Episode 442 Scott Adams: Scott Takes Your Questions

Date: 2019-03-08 | Duration: 1:03:55

Topics

Dem resolution doesn’t condemn Rep Omar, just President Trump More drugs are caught (by weight) where there ISN’T Border Patrol Hard to get large quantities through heavily policed ports? Questions from guests on politics, Omar anti-semitism, cartooning

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:11]

hey everybody come on in here coming to you with my headset on because I'm going to be taking some audience questions soon as everybody gets in here but you know there's something that's far more important than audience questions it's called the simultaneous sep and if you've got a cup a mug a tanker to chalice a thermos a Stein put your favorite liquid in there I like coffee and join me now for the simultaneous
CP ah I'd like to begin by reading a passage from one of my books uh which is a bestselling New York Times bestseller and I just got I just got a fresh copy um now I don't speak this language this is a this is translated uh so it's a translated title of one of my books but I'd like to read

[1:12]

of one of my books but I'd like to read you just a little bit from Jac
perses um again I said I don't I don't know the language but I think I can work through it pretty well so if anybody speaks speak this language you'll understand this
perfectly pretty good you have to admit so if you speak whatever language this is you can buy this book Czechoslovakian Slovak or whatever the language is there something like that all right I watched uh I watched the special uh leaving Neverland last night now I saw part one which I which I think is going to give me everything that I really need how

[2:12]

me everything that I really need how many of you have seen that uh that special leaving Neverland let me tell you so so there's I heard there was this uh documentary that a couple of people who were adults now were were allegedly going to accuse Michael Jackson of um child abuse of them and I thought to myself how interesting could this be right it's going to be H we spent some time with him he did some bad things to us it's going to be not that interesting well the first thing you need to know is that the story itself is really really interesting you know even independent of the child abuse part just the documentary is really really interesting I'm not going to ruin it for you but the the lives of the two children who are the adults talking about it in the documentary just their lives alone amazing it's a really good story

[3:16]

alone amazing it's a really good story now here's the thing I watched it with a slightly open mind in the sense that I'd watched a a Critic of the documentary before I watched the documentary so I saw somebody who was saying it's all Bs everybody's lying blah blah so I saw that first and my uh my impression was that the critic was pretty credible it was pretty credible if somebody says it sounds boring it does sound boring but you will be really surprised there's there's way more depth to the whole situation than I imagined it's it's a fascinating story really um it's horrible and fascinating but the horrible Parts even even if you didn't count the sexual abuse you could take that out of the story and the whole thing would stand up as one of the best things you've ever seen that's that's how that's how good it is

[4:17]

it is um but so I watch the thing and I'll tell you my impression my impression is oh this is very credible when you listen to the the two people tell their story uh as soon as it was done I said to myself well okay there's no no more doubt you know all all doubt on this issue is now removed this is as clearcut as you could possibly be the very first person I talked to who also watched it said nah they're
lying what it it was a fascinating two World kind of situation now remember we do live in a world in which something that is totally convincing to one person in this case convincing to me might not be true it's it's entirely possible it's not true I would just be really really surprised so watch it you have to watch

[5:18]

surprised so watch it you have to watch it
it um so maniford only gets 47 months uh I keep trying to be interested in Paul maniford but I can't get there are you having that problem too you know Paul manfor should be interesting because he's in the news and it's a little bit interesting but not really because it's not really enough about President Trump and he committed some crimes he got caught he's being punished I don't know um but I thought it was interesting that it got turned into a no collusion story because the judge apparently said there was no collusion and then the president getss to repeat that and and send his message around
um so the funniest story from yesterday is that the house was started out voting on or they wanted to vote on a

[6:18]

on or they wanted to vote on a resolution condemning representative Omar for her alleged anti-semitic comments I'll say alleged because Nancy Pelosi says that representative Omar didn't know what she was saying and didn't know that her words would be taken as anti-semitic now that's hard to believe but it falls into the category of things which I've seen other people interpret the wrong way in other words we often see people say the way you're saying that you must be ar racist how often have we seen that somebody saying about somebody else you're not you're not saying exactly racist stuff but the way you word it seems like a a clear you know racist whistle so we see this a lot and I'm not convinced it's always true sometimes it's just the way people talk and uh so I'll just I'll still say

[7:19]

talk and uh so I'll just I'll still say alleged at the same time it looks anti-semitic to me I that's that's my impression of it but hey I could be wrong um so the funniest thing about it is they start out with shall we have a resolution condemning representative Omar and then it turns into well let's make it all hate we don't want to zero in on one person what about all this other hate why why are we only condemning one kind of hate let's get condemn all kinds of hate and apparently they managed to turn a story about representative Omar saying something anti-semitic into by the time it was written it was implying that the president was racist so they changed it that by the time they were done rewriting it in committee it turned from a representative Omar uh rebuke into a president Trump

