Kind: captions
Language: en
there is an expression a saying in in in
the Islamic context first we come for
the Saturday people then we come for the
Sunday people the Saturday people are
the Jews the Sunday people are the
Christians I can I can link pretty much
every single public policy disaster that
you could think of to the misfiring of
empathy you know what is the most
dangerous force in nature female
sexuality
Gad sad welcome back to the show oh so
good to be with you Tom dude really fun
to have you we've already been having a
lot of fun before we started rolling
here we did uh I want to dive right into
the deep end a couple of months ago you
sent out a tweet that said that Civil
War was coming for the west and do you
think that we were a couple inches from
that kicking off when the bullet gra
Trump's ear oh boy were we ever I mean I
can't even imagine the the world we' be
living in had he not turned to I mean
I'm not much of a Believer some say it
was divine intervention uh but whatever
it was uh it was very uh lucky because
we'd be in a different world today had
that guy succeeded what do you think
would have happened uh I think a lot of
people would have been extremely angry
because they would have felt that their
voices would not end up being heard uh
now does that mean that we would go into
full-blown Beirut Lebanon Civil War
tomorrow no but it certainly would be
stoking the Flames of uh Perpetual
unrest but I've been saying by the way
I've been predicting that Civil War was
coming uh for many many years now again
people think that I'm being hyperbolic
when I say that oh come on just because
of your childhood in Lebanon doesn't
mean that Civil War is around the corner
everywhere but the reality is when you
see the types of deontological
principles that are being violated that
made the West great what are
deontological principl so ethical
systems come in two forms there is
what's called deontological ethics and
there's consequentialist ethics
deontological would be if I say it is
never okay to lie that's an absolute
statement a consequentialist statement
would be it is okay to lie to spare the
feelings of my wife if she says do I
look fat in those genes right well if
you want to be married for a long time
you better put on your consequentialist
hat when that question is posed right so
for many things in life we're all
consequentialist and that's fine but
there are certain principles presumption
of innocence freedom of speech uh the
pursuit of Truth uh via unbiased
scientific method those can't be
consequentialist by definition they have
to be deontological once we start
applying a consequentialist e ethos to
those deontological principles we're no
longer the West that's that's what
differentiates the west from all of the
societies that immigrants like me flee
and so it doesn't take a a uh you know a
crystal ball reader to say look once all
of those mechanisms are eroded you're
going to have the exact same Strife that
you had anywhere else so for example
coming from Lebanon I know what happens
to a society that is organized according
to Identity politics Lebanon is the
perfect example of a society akin to the
one that the progressives here are
trying to create right I am first a
member of a group before I am an
individual well in Lebanon that's
exactly how everything is organized in
the case of Lebanon it's not your skin
you it's not whether you're transgender
or whether you're gay or indigenous it's
your religious belongingness as a matter
of fact in Lebanon on the ID card that
you carry within Lebanon in Arabic it's
called ha it's an internal ID the the
the most conspicuous element of your ID
card is your religion W and so for
example Jews were Lebanese Jews it
wasn't even written so an Arabic uh Jew
is yehudi it wasn't even written yahudi
it was written Israeli Israeli means
Israelite so you even had greater
animist towards you because you somehow
didn't have your Lebanese identity you
were an Israelite even though we had
nothing to do with with with Israel
right we we're Lebanese we're arabic
speaking our culture is Arabic our food
is Lebanese we happen to be Jewish but
we're we're we're what's called M Jews
Mahi Jews are the the Jews from all of
the Islamic countries Libyan Jews yemeni
Jews uh Egyptian Syrian Lebanese Jews
these are all called Mahi Jews so we're
fully Arabic in terms of our culture and
you know music language and yet we were
referred to as Israelites so now why was
that important Lebanon because when you
would be stopped at a random roadblock
by a militia group during the Lebanese
Civil War the first thing they would say
is show your papers if your papers
didn't have the right IDE identity
marker it was resolved With A Bullet to
the Head now there weren't too many uh
random roadblocks that you were going to
clear if you had Israelite on your now
there might be a few Christian militia
groups that might tolerate you and not
put a bullet but most of the factions
that were fighting in Lebanon if you
were stopped and you showed that card
you were
dead okay we got we got dark very
quickly no well look this is to me the
conversation that I really want to map
out for myself and certainly want to see
other people map out so when I was
watching the Trump assassination attempt
unfold I had the same feeling of whether
you love him or hate him thank God he
did not actually get shot because I
think Trump is a representative of
something that's happening and I mean
that in two ways he's representative
meaning there are people that feel
completely disenfranchised that the
system is holding them down that it is
corrupted and actively working against
the average American and so he
represents that voice and then I also
think he's literally a representative of
the Republican Party who champions for
those people and is trying to become the
next president and so if you then
celebrate the assassination of that
person you are going to have all kinds
of problems um I am very glad that the
only sort of Celebration is the people
joking about oh you know I'm just next
time don't miss whatever the you've seen
