found the Rachel arc improbable, but still interesting reading.
[1:42:09] Well, the Rachel arc is not super improbable in my view because her father and, like, Rachel's father and Oliver have so much in common.
They're both sort of down-to-earth, common sense, direct, empirical, sensible people.
So with Rachel, I found it really hard to believe that someone could change this much in real life. Really?
Hmm. Interesting.
[1:42:37] Well, let me ask you this. I mean, I feel I've changed as much as Rachel over the course of my life.
I mean, I won't get into all the details of what I was like when I was younger, but it was a lot different.
It was a lot different.
I thought Rachel should have ended with the dog scene. You mean be eaten?
No, no, she has to surmount the physical. She has to surmount the mammal.
She has to move beyond the mammal to the spiritual. I mean, she's literally in a crucifix position over barking dogs, which are demons, which are devils, which are her own vanity, the consumption, right?
I could say I've changed as much as Rachel, too. I'm not done changing either.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, the Rachel story arc doesn't seem unbelievable to me.
This doesn't mean I'm right or wrong. I'm just saying the Rachel story arc doesn't seem unbelievable to me. me, because I've changed an enormous amount, and a lot of the people I know in my life have changed an enormous amount.
[1:43:46] And it's interesting. I wonder if Rachel's story arc, this is not a criticism, you could be totally right, but I wonder if Rachel's story arc seems unbelievable to you because you haven't really committed to massive change.
If you have really committed to massive change, then Rachel's story arc, may not be as unbelievable. And again, listen, I'm fully aware that this is like, it's almost like criticizing people people for criticizing the book.
And you could be totally right. You could be totally right.
But my first question, which doesn't mean I'm right, of course, but my first question would be, if you have massively changed in your life, then wouldn't Rachel's story arc be something you could relate to? Obviously not in the specifics or the details.
[1:44:37] Sounds like a clear character arc is the key to likability.
How can you create likability right right at the start, before the arc is realized by the reader.
So one of the reasons that I think, one of the reasons why Rachel is interesting at the beginning, is because we all have aspects of that vanity and pettiness and status within us.
So I have her honest enough with herself self that she keys into the pettiness and the vanity that we all have, to some degree or another.
[1:45:25] And she's not a villain. Sorry, somebody says, I could say I've changed as much as Rachel, too. I'm not done changing either. Oh, sorry, I think we said that, right?
You can't have a clear character arc because that rids you of suspense, right?
[1:45:43] I'm nothing like rachel in most ways says bethany but that part where she's waking up to it was very relatable and the way no one else in her life believed her or went along yeah it depends whether you think it depends whether you think oliver is in her life or not, see who in Rachel's life really challenges her because she's pretty and she's verbally skilled and she is a good manipulator so who in her life really challenges her, well I.
[1:46:23] There's a bit where Rachel, the first time Rachel sits down with Oliver and Oliver, she notices this.
Oliver doesn't give her the ones up and down that men give.
And she says like men give women, attractive women, this ones up and down and they think that we don't notice, but we really do.
And she doesn't even see him do that. Although later he does read her name on her name tag, which is not actually her name because she's kind of undercover. cover.
[1:46:49] But she tries manipulating him and she tries being charming to him and she tries wooing him using all of her tricks.
And it's just waves against a dock, nothing.
He simply will not respond to her unless she's authentic.
And she really desires him. Why does she desire him? Because she senses that he breaks a mold of everyone else enabling her dysfunction.
Can we we really blame Rachel for her dysfunction if everyone enables it?
If her sister still has lunch with her and doesn't confront her?
If Arlo still loves her and pays some of the bills?
If her family don't really confront her about what she's doing in her life?
Like, she's kind of lost in a drift, but the whole culture and everyone around her is participating in enabling in that.
And the hunger that she has for the truth is just like one person.
It just takes one person to break the mold.
If one person can do it, it becomes a possibility for everyone else, which is why the The improbable, and particularly the improbable in improvement in morals, is kept away from the general public so they stay in the squalid under-expectations of the underworld, the trash planet.
It just takes one person.
[1:47:56] To be frank with you, to shatter the false self.
[1:48:03] And her desire for Oliver is not fundamentally sexual.
