At one US ut USUS USA, US USA, USU. Yep, whoo,
we don't want that. Ka microphone is working and as soon as the
slide goes away, are we on video? I don't see it yet.
It's the lag uh oh there it is all right, we're life on YouTube.
Cool. Hi everybody, all right, welcome to you on book show
on this Friday, you fourteenth. We are here at oakonn For those watching
online, I have a live audience in front of me and glaring lights in
my eyes, and for me to read the comments, I'm gonna have to
take my glasses off, so it's gonna be a little different than usual.
I did not bring the red glasses for this. I bought the glasses for
my talk. So a lot of this is going to depend on you guys,
both in the audience and of course the super chat. I don't have
a tip bar, a tip thing jaw not bought jaw, so you know
you can vendo me later or something. But there's a mic this. I'm
gonna take questions from you guys, but we're gonna want you to use the
mic because that way the people online will hear you when you ask the question.
You guys online can ask questions using a super chat the regular method.
I thought i'd start by so give me a minute, Evan. But I
thought i'd start with Somebody asked me a question just as I was leaving the
stage, which I think is a good question, so I thought i'd start
with it. And it's a question I don't exactly have an answer to.
And that is three years ago. Three years ago, I think I gave
a talk on being a rational optimist. I think I called it right.
So what happened? Ron? And it's a good question, and it's one
I struggle with because by temperament, I am an optimist and everything you know,
I live that way. I assume there's a great future. I assume
that we'll be able to do more things in the future than we can't today.
I love technology, I love progress, I love all those things,
and I think complicit and everything is a real sense of positivity about the future.
And you look at politics and you just can't be optimistic, at least
I can't. I don't know how anybody else can. There's just nothing to
be optimistic about. And if I think about that talk, most of the
talk focused really on what I saw at the time, and I think it
is still true of some exciting technology that was happening. You know, I'm
still really excited about AI. I'm still really excited. I'm even excited about
crypto. You might be surprised to hear, and I might even be starting
to have a vague grasp of why I'm excited about crypto, because I still
don't quite get it, but it you know, I definitely think there's a
lot of interesting and positive and exciting things that can happen and are happening.
So and I'm particularly more excited than anything about biotech, but life extension,
about uh, you know, gene editing and you know, all the all
the biotic stuff is just thrilling. I mean, it really is exciting,
and it's cool science above and beyond anything else. It's just it's just amazing
that human beings can do what they do. And there's still so much,
so many people, great people out there in the world doing this great science.
Right you read about it and you go, whoa people are? People
are taking this stuff seriously and they're doing the work, and they're so rational
and there's so reality oriented and it's it's amazing and and so there's still a
lot of good stuff that you can focus on and should focus on. Uh.
And it's available. So most of my talk at the time was about
stuff like that and and and that's still true. Uh. And But the
one thing I did say about politics then was I said I was optimistic because
Trump lost, and I was I thought, this is great that American people
were smart enough, bright enough to reject this guy. Put aside who they
liked it in his place, but at least they rejected Trump. And he's
back. It's like the terminator, right, you can't get rid of it.
He's back, and that's depressing. It's unbelievably impressing. I'm serious about
After January sixth, you know, it was unimaginable that he would be back.
It was just inconceivable that he could. He could be successful and convinced
American people and not just back, but he looks like he's gonna win.
So so that something has changed, and you know, Trump changed, and
so the tribalism, particularly on the right, was even worse, is worse
than I thought it was three years ago. Right. And the other thing
that's happened more recently is these demonstrations in American campuses. Uh, worse than
I could have ever imagined in this sense. Right, in the sixties,
there were demonstration on campuses, they took over buildings, they were you know,
they were horrible, they were nihilistic. It was terrible. But you
can kind of understand them in the sixties, right, I mean, this
is how bad things are today that I am sympathetic a little bit to the
sixties. Right. They were against an unjust war. They were against the
war that where thousands of American kids were dying for no reason. Now this
isn't their real justification, right, they were hippie nihilists, but you could
you could see, and they were threatened with a draft. So they were
demonstrating out of a real you know, maybe subconsciously, but a real self
interest. There was something real that they were botsing against. And a draft
was evil and the whatself is evil? And they did it the wrong way,
and they stood for the wrong ideas, and they didn't understand what they
were doing. And all of that is true, but there was some self
interesting What are these guys demonstrating today. They're not ramas, They're not going
to be drafted to go fight in the Middle East. They there is no
involvement of self in it. There's no you can't imagine a selfish I mean,
if they were all Palestinian kids, right, these are all Arabs,
demonstrate I'd say, Okay, I get it, there's some relationship there.
