Episode 767 Scott Adams: Merry Christmas, The Simultaneous Sip and Good News Only

Date: 2019-12-25 | Duration: 46:19

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a POTUS masterful handling of a possible “gift” from North Korea Noah Feldman says impeachment NOT complete till transmitted A clever partisan diversionary tactic? “Cult 45”…confused leftists attempting to understand their world The need to be right when facts indicate you’re wrong Could Hong Kong end up taking down mainland China? Did Greta Thunberg help or hurt the climate change cause?

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

## Transcript

[0:04]

bumpin bumpin bumpin [Music] Joe Merry Christmas Happy Holidays it's good to see all of you good to see all of you Tyler Erica Merry Christmas so I know why you're here you're here for the simultaneous that it doesn't take much if you'd like to enjoy the special holiday version of the simultaneous M what do you think you need well I'll tell you all you need is a cup of Margar glass a tankard chelators type a canteen jugger flask a vessel of any kind filling with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine today the thing that makes everything better this simultaneous sip go o best sip of the week I gotta tell

[1:08]

go o best sip of the week I gotta tell you I've been playing with my prednisone again not playing with it but doctor recommended so I have my sense of snow back only the second time in about a decade and that coffee smells really good well I hope all of you are gathered around with family maybe opened your presents maybe waiting for the kids to get up depending on your time zone so let's talk about a few things but it's all good news today no bad news today ok ok I think we're all agreed on that let's talk about some of the things that are fun and going right north Korea has promised a some kind of a Christmas gift that some people are interpreting is maybe a missile test or something like that president Trump's response to this potential of a Christmas present so to speak from North Korea is one of the best responses you'll ever see so remember it's all good news today so I'm not saying that the presidents never

[2:08]

not saying that the presidents never made any mistakes or anybody else has never made a mistakes but today we're just going to talk about the good stuff and the way President Trump handles North Korea I don't think you'll ever see better now there might be a limit you know what can get done how far we can go how safe things can be there might be some limits but the way he's handling it is so masterful and let me give you this example so North Korea is complaining and and they're rattling their sabers and they might do some kind of a missile test to shake us up a little bit and when Trump was asked about this yesterday or recently Trump said quote maybe it's a nice present and then he said maybe it's a president where he sends me a beautiful Vaz as opposed to a missile test Trump said I may get a Vaz I may get a nice present from them you don't know you never know now if you didn't know how the world works you'd say to

[3:10]

know how the world works you'd say to yourself oh my god we have to get rid of this president he's talking about Avaaz when when a nuclear capable country is maybe aiming the rockets in our direction why is he talking about Avaaz oh he's crazy it's because he's good at this and I've said this in various ways but I'll say it again the trick is not necessarily to get North Korea to get rid of all their nukes that would be great but just as good would be that they have no reason to point him in our direction and I had no reason to point them at any of our allies and what Trump is doing masterfully I mean just masterfully he's taking away their reasons you've never seen this before I don't think I mean I've never seen it in my lifetime I've never seen anybody go after the reasons before have you III can't think of any historical parallel to this at all I'm no historian

[4:11]

parallel to this at all I'm no historian so maybe somebody else can but he's literally taking away the root cause which is the distrust the dislike the need to you know be the bigger country he's just taking it away by joking about it and I think it's completely work now that doesn't mean you know we're safe or that North Korea will t do clear ice but sitting here today I don't feel the slightest chance that North Korea has even an interest even a little bit of interest in attacking the United States I believe Trump has completely taken that away right now the who knows what's happening with the sanctions they're probably cheating so efficiently that they don't really need them to be dropped so they don't really need to act desperate but it's a lot of pressure and they don't need any of that pressure because you know what why would North Korea put up with the sanctions when there's nothing in return so right now North Korea is punishing

[5:13]

so right now North Korea is punishing itself basically because the United dated in the United States is all ready to you know take them in as a friend there's no risk no risk of war totally willing to be as friendly as you can be with you know the country like North Korea they just have to say yes here's another fun story more UFO reports over Vegas now this may surprise you but these UFOs I know this is gonna come as a big big surprise but these UFOs were not clearly photographed I know right because when you're used to seeing UFOs that are so clearly photographed it's obvious what they are you can see the structure of the ship but weirdly these are just splotchy bright spots in the air they seem to be moving fast according to people who don't know how to calculate things so I'm going to make a prediction the earth will not be

