0:00 - The Nature of Rational Voting
5:31 - The Impact of Childhood Discipline
14:11 - The Illusion of Virtue
This lecture explores the complex interplay between personal beliefs, societal pressures, and the motivations behind political support, using the example of why some individuals rationalize their support for figures like Kamala Harris. It begins by addressing a fundamental psychological dynamic wherein people often seek validation in their beliefs to affirm their self-image as good or virtuous. This pattern has deep roots in both advertising techniques and historical social influences, where adherence to popular or socially acceptable opinions is equated with moral superiority.
The discussion highlights a cultural phenomenon where people conform to prevailing narratives to avoid social ostracization. Historical examples demonstrate how societies have consistently elevated certain beliefs to moral high ground, coercing individuals into aligning their opinions with what is deemed "acceptable." The speaker elucidates this through various analogies, including marketing strategies that exploit desires for beauty and status, illustrating how individuals are manipulated into conformity under the guise of societal norms.
As the lecture progresses, it critiques the prevailing notion of morality as dictated by social consensus rather than objective evaluation of facts and truth. The speaker argues that many political choices are not rooted in genuine assessment, as individuals often prioritize their social standing and fear of backlash over the merits of the policies themselves. This creates a psychological conflict where individuals mask their self-interests with proclamations of virtue, obscuring the fact that many political decisions are heavily influenced by external pressures.
A key point raised is the paradoxical relationship between truth-seeking and social acceptance. The speaker articulates that the pursuit of truth, which often involves uncomfortable conversations and self-reflection, is frequently met with resistance from individuals who have internalized external judgments as a form of self-discipline. This results in a defensive posture against those who challenge popular opinions, as people conflate the truth with punitive authority figures from their past.
Throughout the lecture, the analogy of bribery and punishment is employed to express how societal compliance is not merely a moral choice but often a survival strategy. The discussion connects this metaphor to the way individuals navigate their professional and social landscapes, where making unpopular statements can jeopardize their livelihoods. By framing their compliance as a moral or virtuous choice, individuals avoid confronting uncomfortable truths about their motivations and the nature of their societal interactions.
In conclusion, the lecture posits that the reluctance to embrace uncomfortable truths about political endorsements stems from a deep-seated need for self-preservation and social validation. By understanding the mechanisms of external influence and self-deception, individuals can begin to disentangle their true beliefs from the pressures of societal conformity. The speaker emphasizes the necessity for honesty in evaluating one’s beliefs and the importance of prioritizing long-term truths over short-term social gains, thus advocating for a deeper introspection about the motivations behind political support.
[0:00] Question from Facebook.com, why are there still rational people who will vote for Kamala Harris? Well, it's not a question of reason, it's a question of self-praise. It is the oldest trick in the book. It, of course, comes straight out of advertising to some degree. It comes out of certain kinds of religious approaches and so on, which is, only good people believe in X, only bad people believe in Y. Well, you want to be a good person, don't you? You don't want to be a bad person, so you better not believe in Y, you better believe in X. Otherwise, you're bad, and people won't like you, and you'll be attacked and rejected, and you will suffer, right? Right. So this is we see this happening all over the place, all throughout history with examples that are too numerous to even really go through.
[0:58] So sexy men use this soap. Attractive women use this eyeliner. And you don't want to be unattractive. You want to be attractive, don't you?
[1:09] Guys with abs drink a lot of beer, right? I mean, it's all this. This dress looks fantastic on this genetic abnormal woman. This one in 10,000 women with the correct body fat and a high metabolism. This dress looks great on her. You want to look like this woman. So wear this dress. I mean, it is all, you know, when I have to go every couple of years to get my new prescription for glasses. Glasses. These people look fantastic with these glasses on because they're really good looking people. You want to be good looking. So clearly you need to wear these glasses. I mean, it's all just so, so ridiculous. Like when I get my boxers, right? I'm a boxer kind of guy, right? I get these boxes. says, this guy has a perfect torso. He's wearing these underpants. If you want a perfect torso, clearly you need to read these underpants. Like it's all just so ridiculous for words. This woman looks fantastic. Her face and bone structure are magnificent. So she can wear any goofy ass haircut she wants to because she's still going to look fantastic. However, if you don't look like this woman. You're just going to look like a plain woman with a goofy ass haircut. Like it's all just so, so boring, right? Only good people believe this. And therefore you need to believe this.
