0:06 - Welcome to Your Friday Night Live
9:06 - The Nature of Reality
12:47 - Thinking with Your Balls
21:11 - Media and the Final Screen
45:57 - The Cost of Lies
52:15 - The Heroine's Journey
58:16 - The Nature of Religiosity
1:06:59 - Relationships and Ideological Conflicts
1:15:23 - Closing Thoughts and Thank You
In this episode of "Friday Night Live," host Stefan Molyneux offers a wide-ranging discussion that begins on a light note with shout-outs to his audience who follow him on platforms like Rumble and Locals. With a mix of humor and introspection, he dives into personal anecdotes, sharing a recent nostalgic experience at a farmer's market, where he indulged in his love for sourdough bread. This opening serves to set a casual tone while giving way to deeper, philosophical musings about reality and perception.
Stefan introduces an existential contemplation, examining the nature of consciousness and self-identity. He provocatively challenges listeners to consider the disconnect between the mind and reality, illustrating this with metaphors of screens and simulations. He describes the brain as a “blind, deaf, dumb” organ reliant solely on conscious sensory interpretation, framing an alarming notion that individuals may never truly experience reality as it is, instead only existing within their cerebral narratives. This profound observation about the subjective experience of reality leads him into more complex issues of perception and the nature of existence.
As the discussion transitions, Molyneux tackles contemporary political discourse surrounding the upcoming U.S. election, noting the "cavalcade of pathological falsehoods" emanating from mainstream media. He examines the dichotomy present among politicians, specifically contrasting Trump’s statements about war with media interpretations that are often misleading. He explores the theme of reality versus perception further by analyzing how citizens may accept media portrayals as their “final screen,” where they lose the ability to discern truth from falsehood, leading to cognitive dissonance when confronted with opposing perspectives.
The dialogue then moves into a discussion of social dynamics, particularly touching upon the ambiguous nature of personal relationships and the influence of public opinion on individual truth and experiences. Molyneux explains the difficulties faced in attempting to communicate truth to others who may have built their identities around shared delusions, underscoring an important point about the repercussions of challenging someone’s established beliefs. He posits that such confrontations are often perceived as personal attacks on one’s sanity or sense of reality, engendering defensiveness and aggression.
Delving deeper, he articulates the concept of "final screens" — the idea that individuals substitute external opinions or propaganda for their lived experiences. This theme encompasses a broad array of societal influences, from family dynamics to media consumption, and he argues this construct has shaped the modern mental landscape, particularly with regard to ideological divides within society. Molyneux illustrates how fear of losing one's social circle or maintaining a comfortable lifestyle can perpetuate adherence to these external narratives.
Interspersed with engaging anecdotes and reflective humor, Molyneux’s commentary critiques modern parenting, particularly in how children's realities have become overridden by digital experiences and screen time, leading to a disconnection from tangible reality. He relates these insights back to the larger structures of society, hinting at a collective malfunction driven by manipulated perceptions and emotional dependencies. Both nostalgic and critical, the discussion paints a picture of a society increasingly wedded to myths and illusions at the expense of genuine lived experiences.
The episode culminates in a call to action for listeners to recognize the manipulative forces at play in their own lives and the media they consume. Stefan emphasizes the importance of maintaining one’s grip on reality, encouraged by self-awareness, empirical evidence, and reasoned conversation over emotional or ideological expectations. By the close of the episode, Molyneux invites his audience to engage with these themes, promising future discussions, while also reminding them of the importance of personal agency in navigating life’s complexities.
Overall, this episode stands as a profound exploration of consciousness, reality, and the challenging interplay between perception and truth, all delivered through Molyneux's signature blend of humor, insight, and philosophical inquiry.
[0:00] Hello, hello, welcome. Hey, pinch-punch first of the month. It is the 1st of November, 2024.
[0:06] And welcome to your Friday Night Live. I've got some great stuff for you tonight. Thank you, thank you for your tip. I appreciate that. Tips welcome, freedomman.com slash donate to help out the show. Tim just finished listening to the Wednesday night show and jumped straight into this. Well, that indicates you were doing something between Wednesday and today, which did not involve listening to my show. So, benedictions, forgiveness. No, it's fine. It's fine. I don't care. It's fine. All right. So, let's get to questions, comments, issues, and challenges. Welcome to the people on Rumble. Welcome to the people on Locals. Welcome to the people listening later. Thank you for all of your wonderfully kind support. And last but not least, don't forget to check out freedoman.com slash donate, as well as freedoman.locals.com and, and not only, but also subscribestar.com slash freedoman. All right, enough of that business nonsense. While I am waiting and cooking for your questions to arise, I wonder if I can share with you, and I'm not kidding about this, an extremely dangerous idea. Can I share with you.
[1:29] An extremely dangerous idea. Something which gooses even me. Without any further ado, I was at a farmer's market. Oh, gosh, when was that? Yesterday. Yes, I went to a farmer's market because I am a spread-eagled man whore for sourdough. That is just the way that it is. So every now and then, I will slither off like a junkie, scratching at his bloody arm, to pick me up some ball sack of the Zeus gods of good taste called Sourdough.
[2:17] Sourdough is like a dangerous woman. You love it, and it might love you back, or it might give you the kind of aftertaste where you have been rimming Satan's ass in a fart storm. But this was good sourdough, little hint of butter. Oh, so good. So good. So I was at a farmer's market with my wife and my daughter, and we had a lovely time. I like haggling. I like chatting with everyone on the planet, yourselves included. And when I was walking out of the main building, there's a bunch of different buildings and so on. And I was walking out of the main building and an idea that has struck me since I was a kid, which is dangerous as fuck. I'm not going to kid you about this. It's dangerous as fuck.
[3:10] It hit me. I'm going to share it with you, but don't mess with it. I'm going to share it with you, but do not mess with it. Do not dwell upon it, but it can be healthy. But do not dwell on it. I warn you ahead of time, do not dwell on it. All right. So the idea goes something like this. I was pushing out the doors of the building in order to go into the courtyard, in order to get to the next building. And I was suddenly struck by an idea that I was first struck with at the age of five or six years old, where I'm like, none of this is real.
