Episode 749 Scott Adams: Well Spoken Insults, Maddow Versus OAN, Denmark Idiots, Iran

Date: 2019-12-07 | Duration: 41:32

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a 51% of likely US voters approve our President’s job performance Michael Bloomberg says Cory Booker is “well spoken” OAN lawsuit against Rachel Maddow, “really, literally” My entry into the Joe Biden Pushup Challenge Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine, digging around for more dirt Iran and China’s economy versus… …America’s ROARING economy Bjorn Lomborg analysis of Denmark’s new climate law Estimated cost: 1% to 6% hit to their GDP Are Twitter Democrats suffering from a mental condition? The power of “OK, Doomer”

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## Transcript

[0:11]

hey everybody come on in here it's time for coffee with Scott Adams I think I'm looking pretty dapper in my baggy sweatshirt today well it's a weekend so I could wear anything I walked that's right I am running this media empire in my pajamas with a sweatshirt on haven't even shaved beat that for a business model will you I don't think you can't but I know what you can do you can enjoy the simultaneous it with all of the goodness that your beverage plus the simultaneity can bring you it doesn't take much all you need is a copper bugger glasses snifter stein cellist anchor thermos flask canteen Grail goblet vessel of any kind feeling with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine to the day the

[1:11]

pleasure the dopamine to the day the thing makes everything better the simultaneous simp go uh-huh yep yep just as good as I thought no surprises there so in the news there is a tragic shooting on some Navy base by a Saudi citizen who was there also training here is a picture of the perpetrator now I have a suggestion is there no way we can do a facial recognition algorithm they can spot this guy as the guy who is likely to do a mass shooting compare here's my face and ask yourself I see this face is he likely to do a mass

[2:12]

this face is he likely to do a mass shooting here's me posing for a photo here's another one here's another one do any of those faces say to you well I think that guy is gonna do a mass shooting they do not and I would be willing to bet that each and every one of you could take a photograph which an objective observer would look at your photograph and say oh here's a photograph of Bob does Bob look like a probable serial killer no not at all
all Bob's face does not say serial killer at all now take a look at this guy does that guy look like he's happy does he look like maybe he's got a little anger in there I'm completely serious if you can't write an algorithm to pick this guy and at the pack and say maybe we

[3:13]

guy and at the pack and say maybe we should keep a little more keep an eye on that guy it's got to be a thing right it's got to be a thing yeah he's dead down but this will be well that's it's just a tragedy there's nothing nothing else to say about that in other news the Rasmussen report their daily presidential tracking poll for Friday just put President Trump that 51 percent approval rating of likely us voters 51% it's above half how many people if somebody says on military IDs rarely people smile okay it's not the lack of a smile that's the problem here folks it's not the problem that he looks unhappy yeah there's something else going on here I quite literally if you can't

[4:14]

here I quite literally if you can't build a machine that can pull that out either I just think that you run a bunch of phases through machine it's going to come out with this guy it's going to come out with every other serial obviously can come up with Adam Schiff he hasn't killed anybody yet but I think it's only a matter of time anyway the Rasmussen poll is about 50% everybody has talked about that forever as being a sort of a magic indicator this sense whoa more people approve of the president then don't so that 50% is kind of magic what should you expect to see today what you should expect to see today is CNN running the poll to show that that's not true so within within one day we should see from CNN a counter poll this says no Rasmussen or no Rasmussen you're no accurate you're not accurate but

[5:16]

accurate you're not accurate but Rasmussen does have a pretty good record of being accurate I think in the last the last 2016 election they were probably about the best right so that's interesting but wait for the counter poll so you could have a good laugh at that in other news Mike Bloomberg referred to Cory Booker as well-spoken
now as I wrote in my incredible best-selling book loser think which should be sitting right next to me and I should be holding up right now but it's not sitting right next to me and I have my microphone on so imagine that you could see it here this is me holding up my book so do you like it do you like the cover pretty good in my book loser think I talked about Ron Santos who is now government governor yeah governor no no governor what is he Ron Santos was

