Episode 822 Scott Adams: Was Live! (Here’s the Replay)

Date: 2020-02-16 | Duration: 34:28

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Mike Bloomberg… Hired an expert on narcissism and comedy Considering Hillary for VP His past, stories emerging Richard Dawkins tweet on eugenics Artists, musicians, authors conflate Scientists, engineers separate

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## Transcript

[0:12]

oh it's time it's time everybody come on in here yeah you're on time good work those of you planned accordingly we're getting ready to jump in here and get it while it's fresh gotta get it while it's fresh ask-ask deejay dr. funk juice he'll tell you gotta get it when it's fresh or you can do it on replay it's also good then but if you'd like to enjoy it now with optimal optimal experience you're gonna want to do the simultaneous hip and to be prepared for that all you need is a cover of mug or a glass so tanker chalices diet I can't change Agra flasks a festival event in KY and fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine you know the day the thing that makes everything better the simultaneous sip go it's almost like this coffee is so good that hearts are just coming out of it see what I'm doing

[1:13]

just coming out of it see what I'm doing it's an illusion all right let's talk about the only thing that the news cares about this week Bloomberg so it turns out we found a candidate who in his own way might be as interesting as Trump now of course he's only interesting because of his matchup with Trump so it's really all about Trump still but Mike Bloomberg is he's a he's making that and he's making a run here now all of the we'll talk about Mike Bloomberg's persuasion game in a minute but there's something interesting that anti jumpers have to hold it in their hand as true in order for them to figure out why they need to replace Trump and this is it you're gonna laugh when you hear this because I swear I'm not making anything up everything I'm gonna say I think you would you would verify as and

[2:14]

think you would you would verify as and you're a description of the world in order to be a Democrat who was anti-trump and thinks say he really needs to be removed for all of his evil all of his incredible evil and incompetence in order to believe that you would also have to believe that it's a special kind of evil and incompetence that doesn't kick in for four years see where I'm coming from apparently in order to think that everything they believe about Trump is true and has always been true the only way you can explain it based on what we're observing is that it's a special kind of evil with the four-year fuse so really the first four years not much happened that seen bad news things look like they went pretty well for four years objectively speaking sure you can pick out things you wish were better but the last four years certainly were anywhere near what people predicted

[3:17]

anywhere near what people predicted would happen so in order to hold that illusion you've got a paper over it as as you observe things which disconfirm your belief you have to quickly paper them over oh paper that over and by Election Day 2020 what they're gonna have to paper over is why they believe that Trump has a special kind of evil and incompetence that waits for years before it shows his head now of course they would say we've been seeing it all along look at this or that he did but it's hard to point to anything you can actually measure that would be an evidence of that the the counter examples of that would be the national debt but I think everybody's unhappy about that in the same amount and probably whoever was president would've done the same thing but think about the mental gymnastics you have to go through to say it's a special evil that waits for years before it kicks in I saw it in

[4:18]

for years before it kicks in I saw it in view I'm not sure who it was was interviewing Joe Biden it was challenging him about the Obama administration putting kids in cages and oh it was it was kind of sad trying to watch Joe Biden escape the trap because Joe Biden is no President Trump Trump can escape traps you famously remember the only Rosie O'Donnell escape one of the greatest one of the greatest Houdini escapes from a trick question you've ever seen in your life or our trap question that wasn't the track but Biden just he just didn't didn't get it done so Biden's got a kid in cages problem because even the question is damaging independent of what of what he answers now that now that people are willing to ask the question it's the question that's the problem nobody really

[5:19]

that's the problem nobody really believes the answers anyway when they come from politicians all right let's talk about Bloomberg there's a report that Bloomberg hired an expert on narcissism and a comedy writer so he hired two people one is an expert on narcissism and the other dose had a right humor I'm thinking to myself I guess he doesn't have the budget to hire me because I could do both of those jobs oh I wouldn't call myself an expert on narcissism but I have lived with myself for a quite a few years and I've observed myself and so while I'm not technically an expert on narcissism I think I know what it feels like from the inside out and I write humor for a living so one billion dollars is my price Mike Bloomberg if you're listening it's kind of a bargain for 1 billion dollars I will consult with you Mike

