Episode 384 Scott Adams: The Covington Kids, Kamala Harris and Fake News in General

Date: 2019-01-21 | Duration: 1:07:12

Topics

The 48 Hour Rule If someone makes a mistake, and atones for it in the form of a sincere apology, you should accept the apology even if you can’t forgive the person…and move on. Reasons given for not accepting my apology Attack vector on the Covington kids is now shifting Bad behavior at the event (by the children) didn’t exist Left claims: MAGA hats are a known racist symbol Left now looking for bad behavior by the children in the past Jake Tapper interview with Kristen Gillibrand Clearly, CNN has decided Kristen won’t be the candidate A clear pattern is developing, CNN is anointing Kamala How candidates are selected in America (Whiteboard) A few billionaires decide who the candidates will be The media cements those candidates for the public The public then has the ILLUSION of choosing candidates “You should have researched it”…The dumbest statement

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

## Transcript

[0:11]

Joanne here you are so fast as always the rest of you come on in here Michael Mustang girl hey Mike hey Duke oh no I don't know if that's your name um Bella drift wood Rock it's good to see you probably going to be a lot of traffic this this morning because people like to see me to see me being wrong that's always fun all right so let's catch up everybody um you are clearly aware by now the vast majority of you watching this that I like many people were fooled by a video that uh CNN ran of the Covington uh Catholic School boys and the story of course you all know the story it was it looked like the boys were the bad guys but when you see the full video you could see that however bad the boys were they were the best people at that

[1:13]

were they were the best people at that event everybody else was terrible but they were also adults so you're going to have to put a higher standard on the adults so you all know that um I had an original view that was uh mistaken because of the selective editing of the video I have apologized unreservedly in public Etc now here's what's interesting um I being the author of the 48h hour rule which goes like this that if somebody says something that's a mistake or they need to take back you should always give them 48 hours to correct or apologize and if they do and it's a reasonably competent looks sincere you should accept it and you should move on because it's the standard we would all want to be uh accountable to you know I

[2:14]

be uh accountable to you know I certainly understand if somebody says I can never forgive you for the rest of my life I understand emotionally why You' think that but as a society should we not
not agree that if somebody makes a real mistake like we all do we all do it's a universal trait of humans we make mistakes and then they they atone for it in the sense that they apologize and correct shouldn't we always accept and move on because you don't want to live in a world where you don't do that you don't want to live in a world where people don't accept apologies you really wouldn't it would be a terrible world so as as the simulation or fate would determine I as the author of the 48 hour rule found myself right in the middle of needing to use that rule sorry my cat is getting ready to accost me here

[3:23]

um say hi so buo would like to say hi all right uh so I made my apology on social media now I got a ton of push back from people on the right uh saying a number of things which I would like to criticize them for right now now eventually I had to tweet that I was going to start blocking anyone who could not accept my apology because I don't want to live in a world with people like that the worst people in the story are the people who didn't accept my
my apology that seems like a big statement right and it sounds like I'm I'm just making it all about me but whether it was me or somebody else you know it doesn't matter who's doing the apology apologizing you've got a story where there there was a lot of alleged bad behavior from outright racism to homophobia to terrible things but I'll tell you if you can't live in a world where somebody can make uh you know a very understandable

[4:26]

uh you know a very understandable mistake if you can't live in that world and then apologize you just the whole society breaks down if you can't accept that standard so I would say that's some of the worst behavior we've seen are the people who couldn't accept the apologies here are some of the things they said in defense of their opinion that they could not accept apologies one was that I'm an idiot for believing and here's the important word anything on CN CNN so and some people said wait a minute you criticize CNN almost every day true and and therefore how could you be so dumb that you would believe them in everything they say here's my answer I did not believe CNN I believed my own eyes if CNN had said I have a secret source that says some kids did some bad things I would

[5:26]

things I would said maybe not I better wait on that one right but if I see a video with my own eyes I'm not really believing CNN cuz I think they got fooled by the same video I I'd like to see the chain of custody of that video but I have a suspicion that they may have been fooled as well in other words it's the video that was the the problem not the fact that it was on CNN so anybody who tells me that believing a video you see on any network is believing the network well that's kind of a stretch I believed my own eyes which were wrong right I believed what was clearly in front of me and obvious and it was wrong now the dumbest people in this argument have said to me Scott you should have known to do your own research and dig deeper into this that's

[6:27]

research and dig deeper into this that's a dumb opinion right some of these opinions are matter of opinion matter of priority you know matter of philosophy Etc but there are other opinions that are just plain dumb right we live in a world where we're bombarded with situations it is not practical to do deep deep analysis on every situation that's not a thing you know I I'm making hundreds of decisions a day I'm not going to do deep anal is on all of them neither are you there's nobody who appli you people are trying to apply a standard to me that literally no human has ever used for their life or ever could it's not even possible to do deep analysis before you form an opinion on everything on just everything here's what does make sense sometimes the evidence is so clear that you're pretty sure you don't have to do any research uh somebody somebody turn

