Episode 428 Scott Adams: Eating Salad With a Comb, Syria Non-Withdrawals, The Gaffe Deficit and more

Date: 2019-02-23 | Duration: 37:25

Topics

Contrast and direction are what matter in persuasion Contrast current President Trump with current anti-Trumpers Michael Steele on MSNBC, even the host wanted clarification Steele’s comment was wrong on unprecedented levels As socialism is flowering in AOC and others, Venezuela is rotting Best possible contrast for capitalism versus socialism Comb-salad eating Amy Klobuchar angry with staffer Story probably isn’t exactly what we’re hearing Black History Month White House event Watch the video closely, OBVIOUS respect and affection Breadline Bernie versus Crazy Bernie The search for his most effective nickname Crazy Bernie is the clear winner The supply of hate crimes is less than demand for them by the left What is the rate of interracial marriages? Has it increased over time? Good indicator of the state of race relations More racial crimes are being reported Does that mean more are happening, or just more reporting? Diane Feinstein’s meeting with 9 year olds promoting New Green Deal Children should not be involved in politics Chris Cillizza thinks President Trump “certainly”… …made people more comfortable airing bigoted views Really? Aren’t we at PEAK intolerance for bigoted views? Zogby poll: suburban women Trump approval increased recently Reason: They want the wall

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:07]

I'm pom pom pom pom pom phone hey everybody come on in here you know what time it is don't you I'll bet you do it's time for coffee with Scott Adams and the people who are fleet of finger and quickly snapping their way in here you're all ready for a little thing I call the simultaneous step and if you would grab your mug grab your cup your chalice your stein your a thermos if you will fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me for the simultaneous sip mmm hello you crazy cat somebody says to me and hello back so there's a lot of news but it's the news looks strange recently correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that the news has turned far less

[1:10]

me that the news has turned far less negative to president Trump in my room am I wrong about that it used to be that the you know the entire page of CNN was just president Trump does this of that and you know how I always like to point you to what I call the negative space you know you have to look for the the dog that isn't barking yet if you're looking at a piece of art it's not really good composition unless there's a negative space so you can't ignore the negative space even though it's easy to do it and here's some negative space for you here's some things that maybe you didn't notice but it you know maybe a snuck up on you correct me if I'm wrong but I believe we have entered the longest contiguous stretch where President Trump has made no major gaffes gaffe as a reward you said nothing provocative

[2:12]

provocative am I am i right about that it feels as though he's remember after the midterms and so after the midterms the president wisely I believe said that he was going to change his town because part of the thought about why the midterms went against the Republicans is just the president's approach now since then is it my imagination or has he become far more presidential if that's the right word I sort of like modern presidential myself but well the six G thing was just his usual hyperbole they had no no provocative element to it what do you even call that I would not call that a gaffe I think that was just him him being future looking like he always is so without that what do you have well if if he doesn't make new provocations they have to sort of eat lunch on the old

[3:14]

have to sort of eat lunch on the old ones right the old stale of provocations the old stale stories what's the biggest old story Muller it looks like Muller this is going to be a big nothing how many people predicted that the Muller investigation would turn out nothing about the President and about collusion I know the anti-trump are making a big deal about unrelated people having legal problems because of this but most of you predicted it I predicted it it seems seemed like the you know the most likely outcome to me from the start the tax returns they'll never get the other little of stuff they'll never do and how about that impeachment huh have you heard about impeachment lately when was the last time you saw the word impeachment in the headlines it's been a while what happened to that did did he

[4:15]

while what happened to that did did he suddenly not become that person so the things that have happened recently are you saw the prison reform you see the economy is still screaming and now the president's getting ready to go over to to meet in in Vietnam with Kim for the second time and here's the other thing that doesn't get reported and it makes me a little bit crazy that I'm the only person who says this that you've never heard this anywhere else I believe and it's this when the anti-trump er say well the president's not really done anything with North Korea because they still have their nuclear assets and they have not explicitly agreed to give them up therefore nothing important has happened stuff has happened but it's not important because they still have their their nukes totally missing the real story the real story is that President trumpet took away North Korea's reason for targeting us with nukes he took away