[2:36] And what, what is really being said is we control who people hate. You don't want us to call you someone that people should hate. Do you?
[2:46] That's very, very common, right? The mob will We'll attack anyone we point at. Do you feel like agreeing with the mob? Do you? Well, do you, punk? Do you feel lucky? Or do you want to go against the mob that we can point at you and have them attack you?
[3:05] You know, it's like agreeing with some guy who's got a pack of well-trained or badly trained pit bulls around, you know. These pit bulls will attack anyone I point at. Do you feel like approving of pit bulls or not? I mean, it's all nonsense, right? I mean, and socially, it is, I like you if you agree with me, right? Which is not liking the person. One of the things, if you become any kind of prominent person or public person, there was another question off Facebook, which is, why did I used to dislike you? People don't like or dislike me. I mean, personally. I mean, I may have some sort of charisma or whatever it is, but certainly the people who dislike me don't dislike me. I mean, I'm absolutely certain in my perspective, and it's more than just an opinion. I have people who love me to death, who I love to death in life. So when I say, like, I'm a really likable person, I want what's best for the world, I really care about things in the world, and I care about human happiness. Like, I care about people doing well. I care about the truth. And I know that without the truth, you can't have happiness or love.
[4:15] So I want the truth so that people can be happy. And so, you know, I mean, I know all of this about myself in a sort of very foundational way, right? I know all of this about myself. And so many people are like, he's a hateful, bad, you know, it's like, I mean, it's just not true, right? Right. So when people can't disprove you, they just get people to hate you. Now, again, it's not me. You know, people in the machinery, they don't care about me. You know, nobody says, hey, man, how are you feeling today? Are you overdue for your dental checkup? People don't care, right? They don't care about me, but they sure know that the truth goes against their short-term interests, right? The truth goes against their short-term interests. And so they hate that, right? They hate that the truth is going to ask them to grow up and put long-term happiness ahead of short-term happiness.
[5:16] Or, right, that you probably don't want to get diabetes, so maybe don't eat too much cheesecake, right? So you have to say no to yourself now, so you can say yes to a life that's not diabetic, you know, years down the road.
[5:32] And this is because people are punished and things are grabbed from them and then they as an act of defiance right so if you're a kid and your parents just you know punish you for eating sugar or fat or you know just get mad at you and and call you lazy and greedy like you just get this whole twisted relationship with self-discipline like external discipline breeds rebellion against self-discipline right because if you're punished for wanting to eat sugar when you're younger you can be punished and insulted right you're abused and punished and insulted for wanting to eat sugar or eating sugar when you're younger then eating sugar becomes an act of rebellion like it's it's also clockwork predictable right so people are just rebelling against the rules that are imposed upon them and they become defiant and that's the inevitable result of people imposing rules on them. So then when I say to people, you should pursue the truth even though it's uncomfortable.
[6:40] Then they respond to me as if I'm a a-hole abuser who is imposing arbitrary rules upon them and punishing them, right? So people, they don't hate me, they hate the abusers, they don't hate the truth, they hate the control mechanisms they were subjected to. So when I say to people, you should sacrifice short-term happiness for the sake of long-term happiness, which is really the story of virtue, then they react to me like I'm, you know, jerkwad teachers saying you have to study because you got to get into university, you got to sacrifice, you got to do all this homework now, you'll be happier later, and you'll be better later, right? So it really doesn't have anything to do with me. They're just reacting to, you know, if I'm sort of stern or whatever it is, then people just react to all the stern people who just, you know, push them around and yelled yelled at them and punished them and threatened them when they were kids. So it doesn't really have anything to do with me at all.
[7:39] So the reason that people praise, I don't know, it doesn't have to be Kamala Harris, it can really be anyone, but the reason that people do all of that, it has nothing to do with an objective evaluation of her policies or her history or her intelligence or her compassion or her virtue or her integrity. Like, they haven't started from a blank slate and said, okay, well, of these two candidates or these two ideologies or these two philosophies, which one is objectively more virtuous? They don't stop at that. They don't. What they do is they say, will people be mad at me if I say I think Trump would be better than Kamala or whatever? And, you know, there'll be people who will get mad at you if you say that. There'll be people who get mad at you if you say the opposite. it. But, you know, this is an old meme that said most people don't make decisions based upon facts, reason, and evidence. They base their decisions upon safety and greed.