[8:21]

rebuke now if you can be more worthless than that and that you know just became this generic thing about hate but they had to put in some Clauses that made you think of of President Trump if you could be more worthless than that I I don't know how I mean I don't know how you could possibly do that another topic I was just watching uh representative Jordan uh grilling some border experts about how many drugs get across the border and one of the talking points from the Democrats is that uh most of the drugs are caught at points of Entry so the idea is that if the points of Entry is where you're catching all the drugs why do you need all this wall in these other parts because all the drugs are getting caught at the points of entry and and it's it's funny when you hear Jordan representative Jordan uh counter to that which is uh I'll summarize it which is so you're saying that law enforcement only catches drugs

[9:23]

that law enforcement only catches drugs where law enforcement is so the argument is that it should be surprising that the only place that law enforcement catches drugs is where there's law enforcement that's the only place that happens where there's law enforcement you mean where we don't have any law enforcement the number of people that law enforcement catches is low huh how about that but it gets even funnier because apparently one of the experts on the border uh said that if you were to weigh the amount of drugs that they catch at the point points of entry and you were just going to weigh without respect to what kind of mix of drugs it is but if you just weigh them uh they've actually caught more drugs between the ports of Entry did you know that think about that if you were to if you to measure it by pure weight there's more that they caught PL in the places

[10:24]

more that they caught PL in the places they don't even have people to catch they caught more drugs by weight maybe not by dollar amount I don't know how they measure this by weight there was more caught where we don't even have people to catch so if we caught more by weight where we don't even have people to catch people doesn't that tell you that there might be like 10 to one coming through across the non- walled Parts in instead of the ports of Entry I mean there's no way to know right you just be guessing but the possibility is pretty wide all right um let's uh take some questions I see some people are lining up to ask me some questions we've got Jacob April and Shawn looks like Jacob got here first so we'll call on Jacob and Jacob I'm gonna ask you to uh Jacob you

[11:26]

gonna ask you to uh Jacob you there Scott can you hear me J ask your question yeah well uh I was wondering about climate change one of the arguments uh in particular that we keep hearing is the consensus argument and uh now my thing was that even if it was somehow measurable and true that 97% of scientists agreed that climate change is causing or is caused for alarm then it actually still doesn't matter uh I would argue that consensus has no place in science because everything that has been a consensus in the past has also been wrong I mean you can go just to nutrition or back as far as Flat Earth or witches if you want right well I would say that the consensus argument is more about the marketing of the science so the consensus when they say it's a consensus they nobody is saying that's how science should run so nobody makes the argument

[12:28]

should run so nobody makes the argument that you're debunking what they do say is if you're the citizens you're not you're not part of the scientific Community we're going to make an argument that you should trust the science and the argument is look how many people are on the same side so as a marketing statement it would be uh it would be useful if the polling on that wasn't anything useful in other words if they asked the right question then the polling results would be would be um very useful the question they didn't ask ask the the question that was asked is do you think that the warming has to do with humans basically something like that are are humans causing more warming and 97% or something like that say yes but the trick is so do the the Skeptics even the Skeptics will agree the CO2 causes warming the difference is how much and should we worry about it so the the poll doesn't even ask the question that is the subject of the national

[13:29]

that is the subject of the national debate but they ask a different question and then they try to Market it as the right question but it's not the right question so thank you for your question that was actually a good question I appreciate that all right we're going to now take let's see who else we got here all right we're going to
hi what what's your question my question Scot well first I just want to say it's an honor to talk to you I watch you every morning with my daughter well thanks and my question simply is if you had to pick one other comic strip um which one is your favorite oh my favorite comic strip that isn't my own comic strip um I like Pearls Before Swine Pearls Before SP right on I like uh F minus

[14:30]

on I like uh F minus um you won't see that as much but that's a good one Tony Carell um so th those are two goods those are the ones I'd go for of the ones that are current and still running you know if you went back in time then I'd be looking at Far Side In Bloom County and Calvin and Hobs and okay the the oldtimers okay right thank you thanks talking to you have a great day all right you too all right next question will be Shan Shan Sean Sean come to us Sean hi good what's your question all right here's my question when it comes to 2020 what do you think the biggest obstacle will be and shifting 5 to 10% of the black vote over to

[15:30]

vote over to Trump well do you think you can help to be a part of making that happen well first of all if you believe the polling that's already happened so but I don't know if I can believe the polling when I say that's already happened I mean that uh Trump's approval is in the I think the mid to low 20% or so among the African-American Community if that's true and if that influences voting then it looks like 2020 is already done because that's all it would take right um but but I think it's sort of uh a number of factors that are pushing it in the right way way you've got the uh prison reform I think probably has a big impact I think that the economy has a big impact um and uh I think uh I think the scandals on the Democrat side are having a big impact you know the fact that all the the blackface stuff was Democrat stuff um you know and now

[16:32]

Democrat stuff um you know and now representative Omar is being called out for racism a different kind right her would be anti-Semitism but it's just starting to look like there's more racism more problems on one side than on the Republican side so my guess is that it's already done well I thinking about what you just said I mean I'm Jewish I'm not like practicing or whatever but I'm Jewish and I have a feeling a lot of Jews are going to leave the Democrat Party after they could not denounce anti-Semitism yesterday could be yeah feel they're gonna lose a whole lot of those votes yeah I anyway thank you for your time sir have a nice day continue on all right you too now yeah I I wouldn't be surprised if the the mere existence of Representative Omar takes I don't know 20% of the Jewish American vote at least away from the Democrats yeah I I would

