Episode 426 Scott Adams: Talking About Stuff. I Can Think of No Reason You Would Want to Listen

Date: 2019-02-22 | Duration: 34:26

Topics

AOC…like everyone else, I can’t stop talking about her Being persuasive (she is), is different than being correct She’s changing how we think about things, that’s not terrible Mark Cuban Twitter poll about universal free local college
The capitalist version of free education CNN Van Jones is once again the only reasonable panel person Other panelist suggests maybe MAGA people ARE all bad President Trump’s tweet about “6G” 6G doesn’t exist…yet, but his point was future tech

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

## Transcript

[0:09]

hey everybody come on in here you know you want to because you know that it's time for coffee with Scott Adams I'm Scott Adams many of you are not and if you are prepared you have your mug you have your cup your glass your chalice your Stein perhaps a thermos I'd like to think you filled it with your favorite beverage I like coffee now join me for the simultaneous
sip good stuff so let's talk about AOC I want to not talk about her but I can't I can't help it I don't know if it's just that other people talk about her and so I just want to you know I'm I'm being persuaded by the herd or was my original analysis of her

[1:12]

herd or was my original analysis of her way back correct that she's a master Persuader and she can hold our attention like nobody else well I'll tell you what the
the uh uh I'm having a fascinating time watching the uh the reaction of mostly Trump supporters when I say that she's persuasive and people they holler they yell and they're talking about her and of course they talk about her some more so it seems that people have conflated the concepts of being persuasive with the concept of being right they're very different things I am completely convinced that AOC who I call rpos for racist not point of sale um so she is racist but she's also persuasive but is she right about let's say her most

[2:15]

she right about let's say her most recent uh statement is that although they chased amazon.com away why shouldn't the city use that money that they were going to give to Amazon in tax breaks why couldn't they just use that money for New York City stuff you know for uh lowering the taxes of low-income people for investing in the city and other people said AOC you don't understand anything about economics but wait a minute let me see I want to look at her
background uh um hold on hold on forgot she's looking at on television right now stop that yeah it's so hard to do a search for her because her name is too

[3:17]

long Cortez give me a moment there's a reason for this we're going to look at her educational background so she has a ba from Boston University what was her major let's see if I can find that majored in international relations and economics at Boston University she had a double major international relations and
economics so do you think that someone with a double major in international relations and economics from Boston University and by the way she graduated kumla Kum loudy Kum loudy come Loud come loudly uh c m space l a u d e I think it's pronounced come loudly no wait that's something else um so so she could have been suum

[4:18]

um so so she could have been suum loudly but that's still pretty good for double major now here's the question to you do you believe that she doesn't understand that tax breaks for Amazon were really about them not paying as much taxes as they would um ordinarily or does she think that the that the city took some of its own City money and was going to give it to
to Amazon it's an interesting question somebody says she minored in economics I'm look and that might be true but I'm looking at uh Wikipedia and it reads exactly this that aesio Cortez majored in international relations and economics so it says she majored in both but it's possible that she minored if Wikipedia is wrong but in in either case do you think she doesn't understand that and I'm asking the question without

[5:20]

that and I'm asking the question without actually knowing myself I don't know I don't know if she understands it or not but I'll tell you what I do know doesn't matter it doesn't matter a bit because she's only talking to the people who want to believe that that she's talking to people who want to believe that the city should have been nicer to its residents and less nice to the biggest corporation in the world are they the biggest they're up there um and so her message is quite persuasive to the people she's talking to she's not talking to Republicans if she did I imagine she would change her message to be more compatible with persuading Republicans we no longer live in a world where it makes sense to even bother trying to persuade the other team the best you can do is is persuade your own side and maybe you tip a few Independents if you get