[5:16]

for targeting us with nukes he took away their reason that's way better way better than even taking away their nukes which you know we'd like to get to that too but what I say better I mean this no matter what North Korea does with the nuclear assets they have we're never really gonna know if there's a secret site we're never really gonna know if they've developed their capabilities so they could turn it back on when they want to we're never really gonna know that the thing that protects us is the same thing that protects us from being nuked by France do you know why we're not afraid of France having nuclear weapons those are on our side that's it they're on our side and and what President Trump has done is he's turned Kim into basically somebody who's a potential ally a potential economic development partner and he's completely

[6:20]

development partner and he's completely redefined the relationship I would say that were the safest we've ever been by far in terms of North any potential you know conflict and have you seen that reported what I just said that President Trump changed the relationship and therefore removed the reason for us to be afraid of them there's no reason anymore they don't have any positive there's just no motive he just took the motive away and he correctly read the situation as being a personal it was a it was sort of a personal situation and as soon as he got personal with Kim as soon as he treated him with respect suddenly you know things look better so you've got that going on and it's going to be harder and harder for the anti jumpers to make that into a bad situation because it just simply isn't it's one of the most it's probably one

[7:20]

it's one of the most it's probably one of the most impressive maybe the most impressive thing I've ever seen from the president name one thing that was more impressive than President Trump solving a major nuclear showdown with persuasion and and basically just you know a better strategy name name one thing a president has ever done that was more impressive than that I can't think of anything can you and and I mean that now certainly you Nick Singh goes to China yeah Nixon goes to China that's a pretty good example I'll give you that one although I would argue that yeah Nixon goes to China was still a little bit more of an obvious play but that's in the category all right so I'll give you that one so in the in the context of the

[8:21]

that one so in the in the context of the anti-trump press not going after Trump so much and in the context of pretty much everything Trump is doing is going right so the latest news even on Syria so the last thing that Trump did this sort of split the country a little bit we're saying he wanted to get out of Syria and there were plenty of people who said no no you're not listening to the experts we need to keep keep forces there there are reasons etc and then today's news is that he's decided to keep 400 troops there which apparently the experts say is enough to keep Turkey from attacking the Kurds and you know to keep our footprint there but 400 people is also a small enough number somebody says 200 they 200 was the original the original idea and it's already been up to 400 so 400 is the latest number not 200 and even Lindsey Graham who was a huge critic of pulling out of Syria now even Lindsey Graham says oh yeah

[9:22]

now even Lindsey Graham says oh yeah that's that's smart so we reduced our footprint without giving up much in terms of capability so this again is an example of the president making sort of a leadership call and then the experts weigh in he listens to the experts and then he adjusts to me that is the healthiest thing you'll ever see I love the fact that he overreached on getting completely out of Syria that you know that's an underrated aspect of leadership a good leader is asking for more than more than you think you can give or even more than you think you should give that's that's what he's supposed to do it's the same reason by the way I'm being consistent it's to say to me the same reason I have a lot of respect for the green new deal even though the details of it seem impractical it's such an aggressive ask that from a leadership position in terms

[10:23]

that from a leadership position in terms of leadership it challenges you and you watch you see in the news people are talking about how to get there you know instead of talking about should we do something like the green New Deal people are starting to say okay how would you do it like what are the various ways you could get there that that's I hate to tell you that's good leadership even if you don't like where it's heading the the leadership element is great so the president does the same thing he asks for more than we think we can give him as a country and then the experts come in they negotiate it down to something so so the president is acting not like a dictator the president has got a court that his people like he's got an economy that's humming international things seem to go well there's a apparently there's some kind of a peace plan that's floating for the Middle East I haven't heard about Yemen lately I think they're probably still in the ceasefire I'm not sure about that fact checking on that

