Episode 334 Scott Adams: Wondering if we got Everything Wrong About Russia

Date: 2018-12-12 | Duration: 37:24

Topics

Is the Russian government unorganized and incompetent? Putin personally checked…says Maria Butina isn’t a spy Does Putin know everything going on in Russia? Did he know somebody spent $4,700 on election influence? Prince Salman, was he in on the detailed planning? Or did he just give a generic “silence him” order? Mika Brzezinski calls Mike Pompeo a “Butt Boy” Homophobic insensitivity? Democrats: Women and men who believe in the superiority of women Millennials influenced by social media entering the job market Pro Tip: You deserve NO credit for accomplishments of others… …who happen to have the same skin pigmentation as you …who happen to have the same genitalia as you Judging people by their mistakes is “loser think” How they handle their mistakes is what matters 20 Year Rule of Forgiveness: Don’t judge people by anything they did or said 20 years ago Let people grow, evolve, improve

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
> 
> This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

## Transcript

[0:04]

pom pom pom buh-buh-buh-buh-buh boom ba-ba-boom hey everybody come on in here it's time for coffee with scott adams some would say it's already too late I'm a little bit late this morning sorry but I did a periscope for you last night so you'd have what to wake up to this is sort of like a bonus and so please join me in raising your class to the simultaneous up grab your chalice you mug your glass your container your stein and join me for the simultaneous M
so I have a new hypothesis I'm gonna try out about Russia we keep hearing all the use of Russia stories from Russia

[1:05]

use of Russia stories from Russia interfering with the election there's a Russian spy who's part of the NRA Russia's doing all kinds of stuff and one of the things we we kind of assume about Russia is that they're they're very capable and they're good at stuff especially the KGB so the the assumption is that the KGB is just you know super capable group and doing all kinds of stuff but what if it's nothing like that what if what if Russia and all of its you know entities are just really really bad at what they do what if they're just all bad what if the KGB just isn't very good what if the government is completely unorganized the the most ridiculous thing that I keep hearing about governments goes like this

[2:08]

about governments goes like this well Putin would certainly have to know if something something was happening in his government and I say to myself well that sounds like something that might be true in the United States if if some you know US entity were messing around with some other country the president would probably know probably but is that true in Russia do you think in Russia if there's you know let's take this alleged KGB spy what's-her-name Betina or bulimia or something who is in the NRA who was who was not trying to hide that she was a Russian citizen she was operating openly trying to get this whole @ra thing going and then I saw a clip of Putin saying that when this whole thing came up

[3:09]

whole thing came up he he contacted all of his heads of his security organizations and nobody ever heard of her and I thought to myself ok ok we know you know Putin's gonna lie about everything but on the other hand doesn't that sound kind of true to you does it doesn't it ring true that Putin himself would have no idea who this who this little spy was if she was a spy secondly what kind of a clever spy uses her real name says she's from Russia and tells you exactly what she's going to do and then does it right in front of you it's it's kind of a strange spy situation isn't it so go let's say just test the hypothesis that instead of Russia being this well-oiled machine in which Putin knows

[4:10]

well-oiled machine in which Putin knows everything that's going on what if it's the opposite what if it's a very unmanned Putin has no idea what's going on half of the time in any other big organization that would be the case the United States might be unique you know maybe a few other Western countries in which we probably would know everything that's happening or something like that look at look at any meeting with the President or you know any any statement the president makes on any topic does it seem like the president has talked to all the people who were experts in that topic and and he knows the topic from top to bottom not really and that's not exactly just a you know an issue with this president it's a big country he's a busy guy he probably doesn't know what's happening everywhere all the time do you think it's any different in Russia and the best example that is that Russian troll farm we've from the very

[5:12]