[6:29]

uh so here's the open question we don't know why she understood but if she's a master Persuader uh chances are it didn't matter the details what probably mattered is that she she told the simplest version of the story which is that she's supporting the the low-income people and not the big corporations I guarantee you that 90 5% of the public doesn't know what's wrong with that doesn't know that CNN was going to produce money and then not pay all of it to the city that's different from the city taking its own money and giving some of it to um to Amazon now there is uh apparently excuse me now that's not a completely accurate description of the situation as AOC clarified herself in a tweet the part of the deal was they were actually going to give I think 500 million in capital

[7:29]

give I think 500 million in capital improvements or whatever to to Amazon so there so there was a chunk of that there was actually money from the city that was going to go directly to Amazon so that part is real and she got that right but the tax breaks are not something that you can give to the citizens or give to the give to the company because the tax breaks for Amazon were going to be tax breats on income that they had not yet earned and had never been earned before in that City so it would have been a tax break on new money as opposed to taking the money they already have and giving it to Amazon all right I think that's clear enough anyway my point is the people who are telling me that AOC is not persuasive if assuming that they understand the difference between being persuasive and being correct the people who say she's not persuasive are deeply um cognitively blind on this topic maybe not on other topics but on

[8:31]

topic maybe not on other topics but on this topic they are cognitively blind it is objectively true that her persuasion is dominating our conversation I'm talking about it you're thinking about it we're tweeting about it she's in the news every every Democratic candidate is essentially being compared to her they're all being asked about the green New Deal and I have to admit the green new new deal as crazy as it is in terms of being impractical has started to infect our thinking so that before we could have said I I don't even need to talk about that stuff it's just crazy now we're talking about it now suddenly we're asking questions like what is the best way to get to Universal cheap education remember we were talking about that's impossible before and now we're talking about but what's the best way to get there I saw mark cubin tweeted recently he he asked a little

[9:33]

tweeted recently he he asked a little Twitter poll I think it was yesterday and I I tweeted that around and he asked um people's opinion on the idea of making people's most local state college free to them so the his idea was that perhaps at least floating it as a suggestion that perhaps the only practical way to get to Universal free college with people who want to pay more given that option they can pay more and go to a different College if they want to but Universal free college would be making the you know I assume upgrading the most local College to you so that anybody wants to go there can now when have you ever heard that suggestion because that's sort of the capitalists version of getting as close as you can to something like free Universal College um without going full

[10:35]

College um without going full socialist so when you see Mark Cuban who is by no means a socialist I don't think anybody would call him a socialist when you see him seriously talking about not if you should have free college or if you should not but saying how what's the best way what's the most practical way is there one is there even a practical way when you you see that conversation happening it is unambiguously true that AOC is moving the needle now you could say Bernie got things started and I think that would be a a very defensible position but you cannot say that she's not moving the needle because you're seeing it as clearly and as objectively and and and as me measurable you could do Google searches Google Trends on every possible Dimension it is unambiguous ly clear that she's changing how we're thinking about things I don't know that it's bad now I

[11:36]

things I don't know that it's bad now I think it would be terrible if everything she suggested got adopted just the way it's you know drawn out in in its initial form but it is not terrible and I I'm going to say this as confidently as I possibly can it is not terrible the people with as much juice as as Mark Cuban are publicly asking the question how could we best get to free public education you see other people talking about uh online education is the way to get there I've suggested that as well and maybe it's some combination of online college plus a physical place I can tell you here in California and I don't know how common this is the the local community colleges offer a pretty robust range of online classes so even if you're going to the local College here a lot of those classes you're just doing on your computer and that's very common now it's

[12:37]

computer and that's very common now it's not unusual that's actually the common situation now so to see people like you know major capitalists asking about how to get there and could we afford it and is there a way it makes sense is a real big deal and I think that she's part of that even though that's not exactly what she's talking about perhaps um and likewise um you see people like me talking about how do you get to free health care for everybody or less expensive Healthcare those are those are questions that I think we spend more time on now because there is such a thing as the extreme left now I forwarded around this morning on Twitter there's another Twitter um a CNN clip in which van Jones is once again the only reasonable person on the panel um and he was reasonable in the sense that the the conversation was are