[6:21]

dollars I will consult with you Mike Bloomberg that price will go up every month until Election Day so next month it'll be 1.1 billion I made this offer to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and she didn't take it now do you think it would have been worth a billion oh and here's the catch I know Mike Bloomberg you like do you like to negotiate your business guy so here's the deal I won't take a penny if you lose if you lose the election I won't take a penny free consulting you just keep it all but if I win in other words if you get elected because of my excellent consulting my expertise on narcissism and my humor rating I will take 1.1 billion next month if you if you get in early you can get the discount to save one hundred million dollars who doesn't want to save a hundred million dollars I mean seriously I'm looking at the comments saying would you actually work for him do you think he's going to give me a billion dollars so those of you who

[7:26]

me a billion dollars so those of you who are not not too good at determining what is serious and what is not can maybe talk among yourselves to the others all right we will talk about Hillary alright let's talk about Hillary so I guess it was Drudge Report broke this story that is the biggest non story in the world it was all the headlines it was all the chatter yesterday and it's literally nothing and the story was that the Bloomberg campaign is considering asking Hillary Clinton to be the vice president it was like all over the news now what's wrong with that story let me tell you do you know which other candidates running for president on the Democrat side do you know which other candidates also considered asking Hillary Clinton to be their vice president the answer is all of them all

[8:26]

president the answer is all of them all of them they all considered it if they didn't they're idiots because it's certain it's on the it's on the plate it's one of the things that they all should have considered now that doesn't mean that they would like to do it it doesn't mean they considered it and said yes or that they considered it and said no or that they've even decided because it would be too early to decide one way or the other it is simply true that all of them considered it so what is so what is the breaking news yesterday the Bloomberg considered it that's not news what's the opposite of news let me give you some more breaking highlights from yesterday Mike Bloomberg breathe oxygen yesterday yeah so Mike Bloomberg ate lunch yesterday yeah and

[9:28]

Bloomberg ate lunch yesterday yeah and those are more to this story because it's lacking a little bit of punch doesn't have that dog doesn't have that man bites dog quality to it so ignore all of that apparently yeah the the detail of the story is that they had some internal polling showing that a combination of Hillary and and Bloomberg would win against Trump okay sure because the combination of Bloomberg and and Hillary Clinton would there would be no targets there with their president Trump would have a tough time attacking that duo wouldn't he are you freaking kidding me would you pair the woman who protected Bill Clinton against all manner of accusations true and probably some of them false but most of them true I assume would you pair him with the guy who's being accused of exactly the same stuff at this moment probably not would

[10:29]

stuff at this moment probably not would the Hillary Clinton ever allow herself to go from keep this in mind her current status is someone who claims as she's sort of kind of won the presidency because she got the popular vote oh yeah yeah we all understand that that doesn't mean she's President Bush that's her current claim what if she runs as vice president that's not really a step forward is it do you think Hillary Clinton was the what might be the last move of her political career to be losing to trump a second time except this time as vice president I don't think so can you imagine Hilary's ego taking the number-2 spot because the number one guy is really really rich there isn't any there's no scenario in the whole world except one where I could imagine that happening are you ready here's the one scenario if my blue Berg plans in advance to step down after he

[11:31]

plans in advance to step down after he gets elected so that would make Hillary the winner without ever having to actually do much to run for president in fact that you know that would that would be a diabolically clever approach I'm not saying he's going to do this but just you know play it through your mind imagine if Bloomberg said here's the deal I'm gonna run for president Hillary will be my VP so we've got some you know good connections and you know and you know on all the right people who know where all the keys are kept and you know she could step in any moment if something happened because I'm I'm older so you can imagine him saying that but what people are really thinking is you're really just electing Hillary Clinton she wouldn't even have to campaign she wouldn't even have to leave what she was doing she just stay on her book tour she could just you know stay home and take questions cuz everybody knows who Hillary Clinton is she doesn't need to she doesn't need to tell people her qualifications she doesn't even need to explain why Mike Bloomberg would be a

[12:33]

to explain why Mike Bloomberg would be a good president she could simply just go on with her life be named as vice president and then when Bloomberg gets elected if you just say huh trick I quit Hillary's your president so I don't think that's the plan he's playing so I don't think there's any chance the Hillary would join as a real vice president who plans to be the number two job and and retire in that role I guess all right it feels like it feels like if you were to start from nothing and try to build a candidate who would be the worst matchup for Trump would it be Mike Bloomberg I mean you could argue that it would be Bernie because socialism against capitalism is sort of dead on arrival so you know birdie is a sure sure thing to lose because of his policies because I can't see him even getting enough Democrats to vote for that that he could get it over the top but if you were to

