0:04 - Introductory Thoughts on Society
1:54 - The Nature of Truth and Addiction
10:04 - Reflections on Parental Accountability
16:06 - The Value of Timely Apologies
22:31 - The Absurdity of Late Reconciliation
26:06 - The Lab Leak Theory Discussion
29:31 - Insights on Sibling Relationships
31:02 - The Importance of Personal Responsibility
41:48 - Navigating Family Dynamics and Change
49:28 - Understanding Wealth and Responsibility
58:54 - The Consequences of Societal Attitudes
In this episode, we delve into persisting questions regarding truth, addiction, and the complexities of human relationships. On this early morning broadcast from March 16, 2025, I explore why individuals often double down on their beliefs despite overwhelming evidence that contradicts them. When discussing reluctance to embrace truth, I postulate that certain addictions—be they to substances, status, or sexuality—can cloud one’s pursuit of honesty and reason. This is particularly true for those ensnared by their dependencies or societal pressures, which compel them to deny uncomfortable truths.
We examine the notion of 'truth' in the context of evolutionary instincts and societal programming. I argue that historically, individuals who prioritize truth over personal desires often faced social repercussions, making it a formidable sacrifice to choose integrity over the status quo. I contend that the pressure to conform, especially within gender dynamics, often results in men suppressing their inclination for independent thought in favor of acceptance, particularly from women. This societal dynamic leads to the erasure of self in pursuit of belonging, often manifesting as blind loyalty to group identities, such as sports teams or ideologies, where dissent or individuality is not tolerated.
As I tackle questions from listeners, I touch upon the impact of familial relationships on identity, using the example of parental dynamics. I discuss the challenge of reconciling past grievances, particularly when individuals seek closure well after the fact. I provoke thought on what it means to take responsibility in the context of healing relationships and the harsh reality that changes may come too late to affect those who have been deeply impacted by familial dysfunction. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own histories, particularly when grappling with the question of whether reconciliation is meaningful when it arrives after decades of neglect.
Furthermore, we dive into contemporary issues, including public resistance to acknowledging truths about our societal systems and the economic realities faced by billionaires. I assert that societal disdain towards the wealthy can foster a dangerous disconnect where those who could potentially assist in building a better society may withdraw their support altogether, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of resentment and detachment. Our discussion spans from the personal to the political, examining how narratives surrounding wealth—including an analysis of the morality of billionaires—can shift depending on societal context and individual perspective.
Throughout the episode, I urge listeners to consider the broader implications of their beliefs, the influences of societal norms, and how our collective narratives can hinder or promote self-awareness and personal growth. My goal is to provoke a thoughtful examination of moral responsibility, individual agency, and the often uncomfortable truths we confront in our everyday lives.
[0:00] Good morning, good morning, good morning, everybody, I hope you're doing well.
[0:04] It is the 16th of March, 2025. Hey, look at that, got the year right this time. And I hope you're doing well. Happy to chat with you about philosophy, reason, evidence, whatever is on your mind this morning. And thank you for the tip. thank you for the tip freedom a.com slash donate to help out the show, somebody rats good morning stefan and community quick question if time allows when obvious truths are painted appointed out with facts and evidence what is it that goes on in someone's mind to double down and refuse to see it love your show thanks for all that you do ah well that's a that That is a good question, that is a very good question.
[1:02] So one of the… there are those who love truth and those who love sex. These are overlapping circles and not completely overlapping circles. So those who love truth and those, it's really not just loving sex. Those who are sex addicts cannot love the truth. I mean, no addicts can love the truth because addiction relies on lying to yourself about whether you're addicted, what the nature of the addiction is, how much you need help, and what emotions you're covering up through the addiction. So.
[1:54] If you are a sex addict, which a lot of people are, if you are a sex addict, then you can't accept the truth because the truth will bar you from sexual excess with a not insignificant number of people.
[2:16] Everybody knows, of course, the kind of cliche that if you are a conservative, then liberal women won't sleep with you, right? So, if you're a sex addict, you can't afford the truth.
[2:27] If you are a status addict, if you are a status addict, then you can't afford the truth. Because if you're a status addict, the first thing that evildoers will do is attack and destroy your status. I may not be entirely theoretical in this argument. it. So if you're a status addict, then you are too vulnerable to rejection as a whole. It could be sexual rejection, professional rejection, deplatforming. It could be rejection for romantic reasons. So if you are a status addict, or if you get your sense of self from something other than truth, reason, and evidence, then whatever your vulnerability is, you will simply be attacked for that, right? So if you're high status, they'll attack your status. If you want to have a good reputation, they'll attack your reputation. If you want to be seen as smart, then they will call you dumb. Like the people who want to manipulate and control you will always try to figure out what your weaknesses and vulnerabilities are and to control you according to those, right? So the The people who opposed what I was doing were constantly sniffing and probing to see what my weaknesses and vulnerabilities were.