a ton of that on some weren't joking
I'll I'll assume none of them were um
meaning it literally but even then it's
still a it you're raising the
temperature and this is where I get
nervous and this is why I want people to
map this out and this is why I find it
very interesting this idea of
consequentialism versus deontological
ISM I'm not sure if that's how you
deontological yeah so um
once you begin to understand that what
I'll call narratives have consequences
then it's like okay as I put my voice
out into the Public Square where do I
want it to fall do I want it to amplify
a message do I want it to De amplify a
message or do I want just a complete
nonresponse to come from me and when you
understand how these things build
towards whether it's all the way to
Civil War uh which is hopefully a very
extreme very rare example
um but when you see how these steps
March down that path then this suddenly
becomes highly predictive uh so it is
dark but it's also a part of human
nature right so how do you view like
when you saw an assassination attempt on
a presidential
candidate what did you think yeah great
question so I actually did an X an
impromptu X spaces uh last night where I
I addressed that what it amazed me is
Trump's reaction to that assassination
attempt right so you may remember Tom in
chapter eight of the parasitic mind I
have a you know several call calls to
action probably the most famous one that
has resonated most with people is when I
ask implore people to activate your
inner honey badger and the reason why I
use the honey badger is because uh many
animal behaviorists and zoologists have
ranked the Honeybadger as the fiercest
the most ferocious of all animals and
that's there are a lot of fierce animals
it's the size of a small dog yet it
doesn't give an f right it can go into a
a hot you know be stung by a million
bees and it'll still get the honey it
could be caught with a con boa
constrictor that's almost suffocating it
when it gets itself out of it it doesn't
run away it says I'm not going to go and
kill you it can with withstand an attack
of six adult lions and so when I implore
people to activate their inner honey
Badger I'm saying be ideologically
fierce if you have a set of principles
that you believe in don't cow don't suck
your thumb in a corner and be a fetus
stand tall and defend your principles
well imagine a guy who just got shot at
and the first thing he does is you know
where are my shoes fight fight fight I
mean it it really be I mean if you hate
Trump you still have to in the Deep
recesses of your mind say my God I do
admire the fact that he's a honey badger
so the first thing I I I felt is my God
is he going to now turn a lot of people
who who were on the fence they're going
to say this is the kind of leader that
we want and I want to draw here some
analogies from my Evolution psychology
work so signaling theory is a theory
that is used in the animal kingdom to
explain all kinds of signaling Behavior
so for example when the peacock raises
its taale it's a form of sexual
signaling right it it is a a behavior
and a morphological set of traits right
it has a big tail it's iridescent colors
why would it have evolved that uh
particular uh physiological reality
because it is an honest signal of its
phenotypic quality it is saying despite
the fact that having this big tail I
might end up being eaten here I am still
therefore you should choose me as your
perspective partner so signaling Theory
theory is something that I apply in the
context of for example explaining
conspicuous consumption why is it that
99% of and I'm going to come back to
Trump in a second why is it that 99% of
Ferrari drivers around the world are
male right it's not as though there
aren't enough female billionaires who
could own those cars it's because men
and women use sex specific products as
sexual signals men are much more likely
to use Maseratis and uh Ferraris women
will use high heels and other
beautification products and that holds
true across very very different cultures
so it is a human Universal so signaling
theory is something that interests me a
lot so now let's apply it the context of
what happened with Trump and here I'll
draw an analogy when you go into prison
and you're on that first I've never been
to prison but certainly I understand the
Dynamics of prison life when you walk in
as a newbie the first thing that
everybody looks at you is they want to
see if you're going to be a predator or
a prey how do you walk where do you sit
do you walk tall are you confident are
you assertive could this become my
little girlfriend or not and depending
on that those first few moments it's
going to set the trajectory for how
you're going to do your time signaling
matters so often times uh prisoners will
tell you find someone if you're a newbie
find someone beat the hell out of them
so that you can then demonstrate to
everybody else who's watching that I'm a
serious guy now let's apply this to
Trump trump sends the signal to the
world to all the nasty prisoners around
the world world the North Korean
dictator and the Chinese and Putin and
the Islamic thugs I'm not to be messed
with I can be unpredictable I'm a rash
Cowboy so the exact thing that many
people criticize him about I actually
view it as a very powerful signal
positive signal right if I have the red
button and I start going eeny meeny miny
mo catch the tiger by the toe even
though I'm I'm not unpredictable if I
signal to the world don't mess with me
then people will pay attention people
will fear you president of the United
States should be someone that we fear it
shouldn't be someone who doesn't know if
he is a coffee cup or is a human being
right and
so right that's why I call him avocado
brain this this is not this is not I'm
making light of the fact that he has
dementia yes we all will grow old and we
we all will face some infirmity in our
lives I'm not being lacking an empathy
but in the president of I know it's
become a cliche to say this of the Free
World I want a guy who is a nasty Cowboy
boy did Trump exhibit that a couple of