[7:29]

research uh somebody somebody turn turned that into research is dumb if you think I said research is dumb you're kind of the dumb one in this conversation uh I'm saying that in the real world doing research on every fact that is presented to you is not possible it's not practical Nobody Does it you don't do it I don't do it Nobody Does it you you pick your shots so if somebody says I've got this anonymous source and they say something that doesn't sound right to you well there's a situation maybe you want to wait wait for a little more information do a little Deep dive but if you see something with your own eyes and it looks obvious to you that there could be no other explanation jumping to a conclusion could be wrong as as in my example so I jumped to a conclusion that was wrong but that's not stupid that's just being fooled

[8:30]

stupid that's just being fooled right there's no such thing as somebody who's so clever that they can recognize all fake news the moment they see it that's not a thing and to all of you people who climbed onto my Twitter feed today to tell me that you can tell fake news just by looking at
it you're all blocked all right you're you're just not part of the productive conversation nobody can tell fake news just by looking at it you think you can because you've been right a number of times right but it's easy to be right to calling fake news fake news do you know how just call it all fake news you're going to be right so often that it will feel like you're Magic Hey I was right five times when I called out CNN on fake news because the other news told me it was
was wrong you're not you're not part of stop apologizing blocked

[9:30]

apologizing blocked all right anybody who criticizes me on the
the apology gets blocked because I don't want to live in the world with people like you I don't want to have any I don't want to have any interaction with somebody who can't accept a a legitimate apology there are certainly illegitimate apologies but mine clearly is not that nobody has nobody has suggested that I'm insincere about it right now some people have said that I must rep uh that I should do more I've got to you fund the lawyers for the children because I was part of getting it wrong I need to hunt down the actual people in the video and apologize to them and to their F families in person no I don't that's not a standard you you want anybody to adhere to people say stuff in public on social media all day long and the best they should do is to correct it when it's wrong now in my case uh let me

[10:31]

it's wrong now in my case uh let me check the traffic on this so I pinned my apology and it got a lot of viral traffic and I'm going to see how many people saw the apology versus the original incorrect opinion okay so the the replay of the apology and this is just the Periscope because I also had I think I got something like 10,000 retweets on the Tweet without the video 10,000 retweets I believe is my record I think it's the most retweeted I've been might have been one other but so the most attention I've ever gotten for a tweet or maybe second most at all time was the correction apology so it's you know 10:1 um impact compared to the error and then the replay the pinned replay of

[11:33]

and then the replay the pinned replay of the apology has 181,000 views typically I'll get closer to to 18,000 views for a typical video I took down the one from yesterday that I don't remember what the numbers were but it was probably close to that so I've got a 10:1 impact of the apology correction compared to the original error nobody in the story is doing more than I am to correct it nobody is doing more than I am at least in terms of ratio you know a 10:1 apology to error you can't beat that right 10:1 I would say at some point you have to say you've done enough right I'm not going to track these people down I'm not going to go to their house and intrude in their life and say oh I made a mistake I fixed it on social media but I have to talk to you in person they don't give a they don't give a damn about my opinion they

[12:34]

don't give a damn about my opinion they probably do care about social media which I've done what I can do to fix I mean what is reasonable to do all right now you think this story is over oh no you got some surprises coming I happen to be privy to some information that perhaps you have not yet seen and I would love to tell you where I got this but because it was a private conversation I'm not going to I will tell you that I had a a side conversation with a prominent anti-trumper who showed me um let's say another side of the story that is shocking right so there's more to the story that is absolutely jaw-dropping shocking and I'll bet none of you have seen it yet you're going to probably see it
it today I assume you're going to see some

[13:37]

today I assume you're going to see some stuff that you didn't know was coming I'll give you a preview um one is that the the issue of whether these kids did something bad at the event will probably be minimized in favor of other bad things they've done and let me give you a sample of some of the other bad things they've done as told to me by someone who's watching one of the other movies right and and it's a prominent person number one uh this and again these are not my opinions I'm presenting someone else's opinion number one the hats are a known racist symbol so wearing the hats if nothing else happened wearing the magga hats was a known racist symbol might as well be been wearing KKK robes all right this again not my opinion I'm telling you the other movies opinion now I thought about that and I thought this I have not given

[14:37]

that and I thought this I have not given enough credit to the Democrats for persuasion and I don't know how I missed this exactly but have you ever seen the situation where a political party successfully um successfully reframed someone else's uh political logo as a racist symbol I mean think about it one of the great persuasion plays of all time is to take this super successful you know hat logo thing which I think I'm pretty sure um Society will look at one of the greatest political persuasion plays of all time was the red the red hats for uh Trump just a huge success but the left has successfully started to identify it as a racist symbol now I'm not saying it's racist symbol I'm saying that they have actually succeeded in this so on their side it's it's so obviously to them a racist symbol that you can't even wear