It affects their lives in some way, family members, something, right,
you could somehow come But these are these are just American kids. They don't
know. They couldn't point to Israel in a map if their life depended on
it. They certainly don't know. And we've seen this question which river to
wit. See right, they have no clue about the history, and they're
ready to go out there and make absolute idiots of themselves in the name of
this a pure destruction of pure nihilism. Nothing nothing, no value to be
achieved, nothing to be attained. Zero. And that is just a new
level of low right. So you've got the left just descending. And it's
not just them, right, You've got all these other people who are who
supported in one way or the other. You've got to Biden administration. It's
caving to them, and it's it's depressing, it's but it's reality. It's
not depressing psychle it's just reality. This is who we have. This is
this is who we got. Uh and uh, I mean Biden was always
going to be bad, but particularly it's over the last year and a half
he's become worse. And now he's completely seen now, So now the American
people are gonna vote for a guy who you wouldn't I don't know, you
wouldn't give him any job? Right, Nobody would hire him? Could could
Could Joe Biden get a job anywhere? No? I mean he's seen now.
He really isn't competent to hold any kind of job. And you were
gonna give him. I mean, if you've ever read and you know you
might not like to ask her, but if you've ever Head's essay about a
woman president, she has this reverence towards the presidency, Like the president of
the United States is this elevated job. It's this amazing position. It's like,
you know, so important, and you've got to have you got to
respect the president even when she's criticizing them and destroying them intellectually, She's got
a certain respect for the office. And now you've got a see now,
really old man who has no clue and Donald Trump. These are the two
guys that we have to choose for this elevated amazing you know. So yeah,
so I'm more certainly more pastimistic today about politics than I've ever been in
my life. I think there's good reason for that. I you know,
COVID was a huge lap in the face a lot of us in terms of
waking us up to what the American people really like. Uh and and now
intellectuals are really like. And uh so I am a lot less optimistic today
than I was three years ago, suddenly, when it comes to that.
And while I think the left doesn't decline, I and I do think the
left isn't it's kind of hit its max. The right is really really,
really scary and uh and so I still see and I still try to spend
time on the good stuff. I you know, I still love my tech.
I'm serious about I haven't signed the contract, but I've got a contract
in my email to create their on book clone. I expect I expect that
will happen in the next few weeks and within a few months we will have
a clone video and audio and n GBT, so you you'll be able to
truly interact. I wonder what kind of hallucinations you're on Brook will have that
that is kind of going to be exciting to see all the nonsense I say.
But yeah, I love this stuff. I think. I think it's
so cool. I really do think the tech is cool. So I'm still
excited about life. I don't think we're going to descend into hell while I'm
alive. So being a little older, and maybe I won't see it,
come won't see it is a good thing, but I do. I don't
know. My son's not here, but I do have kids, so it
does worry me in that sense. And you guys, I worry about you
guys. But yeah, my life is good. So in spite of it
all, I keep the optimism around the bubble that is my life. But
I also realize that we're in deep, deep, deep trouble. All right,
let's let's take some questions live, and we do have some super chats.
And yeah, you guys who on the super chat on the on the
show, you didn't see the talk, so you're gonna have to catch up
on it or sign up for the digital I guess there's a digital paths so
you could see it anytime. It was depressing. I think I think I
can say that without without any now, Jim says, when it wasn't too
depressing, Okay, go ahead, right, So we just attended your talk
where he talked about how the fact that the American sense of life is either
dead or perhaps perhaps in a very very deep sleep, will mean we can't
depend on it to buy us more time, and we'll will we have less
time than we may have thought of three years ago. Right, yep.