days ago that's interesting uh we should
fear the president tell me more well uh
there's a lot of really nasty guys at
Corker and prison right there's a lot of
nasty guys at San Quenton if I walk in
there and I look like I am meek and
unsure and infinitely loving and
infinitely compassionate
people are going to turn me into their
girlfriend really quickly right so do
you mean the International Community
should be the president of course of
course the International Community there
are a lot of I mean you know there's the
expression uh you know uh speak softly
but uh carry a big stick or whatever I
can't remember the exact expression
right yeah walk sofly and car exactly or
might is right right so for example in
the Middle East this is actually a very
interesting point I recently wrote an
article about this so do you know do you
know what theory of mind is very much
okay you do should I should I summarize
it okay so theory of mind is something
that is really important in human
sociality because in in in interacting
with you in order for our conversation
to go well I have to often times put
myself in your mind to say would Tom
even me asking now should I should I
tell this to your audience because they
may not know what you know I'm
exhibiting theory of mine now it turns
out by the way that autistic children
don't have theory of mind so one of the
ways that you're able to uh diagnose
that a child has autism is there are
certain tests that you could give and
they will fail it in terms of not having
theory of mind that's why you see them
very closed off in their worlds they
don't read cues and they don't read
emotional cues well and so on now why am
I talking about all this I introduced a
concept which I called cultural theory
of mind which is am I able when I am a
leader in the geopol political ecosystem
am I able to put myself in the mind of
this other interlocutor that I'm
interacting with well it it baffles me
to see how westerners have zero culture
cultural theory of mind for example when
they interact with leaders in the Middle
East what do I mean by
that compassion empathy generosity
kindness
magnanimity each of those uh trait that
I just listed are viewed as laudable
virtues in the west what the Middle
Eastern mind reads it is weakness
weakness weakness weakness and weakness
so even though we may be sitting and
speaking in English or we may have
Arabic translators we're actually not
speaking the same language because we we
have no cultural reference point that
we're agreeing on the shared values and
so might is is right and that is a
universal everybody understands that so
if you go to the to the east where I
come from the Middle East and you exude
some of the traits that Biden
exudes then Putin does say hm maybe I'll
go into Ukraine today Hamas does say
maybe it's time for October 7th now I I
don't know for for certain that those
things wouldn't have happened had Trump
been there but I can if I'm a betting
man I would say that the chance of those
things happening would be much greater
if Biden is President than if Trump is
President so being feared as a world
leader is a good thing what do you think
about internally because I think a lot
of Americans fear Donald Trump and I
think that's some of the derangement and
so when you first said we should fear
the president I was like o because that
is the
I I am worried that internally We Fear
either the president or a boogie man
version of the president and that that
fear of our own leader is creating
massive problems yeah well it's
misplaced fear because if if you're
going to fear a particular party or a
particular ideology based on all the
evidence that we've gathered you should
certainly be fearing a lot more the
Biden regime than Trump that and that's
why I call it misplaced fear because
it's it's Boogeyman as you said right it
it is Trump derangement syndrome right I
know a lot of very bright people some of
whom you also know who genuinely believe
that Donald Trump is indistinguishable
from Hitler Donald Trump is
indistinguishable from Osama Bin Laden
the literal words right as a matter of
fact one person that we both know said
that well he actually admires Osama Bin
Laden more than Donald Trump because at
least Osama Bin Laden was committed to
an ideology he showed discipline and git
whereas Donald Trump is just a maniac he
is an asteroid hurling at you now if you
stop for a second and ask this person
and and that person is Exemplar of all
my colleagues in Academia say but but
why give me a specific well because he's
going to Institute martial law what's
the evidence of that I don't know it's
just he's evil or he's going to stop us
from loving our children he's going to
Outlaw food he's going to it's this in
and that's why Trump derangement
syndrome is really an excellent uh
moniker to describe this Insanity
because now by the way you tell him well
okay well if he was going to stop
democracy and ins martial laww he was
President for 4 years why didn't he do
it did he exhibit any of those things
that you were worried about no it's
really in his second term that he will
turn hitlerian so it's just idiocy it's
imbecility it's hyperbolic ir
irrationality and it it pisses me off
it's insane all right let me take the
flip side and steal man the argument
sure so at the beginning of this I was
saying um one of the things that makes
me want to talk about War even though I
hope that we're very far away from that
is that there is a clear path that leads
from where we are to there it's a
knowable path it's something you can
articulate and say well if we go from
here to here so for instance ratcheting
up the rhetoric from left and right
saying that Trump is exactly like Hitler
well the logical thing is if you really
knew you had identified Hitler before he
had committed his crimes you knew 100%
with 100% certainty that he would you
actually have a moral obligation to take
him out so that that's a knowable step
byep and so people said it um I forget
who it was that straight up said oh God
I I remembered it the other day and now
I'm forgetting who it was but they