[6:16]

no governor what is he Ron Santos was when he was running he got a lot of he got a lot of grief for calling an african-american opponent articulate I believe so here's my tip and I wrote about this in my book if you were one of the people who knew that if you make this particular kind of compliment to an effort an American citizen in this country is viewed as an insult because if you say this individual is articulate the thing which it immediately makes you think is why wouldn't they be well why the heck wouldn't they pay ya DeSantis governor of Florida thank you for reminding me
but when de santé said it I said the same thing I'm going to say now which is if you were to just grab a bunch of white folks and say okay you random

[7:17]

white folks and say okay you random group of white folks I'm gonna ask you the following question are you aware that it would be considered an insult to say a complement of an african-american man or woman that they are articulate how many white people would know that that would be considered an insult well I don't know the percentage but it's not all maybe half I would say half at most because it's one of those things that you really have to be paying attention to even notice yeah in all likelihood you've never encountered the situation you haven't read about it you just have never seen it so what should we make of the fact that Mike Bloomberg called Cory Booker well-spoken and Cory Booker who and this is the fun part of the story apparently Cory Booker and Mike Bloomberg know each other really well have campaigned together they've endorsed each other's campaigns Bloomberg has donated money to Cory

[8:18]

Bloomberg has donated money to Cory Booker they have they have a relationship that goes back a while do you think that Cory Booker believes that Mike Bloomberg is a racist no let's be honest Mike Bloomberg is not a racist and I don't think that Cory Booker thinks that either because he knows him personally he's known him for a long time and in Bloomberg's a liberal and it doesn't seem like really you know much odds that that sort of accusation should or could stick but here's the thing it really does it makes bloomberg feel a little bit off his game in other words if you're watching it and you say to yourself yeah I'll agree with you Scott that only half of your typical non african-american people have even heard of this well-spoken articulate thing being an insult but Mike Bloomberg has

[9:21]

being an insult but Mike Bloomberg has do you think there's any chance that Mike Bloomberg is not in the 50% of people who know that that's an insult of course he is now I can't read his mind so you have to you have to be open to the possibility that he got to this age with that amount of public exposure or that amount of brilliance I mean blue Brooks a really really smart guy can we believe he got to that point without ever hearing that articulate or well spoken word insults in this context well it's hard to believe so what it makes you think and I want to be very careful here there is the possibility that I'd never heard of it before because like I said a lot of people haven't it's not that uncommon I think Ron de santis probably was in that category of people who just it didn't register as something that he was familiar with as an insult until after it happened but it's hard to believe

[10:22]

it happened but it's hard to believe that Bloomberg didn't know that it's possible it's possible so I'm not gonna make the statement that he did no because it's possible he didn't but whether he knew or it was just a senior moment when he knew it but he wasn't wasn't on the ball enough to connect it in this context anyway you look at it it's bad for Bloomberg but what it isn't is racist it's definitely not racist so there's that anyway so all of you have now heard it right so everybody who's listening to this periscope knows that well-spoken articulate and I think I think a word that I didn't used to describe Obama at one point was clean it clean are you freaking kidding me if you don't know that's an insult well you know but at least at least Biden is famous for gaffes all right let's get to

[11:24]

famous for gaffes all right let's get to my favorite story of the day I know this is why you're here so it turns out that Oh a n the the network OAM has a lawsuit against Rachel Maddow because she sat on the air that OAM was really literally paid Russian Russian propaganda site and she used the words really , literally now Rachel Maddow is on a news network but if she news is she news or where she opinion now here's the interesting thing so this lawsuit is going on and now we know what the the lawyer for Rachel Maddow what their defense is going to be are you ready here is Rachel Maddow's defense from her lawyer against the accusation that she said on the air in

[12:27]

accusation that she said on the air in these words the Oh a n is literally no really literally a paid Russia propaganda outlet now they're not they're not anything like that so it's a completely false statement now when you make a completely false statement on a news network and they call you on it and it's obviously a very damaging one I mean this would be a really bad a bad accusation if people believed that this would be really damaging financially - oh yeah so what possible defense can you imagine that the lawyer could come up with - to argue that there's no defamation here when on a news network she said that they are really literally paid prompt Russia Buganda and they're not what would be the defense yes they're calling it the alex jones defense the defense is the