[8:37] I remember some years ago talking to a very successful professional and his wife, and they had all of the ease of like super upper middle class complacency. And, you know, they were certain that they were, you know, the good people and the right people. And, you know, they had kids and the kids were all doing well. And, you know, they had all of this, you know, boomer, smug satisfaction that they were the best people in the known universe in a way. And all of that like man all of that gets threatened if you say like one one if you say one wrong thing in professional circles you're marked and people forget the tenuousness of their success so the tenuousness of their success is you put one foot wrong and you just don't get hired you just don't get paid people will shun you oh can you believe he said this about this and You just say one thing wrong. And so people's income and status and comfort are dependent upon not speaking the truth, but saying things that don't upset others, toeing the line.
[9:44] People are bribed for compliance all the, all the, all the, all the, all the, all the time. People are bribed for compliance all the time. Threatened, right? You will have an upper middle class lifestyle if you say and do X, Y, and Z. If you do A, B, or C, you will be thrown out. What is it they say? Today's headlines and tomorrow's fish wrapping, right? I mean, I mean, this is before the internet, right? So people are bribed and threatened in compliance, into compliance all the time. Now, they don't like that. They don't like to feel that way. They don't like to feel that they like politician X over politician Y because they're bribed and threatened, that they're slaves to the opinions of others and to their own material greed. Everybody likes to think of themselves as a moral hero, right? Look at me, singular to plural to singular in one sentence. so everyone likes to think not that well if i say something that other people don't like i'm gonna lose my 200th hour a year i mean i understand that concern i understand that worry, i mean it's happened right i mean in terms of not the 200th hour a year but you know just in terms of the drop in income right so i i know all of that and we've seen it happen repeatedly that if If you say things that people don't like, then you are attacked and you are ostracized and you are deplatformed and you are whatever, right?
[11:11] So people don't like to say that their view of themselves as moral entities is false, that they are simply trying to survive in a base animal way and they're trying to flourish in a base animal way. I mean, in this way, the animals are more honest than us, right? The animal, like the zebra, is pursuing grass and avoiding lions. And it knows that. Well, I'm frightened of the lion, so I'm going to run away from it. I like the grass, so I'm going to eat it. Zebra's not lying to itself and saying, well, I just find the grass morally uplifting and virtuous, and I find the lion to be bigoted and anti-stripist. They're just like, well, the lion is dangerous, and I like the taste of grass. So I run away from the lion, and I run towards the grass. But people, they can't do that, it seems. And this is the big weakness of humanity, and strength when it's put in the right way. But the big weakness of humanity is that people don't, they simply can't accept that. No, they just can't accept that. They have to say that they're in pursuit of virtue and running away from vice, that they are promoting virtue and opposing vice, right? That's all they can stand doing. That's all they can say to do. And and that's you know we have to have a moral story for ourselves wherein we are the heroes.
[12:41] And it's it's it's very sad but people just can't be honest with themselves and say well i really haven't evaluated anything other than that which enhances or threatens my own material, flourishing right that i i can't say well look i'm just i'm just following you know bribe bribes and and and threats i'm just i'm just navigating bribes and threats no no they have to say well well, no, you see, I'm surrounded by all these virtuous people and my moral choice is virtuous and I'm a super good entity in the universe. And they can't just say, well, I don't want to lose my income and I don't want people to get mad at me. They just can't say that. You know, when I was in Hong Kong, I mean, when it was just a matter of, I don't know, tear gas or whatever, it's like, yeah, okay, I can do that. But when, you know, they come down with the half tanks, it's like, Like, okay, well, that's, I'm not doing that, right? So I wasn't like, well, I find the tanks immoral and I can't, it's like, no, they're just, that's like, that's bad, right? That's dangerous, right? So, and it's a danger level that I'm not willing to accept. So I'm just, you know, I'm trying to be pretty honest with myself about things.
[13:49] And most people won't be. So, yeah, they're just, they're just following bribes and threats. They're just bribes and threats. They're trained the way that you train a puppy, bribes and threats, right? Kibble if you're good. Rolled up newspaper if you're bad, right? That's how a lot of people used to train dogs. I don't think it's the case anymore. But yeah, so you're not dealing with, you're just dealing with people who are lying to themselves. And because they're lying to themselves, the bribes and threats remain hidden under a cloak of virtue.
[14:11] And thus, nothing can ever really change for the better. So yeah, sad, but true. But I hope that that makes some sense. And thanks for a great question.
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