[6:15]

a prediction the earth will not be dominated by an extraterrestrial force with their new technology I believe we will go another hundred thousand years of humanity without seeing any actual extraterrestrials sorry I've been waiting for Alan Dershowitz to weigh in on this whole impeachment isn't an impeachment is it because Italy talks I feel like I don't have a good opinion because I swear to God he ends every conversation if you haven't watched this over the past few years it's kind of remarkable you'll see all the the nattering heads debating stuff and they'll be on both sides and they'll be all over the place and then Alan Dershowitz comes in and he just drops the hammer on the whole conversation and when he's done you read his opinion you go okay well maybe I should have just taken his opinion because whatever the hell I was talking about doesn't make any sense compared to whatever he said and he's doing that again so so I'm gonna

[7:19]

doing that again so so I'm gonna conflate two stories so that there's a part not about Dershowitz it didn't come from him but I'm gonna put it in with his story I don't know who the author was but somebody on the internet yesterday tweeted rounded opinion piece there filled in the blanks for something I totally didn't understand about the impeachment thing and maybe you didn't either and it was remember when the Democrats star lawyer a constitutional scholar type person said that the impeachment was not complete because the articles had not been sent over to the Senate and a lot of people said well that's weird how often do you get a Democrat seemingly siding with President Trump when in fact this particular Democrat was chosen specifically because he would say anti Trump stuff and then he comes out and says the best thing the president could ever here which is the impeachment is not official because it hasn't been transmitted so it's not real and a lot of people said wow that's

[8:21]

and a lot of people said wow that's that's weird and it couldn't explain it and I could explain it either because we live in a very partisan world it didn't make sense to me that in this particular case somebody would cross sides with an opinion that was clearly for the benefit of the other side turns out there is speculation hypothesis that it was a trick it was a trick here's the trick and this is using Dershowitz 'as insights to explain it better but apparently the Constitution has no requirement for transmitting the articles of impeachment to the Senate it doesn't exist so there's there's nothing in the Constitution that says you must do this step or the Senate can't vote on it or act on it the Senate can do anything it wants because the Senate has complete constitutional authority to decide what a trial looks like and how

[9:23]

decide what a trial looks like and how it's how it is how it is accomplished they could do anything they want as long as the Senate majority and leaders are on the same page so one of the things they can do is that the Senate can without without the articles even being transmitted they can still vote on it they could have a trial they could vote on it they could vote on it without a trial they could vote it and after some witnesses they could do anything they want so the Senate has the complete power to just wipe the wipe the articles away whether Nancy Pelosi transmits them or not now here's the part where Feldman comes in Feldman was trying to argue that the that you do need to transmit them or else it's not official but that was probably and this is the speculation part because we can't read his mind but it's the only it's the only explanation that fits the facts in a way that I that I can understand it and that was that it was a diversion and the diversion was to

[10:26]

was a diversion and the diversion was to make the Senate believe that there was a step yet to be taken because if the Senate believes there were no more steps that needed to be taken I mean there could be taken but didn't need to be taken then the Senate could just vote and the Senate could have already voted it away but the Senate was also confused because they were I think the Senate was saying well we kind of gotta wait for the way forward to be referred over here don't we it's a little unclear the scholars are debating so I think Feldman did one of maybe one of the most clever legal political tactics you'll ever see a complete diversion to make you think there was an issue when none existent so that you would be diverted and not just vote out it voted away and it'd be gone by Christmas so I just put that out there as something I read not something I necessarily could tell you is right when it sounds right doesn't it that isn't it the one explanation that

[11:26]

that isn't it the one explanation that seems to satisfy all the observation you know there's nothing about what I said that doesn't fit perfectly I think so that's cool well suis got going on here today my book loser think end-of-the-year or it looks like a linear as the number one bestseller and political humor yeah the Kindle version of my book it'll be the number one bestseller and political
humor it is not very close to being number one in the world but in that category where I think it believes belongs it's not really a political book but it works really well met zone as well you may have seen on my Twitter feed just moments ago tweeting around some various articles about major breakthroughs that have happened all year in cancer research it's one of the big stories that doesn't get reported because it's really a bunch of little stories and if you don't see the whole field it's hard

