Episode 996 Scott Adams: Freedom Breaking Out Everywhere, China Behaving Badly, Hydroxychloroquine

Date: 2020-05-25 | Duration: 35:44

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Content: CNN coverage of freedom breaking out in America Joe Scarborough gives but can’t take? Alan Dershowitz and mandatory vaccinations Rachel Maddow and the truth Hydroxychloroquine confusion

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## Transcript

[0:17]

all right here's a quick question what's the best part of the day I'm waiting I'm waiting that's right it's now it's now and you don't need much to enjoy the best part of the day no not much at all all you need is a cover above your glass of tanker gels or Stein a canteen driven flask a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee enjoyed me now for the unparalleled pleasure the dopamine here the day the thing that makes everything better including the damn pandemic it's called the simultaneous if it happens now go
mmm I can taste the infection rates decreasing yep yep it's working well let's talk about all the things are you ready for all the things well let's start with China there's talk about a

[1:18]

start with China there's talk about a cold war breaking out with China over there increasingly strong grip on Hong Kong as there there's a closing device on Hong Kong to which I say we're not already in a cold war what is a cold war if we're not already in one is it because we're in a hot war I mean how many Americans if they killed this year at what point has China killed to so many Americans with both fentanyl and and viruses that we have to stop calling it a cold war because it's kind of hot over here maybe it's not a hot over there but here's what I would suggest so I don't know what it means to be in a cold war I guess it means whatever you want it to mean but given the fact that there's squeezing Hong Kong which would be violating a business agreement a

[2:20]

violating a business agreement a political agreement but it's kind of a business agreement as well and they're shipping fentanyl and their their phone equipment is spying and they're taking IP and they're doing you know unfair trade deals and blah blah blah I've said this before but it's time to say it again rather than a cold war we should do an international rating of China and other countries and we should simply rate them not suitable for business and I would think that would matter if you've raided all the countries as for their suitability to actually do business with them because the problem with China is not so much that we think they're gonna attack us militarily it's that we think their business will get so strong that it will just you know eat up the you know civilization with Chinese money and influence if that's what we're worried

[3:21]

influence if that's what we're worried about let's just call it what it is China is not safe for business it's just not a safe place to do business with them it's not a safe place to put a company it's not a safe place to even accept their mail I'm not even sure we should accept their mail because it's full of fentanyl all right so actor John Krasinski I don't know if he knew this but during the pandemic he was doing a little web show I guess he was doing himself called some good news so unbeknownst to me he was doing kind of the same thing I was doing he said not as well obviously and it got picked up by CBS News to CBS all access not CBS News so they're gonna pick it up and turn it into a show except the show will not involve John Krasinski now there was one good thing

[4:22]

Krasinski now there was one good thing about the John Krasinski shel which was John Krasinski so somehow he managed to sell CBS on a concept that only had one good element and he said but well there's just one thing I'm gonna sell you this great idea but there's just one little change I'm gonna take out the only thing that made it work which was there was John Krasinski who was hosting it during a corona virus pandemic you take that part out and what exactly did he sell but of course in a world full of stupid people how do people take it his fans rebelled that's right John Krasinski's probably you know probably one of the nicest guys in the world you know if if you can you know base it on what we see on TV you know even not just his roles but what he's just talking in interviews and stuff it

[5:24]

just talking in interviews and stuff it looks like a nice guy but his fans are very angry that he gave his time for nothing during the crota virus and entertained them and millions of others like them for free for free and that he sells the concept to CBS he's not even involved in it he's not as an actor he's not even gonna be in it he sells the concept and that his audience is all mad at him for selling out and I thought selling out selling out CBS bought from him something that probably has no value whatsoever
personally I would have so I would have sold that somebody says they didn't like his show all right well he sold it anyway so I was having a good laugh at the CNN coverage today because I wanted to see how they'd handle freedom breaking out in America you know over

[6:26]

breaking out in America you know over the Memorial Day so lots people were crowding together and ignoring the medical guidelines and not wearing masks and
and doing everything that the experts say they're not supposed to be doing and but on the plus side it was outdoors and they tended to be the younger people there wasn't a lot of senior citizens we're out running around on Memorial Day so how dangerous was it well we don't know that's what we're gonna find out probably in about ten days but CNN's coverage was hilarious here's the first one this is the headline one of CNN's headlines it says a 17 year old dies in Georgia now why is it important that a 17 year old died in Georgia does that feel like national news let's read off in Georgia one of the first States to begin reopening officials reported this up above the