straight up said that that the natural
conclusion oh it was Tucker Carlson uh
they tried censoring him on social media
they tried um getting him censored in uh
inside the government which I'm blanking
on the name what they call that
they exactly law fair all of it and and
all of it failed and so he was saying
and I don't know how many months ago
this was but certainly before the
assassination attempt he said the only
next step is assassination and so it's
like again these are knowable paths you
can't know them with 100% degree of
certainty but they are knowable paths so
if I'm in the grips of what somebody
else would call Trump derangement
syndrome I'd say hold on you yourself
just said that there is a staircase that
that leads somewhere what I'm saying is
Donald Trump is walking along that
staircase and so when you get to the
point where he on January 6th incites
people to go in and look did he hedge
and was he over the top no but it's very
clear if you look at everything that he
did not help the situation he very much
wanted to find the votes he very much
wanted Pence to come in and say that
this is not a legitimate election and
because of that I do have the real
indicators that he's walking the path
toward somebody who has said I want to
be add dictator for a day I mean he just
gives you all the cues and so no in the
first four years he did not walk all the
way down the path but he is so clearly
on the path how do people not see this
you're speaking as a trump derangement
syndrome corre I'm not putting forward
what I'm saying but I am trying to give
them their due in saying every time I go
to um just be like what are people
talking about there is the the one thing
of just if he had just said you know
what look no matter what I'm I am going
to fight this election in the courts I
think it is unjust I think things have
been done poorly but everybody the most
important thing is that we cue that
we're going to transition power no
matter what and then we'll fight this in
the known channels through through legal
courts if he had done that there would
be nothing to point at but he didn't do
that and so I don't I don't even need
you to buy into January 6th I just need
you to say that he did not handle that
in a way that removes that cudgel from
being used against him Point conceded
absolutely uh and not only that I mean
not just the January 6 thing he didn't
handle well he is his worst enemy as I
mean he does seem to have reigned in
quite a bit maybe it's age who knows
maybe it's some humility who you know
it's it's unsure what it is but he
certainly seems to be a lot more
disciplined in some of his outbreaks
right uh so there are many reasons why
someone may not like him but again part
of being a functioning smart individual
adult is to have Temperance right to
right I hate a child molester more than
I hate a jaywalker because I have a
calculus that allows me to met out my
disdain in a way that is rational and
makes sense jaywalking might be a crime
but it's not the same as as fiddling
with with kids so if we're going to use
the who is a greater threat to democracy
I've seen a lot more evidence that the
Biden regime is willing to violate all
of our shared deontological principles
more so than anything that Donald Trump
has done did he handle January 6 well
absolutely not but if my calculus is
which of these two gentlemen has
committed greater violations of
deontological principles that Define the
United States it's not even close that
it's
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theory if you're tired of trying to find
the real truth you have to strive to
tell whether the news that you're
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narratives trolling selective reporting
whatever the case may be then you need
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compil stories from across the global
political Spectrum giving you every
angle so that you can get the full
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especially like their election page
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get rid of your blind spots and this is
a great way to do it with ground news
give me the greatest hits on Biden why
should we fear him uh well for many
reasons I mean if we could we could get
all philosophical or when you have
someone who is pushing uh I call it die
diversity inclusion Equity not Dei
because die is where meritocracy goes to
die anyone who defends anything remotely
close to that acronym is violating the
most fundamental precept precept of what
a meritocratic society should hold dear
to it right and I see it every every day
in Academia right and maybe I could talk
about this uh for a minute or two please
I mean what is beautiful about science
is that it's objective I mean of course
there are biased scientists but if we
assiduously pursue science applying the
scientific method as unbiased as we can
then there are very clear
epistemological tools that we can use
say this hypothesis looks good this one
we can refute it and so on if we want to
see which of these candidates are are
worthy of an academic position there are
very clear metrics we can use how many
papers have you published how
influential have those papers and books
beenin in the same way that in judging
who crosses the 100 meters first is not
up for debate there's a very clear
metric that we can use to decide who
gets to stand for the gold medal at the
podium now imagine you take all that and
you nuke it with this die cult right so
that now I mean this is literally true
this is is not Gad satire okay
University of waterl is a prestigious
University in Canada that's kind of like
the Mi of Canada it's where a lot of the
engineering and computer science stuff
has come out of Canada okay University
of watero just had two open
professorships they're called Canada
Research chairs so this is the most
prestigious professorship because it's
the Canadian government that's endowing
those chairs right so this is very and
they're called tier one it's the most
senior chaired professorship one was in
artificial intelligence the other one