[17:33]

away from the Democrats yeah I I would feel that that would be a minimum because you know there's some there's some sort of you know lines in the sand let me put it this way if I were if I were Jewish and I watched the way the Democrats handle this representative Omar stuff there's no way in hell I would ever vote for that party again did does that sound about how you're thinking oh yeah they they destroyed themselves yesterday and they showed that they really especially with what cliver said when he said that Omar's pain was more recent than the Holocaust pain so she has a right to say what she wants holy that was rather unbelievably jaw-dropping yeah I didn't see that reported so it didn't look at what rep cln said he's number three in the house and he literally said that paraphrasing but he brought up the Holocaust and that her pain was more recent and that she had a right to feel

[18:35]

recent and that she had a right to feel the way that she feels yeah then that's jawdropping and then apparently David Duke came out in favor of Representative Omar which what do they have in
common so all right I'm gonna take another caller thank than have a good day too all right let's take uh let's see who else we got here let's take Tom Tom you are Tom you're going live talk to us Tom hey Tom do you have a
question hi hello I can hear you yes so so yeah um I'm hello hello I'm gonna can you can you he okay I'm I'm going to Echo what the previous caller had said just when the whole black lives matters thing happened and you had that

[19:36]

thing happened and you had that Periscope and you said what's the deal what's the big deal with this and nobody got the answer and you said that hey people who are African-American think that their lives don't matter and that's why they're saying that and I thought how does that make any sense but then when I saw what happened yesterday in the house and that watered down resolution and it went to generic for everybody I was like holy I get it now I totally understand that's yeah I guess my my my first my my question really is with the whole uh nice people on both sides hoax what's the most effective way to talk to people about it well here's what I was thinking of doing i' I'd say to them they say listen I'm GNA tell you something that is going to sound shocking and you're going to probably experience cognitive dissonance and then tell them that the president didn't say nice people on both sides with with the tiki torches and then show them the actual quote because if I remember what

[20:38]

actual quote because if I remember what you said before if you talk to somebody about if you predict what they're going to feel and think and then they actually feel it and think it you have instant credibility with them and and to me this seems like it's ultimate cognitive distance so preparing somebody for it would help them get through it what do you think about that yes that's that's pretty close to exactly the way I would do it so the uh the setup here is that um most people who were anti- Trump believe the news the fake news that he once called uh racist fine people at Charlottesville now the real story is he was talking about both sides of the statue issue have some fine people he was not talking about the actual marching racist the way it was reported illegitimately so uh and as you said one of the techniques of persuasion is if you tell somebody what they're going to think um as they're thinking it or or before they think it you form a little Bond so if I

[21:39]

think it you form a little Bond so if I were to say to you I know some of you are wishing I you know I we doing something differently today now if that were true those of you who are thinking that would say I was just thinking that I was just thinking you should do something differently uh you form a little Bond and that's a little persuasion trick so to your point yes if you said to somebody look I'm going to blow your mind I'm going to tell you something that you are positive is true you're positive it's a fact you could not possibly be wrong about this and it's something key to your total understanding of this President and I'm going to show you right in front of you that you were that you were fooled you know do you want to do this experiment with me so usually you get people at least play along now the first time you show them your evidence they're they're going to say it's wrong they're going to say it's out of context they're going to say what could you possibly mean so you're not going to get the win on the first presentation of the facts you're going to have to work on a little bit

[22:41]

going to have to work on a little bit make sure that they really know you've presented it right you show the right context Etc but my experience is and I've been doing this for the last few days is that um the people have sort of a a moment when they realize they've been had and another thing I like to say is it's not going to feel good to you when you realize that you've been duped by your own side because that's what's happened so you so the framework you set up is is that it's not you against the person you're talking to you say look I'm on your side the people you think are your on your side have screwed you terribly because they've given you fake news and I'm going to show you how so I'm here to help the people who you think are on your side or your enemies and now here's the proof they told you this here's the actual quote from the president there you go so yes that's a good technique um probably it's probably not a kill shot in the sense that it works every time on every person in the same way but it's it's a

[23:42]

person in the same way but it's it's a productive way I'm I'm going to take another call thank you thank you Tom appreciate
it all right who else we got here well I I cannot resist taking a call from Carpe carpet dunum coming up the meme the meme Meister the president Trump's favorite meme maker Carpe you there yeah I'm here what's up Scott hey how you doing I'm going pretty good did you have a question or a com yeah I do um my my question is uh we all saw the the energy behind the latest uh oh Bernie Sanders rally do do you think that he has enough energy behind him that he can actually become the nominee this time or do you think he's too old um I think what's going to happen is that the people with and this is sort of