[3:55] I know this sounds odd. I'm an empiricist. I believe in objective reality, but none of this is real. See, let me give you an example, right? I'm touching my nose. For those who are just listening, I'm touching my nose. I feel the touch of my finger on my nose. I feel the touch of my nose on my finger. I'm touching my nose Except I'm not because I am not my finger and I am not my nose. I am my brain And my brain is doing none of these things My brain is not talking to you My brain is using giant levers of neurological systems to move my larynx and my tongue and my lips.
[4:34] I am looking at a camera, but I'm not looking at a camera because my brain is as blind as a fucking bat. My brain is as blind as alphabet agencies looking for the origins of COVID.
[4:50] My brain can't see anything. My brain can't touch anything. My brain is like a mute, deaf, blind Helen Keller King trapped in a decaying castle. The only messages from the world are what uncertain courtiers trace in the palm of my hand. I look at a screen i'm looking at the screen right now to see the questions but i'm looking at two screens because my brain can't see anything my brain can only receive and decode the impulses from optic nerve nervous system and so on so there are two screens my brain is not looking at reality it is looking at a screen so if you have a vr helmet right so let's say the quest 3, So the Quest 3 has what's called pass-through, in that you can't see outside, but there are cameras that can see outside and then present you the information on the inside. So you're looking at a screen, not at reality, but you're looking at two screens, because what the Quest 3 is doing in having cameras that then assemble the information for your eyes, your eyes are doing to your brain. We are always one screen removed.
[6:14] You're looking at a movie, you're looking at two recreations. Let's say you're watching a historical recreation. You are looking at two recreations. One, the recreation of the Gettysburg Address, or Gettysburg Address, if you know how to speak English, right? So some actor is recreating it, Daniel Day-Lewis or the actor is recreating it. Genocidal income is in a house and you're looking at a simulation and a recreation and, what you're looking at on the screen is a simulation and a recreation and the screen is a simulation and a recreation of the actors long dispersed that's three, two levels three layers is everything you see is a simulation and a recreation right, I hold up the pen I feel the pen, But my brain is feeling nothing. My brain is simply interpreting electrical signals from my nervous system and whatever electrical systems from my optic nerve.
[7:24] I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. I can't touch anything. I can't smell anything. I can't taste anything. The tongue and the brain are two separate organs. I know nothing but what i'm informed of by the courtiers of the nervous system, i'm a blind deaf dumb tasteless smellless decaying organ trapped in a skull castle, and informed of what goes on outside in the world i cannot see touch taste smell or hear by uncertain courtiers of electricity.
[8:09] I kissed my wife. Nope. Brains cannot kiss. I am my brain, not my lips. Right? You get an organ transplant. You don't change who you are, unless it's a brain transplant. I do not kiss my wife. Now don't do this mental exercise when you're driving but you can go down this rabbit hole and what a rabbit hole it is and it can make you mad, because we have to suspend the disbelief and say I am talking to you. I'm looking at a screen. I am this. It's like, nope, you're not. Because you, your brain, and your brain can't do any of that stuff.
[9:07] Any of that stuff.
[9:19] I'm afraid. Is it more your gut? That's your second brain. It's your gut that's afraid. It's your fight or flight nervous system. You say, I see, but you don't. So I have had these, I mean, they're not even odd thoughts. They're accurate thoughts, but you can't stay there you can't stay there and say i'm in a vr skull helmet, with information piped into me through the nervous system you can't stay there because it's too fucking weird however true it is it's kind of like oh i'm i'm sitting here still it's like no i'm rocketing through the universe at hundreds of thousands of kilometers per second as the sun goes, the earth goes around the sun, the sun goes around the galaxy, and the galaxy spins along, like, you can't think of yourself. You know those streamers, those little ballet streamers that they have in gymnastics and so on? Well, that's you, you're just streaming along, right? I'm literally like a smear and a smudge rocketing through space and time. No fixed address, only momentum.
[10:37] I mean, when I was a kid, I remember thinking, how the hell do Australians live knowing that they're on the bottom?
[10:46] I mean, I wasn't, I knew enough about gravity that they weren't going to fall off, but it's like, you're on the scrotum and you're looking at, am I the whole package, the brain, the body, the functions and everything in between? Well, the ego is the brain. Now we can drop the brain down to the unconscious, of course. We can drop the brain to some degree down the second gut, like you have a gut, which philosophers have done a very bad job of integrating, right? This sort of Apollonian, Dionysian thing. But there's a second brain down in your gut, gut instinct, gut sense, and like you literally have neurons down there, like it's a second brain. So but our gut senses tend to be common to all humanity, we know if somehow somehow someone could wire up fantastic eyeballs to everything that you were doing like your optic nerve and and like this is perfectly to pop them out pop them in out vile jelly in with the out with the old in with the new you'd still be the same person i mean your vision would be like my vision it's not bad right i mean i'm pushing 60 and and so on right It's not bad, but, you know, I do sort of miss the effortless no glasses, like I was walking the other day in the mist with my glasses on, and it's just like, yee, mist, foggy, foggy, foggy, right? Didn't need to worry about that quite as much when I could just blink and make it go away with my youthful, fresh, brand spanking new eyeballs.
[12:15] But you are your brain. That which is most unique about you, frankly, is in your neofrontal cortex, right? My third brain says someone is between my legs. I make the best decisions with that one. No, no, I'm not talking about a micro brain. Boom. So, you are your brain, and we interact with the world through electrical recreations of that which is.
[12:47] We interact with the world through electrical, biochemical recreations of that which is.
[13:09] Thinking with your balls? Well, that's just nuts. See, you may have thought that was a bad joke, and you'd be right. But if you sit in this perspective for a while, that everything you perceive is an electrical recreation of that which you cannot directly perceive. The brain doesn't send a pseudopod out and feeling things, right? The brain doesn't feel anything directly. In fact, the brain, as far as I understand it, has no nerve receptors at all. You can cut into the brain, feels nothing. Because what's the point? Like once something's in your brain, that's really not point to point. Well, you don't want to get that. You're done, right? There's no point having pain receptors in the brain. Once something's through your skull, you're dead, man.
