Episode 351 Scott Adams: Gaslighting…and a New Microphone

Date: 2018-12-26 | Duration: 40:31

Topics

Anti-Trumpers believe their TDS is “gaslighting” by conservatives Gaslighting would make their TDS someone else’s fault Gaslighting explanation protects the person’s ego Is General Mattis our best General and irreplaceable? What about our second best, third best, etc? News spin promoted fear, impacted the stock market The media is destroying the economy and blaming Trump Did the Fed make a mistake raising rates? Could they have waited six months to raise the rate? David Pakman asked at what point is the bad market Trump’s fault?
Soros funds a number of left-leaning organizations You can know what a person does, but not what they’re thinking How much influence does he represent? We don’t know

I fund my Periscopes and podcasts via audience micro-donations on Patreon. I prefer this method over accepting advertisements or working for a "boss" somewhere because it keeps my voice independent. No one owns me, and that is rare. I'm trying in my own way to make the world a better place, and your contributions help me stay inspired to do that.
See all of my Periscope videos here…
https://www.pscp.tv/ScottAdamsSays/1nAKERDOwylGL
Find my WhenHub Interface app here…
https://interface.whenhub.com

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

## Transcript

[0:05]

[Music] ba-ba-ba-ba all right we're trying this again if my tests are accurate this microphone should work fine now there may be a problem with this one triggering a defect this is the I'm using the microphone now that was causing me all the problems the last couple of days but it's the only mic found that works apparently all right let's talk about gas lighting so you've probably heard on the news and you've and by the way if this if this glitches I'm just going to turn it off so don't look for me again I'll have to figure out what's going on if I get a technical error I'll just turn this off
yes let's start again with the simultaneous SEP get back on track join me for the simultaneous app all right

[1:14]

now you've probably seen the word gas lighting a lot you'll see the pundits saying it and you'll see it on social media and people are saying hey that President Trump is trying to Gaslight us or the Republicans are trying to Gaslight us and here's the interesting thing about this I'm not entirely sure if the people who are using the word know what it means it looks like they've just invented a new word it's actually an old word but they've they've appropriated it and they've changed it a little so that they can explain their own Trump derangement syndrome and I mean this literally I'm not joking so the the hypothesis here is that the reason that the word gaslighting is becoming popular in the world of Trump is that people can't understand why they're so confused and why the world doesn't make sense now here's what gaslighting real means and then I'll tell you how it's

[2:16]

means and then I'll tell you how it's being used by the pundits which is the wrong way now the way it what it really means is it's from a Hitchcock movie in which somebody intentionally and here's the key point if you take out the intentionally part it's not it's not the same definition but in gas lighting you are intentionally trying to create a situation that makes somebody crazy because they'll doubt their own perceptions they'll doubt their own sanity so if you are intentionally intentionally intentionally trying to make somebody crazy for some devious reason that's gas lighting the way it's used by the pundits is he's trying to make us believe something we don't think is true that's not gas lighting that's just politics both sides all the time in every race in every where on earth in

[3:16]

every race in every where on earth in every political transaction two sides are trying to present you a version of truth that is the one that they prefer and they would like you to adopt it labeling that gas lighting doesn't change the fact that it's just completely ordinary there's nothing more ordinary than a politician trying to convince you that they're not quite true version of reality is actually totally true now I keep talking to people on social media which is probably a mistake and what I say talking I mean you know messaging people who tell me it's obvious that the gas lighting is happening because it's everywhere it's all over the place look at all the examples of the gas lighting and then I asked for an example and then you'll never hear from them again because there are no examples in my entire life you know I study persuasion I'm a trained

[4:17]

know I study persuasion I'm a trained hypnotist you all know that in my entire life I've never seen or been convinced that gas lighting existed not in the sense of somebody intentionally trying to make somebody crazy so in the case of Trump he is extra persuasive and extra uninterested in the fact checkers so that's a different situation than what people are used to but it's more just more of what's normal so what's normal is politicians fail the fact-checking that's completely normal and they exaggerate and they use hyperbole and they you know they leave out context if it doesn't help them et cetera and somebody is saying that their ex-husband tried to make them think they were crazy nope the odds that your ex-husband was intentionally trying to