[12:27]

you don't see the whole field it's hard to know that there's a big story so Jake Novak was tweeting around a bunch of articles this morning about what looked to be serious serious major breakthroughs in cancer treatments so it might be that the biggest story of 2019 was in cancer research but since it was lots of little stories and you have to wait for them to play out maybe it takes a while to know but this might have been one of the most consequential years in human human history it's possible yeah somebody's mentioning that the president being aggressive with HIV medications to try to essentially eradicate it in this country and others I assume so these are gigantic just gigantic humanity benefits and I wanted to check in with you since it's sort of the end of the year and this is when people do this about some things

[13:28]

when people do this about some things that many of you have participated with me in let's say magnifying messages I think that's what we do best here on Twitter is that we can magnify messages that are good and debate things that are wrong and maybe that helps it along in the long run but here are some here are some topics that I believe that that you you collectively and I made some difference all right now that doesn't mean we're the leaders in any of it but we were participants in boosting certain messages all year and most of you were sort of on board with a lot of that here are some of them one of the messages I think we successfully boosted this year was the idea of decoupling with China but strategically in other words don't just walk away do what you can do we got business ongoing business you might have to wind them down in a very long-term situation but don't bring any new business over there that would just be

[14:29]

business over there that would just be crazy I think that that idea promoted primarily by people like Gordon Chang and Kyle Bass and some others and I've definitely joined that joined that message as well and I feel would you agree that the decoupling idea is far more prevalent at least as an option in something in people's minds than it was a year ago now that the Hong Kong stuff makes a difference the Weger stuff makes a difference the Oregon Transplant stuff makes a difference the trade deal makes a difference but yeah I've seen some yeses goodbye I believe that we succeeded collectively because it doesn't make if I tweet something it has no power whatsoever unless there are hundreds of thousands of you looking at it and say yes I i amplify that message so there's nothing I can do on my own I can only tweet and you can decide to and I think the the China message I

[15:31]

and I think the the China message I think changed the world honestly I don't think that's I don't think that's too strong a statement I think that collectively we are part of we're not the reason that anything changed but we're part of this growing influential message that the direction we need to go with China is a strategic you know managed decoupling over times and that seems to be now drifting into the common I would say that's drifting into common sense where before it was think how radical that was even a year ago think think what it would have sounded like to say we should decouple with China one year ago cuz some of us were and now think about how it sounds today it doesn't sound bad does it because we saw that the trade war didn't really hurt the economy at least it didn't drive it down maybe it could have been higher if things had been different here's another one as you know with Mark Snyder and Michael

[16:33]

as you know with Mark Snyder and Michael Shellenberger and others we've been helping boost the idea that clean safe nuclear energy has to be a big part of the the coming whatever you know whether you believe in climate change or you don't it ends up being the same I feel as though and this one would be a little harder you know this might be confirmation bias at my part I don't know but I feel as though the national mood about nuclear energy is really different in the past year but I don't know if that's just my little corner of the world but it seems that you know now that some of the Democratic candidates have come out and said full-throated Lee yes nuclear has to be part of the solution and you see the the Perry Energy Department saying yes we're building test facilities for fuel we're very aggressive in this and you see other countries and you see you see Bill Gates trying to get his generation for

[17:33]

Gates trying to get his generation for up etc I feel as though this is another category where we collectively actually made a difference okay can I get your opinion on that this one's harder to judge right I think a little harder to judge but it feels as if in the past year we went from some kind of full-on panic 12 years we're all going to die to drifting toward the opinion that between the new technologies for scrubbing co2 and the limitation of our ability to create fuel to predict things our strong economy and the fact that nuclear energy is very promising at the same time the solar and batteries and wind are getting more efficient I feel as if the all the smart people are on the same page now or it's getting that way now that the world is still afraid of nuclear you know the population general but I feel I feel as