[7:26]

officials reported this up above the state's youngest rotavirus test then there's a 17 year old boy who died and I'm thinking to myself is the only thing that made this a story that a Republican state opened early and they had to find it some bad news one 17-year old died and that became the headline what about let's read further the head look where it says that Georgia overall is doing great reading reading oh I don't think they mentioned that they felt one tragedy in the state that is by the by any measure a huge success story and they reported that one tragedy all right okay here's another one Brett brian Stelter the headline on one of his articles says Twitter remains silent about Trump's appalling attacks against Joe Scarborough so it says Twitter remains silent about it and then you read the article and it

[8:29]

it and then you read the article and it shows the quotes from people like Bret break you etc doing exactly the opposite of staying silent just you know its course excoriating the president for for doing it and thinking if your if your title says Twitter remains Island maybe the body of the article should not have all the examples in which it isn't the case just a suggestion did anybody see the Twitter remaining silent about that as Twitter remained silent on anything the Twitter doesn't know how to remain silent there was the opposite and by the way does anybody think that there any does anybody think that there's one Republican or a conservative who thinks that the president's Trump about murderous alleged murderer Joe Scarborough there's no evidence he murdered anybody but the president is blaming him and I would say the conservatives have

[9:30]

would say the conservatives have basically one opinion which is number one Scarborough had it coming because he's been lying about the president for years and it's certainly worse lies than that because the president's lie was just sort of silly I don't think anybody took it too seriously except you know maybe some nuts but but Scarborough has been calling the president a traitor to the country and a and a Russian pop out for years isn't that way worse because that was that was sold as a real news that's way worse than the president doing this often tweet before he goes golfing that nobody really took too seriously so that's the first thing is that I don't think there are any conservatives who think it was unfair to go hard at Joe Scarborough with some fake allegations because it just feels like it's a political season and you know it's going both ways and yeah everybody's just DEFCON 10 at this point

[10:32]

everybody's just DEFCON 10 at this point but I also don't think there are any conservatives who think who thought it was kind to the you know the family members of the deceased so I haven't heard anybody say oh you know that's no problem pretty much everyone has the same opinion oh that's kind of bad for the family members at the same time nobody cares how hard he went at Scarborough so I don't know there's much to that story alan dershowitz found a new way to cause trouble by writing an opinion that mandatory vaccinations would be constitutional now what happened to Alan Dershowitz when he gave a legal opinion about the Constitution he was called many anti-semitic things to which I think to myself how in the world do you get from a constitutional opinion from a

[11:33]

get from a constitutional opinion from a constitutional scholar all the way to an anti-semitic attack like I don't even connect those things you've got to try pretty hard to to make it an Alan Dershowitz problem so when I saw the pushback on that I thought oh it's people who don't understand how lawyers work lawyers will get a guilty person off if it's their lawyer job lawyers will if they're doing their job they'll argue what is or is not constitutional independent of what they would like it to be that's the job they're not talking about their own opinions that's the job they're talking about what the law is and I even saw that this takes acts of hammer six-six-six you all know him replied back to Alan and on the topic of the constitutionality of vaccinations and he

[12:34]

constitutionality of vaccinations and he said to Ellen you're rich Alan why not why not just have a luxury bunker built and stay in there since the world scares you so badly and I thought to myself I didn't see anywhere in his opinion where he was scared of the world were scared of anything it just wasn't there he wasn't he wasn't not escaped he wasn't not afraid it wasn't afraid it just wasn't even there he simply talked about what the Constitution does and does not allow with some context historically I
you know is that is that something you should attack alan dershowitz for is it is it personally alan dershowitz problem that he interprets the Constitution to be you know objectively allowing this now I'm not giving you my opinion because I know I'm gonna get attacked next somebody's gonna hear this and say yeah the cartoonist he wants to light us up and give us these unproven tax evasions know

