Episode 567 Scott Adams: Limpet Mines, Flag Burning, Brainwashing, UFOs, Reparation H
Date: 2019-06-16 | Duration: 45:08
Topics
Someone convinced Kevin Williamson that brainwashing isn’t real Our opinions are mostly “assigned” to us, Kevin’s also TDS and politics are both examples of effective brainwashing Guest: Tom Sauer, US Navy EOD Veteran and expert Tom’s thoughts on the Iranian tanker and the Limpet mines Dr. Saphier and the HRA story…better WH communications needed Joe Biden…A ”steady leader” for America Does President Trump believe in UFOs? “Reparation H” Kamala’s funny nickname Kamala believes in the “Fine People” HOAX and reparations Candace and President Trump’s American flag burning position OJ Simpson wishing people “Happy Father’s Day”…is SO WRONG
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Rough Transcript
This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.
Transcript
[0:12]
time time time hey everybody how are all of you come on in here I’m pom pom pom pom it’s time for coffee with Scott Adams and the simultaneous cept the best part of your day it’s where you get that little dopamine advantage that will carry you through the rest of the day and I’m here to give it to you it starts with the unparalleled pleasure of the simultaneous sip and you know what you need a cup or a glass or a mug at Eckerd Steiner chalice possibly a thermos maybe a flask any kind of a vessel that holds a liquid I like coffee join me now for the simultaneous sip so a little bit I’m going to have a guest on here which is why I have my fancy headset on looking quite professional I like to think and while I’m waiting for the guests to join and by the way Tom if you’re looking at
[1:14]
and by the way Tom if you’re looking at how to join if you haven’t done this before you should be on a mobile device because it only works on mobile well it will not work on your laptop and look for the little happy faces icon at the bottom of your screen and that is how you request to join but and I see somebody’s requested to join let’s see if that is Tom not yet okay so let’s talk about a few other things while we’re waiting for that oh the fun the fun today so there’s an article in National Review by Kevin Williamson in which he said a number of things are not real and people asked my opinion and the things that that Kevin Williamson labels as not real are things such as cults and stuff that Freud said and
[2:16]
cults and stuff that Freud said and recovered memories and brainwashing so Kevin saying that those things were not real now I agree with him on most of these things I see Thomas here and we’ll get to him as soon as I finish these comments I agree with most of those comments I’ll tell you what I agree with in what I do I agree they’re calling one thing a cult and another thing a religion doesn’t make sense because the difference between a cult and a religion that’s more of an opinion and so I would agree with him that that labeling some things cults you can’t really justify that a religion that you don’t believe in looks like a cult to you he says recovered memories are not real I believe that is correct I believe that the stories of recovered memories are really stories of people imagining
[3:17]
really stories of people imagining things and talking themselves into thinking they’re true but and then he also says that a lot of the beliefs about Freud and the Freudian analysis are also based on no science and that’s true too Freud was we know now a fraud but here’s where we disagree he says there’s no such thing as brainwashing but he’s careful to say brainwashing as it is popularly described in movies and popular culture so his his definition might be a little restricted and maybe that’s why he says it doesn’t exist but I say brainwashing absolutely exists all right remember I don’t know what Kevin williamson’s background is but I’m a trained hypnotist I I have hypnotized people and I can tell you that you can change people’s preferences and what is a person if not a bundle of preferences
[4:18]
a person if not a bundle of preferences because you’re not your memory exactly you know because you could put your memory in your phone and that doesn’t make your phone you so you’re not your memory you’re not your body because you could lose an arm but you’re still you you are largely the thing that makes you special besides your genetic makeup is your preferences and those can be fairly easily changed by other people so do you call that brainwashing well here’s the thing Kevin Williamson already said that recovered memories are not real if a recovered memory is not real what happened to the person who had the recovered memory they were brainwashed so not intentionally but a person with a recovered memory is usually a memory that has been let’s say installed by the person asking the questions so for example in the famous case of the
[5:19]