[13:55] So this is a true perspective, but you don't want to fuck with it. You can play around with it a little bit like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I am kind of in a skull prison, And then you have to suspend disbelief and deal with reality as reality. Because, of course, your senses and all of the processing and the nerves and the optics, they're all designed to accurately recreate reality so you can throw a spear and get some food. I get all of that, right? It's like, I'm hungry. No, you're not. Brain pain. I guess the, well, I guess, no, it's mostly hunger comes from the belly, right? It comes from the stomach. I'm hungry, so I'm going to eat. The you never touches reality. The decaying king never leaves the Skull Castle, while it's alive, of course. It can only rely on messengers.
[14:59] So, I'm really, really struck by, and, you know, as we don't have to get into too many details because we all know what's being talked about, but the amount of truly staggering, pathological falsehood leading up to, what is the election in four days? The U.S. election and a massively consequential election. No question. No question. Because I really, I can't help but just see this cavalcade of pathological falsehoods coming off the media.
[15:49] Pathological falsehoods coming off the media. I mean, there's one now, what was it, Trump was saying that Liz Cheney's a war hawk. And she'd sing a different tune about wanting to go to war if she was actually in the front lines with people shooting at her. And, right, she was, you know, that's a fairly standard idea, right, that it's very easy to go to war, right? Generals sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side from the old Pink Floyd song from Dark Side of the Moon. The idea that it's chess, right, that it's easy to, run a war if you're not out there getting shot. It's a lot easier to want to go to war if you're not getting shot at yourself. And this is why the soldiers generally want peace, but the diplomats and the bankers generally want war.
[16:50] But of course, him saying, she'd sing a different tune about war if she was getting shot at. Trump now wants his political opponents assassinated. Like, it's just complete, right? And I was really sort of thinking about over the last week, like, okay, but what is the mechanism by which, you know, I think it was CNN to their credit. They made this claim and then they played the clip, not in its full context, but in its partial context to the point where you could see that he wasn't talking about shooting someone. one he was talking about if they were in as much danger as they want to put the troops in they would.
[17:33] They would sing a different song sure that's not complicated right joe rogan stands for nothing unlike dr phil who actually endorses trump no no no no that's not true no joe rogan stands for whatever gets him the 100 mil, right? I mean, I think that's fairly clear. But I mean, he's a comedian and MMA guy, and I mean, what foundational principles is he going to have? He's about as good at philosophy as I would be at mixed martial arts. So, how is it that people are able to, and this is going to blow your mind, right? How is it that people are able to live in such staggering falsehoods? And I think it's a switch.
[18:32] I think what they do is they make the media their final screen, right? So I'm looking at a screen, right? I'm looking at the screen that I'm running the show off. I'm looking at the screen. That's the second screen. The last screen is what my optic nerves and my like recreation, that's the final screen. The final screen is what directly sends messages to your brain, right? This monitor is not sending directly messages to my brain. The light waves are bouncing off, they're hitting my, or coming out off, hitting my eyeballs, and then my eyeballs, the optic nerve wiring directly into the optic center of my brain, that's the final screen, is your eyes. Well, you know what I mean, right? So, I think the way that you end up believing lies is you make somebody else's propaganda your final screen.
[19:32] So not what did Trump actually say, but what do people say? Trump said, that's your final screen. You have no defenses after that, right? If I see something that looks impossible with my eyes, I have to accept that I'm seeing it and either something is really wrong with my optic system and my reality processing equipment, or I'm seeing something that just seems completely bizarre and impossible, right? So when the indigenous population of North America saw the Santa Maria and all of this are sailing up, they're like, this can't be possible, but it is, it's real, right? And then the bank sticks and the whatever, right? It doesn't seem that.
[20:11] To be possible, but it's real. Space aliens land tomorrow, right? And they walk on air and they can do amazing things. Then we say, well, it seems impossible, but it is, right? You can touch them, talk to them, interact with them, smell them, whatever, right? So they're real things in the real world. So what happens is you take the media screen, and by that I mean social media, TV, radio newsprint, whatever, right? Kindle. You make, that screen your final screen. If you look at it and people are saying, well, this is what Trump said, and he wants his political opponents shot, right? And you're like, well, that's the final screen. That is like you've seen it directly yourself. I hope this makes sense. I hope this makes sense.
[21:11] Because what I see, let's say I had seen Trump, like, I don't know, let's, in some alternate universe, I was at a Trump rally, and Trump said what the media is accusing him of saying. Let's say I saw Trump actually say what they're accusing him of saying, then I would say, well, yes, I, like, I saw it with my own two eyes.
[21:45] So nobody would be able to convince me otherwise if I saw it with my own two eyes and let's say I'd recorded it or whatever it is like I saw it with my own two eyes Trump said these terrible things that they're accusing him of saying and nobody would be able to tell me well that didn't happen or that's not real or that's not true like it would be like no no no I was there right I mean I was there I know.
[22:10] So, if people substitute the judgment of others as their final screen, then you can't talk them out of things, because it's like trying to talk someone out of the direct empirical evidence of their own senses. Right? It would be like me, you and I are walking down the street, it's sunny and warm and i say it's snowing and cold right you wouldn't even be able to reflect there would be no conversation between us because your direct sense evidence and data, your clothes you're wearing it's sunny and warm and you know that it's not just you're not having some hot flash it's sunny and warm because it's bright you can't see your cell phone you're in shorts everyone around you is in shorts there's no parkas there's like no snow plows there's like nobody's slipping and sliding, the the cars are driving the convertibles were there the roofs are down on the convertibles or sunroofs are open windows are rolled down the beach boys are playing hey jude goes on and on ad infinitum whatever right.
[23:39] So, if you and I walking down Venice Beach, August 40 degree afternoon, the heady salt spray of people working out at the Venice Beach gym, I went there once or twice, I felt very stick-armed, and I turn to you and say, God, it's freezing, this blizzard, this ice, this snow is freezing. What debate could we have?
[24:14] What debate could we have? And this is why the left and the right can't talk to each other. People have propaganda as their final screen, the one that's directly wired into their brain. If someone says this is what happened, then this is what happened, as surely as their senses dictate information to you in the present. I know I'm sitting down in my studio. If somebody tells me, Stef, you're in orbit around Betelgeuse, I'd be like, no, no, I'm sitting, right? And to attempt to get me to change my mind about that which my sense data perfectly presents to me would be an assault upon my intelligence, would be an assault upon my capacity to reason and to process.