[11:23]

sure about that fact checking on that North Korea is looking good Syria's winding down basically you know Israel loves this president but it gets better because one of the things I always tell you about persuasion is that what matters is contrast and direction those are two things to keep in mind but what direction are things moving like what's the trend because that we're more influenced by the direction of things than where things are where things are doesn't matter if the if it's moving it's moving good we're all happy even if it take it's going to take a long time to get there we're all happy that it's moving good so the direction is important and then also the contrast what what does your brain automatically compare the topic to and of course with President Trump he is automatically compared with whatever anti Trump errs are doing so what have anti Trump errs been doing lately well there's the state

[12:26]

been doing lately well there's the state of Virginia there were a lot of anti jumpers you know the governor the lieutenant governor the Attorney General and they're all in a world of trouble about blackface and the allegations doesn't be to stuff and sexual abuse and stuff so they're anti-trump errs they're not looking good then you've got the Jesse smollett case an anti-trump er and that doesn't look good then you've got the the Covington hoax with the smaller hoax and you've got two examples where the anti-trump ours jumped to conclusion only have to take it back so there's building a sort of a tsunami of anti-trump er mistakes yeah and and then you saw Michael Steele who had been the head of the Republican Party the RNC so Michael Steele who I think you'd call

[13:29]

so Michael Steele who I think you'd call an anti-trump er well no you would call an anti-trump er he just happens to be on right he goes on MSNBC and he says that he believes he thinks it's possible anyway the Trump isn't happy that that authorities arrested the white supremacist who was thinking about killing everybody in the world he actually said that in front of other people in front of witnesses Michael Steele said on television that he thinks that maybe President Trump was disappointed that a white supremacist did not shoot a bunch of people what even MSNBC I don't know the name of the hosts but the the woman who was the host of that show stopped and basically said well we got to drill down this I'm paraphrasing but she said you know I just want to make sure I'm hearing this and and then she asked him asked Michael

[14:33]

and and then she asked him asked Michael Steele are you are you do you think that if the attack had happened and the white supremacists had killed a bunch of people do you think the president would have been okay with that or happy about that and Steele actually said that well that's sort of like an open question you know you worried that he might have been happy about that about a white supremacist mass murderer Michael Steele went on television and said he thought the President of the United States might be okay with a mass murder by a white supremacist just because it was white supremacist so that would make it okay a peril oh my god yeah it was so gross let me let me tell you how bad it was I tweeted the article and you know I said it was me the most effed up thing I've seen in years and it got all kinds

[15:33]

I've seen in years and it got all kinds of retweets I think it was over over a thousand retweets and I ended up deleting my tweet and the reason I deleted it was not because it didn't make the point it's not because it wasn't what I wanted it to say I deleted it because it's so ugly that I don't even want to I just don't want to give it any air it was it was just so wrong it was wrong it was wrong on a galactic level like a level that you've never seen before I mean I think an unprecedented level of wrongness you know just crazy wrongness so but that's an anti-trump err so that the story I'm getting to is that there is a whole list of anecdotal bad things happening to anti-trump er I don't know if it's coincidence part of it is not a coincidence because the president is frankly getting better at his job the Muller thing is winding down and

[16:34]

the Muller thing is winding down and that's gonna look good for him I think and the president's apparently has decided I'm not gonna read his mind but based on the evidence it appears he's decided to stay out of trouble because that's his best play right he's got now he doesn't have to he doesn't have to rely on talk because he has performance you know he can just point to his performance he doesn't need to talk as competition anymore you can just say well I did this you're talking you know you're talking but I did all this stuff it's not even it's not even close if people are objective but here's my favorite part because we also have this context of the Democrats jockeying for position you're seeing you're seeing lots of comparisons to Venezuela what could be better for this president than to first of all being you know tough on Venezuela's you know dictator so that's good people like that but at