example in the famous case of the McMartin preschool the law enforcement people asked questions of the children in a way that were sort of leading questions that would cause them to believe they had a memory they didn’t have so that’s a well-documented case where the police have brainwashed children they brainwashed them into thinking they had experiences they never had very common wouldn’t you say that trumpet derangement syndrome is based entirely on brainwashing it is most of what you see as politics is actually just brainwashing it’s not one side if you think the other side is brainwashing and the side that you happen to join was the one that doesn’t do any brainwashing I’m sorry you you don’t understand much about how the world works everybody’s being brainwashed all the time it’s you know it influences us in different ways different people but you’re all being brainwashed pretty much as I’ve said
[6:19]
brainwashed pretty much as I’ve said before try to find somebody in the real world who has a political opinion that doesn’t match the news network they watch it’s rare people get their opinions assigned to them and then they believe it’s their opinions it becomes their opinions but brainwashing is the I would say I would say opposite or brainwashing doesn’t exist I’m going to say as opposite as possible almost everything you believe is assigned to you so you are mostly a brainwashed creature mostly we’re probably 90% brainwashing and 10% you know genetics and randomness and stuff like that so that’s my my take on it now let’s see if we can bring Tom on here what made you wait long enough alright Tom can you hear me um terrific
[7:19]
hear me um terrific Tom can you help me with the pronunciation of your last name sour Tom sour sour sau er that’s right and I understand you have some experience with with Mines and demolition can you tell us your experience because this is relative to the Iranian and the tanker situation that’s correct I am a former Navy EOD officer Guillot d stands for explosive ordnance disposal where the bomb squad for the Navy and for special operations so you’ve seen limpet mines the kind that are allegedly being used on these tankers in the Gulf of Oman is that correct that is for a general speaking that’s correct I can’t speak to the specific mind that was used there but generally speaking yes we spend on those and we’re familiar with yeah so the first thing I’d ask is you saw the videos the grainy videos of what is allegedly an Iranian maybe Revolutionary
[8:21]
allegedly an Iranian maybe Revolutionary Guard boat removing something from the hull would you say based on your experience that is probably a limpet mind definitely a limpet mine door how would you characterize that you see it’s hard to say because I did see the photos from USS Bainbridge which was on scene they took some photographs and put that out it was part of the official Navy statement and they showed the blasts from one and they showed another black object I can’t tell for sure you know I mean it seems like it would have been but what threw me was watching these guys come up in the boat and it looks like they’re doing something right in the same spot where the other picture had that alleged limpet mine right and the thing is is that we look at this and look I acknowledge that there’s other nations of smaller countries or less developed countries and their military their yo D forces are very limited in their capability in their training they’re what we call TTP’s tactics training procedures and and so we look at that
[9:23]
procedures and and so we look at that and I’m looking like well that’s just the day one you don’t do that right what that’s like the first day is you don’t walk up on something that armed even if it’s dud fired right you shouldn’t okay assuming it misfired and didn’t work correctly well what that tells you is that well that piece of ordnance and this is whether it’s a limpet mine a hand grenade and ie D whatever it doesn’t matter is like okay that thing’s angry right and that is you go and put your hands on that thing or worse even approach it that’s just like a big big no-no that’s why we have robots right and you know that’s why you see in the movies everything we send a robot in and that’s why we have a guy wearing a bomb suit furthermore if you have to send somebody down range you don’t put a boat with a dozen guys on a little boat and so that’s why I initially just question this is I’m like I’m looking at this like okay this is either not a limpet mine or these guys are really really dumb and like look you
[10:23]
are really really dumb and like look you don’t have to have a whole lot of training or any train you want to be an AUD guy to figure hey let’s have this boat full of a dozen guys we’re all gonna stand on the bow and stand around it while mad you know goes and puts his hands on the thing and Yanks it off well I mean let me ask you this have you accounted for any cultural differences in other words would it be culturally let’s say acceptable for the people who were not the ones actually reaching up to this alleged limpid mind would it be acceptable for them to be cowering and fear at the back of the boat or you know that’s that’s a good question I hadn’t thought of you know if that’s the case for another country or in another culture if they want to do that they can go and have that part of their culture as far as I’m concerned but anybody else you know if they said hey we’re all gonna go up can I try to throw the other boat know did it did it look to you as though there was any place to hide on that small boat