[13:39]

sense that the the conversation was are Mega people sort of all bad and one of the panelists actually took a run at suggesting that maybe all Mega people are actually kind of bad right there on television so right on CNN now she didn't the panelist did not say it explicitly but her suggested that well maybe they are kind of all bad fortunately the voice of reason for CNN van Jones was there to say that's the most unproductive way to think of this I'm paraphrasing but the idea was that you wouldn't you wouldn't want you know as a black people would not want anybody to say all black people are bad that's like literally the biggest problem so why would they do it against some other group when it's you know clearly not true that they're all bad it's it's the worst it's the worst way to organize a society when you think that just belonging to a group makes you bad

[14:40]

belonging to a group makes you bad because you're part of a group now that's true for the KKK but it's not not true for you know being part of a demographic group or being part of a political party
right um all right I'm looking at your comments here yeah there's the story about the an IRS agent leaked some tax information to avanetti I can't think of a worse disgusting thing than that uh but it's not it's not much of a fun story all so somebody's PR me to talk about 6G so apparently the the president tweeted that we wanted to get to 5G which would be the the faster internet after

[15:40]

internet after 4G the F the faster wireless internet and and then he said maybe even 6G and then the fact Checkers said wait a minute there's no such thing as 6G what is this President talking to and I remember laughing and thinking to myself um there might not be a 6G but don't you know what he's talking about isn't isn't this once again directionally accurate if it's true that there's a 4G and of course there is because we're all using it and it's true that we're working on 5G why would it not be true the sooner or later there's going to be something like a 6G now if it's like all the other G's everybody will argue about whether that's real 6G or it really 4g+ two or you know people are going to argue whether things are truly 6G or not but it is not wrong to say that if we're if we're looking at going from four to five

[16:43]

we're looking at going from four to five that maybe we should look past it to six even if we don't know what six is yet a perfectly reasonable thing to say that people attacked him for being
oh thank you for the super heart I appreciate
um so I've got a little bit of uh the flu so let me tell you about a conversation I had yesterday uh in this two movies and you know two movies on one screen World um when I said I had the flu I was talking to somebody who said there's no such thing as a stomach flu have you ever heard that that there's no such thing as a stomach flu that's a myth and I said of course there's such a thing as stomach flu the kind of flu

[17:43]

thing as stomach flu the kind of flu where you're vomiting and I don't have that one luckily but uh so we made a bet so the BET was is there such a thing as a quote stomach flu so of course I do a Google Search and the Mayo Clinic comes up as one of the top search reviews and it says gastro intis which is the official name and then in parenthesis stomach flu right so the source is the Mayo Clinic so that's my source the Mayo Clinic the Mayo Clinic says the technical name is gastroenteritis parenthesis stomach flu who wins the bet who wins the BET does stomach flu exist or does it not exist because it was put in parenthesis well the person I was talking to claimed Victory because there is only an official diagnosis called

[18:45]

is only an official diagnosis called gastroenteritis that's what you would find in the medical books but in common usage parenthetically stomach flu I do you do you need to know how the concluded it concluded with both people thinking that they had won based on looking at the exact same information exact same information Mayo Clinic gastroenteritis par parenthetically stomach flu and still with this simple example now most of you are you know you're watching this Periscope so you're you're biased in my favor so you're saying I won now it doesn't matter that I thought I won and it doesn't matter that maybe you think I won what matters and this is the point of my story is you can't convince somebody else that you're right even if you're looking at it there is no amount of evidence no amount of

[19:47]

is no amount of evidence no amount of proof no amount of seeing it with your own eyes that makes any difference to anyone people are completely unaffected by facts that they're looking at right in front with them it's it's quite amazing now I could also say that that's I'm really just describing what happened to me because I think the other person would say um you saw it right in front of you that it has a name it's called gastroenteritis and the medical name is not stomach flu that's just what people call it so I won everybody gets to win because everybody sees the world they want to see
all right was this another wealthy person uh no
no comment somebody says I am a doctor you are wrong um
um so from the doctor's P perspective whoever whoever it was that said you're