[15:39]

racist symbol that you can't even wear the hat and I was thinking man imagine if could Republicans ever do that to the other side that is some seriously powerful persuasion so forget about what's good or right or what should happen just talking about the skill of it that's pretty impressive you have to you have to admit that if the other team can make you not even use your own logo they've done a good job of persuasion not a good job of being good people but good job of persuasion so you'll see that argument that the hats alone are bad here's another one and here's one you're not going to like cuz I'm going to agree with the critic here all right now this is not different from things I've been telling you forever here's a criticism that I think is actually a pretty good one why are miners because the the boys were all minors they were under 18 why are minor

[16:41]

18 why are minor boys uh giving us all their opinion about what adult women should do with their bodies because it was in the context of the the uh right to life march now now I want to be careful I'm not taking sides on the debate I'm not taking deci side pro-abortion pro-life I'm not taking aide I'm making a simple statement about who should be talking about the issue and one of the criticisms is why is a busload of 16-year-old let is boys telling adult women what to do with their bodies and I heard that and I thought okay okay I'm taking I'm I'm going to accept that criticism that's a pretty good criticism pretty good criticism no matter which side you are on on the on the thing now my personal opinion on abortion which I think most of you have heard is that um

[17:43]

think most of you have heard is that um my personal opinion okay this isn't what you should do I'm not suggesting what any of you should do I'm saying my personal opinion is that I personally should not have an opinion on abortion rights because because I'm a man and I think that we get a more credible outcome if women who are obviously completely capable and have more skin in the game make the decision and then just tell us what you want all right if you're in I'll back it if you're not in as a majority you know it should be majority uh decision and if you're not in I'll just stay out of it so my version my version of how an adult male should should play this is that personally I think I don't add anything to the conversation and if all I'm going to do is interfere with the conversation I say stay out now if you tell me that a minor I don't care if the minor is male or female if

[18:44]

care if the minor is male or female if you tell me that a minor should be telling adult women what to do with their bodies I say that's a foul we don't have minors informing adults what to do with their bodies period all right I I I think that's something all of us should agree on even if you agree with agree with the um the miners who were marching if you even if you're totally on their side miners should not be influencing adults on what to do with their bodies that's a red line right there that is a solid that's a wall that's a red line so when I heard this when I heard that criticism I said to myself okay I'm in I'm in on that you know that's one thing and I would go further I would say that the adults who allowed children to protest what adult women

[19:48]

children to protest what adult women should do with their bodies had you know had a bunch of men young men do that it's just the wrong it's the wrong look so that was fair um there are two photos that probably you haven't seen yet that are about the same school and the sports teams of these same schools that to me are clearly fake photos so when I look at them I say those aren't real right and I'm not even going to describe what they are because they're so obviously not real but they will certainly be persuasive to the people who say that these kids are bad kids in general you know independent of whatever happened that day there are two photos of them allegedly involved in the worst behavior you've you could ever imagine that do appear to be fake now you may start seeing them on

[20:50]

fake now you may start seeing them on social media I doubt you'll ever see them I'd be I'd be amazed if you see them on on like regular news because there so obviously fake but in the two movie World other people are seeing some pictures that would make the school but not necessarily these specific kids and nothing about that day but it would look make the kids at that school the boys look like really bad human beings all right I'm not even going to say what the pictures are because one of them is so fake that it's laughable I I'll tell you that one of the pictur that's clearly fake shows an adult in the scene as if he wouldn't M as if he wouldn't mind the behavior he's just sort of standing there okay didn't that didn't really happen there's no way that whatever was happening in that picture is the way it's being describe because the adult the adult there wouldn't just be standing there like it was no big deal uh and the second one is a type of

[21:52]

uh and the second one is a type of picture again I'm not going to explain what's in the picture cuz it's a it seems more obviously fake than possibly it's a type of picture we've seen faked before so there are other fakes that are just like this one now I'm not going to say that it's impossible that someday there will be a Nigerian prince who sends you an email and says hey i' you know you could make a lot of money if you help me get my money out of Nigeria so far every single Nigerian prince has been a scam you I think you all know what I'm talking about the famous Nigerian emails but that's not to say that someday there won't be a real Nigerian email I'm just saying it's really really unlikely and likewise with these pictures that the folks on the left are probably going to see today um it could be true but it's really really unlikely because it falls into a category of

[22:52]

because it falls into a category of things which are almost always fake so here's the bottom line if you think that people who are dug into a position are just going to change their minds you don't really live in the real world it's very unusual for people to change their minds you saw me correct my opinion but that's no big deal because I corrected it in a direction that I wanted to correct it I wanted them not to be guilty so you know I was I was springloaded to want the kids not to be monsters but you know my first impression was that they did bad stuff the corrected impression was I saw it in a context and it wasn't what I thought that's the hence the apology but people are going to kind of see what they want to see um I saw what I wanted to see and corrected to that position that doesn't make me a hero cuz I corrected to where I kind of wanted to be somebody just said where's