[5:19]

ex-husband was intentionally trying to make you crazy is very very low I can't say it didn't happen because I'm not there and I don't know but I've never seen it I've seen lots of cases where people are crazy and they're telling you that the world is different than you think and it makes you crazy I've seen lots of people who suspected other people were trying to make them crazy but I have never met anybody who actually tried to make somebody else crazy I don't think that's the thing you know somebody said I gasps elated my cheating ex well there's a difference between just messing with somebody and in gaslighting there are pretty big differences alright so here's here's the larger point the fact that half of the country had to invent a word because they really invented it because the the normal use of gasoline doesn't really apply her they invented a word to

[6:22]

really apply her they invented a word to explain their own Trump derangement syndrome in a way that made it someone else's problem have you noticed that because if I say I think I'm going crazy whose problem was that it's your own problem right so gasps legging is a way to take responsibility for your own mental state and blame somebody else for it and act like it was intentional somebody is intentionally making me crazy it's not something I did to myself oh no somebody else is intentionally doing it because I know I wouldn't go crazy just on my own hey how would I go crazy just sitting here I'm just watching TV how would that make me crazy unless evil people who were very clever with their psychology are gaslighting me and that's what's happening it must be a plot so when you hear gas lighting just know that you're seeing a conspiracy theory anybody who tells you that gas

[7:23]

theory anybody who tells you that gas lighting isn't a thing I'm sorry anybody who tells you that they're being gas lighted by the Republicans they're experiencing a conspiracy theory because there is nobody behind closed doors who were saying anything like yeah I think I'll make them crazy with my clever persuasion nothing like that's happening there are just people making their case there are people exaggerating there are people doing the normal things that politicians do but because President Trump is so disliked personally by half the country or more when he does something that's on them that is unambiguously good what are people gonna say they're gonna say I don't get it I don't get it I know he's Hitler but why did he do prison reform he must be gaslighting you or they say well we know he's he's a big dictator dangerous crazy man but why is he making

[8:27]

dangerous crazy man but why is he making peace everywhere why is North Korea making peace and Syria's making peace in Afghanistan he's drawing down troops and Yemen is talking to each other well somebody's gaslighting us because our world doesn't make sense the things we think are true do not fit the movie that's playing on the screen right in front of us so somebody must be this to us that's not what's happening what's happening is the president is doing a good job on a number of levels and CNN is making them crazy now let's talk more about that when people are talking about the economy it's traditional that you blame the president for anything that goes wrong in the economy and you give credit to the president for anything that goes right in the economy and in both cases it might have nothing to do with the president but traditionally we kind of

[9:28]

president but traditionally we kind of say are a good economy is good job for the president bad economy is bad job even if what they're doing doesn't make that much difference but what's different about today compared to say 20 years ago is that the president isn't the only player in the economy and here I'm not talking about you know the businesses themselves and the consumers obviously consumers and businesses are you know they are the economy but if you're talking about the economy you're also talking about a psychology you're talking about a psychology and if the president is persuading people in a positive way that's all he can do you know here you can do some policies and some trade wars and stuff but mostly it's all about persuasion that's how how do people think about the economy because that's what makes them invest or consume it's what drives the economy is the psychology of it so I would argue that Trump has largely gotten the

[10:30]

that Trump has largely gotten the psychology correct with the exception of minuchin 'he's play where i guess he scared everybody with some phone calls to sand banks so that was just a bad play but it also probably wasn't the president's play you know I think he's got an advisor who needs to explain himself but let me put it in this context imagine every bad thing you've heard about the economy and now imagine if the anti-trump news had presented it objectively instead of presenting it as the
the to the world just imagine every story that looks like hair on fire and then ask yourself could this had been reported in a way that did not make people's psychology about the economy get worse for example let's take the the resignation of general mattis how was that reported by the media ah my hair's on fire general mattis is