[18:33]

population general but I feel I feel as though the decision-making public has all drifted in the same direction so that doesn't mean we get something fast but at least the minds are in the right place one of the things that I wanted for 2019 is for the president to declare the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations I understand I watched a clip in which Brandon Darby was talking about this he's he's an expert on the border and the cartels and works for Breitbart I've had him on on this podcast before on this periscope and he's probably the most as far as I can tell the most knowledgeable person about what's actually happening on the ground and he said something interesting I hadn't heard before which is that it might make sense to designate a few of the cartels the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations but not all of them now I didn't hear the thinking behind that and I don't know exactly how

[19:33]

behind that and I don't know exactly how that could make sense but because it comes from somebody I know to be sensible I'm gonna say there's something in my knowledge that there's a gap I need to have filled in so there is some thinking that I can't validate as being agreeable with me yet but I imagine it probably is is that you wouldn't do it to all of them now the president has been talking about it it's on the table so I would say that that is yet again another situation certainly with the fentanyl situation wouldn't you say that we've been part of productively persuading toward getting tougher with the cartels I think so I think we can pat ourselves on the back for being part of the public voices that are in favor of that another gigantic thing that I think we did this year and here I'll call out especially Steve Cortes and Joel and and I all worked very hard in this for the last

[20:34]

worked very hard in this for the last three years and most of you did as well which is debunking the so-called fine people hoax now I've often said that the fine people hoax and that if you're new to the periscope it has widely been falsely reported that President Trump called the neo-nazis marching in charlottesville find people the quick version is if you read the transcript he said the opposite of that but when it's taken out of context it reverses his meaning so that has been widely reported as a true statement that he actually did that while all the facts are unambiguously as clear as they could be then he said the opposite and he said it as clearly as you could possibly say it now for whatever reason fake news and confirmation bias and everything else that became sort of I would say the the tent pole that holds up the entire racist accusation against the president which of course you know all of his

[21:35]

which of course you know all of his supporters are affected by as well it seems to me that we've made progress it seems to me it's really hard it's is maybe the hardest hoax that has ever been attacked yeah I mean it's one of the most resistant hoaxes but hoaxes die hard I would however say that the number of people this year 2019 who were exposed to the truth which is the actual transcript so they can see for themselves that the the tentpole racist claim was just made up literally just made up and now if you don't know what a tentpole references it's a reference to if you have a big circus tent there's a one main pole in the middle it's like the important one so I think if people understood that they had been duped I mean really duped seriously duped by the fine people hoax it should soften them up to at least be open to the possibility that they've

[22:37]

open to the possibility that they've seen other things differently and wrong as well so I think that's good I think we did good work on those things is there anything else we did good work on I it's the end of the year and I'm hearing from a lot of people on Twitter who got some benefits from my book and any one of my books if people are reporting that they've lost 80 pounds that's that's you John talking to you people say that they've changed jobs they've upgraded their careers they improved their social lives and all kinds of stuff so I'm feeling good about that a lot of people reporting in that that their lives have improved because if either this periscope for my books and if any of you have any success stories you want to tweet at me this would be a good week to do it because I like to I like to read that stuff it's very it's very motivating to me to find out there's somebody read something or took some advice and got a

[23:39]

something or took some advice and got a good result so if you'd like to share that I'll tweet around any good ones I see alright somebody says I survived
somebody says you have changed my life I don't ever write on Twitter but will for you well thank you
certified hypnotist did somebody do that yeah China and fentanyl I feel like I made a dent in the Chinese fentanyl story but no no yet results so we don't see anything that looks like China actually cutting down on the fence and all but our Trump supporters a cult well that's what I call word thinking so you've been seeing a lot of cult 45 on

[24:41]

you've been seeing a lot of cult 45 on the Internet the idea that president number 45 president Trump is a cult and that the people who follow him believe him because he's a cult leader of some size now if you'll notice a pattern here there's a pattern the pattern is that the people on the Left let's call them the anti Trump errs consistently care understand their world would you agree and so they're looking for reasons to explain their world and and they're trying to understand how there could even be a president Trump and how he could have tens of millions of supporters it doesn't make sense in how they understand their world so under those conditions cognitive dissonance kicks em and with cognitive dissonance kicks and you you come up with all kinds of wild explanations to paper over the fact that your worldview just has a problem there's there's a break in your consistency of your worldview and it has to fix it and so you saw well he must