Russian troll farm we've from the very beginning of that story we've taken it for granted that Putin knew all about it and it's because the the guy who ran the billionaire who ran the troll shop was actually close with Putin so you Pope you know two and two together and say well Putin knows everything that's happening you know with his spooks and he certainly would know something that was happening with a with this billionaire that he knows pretty well so therefore Putin was in on and he authorized these bad memes that cost all of thousands of dollars well maybe maybe you can't rule it out but just try on this concept and see if it fits what if there are a lot of people in Russia at the billionaire level or at the government level who are just doing a lot of things and they don't run it all

[6:12]

lot of things and they don't run it all by Putin because Putin is sort of busy he's busy is it more likely that there are plenty of things happening in Russia or by Russians that Trump that Putin doesn't know about or is it more likely that he's got his finger on everything and unlike every other leader of a large organization actually understands what's happening everywhere all the time does that seem realistic so I think there are I think there are two ways to look at this Russian thing some people are saying absolutely Putin knows that I'm watching your comments absolutely Putin knows everything that's happening well maybe you know I think he knows what's happening happening in Crimea I think he knows what's happening in you know whatever he's doing with the

[7:13]

know whatever he's doing with the Ukraine I think he knows that I think he knows if he sends his bomber over here to get too close to US territory he probably knows that but did he know that one of his billionaire friends spent a few thousand dollars to make some memes that one on Facebook maybe but it seems like if he knew that he would have told them either don't do it or do it a lot better so to me it's a head scratcher whether he he actually knew all that stuff I thought this was the old theory mm-hmm now let's take take the case of Prince Salman the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and his knowledge of the murder of Jay shogi does it feel more likely to you that he was in on the

[8:13]

more likely to you that he was in on the detailed planning and he knew where it was going to go down and what was going to happen or does it seem more likely that he told his people shut this guy up one way or the other and then let them figure it out which one would be more likely because it seems to me that yeah he may have ordered him to be either co-opted or somehow silenced I believe I believe the order was that he needed to be silenced and then what we watched was them first trying to co-opt him in other words trying to not kill him but rather you know bringing him into the kingdom and then when that didn't work Plan B so it seems to me that the most likely explanation is that the crown prince gave an order that was sort of generic and then the the way it was carried out was maybe up to the the underlings that

[9:16]

was maybe up to the the underlings that doesn't make that doesn't take him off the hook by the way so there's nothing I said that would release the crown prince from responsibility because it's his people and he certainly would have given the order to shut him up but the way we think of this you know if you're thinking that the crown prince said yeah bring the bonesaw yeah probably not probably not I'm seeing some of you say that Mika has done something you don't like but I don't know what that is I'm gonna turn on my computer and find out what Mika said must be good something homophobic according to your comments so mika brzezinski I assume is who you're talking about here let's see what a mica mica anti-gay let's see what she said I got a look at

[10:22]

let's see what she said I got a look at something that happened in the last 24 hours
nothing from Mika you're probably telling me right now hold on now I'll have it in a moment 18 hours ago that looks good something about miik
nope can't find it it's on mediate all right I'll do one more try mediate weak persons No

[11:32]

yeah I don't see it can't be much of a story going to Don Junior's Twitter is that where it is all right we'll do a look one more place as you can tell I am NOT as organized this morning as I should be so go to jump junior let's see what you say all right so let's say more so mica just asked if Mike Pompeo is a wannabe dictators but boy what as a homophobic a term as I've heard lika called Mike Pompeo I want to be dictators but boy like that can't be real I'm gonna play this video that's

[12:51]

I gotta turn off my headphones here all right hold on for reasons that are unclear my speakers don't work all right
I don't know why but my computer speakers aren't working my headphones are working so yeah so there's just some sound problem I'm not going to try to fix today but let's say that she really said that that's pretty that's pretty outrageous so she should apologize well yes
yes so the 48 hour clock is ticking just

[13:52]

so the 48 hour clock is ticking just like everybody else everybody gets 48 hours now I'm not sure that you know you and I or maybe just I I'm not sure that it's up to me to forgive her because she didn't insult me she insulted the LGBTQ community and so it's up to them to either accept her apology or not but if 48 hours later she is not clarified or or apologized then that's who she is her apology is not really an apology oh she apologized about 20 minutes ago okay
let's see if I can find that will go to her Twitter totally agree with you super bad choice of words I should have said water boy