[3:54] And they would attempt, of course, to use those to control me. So for instance, I was called a cult leader when what I value the most is independent thinking and I specifically do not tell people what to do and would rather hopefully give them the mental tools to be able to make their own decisions. So because I value independent thinking so much, you know, being called a cult leader was designed to, you know, be the most upsetting or whatever, right? So, people reject truth and evidence because they are addicted to something else. Now, some of that addiction is understandable, right? From an evolutionary standpoint, we're not designed to tell the truth if telling the truth interferes with reproduction. So all of those in the past who valued truth over all else generally did not reproduce, unless they valued truth later on, in which case their children's reproductive success would be lower.
[5:05] So the way that society is often corrupted is the propagandists target women, to say, this type of man is unacceptable, bad, wrong, toxic, racist, sexist, whatever, right? Whatever the, whoever the truth tellers are, are coated with this toxicity shell, and then women recoil from them. Now, women will recoil from these men, not because of their own desires necessarily, but because of a fear of criticism from their female peer group. Or, you know, you could say their male, the male peer group is never, like a young woman's male peer group, in terms of like not family related, but a young woman's male friends can never be objective about who she dates because most men befriend women because they want to sleep with them. So they're not going to be objective about.
[6:06] Who the women are dating and they'll generally put down a man. The females, if the man is of high quality, the female friends are upset that the high quality man chose her, not them. And so they will often put him down and so on. And so when you program women to reject men who are truth tellers, then men, foundational survival mechanisms kick in with men.
[6:37] So that they conform to what women want because they have a drive, as we all do, to reproduce.
[6:47] So this is the Eve Garden of Eden stuff. That because women score higher in trait agreeableness, and there has been a movement, of course, for many decades to transfer women's loyalty from men to other women. Right sisterhood of the traveling pants men come and go but sisters are forever i mean the metaphorical sort of friendship sisters there has been this this process or this goal of moving women's loyalties away from men and towards other women and that way the female hive mind can be easier propagandized and then men can more easily be brought to heel, because men will try to do what women want because there were times in human history and it's insane The numbers are insane. So I haven't obviously independently validated this, but according to stuff that I've read, there were times in human history where 17 women reproduced for every one man, right? And women are programmed that way to go for the highest alpha male. And monogamy is kind of a new thing. And monogamy is what civilization is. And if monogamy goes, which it's definitely going, situationships are harems, right? There's a lot of women clustering after the top tier or two of men.
[8:16] So, you program women to reject actual independent thinking men, and then men face a very foundational pressure to conform to what women like and want, for reasons of reproduction. And that way, men are tamed and cucked. And most men, a lot of men don't want to play that game, right? A lot of men don't want to play that game. And so they've just checked out of society. I don't want to be programmed. I don't want to be programmed and have my identity and thought stripped away by women's susceptibility to propaganda, which again, I'm not like, women's susceptibility to propaganda is why we have culture. It's why we inherit values, right? So it's not a criticism. All of these evolutionary things, the fact that we got to the top of the food chain and have this amazing brain and civilization is because of the teamwork of men and women, right? Men and women are the ultimate team when working together. But the strength of cultural transmission through women, which is a bit of a hive mind, becomes a weakness when it's no longer cultural, moral values that are transmitted, but instead what is transmitted is civilizational shredding propaganda, right?
[9:38] So, people reject, in particular men, will reject truth, reason, and evidence because deep down, they want to reproduce more than they want to be right. Because being right and not reproducing means that whatever genetic components are bound up in the court of rightness or independence go with you, right? So, hopefully that helps.
[10:04] Good morning Stef a question about your novel almost how true is Churchill's statement to von Ribbentrop Germany did start world war one well for that I would recommend I'm not going to reproduce it here of course but you can the truth about world war one is a presentation that I gave so you can go look that up at fdrpodcast.com you need a toga, haha Um, or not.
[10:37] Or not. All right. Thank you for your tip. Question. Would like to hear your thoughts on people who base their identity on their favorite sports team, the car they drive, et cetera. When I see the super fans or the Harley Davidson lifestyle guys, it just makes me cringe. Part of me feels bad for judging them. But the other part of me is like, dude, you're fat and you're not on the team, they don't give an F what you think, stop talking about the Chicago Bay Central, Ali, 24-7.
[11:10] For most groups, the price of entry is the erasure of the self. For most groups, the price of entry is the erasure of the self. And by the self, I'm simply talking like independent, rational thinking, objectivity, first principles, you know, philosophy. Most groups will only accept you to the degree that you erase yourself. So if you go to a sports team, and like, please understand, sports fanaticism is, it's not an accident. It's like, it's a consciously done thing to keep people distracted from larger issues and to get their two minutes hate on the other team and yeah my team and it's all exploitive i mean i did the show many years ago on just how much money is stolen from the taxpayer for these stupid fucking teams it's embarrassing you're literally cheering on your own enslavement because the stadiums and like it's just huge amounts of taxpayer money, So you're cheering on the people who steal from you. I mean, it's not an accident, right? It's not an accident. And in general, the more successful the ethnicity, the less interested they are in sports, right? For obvious reasons.