[25:43]

to fix it and so you saw well he must have been elected by the Russians I mean it must have been the Russians cuz no Americans would do this then of course people had to prove that they were right all along and even though the president's progress seemed to be pretty good you know the economy nicest and all the things he did they still had to be right so how can you be right about him being the worst president while the observable facts are that everything's going well well you you declare that he's secretly a racist he's secretly a dictator he's secretly trying to take over he hasn't done anything yet but he has bad thoughts and he has bad intentions for the future so you end up with all this magical thinking and weird stuff now the cult the cults part is part of that field of cognitive dissonance patches these are things that people are trying to imagine to make their world make sense you and I don't need it because our world made sense from the beginning right here here's where my world look like 2015 here's here was my

[26:46]

world look like 2015 here's here was my view of the world huh there's a whole bunch of standard boring politicians running there's one really capable super persuasive guy who seems to have every tool you need to win against all odds so my world was completely consistent because I saw a guy with special tools use his special tools and get exactly the result you'd expect when the person with the best tools competes against the people who don't have any tools so to me that seemed completely consistent next I assumed that he would do well with the economy because he's a salesperson and the most that what the economy needs more than anything is a good cheerleader he said that he would be that good cheerleader and that he went out and did it
it and he did it so well that it was exactly what I expected because of his toolbox I saw the tools and I said well there's a guy who could sell an economy and he's also smart enough you know the way he

[27:48]

also smart enough you know the way he conceives the world is as a psychological engine and he knows that to prime the psychological engine he just has to say here's a good reason the economy's going up here's another good reason the economy is going up and here's the key part it doesn't have to be that true meaning that the president cut a bunch of regulations and he uses that as one of his reasons for why the economy is going up is that a reason oh maybe maybe in some small way maybe not but it doesn't matter the president understands that when you say the economy is going to improve and here are my reasons a B and C that's good you're done a B and C don't have to be that true they only have to make you think it's true and you think well if the economy is gonna be better next year I better invest and and that makes it a self fulfilling economy so the president understood that so what I got was

[28:49]

understood that so what I got was exactly what I expected and predicted we are currently experiencing the identical future that my worldview predicted economy doing well Isis defeated for all the reasons to the president said he would doing better you know in her conversations with even our frenemies everything that I expected happened just the way I expected so you would expect that since my worldview was completely consistent I would have no triggers to create cognitive dissonance because everything was consistent but if you were a anti-trump er none of this made sense how could a crazy guy be presiding over a great economy how could it be that you know that Kim jong-un hasn't already nuked us how could it be there he's not in the pocket of Russia I mean all these crazy stuff and so the the cult accusation is just more of that confirmation bias and cognitive

[29:51]

confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance kicking in but I did write in my book loser think that there isn't one called one called cult quality that is becoming common for both sides let's say Democrats and Republicans just to keep it simple and that is that cults don't like you to communicate outside the cult and if you notice that it's getting harder and harder to talk politics if you're talking to somebody who doesn't you don't already know agrees with you so there's sort of an accidental double cult situation happening on the left and the right but it's not because there are called leaders it's because the media and the way things have sorted out on social media especially just makes us less likely to talk to each other if we think we disagree so in a sense there's an accidental cult being formed two of them just because we don't talk in the same way we used to talk all right that's the good news what are the good

[30:51]

that's the good news what are the good news this year I think we had good news with Isis we had a relatively good news about terrorism merry Christmas to you too just looking at your comments somebody got a job congratulations brexit happened yeah I don't I mean if you think that's good it probably is the Iran protests yeah we'll see if the around protests turn into something productive somebody had their best year in real estate congratulations we had hostages released somebody says still no wall yeah but you know the President did get money approved to put it in the places where to put it in the places where it makes the most difference so we'll see if that makes difference spaceforce yes first step Act there was