[14:53]

I should have said water boy [Laughter] like four football teams or something like that apologize to Senator Durbin too so sorry
I should have said a waterboy like four football teams or something like that yeah probably should have said waterboy well let me give you some social media advice if you're tempted to refer to somebody in social media by the intakes to their buttocks you're gonna have some trouble you're gonna have some trouble go with water everywhere that you could have said but say water instead so instead of up boy waterboy it works for everything instead of a pain in the butt it's a pain in the

[15:54]

of a pain in the butt it's a pain in the water just put water in there every time and you won't be now she's disparaging water boys that's funny she is disparaging water boys yeah I didn't think about that but that's that's actually what she's doing because if you're a water boy first of all you know why are you assuming gender but but second of all isn't all work worthy of respect you know obviously I don't even know if I would use the term water boy would you would you call somebody somebody's a water boy because the the essence of the insult is that a water boy is worth less than the people on the team the water boy and B it's insulting no matter what it is right

[17:01]

yeah lap dog is better doesn't insult the dog as much a water person
so anyway that's that's I guess that's the most fun thing happening so you have noticed that the that the news has become horribly uninteresting lately and it's because of the holidays things are well I mean every few days it heats up but it's not heating up with anything substantive so when the news heats up it's because the event is hyperventilating over some neumuller thing that doesn't make any difference oh yeah so Nancy Pelosi so I talked about this last night so Nancy Pelosi has cemented the Democratic Party as a place that's no place for men if you're a man and you're supporting the Democratic Party it's an interesting

[18:03]

Democratic Party it's an interesting choice let's just say it's sort of rare to be on a team that can sinners you unworthy of being on the team which is largely what the Democrat Democrats have become they'll are they've largely become a female oriented party that has a bad attitude about men and if you said to me hey Scott were we're forming some clubs yeah we're putting together some social clubs which one would you like to join how about the one that men are considered second-class citizens how would you like to join the club and I'd be like yeah let me join the club that treats me like I'm a second-class citizen
somebody says that's false Scott well part you are welcome to give reasons but it's pretty clear that the that women by

[19:04]

it's pretty clear that the that women by a solid majority prefer Democrats and it's looking like Republicans by a solid majority are supported by men to women who like men so I would say Republicans are a combination of men and women who like men as well as they like women that there seems to be the the branding that's happening now where the Democrats are women and men who who think that women are better than that [Music]
sounds like weak persuasion yeah there's no persuasion here at all I'm actually describing it in as close to an objective way as I can I'm not trying to persuade you of anything
so I've been reading up a little bit on Millennials

[20:05]

Millennials so apparently Millennials are 75% of the workforce and the the stereotype of Millennials and by the way I don't really I don't really buy into stereotypes of entire entire groups of people so these stereotypes I read in Forbes but you can use your judgment about how accurate they are to any individual they're not accurate to any individual but the characteristics were that they're not so much about the money as they are about autonomy and recognition so autonomy and recognition and you know accomplishing things so they want to feel that they're doing something and they're being recognized for it and they have a lot of freedom to do it and it makes me wonder if that mindset is more or less successful than other mindsets you know when when I was

[21:09]

other mindsets you know when when I was 21 and what I got out of college I was looking for a job the only thing that really mattered to me was how much it paid and whether whether it gave me some path to something better that would be even paying even better and so for me I was willing to take almost any kind of pain to get where I wanted and I thought that that's how it worked I thought I thought it doesn't matter how how much it hurts that's the deal the deal is you do stuff that hurts they give you money and over time you can work yourself into a better situation as I did but and I think it was the Forbes article that was speculating that what may have really changed the mindset is video games and social media and the idea is that video games and social media are somewhat immediate gratification you have lots of