My question is doesn't it it seems like if if that is true of the
American sense of life, doesn't that mean it'll be also that they'll it'll be
not as fertile ground to spread objectivism? And and if that makes sense to
what might we do about that? Yes, I mean there's no question.
Uh. And and this becomes it's very real that as educational, you know,
the education is worse as as just people are less open to ideas,
as people become more tribal. I mean you've seen it within the objective's movement.
Let a side. I mean, I see so many people obviously Scott
on the chat, but so many people with an objectivism who've been caught up
in the tribalism, or at least that's how I see it, have been
caught up in the tribalism, caught up in the in the you know,
you've got to defend the right no matter what, and and so on.
So even people who being exposed by ran studied here for a while. So
I think, so it's again more reason to be to be pessimistic. The
good the optimism comes in, i'd say, on that front, with the
fact that they are more educational opportunities for activists today than ever before, the
more schools being run by objectivists, networks of schools, not just one here,
one there, but networks. There's also i'd say, on a broader
scale, if you go outside of objectivism, homeschooling has become huge, right,
And and I think that's the hope, is that those kids are not
polluted by the by the kind of the culture and the bad philosophy, and
so that there is hopefully a younger generation out there that Yeah. I mean,
one of the things you one of the things somebody asked me. Apton
asked me, are you traumatized by the tea party you're on, and answers,
Yeah, there's a sense in which that's absolutely right. The tea party
was a moment of hope. The Tea Party was a false hope, right
bit of hope. The Tea Party sales are Alice shrug went through the roof.
I mean, it's unbelievable. Nobody could believe in the culture. How
many books sold between twenty eight and twenty thirteen, unbelievable copies. But you
know what the problem of the Tea Party was, and it should have been
obvious at the time. They were freaking old. I ain't sorry, guys,
but they were old. I'm old now, so I can sympathize,
but that you know, they and it was the wrong audience, the wrong
people. These are not people who launched a revolution. If you went to
a Tea Party audience, the average age was sixty plus. Sixty plus.
Old people don't launch your revolutions. Revolutions are for the young, and intellectual
changes for the young. And you know, it's hopeless if you rely on
everybody over forty, it's hopeless. What you rely on is people under thirty.
And I've always said that, and I've always known that, and yet
somehow in the Tea Party, you know, there was just an energy around
it, but it went nowhere because partially because of that, because you know,
they remember the sign, you know, limited government, but hands off
my medicare, right, remember those hands off my medicare Really that's what bothers
you. So those people are not that's not going to where the changes,
and those people all went to Trump, and Trump was at least very much
the older population grade towards him. So what was the question? I can't
remember. Yes, what do we do about that? Nothing? So what
do you do about it? You go after you re energize, you refocus
on young people. And what I encourage you to do about it to the
extent that your parents, or to the extent that your young people, yourself
or you know, young people, encourage them, Encourage everybody to engage with
the alternative educational establishment that's out there, and hopefully we can get a new
generation there was homeschooled or they went to one of these alternative better schools and
private schools and that and that's the hope. The hope is always the youth.
And I'm less pessimistic about young people than I am about older people,
and less pessimistic about this group of young people, maybe even than in the
past, because I think there's so many alternatives today. COVID the one good
thing COVID did. One good thing it did was it woke people up to
what's going on in the classrooms. And parents saw their kids, what the
kids were studying, and what they were doing for homework and all this stuff,
and they went whoa, and they took them out of the schools and
they placed them in pods. These pods and homeschools and all kinds of things
that did provide alternative education, which is good for us. That's to make
one underscore your point about youth. A lot of people don't recognize this,
but during the time of the revolution, a lot of the founders were young.
Yes they will and every revolution. Look and it's the same with you
know, it's the same with everything. And part of the problem, it
just reminds me of part of the problem with science funding in the world today
is how do you get a lot of money to get to do like big
research in science. You have to be experienced. In other words, you
have to be old. But the reality is no revolutionary theory of science as
ever done by old people. You know, it's like rock and roll,
like you do it in your twenties, and after that you can kind of
maybe do a little bit but it's not never going to be the same.