[13:38]

give us these unproven tax evasions know you also have not heard my opinion have you you know that I'm going to be accused of having an opinion that people don't like but I have not expressed my opinion how I I have expressed no opinion on that I will talk about it and it goes like this the as I understand it president Trump's reservations about vaccinations in general have to do with the fact that they're given to very young kids and that their combined so it's not one vaccination that's all it's a bunch of vaccinations put it into one shot and there's some question about that because it has never been tested as a totality individual things have been tested but hasn't been tested if he give it to a kid all at once so there are reasonable adults who say hey is that good enough is it good enough that we've tested them individually because I got some

[14:38]

individually because I got some questions now I don't know the answer I'm not I don't have any insight into that so I don't have an opinion of how safe or unsafe that is it's certainly a question I'd like to know the answer to yeah how does it how safe are their we don't like to know that but this shot would be for adults primarily I don't know that young kids would get it probably not right but it's gonna be voluntary it would be for adults that it would not be combined with other shots now if your primary concerns are children and combining it with other shots neither those apply so it would be more safe at least we don't know it's more safe let me say it more I'll be more technically accurate we don't know how safe it would be but the two concerns children and combining

[15:40]

the two concerns children and combining it with other stuff don't exist for this one just say so if you're assessing your personal risk just take into consideration that this is not like other vaccines because the two biggest risk factors are not present with this one it might have its own risks so I'm not telling you you should or should not take it that's different
Bill Gates said everyone should get it well the whole point of it is that you should try to get as many people to take it right there wouldn't be much point in having it if you didn't try to get a lot of people to take it so I get that single vaccines often use multiple adjuvants make a single vaccine problematic for everyone so the question would be so I'll I will accept the general statement that every vaccine has risk but would you also accept the general statement that the more things you were you combine that with the more

[16:41]

you were you combine that with the more your risk goes up that's all so even an individual vaccine is a combination of things and you can't really drive the risk to zero but it's less than if you combine it with even more stuff I would think that would be common sense all right so enough on that so the Rachel Maddow court case came out in a in the funniest possible way which we wish that it would so I forget which what the claim was but Rachel Maddow was accused of saying something but their defense was that the Rachel Maddow was full of so the defense was that the show is opinion and rhetorical hyperbole and that Maddow engages in quote exaggeration of the facts so as long as long as she has a show which by its nature does not tell you the truth it's

[17:44]

nature does not tell you the truth it's okay that she didn't tell the truth that time because the context of the show is not the truth now how would you like to be a person who's been believing MSNBC all the time you've been watching it and you thought that when you were watching Rachel Maddow that it was something like the news and then you find out in an actual court case where people are under oath that the Rachel Maddow team said now we're not really even we're not attempting to tell you the truth because if you think about it by branding themselves as opinion and rhetorical hyperbole of exaggeration exaggeration of the facts they're saying directly it is not our intention to give you the truth think about that they're not saying that we made a mistake sometimes that would just be normal I wouldn't hold it against any

[18:44]

be normal I wouldn't hold it against any news organization to make a mistake that's got to be just routine if they corrected it no I'm okay with that probably but imagine telling your audience we don't intend to tell you the truth because that's what it says right they're not saying we used to be an opinion and I approve ilish oh but we're not going to do that anymore they're saying directly that's who we are and therefore presumably it means we'll keep doing it and people will still watch it and they'll still interpret it as truth it's a funny world all right let's talk about how would you like to be Joe Biden and watching the the discussions on social media and in the news they seem to be focusing on how he will be removed have you noticed that I always tell you about making making you think past the sale the sale in this case is will Joe Biden be removed or confirmed as the

[19:44]

Biden be removed or confirmed as the nominee that's the question but people are no longer asking that question have you noticed that people are asking the question past that which is how is it going to be done will it be done before the convention will be done during the convention will it happen after the convention and then the vice president can kind of slip in there more easily if you're talking about how it will be done and you've already accepted that oh it's gonna be done we don't know when that's gonna be done that's not a good place to be is it it's not a good place to be at all so let's talk about
hydroxychloroquine now I'm interested in hydroxychloroquine 80% of it is because of the psychological political part which I find fascinating 20% of my interest is because hey it might work

[20:46]

interest is because hey it might work but you know there there are a bunch of other things that also hey those might work too so I don't have a you know a special obsession with hydroxychloroquine in fact my estimate is there's no more than a 30-40 percent chance that it makes a difference we don't know yet but some interesting things the first interesting thing is that it's clear in the comments as I'm reading through Twitter that the people who only watch the news on the right believe it's a fact that the drug doesn't work and that it's dangerous on top of it so people watch CNN MSNBC read the New York Times they think that's actually a fact but they're having trouble understanding the news if that's a fact because in my world is simply not a fact it's something we're still trying to figure out so my world makes sense