was in general computer science and I I
took a screenshot of their call uh one
says this call for professorship and
artificial intelligence is restricted to
uh people who identify as women
transgender
TWP uh what's the other one gender fluid
I I can't remember the whatever the
other one is okay I mean literally stuff
that you would think is insane and the
the other one was only for racialized
minorities or those who consider
themselves to be parts of racialized
minorities so Im so do you know who Alan
Turing is yeah okay so Alan Turing is a
gentleman who in my view is one of the
smartest minds of the 20th century so so
of in my long career as a student you
know I spent many many years in
University the course that blew my mind
the most was a course a theoretical
computer science course called formal
languages where a lot of the Turing
theories were uh described in that
course it's a level of profundity that's
difficult to imagine that a human mind
can come up with that kind it borders on
being a religious experience okay if
Alan Turing were alive and he applied
for those professorships he would be
turned down because he's not a
racialized minority or two spirit he's
gay he's gay I know I agree I agree that
might get him somewhere the Gay Part
might get him somewhere but it it
doesn't have the same coolness as it did
maybe 20 years ago you need to be a bit
more than gay now and so imagine that in
the 21st century this is openly FL right
it's it's not something that's hidden in
the back pages that's the official call
for that Prof for those professorships
so now come back to Biden is Biden
someone who stands up on the pulpit of
of of the poest
Podium and say this is insane or is he
the one who promulgates and sets up
mechanisms that promote the die cult so
if only it were that if on every other
dimension he were great which he's not
and and if he only were a supporter of
die he would be a much greater threat
than Donald Trump will ever
be okay uh I'm going to say that in my
words and make sure that I understand
because it's a very bold but a little
bit abstract idea anybody who attacks
the foundation of Truth are more
dangerous than somebody who may want to
uh be a dictator but he doesn't so
that's really a hypothe I mean if he did
would that change your math the checks
and balances of the American system are
such that I can assure you I can bet
every penny that I could ever own that
there is no pathway for Donald Trump to
ever be dictator that's the beauty of
the American system there's a million
checks and balances right it's not a I
mean it's it's starting to look like a
Banana Republic but it certainly
historically the the fourfathers of the
United States were unbelievably preent
and setting up all of these machinations
to ensure that none of this could ever
happen so I I can't buy into that
hypothetical but frankly there is
nothing more fundamental to the human
Spirit than the pursuit of truth if I
can get you to stand up as in a
confirmation hearing for the Supreme
Court and have a Senator asks you tell
me what a woman is and you don't have
the
epistemological confidence to say what
kind of dumb question is that of course
I could tell you what a woman is and she
answers if you remember well you know
I'm not a biologist what could be more
dangerous than that up is down left is
Right some women have 9in penises it's
the it's the violation of everything
that makes us human some women are very
lucky guys some women are very very
lucky some right and so it's not even an
abstract sense in a in a in a in a in
the true definition of what it means to
be human is we have a prefrontal cortex
that allows us to have a shared meaning
for what reality is once you engage in
the promulgation of these parasitic
ideas that I discuss in the parastic
mind where I no longer feel confident in
knowing whether men can menstruate
listen I Tom I literally get emails from
functioning adults Dear Professor sad I
know that you are an evolutionary
behavioral scientist who studies sex
differences so I'm just wondering is it
true now that men can
menstruate and I write back dear so and
so no men cannot menstruate you can take
that to the bank but the fact that you
have created such instability in that
person's mindset that they have to get
the impr premature of a professor to
tell them so tell me seriously because
I've got a 15-year-old daughter is it
only her that menstruates or can my
buddy Jack also menstruate if we've
gotten to that point what could be more
dangerous to the human spirit it's
interesting so I have no disagreement
about uh anything that attacks
deontological truth is going to create
derangements that will end the West that
to me is a very concise statement that I
will get behind uh
aggressively uh it's what I call the
physics of progress so the physics of
progress is simply in all aspects of
your life you're asking one question I
know where I want to go but I don't know
how to get there and so I'm going to run
a bunch of tests and see which ones
actually move me closer to my goal could
be being a better parent could be
running a business but you have to be
able to um say all the things you think
are true even if they are wildly
offensive if you actually believe this
could be true you need to be able to ask
it uh and then run an experiment and see
if you can get evidence so that you know
how to actually progress towards your
goal and assuming that your goal is
Honorable I'll just short circuit all
the comments I making the assumption
that your goal is Honorable it elevates
not only you but other people
okay so attacking that is I have a frame
of reference my frame of reference is
grounded in Western values and so that
to me is anathema to the way that we
ought to live I'm making a moral
judgment and and I'm very much here for
that um what I try to do when I look at
people like um I mean take Sam Harris
who's somebody I have a tremendous
amount of respect for but just
canot um see Trump in the same light
that I see Trump in
uh which for me is just very much uh
give me the data I'll look at it if I