[17:35]

so that's good people like that but at the same time it sets up that contrast it's that you know that liberal versus not liberal the Socialists versus you know the US capitalism free market kind of system so he could not be in a better situation you know as much as I have great sympathy and empathy for Venezuelans if we're talking about it just politically at the moment you know if we can separate that it couldn't be a better situation politically for this president while he is also in a sense competing against socialists within within the US so that's that works in this favor and then my favorite story in The New York Times did you see the story about Amy Klobuchar eating a salad with a comb it's my favorite story so the so

[18:36]

a comb it's my favorite story so the so if you don't know the story Amy Klobuchar running for president as a Democrat is alleged to have a bad temper and being hard to work with I don't know how true any that is but the story and who knows how true it is I'm assuming some details are left out to make it worse she allegedly got so mad at her a staff member for not bringing a fork to a flight so I guess cloture had a salad but she had no Fork and so she was mad at her assistant for forgetting the fork and so she ate the salad with a comb and then gave the comb to her assistant to clean it now I'm gonna say that I think most likely there's something missing in the story right I don't believe that this story is exactly what you think let me give you an example of what it might be if you fly first-class sometimes you get a little kit that's got stuff like

[19:37]

get a little kit that's got stuff like toothbrush in it and and stuff if you're gonna be flying a long time so it might be that it was there was a comb but it might been an unused comb that was still in the plastic you know and it was as clean as a fork so if she was hungry maybe she took it out of the plastic used it to eat her salad now I'm just speculating I'm just speculating what I don't think happened is that she took a used comb you know still nasty with hair and a the salad with it I think that probably didn't happen but that's essentially the way it's being reported and what could be better for this president the worst thing that the worst thing that Trump has been accused of is eating fast food which yeah the public does too but he's being compared he compared to somebody who it's you ate a salad with a comb I mean this is wonderful stuff contrast wise just

[20:38]

wonderful stuff contrast wise just wonderful stuff let's say did you see the The Black History Month meeting in the White House so the president gave a speech with a roomful of I think either all or almost all African American folks who are there to in to celebrate Black History Month now you really have to watch the video of that because you know I do believe that politicians of course can be actors politicians can be actors right and you don't know if they mean what they're saying and you know you you're always wondering okay but what do they really feel but watch the video the Black History Month video of President Trump interacting with the group of people in that room in my opinion and again we can only know what we see right we can't read his mind

[21:38]

what we see right we can't read his mind but in my opinion it was such obvious affection and in such obvious comfort that I just don't know how you could look at that and say yeah but he's just faking that that's he's just a big ol racist he's just pretending to to like the people in that room it didn't look like that to me I mean I know I'm I'm in the tank for Trump I know that I say more good things about him than bad you know I do I do have my complaints as well but it is true that I'm far more likely to say something good about it than bad but judge for yourself judge for yourself look at that video and tell me that doesn't look like genuine affection and genuine respect it looked real to me all right in a way that you don't often see people are asking me about nicknames for Bernie Bernie Sanders and the two that are floating

[22:40]

Sanders and the two that are floating around mostly social media are bread line Bernie and that's been compared to the President's Choice apparently which is crazy but crazy Bernie I think he's been using crazy burning for a while and now the bread line Bernie is based on a video in which very old clip of Bernie Sanders talked about bread lines and socialism you know socialism leading to bread lines and he made a very awkward comment saying that bread lines are good now the context doesn't make it as bad as how it came out but the point is that that video was going around it makes them makes it look pretty bad but the problem is most people will never see that video so bread line Bernie is a bad choice for a nickname because it relies on people seeing a specific video out of context whereas crazy Bernie every time you see him outside his hair is blown