I mean, it is in part, of course, survival, because she senses the dislocations in the society, but fundamentally, her desire for Oliver is her desire to just stop lying, to just be authentic, to be real, to be true, to be seen.
Because he is a man of God, and therefore he is more concerned with the soul than the flesh, and it is the soul trying to burrow through the attractiveness of her flesh to connect with another human being in a real manner.
[1:48:44] And we all have that. We all have that.
We have our meat plus, we have our flash, our humor, our jokes, our fun, our looks, our singing, whatever it is. we have all of this flash that can draw attention to us.
But attention is in many ways the opposite of intimacy.
And she just wants to actually connect with someone.
[1:49:08] But everyone around her responds positively to her manipulation except, for Oliver. Now, later on, of course, we understand why Oliver is so resistant, to being manipulated because he's got a very manipulative mother.
Who tries to play on all of his sympathies to rescue someone from the outside world.
So he's got a very hard-won resistance to manipulation.
[1:49:39] Yeah, the aunt was the example, so Rachel could have her aunt.
Yeah, the aunt was the fork in the road, right?
I actually changed a lot too, but it took me getting to rock bottom to begin the change and it took a lot of years.
For Rachel, it seemed too fast and too radical and I didn't see the trigger for the change.
You didn't see the trigger for the change?
She blew up her whole world, and then the whole world blew up.
I mean, what? You didn't see the trigger for the change.
I'm sorry, is the entirety of society collapsing not enough of a trigger for the change?
Should the planet have been hit by a total asteroid and vaporized and turned into the rings of Saturn?
[1:50:27] I'd like a show on the psychology of tailgating. Oh, that's interesting.
Psychology of tailgating is a form of erasure of the other.
So it's people full of rage who just want other people to cease existing and get out of the way.
It's a form of intellectual or emotional murder.
Just get out of the way, stop existing, stopping having your own preferences.
It's a complete lack of empathy, and it's a narcissistic rage that has people tailgate to that degree. It's really something.
It's more of a murder with than a wish. I found Rachel's transformation believable because she doesn't seem comfortable with her life before.
[1:51:10] And also remember she's pushing 30 she's pushing 30 she's been in her relationship with Arlo for a couple of years and we all know that your body starts to rebel against your life if you've been in a relationship with someone for a couple of years and you don't have any kids your woman's body in particular will start to rebel against her life you can look at Vince Vaughn and Jennifer of aniston in the breakup for that right she just nags and nags and frustrated and angry and tense right so um for a lot of the men because we're kind of bricks going through life and not much changes uh physically until like 70 or something right if you stay relatively active but she's uh she's pushing 30 her career's not going anywhere her relationship's not going anywhere and her clock is ticking and her eggs are screaming and so that propels a lot of change uh the tail gator, is the one with the motivation.
[1:52:05] And of course, everyone has the impulse to just keep slowing down, right? Do you think women have less value for truth?
That has been my experience. But to men, what do you mean by truth?
I mean, emotional truth? No, absolutely not.
Navigating relationships, women are generally better at that than men.
So don't make the mistake of thinking that the only truth that matters is the abstract, analytical, empirical truth, the engineering truth, the object truth, and so on.
The truth of love, the truth of compassion, the truth of the relationship is also very, very important as well.
[1:52:40] But she wrote the article on men's rights before society collapsed.
Right, because she sensed it was collapsing, which is why, as a writer, I put all of these indications that she couldn't get what she wanted.
She can't order things, they don't show up. She can't get food, stuff's missing in the grocery store. She just can't get stuff.
So she writes an article on men's rights before society collapses because she wants to realign herself herself with competent men not pretty boys like arlo she wants to realign herself because she senses what's coming and she needs to jump ship from arlo to the world of oliver so i want to drop a concrete block behind my car when being tailgated yeah i understand that don't do it obviously but i understand it yeah she wrote the article on men's rights to um to to break up with with arlo.
[1:53:33] Rachel turns into an elite commando overnight. No, that's a very unfair and kind of mean comment. That's very unfair.
I mean, a person being chased by dogs can climb a tree, and what she's doing is easier in many ways than climbing a tree.