[11:26]
was any place to hide on that small boat I mean was it was there even a I don’t remember it clearly did it even have a below deck it was an engineering class patrol boat right which is real copper I spent you know a fair bit of time out there and those are there’s a pretty calm you see those guys all the time I have interacted with the IRGC n a lot and they and I can tell you some funny stories about those guys they point rockets at us they call us up on the radio and say obscene things to us they play pornography on the radio to just kind of mess try to mess with our heads they’re real friendly but those on that boat uh yeah I mean at least go to the other side maybe that’s actually Armour it’s distance all right but but but you get my point yeah if they thought that there was nothing they could do to be particularly safe right I just say uh well we’re not gonna act like we’re you know a bunch of cowards we’ll just stand up here yeah in solidarity with their buddies I suppose you could say that maybe that is a
[12:28]
you could say that maybe that is a cultural thing it you know perhaps but that’s what I thought I was looking at this like that doesn’t make any sense however when I saw these other photos and it’s worth pointing out yesterday the New York Times call him about it and I was acting the middle of writing on the same topic for human events with four will Chamberlain Ramin kasam I was in the middle right right looking for that because I was asking a lot of these questions but then there’s a New York Times column that came up and it actually had some looks like they changed the filter on the all the video footage you can see a little bit more clearly and it really does like Wow okay maybe they just were that dumb and they actually did do what I didn’t think that they would and it looked like they actually did it well keep in mind keep in mind that if they got the order to do this and they didn’t do it you know they’re sort of dead they got two ways to be and this one was the low this one was probably the low risk path probably they’re just being kind of maybe they just decided hey we’re just gonna be really stupid about it and we’re gonna
[13:28]
really stupid about it and we’re gonna stand around you know I’m sure they’re probably too changed and do a lot of laundry afterwards cuz I would’ve been pissing my pants if I had to do that no um and what are in your opinion having seen what you’ve seen is there any chance that it isn’t exactly what it looks like which is the Revolutionary Guard put some mines on some ships is there any chances anything but that good question it seems like you know one thing we do learn in any OD is that you know if it looks like a doctor walks like a duck it’s probably a duck I mean really is just kind of like you use the Occam’s razor approach I have I mean yeah I guess it’s possible but I mean I I know what that boat is that is an IRGC em boat you can tell from you know from just just from that the the footage there even though it’s not color and doesn’t markings you can’t see the markings at least that is an Iranian patrol boat now if there is something else on there and not an explosive device I mean maybe but I would probably why
[14:30]
I mean maybe but I would probably why would it be yeah why would it be also worth pointing out that the Iranians know they know that we had our eyes on everything in the area good now it says that they shot down or tried to shoot down one of our surveillance drones we also had you know other whenever we have that entire part of the world mapped out we’re watching everything and especially after an incident like that there are multiple cameras on scene 24 hours a day you have surveillance aircraft and surveillance drones so they had to know that they were being watched and you know here’s a here’s what I’ve been watching for I’ve been watching for the Iranians to specifically deny that that would you call this ship or a boat what’s the proper patrol boat a PB or you know yeah but I’ve been looking for them to say that’s not our boat because if they don’t say that’s not our boat as ridiculous as that might sound to us they can’t say that directly it’s their frickin boat oh it is definitely their boat sure and if
[15:31]
boat sure and if tonight there you go now let me ask you this I don’t know if you know enough about the politics in Iran you probably studied that area more than I do but what are the odds that the the Revolutionary Guard could be acting somewhat independently from even the rest of the civilian government or what are the odds that the President of Iran who of course is subsidiary you know you subservience to the grand grand leader of the ayatollah what are the chances that the civilian leader even knows necessarily what’s happening that’s actually possible and I’ll tell you why Iran has two navies people maybe don’t realize it you have the Iranian Navy which is actually professional force with I mean where they follow the rules they’re actually very professional when it comes to interacting with American ships they have p3 you know observation aircraft and I’ve been flown out they’ve flown over me a bunch and they’re actually a uniformed professional you know they act like adults so to speak right and you have another Navy which is