[25:06] Because if all of my sense evidence says the same thing and somebody tells me no no no it's the opposite of what you think they would be saying i'm insane i'm psychotic i'm deluded i'm whatever right it would be an attack upon reality processing itself now every organism, which has any conscious capacity will view an attack upon its reality processing as a physical assault that endangers its life right if somebody tried to gouge your eyes out that would be a physical assault that would endanger your life and if somebody was able to successfully convince you that you were insane psychotic deluded fight club all kinds of schizophrenic nonsense right There was an old Scrubs episode where, was it Brendan Fraser? Anyway, this guy spent the episode interacting with his brother. It turned out that he was at his brother's funeral. It was a fantasy, right?
[26:12] So if somebody is trying to get you to believe the opposite of the direct evidence of your senses, They are claiming that you are deluded and psychotic and therefore you have no capacity to survive on your own That you've lost your mind and you live in a world of waking dreams and delusions and therefore you are dangerous You need to be locked up, you can't survive, you can't trust anything about yourself Like that's hell, that's a complete nightmare, right?
[26:46] Because the one thing that generally seems to happen, is that when you confront, let's say, the hard leftists, right? When you, like, there was this woman who was walking around, I think it was somewhere in California, maybe LA or something like that, Hollywood Boulevard, and she had MAGA shoes on, and this creepy old gray-haired guy was like, I hope you get our start, right? Well, why would he be so aggressive, if someone disagrees with him? Because, I would assume, I don't know this guy in particular, the mindset as a whole would be, that you are telling me that my final screen is insane, deluded, psychotic, fantastic, and I'm insane.
[27:54] That is incredibly volatile. That is incredibly volatile. I mean, can you imagine, I mean, imagine if I would wake up tomorrow and realize that I was in an asylum, I'd never had a show, and my wife and daughter didn't exist, right? That it was, like that would just be crazy right that's the matrix i'm plugging right and and well once you're on the medication you realize that you're actually a jamaican nanny and not a bald white philosopher guy is it a bad argument to put sense data into question while using sense data to make the argument but i'm not doing that that's not what i'm talking about i mean of course it is right I mean, you have to affirm sense data. But what I'm saying is that if they have propaganda as their final screen and you're saying there's a truth metric outside your final screen, you're saying you're crazy. You've lost your mind. You're mentally incompetent. You're psychotic. You're deluded. Whatever, right?
[29:08] Right because everything that i'm doing tonight that the microphone the screen there right it's all consistent i had a a lovely evening out with my family yesterday and then i chatted with my, daughter this afternoon and i chatted with my wife over dinner i'm doing the show and it's all consistent and you know works and so on but if somebody were to say that's all deluded that would be i would view that as an act of hostility i would view that if somebody trying to dismantle my brain and have me no longer trust the evidence of my senses.
[29:42] I would view that as somebody trying to get me to go mad. Not to have me go sane, but to have me go mad.
[29:55] So, the reason that people who are propagandized get so aggressive when you say, what you think of as the final screen is not the final screen. What you think of as the final screen is not the final screen, they view that as an assault upon their sanity and their capacity for survival and their life as a whole and this is why they react with rage, I would get very angry at someone who tried to talk me out of, accepting the evidence and reality of my final screens right my my five senses right or you could include balance and hunger or whatever it is right the major senses right even people who try to talk me out of my gut, sense i view as uh dangerous that doesn't mean my gut sense is always right but anyone who says well you can't trust your gut it's like well i just assume that they're trying to disarm my instincts for self-protection so they can exploit me. I view it as an act of hostility to fuck with my final screen.
[31:14] I view it as an act of attempted cognitive assassination to fuck with my final screen, which is why the people who fuck with the evidence of the census, I consider enemies in general. All right. I just want to make sure we're, because there's one more step to this. I want to make sure that we're on the same page. I'm going to say why because I follow it, but I want to make sure that because it's a complex argument, I want to make sure that we're all on the same, general consensus. I'm not saying do you agree with it 100%, but does the argument sort of follow so far? I'll check over and rumble as well.
[32:04] Uh, Jay Dyer, I debated that guy many years ago, so you can look that up. So it all makes sense, right? It makes sense? Okay. So then the question is, why would people end up with other people's perspective as, their final screen? Not reality, not reality, but other people's perspective as their final screen. Why would they end up like that? Monsieur Durbin, thank you. Why would people end up, with the perspective that other people's opinions are the final screen? Secondary gains? Yes. But that's a bit of a generic answer because they find some benefited in some way. Well, yeah, by definition, right? But why would people end up with that perspective?
[33:04] To survive. Yes. It means that they had to comply with anti-empirical demands, from other people in order to survive. You had to believe in the tribal delusions. You had to believe in the godhood of the king. You had to believe in the perfect authority of the witch doctor. You had to believe that your father was wise and noble and your mother was a saint, right? Your final screen was pleasing abusers. Yeah, the parable of the invisible apple. That's right. FDR 83, something like that. A while ago. Survival meant conforming with the madness of others. My daughter made me laugh so hard today, I almost ruptured myself.
[34:07] I was talking about how some people take their parents seriously, and some people don't. And I was saying, so when I said, when my mom, when I was a little kid, my brother and I, my mom, you know, would say she hated us, right? And I never took that, I never took that seriously. Right? And she said, oh yeah, I can see that. You know, hey, mom, you hate me? Well, that sounds like a you problem. I don't know why that just hit me. She's very funny. I can't deliver it in the way that she does, but that sounds like a you problem. It was just so, not arrogant exactly, but so confident. Oh, you hate me? Well, it sounds like a you problem. I just thought that was hilarious. And true, it was a my mom problem. Because I've done a lot of wrestling lately with people.
[34:58] About their parents neglected them and then they thought that they were empty and worthless and boring, right? Yeah. Whereas, you know, my mom hated me, but I just thought, well, that means you're crazy. And of course, as an outdoor kid, right? As an outdoor kid, I'm constantly having to deal with reality, right? And because I hung around with my brother's friends a lot of times who are older, they were able to do more things than I was able to do. I remember at the age of five or so, climbing up a tree way higher than I wanted just to be brave. And then I literally couldn't get any higher and I could not at all figure out how to get down. And I was like 30 feet, 40 feet off the ground. It was really nerve-wracking, right? But you can't, like, that's your final screen. You can't, if someone else says, oh, just jump, like, you can't make that person your final screen because you're actually 30 or 40 feet in the air. And if you jump, you're going to break your leg or die.