[23:42]

you see him outside his hair is blown out and he's is you know he's nearly 80 and he's talking about talking about stuff that some people will think Walker is crazy and some people won't but he sort of has the physical look of that crazy uncle who doesn't make sense so if you're taking the president's normal pattern he likes to have a physical reminder of the nickname alright so you want to be reminded all the time breadline Bernie you would not be reminded by looking at him because he doesn't he doesn't look like a breadline but he looks crazy I don't think he is crazy in fact I have lots of respect for Bernie because he's definitely changed the conversation in this country and he's over performed but he looks crazy if we're being honest all right there's something that Greg Gutfeld said the

[24:43]

something that Greg Gutfeld said the five the other day that I like so much I immediately wrote it down and it's here again how you can sometimes miss the good news when you're looking at the bad news the bad news of course was Jesse Smollett and that whole situation that was a lot of bad but as Greg pointed out that the the supply of hate crimes now the demand for hate crimes exceeded the supply think about it if it were if it were not for the the Jesse's mullet hoax there just don't seem to be enough hate crimes and when I say enough I'm not saying I want more of them I'm saying that why is the smaller story so special it's not special just because he's famous that's a big part of it but it's special because it was unusual it was a

[25:45]

special because it was unusual it was a quarter attention specifically because it's now something you see every day I have literally personally I don't know if I've ever had any a personal experience of a hate crime like somebody I knew I must have you know I'll revise that statement I'm sure I have it but it's rare enough that most people just don't have an experience with it let me say most white people living in nice neighborhoods don't have an experience with it so I love that because in my opinion and let me give you a suggestion for a data proxy if somebody can actually look this up on too lazy to do it I was wondering the other day what would be the most productive way to measure race relations what would be the best measures of race relations I would say employment would be an excellent measure because

[26:45]

be an excellent measure because presumably not by itself you need more than that but in theory a you know if there's less less racism should lead to greater employment you know all other things being equal somebody had the right answer interracial marriage that's where I was going I would love to know the rate of interracial marriage because that tells you two things because when people decide to get married interracially married if that's a word they're making a calculation not about not just about their own love and affection for the other person there are also making a calculation about how they will be accepted by their family by their by their community how their children will be affected by it they all those things are our factors sorry I'm still getting over my flu so it seems to me that that would be very telling the statistic we keep hearing is the item might be semi fake news about

[27:48]

the item might be semi fake news about the the number of of hate crimes that are being reported but then you hear if you listen to Fox News they'll tell you it's because there are more entities reporting so it there's not actually evidence of more hate crime there is evidence of more reporting so that's the only ambiguous yeah it doesn't seem to me that by itself the ratio of racial hate crimes would necessarily tell you enough because you could imagine that violence would go up just sort of in general for whatever reasons even this race relations sort of in general for non-violent people might be improving so it could be you're you're more likely to have friends and other groups you might be more likely to be hiring and working with people you might be more likely to date and marry people so you could have all kinds of things going right you know on the on the daily life level while violence

[28:50]

the daily life level while violence could be up or down I could I could see that operating independent independently of how society in general is going sorry about this oh yeah let's talk about feinstein you mostly you saw the clip where a bunch of school kids met with feinstein and they were sort of sort of aggressive as protesters ago they were young kids and feinstein gave them a dressing-down it was terribly awkward and did not make anybody look good basically it made it made feinstein look bad and it made the kids look bad and I saw other people I saw comments on social media that I didn't quite connect until I saw the video that people were disgusted that children are being used for politics and I thought I agree with that

[29:51]

I thought I agree with that you know I agree with that almost to the point of I think networks should not run video of children lobbying for politics what do you think about that do you think the news organizations should have an internal rule not a law I'm not talking about a law but do you think they should have an internal standard that when children try to become part of the political process or children are pushed forward by adults because there's always something don't pushing them forward right that the news organization should as a matter of policy not whoaa just policy should not run it because children should not be involved in politics just period you know obviously they have a great interest in politics obviously they have more interest in climate change risk if it's real they have more interest than then adults because they're gonna be around longer but it's