[13:36]

get it over the top but if you were to design a more standard politician someone who's not trying to sell you the full socialist package and you were you were trying to design them as poorly as possible wouldn't it be Bloomberg because if you think about it everything that you dislike about Trump if you're a anti Trump er you can find at least a little bit of it in Bloomberg so bloom's Bloomberg has a history of sexual related accusations sound familiar and let's be serious any billionaire that aged male or female it's got some sexual stories they need to explain it's just universally true don't tell me there's you know don't give me the story about the billionaire who you know who never wandered that's just not a thing all right so he's got that that environment or I'm sorry then Bloomberg

[14:36]

environment or I'm sorry then Bloomberg also has that problem with stop and frisk so he's got a problem with women he's got a problem with minorities he is way too old white guy from New York billionaire with entanglements and with a major country with which we are an adversary now in in Bloomberg's case he's got a China situation that he would need to explain and then you know throw on there that he's boring he has no charisma he had to hire he had to hire a joke writer do you think Trump hired a joke writer no no he did not
nope I well I mean I could be surprised I suppose anything anything's possible but when you read Trump's funny tweets and the funny stuff he says in his speeches none of them look prepared you know none of it looks like it went through a consultant or some expert it really

[15:38]

consultant or some expert it really looks like his it's his voice so I don't know how Bloomberg could possibly win against us now if you haven't read up on there's some kind of a compilation of Mike Bloomberg offensive things he said that is making the rounds I guess it makes the rounds every time he's run for office somebody brings up the fact that within the Bloomberg organization some person or people compiled a list of all of his sort of provocative and naughty quotes and there is one topic that comes up over and over again and I don't want to say the top I don't want to say the topic but if you read what he is accused of frequently referring to it's a two word thing the first the first word starts with the B and the second word starts with J and apparently he can make a B J an elegy or reference in just

[16:41]

a B J an elegy or reference in just about any topic the only thing that would cause me to suddenly back at Bloomberg for president is if he was willing to take that kind of talk into the presidency if you could give me a president who whenever he's talking to a foreign leader he throws in a bj analogy which apparently Bloomberg did on the regular when he was just the CEO of Bloomberg but to put it in context I don't believe that's been happening in recent years because you know sensibilities have have certainly let's say evolved so even he would know not to do that today I'm sure but he's got a lot of explaining to do now there are a few accusations of things he is supposed to have said in the past that I'm gonna say I don't quite believe all right so here's one of the accusations is that Bloomberg allegedly with a with a big question mark on allegedly here for me

[17:43]

question mark on allegedly here for me there was some employee who said she was pregnant and Bloomberg allegedly said some version of are you going to kill it now I wasn't there and I can't read minds but on its surface if you don't know anything else about the story does that sound like something that happened I'm gonna say no now if you told me he did ask the question about whether she wanted to you know take it to term or not I would believe that I mean that would be a deeply offensive question but I could certainly believe you might have asked but do you think he actually used these words are you going to kill it mm-hmm you know you can't rule it out right because that sort of anything's possible people can surprise you you know people have a public face but maybe they have a darker side I'm gonna say no

[18:44]

they have a darker side I'm gonna say no I'm gonna say no I think that if you want to find reasons to dislike Bloomberg you need to look beyond that one
one because that doesn't even that's not even a little bit credible there let me give you some context on this as a as a famous person myself I'm often the subject of accusations some true some false and some of the false ones are so ridiculous that people should be able to say on the surface okay I just on the surface I don't even need to hear your side of his Scott I don't even need to hear the context because on the surface it's obviously baloney so if you heard a rumor that I was in favor of you know eating babies so let's say tomorrow there's a headline that says Dilbert cartoonist comes out in favor of cannibalism but only babies because they're tender why should it be your first thought about that your first thought should be no he didn't say that

[19:45]

thought should be no he didn't say that he didn't say that whatever he said may have sounded to somebody like that but on the surface you didn't say that so this is quoted about Bloomberg you know are you gonna kill your baby on the surface you know maybe maybe but I'm gonna go with didn't happen then he's got another quote that somebody was having trouble finding a nanny for their baby and then Bloomberg is alleged again with a big question mark and alleged to say something like this that she could find quote a black to watch it and the person doesn't even need to speak English because it's just a baby you just have to make sure you get the baby out of the buildings on fire so I'm paraphrasing but the the offensive part was he's alleged to say you just have to find a black to watch it does that sound like something he