[31:57]

spaceforce yes first step Act there was an Arab big shoot down last night he's somebody saying in the comments I didn't see anything about that in the news Hong Kong is trying to become the 51st state yeah Hong Kong's a big problem I don't know how that's gonna be you know let's talk about Hong Kong Gordon Chang has been hinting at this for a long time and he's he's one of the smartest guys in this topic so I take him seriously and the thought is that Hong Kong could end up taking down mainland China now my first reaction to that was that's not going to happen because me and LAN China is pretty darn secure and pretty solid and Hong Kong is isolated and you know it just I didn't see how it could infect the mainland but if Hong Kong doesn't give up and it looks like that might be the case it looks like Hong Kong might not have any give up in them Hong Kong may have decided you know you've heard

[32:57]

may have decided you know you've heard me say this before it's one of the best pieces of advice and ways to look at the world you'll ever see there's a real big difference between wanting something and deciding to have it because you act differently if you simply want it you might not put in the all the sacrifice and cost to get it it's just something you want but you can't afford it if you decide to get it then the cost doesn't matter because you're just gonna go all-in you're gonna die trying if you've decided and it's starting to look like Hong Kong has maybe maybe shifted from wanting more freedom and wanting China not to have this power over them they may have turned the corner into deciding it's starting to look like that can't tell because that's really internal thoughts you can't see them from here but it looks like they have they've upped the level of personal risk to American Revolution levels meaning that

[33:59]

American Revolution levels meaning that the founders of the American Revolution they knew full well that if they didn't succeed in the most unlikely task against the biggest foe you know Great Britain England at just England they knew if they didn't succeed they don't hang and they said that expressly and they were right so Hong Kong is in that same situation if the if the people whose faces have already been caught on surveillance if they don't succeed a lot of them are gonna hang you know figuratively speaking they may end up in jail so it's not impossible as I sit here today it is not impossible to imagine that Hong Kong will change China I wouldn't have said that a year ago but when you see how plucky and determined the Hong Kong residents are they're not joking and when you have people that

[35:00]

joking and when you have people that smart and that brave what can they do right because the reason that the Americans won the won the revolution is that England had all the you know you think the resources and and the wherewithal but the plucky Revolutionary Army and its leaders were apparently very smart and very brave if you put those two things together smart and brave and and you're on your home court territory I mean there's a reason that the Taliban can kick everybody out of Afghanistan yeah maybe not the smart part so much fuss but certainly brave yeah if you're brave enough you can't lose the sames you're just willing to put up with enough loss so do not count out the fact that China might be in a lot of trouble next year and Hong Kong might be part of that debt might be part of it shrinking economy might be part of it so could be a tough year for China shaping

[36:02]

could be a tough year for China shaping up all right
there's more stories about Ukraine and Rudy and hunter Biden and all those but at this point all of that looks like stuff you shouldn't rely on to be true yet so I don't want to talk about that stuff because I don't think any of its reliable yet but she'll be fun all right
yeah there's stories about Paul Pelosi etc so I don't believe any of that stuff
Comey and Brennan well I'll tell you I have a let's say a psychological barrier when talking about Brennan and clapper from the very beginning Brennan clapper have the faces and mannerisms and let's say they're their exterior presentation and the words they choose and just body

[37:05]

and the words they choose and just body language and everything else they look like they're the guiltiest two people who ever lived now I can't tell if that's pure confirmation bias because in my mind I think they're guilty of something or maybe I want them to be guilty of something and so I'm interpreting what I'm seeing in that frame totally possible but I've never seen two guys who look more guilty from the start I mean from the jump they look guilty and I would say that's not true of you know Co me I would I didn't say that of McCabe you know I if you look at it co me and McCabe I said to myself well there are guys who you know maybe they were guilty and maybe they weren't but you can't tell by looking at him you can't tell by listening to them you know there's nothing in their presentation that just screams I'm lying to you right now you know it could be true could be not but when clapper and

[38:06]

true could be not but when clapper and Brennan were on TV every time I saw them I I felt like the word lie was like shouting at me lie lie lie don't know why so this might be one of those cases where it's just confirmation bias and doesn't mean anything and they've done nothing and nothing will happen that's possible but if I had to trust my hunches if I had to trust my hunches they're in for a bad 20/20 but you know that is just a feeling all right do you think Greta tunberg helped or hurt the whole climate change conversation I have a weird feeling that she didn't help the way she wanted to I think it's great that she brings attention to it because bringing attention to it's good you know even if