[35:57] My brother and I, well, we weren't exactly addicts for television, but when my mother would go out, she wouldn't want us watching TV late at night, so she'd go out on some date, and she'd lock the TV in her room, but we could actually, second or third story, we would get out and crawl along the window ledge and climb in and watch TV. I remember watching a boxing match, and we'd climb back out, and, you know, 20, 30 feet off the ground. It was completely retarded. My mom would come home, and she'd check the temperature of the TV set. So we would get something cold from the fridge and put it on top of the TV and then wipe it dry this is why rules are pointless you have to get people enrolled, so we dealt with actual factual reality playing soccer playing rounders or later baseball I played tennis, from the age of 5 five onwards and there is no second screen right tennis is did you hit the ball did it stay in there right maybe there's a little argument about the edge cases or whatever i see the ball way out right or you you serve into the net that's a failure of a serve.
[37:14] So for me there's the war right and we all have this war as a kid i think it's less reality based now because kids are just screen screen screens opinions opinions opinions parental pleasure uh appeasing teachers right because when we're kids we have to please our parents and we have to please our teachers now when i was a kid mom was crazy but the teachers were somewhat sane now, mom's gone and the teachers are insane and corrupt beyond words right i mean the best way to corrupt a nation is to shorten the time horizons of children well you haven't got love to live kids ooh i don't know global warming man who trump's gonna end the world nuclear war live for today, don't defer gratification may not be a tomorrow, and uh the eschatology the end of the world stuff with the more fundamentalist christians and other groups yeah i don't plan kid and what's the point of going to ask a girl out i mean that's just gonna lead to dating getting engaged getting married having kids and then boom you're underwater or Satan strides the earth. It's all over.
[38:26] The Democrats who regularly call other people conspiracy theorists put out an ad about how, well, we had a lot of great friends and pretty parties and then we didn't go out to vote because, you know, the system's rigged, right? And we didn't go out to vote and then trump got elected and then after he died jd vance became a dictator for 30 years and set up concentration camps for homeless people and then and then peter thiel and elon musk uploaded themselves to live forever as immortal ai gods and it's like jesus man yes that's right conspiracy theories are a challenge aren't they, oh my gosh yes because we all know that super party people are all on the right, so when we're a kid we have to please people in order to survive and we also have to work within reality but we start by having to please people right because kids can't get their sustenance from reality they have to get their sustenance from their parents so you have to please your parents and parents have to please their bosses to please the gods have to please the witch doctors have to please the local paramilitary warlord assholes. And so we all start off having to please people, and hopefully we please people by pleasing reality, right?
[39:53] But people don't see much of reality anymore. Neighborhood play is gone. Spontaneous, self-organized play is gone. It's screen, screen, screens, propaganda, propaganda, propaganda. And it everybody's been wrapped up in the matrix.
[40:14] So, much though I had trouble at times with having to do a lot of hard physical labor, I remember being up at a friend's landlord's cottage one weekend, and we had to dig a new outhouse, and it was like bug-infested, 40 degrees, crazy muggy, and it was just like, oh, God, I was tempted to even drink from the lake, which, you know, in some places is okay. But that physical labor is like, well, that's my last screen. Whereas if you can lie and manipulate, think of a con man, like a confidence trickster, right? I mean, Elizabeth Holmes wasn't out there robbing people blind with a gun, right? She was just out there massaging male egos with her youthful quasi-prettiness and everybody's fantasy that, oh, the next entrepreneurial female is exactly the same as Steve Jobs because she wears black turtlenecks. Copy-paste. so she stole, second hand through creating a screen, of absolutely impossible technological problems I mean there were employees of Theranos who were actually out on Reddit years before right.
[41:32] So I mean it's one of the reasons why it's tricky having women in investing especially young relatively pretty women because uh men lose their fucking brains around this stuff it's one of the reasons why male lonely spaces are important so we can get some work done with our tits on the brain.
[41:53] So, I think that we have a split. And in general, it's a bit of a male-female split. Lots of overlap, of course, but it's a bit of a male-female split. Because men in general get their resources from reality, and therefore we can't have the final screen be anything other than actual empirical sense data reality. Like, we can't fuck with that. which is why I'm saying it's an interesting idea, but you can't fuck with it too much because you've got to get out there and hunt the boar and protect yourself from the lions and build the shelters. And like, we can't have a second screen. Sorry, we can't have a final screen interfere with sense data. But women, in general, evolve to get their resources, not from reality directly as a supplement for sure, but not from reality directly.
[42:46] But women evolved to get their resources from the approval of others you had to have a man fall in love with you and commit to you you have to have the help of other women to raise your kids so it's all about consensus and tribalism your primary focus is not on objective material empirical reality your final screen is the approval of others now you say ah yes but don't men work together for the hunt anymore yes but we work together, not to manipulate opinions but to catch game dodge spears.
[43:26] And defend against predators and people it's all.
[43:33] Empirical final screen is sense data not final screen is other people's opinions.
[43:44] Now, the final screen in the mind is not sense data. The final screen is reason. Because sense data says you're on a flat world, right? But reason, we know we're on a sphere, right? So reason science empiricism this is the final rule right there's the final screen and then there's the final rule the final screen is the last sense data that drills directly into your brain and the final rule is reason reason a reason arises from the consistency of sense data.
[44:32] So when you say to someone whose final screen is other people's opinions and they have no reason, you are attempting to gouge out what they perceive of as their organs of senses and sanity. You're attempting to gouge out, remove, eviscerate, destroy their organs of sense, sanity, and reality, which is why they get so insanely angry. They get as angry as you would if somebody was working really hard to convince you that you were psychotic, deranged, deluded, and insane when you were, in fact, sane, healthy, and rational. You would view that as an assault upon you. So, when you see the level of violence and aggression, right, coming out of the left, right? The assassinations, the riots, the takeovers of entire neighborhoods, the, terrorism, the vandalism, the threats. It's because if you say to someone, your final screen is not the final screen. You're saying everything you base your sense of reality on is insane, manipulated, corrupt, and immoral. Well, they fight back.