[20:48]

whoever whoever it was that said you're a
a doctor please give me a
detail so is it true that there's a flu virus that can affect you in your stomach in the sense that it will make you vomit and the answer is apparently yes all right can also gastro entis can also refer to food poisoning oh that's interesting so you can see you can see reality changing right in front of you so a moment ago didn't you think uh Mayo Clinic was just being politically correct you lost look look at the different comments and you're watching you're watching what you thought was reality shifting right in front of you because you're you're watching new people weigh in and saying uh I'm a doctor you're wrong
Etc somebody says if you're left to Bernie why are your followers right well that's um a good

[21:52]

right well that's um a good question um I'm left of Bernie but I also try to be objective about what works and I mostly started writing about persuasion specifically the the Donald Trump version of persuasion which made me appear very Pro Trump and so people who were Pro Trump for their own reasons found common cause with me because I say good things about uh his persuasion and I say good things about his outcomes when they are good but I also say bad things when when things are not working out for example I think he you know I disagree with him on statutes Confederate statues I disagree on um health care so there there's things like that somebody's asking me about when tokens for donating so we added a a donation button to the when the interface by whenhub app that's available now and so anybody can sign up

[22:54]

available now and so anybody can sign up to accept donations um at the moment it is is not hooked up so that you can donate wed tokens but that's uh that's a a future a future thing we'll do all
right winning an argument doesn't mean you were right someone says that is
true so people always ask me what does it mean to be left of Bernie and I'll give you my answer here here are some examples conservatives or general against abortion Liberals are generally okay with it under the right conditions and on left of that you know I'm sure Bernie is pro abortion under the right conditions but I'm left of that in saying that um men such as myself should voluntarily keyword voluntarily keyword voluntarily keyword voluntarily I say that three times because as soon as I say it somebody's going to act like it wasn't voluntary keyword

[23:55]

wasn't voluntary keyword voluntarily should opt out of the discussion meaning that women collectively if they come up with an opinion that's a consensus as a man that's what I'm going to
to back CU I don't think women as a group are going to come up with a much different answer than men would but their decision is more credible because you have a life and death death decision going on here and I'd rather have the most credible decision rather than the one that's my personal preference uh um
said magic word should well should is okay in common language but not as a substitute for reason I gave my reason which is credibility so when I said that uh
uh men right you're saying should it should without a reason is is just a trick should with a reason is a proper usage so I gave my

[24:58]

reason is a proper usage so I gave my reason that's a proper usage um I should have I should have it would have been more helpful to have said the first time I made that comment about the word should if you're lost in this conversation I've said in the past that when you see the word should in an argument somebody's trying to get away without using a reason now that's if the reason isn't there but if somebody says you should do this because it will save money the reason's there so that's the proper use of should but should without a reason makes you think that the reason's there without mentioning it all
right uh then uh I'm also left of
burning on uh religion so conservatives tend to uh believe in the Bible

[25:59]

to uh believe in the Bible uh Liberals are a little bit more likely to be non-believers although many of them are probably most of them um and I'm left of that I think we're probably a
a simulation so there are a number of examples like that U but none of none of that less and another example is I I think we should have you know I think healthc care that's affordable and available to any much and as well as education that's affordable and available to everyone is a good standard to look for but I don't think we can get there just by raising taxes we have to get there more cleverly sort of the I'll call it let's call it the Mark Cuban approach you know there's probably a capitalist friendly way to get to the things that the Socialist wants want but don't know how to get there capitalism let me say this better I'll turn this into a quote so you can have a py
py quote capitalism can get you what

[27:03]

quote capitalism can get you what socialism wants faster than socialism can get it for you dash Scott Adams so that's the frame that I think is most useful capitalism can get you what socialism wants better than socialism can get it for you so nobody wants people not to be able to go to college nobody wants people to have big college loans nobody wants people to not have um yeah I'm talking about nobody wants people to not have access to Affordable healthare it's just how do you get there and the and the capitalists believe that you could get there better through capitalism even if it takes a long time even if it's ugly even if they're you know bumps and setbacks but it's sort of the only path that we understand the the Socialist the pure socialist path to get to those things seem consistently bad oh let me let me talk about the most