[12:35] So if you want to join a community, if you want a group, well, the price of the group is the erasure of your identity. With the exception of this group, right, this we few, we happy few, we all get together and we try to encourage each other to think more, to be more original, to be more authentic, to be more honest. So in this group, the prize of entry is individuality and thinking and reasoning and so on. And those who come in with massive amounts of propaganda, well, they're not particularly welcome. I mean, it's fine to have the conversation, but. And also, you know, I just wanted to buy the buy. This sort of thought struck me the other day. So by the buy, you know, there are people who float around this community in a predatory way, right? So if you publish a book on human anatomy and pain centers, then hopefully doctors who want to treat people, reduce their pain, and so on are the ones who study it. But torturers and sadists will also study it, right? Because they want to find out what the pain points of humanity are. So don't assume that everyone who's floating around here is of good intention and so on.
[13:55] And I just, I would find it just such a base act of humiliation, to beg entrance to a group by erasing what I think and feel. I just don't, I just, it would just be embarrassing. It would be super cringe. All right. Thank you for the tip Dylan. Good morning staff. Recently my dad has been working on my mom's air conditioning unit. They've been separated since I was a baby. Long story short, last week was the first time in my life my parents didn't blame anyone else for their failures as parents after reminiscing on old times. Them actually taking accountability for once feels good.
[14:43] Well, the last thing I'd want to do, I watched again, my family watched, we're going through a little bit of a watch, watch old movies my daughter loved when she was little. And so we did Toy Story, and we did Finding Nemo, not too recently. And Finding Nemo is just absolutely iconic, and it's really, really great. And good feelings gone. Good feelings gone. I used to use that sometimes when bad, something bad would happen. Oh, good feeling's gone. And so I don't want to take away any of your positive feelings, but what the living fuck does it do for you now? Well, now that my childhood is all completely gone, my parents are nicer to each other. Now that I'm a grown-ass adult with all of the velociraptor hind claw, deep nail gouges on my heart from my parents fighting like, cats and dogs throughout my entire childhood, they've achieved some minor rapprochement. They've achieved some minor, they don't, some laying down of the arms. What the hell good does it do for you now?
[16:00] So if they can get along, why didn't they get along?
[16:06] Gotta be careful of this stuff man there are a lot of people well not a lot there's some people who advocated for lockdowns and the unvaccinated should be locked inside their homes who are now like well it it is kind of true that there are significant menstrual issues but you know they're kind of temporary but right so people are admitting the truth now this is my question my question is always, what good does it do me now? What good does it do me now?
[16:44] That's an important question. Oh, and by the way, we're going to do an hour for the general public, and then we're going to do an hour for donors. Maybe an hour. Let's do 50 minutes. 50 minutes of general public, and then we'll do X amount of time, depending on questions for the donors. And if you want to join in that, obviously, somewhat more spicy donor situation, uh you can um fdrurl.com slash locals or you can go to subscribestar.com slash free domain and sign up there so yeah this was my question right well okay well what uh what good does it do me now, let's say and and honestly this has happened but let's say somebody you know contacts me and says hey man i'm really sorry you got you got deplatformed four and a half years ago or four years ago or three years ago. And I'm like, okay, and what good does it do me now?
[17:46] There's an old saying in the business world that the bank will give you CPR and a life vest only after you've already made it to shore. So when you're out there drowning, they just stare at you. But once you get to shore, they'll give you a life vest, a lifesaver, and they'll do CPR on you. And it's like, bro, I already made it to shore. I don't need your help anymore. Help is important when it's needed. Later on, what does it matter? What does it matter now?
[18:25] They blew up their entire fucking marriage when you were a baby. Trust me, I know a little bit about this one, too. So they blew up your entire marriage when you were a baby. And you grew up without the health, wealth, and protection of a two-parent household. You grew up in the environmental toxin, an environmental toxin of a one-parent household. And now that you're many many years an adult oh look they had a time where they got along oh that feels good man bullshit it feels good, why not do it when it mattered.
[19:12] Why not do it when it mattered guy dying of lung cancer I quit smoking. I guess that's good. Ish. Fine. Whatever. But this is why, like, don't let things set. Don't let things rot. Don't let things go off. Don't wait. Don't wait. Don't wait. If you got something to say, say it. Don't wait. You got an apology to make? Apologize. Don't wait. Don't put it off. You got a reconciliation that you want to pursue? Do it. Absolutely do it. What is the point for people saying now, oh, you know, the lockdowns went too far. The fuck is the point? It's all gone. It's all done. If you don't help me when it matters, I don't care what you say afterwards. If you don't help me when it matters I don't care what you say afterwards.