[24:43]

that the people with and this is sort of a standard analysis everybody saying this the name recognition is driving the polls at this point for the Democratic uh candidates for president and as soon as the public sees more
of white guys uh I think they'll pick they'll pick Cala or or somebody else so Cala Harris is is my prediction right um but here's the thing if if they go ahead and pick the candidate that has the highest polling numbers now and let's say it's either Bernie or or Biden they can't win because those two people are not going to bring people to the polls right there I I think their entire set up as being um you know about identity politics and about really frankly being younger you know there there should be you know when you've got the aoc's ETC and the all the the freshmen coming into the house they're

[25:44]

freshmen coming into the house they're they're trying to move toward this younger more more inclusive less old white guy mode and I just don't know it would excite the base enough and and everything's going to be about turnout you know nobody really going to be convincing the other side much there's not you not much of that really happens but will they show up yeah seems like a num game yeah well they show up for an old white guy who doesn't agree with AOC because that that's what they need so so I think it's a problem I would say that the if you were to poll things right now they're probably a couple of different candidates who would beat the president in a hypothetical match if we're held right today but I think by the time you get to 2020 if if all the variables keep going the way they're going it's just going to be pretty commanding win but uh for reelection that's what I think all right that was your question y that's it thank you all right thank

[26:46]

you all right thank you let's go to
Thomas Thomas Thomas Thomas come to us Thomas ask you a question
good how are you what what is your question well I'm being driven Crazy by what I believe is the truth about the Muller probe which is that if Hillary would have been elected there never would have been a probe and I just can't figure out why the media or the Press never talked about that and if you don't if you never cared enough to even investigate what have H what would have happened if Hillary would have won then well we don't know that you square that Circle for me yeah well the problem is that we don't know that so you're starting with a an assumption which is not in evidence which is that if Hillary had won there would be no uh Trump

[27:50]

had won there would be no uh Trump investigation now we don't know that but uh but we do know that it would be less important because he wouldn't be president so he he could not have any ongoing influence Etc so if you notice that there doesn't seem to be much energy to investigate Hillary Clinton and the reason is because she didn't win so it's not that there isn't stuff there that you could look at with Hillary it's just uh it may not be the best thing for the country to do an autopsy on the loser for president because first of all they lost and second of all it look it looks like the whoever won is punishing the loser by you know being in charge of the investigation so it's a bad look to investigate the loser that that's a bad look you know you don't want to live in a country where whoever loses for president is also going to go to jail that's that's a terrible precedent so believe it or not I'm actually in favor

[28:51]

believe it or not I'm actually in favor of not going after Hillary unless there's something that's really really really solid because you just don't want to start the the loser Goes to Jail that's just no way to run a country all right thank you for that question thanks Scott bye all right next question is going to be uh looking at all my options here let's go to Alex who is up
first Alex can you hear me
Alex Alex you have a question yes I do um I had a couple questions but two two small ones two small ones but first of all I just want to thank you because like you're the highlight of my day every morning so thank you but um one quick question is about embarrassment I've heard you talk about how you don't feel it but is there any particular exercises or things that you can do uh just little things that perhaps you can Implement within

[29:52]

that perhaps you can Implement within your daily routine perhaps that would get you up to the level of feeling a lot less embarrassment embarrassed now are you talking about social anxiety or embarrassment because they're different um I would say it would be like when you're embarrassed let's say like you're in a store and you feel like you do something stupid and people are watching you you're like oh my God this is so
because sorry um the main thing to so the question is how do you deal with your propensity for embarrassment how how do you make yourself a person who is less embarrassed um less often and I was very much in that situation I'm I'm a blusher you know I blush when I'm embarrassed and I and I blush easily so I had a sort of a double whammy internally I would feel you know embarrassed or shy but I would also blush which would make me more embarrassed and shy so I took the

[30:54]

more embarrassed and shy so I took the Dale Carnegie course and what they do in the course you could do outside of the course which is you put yourself in embarrassing situations intentionally but they are lowrisk ones in the context of the class uh each person got up and and would do a a real hokey play uh like they were pretending to be a character but they weren't very good at it so they would embarrass themselves in front of the small class and then they would sit down and and the teacher would say all right so are you still alive you know do you feel any different can you still eat you know does your body feel okay and people would be like huh I just embarrassed myself and literally nothing happened there were no consequences and in fact nobody's even going to remember tomorrow if you ask me to remember specifically all of the people in my class who embarrassed my themselves that day I didn't remember them by the time I got home so the first thing you want to remember is that people don't care about

[31:54]

remember is that people don't care about you that much now I don't mean that in a bad e away I mean literally people just don't care about other people too much so the first thing you should remind yourself is that people are in their own little bubble they care a lot about what you think of them think about that people care about what you think of them but they don't care much about you you know they they're not thinking about you they're not thinking about your problems except how it affects them and best example was uh years ago I got some laser um what would you call it I I had a laser remove some spider veins on my face many years ago and it leaves you with a face that looks like it went through a windshield so it looks like you had a bad car accident your face is all black and blue for several weeks and uh I didn't want to go out in public because I thought everybody'd look at me and I'd be all embarrassed but about a week into it I was so sick of being at home and I had another week or two of