So no, I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true at all.
She doesn't have a weapon. She doesn't have any flashbangs. She doesn't have any smoke grenades.
She doesn't do any cool moves. She trips and stumbles. But yeah, I mean, she can climb into the rafters of a building when being chased by dogs. Yes, she can do that.
And I talk about her. Of course, she's at the gym a lot. She does a lot of sports.
She literally is, oh my God, like she's literally a climber, right? I mean, this is not League Commando.
She literally is a climber, right? She climbs mountains.
That's her hobby with Arlo. She's a climber. And what does she do when she's being chased by dogs?
Oh, look, she climbs. And so, no, no, no. She just turns into some, like, if you didn't read the book, then, or you didn't read the book carefully.
She's literally a climber.
And then she climbs to escape the darks and it's like, wow, that's an elite commando. No, no, he's got practice and experience.
And you can, you know, if you've never been in a really, really life-threatening situation, you may not be aware of just everything that you're capable of doing.
[1:54:49] Bethany says, yeah, I remember kind of rudely questioning a conservative friend and he was so honest and kind.
He didn't remember the conversation at all, but it was life-changing.
His security conviction and expertise, I was stunned how well you captured that process.
Yeah.
Like when I put stuff in that makes what the character does believable and people don't pay any attention to it and then say, well, the character's unbelievable.
It's like, no, she climbed because she's a climber, right?
[1:55:23] Uh yeah don't uh don't slow down just you know my my my statement is go have your accident elsewhere just go around i'll move out of their way go have you know they zoom up and you know you know it's always the same damn thing it's always the same damn thing somebody's tailgating you they're changing lanes they zoom up and then where do you see them at the next traffic lights they're just stuck there like everyone else it's completely retarded completely ridiculous, completely ridiculous they've done studies they've done studies where people can run yellows they can and change lanes.
They can go all over the place and other people do it. And they cross the city about the same amount of times, about the same time.
[1:56:00] Thank you, Bryson. Your comments regarding what listeners' big dreams are and the look on someone's face when you tell them a real big dream has helped me identify an unknown issue within myself. Feel free to tell.
Oh, sorry, he's telling. I have been developing a sense of claustrophobia.
I gained a better understanding of why from your talk on big dreams.
I grew up in an environment I'm at a small dream, people.
As my dreams grew, the look of confusion that was given me in response caused me to minimize my dreams.
My dreams had claustrophobia in that environment. Yes, that's right.
People have a tough time with your big dreams because they've lived such small lives.
And they think that it's impossible to live. But the funny thing is, you know, people divide themselves into two species, right?
So people say, oh, you shouldn't have big dreams. And then they'll go and see some big $200 million movie with giant actors, a massive set, and writers and directors, and all these people having that.
So they literally will spend endless time consuming other people's big dreams, while saying, you shouldn't have big dreams.
Like the Morlocks. Like in the Eloi, right?
Like, oh, they can have, all these other people can have these big, but not for us.
Big dreams are not for people like us. It's a slave morality.
It's a slave mentality. It's terrible.
[1:57:14] Since we are on the topic, I also found Oliver hard to believe.
He is a man of God, but also very rational and responsible.
My experience with Christians is that they don't tend to take responsibility for their life, but rather pray to God to take care of them.
[1:57:31] My experience with Christians...
So, you find Oliver hard to believe because the people around you don't take responsibility for their life.
Sorry, I don't quite follow this.
Well, I can't believe that Oliver spoke Japanese because I don't know people who speak Japanese. What?
So you're around Christians who reject one of the fundamental aspects of Christianity, which is an acceptance of free will and moral responsibility.
So you're around bad Christians, therefore you don't believe in good Christians.
You realize that's a little narcissistic, right? Well, I don't know anyone who speaks Japanese therefore Japanese is a made-up language.
It's not believable. I mean, come on, nobody really speaks Japanese.
Do they just fake it? They're just faking it, right?
So I don't quite understand what you're saying. Are you saying that there's no such thing as a man of God who can be rational and responsible?
Well, you might need to change your circle all the friends or companions or whatever it is, right?
[1:58:47] Let's see here. My son is 12 years old, turning 13 next month.