see that the policies he's going to
implement do not lead me to where I want
to go then I would be very much against
him and if I see that they are right now
for me that one's just simple Biden has
cognitive decline I am not voting for a
mystery set of people behind the scenes
like that that is that's that's a
non-starter for me I don't even
understand um that argument but I want
to look at it from from somebody like
Sam's point of view and say okay if this
person really is a threat to democracy
well I care tremendously about democracy
so then the question moves to how do we
determine if someone is actually a
threat to democracy and that I'm very
open to having a debate out in public
let's see like what's the evidence for
what's the evidence against because I
agree I very much believe in the
government that we have it has for 250
years given us I mean just certainly
economic one of the greatest countries
that's ever been on the face of the
Earth so but getting people coralled
into how to approach the problem seems
like the problem right we can't get
people to agree on the fundamental frame
of reference from which we are going to
view this how do we get people on the
same page so that we have a a debate
that has a knowable outcome right
phenomenal question can I bore a pen I
want to use no no no uh imagine if this
were the cork of a wine bottle have I
talked about this before you have yeah
here or on my show was it I I've heard
you speak so many times I don't know
because it's going to uh in a sense
answer your question yep so there's an
expression in Arabic that says getting
drunk by smelling the cork of the wine
bottle so if this is the
cork look I'm getting drunk I'm getting
woozy right it refers to the fact that
you are of weak constituency in other
words that you don't don't really need
to do the hard work of drinking the wine
for you to get drunk you just take a
whiff and you're already Tipsy okay now
I take that Arabic saying and I apply it
to how people make decisions and so when
I say for example that you're getting
drunk by smelling the the obam cork look
I'm going to smell Obama you ready he
has such a malefu voice he has such a
radiant
smile he says such useless platitudinous
[ __ ] but it sounds like a Southern
Baptist preacher
and so he must be saying something
important right I didn't say I agree
with his fiscal policy I didn't say I
agree with his uh interventionist or
non-interventionist foreign policy I'm
simply getting drunk by the cork on the
other hand here is now Trump he's
disgusting he's borish right he's vile
he's contener he he lacks that
presidential quality he doesn't speak in
diplomates right he's he's in your face
he's a queen's guy and therefore I'm
using so now I'm going to get more
psychological there's a there's a
persuasion model often used in
psychology of advertising called the
elaboration likelihood model it
basically says that when you're trying
to persuade someone if I'm the
advertiser you're the consumer I could
engage one of two persuasion systems in
your in your mind either the peripheral
system or the central system peripheral
would be
the Cosmetic cues so for example if I'm
if I am advertising a perfume I don't
usually tell you here is the chemical uh
compound reason why you should buy this
perfume because that's triggering your
central cognitive processing and here
when it comes to a hedonic product like
perfumes it has to be a sexy girl on a
horse with her hair flowing and it just
says m right so I am queuing your
peripheral cosmetic uh system precisely
because it's a hedonic product on the
other hand if it were here are the eight
reasons why you should invest in my
mutual funds I probably shouldn't use a
sexy girl with her hair flowing to try
to convince you why you should put all
of your retirement money with our firm I
should actually give you real Central
cues real sub incentive cues and so the
problem lies so to answer your question
in this very hopefully not too
long-winded way when it comes to
choosing the leader of the Free World we
should be activating our Central route
to persuasion but 99% of people activate
their peripheral system so that when you
when I I actually engage people and I
say why did you vote for Justin
trudel three times right because he's
well he's just he's young he's he he
looked good with his children in his
hand he's got beautiful hair he just
speaks in a really Progressive Way no no
I I know I get it he's tall that's very
nice and I could never be president or
prime minister because I'm too short I
get that but other than his height I got
nothing right well maybe he legalized
marijuana and I'm a pothead okay so
therefore irrespective of the amount of
times that I try to invoke in you some
cognitive deliberation that you used in
choosing Justin Trudeau it always ends
up with cosmetic Q cosmetic Q cosmetic Q
so now let's bring it back to Trump I
think that people like Sam Harris and
the rest of those folks and I talk about
this in the parasitic mind view Trump as
an existential aesthetic injury right
see I operate I'm speaking now as Sam
Harris and the rest of those folks I
operate in the rarified world of the
progressive list people in Malibu and US
anointed ones can't really be anointed
if such a borish pig could Ascend to the
highest office now maybe I'm being fian
here but it invalidates my existence as
a progressive lisp guy look I speak with
a lisp you see because I am very
educated right and so if this pig can
become president it invalidates me I can
no longer look at myself in the mirror
and feel good about myself so he is an
existential threat to my ego not to the
world and therefore I there could only
be two worlds either I am in French you
say the anointed ones the good thinkers
or something is off with him and so the
only way I could reconcile that reality
is I've got to bring him down I think it
it truly is that because I've tried to
interact with my colleagues who
supposedly have many degrees after their
names and say but give me the specifics
of why you hate Trump it's never it's
always a reflexive disgust thing he's