[20:46]

it does that sound like something he said because it doesn't really sound like a sentence like who who would say that sentence so I've got a question mark on that alright but again baby you know anything's possible but I would say those are the two that are least likely alright so in response to these accusations of things that Bloomberg allegedly said in the past this is what is campaign cent and I want to I want to pull this spark because there's a lot of persuasion in here or lack thereof alright so in response to terrible things Bloomberg is alleged to have said in his past the campaign issues the statement virtually all of this has been reported over the past two decades so does that mean he did it he didn't do it does he feel bad about it does he does he run away from

[21:46]

about it does he does he run away from those comments we don't know the first sentence is that it's been reported before okay and they go on in any large organization there are going to be complaints what but Mike simply does not tolerate any kind of discrimination or harassment and he's created cultures that are all about equality and inclusion so they so they they give some context in any large organization they're going to be complaints this is a bad misuse of the Steve Jobs technique now I hope they didn't get this for me because I've written about this and in fact my my comments on this made it into the figure whistle was it the Walter Isaacson biography of jobs called jobs and it tells that story of where when Steve Jobs have the problem with the antenna gate when the iPhone would cut off if

[22:46]

gate when the iPhone would cut off if your finger touched the wrong part of the phone most embarrassing problem you could have if you're making a handheld device well it's a handheld device but it won't work if you hold it in your hand and Steve Jobs when he finally commented on this said you know a more brilliant version of this but he said yeah we're we want to make our customers happy all cell phone companies have problems this is what we're going to do now in his case it made a lot of sense to broaden the question instead of saying doesn't there's a Apple have a special problem he said all smartphones had problems and suddenly the news started looking at other cell phones they said is true they all have problems it's a new technology he just put it in a whole new context but that doesn't work with sexual harassment complaints you can't use that technique with sexual harassment you can use it with a technical bug on your phone but you can't say you can't you

[23:47]

phone but you can't say you can't you can't wipe that away by saying and then you'll argue a large organization there are going to be complaints and I'm thinking that didn't make it better now in any large technological situation you're going to have bugs and people's go well that's reasonable you know we wish it didn't happen but yeah any new technology you're going to have some bugs so people get that but would you ever accept yeah a person don't let's not call it Bloomberg but a person a person was sexual harassing in the past but you know in any large organization you
you again a lot of sexual harassment so put it in context totally the wrong persuasion to use in this situation because there's no explaining away that behavior based on the fact that other people are complaining in large organizations but they tried and then then it brought it to the present which that part was good and they say he doesn't tolerate any of this behavior at the moment I'm adding the at the moment

[24:48]

the moment I'm adding the at the moment part so I think what they're trying to do is is just say it wasn't that important let's focus on the present and I think maybe their instinct was wrong but I'm not sure that that message was the best here's my persuasion rule people like a reformed sinner more than they like a liar so the candidate who can say yeah you know you got me not only do you got me I did more of that too
too I did the things I was accused of doing and man do I see how wrong that is now at the time I don't know what I was thinking you know I apologize to anybody who was hurt but I'm not that person anymore that I would fight hard to make sure that there are no people like that around me now that would be an example of a reformed sinner here's the alternative I did do that they're all liars they're all liars which one do you

[25:50]

liars they're all liars which one do you like more well it depends if you believe them if you believe that the accusations are false then the person who is lying about it wins but I think most of us sorta suspect there's something there when there are accusations it's unfair but we're sort of biased or thinking that the accused are guilty even when many times they're not but we're biased to think that I know I think that I think Bloomberg would be stronger if he said you know we were less enlightened back then and if there are any of you who are still if any of you today are like I was in the 80s let me help you let me help you grow out of that because I wish I had never gone through it I wish I had never been that way but at least I understand now what the cost was that what I did wrong and if they and I understand that world then they'll help you I'll help you grow and of it too they have something like that I would say oh that guy was bad before he's not so bad now not so bad