[11:33]

my hair's on fire general mattis is leaving he's the last adult in the room we cannot survive without him he's the greatest general who ever lived right that's the way it was reported what does that do to markets it scares him right now was that president Trump's fault because here's the other way that could have been reported and tell me if this is inaccurate in any way so it could have been reported this way general mattis did a great job winning in Syria now that the winning is done there are some differences in the administration and he figures he's not the best one for the job anymore so he has resigned as is very common for secretaries of defense is it's very common for a person in his job mattis's to have a short tenure here are all the examples of other of others in his job who also who also resigned because they

[12:35]

who also who also resigned because they had differences with the administration oh and by the way Obama President Obama also fired mattis for also having differences of opinions some of those differences of opinions included for example he did not want president Trump to move the embassy to Israel but it's pretty clear that mattis was wrong about that and so somebody who disagreed with president Trump and has been wrong on some of the things that we can see has quit to make room for somebody who is more in agreement with these the president oh and by the way through the entire history of humanity every time we thought there was a key employee who really made a difference and if that person quits were really in trouble we've always been wrong always turns out people are not that indispensable we just think they are what happened to Apple the company Apple after Steve Jobs

[13:35]

Apple the company Apple after Steve Jobs died stock went up a lot turns out that people we think are indispensable are not terribly indispensable and guess what I should I'm going to stop saying guess what and the other thing we know is that that the second best General in the US military doesn't suck imagine if the news report of this it's possible that the best general we've ever had just resigned but the second best General in the military is really really good and you know what the third best General in our military is really really good and you know what about the fourth best and the fifth best and the sixth best do you know what's true about the

[14:36]

best do you know what's true about the top-25 generals in the US military the finest military the world has ever seen they're really really good really really good so we'll be replacing somebody who was really really good with somebody else who's really really good so the news is that general mattis is going on to a new job but not much is gonna change things are going pretty well now did I say anything that's not true I don't believe I did I don't believe us have anything that's not true so if the mill if the news had reported it that way what effect would that have on markets the markets would have said yeah personnel change blah now suppose when the media was talking about trade let's say the media reported trade this way well things sure were a little bit scary when President

[15:38]

were a little bit scary when President Trump opened up trade Wars with basically everybody at the same time it's scary situation but now that we've seen that NAFTA has been renegotiated now that we see that he is actually getting better deals in his new tree negotiations now that we see that he's got a great relationship with President Xi and we see that he seems to be making progress it's going to take a long time to get where we need to but China is definitely responding and making some concessions and lowering some tariffs it might take six months to get there might take a year but for everything every dollar that we're losing because of you know trade problems with China we're making it up an extra tariffs so we'll we'll have to shift them some things around and take care of the farmers for example but in the long run we'll all be fine suppose the news had reported trade

[16:39]

fine suppose the news had reported trade wars that way is any of that not true did I say anything that's that's you know technically not true now it's technically let me be more precise the tariffs that were charging for Chinese goods they probably don't completely make up for the benefit of free trade so it may not be a one-for-one but it's not so bad right it's a completely survivable no big deal and by the way our economy is stronger than it's ever been and by the way there are more there are more jobs available than there are people to fill them it's the best possible situation for having a trade war now suppose the news had reported it that way is it the president's fault that they don't report it that way I don't think so I think it's just the business model of the press has learned that attacking the president and saying that everything's going to

[17:39]

and saying that everything's going to hell is good for business and you know there's no question about that because CNN has said that but if they pretty much said that directly you know Jeff Zucker has said it and almost as clear terms as I've said it they're reporting about Trump is where they make their money and reporting positive things about him he doesn't need to say this sucker didn't say this part but reporting positive things about him would not really play to his audience it wouldn't be good for business so there's boo so ask so ask yourself this if you're saying to yourself is the president making bad decisions about the economy you have to ask yourself how much is what the president does and how much is what the media does on their own through for their own reasons and for their own selfish profit I call it selfish but it's capitalism they can do

[18:39]

selfish but it's capitalism they can do what they want now let's take a look at the feds action people who don't follow economics probably say to themselves well there are a whole bunch of things in the news and they all sound kind of negative and Trump's even criticizing the Fed and basically there's this whole ball of things that Trump is done and said that are riling the markets that's the way it's being reported right it's not true that is fake news the true news is that the president's doing pretty much all the right stuff and the media is reporting then it's all the wrong stuff who's where's the fault there if the president does the right stuff in terms of the psychology of the market and the press is reporting that it's all the wrong stuff is the president doing it wrong I don't think so now you might say to yourself well Scott it's the president's job to manage how we see