[23:53]

wanted to be somebody just said where's the simultaneous sip excellent question simultaneous sip coming up grab your mug your cup your chalice your container your thermos your glass your shock glass fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me for the simultaneous
sip all right let's talk about um Cal Harris who an now before I do I'm going to give you some context so Cala Harris announced she's running for president no big surprise but um now the fun begins so yesterday I tweeted around a Jake Tapper a clip from Jake Tapper interviewing kren gillibrand uh hope I'm pronouncing that right so she is also a candidate for president I think she's announced but in

[24:54]

president I think she's announced but in any event we all know she's running and I guess she was more conservative in the pass and Jake Tapper said to her um you've called the president's border wall plan racist and then he said why wouldn't your own opinions be racist since in 2006 I believe you you agreed with funding border security so why is it racist when the president does it but it's not racist when you did exactly the same thing and that was CNN and Jake Tapper asking exactly the right question now uh it was it was shocking to see actually cuz she sputtered and couldn't answer it and and you watched her presidential Ambitions just fizzle in front of you so CNN clearly is not backing Kirsten gillibrand and what I predicted was that

[25:55]

gillibrand and what I predicted was that you would watch CNN and not CNN alone you know everybody on the anti-trump side that you would watch them start picking off the weak candidates on the left because they don't want to have a real messy situation they need to get their top candidate whoever they want up to the top and clear out the weak field as quickly as possible so they're not cannibalizing each other uh I have predicted since I know for at least for the last 6 months I've been predicting that um Cala Harris would be the likely uh eventual candidate it seems to me the CNN agrees because if you if you watch the coverage of Cala watch How It's more positive and watch how all of the candidates who are not Kamala Harris get criticized by the pundits and I think you're going to see a very clear pattern start to develop so this is a prediction

[27:00]

start to develop so this is a prediction we haven't gone far enough for me to say that it's already happening but I will say it you know I'm not already wrong meaning that they haven't gone hard at Kamala Harris they've been very nice to her in their coverage and they have definitely been not nice to other competitors so Tulsi gabard and Kirsten gillibrand uh have gotten the tougher treatment so here's something you need to understand about the world and about how candidates are selected this is the actual way it happens people don't generally understand this there are some you know a handful of uh influential mostly billionaires media Mogul types who decide who the candidates are going to be typically Trump was the total exception to the rule because he was the billionaire and there's only one Trump and he broke all the rules Etc but the typical way that the world works is that a small group of people decide who is

[28:03]

a small group of people decide who is who they can fund basically you know who is it that would be worthy of their money and their attention they decide and then the the media uh that they control gets on board and then they brainwash the the voters and then the voters have the illusion that they have selected a candidate but the voters the only information the voters have have comes from the their chosen media and their chosen media is pretty much following you know not necessarily a specific memo but it's it it starts to become clear to everybody in a variety of ways who their their team wants all right so I'm not going to say that there's a meeting or there's a memo that comes out and they all read the memo and go oh okay we're all getting behind this or that what I'm saying is that in essence very very few people decide who the candidate is going to be the media will cement that view in

[29:03]

to be the media will cement that view in the public and then the public will have the illusion the illusion that they chose the candidate none of that's true and the way you can know that this is the case is that if you imagine all the different ways that a story could be told and and then you talk to any of the candid let's say any of the voters who are let's say on the left those voters will all mimic exactly what they heard in their preferred media if you just grab somebody on the street let's say 3 months before election day or or even 3 months before the uh primaries if you talk to any voter and say why do you like X they will tell you something they heard on television or something they read in in their friendly media they will not tell you something you've never heard all right that just doesn't happen and that's your tell that they're getting their story from you know from

[30:05]

their story from you know from essentially brainwashing all right
um I I just want to Circle back to this thought for the people who uh are are chastising me for being wrong in my initial view about the kids because of the video that I saw it is not wrong to believe your own eyes most of the time all right most of the time it's the best you have you know if you actually directly or even on video observe an event you know it could be wrong and often is and this is the perfect example of that but you don't have a more direct way to know reality there's no better way to do it right than seeing it and that can be wrong too as we saw so don't uh don't be the dumb people who say why would you believe your own eyes well that's what we do so I will

[31:06]

eyes well that's what we do so I will commit to you as a number of people have said Scott just make sure you never make this mistake again the mistake being watching a video and believing what I saw in the video I want to guarantee to you I will make that mistake again I guarantee every one of you watching this will make that mistake of believing what you see over and over again in your life you don't have the option of not there's no option of not believing what you see you can you can dis believe a story about somebody who talk to somebody you can dis believe somebody's spin you can disb believe a document the document could be forged you can disbelieve a lot of stuff but the one you're going to probably get fooled by every time is a picture or a video those are just too influential it's really hard for um you