Right. There's something about youth that's a value. And you know, Einstein
was what twenty what's that twenty four when he wrote you know, Theory of
Relativity twenty four, right, And the reality is, once he turned forty,
he didn't do anything. I mean, he tried, but he didn't
do anything revolutionary. And it's Einstein, right. And I bet Newton was
young. I mean he didn't publish his work until very late, right,
he held onto it for a long time, but he was young when he
came up with you know, the laws of optics and then the motion and
then the calculus. So I know, as we get older it's harder to
admit. But the reality is that that's where the action is. The action
is, and those are the people who you have to get. You have
to get them on a someplace has this, Oh, Marie La Penn,
here's an example, Marilla Penn's political party. What are you doing in Madrid?
Rika? I thought you left Madrid anyway, that's another conversation. Marilla
Penn's number two. You know, Marilla Penn, the right wing party in
France, which is gonna win, looks like it's gonna win the parliamentary elections
in France anyway. Marilla Penn's number two, who could become prime minister,
who could become prime minister, who's very charismatic, and he's twenty eight years
old. He's twenty eight years old, and he's going to be he might
be the next prime minister of France. Way out there on the right.
So all right, one more here and then we'll do so a chat.
Let's draw that line on forty Viva Revolution on the fleet. What influence do
you believe social media has played on polarizing the country and worstening toxic behavior on
both sides of the album. I think what social media primarily does is it
makes visible what's going on anyway. So so you know, i'll just use
personal examples, right, So when I look back now on like post nine
to eleven, so we took it the on man istry, we took some
pretty radical stands post nine to eleven, I did a lot of talks.
They were really controversial. And the reality is that I think that a lot
of people like saw the talks and said these people are crazy, and they
literally and they walked away. And I think some people even affiliate with the
objectives said, oh god, I mean, what are they writing in the
aari and what you're on saying these are you know? This is not except
And they just walked away. And I never knew that. I never knew
anybody disliked me. I thought everybody loved me. And it's only with social
media did I realized how many people really hate my guts. And it's because
so what social media does is it surfaces what people thought anyway, what people
what people were doing anyway. But now you get it in your face.
They don't just walk out the room. They walk out the room and they
send you a tweet and they put it on Facebook, and they let the
whole world know exactly what they think of you. So I don't know that
it changed them. It certainly reinforces, and it got people fighting, and
it made maybe it made it more tribal, but I think a lot of
the views and ideas were already there. It accelerated the speed, and it
accelerated the hostility because it elevated it and now became much more personal. It
wasn't that she asked that people who disagree with me out there somewhere. No,
it's this guy. He just called me x y z. It was
right in your face. So it's important. But I think it's it's they
make it. It's made into two important, right. It's not the driver
it is it is an accelerator. It's an accelerator or what do you call
this stuff that increases the fire? What's that accelerant? That's it's an accelerant
to what was already going on, but definitely an excelerant. All right,
let me do two super chats, one from Lucinda, who's amazing. Thank
you, Listenda. It's one hundred years she finally figured out how to do
super chats and since then it's like amazing. Hi. Ron, Can you
say hi to my cats, Sammy and Josie. Hi Sammy, Hi Josie,
Hi Sammy, Hi Josie. And also thanks again for all the great
wookie do thank you listen to That was an easy question. I love it.
Speaker says, also for one hundred dollars, hello for Madrid again,
I don't know what you're doing in Madrid. I thought you're in the barey
Andy. How hopeful are you for capitalist revolution of South America? That is
with me, lay So I talked about it. A little bit at the
end of the talk today or during the q and a in the talk,
and I like me, lay, you know, you know. And I
don't know how influential he's going to be. I don't know how many changes
he can actually put in place, because the politics of Argentina are very,
very difficult, and he has a small minority political party, and even his
coalition with the Conservatives is still a minority party is within the parliament. So
I don't know how much you can get done. But I think he's inspiring
a lot of people in Latin America. We have some Latin Americans here and
you can ask them, but I think he's really inspiring people in Latin America.
I'm hopeful that we will see other people trying to be Melay And at
the very least what that'll do is that I'll get the ideas more visible and
more talked about and more discussed. I mean, one of the things,
one of the things that are so destructive about Trump, and it's not just
Trump, about populism generally. So I remember, years ago, not that
long ago, I used to go to Brazil and I was so excited by
Brazil. It's like the energy there was amazing, and they would they would
wear these T shirts. The kids talk about kids, right, these all
young people, and they would wear these T shirts more mesas, less marks.