[20:26] And once you become an adult once you become an adult it's too late for your parents to fix themselves, once you become an adult it's too late for your parents to fix themselves right? can you imagine? Your mom coming up to you when you're 30 and saying, and she's saying, you know what? I just took a bunch of hormones. I'm lactating. I'm going to breastfeed you. Sorry about your circumcision. Sorry about all the stress. I'm so sorry for smoking like a chimney when you were in my womb.
[21:03] I was always common sense this way. When I was six years old in boarding school, I wrote to my father, Dear Tom. And, of course, my mail was read before it was sent because, you know, you got to propagandize about how great the school is. Hey, I didn't get beaten today. I'm thrilled. So, he's like, No, he's your father. He's like, Not in Africa, he's not. No, that's your father. No and i refer i remember referring to him throughout my childhood as my ex-father and people will be like what do you mean he's your ex-father he's still your father i'm like not in africa he's not he's my mother's ex-husband and he's my ex-father, because he doesn't father doesn't parent he gave me absolutely zero advice on how to live.
[22:04] Can you imagine your father, when you're 40 years old, sitting you down and saying, Well, son, I'm going to teach you how to spell cat. Here, I know you're 40 and a gymnast, but, oh, you were a gymnast, but here, I'm going to hold your hands while you learn how to walk. It's like, did that shit already, Dad? Already know how to walk.
[22:31] You missed the bus you missed the boat you missed it all i don't get this later thing, i don't get this later thing well my parents separated when i was a baby fought like cats and danced throughout my childhood but one day they had a nice day, what good does it do you now i'm sorry i don't mean to laugh but seriously what what possible good does it do you now?
[23:09] Well, son, I know you're 50, and I know I'm 75 or 80, but here's the thing. I bought you some diapers, and the next time you want to have a crap, if you could crap your pants, and then I could wipe your ass and put you in the Depends, that would be excellent. It's like, i'm 50 i don't need diapers get away from me you creep, you grok it you see what i'm i'm talking about, yeah oh i'm seeing the questions from everywhere.
[23:54] Nuko on Rumble says the German intelligence service now admitted to reporting the lab leak theory to the government who covered it up. Anyone who pervaded that theory was labeled fake news and banned from the media. Yeah, I mean, I did a case against China, right? Of course it was. Of course it was a lab leak. Jesus Christ. Sorry, don't mean to say that on a Sunday morning in particular, my apologies. Holy heck. Holy heck, right? Now, people say, well, what does it matter? What does it matter where it came from? Well, it kind of matters, frankly. Why does it matter? Let's make this a conversation, right? Why does it matter where COVID originated? Real question, real cue. And why? Why you do that?
[25:02] All right. Will the donor section involve shirtlessness? Honestly, if the donor section wants me to be shirtless, I will chew my own shirt off from right up here. Absolutely. Yeah, that's right. Well, I know you've been married for 20 years, son, but I'm going to tell you where babies come from. Oh, my gosh.
[25:33] All right, so People's Hidden Dragon says, exposes media lies. Good to know who was responsible for it. I do not agree. That doesn't mean you're wrong. Then we doubt the government telling us to vax and lock down if another government caused this. Because there will never be restitution or even accountability. They'll pretend it never happened. Yeah. Can't form a narrative. People know the truth. No. No. No, that's not why.
[26:07] It gives an accurate view of what actually happened in 2010 to 2022 nope.
[26:22] So, of course, as usual, I'm not a doctor, I'm not an expert, this is just my amateur foolish opinions, but nonetheless, I will tell you why this melonhead thinks that it's somewhat important to know if it came from a lab leak at the time. Because, in general, the theory of transmission is, oh no, there's a virus that seems to have a vague foothold on infecting humans. It's vague, it's weird, it's, you know, it's not good. And so we're going to limit human contact. Why? So that it doesn't learn how to get better at infecting humans.
[27:09] Right that's the purpose we don't want it to get better at infecting humans, because it starts off with just like this vague maybe hooking in here and there right we want to limit because the more it scales to humans and the better it then the better it's going to get at infecting humans. So we want to have lockdowns and we want to have isolation and stay in your homes. And while the six foot distancing just came from some high school kids science quote project, right? So the whole theory or rationality behind these things was, oh my gosh, this thing jumped from nature. Some weird mutation made it vaguely able to infect human beings. So so that it doesn't get better at infecting human beings. However, however, of course, if COVID was created in a lab specifically to infect human beings, then lockdowns, social distancing, stay at home, none of that means a goddamn thing. Because it's already optimized to spread.
[28:25] Does that make sense? It's already optimized to spread, so it doesn't matter. It's not going to get better at what it was designed to do. For any cleavage site and all that kind of stuff.