[32:07]

influential it's really hard for um you know it's really hard for anybody not to be fooled by that and I'm certainly not going to commit to you that I will never be fooled by a video of an event that's not a thing I will be fooled I will be fooled by a video of event in the future I will be guaranteed and when I find out I'll try to correct it that's all I can commit to that's it somebody says Get the facts all right let's let's follow your brilliant your brilliant belief that you should do your research and get the facts let's let's just show you how brilliant you are and let's see I'm going to turn this around because I might need this
later oh good there's nothing on there all right so so all of you geniuses who piled on today and said I should follow the facts let me show you what that looks like so here's the initial

[33:07]

that looks like so here's the initial story all right and then there's the smart people the smart people who are giving comments and they do their own
truth and so these brilliant people are saying why did you stop here with the original story when all smart people know you need to do a little deeper dive you must get more facts you must research to get to the truth the people who say that are the dumbest people in the story these are the dumb people and there's no other way to say this unfortunately I don't want to insult you but it these are the dumb people here's why how do you know when you're done
how do the people who researched and got to the truth how do they know they're done with the research how many times have you

[34:08]

the research how many times have you seen people go down the research well and they say okay I guess I'm done i' I've got everything I've done all the research I'm done how do you know you're done if you were fooled here how do you know this isn't fooling you you have no way to know you have no way to know right let's say you're looking into climate science climate science um I'm calling like a well here's a little bucket on your well if if you get the story on climate science that's the surface and people say oh I'm not going to believe all the scientists say I'll go down and I'll look at the Skeptics all right skeptic tells me that the story is wrong now I've done my research I'm brilliant no you haven't because if you show the skeptic's argument to the scientist the scientist will tell you why the skeptic's wrong so now you're done right you saw

[35:10]

wrong so now you're done right you saw the story you listen to the Skeptics then you then the scientist told you why the original story was right you're done right no you're not because the skeptic will look at what the scientists said and the skeptic will say no the scientist is wrong and then you show that to the scientist and the scientist will say say no I was right the first time and here are the things You' forgotten to Infinity it's Turtles all the way down and eventually you will reach a place right about here where there's something you don't understand CU you're not a climate scientist eventually this argument will be an infinite Perpetual uh you know falling into things you don't understand until you get to a point until you I'm seeing comments that are making my head spin all right eventually you get to a point where you can't check it or you don't even understand it so the dumbest

[36:11]

it so the dumbest opinion is that you should have researched it okay that's always the dumbest opinion anybody who says you got it wrong because you didn't research enough that's the dumbest opinion because you can't research these things enough you never know when you're done there's no way to know you're done can't be done all right so don't ask me to do the impossible especially when you especially when you've never done it yourself all right
uh so I'm just looking at your comments now how did you learn to think that way oh that's a good question and it is answered in my new book loser think which I just handed in my first draft you're comparing science to a self-explanatory video no I have a chapter on people who say stuff like that though I'm not comparing them they are two examples that is different than

[37:11]

examples that is different than comparing
them now also the the other problem is what I call the failure of imagination so when when I saw the original video that I um that I incorrectly made an assumption about the reason that I I got fooled was a failure of imagination right I failed to imagine that there was any other way to interpret it then when the new information came out I said oh okay this is the new information but I'm making the same mistake again with the clarification am I not because having seen the claric I said to myself well I can't imagine anything that would change my opinion now that I've seen the clarification that's exactly what I said when I saw the first story exactly the same mental problem I

[38:13]

story exactly the same mental problem I said I can't imagine how this could be wrong and then when it was wrong I said I can't imagine how this new thing will be wrong but it could all right it could and if anything that I heard from my uh Source on the left today is true it would definitely change the story but I wouldn't know if it was true so it's Turtles all the way down
um see somebody says the video did not show the kids doing anything wrong um but I saw that I saw them doing something wrong it was an interpretation that was incorrect So when you say the video doesn't show it you're failing to understand the basic the basic nature of human beings

[39:14]

basic the basic nature of human beings that we can look at exactly the same thing and have different opinions and it doesn't necessarily mean one of us is dumb it doesn't it's not dumb to look at the same situation and have different interpretations that's just the normal way of all Minds so you can't say that the normal way humans are is is done that wouldn't make sense you should always look for multiple sources that's dumb here's why not the fact that you should look for multiple sources the problem is that there will always be maybe more sources you never know when you're done it's impossible to know when you've researched enough you there may be exceptions to that but sometimes
uh now I'm yeah now I've seen stories about uh allegations about the Native American Veteran and people are doing math and saying well he couldn't have really been in Vietnam when he said

[40:15]

really been in Vietnam when he said because of his his age Etc
um uh I would say I would not oh let me ask you this for those of you who say we should do your own research and keep looking down do you believe the people who say that the Native American is not the veteran he claims to be do you believe that because you first learned he was a veteran and then people did a bunch of research and they have evidence they believe shows that he lied about being a veteran are you done have you done your research and now you're done CU don't you think there's a little more research after that CU I don't think you're done but I bet a lot of people think they're done that's the illusion the illusion is that you only do your research until you find something you already were likely to believe this is the best okay this is the best way to say it in reality people