[16:32]
right and you have another Navy which is called the IRGC mu Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy which is a paramilitary outfit it is pretty much siloed off from the rest of the Iranian military it strictly for political purposes and they’re the ones who the troublemakers they’re in the little boats they also like do things like they ride around in Boston whalers with machine gun mounts and rocket launchers like welded onto them and they’re a different animal and they do answer to different bosses now it is hostile now is the Revolutionary Guard is their primary job to protect the leaders from the population their own population is that their primary goal and that would be speculation I’ll be honest like I took a Middle Eastern Studies class at the Naval Academy and you know that’s about it I’m not gonna pretend to be a Middle East expert but generally speaking yeah I’d say that’s true it’s a very much a political paramilitary unit it’s they’re not the same as the regular military when somebody’s somebody’s challenging me in
[17:33]
somebody’s somebody’s challenging me in the comments that rouhani president Ronnie had to know what was going on let me let me modify my speculation to I don’t know that he was less surely in on the planning of it but if you watch the same video we did yes of course he knows they did it sure of course he knows now but I don’t necessarily think he knew before it happened that’s a fair speculation I think there’d be a fair speculation yeah I mean obviously we don’t know nobody knows none of us were there but I mean from what we’re seeing now I think that’s a pretty that’s fair that’s reasonable yeah I heard that that they fired at one of our drones I tried they fired a missile at her drone and then then he read down the article and it says the closest the missile came to our drone was a kilometer and I’m thinking I’m not really worried about the Iranian military now if the closest they could get to a drone and you know drones not moving that fast right I was no they’re not and that’s absolutely very good
[18:33]
not and that’s absolutely very good point whether shooting yeah it’s there they’re not very effective at those sorts of things one thing I would say to tell people watch and you can find this an open-source I’m not like giving anything away is if we were to really start to schwack Iran we really wanted to hurt them and like it’s going all out which I still think is highly unlikely but your tell for that will not be oh we moved more Carrier Strike groups and more ships into the Persian Gulf no no no what’s gonna happen is when every Navy asset gets out of the Persian Gulf because that means the US Air Force is coming in and there won’t be and the only thing of the Iranian Navy that’s left but that’s still floating will be what the US Air Force decides to allow [Laughter] all sudden you hear about us maybe getting out of the Persian Gulf that’s where you watch out so so but that also raises a question I’ve been wondering it feels to me like sure it’s great to have a Navy because all the all the reasons
[19:35]
a Navy because all the all the reasons that you would need one but if you ever got into a real war wouldn’t a hundred percent of every major naval vessel be sunk I mean on boats it is let’s say we got into a war with a with a serious country with a serious military like China yeah I mean not that we would write want to be about one week before everything that’s loaded is not floating anymore on both sides it very well could be be it would be a modern naval engagement these days would be very short and very violent right the wouldn’t be wouldn’t not what I think improper probably not well I’m not allowed we would take some licks and but we deliver him back to that was something I actually worked on in my part of my part-time job one of my staff jobs I was a planning officer we wrote war plans actually part of a war plan for Korea has my fingerprints on it a very tiny part one of the staff guy I was oh man well somebody in the comments says what about submarines yeah the submarines would be tougher so it would be but here’s the thing for Iran one thing that’s to note is their art that it isn’t a very big area for
[20:37]