[45:58] And they fight back because you are what's this a great line from risky business in a recession don't ever fuck with another man's income.
[46:16] So, a lot of people make their money from manipulation, right? So, there's great profit in substituting your words for other people's final screen. There's great profit in it.
[46:46] So imagine if a woman is about to marry a man who's worth 10 million dollars but she doesn't she's cheated on him but he doesn't know so she's just about to get half of the 10 million dollars right because she's going to get pregnant and then she's going to have another kid and then And if he leaves her, she's going to get alimony, child support, half his shit or whatever, right? So she's about to get $5 million and a totally comfortable life.
[47:20] And she knows you're about to go and tell this guy she cheated on him. She's going to do almost anything to keep you from doing that, right? Because her income relies on lies. Her income relies on the lies, the lie of being faithful. If a woman has a guy's kid and he feels obligated to marry her, and you are in certain knowledge that the kid is not the guy's, right? So a woman has a boyfriend, Bob, but she has sex with Jim. It's Jim's kid. You know this for a fact for some reason Jim's out of the picture This woman wants to marry Bob and be secure And she says to Bob, Bob, this is your kid And you know it's not.
[48:17] If you go to this woman and you say, you got to tell them or I'm going to tell them. It's not his kid, right? He's got to make, right? She wants the security and a million dollars worth of income she'll get over his lifetime. A million dollars hangs on this lie. I mean, we can do this all day, right? Like there's tons and tons of examples of this kind of stuff, right? A million dollars lands on this lie. A million dollars depends on this lie. So you are trying to in a sense talk someone out of giving up a million dollars right you're trying to talk someone out of giving up a million dollars, hey that's a winning lottery ticket but you know you really shouldn't cash it in because it's just going to raise your taxes and it's debt to the next generation like fuck you I'm going to cash the million dollars, so when people profit from falsehoods especially off the power and economic redistribution capacity of the state.
[49:21] Then lies are predators that strip them of resources, right? By telling the truth to people who live on lies, you are doing the equivalent of setting fire to a farmer's fields and house. In a recession don't ever fuck with a man's income, so they view you as destroying their source of life.
[49:57] So they react with great viciousness now particularly if somebody has a social circle that's based upon shared delusions, right? If your entire social circle is based on orange man bad or whatever, or it could be Kamala bad or whatever, right? So if your entire social circle is based upon shared delusions, then if you start telling the truth, you lose all of your investment in those social circles because they're all based upon shared delusions. The truth destroys the reputation of lies, and the lies take it very personally they view it as defamation so you tell someone the truth and it's going to threaten all their relationships they don't want to admit that to themselves that all of their relationships are based on lies i mean i've expressed sympathy for parents, based upon the sort of modern idea of you don't have to spend time with abusive people, because parents a lot of parents treated their kids like shit because they're like well we don't have to treat them well because they're just going to be obligated to take care of us in our old age no matter how we treat them but it was like it's like men who treated their wives like shit before divorce became easy like in canada up until the 1960s you needed an act of parliament to get a divorce.
[51:24] So, a lot of husbands treated their wives like shit because the wives couldn't get divorced, right? So, when things go from coercive to voluntary, it's really tough for people who simply assumed, that the voluntarism wasn't going to be an issue. Voluntarism wasn't going to be an issue. So when you say to people, you don't have to spend time with abusive parents, then abusive parents get really angry. Because you're fucking with their source of income and perceived comfort in their old age. My kids owe me 20 years of wiping my ass. How dare you interfere with that, you asshole.
[52:15] And I completely understand it. I completely understand it.
[52:28] But, I mean, too bad, right? Because we gotta have progress. We gotta have progress. What is the heroine's journey? So very, very briefly, throughout most of human history and certainly throughout most of human storytelling and mythology, the highest capacity that women could achieve was the additional production of male brains, was to produce more male brains and more male bodies, right? That was the highest value that women could provide. The central purpose of women throughout most of human artistic history was the production of more male brains. Chris says I've tried to talk people out of believing everything the media presents and experienced severe blowback yes for sure for sure.
[53:37] Alright so hopefully that makes sense but look for this do people have a standard, because I can't help but think this define people hoax right that Trump referred to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville as very fine people. I mean, it's false. It's been debunked. It's not true. I mean, so why do people believe it? Because they're told that it's true, and that's their final screen, and after that, they have no pushback or defense. Jay Dyer said that atheists cannot claim to have universals, but only have particulars. My question to you is, where do atheists get universals from? Where do atheists get universals from?
[54:26] Well, it's not a, compared to what? It's not a universal to say something is true because an invisible incorporeal being that you cannot communicate with directly said so by getting someone 3,000 years ago to write something down in ancient Aramaic. That's not a universal. A universal is scientific laws. Universals are the laws of logic and the laws of empiricism and the need for reproducibility in scientific experiments, the need for rational consistency in theories before any applicability to reality. There are tons of universals you get from empiricism and from reason. But I don't think that the argument can rationally be that Ghost said something to someone else, that's my universal. Come on, man. Come on. My invisible friend said something. That's my universal. Did he say it to you? No. Well, maybe. That was kind of a hint. I had a feeling. That's my universal. Sorry. The unverifiable internal brain mutterings of invisible friends is not a universal. Come on, man. It's not a universal.
[55:51] Two and two make four that's a universal right gases expand when heated and contract right the water has three states inverse square law first and second law thermodynamics these are all they're all universals right you cannot use the evidence of the senses to overthrow the evidence of the senses, logical consistency, rationality, these are all universals. And they're not because ghosts said so. Somewhere else, sometime else, some guy said he had an invisible friend who said, that's not a universal. That's just a sheer delusion.