[28:42] And of course, when people were freaking out about COVID, if they had found the lab leak, well, it might have led back to the funding. And the funding was a little dicey, to put it mildly, right? So that's why they couldn't talk about the lab leak at the time, because if they'd said no it's designed to spread to humans so we're just gonna have to live with it because it's not gonna get better at that which it was already designed to do again just my amateur, foolish opinion. Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate your support. More than words.
[29:32] All right. So let's get to your comments.
[29:49] Off topic. Oh, leprechaun thing. Yeah. All right. Somebody from local says, you've had some very helpful advice slash insights on sibling relationships. A lot of my cousins and I have children, and I can clearly see how the issues that our parents had from our grandparents that negatively affected my siblings and my cousins. The sticking point is that my cousins are open to improving their parenting of their kids, but just accept how their parents are because they're too old to change. All of my aunts' uncles are 75 plus, so this still makes family gatherings uncomfortable.
[30:40] I'm not sure what your question is. I mean, that's a comment. So, the issues that our parents had from our grandparents. That's some bullshit language, my friend. I say this with all love, affection, and respect, but that's some serious bullshit language.
[31:02] Are you saying it's just dominoes like come on man you've been around this conversation long enough to know that's not going to get past this particular putt grabbing goalie are you saying well our parents had these dysfunctions from their parents now we don't have any choice about our genetics but we certainly have choices about our morals right.
[31:39] Is it a domino theory well my parents don't really have any free will they just inherited all of their traumas from their parents and i can try my best to blah blah blah, what is what is the magic line i mean somebody explain this to me i mean in all seriousness and in all humility, explain this magic line where some people are responsible for what they say and do, and other people are not responsible for what they say and do. Just help me understand this. Why do some people get responsibilities and some people get excuses? I would like to know.
[32:20] If you don't change, if you refuse to change, if you avoid changing, and if you reenact your traumas on your children without empathy or improvement, you get forgiven. But if you strive to improve, you get this massive crushing weight of responsibility, higher standards and expectations, and now you're morally responsible. So the people who don't try to change are not responsible, and the people who try to change are held to a higher standard. Talk about rewarding people for doing wrong and punishing people for doing good. What the ever-living hell are you talking about? Help me understand. If I refuse to change, then I just get forgiveness and I'm too old to change and it's a domino theory and I had no free will. But if I develop some self-awareness, some higher standards, observing ego third eye whatever you want to call it read books go to therapy spend all this money deal with all this stuff go through all this destabilization of working to change and improve well clearly you're morally responsible you're held to a higher standard you better not do bad because you're trying to do good where the people who don't even try to do good get all this forgiveness good lord it's like the only people you throw in jail are the people who quit being criminals and all the criminals get get out of jail free cards from here to eternity.
[33:42] Ah, but they don't have any choice, you see. How do you know? How the hell do you know? Whether people had it, you can't read people's minds, you can't read people's secret hearts, and child abusers won't tell you the truth about anything. How do you know? They couldn't have done better. You don't know that.
[34:01] I default to the free will position unless there's medical evidence of significant brain damage or dysfunction.
[34:13] You default to the free will position. And this is validated and proven with abusive parents. You've heard me ask this about a zillion times of call-in partners. Oh, my father had such a temper. He would just beat us. He had a real volatile temper. He just lost his shit, right? Really? Okay. Did he ever do that at a mall? Ever do that in front of a cop? Ever do that when there was a security guard around? Did he ever do it at church? Did he ever do it when he was dropping you off at school? Did he ever do it at a parent-teacher car? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. He never did that. Well, then don't tell me there was some demonic, epileptic possession of his temper. He couldn't control his temper. He could perfectly control his temper.
[35:00] Why do people keep trying this stuff with me? It's a little wearying. Oh, a tiny bit tiresome. Honestly, why? Why do you try this stuff with me? The issues that our parents had from our grandparents that negatively affected the choices they made. The choices they made. No, no, but you see, they didn't have that kind of choice. They were too traumatized. They this, that... You don't know that. What you do know is that all of the supposedly uncontrollable temper was always perfectly controlled, when you were in public. Yes, indeedy. They were always Perfectly in control of their temper. You know, if someone's got Tourette's, they'll do Tourette's in front of a police officer. They'll do Tourette's at an airport. They'll like.
[35:56] But everyone who's had, almost everyone who's had an abusive parent, has seen that. Flippo switcheroo. Phone rings. Hi. Hi, how's it going? Oh, so nice to hear from you. I was just thinking about... Ah! Boom, boom, boom. Door knocks. Oh, hi. Oh, I've been looking forward to this packet. Thank you so much. Click. Right? Don't give me this domino shit, man. And stop rewarding people who've refused to change. Stop it. Just stop it. Well, they're too old. They lack the capacity. You don't know that. Don't make these bizarre claims for facts, not only not in evidence, but contradicted by all the empiricism of them perfectly controlling their tempers when in public. I'm telling you, man, just stop this shit. Or at least don't bring it to my attention.