[13:29]

alex jones defense the defense is the things I say are not true and I know it in other words the defense's Rachel Maddow is full of I'm not making that up the actual defense is ladies and gentlemen of the jury my my client Rachel Maddow she did say those words it's on video so there's no question about that she did say that that Oh a n is really literally paid Russia propaganda and it's literally really not true even a little bit even slightly even any way that you want to slice it not even a little bit so what did she mean oh she didn't really mean that in other words yeah it's the idiot defense it's the idiot or a liar defense now here's the funny part I saved the funny part for last can you imagine the meetings in which this defense was first floated so you can

[14:33]

defense was first floated so you can imagine that Rachel Maddow was probably in the room with her lawyer and I don't know that this is true but it's fun to imagine that somebody from MSNBC and executive one of Rachel Maddow bosses might have been in the meeting too and of course if your MSNBC you don't want to get sprayed with the same slime so maybe you'd like a little distance between your corporate brand and something that one of your on-air host said so who was the person who floated the idea to Rachel Maddow in the first place and did it go like this okay Rachel I've been thinking about this I've got a great idea for a defense I think this will work I think this will work all you have to do is claim that you're a idiot No now I'm saying just hear me I don't just

[15:36]

now I'm saying just hear me I don't just hear me out if they think that you're smart and you mean what you say it's gonna cost us a lot of money so the last thing you want to do is say that you're smart and you mean what you said so you're gonna have to go with the defense that everything you say is a bunch of because that could work I would also point out that there's word that Elon Musk just prevailed in his in the suit in which he was defending against the guy he called the pedo guy I didn't even know his real name unfortunately I don't know the name the real name of the guy who was brought the lawsuit but I know him as pedo guy it was just pretty funny I never thought about that that the only name we know for Noah for that guy is pedo guy but I I hastened to say that there's no truth to the rumor that the guy that Elon Musk referred to in a

[16:39]

guy that Elon Musk referred to in a tweet as P no guy there's no truth to the rumor that he has any kind of activity that would justify that name but Elon Musk prevailed in the suit because it's just something that angry people say on Twitter it's just something that angry people say on Twitter so in the case of two citizens musk is a citizen he's not somebody on the news and the guy who brought the lawsuit is just a citizen and they were having some words in public on Twitter and so in that context the jury or the judge I don't know what you was has ruled that that's just trash talk and should not be taken that seriously just trash talk but what if you're a news organization if you're a news organization and you use the words really and literally before you present

[17:39]

really and literally before you present your fact can a news organization get away with is just trash talk I'll think so we'll find out but I'll think so so and can the news organization get away with everybody should know that we just make up the news that it's just invented it's not based on facts which one of those defenses makes MSNBC and Rachel Maddow look good I think done so let's keep watching that if you ever have a chip if you ever have a chance to make a lawsuit against somebody and you push them into their only defenses that they're really really stupid and they lie that's a good lawsuit so congratulations on om for putting the boot down on that absolutely justified the claim that Rachel Maddow

[18:39]

justified the claim that Rachel Maddow made that they were paid Russian propaganda totally false that's worthy of a lawsuit I would agree all right I don't know if you noticed that I took up Joe Biden on the push-up challenge so I did a tweet yesterday you can find it in my Twitter feed in which I did 25 push-ups on video as my entry into the Joe Biden push-up challenge now I was surprised by the comments because I didn't realize that there are so many people in the world who apparently can't do 25 push-ups and so I didn't think that that would be impressive but I keep forgetting I live in America and people are not because people are not hitting the gym maybe as much as they often now I don't know that Joe Biden couldn't beat that because as I've said before if if you did push-ups every day of your life even at Joe's age

[19:42]

every day of your life even at Joe's age he could maybe hammer around 35 I don't know so I would actually love to see him do it now a science politics aside let me say this clearly I don't think Joe Biden is the best choice for president but
but my opinion of him has gone up quite a bit in the last few days I have to say the more I think about his confrontation with the with the guy in Iowa and the the fact that he challenged him to an IQ contest a push-up contest and may or may not have called him fat I have to be consistent you know if Trump had done any of that stuff I would be laughing and I would like it more for it so I'm gonna apply the same standard that I kind of like Joe but Joe Biden a little bit better for it yeah I'll tell you some more good things about Joe Biden well I'm gonna run I think it's good to

