Episode 755 Scott Adams: Brexit, Those Pesky Russians, Shampeachment

Date: 2019-12-13 | Duration: 42:01

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Russia interfered with the election…in the UK? Anti-Semitism Act by Trump Administration Lindsey Graham agrees with my no witnesses concept Good brainwashing and foreign election interference President Trump’s gentle brushback of Greta Thunberg Chris Cillizza says we should be appalled Patton Oswalt tweet and adults deeply scarred by childhood bullies China decoupling and the potential for new business in China My North Korea conditional surrender peace plan suggestion… …Why did my lights just go out?

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: https://interface.my/ScottAdamsSays

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

## Transcript

[0:01]

[Music] oh hey Kevin come on in here good to see you
you everybody come on in come on it's time hello London enjoy your election there we'll be talking about you this morning but not until we've enjoyed the unparalleled pleasure of the simultaneous sip we're going to do this international version simultaneously sipping across the pond that's right Great Britain joined with us the rest of you countries I know you're there all over the world all you need is a cup or a mug or glasses snifter stein challenge tiger thermos / canteen Grail goblet vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid you know what I like yeah coffee join me now for this unparalleled pleasure of the dopamine hit of the day the thing that makes everything better you know it does

[1:04]

makes everything better you know it does the simultaneous it go well so we got some news today it happens every day seems like every time you wake up look there's news so our Great Britain had a little vote and decided that Boris Johnson and his party the Conservatives would would rule the day and therefore they would get brexit done in a few months and what do people say about that they say oh my god even Joe Biden is saying it's evidence that the far-left can't win so even Democrats are saying that there's a perfectly good reason why the guy who looks like the poor man's Donald Trump literally Boris Johnson is

[2:07]

Donald Trump literally Boris Johnson is the poor man's Donald Trump and he wins and even Joe Biden kand understands why because his competition was too far left just as Joe Biden's competition is too far left apparently there's gonna be some massive trade deal that the US and Great Britain will do now that brexit or at least once brexit is behind them and this brings up the question of code reuse now I'm not going to say this proves we're living in a simulation I'm just gonna point it out for entertainments sake turns out that Glenn Simpson believes that maybe there was some Russian interference Glenn Simpson of diffusion GPS also known for the steel dossier is actually saying this without any irony

[3:08]

actually saying this without any irony or embarrassment whatsoever that Russia interfered with the election in the Great Britain and Hillary Clinton saying the same thing oh my god so somebody who reminds us of the poor man's Donald Trump meeting Boris Johnson has an election and the same players are saying that Russia rigged the election do you think that Russia do you think that Russia wanted to rig an election to make Great Britain more economically sound because I think that's what's going to happen I don't even know what to say about this this Glenn's him some Russians influence the election thing because it's so I don't even know what the word is is absurd coincidental is that the simulation is a crazy is it shameless I don't know what this is I

[4:09]

shameless I don't know what this is I don't even have words to put on this it's just so weird but it exists I everyday with that have you ever had this experience I'm gonna make you an analogy just for fun it's not for a persuasion just for fun you ever have that situation where you're you're sitting at a stoplight next to a bus and for whatever reason the bus next to you starts moving backwards a little bit and then it makes you slam on your brakes because it makes you feel like you're moving forward but it's only because the the context changed it's one of those like weird illusions of life you've all had that well there's an illusion that I've had a few times where I've kind of I've got an app on my phone for watching the news or well for watching TV but I'm usually just watching the news now flipping back and forth between you know CNN and Fox News and everything every once a while MSNBC and all every now and

[5:14]

once a while MSNBC and all every now and then I'll have the following experience where I think that I hit the Fox News icon but I really had to MSNBC or CNN and I'll be sitting there listening to the news thinking that it's Fox News and I'll say to myself what the hell's wrong with the news what what am i hearing because it'll sound just batshit crazy and I'll say to myself what happened to Fox News and then I look over and I realize that I accidentally hit the MSNBC button there this happened this morning and I swear I'm not making this up
up I thought I'd hit the Fox News button and accidentally hit MSNBC and while I'm doing other things I hear hear out of the corner of my ear I hear them asking about Trump's state of mind because of the impeachment and I thought to myself