art that it isn’t a very big area for submarine activity because it’s very closely confined I mean the Persian Gulf is not that big and also the water is very shallow overall very shallow water so it’s not a blot place for you to hide or run around there are some submarines out there obviously some smaller ones we can get into that Jack Potomac and I have talked about that at length but yeah that’s one of the things as well that it wouldn’t be too much of a submarine fight there is a possibility for that but also the real concern is in the Persian Gulf the Strait of Hormuz is if the Iranians were to mine it and then you have a lot of Mines it’s one of things we always worry about all the time because they can shop all stop all that shipping traffic and it only takes it doesn’t even take one mine to stop all that shipping tribe that’s why I’m gonna get so nervous all you all the Iranian to have do is start throwing barrels into the water and people are freaking out now what is the situation with the Iranian don’t they have their own need for shipping I’m in other words if all shipping stopped wouldn’t Iran be in a lot of trouble it would hurt everybody that’s one of the
[21:38]
would hurt everybody that’s one of the things that’s one of the reasons why they haven’t done anything like that yeah they’re very careful about some of these things and which also made me call the question you know what what what do the Iranians have to gain by doing this really I’m not really sure if anything this will just provoke more it’s more provocative and it doesn’t really seem to help them at all I found it interesting that the Arab states all of a sudden got real fired up you know say America we got to do something you know that’s interesting who benefits out of this yeah so the this is what makes me think that Iran might be a bit fractured at the moment I’ve got a feeling that the the not all on board with whatever whatever is happening there it’s just a feeling that’s like that’s a good feeling tab I think you might be right all right well so Tom here’s here’s some persuasion I’ve been working on to help us with Iran and I I previewed it with my earlier question what kind of country needs a military to protect its leaders from its own population and that’s the
[22:38]
from its own population and that’s the sort of what the Revolutionary Guard is in my opinion right yeah generally speaking I’d say that’s correct yeah so I would think that that would be a great framing because instead of making it the United States against Iran it’s pretty clear that we’re on the same side as the population of Iran because they’re we both have the military between us and the leadership of Iran which is not helping either their citizens or anybody else so in a way we have a common enemy and it’s the Revolutionary Guard so I would agree that is good you know there was an attempt at a revolution you know another revolution counter-revolution what 2013 I think it was several years ago they’ve tried for that as well and I mean it’s it’s it’s too bad the state of Iran that’s a it’s such incredible potential coming out of the gas-rich right alright Tom thank you so much for that I’m gonna gods all right take care all right that was great let’s talk
[23:41]
all right that was great let’s talk about some other things so I was talking yesterday about how the the news has not covered president Trump’s incremental progress on health care when I say incremental process I mean there have been a number of smaller actions by the administration that would improve the free market free market mechanism of health care they should lower costs in the long run increase competition increased choice that sort of thing and there was this announcement that didn’t get much coverage about HRAs and something about small businesses using pre-tax dollars for health care and I was watching dr. Niccole Safire tried to explain this on what was it Fox and Friends and and it was frustrating because the topic is just too complicated to really communicate I you know I think dr. sapphire knew the topic
[24:43]
know I think dr. sapphire knew the topic but she had to somehow in in a minute communicate this to people who don’t have the same context and background and even when you say pre-tax dollars if you say to the average American citizen hey this is pretty good because this will be pre-tax dollars do you know what the average citizen says what’s is that important I mean pre-tax I don’t know is that good is that bad so that whole story about the HRA is is completely wasted it might be a good policy and it might give us some good results and someday we might look back and say hey I’m sure glad about that but I’m a small business owner I mean what I do here is a small business and I wouldn’t know how to do anything differently because of this what did the HRA do for me or I don’t know so it’s this completely poorly communicated field what the administration needs is some kind of an expert on simplifying
[25:46]
some kind of an expert on simplifying and communicating and if you would like me to recommend some administration I can do that but just seriously need some communication people working on packaging and marketing all the things that you’re doing for healthcare costs so that it’s it’s a coherent story and not a bunch of muddled complexity I saw a poll that says Biden is leading and in terms of a hypothetical matchup with President Trump and and the way I was presented in the story was that the poll says the voters want a quote steady leader so they’re looking at Joe Biden as a quote steady leader and I thought to myself that is the best kill shot ever for Joe Biden because if there’s one thing you can you can be assured of is that the more we see of him the more there will be things that people will label a