[21:48]

to figure out so my world makes sense because if we're still trying to figure it out what would that predict you would see in the world what would predict you see that trials are still underway and indeed there's a story Scot Gottlieb MD was tweeting about this is something called a recovery trial I think that's the name of the trial recovery like a brand name and or just the name for the project I guess and they they thought that they would take a look at it before they were done to see if there was any danger and if they'd had anybody died because they'd seen the other the other warnings in The Lancet etc so they looked at their data and they found that there were no particular side effects that were deadly so they decided to continue on with the trial so how do the people who believe it's a fact that it doesn't work and we know it's dangerous that's a fact they believe how do they understand their

[22:49]

believe how do they understand their world when they see a professional medical organization that has all the information they have they have all the same access to information have looked at it all and decided it's not a fact how do they explain to the world my world doesn't need any explaining because everything's playing out exactly the way I expect oh we don't know therefore it makes sense we are still testing if your world is not compatible meaning that you have a belief that doesn't explain what you're seeing maybe rethink your beliefs maybe rethink them let's talk some more about hydroxychloroquine one of the reasons that is so hard to figure out what's going on with this thing is that first of all they have tests with only people were near-death that doesn't tell you as much as it should they also have the test without using the zinc that doesn't tell you if it works with the zinc because they haven't test it now we're hearing that as if Meissen might be the

[23:50]

hearing that as if Meissen might be the dangerous part so maybe you should leave out the azithromycin I just read that today for the first time I don't know if it's true just read it today so so nothing is apples to apples but people are if you if you read it quickly it sounds like it is so people are acting like it's apples to apples but all of our information is just a different set of
of information with different variables that doesn't compare it to the other information so we have lots of it it just doesn't work for making decisions yet one of those is Costa Rica so there's a there's an account online that is promoting all the good news about hydroxychloroquine I don't know if it's just a citizen who's trying to help I don't know if there's any kind of sponsorship behind it or anything so I don't know anything about the account but I follow it because I has lots of information but I don't I don't assume that it's all true or accurate so one of

[24:52]

that it's all true or accurate so one of the things that was tweeted is that Costa Rica apparently is doing an amazingly good job at controlling their virus and their deaths amazingly good it's also true that in the beginning of the crisis they called China and said what do we do China told them several things to do including hydroxychloroquine and give it to people early on first symptoms and so they started doing that turns out that Costa Rica is a producer of hydroxychloroquine so they they make it in country so they had enough so they had enough they decided to use it and the result is one of the lowest curves I mean it basically was it didn't even curve up they they flattened it before it was even up basically they flattened it on the ground you know just where what just this total flat line when everybody else was going up now does that mean hydroxychloroquine works well our little brains make us think that right because

[25:54]

brains make us think that right because well here's the situation they used it they got the best result boom done no unfortunately not huh you want it to be true I'm seeing in the comments somebody's saying it's also an island Costa Rica's not an island people it's not an island it's connected to you know a lab mass it's not an island I've been to Costa Rica and I promise you I draw there now I didn't I did drive all the way but it was there was a there was no need for darling across water all right
so here's the thing Costa Rica is also in a warm place right yeah Costa Rica's Central America Costa Rica's warm what is the other country that's also warm that's having terrible problems it feels like the warm

[26:56]

terrible problems it feels like the warm countries are doing better right Africa not so bad as we thought it would be and somebody said Mexico wasn't so bad I don't know if that's true I'd have to do a fact check on that well here's the problem if the only countries that are doing well are also the warm ones and we know that the weather probably has a big big impact can't really tell it's just there's just too much this different so you got that going on and so I asked this question I tweeted it I said are there any countries that are routinely using hydroxychloroquine for first symptoms the wake the way Costa Rica's is there anybody else who's doing it just as much as they're doing it but getting a bad result so I was looking for the character example I'm looking for any country ideally in a in a not so