[32:56]

home and I had another week or two of these bruises I just said well heck with it I'm just going to go out and I'll I'll deal with the fact that everybody's going to be looking at me and I go out and I go to the mall hundreds and hundreds of people walking by and I'm waiting for people to like stare at me because I look like a freak and my experience was nobody cared nobody cared I think people noted it you know they probably looked by and said huh guy with bruise on faces nobody cared and it took me about a minute and a half to completely forget that I was walking around like I just had a major accident because nobody cared nobody cared and it was it was a valuable lesson that's very now the other thing so so I would say you want to put yourself in positions where you're in front of other people and failing in in small ways and so that you just get used to it so it's like a muscle you need to build up you need to build up your daily basis let's say I'm going to the store today or if I'm gonna

[33:57]

going to the store today or if I'm gonna go to the gym there's certain activity that you would say you know what just do this like lay down in public and do something that is very you kind ofly or whatever but maybe it'll help you out with that I'm just wondering what I could recommend to somebody who who deals with this yeah I'll tell here's one um so you're often let's say you're often in public you could be in airports you could be in stores and stuff like this one of the ones I like to do is is just the stretch where you just stretch yourself out you know some call it the victory pose but you just open your yourself up you go like this now if you do that in public everybody looks but you're doing two things you're embarrassing yourself you know a little bit in in a very lowrisk way in public you're putting yourself out there you're making sure everybody's looking at you you're doing something a little bit weird but first of all they don't care that's the first thing they don't care and secondly nothing happens to you and and then thirdly when you open yourself up and

[34:57]

thirdly when you open yourself up and you take take a deep breath and you you open up your chest and your arms it actually makes you feel more comfortable so um yeah in small ways uh I'd say that you could practice that in public the other thing that I like to do is be the um let's say the I don't want to say the aggressor the one who takes initiative in the social situation so if you're likely to be embarrassed or likely to be shy and you walk into let's say a store and you're going to deal with a Cas here and there are other people around you would that be an embarrassing situation in in the context of your question you know there people around you're doing a transaction does that sound embarrassing oh I think we lost the caller um but the point is instead of being the person who is talked to you could control the the situation so instead of waiting for somebody to say you know are you paying my credit card or whatever you just say hey how's it going how's your day going

[35:57]

hey how's it going how's your day going and you take the you take the assertive side but you pretend in other words you take the role of an actor and you're in public and there are people around and you say wow what a hot day it is today or whatever you're saying it doesn't matter what you say but you take the actor's assertive role and it takes you out of the I'm the embarrassed one and and it puts you into well I'm controlling this situation this all all this situation is going to go the way I make it go I'm going to ask a question somebody's going to have to answer my question I now control the situation all right so those are some tips let's take another caller Dan Newman you are coming at
at us Dan Dan Dan come at us please Dan are you there hi what is your question Dan uh my question is about AOC um we have lots of examples of celebrities who um may not be the

[36:58]

celebrities who um may not be the brightest but um they're kind of young and sexy and glamorous and they're famous for that reason um so why do you assume AOC is persuasive rather than just falling into this category of just people who are famous who have you know are have sex appeal Etc well those are things which help her but there are lots of people who have those things who are not AOC so there are plenty of people who can have the minimum requirement which is is well you look good on TV and you know you're young you got some energy those are the easy things but you wouldn't be talking about those people and in fact we're not the only person we're talking about based on your question is AOC so the first tell that somebody is persuasive is somebody says to me why do you say they're so persuasive and I say why do you care the fact that you cared enough to ask the question is the answer to the question yes they are persuasive because they they got your attention now beyond that

[38:00]

they got your attention now beyond that I think she uses techniques which come right out of the president Trump playbook for persuasion she she says provocative things on a regular basis she says things that are just outside of what you expect what you feel is appropriate what is maybe going a little too far and there's this narrow zone between being boring and ordinary where most politicians are and you don't even know their names I mean there are people who have been in the Senate for you know decades and you don't even know their names but she goes in that little dangerous box that's not so dangerous she's going to you know lose everything but dangerous enough that you can't look away so that's a that's a a trump Playbook thing you know every every tweet from Trump is just a little too far A little more provocative that you want but not so much he's going to get impeached over it one quick follow and she also yeah go ahead uh do you consider celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian who have these

[39:00]

and Kim Kardashian who have these massive Twitter followings to be persuasive uh I'm going to make a big difference between Kim Kardashian and uh Justin Bieber Justin's a young guy and I'm sure he's uh he's very bright in terms of his his musical stuff so as a musician and as an artist he's a genius in other ways we don't have evidence that he's he's clever in other domains I don't know if is I it might turn out he is but we don't have any evidence of that Kim Kardashian is probably one of the most underrated brilliant business people of all time that the there there's nothing about her success that's a freaking accident you know she she has that that thing that X Factor that you know thing that makes her interesting in general but she's also made how many different fortunes you know she's navigating this entire Empire she's caused you know