[22:10]

immediate gratification you have lots of flexibility you know of what you do but you get this immediate recognition people like your thing and you know it's also kind of surfacy and you don't have to work very hard so imagine the rewards you get for posting on social media and getting lots of likes or playing a video game in which you succeed with in the video game you get it you're getting all this feedback all this positive feelings you know the chemicals in your brain I'm yeah happy happy happy happy and then you go to work and you go to work and everything about work is opposite everything about work is dehumanizing you you gotta beg for credit it's gonna take you forever to succeed at anything if you ever do so I don't know what that does to people's success but here's one of the things that I like to point out every now and then I'll put this in two

[23:12]

every now and then I'll put this in two different contexts one of the things that makes white people racist is they say hey look at all those white people who invented great things and you know they were very successful white people and then the racist says but I'm a white person too so white people are awesome but that white person who is the racist didn't into anything how does the racist get credit for what completely different other people did it's it's a strange the whole racist belief system is is so irrational that I don't even know how to call it racist instead of just stupid because you know there are lots of things you can say that are scientifically valid about differences between groups but the fact is the racist themselves the actual individual

[24:15]

racist themselves the actual individual racist did not invent anything didn't do anything so how does that person who is doing nothing but making a racist website trying to draft off of the successes of completely different people the people who actually make a difference in the world are 1% or maybe it's point Oh 1% and if you're not one of those people you can't really claim credit because people who have a pigmentation similarity to you did great how does that work same with men versus women I often hear men who were being sort of secretly sexist usually they don't say this in public but some version of men invented everything men invented everything well I'm the man I didn't invent anything I I do have a

[25:18]

didn't invent anything I I do have a patent but it's for something completely useless and most men 99% they didn't invent anything they didn't invent a damn thing so how can I take credit because I have a penis and some complete stranger 20 years ago or a hundred years ago or five hundred years ago who also had a penis who was far smarter than me once invented something like how do I take that as my accomplishment what what is the connective tissue it's like Oh there are very smart successful white people there for all the dumb unsuccessful ones get to get to be part of that success does it really work that way is any racial pride okay well okay is a vague way to ask the question I would put it this way racial pride either is either a useful to the

[26:19]

pride either is either a useful to the person who has it word is not useful if you can find a way to make it useful then I'd say it's a good thing for example let's say you were a member of some ethnic group that was routinely discriminated against doesn't matter who it is just any any ethnic group that is routinely discriminated against would it make sense for them to have ethnic pride probably probably because it might be part of part of the mindset that helps them succeed gives them a little a little bit of cushion and protection against other people's bad opinions and that sort of thing but suppose you were a generic white person as I am I'm about as generic as you can get would it be useful for me to have white pride I can't think of any way that that would be useful I mean I like I don't have a

[27:21]

be useful I mean I like I don't have a lack of pride and nobody is nobody is discriminating against me because other white people are bad in some way so in my case it wouldn't have a utility that I can see but if it did have a utility then absolutely so if there's somebody who is feeling beaten up because of their ethnicity generating a little bit of you know whether it's real or artificial pride and you're your group of people it might have some usefulness as part of your overall mindset you know as long as it doesn't dominate and push you in the wrong direction
I guess my bigger point is that you should not be taking credit for the success of complete strangers who happen to have genitalia that is roughly similar to yours that just doesn't make any sense and I would go further and say

[28:23]

any sense and I would go further and say that there somebody says gay pride gay pride had use that had so gay pride was a very smart very effective mindset as well as a political movement because they were they were very much the ones who are being discriminated against and and still of course by Mikah and other people still discriminated against yeah black pride gay pride yeah any group that feels put upon it probably is useful do you think of it in those terms in terms of being proud of who they are but it doesn't make sense it can be useful without making sense they don't have to be the same thing and in my case it wouldn't be useful so I don't take it too far

[29:31]

what's the opposite of pride in your race I would not think of it in terms of opposites I think you could either care or not care so disliking your race is kind of rare I don't know anybody who discriminates against themselves I suppose it happens but I think it's either a question of whether it matters where it just doesn't matter it's more like 1 over 0 not 1 or negative 1
men are arguably being put upon yeah men are being I think we're at kind of a turning point wouldn't you say I think we're at a turning point in society at least in the United States where being male is widely considered and I'll say widely meaning I don't know 40 percent of the public thirty percent of the public that's pretty wide I'd say 30 percent of the public thinks that men