[56:39] So Jay Dyer is frankly full of shit. And he knows better. He knows better. Like, that's just lazy. That's just really easy and really, really bad. Let me find his, uh, maybe I'll remaster that, uh, interview. Maybe. Let's see here. Dyer. Dyer maker. All right. Uh, yes. What is truth? FDR. Four, five, five, zero. February 13th, 2020, So that is the philosopher Jay Dyer Philosophers Jay Dyer and Stefan Molyneux go head-to-head in a powerful debate on the most basic questions of philosophy in life What is truth? So I'll put the link in here You can check it out, Alright All right. Stef, I would assume if children were raised peacefully, religion would go the way of the dinosaurs.
[57:48] But modern scientism is a step back from Christianity. It is far more primitive than Christianity. And you can do a search for scientism. I've made this case a number of times, so I won't get into it here in particular. But the modern white-clad mystical religion practitioners, you have to accept what they say, and you don't have any access to their data in any comprehensible fashion. With God, at least you can pray for yourself and get your own conscience, but you can't do that with science.
[58:17] So scientism is a more primitive mystery religion than anything Christianity has been involved in almost since its inception.
[58:36] Religiosity is genetic. Absolutely. The beauty and love of universals is genetic. I think that's true. And we certainly know that there are certain electrical areas of the brain that can be stimulated and you will get religious visions. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a sort of chaos storm, right? Is his AMA this chat? Yeah, you can ask here. Stef, why did you step away from the spicier subjects? Why have you decided not to return to X? You were reaching people like never before. I'm curious. A fine, fine question. And I am not going to answer it here because I've answered it about conservatively 3,500 times. Just do a search for Twitter at FDRpodcast.com. And, you know, you have to wait for the world to catch up. If you just keep further ahead, eventually they'll just throw you off a cliff, right?
[59:35] Eventually they will just throw you off a cliff. So, you know, I'm enjoying my life. I'm really having a great time doing the show. I'm enjoying working in fiction again. I'm enjoying the call-ins. And don't forget, if you want a call-in, I've got some spots next week. You can send me a message, freedomain.com slash call-in, freedomain.com slash call-in, public or private, just let me know. I'm enjoying the call-ins. And I sort of feel like I'm finally, like after like 20 years, I've done a bunch lately and we have some spots open. So I feel like I can't even remember the last time that that's happened. But if you want it, here it is. Come and get in. But you get a better hurry because it's going fast. All right. Government says give me power and I will make people be good. But give me credit. Sound familiar? Yeah, yeah.
[1:00:31] Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. All right. Any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems, donations, support? Whatever is on your mind. Are you guys hoping, are you looking forward for the election being done? Are you looking forward the Grim Baton Death March being in the rear view or no? Also nice to see Bitcoin up. uh just remember do you remember do you remember uh just don't forget that uh there's no way it keeps going straight up right because you've got big financial institutions uh that are your etfs so they're all going to take their profits right buy and hold is a private investor strategy buy and sell is a mainstream strategy for investors. So people, it's going to go up, they're going to take their profits. It's going to go up, it's going to take their profits, right? Hey, Stef, what do you think of the warrior, magician, lover, and king archetypes of mature masculinity originally based on Carl Jung's work? I was very into Carl Jung when I was younger, and I know that sounds like, well, I've outgrown. I mean, I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying it was huge. I've read a huge amount of books. I read his biography and so on.
[1:01:54] And it's just, you know, this Mandela shit and all of that, like it's, it's nice and it's a collective unconscious and so on. It's just, he just went off the fucking deep end with ayahuasca mysticism. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that, Calvin. Yeah. So, uh, he just went off the, uh, off the rails with ayahuasca mysticism. So, Stef, what are your thoughts on ear surgery? Because they stick out. But listen, I think it's, I don't, I mean, if you have a little cosmetic, thank you for the tip. If you have a little cosmetic thing, I don't know about like big freaky stuff. But if you have a little cosmetic, like if your ears are out like this and you feel really self-conscious about it, I mean, getting the pin back, I assume it's not a, it's not a big deal. Um you know i happen to have the kind of head that i think looks fine bald uh but if i had some weird misshapen head maybe i would have gone in for hair transplants like elon musk or something like that or you know it's it's fine you know it's not a big deal it's not going to fix your life but if it helps get a couple of hiccups out of the way uh that's that's fine or if you want to be able to hear i may have these ridiculously flat ears right i'm like basically like a narwhal. But if you want to be able to hear when it's windy, yeah, maybe get a pin back a little.
[1:03:10] Things will be better under Trump versus Harris. Oh, yeah, there's no question. And here's a wild thing to me. It's a wild thing to me that the Republicans are really going to only win when they put their personal relationships on the line.
[1:03:28] Uh, somebody says, uh, I feel like the conversation has moved in your direction. Peaceful parenting is more common, race realism, distrust of media, et cetera. The seeds you dropped have rippled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But, but the problem is, is that your reputation gets completely nuked, which, you know, it's not the easiest thing in the world as a whole. Not the, it's not the most difficult thing. Of course, it's not the easiest thing and it's worth it for me, but, uh, your reputation gets nuked, but it never gets restored, right? That's the problem, right? I mean, until it's two generations down the road, right?
[1:04:11] I don't know if you answered my question as I didn't realize I was behind on the stream. Yeah, I'm not sure what to do with that. Just repost your question. What about women getting Botox? I don't think that's so valid because wrinkles are not a flaw. Like, you could say that having your ears stick out like crazy, well, you know, you've got to be honest about it, though, because the woman's going to show up genetically, right? So if your ears stick out like crazy, you could argue that, you know, if there's breeze, you can't hear that well, and it's kind of inconvenient, and your ears get colder. Like, there could be some practical reasons. Wrinkles are not a defect, right? Even hair, you could argue, well, you know, if it's windy, you're colder, and if you have hair, you don't have to sunscreen your head or wear a cap all the time. So there's some practicalities around having hair, but wrinkles are not, that's just vanity, in my view. You know, like if you have some really crazy nose, right? But if your nose is just, oh, I want a little ski bump, like it's not a weird nose or has some issues or whatever it is, then, I don't know. Yeah, archetypes are fine, but where's the morality, right? Where does Trump, sorry, where does Jung talk about morality?
[1:05:32] Yes, so it is true. Look, obviously I'll be vindicated in the long run, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's fine. I'll be vindicated in the long run. And I did my 40 years of being right, right? I did my 40 years of being right. You know, what did I say was going to happen with crime rates, with mass immigration, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like it's all done and dusted. It's all old hat. And by the time people catch up, I'm on 10,000 new topics. Like, honestly, going back into those topics would feel like going back to grade five. Been there, done that. Like, why would I, why would I want to go back, right?