[20:42]

well I'm gonna run I think it's good to say good things about the people you don't want to be elected because it makes you at least look like you're you're capable of seeing both sides that's always a good thing here's something Joe Biden being the touch via Sky you've ever heard of he's touchy right to the point where there memes about him being too touchy but he's been in public office for like a billion years as the touchiness guy in the world as far as I know there's not a single me to claim against him am i right can you fact check me on that Joe Biden has managed to go decades in the public eye being the touchy guy in the planet the least in person I mean in public and yet I've not heard one me too complained about him I don't think you could find you know if you just randomly pick three politicians from Congress do you think you could randomly pick three politicians in Congress that don't have any me too allegations against them

[21:42]

any me too allegations against them after 50 years in office I mean it's pretty impressive the other thing that's impressive bad Joe Biden which again doesn't make him a good president but it's impressive is that he apparently even the people on the other side the Republicans they all agree he's a nice guy which you think about that there's there's literally nobody accusing Joe Biden of a character's law think about that nobody is accusing Joe Biden of a character flaw now they're saying he's lost a step you know he's his policies that aren't right at cetera those are all fair things but that's pretty darn good if you've gone that far in public office and even your opposition likes you and there isn't a single like unsavory claim nor is that there's not even a corruption claim that has evidence I mean I guess Rudy Giuliani's still sniffing around in Ukraine which

[22:43]

still sniffing around in Ukraine which is hilarious to me by the way and then lastly I'd like to compliment him for being a good role model for fitness because he's got a good weight he apparently has been a lifetime exercise guy and I I respect that but again I don't think he's right choice for president but he's got a lot going on for him let's appreciate that yeah I mentioned that Rudy Giuliani now how funny is that there Rudy Giuliani in the middle of all of this noise about impeachment and Ukraine phone calls and all that in the middle of all that apparently Rudy Giuliani goes to Ukraine to dig around for some you know more dirt now ah my first impression was the same as most of you which is what wouldn't now be exactly the worst time to do that and I'm thinking maybe not because as long as he's over there digging around what does that make you

[23:43]

digging around what does that make you think what what is what is your brain irrationally and uncritically assume is true if Rudy flew over at the very worst time because all the attentions on it and he's still digging around over there for some dirt what does that tell you well uncritically because there's no reason to believe this is true your brain says there must be something there right because why would Rudy take the risk and Supreme big risk to go over there now and draw all that attention make it look like there's something going on why would he do that well maybe maybe he would because he thinks there's something there maybe knows more than we do but maybe it's just a really good way to make us think there's something there so you can't really know and I don't know that there's anything there but it was an interesting super aggressive choice to go over there now

[24:43]

to go over there now and I suppose if he dug something up it would be interesting but he'll probably just end up getting his picture taken with unsavory Ukrainians and make everything worse well it one of the odds that anything comes of Rudy's trip other than the fact that he got his picture taken with the wrong people I got a feeling that's where that's gonna go but in the meantime it makes you think well if he's over there if he's over there there must be something there you know or at least enough that's worthy of looking into maybe not Trump was funny talking about his reversal of the ban on incandescent lightbulbs because he talks about the light bulbs that he said about himself he said of course being a famed person that's very important to me talking about how the light bulbs make you look he says gives me an orange look I don't want an orange look so he says so I'll

[25:44]

want an orange look so he says so I'll have to change those bulbs at least a couple of rooms where I have in the White House now the this quote doesn't show it but I when I saw him say this in person he was saying you know gives me an orange look and then he said maybe maybe you've noticed it was they left out the funniest part what he said well maybe you've noticed all right so about the push-up challenge with Biden before I leave that my best-case scenario would be for Joe Biden to take the challenge and get on video and rip off 35 push-ups on camera now I don't know if he can do it and if he can't do it it's better if he doesn't try but I would love that to happen like that would be the most motivating thing ever to watch to watch Joe Biden do 35 push-ups on camera if he can and I wouldn't doubt that again it seems unlikely but I wouldn't doubt it so there's a report that the Europe