[26:46]
things that people will label a flip-flop more things where he stutters and falters more things where he has to you know clarify something he said the normal the normal give-and-take of a campaign produces lots of lots of unsteadiness so unsteadiness is a guaranteed outcome of pretty much anybody running for president there will be moments there they’re accused credibly accused of yeah having a gaffe haven’t saying something wrong having to correct something flip-flopping from their previous statements etc so the last thing you want if you’re the Joe Biden campaign the last thing you want is to hear the media labeling you as the steady candidate because it’s a label you can’t live up to nobody could you know Trump couldn’t live up to it nobody could and I know that the study is that the counter to Trump’s unpredictability but the unpredictability is giving us pretty
[27:47]
unpredictability is giving us pretty definite benefits at this point I think even critics understand they’re the worst Trump critics understand at this point that the president’s unpredictability has helped them in negotiations it’s helped us on ambiguously so that’s a terrible thing a terrible label to put it on Biden is steady because that’s that’s just gonna blow up like a limpet mind all right mine George Stephanopoulos was talking to President Trump and one of the questions you asked him was about the UFOs and the alleged videos of UFOs that are our military aircraft have taken and the president was asked if he believes now keep in mind the president Trump has access to everything yeah there’s no such thing as information that’s too confidential for the President of the United States so whatever we know the president knows
[28:49]
whatever we know the president knows because certainly he’s asked right at the yes since the top came up he certainly asked his people well tell me the secret stuff do we have any UFOs or not here was the president’s response about does he believe in UFOs he said do I believe it not particularly now not particularly leaves him that you know that little bit of an ALP which is well you know I’m not saying they don’t exist I’m just saying I’m not particularly convinced of it and he’s seen he’s seen the stuff that we can’t see so whatever it is that’s out there that has been seen the president has looked at it and said now particularly now if there’s one thing you should trust the President on it’s identifying BS because when you happen to be a manufacturer of as much BS as any politician but this president’s
[29:49]
any politician but this president’s better at it than most let’s call it hyperbole if you’re if you’re a one of the best manufacturers of let’s say hyperbole you can kind of recognize it when other people are doing it you can recognize BS if you are a BS or and when the president who has access to the best information in the world on the question of ufos says do you believe it not particularly I am in the same camp no matter how many videos you show of what looks like a grainy picture of a UFO I don’t believe it now the most famous one is that one that would seem to be traveling at a high speed and it looks like they locked on to it and you know at one point it looks like it it turns sideways and it was still moving that sideways turn is what tells me it wasn’t real do you know the video I’m talking about there’s one where there’s a craft that looks like it’s going this
[30:51]
a craft that looks like it’s going this way and then at some point it turns this way and it keeps going and I’m thinking to myself that’s exactly how nobody ever made a craft there’s no there’s no aircraft that works well in one direction but also works in the sideways direction because you got air you got you’ve got issues with that right so I don’t believe the UFOs I don’t believe UFOs have visited us that’s my my take nor do I believe we’ll ever find them but that’s a longer question let’s talk about burning the flag oh now let’s talk about reparation H so somebody on the internet and I wish I could give credit because it’s pretty funny as referred as given a name to Kamala Harris and because Kamala believes in reparations and she also or last name starts with H Harris but she also believes in hoaxes one of them is
[31:52]
also believes in hoaxes one of them is to find people hoaxes and several other hoaxes she believes in so somebody gave her the name reparation H and I thought to myself I like that that’s a keeper because reparation H just is is funny so that’s that’s good if it’s funny that’s a good start but funny isn’t enough if the H stands for hoax it signals people that she’s someone who believes in every hoax and if you if he use reparation H use the H for hoax not for Harris that’s that’s what I would advise you and the reason is if you use the H for hoax then every time she mentions one you will be reminded of it and it will be reinforcing that’s what the President does with his nicknames he picks things which will be reinforcing and then in the normal scheme of things you know it will be reinforced by events so the hopes one would definitely be reinforced so she is tweeted once again the fine