[37:06] Sorry, 500 character limit. Yes, our parents def had responsibility. Question. Don't give me this. Now you're making yourself excuses. Oh, my God. Stop it, man. You see, when you defend manipulators, you become manipulative. That's how it spreads. When you defend manipulators, you become manipulative, right? A lot of my cousins and I have children, and I can clearly see how the issues that our parents had from our grandparents that negatively affect my siblings and my cousins.
[37:45] It doesn't take, it actually would take the bad choices my parents made, is actually fewer characters. Don't give me this 500 character, like, don't insult my intelligence, bro. Don't give me this 500 character bullshit when it takes less and fewer characters, to be honest. I don't mind that you had an illusion here and a bad habit, but when you start insulting my intelligence, we're not going to be on super friendly terms. Don't give me these absolutely pathetic lies. Seriously. Oh, no. The reason that I gave my parents and grandparents excuses and said that it was a domino thing is because of the 500-carat limit. No, that's not true at all.
[38:26] Just be honest. Yeah, I kind of fell into an old bad habit of thinking. Sorry about that. Hey, no problem. It's so, it's so, yeah, I don't know why. Why do people not do this? Why do people not do this when they they pull a manipulation and it happens i do it you do it every year you pull a manipulation some bad habits you're talking about core family issues so you pull a manipulation and then say well yeah you're right sorry about that um yes they are fine but don't say oh no it's a 500 character limit and that's why i had to, say that, right? Don't, please. Just don't. Just don't. Don't. And to me, like of all people, like I've got this truth radar of the gods, right? All right. So he says, sorry, 500 territory limit. Yes, our parents deaf have responsibility. Question. How to navigate making progress, helping my cousins with their kids while not applying those same principles to their parental relationships. How to navigate making progress helping my cousins with their kids while not applying those same principles to their parental relationships.
[39:37] So, one of the things that you want to do as a whole in life, when you're asking a question, is, are you asking for the impossible? This is sort of a fundamental question, are you asking for the impossible? So, you're saying, how do I transfer universal principles without applying them to university? You can't do it. How do I transfer or inculcate or encourage universal principles without applying them universally.
[40:14] How do I have a scientific theory that explains the roots of gravity but excludes the moon and the earth? Well, if it's a universal theory, it's going to encompass the moon and the earth. So how do I get people to be moral, which is universal? How do I get people to follow universal moral principles while carving out massive sections of their personal relationships. Spoiler! You can't! What are you doing to me? I really want to transfer universal moral principles to my cousins and their kids, while specifically excluding their own parental relationships from these universal principles. You can't! And you can waste a lot of time if you want, and you can appear to be a rank hypocrite if you want, because you will be. And look, again, I'm not a perfect person. I have my hypocrisies and so on. So I'm not saying this with any sense of superiority, but I sure wish people told me this shit when I was younger. You can't. How do I tell my cousins that parental moral responsibility is universal and absolute, but doesn't apply to their own parents? I'm sorry, but you see how funny this is? It's tragic comic, but it's funny.
[41:36] You can't! You can't. And you can either have it implicit, or you can have it explicit.
[41:48] This, uh, these contradictions, this hypocrisy, right?
[42:07] Someone says, parents, mid-rant at me, phone rings, all civil and polite, and the call ends, rant and abuse start up again. Yep, sure. They have control. My parents were jerks. They could not help being awful because they did not want to change. What? They could not help being awful because they did not want to change. I don't understand that. That's a real Gordian nut. All right. You are welcome for the help. Thank you, Nick. My name is Nick. What does that mean? I don't know, just something my father thought of while he was shaving. Ah.
[43:12] All right. While I wait for your next question, I want to talk about the wealthy. I want to talk about the wealthy.
[43:34] I'm not talking about any particular wealth. I'll get to your question after, but I just gave you one. So i will tell you something interesting about the wealthy so, when you continually exploit and trash talk people it's kind of a weird thing people will continually exploit and trash talk people and then they're shocked when it bounces back in any way shape, or form. Now, it's important to look at the world through the eyes of a billionaire. I know this sounds a bit odd, but, you know, be patient with me for a sec. So, it's important to talk about, or to look at the society through the eyes of a billionaire. So, what a billionaire, and could be super rich or whatever, right, but what a billionaire sees as a whole, is a billionaire sees a whole bunch of greedy, dysfunctional people constantly demanding that society.
[44:47] Steal from the billionaires in order to fund their own often retarded lifestyles. From the point of view of a billionaire who's probably a genius, right? What do they see? Well, they're constantly getting blamed. They're constantly getting attacked. And society and the people as a whole, particularly in democracies, society is constantly hating on them and wanting to take away their property and their rights and their savings.