[40:00]

entire Empire she's caused you know other members of her family to be super wealthy uh she's the real deal so I wouldn't I wouldn't compare Kim Kardashian to celebrities that would be a little like comparing Kane to just a celebrity that both of them have extra gears so I just I wouldn't accept putting them in the celebrity bundle they're more in the entrepreneur Creator artist change the world X Factor special category you know so I don't know if that answers your question but I I wouldn't treat them together what was the question I think I lost the question it the question was just how you distinguish and you answered it all right thank you okay thank
you all right uh looks like Nuke city is coming to us nuke City speak to me duuk

[41:00]

speak to me duuk City yes hi do you have a question like your comment on uh or your um on the global warming Theory uh what I and you can correct me if I say this incor wrong but I believe that if the US contribution to global warming was set to zero in other words we we stopped all uses of uh the um fossil fuel godamn according to the ipcc the the effect to the universe I mean excuse me to to our well the temperatures would only be 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit okay that order over over a tenure Factor so doesn't that sort of negate the whole argument about our our contribution and what we should be doing if it's only 0.2 degrees um no it does not so let's let's take let's take as a given uh just for the point the purpose of this question

[42:02]

the point the purpose of this question let's say that there there is a big global warming climate change risk and so the question is even if the United States did everything it could do it wouldn't make any difference to the whole world because we're such a small part of it and we're not the main polluters and by the way our CO2 is reducing uh it's mostly China and India is that is the question so it's a yes no if the United States went let's say Manhattan Project and we said we're going to we're going to use the new generation 4 safe nuclear reactors we're going to they're you know they're relatively not relatively they're they're meltdown proof and they eat nuclear waste for fuel and we're going to just reiterate until we've got this and we're just going to start pouring these gen 4S out there same model so that we save save money with approvals and save money with design we're just going to like blanket these things all over the country what would happen is it would create a product and an industry

[43:04]

would create a product and an industry which is um these these kit-like well let's say uh TurnKey solutions for nuclear that would be available to everybody so in theory as a leadership country we would drive down the cost we would prove the economics we would create experts we would create knowledge about this so anything that that was a solution in the United States automatically becomes a solution everywhere so the the the spillover effect I think you could reasonably expect to be extreme you know if if we solved our problem with nuclear and China is sitting over there you know unable to breathe because they're putting so much smoke and CO2 and everything else in the air with their bad technology they're going to follow us and they're going to do it very quickly now here's the uh here's the punchline the punchline is I just read that apparently China is getting quite aggressive on I think it's Gen 4

[44:08]

aggressive on I think it's Gen 4 Nuclear So the thing that we say the United States should take some leadership in you know we should we should get ahead in these green technologies maybe these other countries will do it well guess what China might be ahead of us already and they may be recognizing the emergency need oh somebody's saying thorium reactors in China that's right so I think they're they're building I think they've got some progress in in going uh going live in not too long with a thorium reactor if it works then they can start iterating it tweaking it and then start rolling it out so it's probably already true that development and work that happened in the United States and and Europe and in other countries probably is already helping China do what they're doing and they need to do so given that the world communicates and is connected uh I would say yes the argument that the United States um could make a big push

[45:08]

United States um could make a big push and it could matter to the the whole world does make sense here's what doesn't make sense um if we all turn off our lights or if we uh if we walk to work those things will you know reduce our our pollution maybe and they might be good for the world and General ways but just reducing our energy use would not help China's CO2 problem so to that part of your question it depends what you do so if we do if all we do is you know we recycle better and we you know turn the heat down to 67 degrees that won't make any difference to
to CO2 not not any real way which is the point of your question but if we develop nuclear and that helps other people in in the general way that I described then yes it could make a big difference so all right we'll take another caller let's go with

[46:13]

Stephanie Stephanie are you there I can hear you what is your question Stephanie Dr Shiva and I'm sorry I can't pronounce his last name and I was ready to I loved how he had many degrees from MIT and I felt like he was scientist and what he's going to say is going to be really valid and then you know and I believed what he said about the climate being a the climate change being kind of a hoax and how it's become so political and then I thought okay aha now I'm on to something because I like you I'm kind of wavering between both sides so then I looked up who he was and it sounds like he's a bit of a politician so then I got a little bit nervous that he's not that true scientist and furthermore I will just say one other thing so my family went many in my family went to MIT and we get the technology review from MIT this month's issue which has Bill Gates on the cover is completely it's like their

[47:14]

the cover is completely it's like their name dropping climate change in every article so then when he said about it being behind all of the federal grants and whatnot so I kind of believe that part of it that climent change is now the new um catch phrase if you will to get funding and maybe there the the pure true science is getting very convoluted it is very complicated so let me let me address those two points first of all I I don't think you should hold it against Dr Shiva that he has uh more talents than the average person it is true that he's he has entered a political you know stage of his life but it's but it's after passing through successful entrepreneurial scientific you know uh Innovative passing through all his educational phase he the the thing that makes him an interesting guest is that the breath of his experience is sort of jaw-dropping yeah