[19:40]

president's job to manage how we see these things if the president is so persuasive Scott you say he's so persuasive why is it that the news can create this whole differ story about him and it's believable well the media is very persuasive it doesn't matter how good Trump is if the media has even more hours on TV and they're persuading in the opposite direction the media is destroying the economy right in front of us and here's the best trick the media is destroying the economy and they're actually convincing the country that it was because of Trump they're causing the problem that they're blaming him for now those of you who have studied economics fact check me fact check me on this is it true that all of our big stories that are riling the markets roiling or Eiling is it true that all of our big economic stories

[20:40]

that all of our big economic stories could be told honestly and objectively as now such a big deal so fact check me on that that there's nothing really going on that's such a big deal and to that the the business model of the press incensed them to create a story where everything's you know a crisis and it's all president Trump's fault is that true that their business model sort of forces them to go in that direction is it also true that all of this negativity coming from the press has an impact on the stock market true now is it also true that the Fed made a mistake let's talk about that now the president has said the Fed should not have raised interest rates as quickly as they did here's what the Fed did they took a market that was already nervous because of the trade war and

[21:42]

nervous because of the trade war and because of the way the business model of the media forces us to think about it as more dangerous than it probably is and then the Fed said we're gonna raise rates on top of that was that a mistake now some people say no it's not a mistake because the Fed is independent and the Fed is looking at the long term and they know that they do need to raise rates in the long term because the you know the economy is a little too hot I think that's true but could the Fed have waited six months to raise rates could the Fed have simply said that the trade war is causing some uncertainty that also will have will be a little bit of a drag on the market and as long as there's another independent reason for the market to be you know dragged a little bit we don't need to drag it more at the moment we'll just wait six months

[22:42]

at the moment we'll just wait six months see how this sorts out and then if it's still if it still makes sense to raise rates psychologically economically that would be the right time now I'm not enough of an economist to know if that six months would make any difference can anybody fact check me on that if the Fed had simply said what was weigh six months because all this trade stuff is too much too much froth which is way for the froth calm down then we know what we're dealing with can anybody tell me with some certainty that the Fed made the right independent decision given that the result was that the market tanked now historically the market has mostly been correlated with the Fed people who don't stand people who do not study economics may not know that well let me ask you how many of you knew show

[23:44]

let me ask you how many of you knew show me in your comments how many of you knew before let's say before today how many of you knew that the direction of the stock market was highly correlated with what the Fed does if they raise rates it's bad for the market if they lower them it's good for the market how many of you knew that so somebody is saying no a lot of you knew that right so I think in general the folks who the folks who watch this periscope are probably a lot more informed than the average person right because by the time you watch my periscopes you've you've watched all the news and and you're ready to watch something else all right so look how almost all of you are saying yes which actually surprises me now let me ask you this if I did the same poll with Democrats would Democrats know as universally as you all do would Democrats know that the stock market the

[24:47]

Democrats know that the stock market the biggest variable is the Fed because if they do know that why are they complaining about the other stuff because it seems like on CNN the only people who will say that are the the token Trump supporters that they let on once in a while but you don't see do you see Don Lemon or Chris Cuomo or Jake Tapper do you ever see them say well we're going to talk about the economy first thing you need to know is that the stock market the biggest variable tends to be the Fed Fed raised interest rates and we're seeing the market go down now that you have the context let's talk about some other things that might be bothering the market but there would be smaller variables have you ever seen CNN described it that way and is there anything that isn't perfectly clear about that and accurate and passes the

[25:48]

about that and accurate and passes the fact-checking passes all the fact-checking
so so here's the here's the frame because President Trump is the the focus of everybody's attention who's paying attention to the world lately you automatically are biased to think that whatever happens in his domain is either because of him are not because even the midterm elections they were not really about the president but we all talked ourselves into it being about him so everything that's even not the president is still about the president it's just how we've we've tuned our minds now so I got into a conversation online with David Pakman who invited me on this show by the way he's got a popular podcast now he's an anti-trump er on the left of the political divide and he sent online I think it was yesterday at what point