Actually it was less marks, more mesas in Portuguese, right, And
it was everywhere, and like I'm ranned. I remember in San Paulo in
the airport, go up to the little bookstore and there's there's a Rand in
a book of like Philosophy for Dummies, and I Rand is one of the
people that they covered. Right, you don't get that in English, You'd
never get that in America, Atlas shrugged. All the books were being translated
into Portuguese, and there was real energy and real excitement about free markets and
about these ideas. And the worst thing that happened for that movement was both
Scenaro winning was a right wing populist, because it sucked all the energy out
of the free market, the real liberty movement, and into this populist nothing.
And everybody associated the free market guys with both Scenaro and turned against them
when they ultimately, just like America turned against Trump, they turned against Bolsonara.
And now when you go to Brazil, yeah, it's still there,
a little bit. But the energy's gone. There's no mass movement, there's
no there's no the masses are gone. I remember the big demonstrations against Lula
the first time. They're no big demonstrations now. It's just the populism just
sucked out completely. And the same thing happened here in a sense, right
once Trump was elected, anybody who stood for free markets within the Republican Party
and the Republican universe was basically either kicked out left or shifted their positions right.
Trump and the Trump world, that world of populism will not tolerate anybody
who truly believes in freedom and everything else. And so it's completely discredited.
And so those I mean they are who in the Republican Party today is pro
free markets. I mean Ran Paul used to be kind of what's happened to
him. He became a Trumpet, he stopped playing golf for Trump, and
he's gone. And Lee from Utah used to be pretty good, and uh
and CRUs used to be okay, I mean reading from Adelas Shrugged on that
on the Center floor. Remember that, remember CRUs reading You think CRUs will
be called dead today with Alice Shrugged and in his as no way. It's
it's just completely shifted. I think the same thing a Brazil So you know,
so Melay has this challenge of providing energy and and and and recreating a
movement and maybe he can. Actually I think if he's successful in Argentina,
I think it'll spread in Latin America. I you know, one of the
things I like about him is he gives these lectures in economics. He does
campaign rallies where he's talking about market failure and why markets don't fail, and
he's talking about prices and what prices mean, and it's going over a lot
of people's heads, but it's it's it's amazing to see somebody give these long
talks about this stuff and people sitting in the audience and listen to it.
So, you know, I'm optimistic about him. And then he needs to
show success at some point, and then the question is will the Argentinian political
system allow him to be successful. So fuss so good. Inflation has come
down quite a bit, but your define that have come down quite a bit.
But we need to take the next step. It needs to do some
positive things and that'll be interesting to see if they allow that to happen.
All right, m yeah, and it won't be Yeah, let's see,
all right, this is the last one, and then I'll take a question
for the audist. Is Trump derangement syndrome and anti concept? No, it's
real, I have it. No. Is it an anti concept? Yes,
I mean it's it's It's very similar to something like Islamophobia, right,
which is fear of Islam. Yeah, I'm afraid of Islam. Do I
have Islamophobia? No? I just have recognized the danger of Islam in its
you know, autalitarian form, and I'm afraid of that. It's completely irrational
and completely legit. It's not something weird psychological phobia. It's reality. Am
I am? I? You know who you know systematically consistently critical of Trump?
Yes, because there's something to be critical of. So to turn it
into some kind of psychological disorder is a way to dismiss it, and to
dismiss it out of hand. When there's a real reality here, there's something
to be said. So am I enraged by Trump? Yeah? I'm enraged
by Trump. But that's rational. I mean, whoever's not enraged? I
mean, listen to one of his rallies. It's enraging and and the fact
that people are so excited and cheering him on and all this it's just upsetting.