[6:14]

the impeachment and I thought to myself state of mind what kind of craziness is this on fox news that they're going to be doing mind-reading and talking about the what the internal thoughts of a stranger are that would be stupid how could Fox News do oh it's MSNBC and then I understood if you don't have anything good to report for your team you write about mind-reading and things that might happen in the future because they can't be verified to be not true the problem with the Russia collusion problem is that when you looked at the facts it disappeared when you look at impeachment and you look at the criteria for impeachment it disappears facts do not work against Trump apparently but what does work is imagining that you can see in his mind I've been waiting for this just for the the humor element so the Trump administration passes this I

[7:17]

the Trump administration passes this I don't know the technical details but they they had an anti Semitism thing that they're pushing through and if you're Jewish or you're worried about anti-semitism in any way it's nothing but good right so the Jewish community wanted it nobody really didn't want it too much there's some questions about freedom of speech but basically it's an unambiguously positive thing in terms of a step against anti-semitism and I thought to myself how in the world is the fake news going to complain about an anti-semitism step that the administration makes how can you possibly complain about that like what possible thing could you say and it looks like they had to reach pretty deep deeply into their bench to get somebody who was willing to say that is really bad they found this guy David

[8:18]

is really bad they found this guy David Perry to write an op-ed to say that he doesn't feel safer because of the anti-semitism Act and he gave reasons and here are the reasons bla bla bla batshit crazy I'm not even going to tell you the reasons because the reasons are just so stupid and desperate and and uh hubris that they had to go so far into like a non regular contributor at least I haven't seen his name before to find somebody who was willing to say as a Jewish person I'm guessing to say that an anti-semitism act wasn't helping are you kidding you've got a really try hard to find out how that's bad okay now if you if he had been complaining about freedom of speech there's there's a point to be made there but not the way he did it all right Lindsey Graham as you know is

[9:25]

right Lindsey Graham as you know is proposing that when the Senate gets the impeachment case assuming that the house votes to impeach the Senate takes it up next and Lindsey Graham very much in agreement with my opinion might not ask any witnesses I might just say let's just vote on it there's nothing else to say it's a it's a crock and just voted out of business I have said that that's brilliant but it needs to be paired with a statement that is really really brief and telling why the two articles and the Pietschmann are not even applicable you know that they're just ridiculous so I haven't heard that the Republicans plan to do the brief statement but I can imagine something like that will probably come out of it now some people have said hey hey hey we want the the Republicans to be able to call witnesses like hunter Biden and Adam Schiff and all that because we'll find out all this new stuff and it'll be great for the

[10:28]

new stuff and it'll be great for the Republicans here's the problem and here's why I agree with Lindsey Graham once you've won the case or made the sale let's say you don't want to keep selling you never want to keep selling after the close if you ever heard that phrase I use it once in a while never sell past the close what that means is let's say your sales person and you've convinced your buyer to buy and the buyer says okay I'm gonna buy this thing the moment the buyer says yes do not keep describing your product because if you keep describing it there's a nonzero chance you'll say something that will reverse the sale but if you just shut up once you've got the yes and you say okay is it gonna be you know checked or credit card and you just work on the transaction that's how you would be trained as a salesperson I would argue that having watched the

[11:29]

would argue that having watched the house grapple with the appeasement stuff that in terms of the public and certainly the Republicans in the Senate that the sale is already made they've already decided to vote against it because there's nothing there in their view which I agree with but if they call witnesses they introduce new variables and they allow the other team the fake news to create new stories about it and all it does is create possibilities for bad stuff to happen sure I know you want revenge I know you want to see Schiff squirming in front of the questioning but I believe that he can be brought up separately correct me if I'm wrong but I think Adam Schiff could if if the Senate wanted to or the or the house I don't know how that works exactly but I'm sure they can call it witnesses for anything they want they just have to have a reasonably good predicate I guess so shift could be