[48:15]

experience is sort of jaw-dropping yeah which I appreciated yes yeah so it's it's fair to say that he's he's in a political mode at the moment but uh I would say that's just he's adding to his his his talent stacks so that's part of why I like him not not why I would criticize him um and then yes I I think we would all agree that money influences science what we don't know is to what degree that that's the hard part to know all right thank you Stephanie wait was it Stephanie yeah yep okay thanks
Stephanie let's see looking at some of the other names here just to see if there's anybody extra fun let's take first appearance I don't know who you are but first appearance are you there hi do you have a question Scott it's regarding your most recent tweet uh about the Democrats uh

[49:17]

recent tweet uh about the Democrats uh refusal to name inar and uh kind of change from anti-Semitism to just a broad uh refal of bigotry uh could you please differentiate that from uh what the president did refuting all bigotry instead of specifically naming white supremacy uh uh fact check uh the president did specifically uh refute white supremacist at Charlottesville he did specifically refute the KKK and he has specifically refuted neo-nazis he is also yes I accept that uh I understand that he did though receive critic that's not my criticism right but he did uh receive criticism for not doing that in his first speech after the incident right he was caught off guard you know sure but uh you know I would feel that the criticism that you're leving against

[50:18]

the criticism that you're leving against the Democrats as this is also their first response uh you know there's there's a bit of a parallel so I would ask you to please differ um it looks like they were in opposite directions so correct me if I'm wrong but but I think you're saying that the president said generically hate is bad and then when they pressed them he said yeah yeah if you're talking about the neo-nazis they're especially bad so I think he went from General and then when they pressed him for details he did he did disavow the detailed people that they mentioned it looks like the Democrats are going in the opposite direction where the original question was about Omar and anti-Semitism and instead of condemning that specifically they watered it down by making it generic so the the Democrats went from a specific thing to watering it down making it General the president started with a watered down notion and then when asked he made it specific as specific as anybody would want it he he named the

[51:20]

anybody would want it he he named the names he disavowed them in clear language and then people said oh okay well maybe you should have said that sooner so they're not quite comparable they're actually the reverse um but in both and then the second difference is the timing meaning that uh if you had already watched um people uh shoot themselves in the foot saying uh what do you mean black lives matter why can't you say all lives matter and then you you realize that that was a trap aha if you said all lives matter you're denying that black lives matter and therefore you're racist so having seen that and then also having seen the president's problems when as you noted he he uh disavowed hate but then he had to you know he had to get more specific and that caused the problem why didn't you say it sooner Etc so given that we have this background the Democrats should have seen this trap in a way that maybe you

[52:21]

seen this trap in a way that maybe you wouldn't have seen it if we hadn't fallen into it twice already I mean we fell into the same a damn trap twice and they fell into it a third time so you have to say it's a little worse if it's the third time just feels like it to me all right so I think that's your answer um I appreciate it thank you that was a good question I like that question all right Charles coming to us Charles are you there hello you have a question uh well sort of a comment question yeah um okay I I think you um I I buy the fine people hoax that it's a hoax but I think that you're focusing a little too much on that because a lot of the liberals or leftists who say Trump

[53:23]

the liberals or leftists who say Trump is a racist they they'll say oh well there's a lot of other things that he said and done that are that make that are racist and so it's like if you say that like I told that to someone recently I said oh you know he didn't actually say that that white supremacists are fine people and they was like oh well there's all these other things that he said and done so maybe that's I think a problem with focusing too much on just that one thing well well here's so here's the way that that it should properly be set up I like to say to people all right you're you're sure of your opinion you think the presidents are racist can you give me your number one best reason and would you agree that if your number one best reason turns out to be fake news that you'll at least consider that you've been had on the other things now that still leaves them lots of ammo to go back to but generally they'll come up with their first thing and they'll say all right all right I'll do that how about that time he took out a full page black ad saying that there black ad full

[54:23]

black ad saying that there black ad full page ad in the New York Times whatever years ago about the Central Park 5 and there was the uh I guess five black men who had been accused falsely it turns out some people believe most people believe because they were they were released um and at the same time the president ran a full PL Jad that they should be uh uh they should be killed be they should be uh get the death penalty even though it turns out they were innocent so why would he want to give the death penalty to innocent black men and the answer is his full page ad didn't even mention them it wasn't about them it was the timing was the same meaning that it was no doubt the trigger for why the the question of you know deadly crimes were in the news and certainly it was a reason that he picked that time to make this ad but the ad just talked about crime so most people why am I fudging on the details Skippy you're I'll I'll I'll block you

[55:26]

Skippy you're I'll I'll I'll block you so you don't have to hear the details um so that story is fake news can I say one thing though the Central Park 5 thing he did I think on Wikipedia at least it says that he did say in 2014 or 15 he said oh it was a mistake to equip them so and then that could be interpreted as racist I mean Ken Burns said it was racist for example now I don't that doesn't Pro well why but uh it would be racist if it's something you wouldn't say about white people but that's there's no no reason to believe that have you seen this President go easy on white people he doesn't like you have not he he goes hard at everybody all the time and he doesn't like to change his mind on stuff so you're you're seeing a pattern which is 100% consistent for all people all genders all everything but I you're I get your point um yes it's a it's it's tough because there's a whack Ando problem but I I do like to force people into committing what is their best point