disgusting he's racist he's Hitler but
why give me the specifics you can never
give it to me and so I think the only
way to be able to get people to truly
take these decisions seriously is if you
can get them to not take the peripheral
route and take the central route but the
central route is hard because it
involves thinking it involves most
people are cognitive misers they want to
use Mental shortcuts and one of the ways
that you use Mental shortcuts is you use
emotion as a shortcut to heavy lifting
right so if Barack Obama peace be upon
Him tells me that Islam is a religion of
peace or if George Bush said the same
thing to be fair then it's easier for me
to Simply believe him than to have to go
do the hard work of doing a historical
and canonical analysis as to whether
Islam is peace he said it shortcut it's
good enough Islam is peace so that's the
problem is that in a world of cognitive
misers people who don't want to think
you want them to rise to the occasion
and use their thought process to choose
a president I'm simply not willing to do
that because I'm a lazy
Pig okay uh you've got your finger on
something that I think is really
important this the idea of cognitively
miserly from an evolutionary perspective
uh the brain is just a caloric hog and
um if you have to keep that thing fed
you literally want to think as little as
you need to which is why we find
ourselves doing things habitually uh the
brain goes through a process called
myelination it melinates the patterns of
thought literally with a fatty tissue so
that the electrical impulses can travel
more efficiently so that they require
less calories so the things you think a
lot you will think forever and anytime
we can find you heuristic get that
shortcut and just be like oh um this
person said it and I trust them
therefore I trust all of it or and this
is really how things Break um which
tribe am I on cool what are all the
tribal patterns of voting I don't have
time to think through them all uh plus
nuanced ideas are very hard to hold and
I may just not be at the intellectual
level that I would need to be to think
through all of this uh so I'm just cool
voting down the line uh so I think
that's so in keeping with the biology of
the human animal I think that all of
that is true and you could be the
smartest person in the world and if
you're relying on heuristics and you
choose one that isn't based in
deontological truth you're going to have
a hard time where my mind breaks and
where I stop because to me so much of
this is about narratives where I don't
have a narrative that will complete
itself is that the Thomas Soul quote
seems to be what live out which is over
the last 30 years we have exchanged what
works for what sounds good yes now the
only way that I can sort of make those
connect is emotions that the reason we
go with what sounds good is it makes me
feel better in the immediate term once I
have the emotion I'm able to make a
decision like you were saying and once
I've made the decision I have no reason
to change plus every time that you tell
me something that sounds wonderful it
feels good again yeah uh and so I just
stay in but this feels good every time I
hear it I use feels good as a proxy for
right therefore I head down this path
now once you start doing that culture
will slowly derange over time and the
part that freaks me out is you from
where I'm sitting you should just be
able to say well hold on tell me what
your goal is and then look and see if
the policies lead you towards that that
goal and if they do keep voting for them
and if they don't don't why do you think
that breaks down so much good stuff
there so first of all there is a theory
in psychology that emotion researchers
use it's called affect as information
it's literally a Uris where you're using
your affective State as an informational
input in making decisions okay now in
many cases that perfectly works
well for the exact reason evolutionary
reasons that you said right so for
example when when my emotional system is
triggered because I see three young men
loitering in an alley and that raises my
blood pressure I get a bit of a a fear
response in that context that emotional
reaction was perfectly adaptive right on
the other hand if I'm trying to solve a
calculus problem on a 100% final exam
and I start being fearful that's
probably not a good response right so I
talk in the parastic mind I say that
it's not that we are thinking or feeling
animals it's that we use the wrong
system at the wrong time we invoke the
wrong system at the wrong time uh
regarding the urtic thing let me just
mention one uh if I can get nerdy a bit
so my doctoral training uh was in the
area of Behavioral decisionmaking and
the two of course gurus were tersi Amos
tersi and Daniel Conan Daniel Conan won
the Nobel prize in economics for his
work in psychology of decision-making
because he showed that contrary to what
classical economists think that we are
these perfect calculational machines
that engage in an endless utility
maximization calculation we don't do
that we use Mental shortcuts we use
juristic the where I depart from Amos
verki and Daniel conman although I'm a
huge admirer of theirs is that they
didn't root their research in an
evolutionary framework so what they did
is they they put the homoeconomicus
which is the what the classical
Economist thinks we ought to behave as
rational decision makers and then they
put their weapon on that and
demonstrated that the classical
Economist was wrong but they never
explained to us why the architecture of
the human mind is built the way that it
is so they were missing that
evolutionary angle and that's how I
eventually tried to marry my original
training and behavioral decisionmaking
and with an evolutionary framework are
are you with me so far y so what was
what was I got I got lost in what I was
answering so what was what was the
question was so I'm trying to figure out
why people don't realize oh wait I can
look at where I want to go and I can
simply ask is this policy or this
decision in my life actually taking me