[26:54]

before he's not so bad now not so bad now but he was bad before and he just owned it so keep that in mind I reformed his sinner if you do it right you have to do it right the execution matters but a reformed sinner it could be more popular than somebody you say well I think maybe they did it they're just lying about it all right I was watching hilariously scientist Richard Dawkins get in trouble online and an alert an alert reader noted that the the people who were mad at this famous scientist were not themselves scientists you know I am saying this my book loser thing talks about how people who have experience in different domains are more qualified to think productively because you learn to think differently in different domains and so famous scientist and famous famous atheist which doesn't matter to the story but

[27:55]

which doesn't matter to the story but that's why he's famous Richard Dawkins I think he what would be his field of science biology or more I'm not sure exactly his scientific resume but evolutionary biology is certainly a big part of plus other plus other things I'm sure so he's talking about eugenics the idea of breeding humans to have some improved qualities according to somebody's subjective opinion and this is what Richard Dawkins says on the topic of that now keep in mind he knows it's yeah he knows it's a full of landmines this is a really touchy topic so he's going to go careful he's going to be very clear about what he says so he doesn't get in any trouble alright so watch the clarity of this statement it's one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological political moral grounds it's quite another to conclude that it wouldn't work in practice of course it would

[28:56]

course it would it works for cows horses pigs dogs and roses why on earth wouldn't it work for humans facts ignore ideology so his very first sentence is is it's a different different topic if you're talking about the moral ethical political ideological stuff so he's telling you that what follows has nothing to do with that do you think that those people who read his tweet took him exactly the way he said it which is from a mechanical factual perspective of course it would work you could read people to have different characteristics because you didn't do it with roses you can do with animals of course you could do it with people it would just have issues on political moral ideological grounds so here's the fun part I'm gonna read you the some of the pushback and then we're gonna see if you can guess what kind of job they have the person pushing back all right so a scientist clearly says it would work

[29:59]

scientist clearly says it would work here's some pushback from a guy named Scott Lynch he says you absolute pinheaded simpleton it doesn't work in practice because too many of the goals turn out to be arbitrary fantasies and too many of those fantasies are the pet projects of abuse of biggest who F up any civilization and get they get their hands on ya are you new here and then he uses a another bad word okay so he clearly didn't understand the point that the scientist was just saying scientifically it works you can make up your own mind about the ethics and the practicality of it what's his job author author okay so that's what the author says here's another comment see if you can guess the job this is from Dan Hicks he says this is racist trash Richard the analogy you draw here between the ideology of eugenics and the

[31:00]

ideology of eugenics and the domestication of cows or horses is false dangerous and historically illiterate okay so here's somebody who didn't understand the point at all what kind of job does Dan Hicks have looks like college professor of he studies art he's a art anthropologist his field as art and anthropology okay here's another one
here's another guy who just says it's time to delete this one buddy in other words he doesn't even have to give the reasons it's just so obvious there's still time to delete this one buddy what job did the person who tweeted that half let's check musician all right so the so people are now noticing the the correlation none of the people who criticized Dawkins understood it nobody understood him to say this is the stuff

[32:00]

understood him to say this is the stuff I'm not talking about so let's not talk about it here's what I am talking about if you'd like to talk about that I'll talk about that you know does it work but I'm not talking about this other stuff and then three of his critics jump in because artists can't separate artists conflate engineers and scientists separate so if somebody is that lets say a lawyer economist business person scientist if they've gone through one of those fields they tend to isolate variables and say okay this one doesn't affect this one let's look at them individually artists musicians and authors say everything affects everything else it's all one big ball you can't claim it doesn't matter that it's associated with this other thing so you'll see that pretty pretty commonly all right I'll believe you that's just about all I had to talk about anything else going on today somebody said I understood it and it was really vile what was well it was really

[33:05]

really vile what was well it was really vile that you understood did you was the vial part the part you agree with because if you're saying that Richard Dawkins comment is vile well part because he didn't make a comment on whether it was good or bad and practical or political or anything he didn't make a comment he just said it works do you disagree with the fact or do you think it's gonna lead to the end of the world or something alright the truth is sometimes vile people say yeah alright so that's all I have for today yeah we're all talking about President Trump doing a lap at the Daytona 500 and the Beast the presidential car I guess if that's if if that's what we're talking about it's it's a good time if that's what we're talking about somebody asked

[34:05]

what we're talking about somebody asked if yang is a possible VP picked I would say no because you want your VP to be somebody who knows where where all the keys and the locks are in government yang would be not as able as someone else to walk into the top job as quickly all right that's all I got for now I'll talk to you tomorrow