[1:06:19] Um, so, all right. Yeah, I haven't done those archetypes in particular, but. Oh, what do you think of the heroine's journey? Yeah, I did answer that. Big guys get everyone in Bitcoin to panic and sell off the coins that they can be bought cheap. And then when you realize that there was no reason to sell and want to buy them back, they pocket the change. Yes, for sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, I, I assume it's a fairly backdoor coordinated thing where when they want to buy Bitcoin, they say, Bitcoin's going to crash. Oh, it's, it's, it's hit its peak. Here's all of these charts. It's going to, it's going to go down. And then they're like, oh no, it's going to go down. And then you sell it, they want to buy it.
[1:06:59] And then when they want to sell it, they say, oh man, Bitcoin's going to go to the moon, it's going to go to the roof, it's going to, right, so don't listen, nobody knows the price of Bitcoin, dear God of life, nobody knows what the price of Bitcoin is going to be, five minutes, five years, 50 years, nobody, nobody, nobody, it's way too many variables, and it's also, anything that's involved with free will cannot be accurately predicted, but I will say, yeah, so with regards to the, like, because the Republicans take it as a sort of point of pride, you know, I have friends who have differing political views than I do.
[1:07:40] And the leftists, they'll toast friendships based on politics. They absolutely will, as a whole. And the right is all like, oh, no, but it's just a difference. Like, no, it's not a difference of opinion. I mean, if you look at the history of leftism, I mean, just straight up communism, which is what a lot of them fundamentally want with equality of outcome, it's 100 million dead. It's 100 million dead. And, you know, how many imprisoned and tortured and, right? Hundreds of millions. Why the fuck anyone would have someone like that in their life? It's incomprehensible to me. Whoever takes their ideas more seriously wins. That's it. Whoever takes their ideas more seriously wins.
[1:08:35] And people who are into freedom, who have totalitarians in their lives, are suicidal enablers. Liberty-minded folks who accept totalitarian people into their lives and support them and accept them and chat with them and try to reason with them and so on. Jesus. I mean, I don't understand. I don't understand. Is it just like, well, I'm going to get a couple of pat myself on the back brownie points and feel like a better person it's like you know the purpose of morality is to not feel good the purpose of morality is not to feel like a better person, the purpose of morality is to secure long term happiness and survival by opposing those who advocate the use of violence.
[1:09:41] I don't, I don't, I don't understand. I mean, I've made the case countless times. So I called it the against me argument. I made the case almost 20 years ago. It is a form of spiritual suicide to welcome into your life and break bread with people. Who want you thrown in jail for disagreeing with them.
[1:10:36] Um... I mean, would you, this is somewhat related, would you stay in a relationship with someone? Like, you love this girl, and you've been dating for a while, but you're not happy. And you say, oh, you know, I'm not happy. I don't know. And she's like, so go. Leave. I don't care. Leave. Would you fight to stay? Yeah, go. Go. If you're not happy, whatever. If you're not happy, leave. Fine. I don't even want to hear about it. Just go. You're free.
[1:11:18] Would you fight to stay in that relationship? I wouldn't.
[1:11:25] You know, I'm not enjoying this. There's something not right. Oh, go, just leave, just leave. Fuck, go, go. I'll help you pack. Would you work to stay in that? See, I had a relationship with the world where I got, I was unhappy. I switched from politics. People dropped me like a hot potato. And then when I got deplatformed, almost nobody followed me to, like, one website over, one website over.com. Like, almost nobody followed me over. So I'm like, hmm, I'm not happy. Things aren't working. Okay, go, go, fine, go. I'll help you pack. Off you go. I'm like, that's fine. I mean, so that's, I mean, it's a relief, right? I mean, it's painful, right? I get that. But isn't it kind of a relief? Isn't it kind of a relief that you don't have to bother fighting for that kind of relationship? Because the person has made themselves very clear, right? and all the people who I worked with and some of the people whose careers I got started and gave them a platform. And it's not a big self-sacrifice or anything. They were just like, oh, Stef's gone. Yeah, he's gone. Stef, oh, fuck that guy. Was he even here? Ah, who cares, right? More, more audience for me. Okay, but that's great. That's great. It's very liberating, right? The world has, I've been in a conversation with the world for 40 years and the world speaks, I listen. I speak, the world listens sometimes, but sometimes the world speaks and I listen.
[1:12:50] All right. Any other last questions, comments, issues, challenges, problems? Do give me your problems. He knows. Yeah, no. All right. Going once, going twice. Let me know. I mean, if you're in a relationship and you say you're not happy, that's, oh man, tell me, what can I do to make it better? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I guess I've been distracted. I really should have been keeping track of this uh come over let's have dinner we'll talk it through you know well that would be like uh you know if when i got deplatformed and stuff people are like oh man you got to come on my show you got to tell me your side nope nope nope people just like oh nope, nope it's like it was never here go go god don't bother me, and that's fine that's fine i i mean i'm i'm just pointing it out i don't have i mean years ago now like it's over four years ago now i'm i'm happier and better, and of course things have become more polarized and so there's even more aggression and even less comprehension right, all right let's see here.
[1:14:19] Oh, yeah, billions died under capitalism. Yeah, right. All right.
[1:14:36] All right. Let me just check here. I think we're done. I appreciate you guys dropping by tonight. Thank you so much. I will see you Sunday. And I think, yeah. Hopefully next weekend we'll do a meetup, but that will be something for donors. Never have a girl move in with you because you're rewarding her with the outcome of a lifestyle of marriage without and before the actual commitment to marriage. Oh yeah, don't live together. I mean, that's a no-brainer. I just do the studies. People who live together break out much more often. All right. Thank you for your patience this evening. If you're listening later, it was a bit of a light donation night, which is not the end of the world, but I just thought I'd mention it. So if you're listening later, freedomain.com slash donate. if you appreciate these kinds of insights. Thank you so much, my friends. Have yourself a glorious, wonderful, beautiful evening.
[1:15:23] And I love you guys for your support. And we'll see you soon.
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