to where I want to go I don't understand
why people are not obsessed with the
outcome they want because I think it's
exactly what you said which is in in the
immediate temporal window the feeling
good is what keeps me going right and
and forgive the I'm not trying to engage
in Shameless pluging my next book which
is not written yet about to sign a a
book deal it's called called suicidal
empathy well empathy is an emotion right
now empathy there are very clear
evolutionary reasons why our whole
emotional system has evolved right so
for example Envy while it while it is
part of the seven deadly sins also
propels us forward right so when you
think about keeping up with the Joneses
look at the [ __ ] next door that have
the fancy car and they're successful I'm
envious of them now maybe that will get
me off my fat ass and off the couch so
that I can match their signal right so
there are so much of the economy is
driven by positional Envy right and
that's perfectly fine so there are clear
evolutionary reasons for why each of the
emotions have has evolved the problem is
when empathy misfires so in answering
your question in a very roundabout way
so it's very easy for me because I'm
such a progressive kind and
compassionate person to say it's unfair
that we have the things that we have in
the US why should we be globalists and
let in anybody who wants to be in on the
experience of the American Experience
therefore it is racist to have closed
Bard borders why not the Guatemalans
coming in they're hardworking good
people they should be let in there but
in this case when you have you you
extend that logic at infinum you then
have open borders where 20 million
people come in and then you end up
spending more money on the illegal
immigrants that just came in than on
American American vets who fought to
protect this country right but it's
suicidal empathy because I'm a good
person I you know the homeless people
should not be marginalized and taken
away from their encampments where the
kids play because that would be a double
whammy on them society's already failed
them that's why they become D I'm
speaking now as a kind and empathetic
Progressive and therefore tough luck
kids if you have to play around with the
uh homeless people while they're
shooting up crystal meth and fornicating
in in the in the half open tent that's
just the price you have to pay for being
a tolerant and kind person right uh look
this guy has only been arrested 67 times
previously don't you think he deserves a
68th chance right because I am kind and
empathetic so at at the moment it is
always exactly to Thomas Soul's point
it's always easier because I'm such a
kind and empathetic person to do that
rather than what you were looking at
which is there's a goal over there and I
need to reach it because the the the
short window always overpowers the
longer goal and hence suicidal empathy I
can I can link pretty much every single
public policy disaster that you could
think of to the misfiring of empathy and
let me if I can put it in a a greater uh
framework
OCD okay obsessive compulsive disorder
is the misfiring of an otherwise
adaptive mechanism let me explain what I
mean by
that scanning the environment for
environmental threats is a perfectly
adaptive thing to do so for example if
you start now sneezing and then you
shake my hand and I get I recoil with
disgust and I go and I wash my hands
when you're not looking that makes
perfect adaptive sense what doesn't make
adaptive sense is for me to spend the
next eight hours in scolding hot water
until my skin starts peeling off
engaging in that ritual right so an
Adaptive mechanism becomes maladaptive
when it hyperf fires when it misfires
why is it hyperf firing now so in in the
case of OCD no no no in the case of like
what we're going through right now if
this is the death of the West is
suicidal empathy what created the
circumstance that would allow this kind
of hyper misfiring or not even
necessarily allow but create the Chain
Reaction where just keeps looping up so
it's it's several factors one of which
is self-loathing right so one of the
ways that I am Progressive is that it is
not okay for me to ever say that the
West is is a superior Society to other
societies as a matter of fact the way
that I show that I'm Progressive is by
self- flatulating that we are evil and
we're slave owners did that take over CU
in the 80s it was America's best [ __ ]
get the [ __ ] out of the way and I don't
know when that changed so that that's a
very good question question so in in the
in the parasitic mind I go through all
of these parasitic ideas
and the the this time stamp for each of
them varies from 40 to about 89 years 90
years ago what makes it that they all
then seem to appear out of nowhere is
that it takes a while for them to simmer
in the stew of [ __ ] until there's
the perfect cocktail to create the
monster that we have now right so take
for example cultural relativism cultural
relativism is the idea that it is
imperialistic of you to apply a
deontological principle in judging other
societies if other societies say that it
is our tradition to cut off the
clitorises of 5-year-old girls who are
you [ __ ] in Southern California to
say that what we do over there is wrong
right I mean that's that's literally the
statement so s but do you take it as
self-evident that that's bad and if so
why because shouldn't the 5-year-old
have the dignity to have their
fundamental conduit to sexual pleasure
later in life decided by someone else's
religious uh beliefs I mean doesn't
doesn't the CH now I hope you're not
going to come because usually when I say
this someone comes back but aren't you
Jewish don't you get circum circumcised
okay fair enough that's true the the the
H the eight day old boy has not given
their consent to have uh the
circumcision done on them if I'm going
to get jewy on you I would say I would
say that that does not stop me in the
future from appreciating sex to its
fullest cutting many of the genital
mutilation that's done on little girls
in some of those societies absolutely
does reduce if not remove your ability