[30:33]

percent of the public thinks that men are just bad humans and of course they're there no two men are exactly alike so it's a gross generalization like everything else the liberal indoctrination is to make you feel guilty about your white to maleness somebody said yeah maybe so
so somebody said is Micah's comment about but boy a firing offense it should be right I mean in order to be consistent it should be now in my opinion if somebody apologizes and by

[31:33]

opinion if somebody apologizes and by the way she didn't apologize to the LGBTQ community did she she said it was a super bad choice of words and that she she apologizes to Senator Durbin too which seems to be a different topic so sorry
yeah I'm not sure if saying you're sorry generically is the same as apologizing to the community she offended the gay community yeah I guess all day long people are going to be talking about whether mica should be fired since Kevin Hart was kind of fired personally I'm not in favor of firing people who who are being corrected and accept the correction so I would say this this case mica did something society collectively corrected her she acknowledges the

[32:34]

corrected her she acknowledges the correction that's about all I would ask of anybody so I would apply the same standard to mica that I would apply to Kevin Hart and it goes like this I don't judge people by their mistakes if you do if you judge people by their mistakes that's the case of loser think because we all make mistakes all the time we're in a continuous state of failure and mistake making it makes more sense to judge people by how they handle their mistakes so I would look to both Kevin Hart and mica and say okay what did they do about their mistakes and it seems to me that in both cases they they will say improved or increase but let's say they improved their understanding of other people's sensibilities in this social world in

[33:34]

sensibilities in this social world in which they live and they've learned how to navigate their society in a more enlightened way now is it is it just as likely that Kevin Hart would say an anti-gay thing today no it's not he he has clearly you know I hate to use the word evolved but it kind of works here Kevin Hart started as an imperfect person as we all have and he got a little bit better and this incident helped him get there maybe quicker than he would have mica clearly made an insensitive comment that was inappropriate according to society she fairly quickly acknowledged it and and said she was sorry I'm not sure it was that the apology and needed to be but still it's obvious that she has taken it as something that she needs to avoid in the future in other words growth you know and I say that about

[34:36]

growth you know and I say that about every form of of racism and sexism if there's if there's if there's one thing that we could say about everybody over a certain age and that age is pretty young but everybody over a certain age was an adult we used to be worse that's almost true of I don't know 95% of people 98% of people it's true of all of us we used to be a lot worse so if you judge me by who I was 40 years ago I'm not gonna look so good and guess what if I judge you by you know decades ago that thing you did that thing you used to think you wouldn't look so good either and so that's why I have proposed the 20-year rule the 20-year rule says that you just don't judge people by I stuff they thought or did or said 20

[35:37]

I stuff they thought or did or said 20 years ago because we're not really the same people we were 20 years ago now 20 is sort of a random number and you could you could apply it to you know five or ten or no or 50 years whatever you want but it's a good rule of thumb then if somebody's complaining about let's say George Soros I'm no fan of George Soros but when you tell me that I need to judge him by something he did when he was 14 when he's in his 80s I can't go there with you I just can't go there with you just do to far away I seem to have a phone around here somewhere that just dinged oh I need to find it all right but anyway uh I will talk to you later because I don't have much else to say today but let's let's let people grow let's let's let people

[36:38]

let people grow let's let's let people improve if they don't apologize and they don't improve well then judge them judge of any way you like but if somebody used to be bad even if even if used to be was yesterday and it's obvious to you that they understand what the problem is and it's obvious to you that they've you know they've said they're they're sorry's it's obvious to you that something has changed to make them less like that in the future I say we should applaud it so Kevin Hart and mica I put them on the same team in the same category which is two people who were imperfect just like the rest of us and showed growth let's be happy about that and Merry Christmas I'll talk to you later