And when I was on the phone with him, he was reading off a list from a search on jobs you can do as a 13-year-old.
He has a good understanding of how to provide value for goods and services and basic economics, so he has a leg up on his peers.
As far as job seeking, what other advice should I offer him?
Yeah, you know, that he's paid by the customers, not by his boss, that the The purpose is to please the customers, that he should always try and figure out ways to improve his job and his efficiency.
And he should, you know, after a certain amount of waiting period, so you don't appear too much like an apple polisher, if there's anything he notices that could improve the work or the flow or the efficiency and that his boss has to make more value, than what he's paying him and all of that, right?
And just have initiative and try and solve problems and try and be proactive and try and prevent issues from coming up.
I mean, I remember once, Coming back from someplace with my daughter and we stopped off to get a bagel from a coffee shop.
And the woman who seemed kind of empty-headed and depressed said, oh, we have no bagels. We have no bagels.
Right. Now, this was a coffee shop that was actually attached to a convenience store.
[2:00:02] So I said, okay, let's say that you were this woman. We talked about this for like half an hour on the way home.
I was like, imagine you were this woman and you're out of bagels.
First of all, you know you're going to run out of bagels because you can see them going one by one. So like, what do you do?
And she's like, oh, well, I would call my boss and say, we need bagels.
Oh, okay, well, let's say your boss wasn't home. It's like, okay, I would go to the convenience store and I would buy some bagels.
And then I would just tell my boss I had to buy bagels or whatever. ever oh but maybe that's not allowed it's like oh well then i would suggest like when we were running low on bagels i would suggest to people that that they buy a muffin or something like that like there's tons of things or i i would call another store and try and get them to drink because there was another store like two blocks away of the same coffee shop i would go there and get bagels or i try and get them to send me like just solve the just get the bagels just get the bagels but you go all these inert people they're like they're like pieces of string you push them and they stop.
You push them and they, like, they're inert, right? They don't move unless someone yells at them or I don't know what, right?
So be the employee who makes sure that you get the bagels. Just get the bagels.
There's ways to get bagels. If you got to go on an app and order the bagels and then ask to be reimbursed later, get the bagel.
So just, yeah, be the employee who gets the bagels.
All right.
[2:01:30] On the topic of Christianity, I'd be curious to know if you have any thoughts on the Catholic Church, specifically the prospect of joining said organization should one be of a newly Christian persuasion.
I think the Catholic Church has been pretty infiltrated and compromised as a whole.
Ah, let's see here. I've done things in scary situations I would never bet that I could accomplish physically.
I didn't even tell people what happened. It would sound kind of silly, but it did relate.
But it did relate to my skills, similar to climbing in Rachel's case. Yeah.
I tried joining some Christian communities to find virtuous people but I have seen what I wrote just people praying for their lives to get better but yes maybe I just haven't found the right people, so you evaluate these communities before you join them so.
[2:02:17] I mean you're saying that people aren't improving their own lives but you keep joining the same empty useless communities Like, why do you think the problem is with the Christians? It's your life that's not improving.
People are just praying for their lives to get better. Well, I just keep joining these craptastic communities full of empty people who blame everyone else and don't take any responsibility, and they're the people who can't improve their lives. It's like, how about you improve your life?
God, everyone thinks that the problem's with other people. Everyone thinks that everyone... Well, these Christian communities just don't seem to work that hard to improve their lives.
How's your life improving? It's not. I just keep joining the same crappy communities over and over and over again because I don't have any ability to determine good communities.
But the real problem is with those Christians who don't improve their lives, you see. It's like, oh my God, physician, heal thyself.
Stop blaming other people. Stop criticizing other people. Look in the mirror.
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
I'm getting the bagels for this combo. Thank you. This money may only be used for bagels. Oh man.
When I lived in Montreal, I lived right above a bagel shop.
I lived right above a bagel shop. Oh my gosh.
Every morning. Oh man. Man, I mean, cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese?
God's gift to the planet. God's gift to the planet.
[2:03:36] You're trying to send a tip and failing? Oh, you can always go to freedomain.com slash the net if you would like to send a tip in that eth manner.
All right, any other last?