[12:32]

predicate I guess so shift could be still questioned in a separate process but Lindsey Graham is 100% strategically lawyer correct he got it right strategically because once you've once you've won just Bank the wind so that's smart don't allow new variables in it's all good so Lindsey Graham smart those who say let's keep this going because it makes the other team bad or will interview them and make them squirm bad strategy take the win take the wind so Lindsey Graham smart
here's the question for you it's so easy for us to get all wound up with our brain washing now I've just I've I've described in the past patriotism and the feelings that

[13:33]

past patriotism and the feelings that you have for the country are largely the result of brainwashing but it's a productive and good brainwashing in other words when you send you a little you know your kid to first grade and your kid is taught to you know put his or her hand on the heart and do the Pledge of Allegiance and and stand for the flag and all that stuff that this begins a long process of indoctrination and brainwashing in order to have a strong country you need to have a sort of a strong common you know core base belief system that the country is good and you know it's worth protecting and you should die for it all that so we do a really good job of brainwashing our citizens but that brainwashing lasts forever you know it doesn't go away you know when you're an adult you're not less brainwashed you're the result of that brainwashing but you think that you're thinking independently you imagine that you have independent

[14:34]

imagine that you have independent opinions but nothing like that is happening so here's the provocative thing I want to put out there all right your first reaction to this is going to be based on your brainwashing okay so you're going to have a really negative reaction to what I say next but not because it's wrong and not because you have a reason against it just monitor this in your own mind monitor how you have a strong negative reaction to it and then separately look how there are no reasons all right here it is let's say Russia in influenced our election given that the election and let's say it's a future election so we don't even have to talk about 2016 let's just say Russia or any other country doesn't have to
to Russia could be China over somebody else let's say they do influence our election and the end the and because elections

[15:37]

and the end the and because elections are always close you know most of our elections are going to be close to 50/50 because people just took the party but let's say that instead of one side winning by let's say 52 percent to 48 let's say that there was outside interference and it reversed the result so that the winner had 48 percent of the vote and the loser actually had more votes 52 percent is that a problem here's the part you're gonna hate it's not even slightly a problem it's not the smallest problem in the world it's no problem it's not a trivial problem there's no problem at all now don't you reject that isn't your brain saying of course that's a problem are you kidding me that means that Russia or China are basically in charge of our country they're the ones deciding who it is they're obviously gonna pick the one that's good for them and bad for the

[16:37]

that's good for them and bad for the United States it's terrible right well let me point out first of all the obvious thing that the the person who got the least amount of votes actually won the election do you have a problem with that no because it's called the electoral college and we've accepted that that's our standard so as long as the standard was met you know we're okay with the person with the fewer votes getting elected but let me tell you this no matter who was the one who had the 48 and no matter which side had 252 reversing it still gets you to something like half of the people in the country happy with how it turned out if half of the people roughly speaking are happy about the result no matter which way it goes because it's close to 50/50 who cares
do you do you think that an election in which the result is about 50/50 do you

[17:39]

which the result is about 50/50 do you think that the people in I other side really no which is good for the country obviously not we're just not that smart we're not smart enough to know that the person who just barely lost versus the person who just barely won we're not smart enough to know which one of those would be a better president it wouldn't make any difference at least in terms of predictability it wouldn't make any difference it would make a difference in outcome but not a predictable one so here's the thing of course of course we should try as hard as we can to get rid of all foreign interference because we don't want the credibility of our elections to come into question I'm just telling you that in terms of the outcome not that big a deal in terms of how it looks or feels or the credibility of this system all that stuff's important and you need to you know drive that to zero but as long as our elections for

[18:43]

zero but as long as our elections for president are always something like 50/50 you can't really make a compelling argument that the one who barely lost you know is turned into the one who barely won there somehow that's destroying the Republic somebody says oh god it has nothing to do with this well why don't you tell me bankster news what it has to do with because I just told you it has to do with the credibility the system etc we all agree on that I'm only compartmentalizing for a moment and saying that he can't really tell yes the country is worse off you can tell that your candidate didn't get elected you can't you can tell you're unhappy if your candidate lost the election but you can't necessarily tell that the world is better off or worse off alright enough on that when you saw president Trump's