[45:24] Now, I myself, probably because I got into Austrian economics in my mid-teens, cool guy that I was, I was always grateful that there were restaurants I could work with, that there were newspapers I could deliver, there were bookstores I could work in, there were hardware stores I could work in, that people made messes so I could go into the offices and clean them up at night. I was always grateful for that stuff. I wasn't creating my own jobs when I was 11, I went to work in a bookstore putting the New York Times together on Sundays and other various tasks in the bookstore, I was grateful thank goodness somebody built a restaurant because me carrying food around in the desert won't make me any money at all I was always very happy that there were businesses and, you know, I was happy that people had started stuff up and made the sacrifices and so on. So rather than saying to the billionaires, wow, thank you guys so much for creating all these jobs, all these businesses, all these companies, giving me a place to work because I can't create that myself. Instead of there being any gratitude, they're like, oh, the rich are predatory assholes and we should tax them for everything they're worth.
[46:41] So, I mean, to me, it's kind of funny that you can just continually attack and insult people without ever imagining what that's going to do to your relationship with them. What's that going to do? How are the billionaires, who by the by have a lot more influence than the average person, including you and me, how are the billionaires going to feel about a society that blames them for everything and wants to pray on them for all of their success? Never give them a moment's thanks. I mean, this is what Elon Musk, I'm not including him in this at all, right? I'm just saying that Elon Musk was saying that he paid the most taxes of any human being in history, didn't even get a thank you note, right? Instead, everybody's just attacking and brutalizing him.
[47:29] Because people only ever think, do I like billionaires or am I resentful and want to tax them and control them and take away their property and steal from their inheritance they want to give to their kids and just hate on them and so on, right? You know, the idea that you can just hate on, billionaires or the wealthy forever and ever are men, and the billionaires are never going to have any incentives or thoughts or motives of their own in response to that is a wild thought to me. And it's part of sort of the narcissism of those who are less successful. I mean, you become, again, free market stuff, I get that there's exceptions, but you become a billionaire because you have empathy to what the market wants and needs, right? And you are helping to provide what the market wants and needs.
[48:24] My wife surprised me with a test drive of a Tesla. Not that I'm buying a Tesla, obviously, right? But I was talking about how I thought the sort of self-driving stuff was incredibly cool. My wife surprised me with a test drive of a Tesla, which was a lot of fun. And it blew my mind. It absolutely blew my mind how good that car is. I mean i'm driving an eight-year-old second-hand car so it's not exactly like i can trade that in for anything useful but it was absolutely incredible absolutely incredible whisper quiet self-driving went everywhere did everything did everything right even in the rain unbelievable absolutely, staggeringly incredible technology, beyond belief beyond belief.
[49:29] Halliburton didn't get rich providing society with things they wanted so you don't listen right I said I'm talking about free market stuff, yeah i'm talking about free market stuff you must listen if you don't listen no one's going to want to talk to you my friend one of the key points about being a good day and one of the key points of being in a relationship is to listen so when i specifically say i'm talking about free market stuff and you bring up the military industrial complex you're not listening halberton is not at all free market for the most part, right? So, do they rely on government power and do they get funded from taxation? You know, those are some basic hints. Like, if you want to start talking about the free market, you need to have a definition of the free market, which means not fundamentally dependent upon government power and fundamentally funded by involuntary tax dollars.
[50:41] Oh boy oh boy he's wild man, it's exhausting and i'm not going to engage with this guy right honestly it's exhausting when you put your caveats in and people are like well what if you come in you don't even know you don't even understand the free market man all wealthy people are warmongers it's like no they're not. So the modern idea that billionaires are somehow better people because they're billionaires is very dumb. Well, let me ask you this. Are they better at making money than you? Again, talking about free market. So billionaires become billionaires because they satisfy a need in the free market. If they're in the free market or primarily, not everyone is in the free market, right? I mean, we're transmitting this on government developed TCP IP protocols. So whatever, right? But billionaires are better at making money than you and me. Can we at least go with that? Hey, you know who's a better basketball player than I am? Larry Bird. It's a better basketball player. Freddie Mercury is a better singer. Brad Pitt has better hair than I do.
[52:03] So, yeah, they're better at making money than you and me. Does that mean they're better people? Well, you haven't qualified anything. Wrong. They're billionaires because they make every decision based on money. Right? So, tell me how I know you've never run a business. You've never run a business, I don't care to listen to people, but no, I've run businesses. I've been an entrepreneur for like, gosh, 30 years, more over 30 years, I've been an entrepreneur. So, if you never run a business, I really don't care what you have to say about this stuff, you're just a reactionary ideologue who's got no experience in the field. If you run a business, you have to please your customers. You have to have empathy for what they need and what they want. So when I was running a software business, I was the chief technical officer. I had to figure out what the customers wanted. So I had to go and talk to them and ask them and understand their business and understand how our software served that need, served that business. And I had to build at a relatively cost-efficient way in a relatively cost-efficient manner. I had to build what customers wanted so that they would be willing to part with their hard earned money voluntarily to me.