[26:50]

I think it was yesterday at what point do we get to say that the the stock market is tanking because of the bad decisions of President Trump so his point was at what point do you just say all these bad decisions they must be riling the market how do you at what point do you say all right it's obvious it's him to which I say and here's a technique that I'm gonna teach you in my book loser thing coming up but I'll give you a preview you've heard this before I think when somebody gives you a laundry list of reasons which is what I got it's like well what about this reason this reason this reason this reason you're the the five or six things that the president has done that are affecting the market now when you get the laundry list if you make the mistake of trying to deal with each one of them they'll just keep adding to the list and when you get to the bottom of the list you know what happens right they start back with the one on the top that you've already debunked like it never happened

[27:51]

already debunked like it never happened like you never had the conversation where you told them their facts were wrong and that that reason wasn't true all right you've all been there right you do the laundry list you work through it you get to the bottom and then they act like the first one had never been discussed before just like that conversation had never happened all right so you can't you can't beat the laundry list by talking about the items on the laundry list so instead here's what I coach you to do ask them what is the strongest point on the list and then you say I only want one and if they give you three which they will try to do say well which of the three what's your strongest point and would you agree that if I can discredit your strongest point there you'll go rethink the other ones because they're weaker than the one that I just showed you is worthless don't do for don't do more than that as soon as you engage with the second one yeah you've already lost you've you've gone the wrong

[28:52]

lost you've you've gone the wrong direction deal with one make sure it's the best one according to them and then dispatch it and by the way if you can't dispatch there best reason you should agree with them right if somebody gives you their one best reason and you go oh yeah that's actually a pretty good reason then you should change your mind you should change your mind and just agree with them if they're the best reason is actually pretty good somebody's saying but you've said it's not a one variable world correct it is not a one variable world but it is true that if you can shake somebody's confidence in their top a variable if they should go back and rethink everything else I'm not saying the other variables don't matter I'm saying that in terms of how you think about them if your best reason is debunked it should shake your confidence and the rest of your list that doesn't mean that they're fake but it should shake your confidence all right so try

[29:57]

shake your confidence all right so try that out by the way it works really well and what you'll find is that people will not want to give you their one best reason do you not do you know why people will not want to give you their one best strongest reason because they will realize they don't have one they will realize that all of their reasons only work because they're together so what is what has talked them into the whole is the confirmation bias that comes with each of these little pin pricks pin prick pin prick pin prick pin prick oh there's a big somebody's got a knife because I'm hearing a feeling all these pin pricks so they've talked themselves into it with this indirect you know confirmation bias evidence and they will realize if you ask them to give you your one best reason that none of them are strong all right it's literally like an alternate movie I

[30:59]

it's literally like an alternate movie I believe I've said that a few times where do we stand with Soros so for those of you who have missed my George Soros saga let me summarize it for you so I've been hearing for years George Soros is the devil and he's done all these terrible things and then I would ask people for the for what he's done and what would people tell me when I'd say what's wrong with George Soros they would give me a laundry list all right so the laundry list is not something that just happens on the left it's a universal thing so when people would give me the laundry list of what George Soros has done I would often say give me the best one what's the worst thing that George Soros has done because if the worst thing is baloney then maybe the whole things belonging and people flailed and they they they flapped around and they talked

[32:03]

they they flapped around and they talked about things he did when he was 14 that don't matter we they talked about him making money in ways we don't like which we can now like that but it doesn't really matter to American politics yeah the people who said he was a Nazi collaborator when he was 14 they're wrong of course so so people would start with the oh he was a Nazi collaborator and then when you debunk that which is easy to debunk he was a 14 year old kid he didn't participate he just happened to be there pretending to not be Jewish and but finally after months I think after months of asking people can you give me any example of what he's done that is directly so bad and the best answer I finally got was this that he's a major funder for lots of different liberal