[27:56]

for any country ideally in a in a not so warm climate and not an island island doesn't count Brazil just started using it I believe Brazil only just started to hydroxychloroquine so they're not an example and but I don't want to do the the warm countries so forget about Central America give me something above Central America that doesn't have the warmth they use hydroxychloroquine early now wasn't Brazil Brazil did not use it early and and is doing poorly all right so the test is give me this on Twitter the test is they used it early it's not one of these hot countries toward the equator and they did not get a good result and did not get a good results so give me that example so there's of course big news

[28:57]

example so there's of course big news about the president we're not wearing a mask to golf and then of course Great Britain is all buzzing about Dominique Cummings aide to the prime minister who apparently did some traveling and saw his I don't know his parents or his kid or something and I have the same feeling about all of these leaders who are not doing what the under what they're telling the underlings to do I really care do you do you really care if Dominique Cummings took a drive and changed a little bit I mean I don't know if he did she but do you care do you care I don't care do you care that the president didn't wear a mask while golfing I don't care I don't care at all because I assume that every person who was with him had had a test that day and they weren't that close I mean it's outdoors it's warm I don't

[29:59]

I mean it's outdoors it's warm I don't care at all so I think all of these looking for the hypocrite stories are not landing because frankly well well let me ask you let me ask you this question because you will not be arrested for your answer how many of you have violated the guidelines since since you knew what the guidelines were so from the moment they said all right don't do this kind of socializing stay six feet away etc tell me in the comments how many of you have cheated at least once how many of you have cheated in the comments while we're waiting for those comments to come here's my assumption I think most people have cheated not everybody I'm going to say seventy-five percent maybe I think 75 percent have cheated Ellie's wants and and here's my my feeling if people only

[31:03]

and here's my my feeling if people only cheat when nobody's watching that's probably fine because if you cheat in a way that you had let's say a hundred people over to your house and he had a house party everybody would know so people are not cheating in these like big group ways without getting caught I mean that's a whole different story but if somebody saw one person you know somebody snuck away to be with their girlfriend or boyfriend I don't know I don't know I'm just not going to worry about that and this goes back to my theory about friction there was never any thought that yeah I'm looking at all the comments are coming in now there have been a number of people who say not once I'm looking at the ratio would say so we've got about 50/50 not bad a lot of you have not cheated even once very impressive those of you who

[32:06]

once very impressive those of you who have not cheated do you have kids because if you had kids and you didn't let them play with a friend I would be surprised but I'd be impressed I won't admit it somebody says at my doctor's office no one wore masks yeah well it looks like you've all not all of you but many of you have have cheated but I'm surprised how many of you have not somebody got a massage wow that's that's a little bit of taking a chance there or maybe not I suppose if the massage therapist or a mask and washed Israel her hands you'd be fine alright I guess my only point is that I don't expect my leaders to be any more perfect than citizens that they lead that whole hypocrisy thing I never get on board with the hypocrisy thing but you know I

[33:08]

with the hypocrisy thing but you know I agree that maybe is better if they do a little role modeling but aren't we way past that with President Trump is there anybody left right or senator who looks at the president and says I'll be more like that I don't think so I think I think we all realized that he's such a unique character that we look at him as he's just doing his thing and we make our own decisions I just don't see people saying I'm gonna be like him and you know I just don't see it so - Joe - Joe - Goldberg somebody just prompting me in the comments to comment about that so I guess that Joe did with Goldberg is not too happy about Caylee McEnaney and her job as a spokesperson thinks she thinks she's a little - I know baby may be aggressive or a cadet are competitive but the funniest thing about that is

[34:10]

but the funniest thing about that is that Jared Goldberg he looks like a werewolf now because yeah he hasn't cut his hair it looks like he's leather he was beard you little scruffy and he just turned a full werewolf and the whole time I was looking at the interview that's all I could think is I think you're a werewolf now well I think a lot of us are going to turn into werewolf since we can't get haircuts if you have not cheated you're a Karen okay all right that's all for now I will be doing a few more of the evening periscopes as the country is opening up and I'm feeling that our spirits are lifting and things are getting back to normal and I'm going to declare that this weekend is the victory victory and what that means is that if we get let's say

[35:12]

means is that if we get let's say several days from now there's not a gigantic spike in infections not so large that it crashes the hospitals we're back we're back I think that's where we're at so as we get back the evening the evening periscopes were really to you know fill a need and I may open up my evenings at some point not tonight tonight I'll be back and I'll talk to you tonight see you there