[19:46]

on that when you saw president Trump's tweet about Greta Thun Berg you've all seen it by now in which he sort of gently mocked her and told her to chill out and she had some anger man issues but it was a pretty gentle brush back I would call it gentle and that's appropriate because she's not an adult she's not you know it she it just wouldn't have been right to go any harder on her let's just put it that way and how did the president's critics react oh pretty predictably crystal is a big Trump critic on CNN Headline if his article is we should all be appalled by Trump's Greta Thun Berg tweet are you appalled it's funny I don't feel appalled and I'm willing to say that if a Democrat had made a tweet against somebody who was maybe on the right probably wouldn't be appalled if you're

[20:49]

probably wouldn't be appalled if you're appalled by this you need to seek help all right you need to maybe give some professional help if the president's gentle tweet about Greta thud Berg who clearly can take a joke because she she put the tweet into her profile immediately now some say that her her handlers did that but obviously she would have had to agree to it I don't know how you can how this could bother you so much now and and solicitors making the point there's not a partisan position that you should be a pole that the president's tweet it's a moral one it's a common-sense one now that's weird because if it's common sense why can't I see it if it's a moral position why

[21:49]

see it if it's a moral position why can't I see it why is it invisible to me isn't common sense supposed to be common if it's not common it's not common sense I would think I would have most of the common stuff but to me it just looked like good fun honestly it didn't look like anything but fun it looked like the president was having fun with a non-issue which is you know who's TIME's Person of the Year has no importance to the world whatsoever so the president just has a little fun with it and then Greta Sundberg has a little fun with his little fun both of them get a little bit of attention does Greta Thun Berg like attention well I don't know if she likes it internally in terms of her you know mental cognition of it but I know it's useful every time the President of the United States talks about her she becomes more important so and then there was a Patton Oswalt you

[22:52]

and then there was a Patton Oswalt you probably all know Patton Oswalt comedian who tweeted the president is a stupid a-hole and if you voted for him you're a stupid a-hole and if you still support him you're a stupid a-hole and then he wrote Ono this tweet is going to make all the stupid a-holes not like me where now remember what I said about I feel as though you could divide the world up in terms of how people think think about Trump you you imagine that it's broken up into people on the left and people on the right and you imagine that's people on the right like him and the people on the left out but there's another filter on this that I don't think can be ignored and Patton Oswalt is a perfect example of it I think people who had been bullied as children I have a really triggered feeling about Trump because he is a bully all right now he's the bully

[23:54]

is a bully all right now he's the bully that half of the country hired with complete and full disclosure that they knew exactly what they were getting because the president offered to bully the people that his voters wanted to get bullied other countries China Isis Democrats they basically signed up to have a bully do some bullying for them so I think that there are two kinds of people in the world those who have been bullies or we're at best case have not been affected by bullies who are ok with it because they they they just see a strong character who can do some strong things that they need but if your patton oswalt what are the chances that you were bullied as a child pretty high right everybody who's not six foot four and ripped with muscles has been bullied as a child some worths versus others but I swear it just looks like a psychological problem now somebody said

[24:55]

psychological problem now somebody said my wife called and calls in the bully I would say also the in addition to bullying in the you know male-to-male way there's sort of a perpetual problem that all wouldn't have if you're a woman you can't walk outside without some some male concern in other words you know you're gonna get whistled at you're going to be approached it's dangerous you know just being a woman in the world is sort of a sort of a tough thing so it's not exactly like bullying but you certainly have had the experience if you're a woman I would imagine this as close to universal you have the experience of let's say well I don't want to say powerful men because that makes it sound like it's a positive in some way but men who have bad intentions and act bad so whether you would call that bullying or sexual harassment or whatever else it feels the same probably

[25:56]

whatever else it feels the same probably so I really think that explains so much of what we think is politics because it's so attenuated and of what seems like normal behavior some of it of course were a lot of it is the fake news getting people worked up that was talking about China the president has tweeted that there's some kind of a positive movement on China trade deal the the leak has something to do with 50 billion dollars of agricultural purchases from China and baby oh they'll tighten up on their stealing of intellectual property now that wouldn't be a complete trade deal there are other authority issues including fentanyl etc and you're a few thoughts number one let's say that this so-called phase one gets done this one's sort of trivial in the sense that's the easy stuff you know