[33:03]

liberal entities some of whom do bad things and I thought okay that that is one one easily stated reason that can be fact checked and you find that it's true that he does in fact fund a number of organizations that I think a hundred percent of them lean left and that there are organizations that you don't like and he has a lot of influence because he's putting a lot of money into them that's fair but it took a long time for somebody to come up with that simple one reason now you'd have to dig in deeper and say alright but what are these organizations really trying to do the part where it gets crazy about Soros is when you try to understand his motives that's where it goes off the rails if you say he's doing things that I don't

[34:03]

you say he's doing things that I don't like and it's objectively true he's funding organizations they have a different philosophy they're protesting they're doing things you don't like that's just facts but if you take that to the next level and you say that Soros is internal thoughts or something that you can see and understand and you see that they're evil and all he wants to do is destroy America and destroy freedom and make us all open borders and stuff if you think you can see that inside his head that's not good thinking because you can't in fact I can see no where I started asking about Soros was trying to understand what people thought he was trying to do like what is it do you think he's trying to accomplish and all of that turned into mind-reading and conspiracy theories and and weirdness the only thing you can know is what he

[35:03]

the only thing you can know is what he does you cannot know what he's thinking you can't at least you can't know it with any certainty all right so I think you could be it is entirely fair to say that you do not like saw roses influence and here's my bottom line in it because we can't tell how much he is influencing things because the groups that he's funding because it's not transparent in other words we don't know how much money he's giving to each group and therefore we don't know what he's asking of them we don't know how much influence he has over them we don't know how much of their policies are directly because Soros says you know I won't give you money unless you do this we don't know any of that and because we don't know that you are properly you are properly in a good place to say he is evil

[36:08]

because of the lack of transparency if everything he did with his money was transparent then you could disagree with it deeply but still wouldn't say it was evil all right yeah if somebody was giving a billion dollars a year to left the organizations and he and he reported it all and said look I'm giving this much to this group this much to this group and by the way I'm gonna ask them to do X for me and if they don't do X for me and that might be protesting it could be anything then there won't get money next year if we knew something like that then you could have an opinion about Soros that's based on the facts you could like his politics or hate them but he wouldn't be evil because he would be telling you exactly what he's doing here's my money here's what I'm doing with it here's what I hope to accomplish this is what the long-term vision looks like I think it's a better world I understand this um if you think that's not the way to go but here's why I think it's a good world and how here's how I'm spending my money if he did that then

[37:11]

spending my money if he did that then somebody's saying go open up open society I don't think that's going to tell me what you think it's going to tell me because it doesn't tell me exactly what he's funding with each of these groups etc that's sort of conceptual somebody's saying Soros invests to weaken the US that's mind-reading if you asked him would he say I'm investing to weaken the US is that something he would say because if he wouldn't say it then it's mind reading to assume that that's true all right so I agree with you that the current way he is funding things it's enough to be influential and if he's influencing us and we don't know what the details are of that influence you could call that evil I don't I don't think it would be out of bounds to say that's evil you just don't know exactly the details somebody says you're wrong

[38:11]

the details somebody says you're wrong on this for those of you who want to prove I'm wrong show me a quote in his words in his words that explained he has evil intentions in a way that is clear so send that to me and I'll change my mind he stated that the u.s. is holding him back from meeting his goals what is it that true of a lot of people I mean that's such a generic statement the the u.s. is holding me back from achieving my goals isn't that every country the don't all the countries in the world want us to do something different the quote about being a young Nazi being the happiest time is life he was a 14 year old and again I'm just I'm just gonna I

[39:13]

old and again I'm just I'm just gonna I think I'm gonna ignore forever the whole 14 year old Soros saying it's too dumb it's just too dumb to talk about a 14 year olds immature opinion when we're talking about an 84 year old billionaire it's just too dumb to even make that part of the conversation
he said it when he was in his 70s about when he was 14 all right I'm gonna ignore those all the rests it doesn't matter when he said it it doesn't matter when he talked about it he was talking about when he was 14 good lord that is how was that not obvious all right
he helped 2d platformer Alex Jones you mean one of his organizations did all

[40:13]

mean one of his organizations did all right that's enough for now don't get laundry listed oh man they the conspiracy theories around him are insane all right but I will talk to you all later