[39:09]

attention to it's good you know even if we determine we no matter what you determine about it focusing on it makes sense because it's at least potentially a huge problem you know you might believe it's not but it's certainly potentially one so I'm glad she focused on it but I think the indirect effect of that is that the topic was associated with children think about it when you think of climate change who do you think of were your first people you think of well there's a OC you think a Greta you think of
Capriati was his name the actor so you think of a few actors but basically if Greta becomes the voice of climate change it makes the topic seem less serious in a way that I don't think people understand now on the logic level the logic level you'd say whoa

[40:11]

logic level you'd say whoa climate change will hurt children more than a will adults because they have to be around for the aftermath the children do so therefore it is a children's problem and isn't a great that there's a a child teenager who's the champion of it it all makes sense right so on a logical level all makes sense but on a less than logical level where we all exist it looks like it became a Santa Clause story or a boogeyman or a monster under the bed because when you see a woman not a woman a young girl who's literally still a child and she's the face of this you you merge in your heads those things climate change a child's issue climate change something children worry about climate change it's now for adults it's about children now none of that makes sense because Greta was doing a an adult job to fix an adult problem but I worry that

[41:12]

to fix an adult problem but I worry that it backfired I don't know if that's a worry but I it's just a question because remember we are we are just as much influenced by Association as we're in fact more more influenced by associations of things things that overlap things that are with other things people were photographed with other people people who said the same thing as somebody else somebody acts in the way there's somebody else acted so just associations are very powerful in our mental map whereas sometimes common sense and rational logic and stuff not so much so I think the net effect of Greta is that she associated this potentially massive problem of climate change with something kids worry about may have worked in the opposite direction
we'll see no way to really measure that kind of thing well I give regret it i i I'm typically I'm typically complimentary to anybody who gets in the

[42:13]

complimentary to anybody who gets in the you know the Octagon anybody who's willing to take the slings and arrows to fight for something that they think will make the world a better place if they really mean it I tend to be very positive so a very positive on Greta for stepping up trying to fix something now you can argue that she's doing it the right or wrong way or you could argue this not a bit as big a problem but I think you have to give her a respect for step another I'm trying to do something same as I say with all the anti-trump errs I used the list of milano as my example often i have complete respect for Alyssa Milano even while disagreeing with 80% of the things she says on Twitter it's because she's real she cares gets involved she's trying to make the world a better place you know I might disagree with her on the details but you want more I think you want more citizens like that not fewer of them all right bill Polti here

[43:16]

fewer of them all right bill Polti here Merry Christmas bill Trump's told her childhood dreams and somebody's saying somebody says wow Scott turning you off you're turning me off for what because I said I liked Alyssa Milano's style well you just got blocked first block on Christmas Day yes I think we're at the at the golden age I believe we've reached the golden age and I and here's my definition of the golden age so the gold age is defined as a time when our biggest problem is not shortages that our biggest problem is that we haven't designed systems to get those goods and services to everywhere they get to go and that as we design better systems will unlock the golden age but also it looks like we're curing a lot of major

[44:17]

looks like we're curing a lot of major health problems etc so I also see that the the age of big nuclear countries threatening to go to war with each other it just doesn't make any sense anymore just doesn't we might get to the point where I could easily see it in the next five years whoever the president is let's say his drum sitting down with Putin and XI and Kim and I don't know whoever else and just saying can any of you think of a reason why we should be pointing our weapons at each other because I can't can you can you think of a reason that we should be pointing weapons at Russia and vice-versa and China pointing them at both at us and we at them can you think of any reason for that I can't I can't think of any reason all the reasons are gone so we might have with this weird major global shift that says war is economics if you want to have a war it's going to be an

[45:18]

to have a war it's going to be an economic war because those are the kinds that work and those are the kinds that you know are just better than a military war all right [Music] in 1912 people were saying it was a golden age too and then there was World War one but this time were right to
potential invasion yeah I don't see any of the big countries nobody's gonna invade in nuclear country has that ever happened are there any historians here as has a nuclear power ever been invaded I don't think so so the only thing we have left to fight over are the non-nuclear countries all right I think we've said enough today it's time to open your packages have a great Christmas and I will talk to you later