[26:44]

it so there's a report that the Europe is ratcheting up the pressure on Iran if Iran keeps moving toward its nuclear program in a way that looks dangerous now here's what I have to say about that I've said I make this point in a lot of different contexts but it's it's always worth repeating the psychology of situations whether it's your personal situation or in this case world events the psychology of events is that we're much more influenced by the direction of things than by where things are if Iran woke up today and their economy was in the bad shape that it was and it wasn't our fault well that's a bad example let me just say this a better way let me just say that in the context of the United States having a record economy and having a month like nobody's ever had I think Jim Cramer has referred to

[27:45]

had I think Jim Cramer has referred to it as the best numbers he's ever seen in his lifetime so we're having the best economic growth in our lifetime and largely in this country most things are going in the right direction but in Iran things are going in exactly the wrong direction and every day that Iran wakes up the Ayatollah and the citizens every day they wake up in Iran the United States got stronger Israel got stronger and Iran got weaker so you don't need to look at where Iran is or how far they need to go before it all falls apart you can just look at the fact that the trend is is sort of an unbroken trend of bad news for them and untrue unbroken trend of good news for us so the difference between us is growing that psychological situation probably leads to a revolution in Iran now some of it might depend on

[28:45]

in Iran now some of it might depend on whether the Iranian population really knows that other countries are doing well and by the way it's the same thing with China China is watching our economy do well while there's poorly and the president quite rightly with both Iran and with China is saying I'm in no hurry now don't you think that the president's president Trump's strategy is exactly right if your country is getting better every day and not just better setting records we don't need to hurry on trade deals we don't need to hurry on anything about Iran and as of today the news is that things are going to get worse for an if the Europeans get serious about squeezing them as well so it's impossible to predict where Iran goes but one thing we can predict is that if the trend of them doing worse every day every day doing worse where we do better

[29:48]

every day doing worse where we do better every day every day that that is not a that's not a trend that can go on forever without something breaking and something it looks like something's about to break in Saudi Arabia
all right Bjorn Lomborg who talks about climate change from the perspective of let's say economics and common-sense as opposed to the science he tweeted today that Denmark just passed a new climate law so and everybody's pretty happy about that in Denmark yeah a new climate law look at us battling climate change in Denmark but as born Bjorn Lomborg points out that then it might cost according to his estimates I guess 1 to 6 percent of the GDP in that country or greater than 120 billion dollars so

[30:50]

greater than 120 billion dollars so they're gonna do some new stuff with climate that's going to take put a hit on their GDP of 120 billion or more and there are no estimates abandoned benefits but I guess Bjorn had some estimates and he thinks that if they do everything they plan to do in debt it will cut the temperature in 2,100 2,100 that's a long time from now by a ten thousandth of a degree Celsius Celsius a ten thousandth of a degree Celsius and they're going to punch their economy in the face to get it now at what point do we just say this is a China problem can we just say that climate change and China are really just the same problem now you gotta throw India in there but I think India is probably going to work with us and maybe be a little more serious about about the

[31:55]

be a little more serious about about the about the world than China maybe so I feels like just sort of a China problem right now you know one more Holocaust coming into China why in the world wouldn't we ever do business with China it just doesn't make any sense all right apparently CNN reported that Trump is still using his personal cell phone for calls and Trump called them out on that he says fake news CNN is reporting that I am still using my personal cell phone for calls despite repeated security warnings and that he said the president said this is totally false information and reporting Trump said I haven't had a personal cell phone for years only used government approved and issued phones retract and see it and son is the reporting we stand by our reporting so make of that what you will apparently the Taliban is ready to talk

[32:55]

apparently the Taliban is ready to talk again I don't know if you can get too excited about the Taliban being ready to talk because it's never worked before but it's better than not you know I I think you'd have to say it's better news that they're willing to talk then if they were not willing to talk but you can't be too optimistic about Afghanistan so here's here's a little filter on the world if you will so you've noticed that the anti-trump errors and the Democrats are in their little bubble and if you're being honest you know that the Republicans and the pro Trump people are in a different kind of bubble and the two bubbles that can't communicate it's weird and what happens is that if you're looking at the other bubble from your bubble you can only see them through the you know through the membrane of your bubble and then through the membrane of their bubble and why you're getting is completely misleading so let me ask you if this seems true to you this characterization when I see