[53:16] So, you've just never run a business. Every decision is based on money. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything. How do you get the money from people? You have to provide what they want, which is why I do a lot of live streams and some solo shows. I do the live streams because I get a sense of what questions people have and how I can help them and where the thoughts are in people. Also, if you run a business, freedomain.com slash donate to help out. But yeah, if you run a business, you have to serve people's needs, right? You have to serve people's needs. And to do that, you have to ask them questions and provide value, right? So they don't just get money because they think about money lots of people think about money they don't become billionaires right so you just you should not talk about things that you have neither practical nor even theoretical understanding of right.
[54:36] There's a word for business owners who ignore customers. Bankrupt. Yeah. Yeah. So, the important thing is you have to know how you look to people who know what they're talking about.
[54:58] I've spent far more time working as an entrepreneur than I ever did working for people. So it's just important. And obviously, I'm no business genius, blah, blah, blah, right? But I've certainly walked the walk for 30 plus years, right? So if you have no experience and you're talking to someone with over 40 years experience in philosophy and over 30 years experience as an entrepreneur, you might want to hold your tongue and listen and learn. It's just a possibility. It's just a possibility. Like if I was new on a movie set.
[55:36] And Marlon Brando was there and was willing to give me advice on how to be a good actor in movies, I would listen. There's a story that Tom Cruise says about Paul Newman. They were in a movie called The Color of Money. And they shot in Chicago in the winter and Tom Cruise was freezing to death and Paul Newman showed up in a big old coat and all of that. And he's like, yeah, you did your wardrobe without asking where you were going to be filming and when, right? So it's a rookie mistake, kid. And he learned all about that, right? So I have over 40 years experience in philosophy. I have over 30 years experience as an entrepreneur. So when I'm talking about what it takes and means to build a good company, you might want to.
[56:29] You might want to listen. You might. Saying a rich guy is good at getting money is like saying the murderer is good at killing money. Yes, that's right. Yes, that's right. A guy who opens a fro-yo shop that has really good frozen yogurt is exactly the same as a serial killer. Oh, my God. I assume you played a lot of hockey when you were young. Sure. Like taking investing advice from a guy who's constantly begging for donations. Yes. Asking is begging. Absolutely. Absolutely. Asking is just begging.
[57:20] That's very funny. That's very funny. uh you know vanity uh vanity is one of the worst things really honestly, vanity is one of the worst things when you think you know something so when you think about enough of that phone troll and i appreciate that i really do it gives me uh some giggles um and we'll go to downer in just a sec but the one thing that's very funny to me or really interesting is you ask people to think, okay, so if you've, you know, worked your 80 hours a week for many, many, many years, and you've built up these big companies that hire thousands or tens of thousands of people, but when all you see is people raging at you and they're attacking you and they're, you know, throwing paint on your products or whatever it is, and they're demanding that you get taxed more and so on. The problem is, do the billionaires like the people? Of course, I can't speak for billionaires and whether they do or don't like the people, but I could tell you that if I were in their shoes, I might be building bunkers and not working to fix things.
[58:38] Because when you attack, insult, and degrade those people who have significant power, they will, sooner or later, stop using that power in your defense. And they will become indifferent to your suffering.
[58:54] I mean, we can see this in a lot of ways with the sort of doge cats, and people crying, oh, but I'm getting fired, and now I have to get... Child care for my child and all these terrible things are happening. And people are like, well, first of all, you're a government worker, which means you've kind of been hanging off my paycheck for the last couple of decades. And secondly, you all seem pretty thrilled and keen to have society shut down for the sake of a vax, right? I mean, it's the people that I, if I ever have debates with people, it's kind of rare now about socialized medicine. And they say medicine is a human right. I'm like, well, but they shut down massive swaths of medicine for a year or two over the course of the pandemic. Did you protest that? Nope.
[59:45] All right. So let us, oh, why would the billionaires like us? Most vote for government to take what they earned. Yeah. Do the billionaires like you? So it's kind of like you can have every villain for the past 30 years has been Russian, Russian, right? I mean, so you can villainize the Russians, and all that happens is that the Russians don't particularly like or care about the West anymore and won't really listen to you. Like, be careful who you insult. Insults have blowbacks. Attacks have blowbacks. And very competent, brilliant people who hire millions of people around the world, like a cluster of the super rich. If society just wants to prey on them and tear them down and pull them down and tax them and control them and bully them and threaten their employees and torch their products and so on, like at some point, the billionaires are going to be like, I really don't care what happens to you all anymore. Like, I just don't. I just don't.
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