[41:15]

the best way to say it in reality people will do their research only as deeply as they have the the interest and the talent generally until they reach a point that they already agreed so in other words they're looking for a confirmation of their opinion they're not looking for research it feels likely you're researching but you're not um how about having a 24-hour rule of not comenting here's uh so I agree with the 24-hour rule except when you can see it with your own eyes all right if you see it with your own eyes do you really need to wait you know do you really need to wait week if you saw a video let's say you saw a video of um uh who was it Mel Gibson let's say you saw a video of Mel Gibson uh being stopped by police and saying a bunch of anti-Semitic things I think he was

[42:15]

anti-Semitic things I think he was accused of that so I wasn't there but let's say you saw a video of it would you need to wait would you need to do your re research to find out that somebody's on video let's say if you saw on video something that clearly was somebody saying a bunch of racist stuff do you need to wait no you don't you don't need to research that you saw it with your own eyes now I thought that I saw one of those situations with my own eyes and it was it was clear and obvious and I was wrong that's why I apologized uh but it is not wise to always wait 24 hours if you think there's nothing to wait for all right so you have to use a little judgment we don't live in such a clean world that waiting 24 hours always makes sense now I think this was a good cautionary tale because it sort of it sort of gives you a sense of how wrong you can be about

[43:18]

a sense of how wrong you can be about things you think are right so I think my own opinion about what is uh clear and obvious and incontrovertible has been now permanently adjusted so one of the questions people ask me is what are you going to do different differently next time and I would say it's not so much what I'm going to do differently next time you know what have I learned from this but rather my filter has been permanently reset so as skeptical as I have always been and I'm deeply on the skeptical side even I wasn't skeptical enough so so I took my skepticism which was a you know probably an 8.5 out of 10 and I just said man that's not enough being skeptical at a level of 8.5 and of 10 still wasn't enough I need to dial that up a little more maybe 9.5 so here's my answer I will never

[44:19]

9.5 so here's my answer I will never commit that you should wait on every story for 24 hours cuz there are some stories that just are so of obvious that you can't convince yourself that waiting makes any difference but I'm definitely going to be a lot more discriminating about how often I say you don't have to wait and that just shrunk to a very small number uh and it was a small number before but now it's now it's going to be minuscule so I have changed that's the change I can commit to so the change I commit to is that I will adjust my own sense of how certain I can be even when I've seen it with my own eyes that's the new part even when I've seen it with my own eyes I won't I won't automatically believe that now but that doesn't mean there aren't still things that are just so clear there's nothing to say about them all
right uh somebody says you think you are a God you're meat like all of us did I

[45:22]

a God you're meat like all of us did I just say something that made me sound like I thought I was God what video are you
watching it's an entire video talking about my mistakes and my inability to see the future and somebody said well you're calling yourself God I'm like that feels like exactly the opposite of what was going on here
um somebody said I made the mistake of thinking that Trump's enemies were acting in good faith no no I did not make make that mistake there was no point that I trusted CNN in at least as a mental process I believed my own eyes I looked at the video and it didn't matter where it came from why would it matter where it came from I believed my own eyes and I was deceived that's not me believing CNN believing CNN is when they have a

[46:22]

CNN believing CNN is when they have a secret Source I don't believe that but if I'm looking at the video I don't care who gave it to me if it's if it's if it seems that clear I'm going to be Fooled Again in the future probably but I'll definitely try to tighten my filter all right
uh you were on the sanctimonious side today what does sanctimonious mean I'm going to ask let me let me see if I make sure I know what santimon
means I I mean I know what it means in context but I want to make sure I have the right definition CU I don't want to say I'm not being sact demonus until I know exactly what I in making a show of being morally Superior to other people oh no I'm not doing that has anything I've done spoken to my moral superiority I don't think so I don't

[47:24]

superiority I don't think so I don't even think that's the topic is it is that have I talked about morality at all when I I think everything I've talked about is a practical a practical thing meaning when do you believe things when you don't what's a good system for society including accepting mistakes and accepting uh um accepting accepting apologies that's not a moral opinion it's not a moral opinion that you should accept apologies it's a practical opinion what it's it's a system that makes Society work more efficiently so if you interpreted anything I said as being a moral superiority I'm not even talking about morality in any way at all all right uh I'm preachy preachy may be in tone but certainly uh I'm telling you systems that I think work better than other

[48:25]

that I think work better than other systems and one of them is don't believe that research does what you think it does I definitely I'm preaching that you scolded the teens
parents uh in which context I think there are two different contexts you must be talking about um I would not take scold necessarily as uh as a description of what I did
like somebody says I'm claiming superiority because I apologized what was what was the alternative to that is the alternative that I'd be a better person if I didn't