[32:54]
so she is tweeted once again the fine people hoax here’s what’s interesting I of course retweeted that and called out the fact that she was repeating a hoax what I used to do that I would I would just be trashed in the statements people saying my god how can you say this is a hoax today when I retweet it only a few people say hey why are you calling that a hoax I’m sure that happened and far more people are saying okay yes here comes another hoax so I believe that the that the the wait has turned that the people who believe it’s true are now on the on the defensive as I should be let’s talk about flag burning so there’s some amendment or there’s some legislation floating around in which I guess Senator Steve Daines proposed an amendment for a strong ban on burning our American flag and the president supported that in a tweet and
[33:55]
president supported that in a tweet and called it a no brainer and other people supported him Candice Owens for example him said if I were president the punishment for burning the US flag would be the renunciation of citizenship that’s that’s pretty drastic no jail time no fine simply one year to liquidate your assets and get the hell out of our country that’s pretty harsh Candice you’re you’re badass in exchange who he would extend citizenship to a hard-working legal immigrants so I would say that Candice and the president are both doing something that is politically very smart all right so I’m gonna I’m gonna take two positions one is does it work politically does it work as a persuasion element and then secondly is it a good law you know as a citizen what do I think of it as persuasion it’s kind of brilliant because it forces the other
[34:56]
of brilliant because it forces the other team to argue in favor of burning the flag just so they can disagree with the president and so Candice is you know one of the smarter operators in the political world and I’m sure she understands that it’s it’s a it’s a diabolical trap for the other side which by the way I haven’t seen them fall into the trap yet so maybe they recognize the trap but even if you don’t exactly agree with Candice and even if you don’t exactly agree with the president that such things should be illegal and I don’t you have to appreciate what it does politically to the other side it traps them in the corner and makes them argue the thing they don’t want to argue which is hey let’s let’s have everybody burning that flag now I have a nuanced and superior opinion on this than everybody else that’s what everybody says on this topic the thing about flag burning is it’s such a simple topic it’s one of the few
[35:58]
such a simple topic it’s one of the few topics that we can all understand all of the variables that’s very rare you know normally there’s something we don’t understand about any big topic but this one no question every person looking at it knows all of the all of the details you need so that’s just an opinion so here’s my nuanced opinion which I tweeted at the president I said I respectfully disagree I said the flags burn ability is exactly what makes it indestructible I’ll get back to that I’ll only pledge allegiance to a flag I can burn in public no weak flags please now dumb people read my tweet and said Scott it looks like you want to burn a flag no no I don’t want to burn a flag Scott it looks like you’d be in favor of people burning flags no no I’m not in favor of people burning flags Scott it looks like you’d be okay with a flag
[36:58]
looks like you’d be okay with a flag burning no no I’m not okay with it I don’t like it I don’t want to see it I wish there were no flag burnings can we agree on that can we accept that and move on but flag is a symbol flag is not a bunch of cloth if my symbol of freedom the flag if I can’t burn it it’s not a symbol of freedom so a flag you can’t burn in in my view of things the moment you tell me I can’t burn it I don’t respect it you get that right because free speech and the freedoms that the flag represents are up here these these are maximum important concepts the material of the flag the fact that somebody’s you know doing something that bothers you it’s very offensive right I think everybody here would be offended
[37:59]
think everybody here would be offended on some level some a little bit some more if you if you served in the military the level of offense would be probably through the roof but being offended I think everyone would agree that being offended is sort of down in the weeds of importance you’re offended I’m offended we’re all offended every day about something that’s that’s small-ball what’s important freedom of speech freedom that’s important so if you tell me you’re gonna take away my freedom the top-level important thing freedom of speech in this case if you’re gonna take that away from me to protect a piece of cloth I’m gonna find myself a new country I’m gonna find myself a country that gives me freedom of speech because I want the flag that gets stronger when it gets burned and I want the the anti fragile flag I want the one that the worst people in the