As a Christian, I can tell you that the problem with the church in general is that no one actually reads the book. The other thing too, like why are you being passive with regards to these Christians?
So maybe, just maybe, the Christians are exactly as you say and they're kind of lazy and unmotivated and blame God for everything. Okay.
So.
[2:04:11] Go preach. I'm sure they'll let you go up and give a speech.
Thank you, Justinian. I appreciate that.
Justinian, also a very proactive Christian. Right? So, yeah, just go up and give a speech and talk to people about it and inquire and ask them and say, my understanding of Christianity is this. You guys practice.
Like, why are you passive? Just observing like you're someone in an aquarium.
You can't put your hand in and chase the fish around with your squid fingers.
Maybe. Just maybe not. But don't accept the world as it is.
If you don't like what is, work to change it.
If you don't like what is, please, I'm begging you, work to change it.
Or if you're not going to work to change it, don't blame other people for being passive.
Oh, dear.
[2:05:03] All my communities, all the communities I join are all the same, and they're all full of people who think that life is all the same and don't take leadership and don't take initiative. It's like, you keep joining these communities.
Where's your leadership? Where's your initiative? Where's your change in life?
That's not the same guy who thought that Rachel's change was unbelievable. I think, no.
I mean, look, maybe I failed, maybe I didn't. Does Rachel end up getting Oliver or is that never really answered?
I recall she arrives at the camp and is allowed in, but it's never really answered whether she gets with him. No, it doesn't matter.
Honestly, I mean, I obviously thought about writing that scene, but it doesn't matter.
The purpose of Rachel's journey is for her to stop lying and being direct.
When she stopped by the cop on the highway...
[2:06:02] She's actually direct, and she expresses genuine and deep need.
She doesn't manipulate.
And that allows her to break out of the city into the country.
The city is artificial. The country is natural. So she breaks out of the city with honesty and directness and initiative.
The purpose of her journey is to tell the truth and to be authentic, to be honest, and to choose her future over her past.
So she's invited to see her sister. She says, I'm actually here for Oliver.
That's he's her future, her sister is her past.
So it doesn't matter.
It matters that you ask the girl out directly and honestly and openly.
It actually doesn't matter that much whether she says yes or no.
It matters that you go for your dreams honestly, directly, working hard, taking initiative.
It actually doesn't matter that much whether you achieve them.
[2:06:58] Mobius writes, started listening to your novel, Just Poor. poor, I had to stop. No, you didn't. I had to stop. Come on. Oh, I have no free will.
Very powerful, realized characters, and I could see the arc of actions they were taking and couldn't stand to watch the train wreck unfold.
But if they're powerful, realized characters, it means that you accept that they're realistic depictions of human beings, which means that they include free will, which means they can't be determined, which means that you don't know the arc of the story.
[2:07:36] So, you have a challenge in your own life that the novel is confronting, but if the characters are real, it means they have free will in your mind.
[2:07:47] And they certainly have free will in my mind. I don't dictate what the characters do. I sort of negotiate with them, but the characters come up with their own surprising stuff.
I allow the characters to have free will, because otherwise they can't be real.
So, given that I didn't know the story arc when I wrote the novel, the idea that you know the story arc having never read the novel, I don't believe. So it's anxiety for your own life. And I sympathize with that, but you should keep going.
Danny says, I recall the scene from Just Poor, where the farmers had gathered in the hall and talking intellectual stuff. I always found this scene sort of far out.
Until today, I was in a room full of really wise, old experienced tradesmen.
Hearing the conversation so sophisticated about economics, building practice and politics nearly made me feel like I was in that very scene.
Now that scene, I remember this very vividly, very clearly.
I did a huge amount of research just for that scene and talked about, like I did research and read the minutes and meeting notes of these ancient societies from the 18th century that were literally the ass end of nowhere, but kept detailed and copious notes about their experiments, their telescopes, their quicksilver, their mercury experiments.
Like that scene, I can't even tell you how much research I did just to write that scene. And it's all completely authentic.
Like it's all absolutely researched and very specific. I did, so the two novels, of course, I did massive research.
I did three novels worth of massive research. The first, of course, is just poor.