So yeah, so yes, it's an anti concept in the sense that
there's something true here that's being purposely subverted. So now, yeah, I
mean this is how it works, right, anytime you criticize Trump, well
he's just got you know, TDS, and that's it. And then what
do you say, what do you say, No, I don't I swear
I don't have tdas there's no argument. It's a way to dismiss everything you
say without argument, without presenting evidence, without facts. And it's the same
with Islamophobia. It serves the same purpose. You just is homophobic. No,
no, no, no, I'm just critical to be slut Well too
late, right, you douity being labeled and there's nothing to there's nothing to
talk about. So it serves that same function, and it's an anti concept
in that sense. All right. Yeah, So as an objectivist coming into
a culture and you want to and you work toward bringing the ideas into a
culture, and you come into this cynicism of tribalism which labels you, how
do you become productive and continue without getting sidelined as you've done in your work
over decades, it seems, how what do you recommend for people like us
activists that we do uh and that we become productive and focused on what we
want to do. I think it's, you know, it's you remember my
rules for life. I mean, I think it's very much that it's being
egoist, which means focus on what is going to make your life the best
life that it can be, and to help with the culture and to help
with the world. Just focus on that. Don't let other people dictate how
you live your life. Don't let and you know they constrain it to certain
things you won't be able to do. And just accept what's in a sense,
in the sense metaphysically given to you, you won't be able to do
these things, and just do the best that you can, live the best
life that you can within those constraints. Focus on what you know. I
talk about this a lot. Focus on what you have control over your home,
your job, your friends, your loved ones, your environment, and
make it as fulfilling and interesting and fun and exciting and wonderful as possible.
And so when you go out into the world and you have to engage with
the nonsense you know where you're going back to. You're going back to that
beautiful place that you've created, which is spiritually, you know, enhancing to
you. So even if it's rough out there, even if you have to
go and fight with the completely irrational crazies out there, it's just now,
it's just this period and I'm going back home, and I've got my beautiful
sculptures, and I've got my beautiful wife, and I've got my beautiful view,
and I've got my I've got my life. That's me, and you
know, and enjoy what you do. So you know, maybe one of
my skills is that I enjoy the combat. Right, I enjoy the I
don't know if that's a virtue or a vice, but there's certainly something in
me that enjoys the challenge of I don't mind it right, great, thank
you, Hiron two parter, but I've sent you some dollars on PayPal,
so thank you. First one is very negative. If a state cannot defend
itself, it will not last. So October seventh could have been in a
catalyst for Israelis to move away from altruism towards a more rational, self interested
culture. My question is where are the intellectuals in Israel today that can initiate
this change. Do they even exist? Or is Israel doomed in the long
run. I'm surprised at that they are better the better intellectuals in Israel in
response to October seventh, and they win America in response to nine to eleven.
The number of people who came out after October seventh and said the right
thing thing, it surprised me, you know. And look, even Israeli
politicians say, I mean, up to a point, say the right thing,
they just don't do anything about it. And Anton, this is his
career. He says the right thing, he just never lives up to it.
You know. They're too focused on Kamasa's enemy and not the policing people
that that's a real problem. But there are there are quite a few people
in Israel now. The problem is with the people in Israel is too many
of them are motivated by religion. Too many of the better commentators a motive
by a religious motive rather than a rational motive in terms of how to deal
with the enemy. Too many of them won a religious war. I think
that what would happen in the United States if if they're as the right,
becomes more powerful. I think they're much more likely to be tough on Islam,
but for the wrong reasons. Right, So there are voices in Israel.
Israel's doing more post October seventh in America did post nine to eleven?
I mean, you know, yeah, in terms of dealing with the actual
enemy, it's not doing enough. And it's you know, every day I
expect them to fold, and they do in small ways, and people are
dying for no reason. But overall they're still moving that, they're still moving
forward, they're still doing what's they say. Although there was just a pole
just this morning, I d a pole coming out of the Palestinians saying that
it's still true that over seventy percent of Palestinians in the West Permeili in the
West Bank, but also in Gaza. I believe October seventh was right.
They don't believe the atrocities. They don't believe the Hamas did any atrocities.
It's always really propaganda. So maybe Israel hasn't shook them, shaken them up
enough yet. But you know, it's always survived. That's the thing about
Israel. It will it will survive. It's it is not inclined to authoritarianism
anytime soon. Religion is a real problem in Israel, and it's going to
grow in problem because they have kids and the secular have fewer. But that's
going to take a few generations. But there's no there's no left in Israel.