[56:28]

into committing what is their best point and then uh removing their confidence on their best point that's usually as far as you can go in a single conversation so it might at least just you know introduce the the concept of doubt it's probably all you can do in one interaction um and I think that was your question thank you yeah all right let's go to I want to change it up and let's get a
a let's get feisty on here feisty you are coming at us can you hear me feisty hi do you have a question I want to ask you if you ever paid your friend for U erroneously calling gastron aritis stomach flu uh I'm sorry uh say it louder did you ever pay your friend the bet that they Lo that you lost over call G write his stomach flute

[57:29]

G write his stomach flute um I I did not pay because well it wasn't wasn't a monetary bat but uh so the Mayo Clinic called gastroenteritis stomach flu so I I'll take the Mayo Clinic as my source if we're going to argue about that um I'm not a doctor so I have nothing to say about that I just know that the Mayo Clinic site parenthetically said one is sort of the the common language that people use for gastroenteritis which probably includes more stuff so they're not perfect not perfect uh uh analoges but the the BET was specifically is there such a thing as stomach flu and if the Mayo Clinic says there is such a thing as stomach flu and it's a phrase I use I claim victory you can use influenza um and you're using the word influenza interchangeably with all of stomach viruses and that's where the um the

[58:31]

viruses and that's where the um the mistake is um stomach flu as opposed to uh well I I said that there is such a thing as a stomach flu well I'm already bored with the topic but okay but I'm not the expert so I'm not going to die on that Hill about the definition of a of a medical term but if uh if I got it wrong people can check that on Wikipedia all right thank you all right let's get another question that does not have to do with definition of
of words let's go to Stone
Fox and then this will be my last question Stone Fox are you there can't believe I'm talking to you um what is your question I'm yes um I'm a PhD student and I want to say you challenge a lot of my thinking but one problem I have is finding time to write

[59:32]

problem I have is finding time to write and as a writer what advice do you have on you know keeping up and always improving with writing ah so a writing question I like these so tips for writing number one this is the number one tip is the most important tip your ability to write will be very different at different times of the day now now uh you would find almost universally true that professional writers prefer to write either early in the morning or late at night so they're either writing you know after midnight or they're writing before you know 8 A.M uh which is true in my case as well and there's something about the way we're wired our biorhythms who knows what it is our energy but there are times a day when you can do it easily and there are times a day when it's just a struggle you know when when you in the middle of the day the afternoon is a terrible time to
to write so that's the first thing is you should find a regular time and you

[1:00:33]

should find a regular time and you should say okay this is my regular time and then make sure you don't schedule anything else that will over overlap that I preferred getting up in the morning before anybody wakes up because the moment anybody else in your house wakes up it's all over the first person who wakes up your writing is done all right so that's rule number one so if the first person in your house who isn't you is going to wake up at 700 a.m. you might need to get up at 4:30 a.m. to get in get in a little writing uh or stay up late now and then the other thing is to uh have discipline about doing it every day or as close as you can get every day and at the same time and you want to have a a place you do it uh that's really good let me let me show you something um that is very directly related to your point so I'm right now I'm at my my my desk let's see here's my computer and you here's my desk it turns out this is a terrible place to write

[1:01:35]

out this is a terrible place to write and I want to show you how subtle the difference is right so where I'm sitting right now in my office at my official desk is a terrible place to write and I say that because I've tried to write here and it's very hard now look at this this is a view of the opposite side of my office you can't see it very well but say you can see there's a chair and I've got another computer and a laptop there so this is set right up against the window and so I've got much more light coming in I can sit at that chair and write for hours comfortably but uh literally what 12 feet away sitting where I am right now I can't write it it it is that sensitive to light and position and and I don't know maybe way if if that's even a thing but you need to find that place where your feet are not up by the way that's one of the worst mistakes you can make is to sit on

[1:02:37]

worst mistakes you can make is to sit on the couch and get all comfy and put your feet up and try to write because if you're like exactly what I do yeah stop doing that if you're going to write you need your your feet need to be on the floor or at least you know on on sitting down you need to be sitting up you need to be somewhere ideally where you've got natural light like a lot of it that's why I'm by the by the window it's the natural light that'll keep you awake if you're in a slightly darken place you're working on the just the light of your laptop you got the fireplace going your feet are up you got a nice you know warm cup of tea good luck you're going to be asleep in 15 minutes all right so so th those are my tips and uh beyond that you should look for if you Google my name and um writing tips I think you'll see it all over the Internet I've got a a set of how to be how to be a better writer I think is the thing you want to search for my name and how to be a better writer and you'll see

[1:03:38]

how to be a better writer and you'll see a very brief list of tips I think you'll find useful all right thank you all thank you thank you very much thank you for your question and I'm going to go do some other things right now and I will talk to you all later