[2:09:05] Another one called Revolutions, which you can get at freedomainnft.com.
And then there's the amount of research I did for Almost. It was staggering.
And of course, there was a lot of implicit research for The Future, which is about a perfect society.
So no, that novel, I've never talked about that before, but that scene in that novel of Just Poor was a ridiculous amount of research because I absolutely wanted to get it perfectly right.
And it absolutely is right out of history. So yeah.
[2:09:33] Uh, my dad and my mom have never helped my wife and I raise our two daughters under two.
Recently, I refused to invite them to one of their birthday parties coming up, and my dad implied that I was being rude and unjust, tempted to engage, but won't. Still feel so conflicted.
Yeah, I understand. Listen, standing up against parents is very tough.
To write a good story, you have to have some exceptional characters too, right? That can inspire the exceptional out of the reader, maybe. be?
Well, you have people who don't change no matter what, people who change of their own accord, and people who change because of circumstances.
Right. It is an iconic scene. Loved the voice acting for it.
Thanks. I appreciate that. Thank you.
Yeah, it's tough to go against parents, but you go against parents so that your daughters don't don't see you being bullied.
Your daughters don't see you being hypocritical. I will never allow my daughter to watch me get bullied.
Never.
And so I either don't have bullies in my life, or if I am sort of, somebody tries to push me around, I'll just push back hard.
Like I just I won't allow her to see me get bullied, because I need to have the credibility of all of that, right?
[2:10:57] Uh, he says, oh, regarding just poor. I admit that I can be wrong.
I stopped at the point where the young man was facing problems.
He had created when the pretty noble lady was coming and he had all these ruffians on his lawn, just past the food massacre. Yes.
Yes. Well, this is why the novel was never published because of course it's a criticism of socialism and pathological altruism.
At least that's one of the major themes and Lawrence's pride over the unearned because he's just a good-looking, young, athletic noble.
So Lawrence's pride in the unearned, is the hole in his personality that Mary uses to get her hooks in.
So Mary appeals to his vanity because she knows his vanity. And this is the entire conflict between them at the beginning.
When he says to the young milkmaids, he says, oh, well, you know, I've been to Italy and I've done all these wonderful things and then one of the girls says, oh, I would love to go to Italy.
Oh, I'd love to go to Italy. And he says, well, you play your cards, right, young lady? You just might.
And this is too much. Too much for Mary, who has all this potential and all this hardship.
And Mary says, oh, did you just play your cards right? Is that what you did?
You just played your cards right? Or were you born into it?
[2:12:19] Because he says, oh, you can go to Italy. You just have to earn it.
And she's like, did you earn it? No, you're just born into it.
So there's where she sees his vanity.
And that's what she plots for knowing his vanity, knowing that she can work that vanity muscle until he destroys himself.
She's a chilling genius of manipulation.
[2:12:49] And it's only when she gets all the money and realizes that she can't even wear a pretty dress that she decides to rebel against society as a whole and seal her own doom.
She's a very compelling character to me. She just blew my mind on a regular basis. That amazing willpower.
And everything she does is legal. She can use the system that has oppressed you to destroy one of its most powerful representatives. Oof.
Anyway it's wild well thank you i appreciate that i thought the voice acting was great as well and it was actually like i don't know 12 years between the first half and the second half.
[2:13:30] So yeah just poor you gotta you gotta listen to it it's really great and it's a really really great characters and really great themes and some descriptions are just they still blow my mind still blow my mind anyway all right well i want to be going a long time here so thanks everyone for a wonderful evening if you're listening to this later you guys don't mind if this goes out out to the gen pop do you uh just hit me with yes if it's okay we didn't do anything super spicy here no names i think so i think it would go out to the gen pop as a whole free domain.com slash if you're listening to this later thank you so much please please go go take these books i i get on my knees and beg you to to get these books just pour is a great one to start with, and uh it's a wonderful book is very deep very powerful and oh man the story that she tells Charles Lawrence about her time in the wilderness. Oh, just incredible.
Just incredible. And yeah, be the guy who gets the bagels. Freedom.com slash donate.
Lots of love, everyone. Take care. Thanks. Of course, as always for listening and supporting the show. Lots of love. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
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