I mean, which is interesting, right, there's no there's woke and
stuff like this, but it's all marginalized. Nobody cares, and there's no
peace snakes in Israel. There's no they used to be When I was in
Israel, there always used to be this big movement of Israels my parents,
peace peace, you know, that's all we care about. Kind of real
left is peace snakes. After the second into Fada that was gone. They're
very realistic. They live in an area where they know that if they lift
down the guard, another October seventh happens. And and they forgot that for
a little bit, and that's why it's October seventh happened because they let they
go down. But that they're gonna stay vigilant for the next ten years,
twenty years. So is it will survive. It won't survive as well as
I would like it too. It won't. It will still have enemies.
It won't win this outright, but it will survive. I mean, I'm
there's a way in which I'm more optimistic about Israel than i am about the
US. There's a way in which Israelis have adopted a kind of almost American
sense of life, at least some. I think the tech industry did a
lot for that in Israel. But it's still you know, but it's it's
gonna be rough. It's gonna be particularly for America. You know, I
don't know how long America will continue to support Israel. And I'm not talking
about monetarily. I'm talking about politically, and it's going to be tough.
What are they going to do without American support? Do they have the kahonas
to stand up to the world without America. I just don't know. I
just don't know. And lastly, how do you plan to celebrate the Celtics
Championship tonight? Oh? Wow, yes, I know. It's it's tough
that it's at oconn right, and I'm because I'm exhausted because I haven't slept
well the last couple of nights, and my wife had flight problems this morning,
so I was dealing with that at five am, so I haven't slept
much, so I you know, I'm gonna have to watch the game,
which means staying up late. My trainer is here from the UK and he
I think I have to meet him at eight am at the gym tomorrow to
be brutalized and completely So if you want to see you on humiliated tomorrow,
eight am at the gym. So, I don't know, but I don't
know, but I'm looking forward to them winning. It's been a long time
coming. They should have won two years ago against the Warriors. I actually
that was my birthday present two years ago. I actually bought a ticket to
the final game and when up to the garden and saw them play, and
it was it was so much fun. I hadn't seen about a live basketball
game since it was a teenager in Boston. Uh, So it was a
lot of fun to see. And that was that was when they won.
They won a championship then as well, seventy five they won with I remember
the team, but yes, it's it's the greatest basketball franchise ever. Suck
it up, Laker fans and uh and they're gonna put Banter eighteen either today
or in a couple of days and uh, and this team could win a
few. This team could win a few. I don't see anybody in the
NBA right now beating these guys. They're they're really good. It's yes,
this is acceptable tribalism absolutely sports. I mean Terry Smith as a whole a
couple of lectures on this, so it's it's absolutely, it's absolutely legitimized and
objectivism. But yeah, you know, it's fun. I mean that's that's
the essence of it, right, there's no downside, and it's just fun.
And when they win and when they lose, I can know them.
I'm not a rainy day fan. I'm just not interested. When they're really
bad, I just don't watch. And when they're good at watch and it's
just a blast. And I find sports boring. If you'ren't rooting for somebody,
you got to root for somebody, so otherwise it's boring. So yeah,
it's great to have somebody to root for that I can connect with me
when I was fifteen, right, And that's the thing, Right, when
do we form our sports alliances, it's the same time you form your popular
music alliances, right when you're a teenager. And because and part of the
whole thing is it reminds you. It gives you a certain sense. If
I hear a song from the seventies, it creates a certain emotional response that
is associated with me being a teenager, which is not necessarily positive. I
was a teen not my best years and uh, but but yeah, so
I I really I love sports. You know, the Olympics are going to
be in Paris this year, which is going to be interesting. But I
love watching the Olympics. I love uh and you know, and I roud
from America, even though you know it's nationalistic or whatever, but it's it's
it's fun. Yeah, Okay, well one more and then we've got a
bunch of super chests, a lot of super chats. Hey, you're on.
Could the state of American politics be an opportunity for us, isn't?