[49:26]

apologize uh people have really really strong opinions on this whole topic about the kids I think I think it was sort of a perfect storm in which it took every if you think about it the the story with the kids took every emotional thing and put it into one story first of all it was about minors all right so anything about children has more more impact second of all it had racism it had it had different races uh it had uh something about anti-gay stuff I mean it had it had every every interesting thing you could ever
have oh somebody wanted me let me give you an update on my hot water heater this will only make sense for those of you who have heard the whole story so I'll just zip through it I had this long sequence of bad coincidences where everything kept breaking as soon as one thing was fixed another got broken so I did get my water heater fixed after it seemed impossible

[50:27]

seemed impossible several times it took an entire day and it was it was finished at night the moment it was fixed and those of you who heard my story about the simulation will understand this the moment my water filter was fixed something unrelated which is the warm floors um manifold which puts warm water under the floor to warm the house completely unrelated a different piece of equipment not physically attached to the water heater except by you know h es a completely different piece of equipment popped a leak as the plumber was standing there fixing the other thing so the simulation part of it was the weird set of coincidences that when one thing was fixed at the exact moment it was fixed another thing broke on and on and on and that that trend has continued and after the water heater was fixed completely unrelated a leak popped with no known

[51:27]

unrelated a leak popped with no known cause on an unrelated piece of equipment 10 ft away because simulation I can't explain it but it's been weird somebody says you've been that I've been seeming different lately I don't know about
that um I think I think I'm different depending on the story wouldn't you say there are some stories that I have more skin in the game so yesterday for example you have to understand how weird my life is you my life is just sort of not like not like other people um and one of them is that you know most of you just watched the news about the you know the Covington kids and you maybe made some comments on social media and that was your own involvement I made comments about the same story all of you were commenting on

[52:28]

same story all of you were commenting on except I became part of the story so I think the Daily Caller and Breitbart and um um at least one other major blog uh ran stories about me because of this story you know and the story was that some people were apologizing for getting it wrong the first time so when I comment on stuff I'm not just commenting I actually become the story simply by the commenting yet depending on what I comment on so there are there are stories which I have skin in the game and I'm sure that shows differently than when I'm just talking about something that I'm not really a part of did the repair man lie not not that I'm aware of I I think the plumbers actually did everything that I wanted them to do they just had an insane number of bad coincidences that could not have been anything they were doing

[53:36]

uh this was a bit personal it was personal it was personal because I was part of the story that's what I'm
saying um
yeah how is my girlfriend Christina she's great and we're great
breit bar yelled at me no breit bar was just telling the story about some people apologizing they they were descriptive they were not putting an opinion on it in in my case
um your mistake helped turn it around well let me ask you do you think that my apology uh and my my clean reversal of opinions do you think it changed the story in any important way I mean you

[54:37]

story in any important way I mean you know every everything's part of the story but do you think that my involvement actually change the the nature of the story in some national way because I don't see that I I don't see my I don't see my involvement being part of really changing the story I think I'm just part of it
could it be you analyzed the future better than the now that's a great question so somebody said am I better at predicting the future than I am at uh interpreting what I'm looking at in the moment such as that video uh I've never thought about that question I would just say that everybody is bad at interpreting the present we're we're sort of universally all bad at that um but sometimes people are better at predicting the future [Music] uh your apologies set a positive example

[55:38]

uh your apologies set a positive example I don't know there's no way to know that my guess is that the other people who apologized probably would have ended up there the the fact that maybe I was early in that process I don't think it was really influential maybe but I don't I don't see clear evidence that somebody's asking if Ruth Bader Ginsburg is deceased the answer is no the answer is
no um people use me to analyze the now well you should use as many sources as you can stand but remember you can never research it
enough uh with all respect you should listen to your audience more um really here here's the thing that bothered me the most maybe I haven't said this as clearly the people who said

[56:40]

said this as clearly the people who said they were positive it was a fake from the moment they saw it are not credible voices in this because if all you did is disbelieve everything the other side says that doesn't make you a genius let me say it again if you if you reflexively disbelieve everything the other team is saying that doesn't make you the smart one in the conversation all right that that makes you the dumb one in the conversation the if you're not looking at every situation as freshly as you can and as objectively as you can you you you're not really in a strong position to criticize me all right if and I can't tell you how many people criticized me yesterday and today for not believing that the other team is is wrong 100% of the time they're not wrong 100% of the time

[57:43]

time they're not wrong 100% of the time and you do know that they think your team is wrong 100% of the time so if your belief is that the other team uh all their facts are wrong all the reporting is wrong 100% of the time you're not part of this thinking the thinking population you you're you're just a bumper sticker with a spine all right maybe a bumper sticker with a central nervous system if all you are is a bumper sticker and you're coming to criticize me for having an independent opinion you don't have much you're not standing on the Solid Ground there somebody says it's a pattern it's not 100% pattern if you were to actually take the news that CNN reports and actually make a list what's true and what isn't most of it would be true I know you don't want to hear that now their interpretation of the news often would be you know different from