[28:04]

oh let me let me talk about the most important thing in the world right now I feel as though there's always one most important question that that people have one uncertainty one one bad framing of things that becomes the biggest problem in the world and let me tell you what I I think that is have you watched conservatives try to explain let's say on television let's say pundits writers have you we watched conservatives try to explain why socialism is a bad idea because I have I've seen quite a few people try to explain it and every time I watch the explanation understanding that I already agree with the point all right so I'm starting from a position of thinking that capitalism is better than socialism so I'm already on that team and then when I hear conservatives explain the advantages or the disadvantages of socialism I think to myself I I don't know how those dots connect because you hear things like

[29:05]

connect because you hear things like socialism always leads to dictators that might be true but I don't know what the connecting tissue is I don't see the cause and effect I don't see the clear path from that so it always rings as
trying to tell me that socialism is a bad idea they do such a poor job of persuading that I end up thinking well maybe it's a better idea than I thought if somebody doesn't have a good reason against it I mean I was already biased in favor of capitalism and still you can't give me an argument that sounds good to me and I'm already on your side and so I ask you this and maybe you could do this in the comments have you what is the argument against socialism in in one sentence so here here's a little test for you um I'm guessing that the vast majority of you probably at

[30:05]

the vast majority of you probably at least 90% of you are clearly on the the socialism is bad train you know because that's who I attract to this this
Periscope uh social it's against the will of the people but that's that's every tax is against the will of the people uh depends on altruism not persuasive uh lacks the protections not persuasive centralizes power not persuasive stay sanction seal stealing not persuasive it's anti voluntary not persuasive uh it's a failed system not persuasive so all right so I have been given several points what have I taught you about arguments which have several problems it usually means people don't know um stop using the Marxist word

[31:07]

know um stop using the Marxist word capitalism just stop it is capitalism you're ridiculous it's ridiculous not to use that word that's a ridiculous comment um has to be sensually controlled all right so here's the problem when people talk about the problems of socialism they give you seven different reasons but none of those reasons are like they feel right they just feel like you're trying too hard let me put it this way the when people talk criticize president Trump and most of you are prot Trump um when they criticize the president have you notice that they they're all over the board it's not one thing he does wrong it's like oh there's this and this and this and he did this and he said this and he said this and he did this and he did this and he did this so it's not this one problem we have with the president it's 15 of them whenever I hear that I know that people don't have clear

[32:09]

don't have clear thinking I have to go in a minute um so if there were one maybe two good criticisms of socialism people would use those and that would be the end of the story so they would say socialism is bad here's my reason by the way there are seven other reasons but the only one you need to know is this one reason right yeah and I'm watching more reasons go by inefficient no upward movement blah blah so the antisocial ISM argument needs to be fixed because if the best you have is that you'll turn into Venezuela and then the other side says no we'll turn into Europe and Europe is fine you don't have an argument so let me say um in you know in my estimation of things the only thing that creates progress is a sufficient amount of you

[33:11]

progress is a sufficient amount of you know pain and selfishness and that if your system does not recognize people's selfishness and greed you don't have a working system but I don't know if that's persuasive so let's work on a good argument of of capitalism or let's say you know a capitalism with a little bit of socialism the way we have it now versus a more pure form of Socialism and let's see if you have an argument so and here's here's the terrible argument the worst argument is food shortages that's not a reason that's not a reason that's a projected outcome but where's the reason you know there is a reason but you didn't list it disincentive to work do Europeans have a disincentive to work you would have to demonstrate that the people in Europe are disincentive to work because what if somebody says what if the lowest 20% of the lazy unproductive workers don't work are we

[34:13]

unproductive workers don't work are we better off or worse off I don't even know all right but I got to go got to do some stuff and I will talk to you later while you're working on your anti-socialism arguments