[26:56]

the sense that's the easy stuff you know it's the the authority or issues that are holding out but it certainly makes sense to me that if we we have ongoing relationships with them that are going to change right away then we should optimize them so it makes sense that if we're already doing this this kind of business with China then we would want the best deal we can have to do more of this kind of business at the same time I think decoupling is happening and what I mean by that is that it would be kind of crazy to to make new business with China if you're not already trapped into it so Jim Cramer has sent it directly now that our economy is so strong that we could walk away from China
Steve Bennett has said it I say it Kyle Bass says that Gordon Chang says it so you're seeing more and more people who are associated with both left and right saying maybe we could just walk away but

[28:00]

saying maybe we could just walk away but I don't think there's going to be a walk away or a comprehensive Chinese deal neither those are going to happen in isolation I think that we'll do some deals we'll keep trying to improve things where we can but that new business just won't go there because it's too much of a risk it would be humiliating and embarrassing and also risky business wise so and yeah I suppose this will be a test of the Dilber influence because if you're willing to do what is so easily mocked by a Dilbert cartoon you know doing business with your enemies expecting that that's going to work out well you deserve to get so and then because the China deal apparently is silent on the question of fentanyl I I'm gonna agree

[29:05]

question of fentanyl I I'm gonna agree with withhold judgment on this so-called phase one deal because if all it is is you know at week two business that's ongoing anyway it is good for our farmers why not you know it's good for the farmers why not but we have to decouple and the fentanyl thing until their top fentanyl dealer whose name they know whose address they know whose face they know they know exactly where he is until until China kills that guy and I mean kill him I mean actually executed until that happens you can't really get serious about doing business which I know were continuing to do business with them in the long run so I think and then we see hints that China's might be having a debt issue some companies over there or two highly leveraged and they might be in trouble and that might make things better but is

[30:11]

and that might make things better but is it directionally positive that were somebody's asking in the comments directionally positive well check the stock market stock market will tell you let's see what the stock market is doing today I think the answer is probably up stock market is close to flat but you know just slightly up and the other most of the other things that I track are up a lot or a little bit so it looks like the market has decided that China not that big a thing now I ask you to check your prediction filters somebody says what about genocide yeah there's I think the the Weger situation is continuing to increase in visibility as is the flood falou GOG that they're using for parts they're killing the flu God reportedly taking their body parts and selling them for transplants so I can't

[31:13]

selling them for transplants so I can't see that China's reputation will do anything but continue to deteriorate over time so China is moving pretty much everything is moving in the wrong direction now let me let me suggest a solution for Hong Kong are you ready here's a out-of-the-box solution not Hong Kong I'm sorry North Korea here's a North Korea peace plan that you did not see coming are you ready it goes like this the United States declares peace and surrenders to North Korea in the context of the you know North Korean war that at least on paper has been going on for generations they ready so the United States declares peace you know says formally that the end of the North Korea

[32:13]

formally that the end of the North Korea conflict is over maybe it takes a congressional offer and we surrender to North Korea do you see where it's going yet and then we say it in North Korea well here's the deal in in return for surrendering because it's not an unconditional surrender it's a conditional surrender which is fine there are unconditional surrender Xand there are conditional surrenders and both of them can work so we say it's a conditional surrender and it looks like this you get to North Korea wait you have to wait for the punch line because I know that the first part of this sounds terrible to you but wait wait for the punch line all right it's worth it so we say to North Korea it's a conditional what we want is be able to monitor your nuclear nuclear weapons and you can keep them are you ready I haven't got to the good part yet

[33:14]

haven't got to the good part yet so we end the war formally we surrender to North Korea we give them the victory so while you went we can't defeat you we surrender all we ask in return is that you don't point your nukes in our direction but if you wanted to point your nukes toward China we think that would be pretty smart because China is your biggest threat and once we've surrendered and declared an end of Zhai still these perhaps we can be part of your defense against our common enemy China I'm looking at the comments one says absolutely not and the other says awesome now some of the Saudis laughing at me is saying Scott Scott Scott China and North Korea are partners don't you