[30:52]

they're gonna be around longer but it's just not good for society I don't think it's fair to the kids it's manipulative I think as a standard they shouldn't show that stuff so I would have said that the the fine you know the Feinstein situation was different in the sense that it was more about Feinstein than it was about the kids but even then I think I would have as a matter of policy just though show kids kids should not be part of the conversation all right I want to read you a quote this was on CNN website from Chris ELISA so as you know he's a prolific anti-trump er works as heat for CNN and I want to read you this quote and then I'll talk about it so this is from Cilicia he says quote I don't think Trump created intolerance okay so far we're okay he says he doesn't think the

[31:54]

we're okay he says he doesn't think the Trump created intolerance well I'm more certain than just thinking it I don't think intolerance began to exist when Trump was born so yes let me agree with Chris I don't think Trump created intolerance either but then he goes off but he has certainly he puts in the word certainly so whatever happens after the word certainly is something that even people on different sides of the aisle would agree with right because he says certainly so this is what comes after chrysalis loza's word certainly talking about President Trump he says through his rhetoric and his actions allowed people who carry bigoted views to feel more comfortable about airing them so is it true certainly as crystal is a says this is a certain truth that the president's words and actions his rhetoric and his actions have made people more comfortable about

[32:56]

have made people more comfortable about airing bigoted views really our how could it be true simultaneously that people are more willing to air bigoted views at exactly the same time we're at peak in tolerance for bigoted views are we not at peak intolerance for that yeah this looks like the opposite of reality to me I can I've never met anybody who feels more comfortable expressing bigoted views to me it seems like people are way less comfortable and I'm not complaining about that well you know why would I want anybody to be comfortable expressing bigoted views you know I suppose I'm glad that we have freedom of speech and people can say bigoted things if they want but there's no way there isn't the slightest chance that people are more empowered for bigoted views you

[34:00]

are more empowered for bigoted views you know I mean look at take a look at the let's say the Charlottesville white supremacist who were marching what do you think happened to the lives and the careers and the fate of the the people who marched in Charlottesville the white supremacists do you think that worked out well for them now I think up to up until that point chris'll ISM might have been right you know up until that point he might have had a point that there were certain groups who were being inspired if you will to say more begin to things because maybe they thought they could get away with it but fast forward to 2019 like right now does it feel to you that right now not talking about last year not talking about 2016 but right now doesn't it feel to you that we are the least that society is less tolerant of let's say of anything

[35:04]

less tolerant of let's say of anything that even is close to or suggested of suggestive of bigoted views I would say we're at peak in tolerance for that so quite the opposite of what of what's liz is saying now I don't know your major measure that so it could be that it couldn't be that his point is true but to put the worst certainly in front of it that feels that feels a little bit of a reach alright well that's all I have to do say today I think I'm just gonna look oh there's a Zogby poll is are the Zogby polls reliable because the Zogby poll had a bunch of groups that were they were up in terms of favoring the president and one of them I think was suburban women did you see it check my facts on this but I think these are the right facts I think the Zogby poll showed that suburban women were it was

[36:09]

showed that suburban women were it was slightly more favorable to the president and that the reason for it was that they liked the wall is that true I'm gonna put this out here as a an unconfirmed result so fact check me on this don't take it to the bank but it seems to me that suburban women have decided they wanted strong border security and the president was offering it to him so so I don't know if that's true we'll see if that holds up what about Bob Kraft I don't really have any comments about Bob Kraft because I just don't have any comments about that yeah it's fog of war who knows what's true and what's not let's let's give that a little bit of time to develop but yeah that that's just not a topic I'm interested in I'm interested in the the fact that there's a gigantic human trafficking network

[37:11]

a gigantic human trafficking network that's a big deal but the fact that you know one individual Billy bear may may or may not have been involved in it not that interesting all right and I'll talk to you later