[38:59]
the one that the worst people in the world can take out into the center of the square and desecrate in every possible horrible way they want to desecrate it and that those people assuming they clean up the litter I mean there might be a question of litter but as long as those people can walk away and not go to jail that’s the country I want to live in even while I don’t like those people from doing what they did even while I’m personally offended by it I need to live in that country so that’s the high level I think that’s the high ground on this is that so let me reread my sentence it’s because it’ll make more sense now that I’ve explained it so when I said my tweet was the flags burn ability is exactly what makes it indestructible as long as we can burn it is indestructible the minute we can’t burn it it’s dead to me it’s weak and it’s dead the minute I can’t set it on fire but if you let me set it on fire
[40:02]
on fire but if you let me set it on fire anywhere I want in this country as long as I’m not littering as long as I’m not you know as long as I’m not breaking some other unrelated law as long as I can do that you’ve got yourself an indestructible symbol can’t can’t be destroyed if I can burn it all right that’s my opinion now with the flag burning stuff I’m open to the fact that this is just how people feel about stuff and if you feel strongly about it you know for example if you were in the military and you say to me you know I hear what you’re saying Scott I understand it you know in the you know sort of blahblah intellectual way you’re saying and I understand it but I fought for this country if I see somebody burning a flag I’m gonna punch their lights out I respect that you still have to go to jail if you punch somebody in public but you know what you’re getting right there’s somebody far for the country and they’ve got a far more personal relationship with the
[41:02]
far more personal relationship with the symbol and they need to take it out on somebody I don’t think you should punch people but I’m not gonna tell you you shouldn’t feel that way so I I will respect the opinion of people who disagree with me on this topic all right I think I hit all of the main points here let me just check here I did those are all my main points how about that here’s the other here’s the other point of view on this flag burning stuff I told you that this summer was going to be all silly news so we’re gonna have an entire summer full of silly news and I think this flag burning thing fits perfectly into that it’s just some silliness that the the president is injecting because it’s good for him it makes him the protector of the country the protector of America etc but it’s
[42:03]
the protector of America etc but it’s not important it really isn’t it’s the least important topic that we’re going to talk about so we’ll have a summer of fun it looks like and maybe this won’t be the Summer of Love but it’s going to be fun alright so a lot of people are asking me in the comments to say something about Oh J so if you don’t know Oh Jay Simpson has has opened his Twitter account with a little video introducing his return and he says he’s gonna he’s gonna be getting back as some people that said some people that said some stuff he didn’t like etc and here’s the best part he wished all the father’s happy Father’s Day happy Father’s Day oh man Oh Jay come on I don’t want to laugh about the tragedy of a murderer and the poor families that were involved but seriously Oh Jay happy
[43:05]
were involved but seriously Oh Jay happy Father’s Day the only thing that could have been happy worse than dough Jay saying happy Father’s Day is Oh Jay saying happy Mother’s Day am i right and I don’t want to make I don’t want to make joke of this but this is so wrong like so monumentally wrong that it’s so wrong I just have to laugh at it because it’s ridiculously wrong it’s wrong it’s not even just you know wrong offensive it’s it’s like past offensive it’s like whatever is the offensive times 10 that just you just look at you go well that’s just so wrong that’s just so wrong anyway when I when I checked he had a quarter of a million followers up from zero in one day and when I checked back in a few more hours it was well over 300,000 so he’s gonna have a really interesting Twitter feed we’ll see how long it lasts Scott how’s the homeless
[44:10]
long it lasts Scott how’s the homeless situation in your country not so good but I think we have lots of technologies and ways to fix that all right I think that’s about all I’ve got right now and I think Oh somebody says County how is the homelessness in my County well I’m on the East Bay so San Francisco is sort of a mess if you believe the news reports but where I am in the East Bay I just don’t see it I mean I I live in an upscale community so we just don’t have too many problems there all right that’s enough for now and I will talk to you all later make sure you see this on YouTube in the replay that just just search for our real coffee with Scott Adams you’ll see it on YouTube in the replay bye for now