[58:43]

often would be you know different from what you would call true but if they report that somebody quit if they report that there's a war if they report that something blew up if they report that the president has you know said he's going to run if they report that Kamal Harris says she's going to uh you know run for president most of what CNN says is
is true their interpretations of it of course are are you know and how they how they put a spin on it of course is opinion but if your opinion is that 100% of what CNN says is untrue you're you're not smart enough to talk on social media I mean you you you've missed the bar right you're honestly I hate to say it you're just not bright enough to say opinions in public you're just a you're a bumper sticker with a central nervous system and you probably shouldn't join the smart people talking did that sound arrogant and what

[59:46]

talking did that sound arrogant and what was the other word uh what did somebody call me earlier sanctimonious uh it's not santimon cuz it's not a moral opinion it's an opinion about what works and what what what doesn't work as assuming that one of the new sources is 100% wrong 100% of the time that's not thinking all right um which side is the side of love
both it's definitely not true that one side is in favor of love and the other side is evil I'm pretty sure that's not the case somebody said I didn't say patterns were 100% then why would you treat them like they're

[1:00:46]

100% patterns can you know tell you maybe the odds but they certainly can't tell you what
is you're adding to the body of evidence that white people are held to a different
standard should I care about that should I care that white people are held to a different standard I think it depends on the situation because uh for example you know adults are held to a different standard than minors for example if there's a fight that breaks out in the bar men are held to a different standard than women you know let's say a man in a woman got into a fist fight I don't think they should be treated with the same standard because you know assuming that the man is the larger uh creature in the story there are lots of situations where you should not hold people to the same standard I think you have to look at each one you have to look at each

[1:01:55]

uh distrust any Sensational story at least a little
um yeah I think that's the lesson here I I I think we should narrow the lesson I would narrow the lesson from the Covington situation if if people are saying the lesson is you should distrust everything CNN says I don't feel like that's the right lesson I think the right lesson is video lies far more than you could imagine that's that's a good lesson right cuz it wouldn't have mattered I'm pretty sure that if I'd seen the same video on Fox news or any other source my opinion would have been the same and wasn't it on Fox News well correct me if I'm wrong can can somebody inform me did the video that played on CNN that was just the small video of the interaction with the the the Native American guy and the guy in the Hat was that video also on Fox News can somebody clarify that

[1:02:55]

on Fox News can somebody clarify that did Fox new news play the same or similar video as CNN played that was just the tight clip of the interaction can somebody answer that cuz I I assume they did right because it was the it was the video most people were talking about and it was short so I don't think it's a I don't think I would have had a different opinion if I'd seen it on a different network I I was basing it on on being fooled by a video so that's the lesson the lesson is video lies and video will lie more aggressively every year because the technology will allow that to happen and there will be more videos so whatever you thought of CNN that probably should stay the same but whatever you think of the power of videos whether you see that video well let me ask you this if you saw a video on your favorite news Fox News would you

[1:03:56]

on your favorite news Fox News would you believe it if you saw a video on a new source you trusted and let's say many of you might like um drudge or Fox News or something would you trust it cuz CU if you would because it was on a source that you trust you haven't learned the lesson I don't think the lesson is the independent of who has the video the video itself can be the lie and the people who you know publish it may not be aware of it because they they might have been lied to by the video just like you are so I wouldn't put the trust in the publishing platform I would I would say that the video is what you should question no matter who was presenting
it talk about how we can be doped up on emotions well I think everybody knows that story right we we can get such a rush from our opinions and our emotions it actually just feels good and we're

[1:04:58]

it actually just feels good and we're just chasing the high because wouldn't it be didn't didn't you feel a high when the story was very you know anti-trump supporter on day one but then you saw it reverse in your opinion anyway It reversed completely didn't you feel a high most of you who are you know Trump supporters didn't didn't that feel like an actual like oh that's so good that's so good right that's what's driving your decisions it's not your Great Brain that's that's done a bunch of reasoning and came up to an opinion it's your
emotions how can you assert that race relations are hurt by CNN and yet they love because you are making a mind reading assumption that the evidence does not support the mind reading assumption is the CNN is intentionally uh slanting the the news to be racist because they're evil

[1:05:59]

to be racist because they're evil people I don't think that's an Evidence the evidence is that they believe what they're saying and believing what you're saying and trying to fight against what you believe is racism you could be right or you could be wrong but you're not evil if you're fighting against evil as you see it and it's an evil that a lot of people would agree with you could be wrong but it would be hard to be evil in that case
um some people are making the Duke lacrosse comparison I would say there's no
no comparison Duke lacrosse was based on human testimony Am I Wrong believing human testimony we already knew was a dicey proposition uh but believing a video that you're watching with your own eyes a lot of us didn't know how lying a video could be and and now we've been informed our filters have

[1:06:59]

filters have changed all right
um did Q lie all right I'm not going to talk about Q we'll talk to you later bye for now