[33:57]

you this characterization when I see people on Twitter ranting about the president my non-medical opinion is that it looks like mental illness do you have the same do you have the same take now I'm not saying it is mental illness I'm saying that from the perspective of a non-professional who of course could not diagnose diagnose mental illness from a distance and a stranger you never want to do that but I'm saying the way it registers with me yeah as just a human being who operates in the world of human beings when I see the Democrats complain about the president my impression is that it looks like mental illness now is it true like is that actually could that explain all this going on could it be that half of the country is mentally ill and doesn't know it that seems unlikely right now when I say mental illness I would include cognitive dissonance and

[34:59]

would include cognitive dissonance and you know all that that implies so cognitive dissonance is not a mental illness in terms of it you know being listed as a something that needs to be treated but it is a condition and having cognitive dissonance could put you in a place where you can't handle your life and your relationships and your mental your mental sanity I guess as well as you should so I say cognitive just is not a mental illness per se but it's a mental condition there could be a big problem in your life now let me say again I'm not saying that the Democrats who seem like they have mental problems to me have mental problems I'm telling you that's how it looks from my bubble now what does it look like from their bubble well you don't have to guess because they say it the Democrats are trying to explain their world in a way that the available information is

[35:59]

that the available information is compatible with and the way that they've done it is they've imagined that they can see inside the minds of choppers and GOP and conservatives and what they can see in there is corrupt criminal selfish basically conman criminal illage abhorrent behavior so when Democrats look at the tweets and the messages and all the things that are happening on social media etc coming from Trump supporters what do you think their honest impression is that without you know if you take politics aside because you know we're all we tend to play a game with politics but what do you think in their quiet moments their honest opinion again they're not they can't read minds they're not medical professionals they're not most of them

[37:00]

professionals they're not most of them are not you know in the justice business but what do you think they see I think that they see criminals so you have this weird thing and when I say criminals I mean everything from you know grifters to convent to people who are cheating the system to selfish people who're capitalists we're trying to rip off all the money so all of those things let's just call them criminals whether it's actually a crime involved or not so I think those are your two filters that the anti-trump are look to the Trump supporters like they have mental illness and I mean that literally to me it's like it's a yani Laurel thing you know if you if you hear Yanni and I hear a Laurel I can not hear Laurel but I can recognize that you're you're hearing something else but they look insane to me but it seems unlikely that that could possibly be true at least all of them

[38:03]

possibly be true at least all of them and then they're looking at the GOP and saying that they're all criminals and bad characters and I think you would all agree that that's not an explanation of Republicans or Trump supporters it has nothing to do in that united stuff so those are your two bubbles the insane versus the corrupt neither of them are true but it sure looks true depending on which mumble your end all right I think that's about all we got for today oh I have been trying out you know the famous saying okay Boober you're seeing that a lot if somebody in my age range on the bottom of the baby boomers the youngest of the baby boomers so anybody my age or older who's a Boomer you'll see people dismiss their opinions with okay boomer and as Mark Snyder started doing I don't know who came up with it first but I've decided to amplify it I've been trying ok doober with a D

[39:05]

I've been trying ok doober with a D instead of a B ok dimmer and I've used this a few times on Twitter and it completely stops the conversation when you use it correctly so it has to be used in the context of somebody who just said although the president is bad character or will have reverberations forever that the country will never recover from and I just say ok Doomer seems to work alright I believe that's all I had to do all I had to talk about today is there anything else I'm missing
so some of you if Doomer Donny I'm just looking at your comments a lot of you a lot of you like the okay dimmer Canada party boomer is Zoomer or someone under

[40:06]

party boomer is Zoomer or someone under 30 yeah I like do more better all right
I'm just looking at your comments okay do versed Scott white Lee that's funny oh yeah there's there's a story about there's a photo of Trump and pence eating lunch it looks like ed Pence has tiny little salt salt and pepper shakers and Trump has big ones it's being called out that the president has special big salt shakers yeah my guess is that at one point or another yeah maybe he said these salt shakers are too little so you got big ones but nobody else did that's that's what we call news if that's your biggest news things are going pretty well and I think they are so not counting a few crazy people mm-hmm by the way this is is this how all Democrats look to you new angry like

[41:09]

all Democrats look to you new angry like that all right just kidding just kidding John says Scott what's the name of your new book again well thanks for asking John it's called loser think and you can find it everywhere books are sold so please do anyway I'll talk to you later