[34:15]

and North Korea are partners don't you understand that they're their Ally he's Scott you stupid bastard Scott here's what I understand do you think that Kim jong-un is more afraid of trouble or President Xi which one which one purple which one poses the biggest risk to North Korea in the long run in the long run I don't know if it's China but I'll bet we could convince of it is so here's the thing let me let me boil this back to its essence lots of smart people have said and they might not be wrong lots of smart people have said that North Korea will never give up its nukes there's just no way it will ever do that let's say that's true is it also true that they can't be convinced to point their weapons at their biggest risk and not at

[35:16]

weapons at their biggest risk and not at us who just declared peace surrendered and maybe in maybe we remove some assets from from South Korea's and military assets that may depend on other factors as well but what if we just say North Korea we love you guys why don't we just be friends we surrender and maybe you could help us protect against the the common risk that we both hold which is China and Russia maybe I don't know how Russia works in here but so the the the whole idea Brae boils down to this if you believe it's true that North Korea will never get rid of their nukes what's your best outcome if they're gonna keep them well attacking North Korea is a terrible outcome so we don't want to attack them having them continue to have nuclear weapons and develop them and point them

[36:17]

weapons and develop them and point them in our direction the terrible outcomes we don't want that but keeping their nuclear weapons but agreeing to point them at their enemy instead of us we might be able to live with that we might be able to I don't know you know all of the options are bad right if you only have bad options you have to pick the least bad one if you have an option that is both possible and better than that I'd like to hear it because you might have an excellent idea what about all the starving North Koreans the starving North Koreans would be fed if they have peace with the United States because then the trade sanctions are off so North Korea gets food they get to keep their nuclear weapons they just have to work with us to point them in a different direction that's all just point of in a different direction now I

[37:20]

point of in a different direction now I realized that the problem is that it's easy to retarget your nukes and if they ever got mad at the United States they'd have all these nukes they could point in our direction but isn't that true Great Britain to Great Britain has nukes if they ever got really mad at us think your point about us but we're not worried about it because they're an ally Israel has nukes if they wanted to they could point them out the United States but we're not worried about it because their allies North Korea could keep nukes if they became allies and what would cook what would prevent North Korea somebody says Scott is not very bright well you just got blocked and remember I I'm completely open to you telling me why idea won't work

[38:20]

idea won't work so that's perfectly good but Scott slobberry bright Scott is so naive is not really a reason what about Iran somebody says I think Iran looks like it's self solving it looks like Iran's economy is is going in such a bad direction and they've got a huge young population who is going to want their internet and they're going to want their capitalism I think so I think Nora I think Iran is just just wait you know I love I love what the president has introduced president Trump has let's say he's solidified a way of thinking that we always had but we only used it periodically and that way of thinking is if you have an economic option you just always use that you know use economics

[39:23]

always use that you know use economics first and military last so that's what the president is doing with the rand it's economics first military last is what he's doing with North Korea we're not attacking North Korea it's economics first and the beauty of this method is let me put it this way if you only ever did economic sanctions rarely it's just you know in the rarest case you would use them I don't think they'd be as good because if you only use them rarely it looks just like war but
but if you were to say instead the following countries are economically let's say they have a good business record then you could say we're going to do all bit we're going to do as much business as we can with all the countries that are reliable business partners forget about military just business if they're reliable business partners will do business with you don't care about your government or anything else but if

[40:24]

government or anything else but if you're not a reliable part of the international economic system you're completely shut out and I think that's where we're heading I think we're heading to a point where the downside of being a bad actor is just being shut out of the international economic system so why hasn't Venezuela ruled don't forget I have some real questions about Venezuela right Venezuela why are we hearing more about Venezuela that didn't seem to you as if Venezuela was on the the cusp of something bad or good happening there was something was gonna happen and then suddenly it's just not even than the news what's happening in Venezuela are they still eating their pets how come that just went out of the news so you have to ask yourself what's going on there they are almost out of gold

[41:32]

there they are almost out of gold somebody said well maybe yeah and our I guess our frenemies and other countries are propping the loops I lights just went out I wonder why I'm gonna go find out why I just lost power and I will talk to you later