I'm I'm hopeful. I believe kind of the darker of the room, the
brighter a candle seems. In comparison, could in a movement that champions decency,
rationality, respects hope not rally those that are tired of the fear mongery
on both sides, you would think, Look, it worked for it worked
for me, lay right, I mean Melay would not have won if Argentina
was literally on the brink of bankruptcy, you know. And now we'll see
how much he can get done. Because part of the challenge is it's easy
to vote for him, it's not that easy to accept what kind of the
challenge that he's going to pose to everything you believe in in terms of politically,
So there's suddenly opportunities in this darkness. The challenge is, how do
you make your voice hood when the culture is clearly swinging away from you?
How do you make your voice hood when the culture is becoming more and more
you know, even though it's not becoming more religious in the sense that if
you ask, people have religious but it's the small as your religion seems to
be more and more dominant even among non religious people's. It's kind of an
authoritarian epistemology. How do you how do you how do you leverage how do
you get the voice out there? That is the big challenge. How do
you make yes the candle might be it can't be just a pinprick of a
little light. It has to be a candle, and how do you get
that lit? And how do you bring it out into the public and technology
is one way to do it, of course, and you we're not going
to be able to do it without tech. But look, I go back
to the only way to change the culture is through intellectuals, and the only
way we change the cultures have a lot of intellectuals. It's it's you just
need mass. And part of the reason you need mass is you don't know
where the next genius is going to be, right, you need one of
you guys is gonna have to be you know, I don't know the bench
of Peiod, Jordan Peterson or whatever of you know, farm interjectives perspective in
terms of the audience size, somebody's gonna have to break through into the millions,
right and in in in that kind of sense, And I don't know
who it's going to be, but part of the but you need a lot
so that you know some of them will be able to be that successful.
And you need that in academia, and you need that in public intellectuals,
and you need that in a variety of different nations. I mean, look
at what I mean, here's an optimistic thing, right, look at what
our exceptin has done in with got of energy. I mean, it's astounding
what he's done. He's changed the debate for many many people. He's reoriented
the industry. The industry thinks about what they do differently. He's had an
impact on politicians. If the Republicans have one issue, they're really good on
its energy and to a large extent, they're good in that issue because of
Alex. I mean, he was his talking points, made it into DeSantis
and made it to Vivek and he definitely had influence in the Trump administration last
time, and he'll have some influence around the people hopefully surrounding Trump next time.
So that's the one. Now, extrapolate one Alex to one hundred.
That's how I think of it. You know, you need a hundred like
that. If you have one hundred like that, you changed the world.
And so it's a numbers game. Thank you, all right, let me
take a few of these. Glenn is Glenn here, Glenn's here right,
Thank you, Glenn. Appreciate the these supports Glances. Why do you think
our leaders and most people are faith to stand up and say Islam is a
religion of violence and it's evil. Well, first, I think you have
to be careful saying Islam is but look, the reason is simple. Once
you acknowledge Islam is a religion of violence, what about your own religion?
Is Christianity not a religion of violence? I mean, it was, at
least until the Enlightenment, very much religion of violence. I mean, the
more I read about early Christianity, God, I mean, it was horrific.
And you know the Romans and the Roman Holy Empire. You know what's
his name, Charlemagne? I mean, Charlemagne is considered one of the saviors
of Western civilization. Was he killed forty five thousand people in one day because
they refused to convert to Christianity. They were pagans and they were fused to
convert. Talk about conversion by the sword. The Christians were really good at
it, really good at it. So I think it's they have to confront
their own They have to confront the fact that whatever religion they hold, at
the end of the day, its religion equals force. Once you abandon reason,
what other way is there to convince other people? What other way is
there to bring them on board? Any religion that is a missionary religion is
going to involve force. I know, the thing that pacifies Jews, But
this wasn't true in the Old Testament is the fact that they're not missionary.
So they're happy. They're just live in their own little world, right because
they don't want to expand they're the chosen people, good enough for them,
right. But Christianity Islam any religion that wants to So I think with Bush,
it was definitely that Bush did not want to acknowledge that religion Kua,
religion could be violent, could be something destruct Uh. He was born again
evangelical, and that that was obvious. You cannot criticize religion. This is
why he defended you know, he wouldn't defend Solemonversity's father, wouldn't defend solomonarity.
He wouldn't defend free speech. The Danish cartoons came out, he couldn't.
He couldn't defend the right of people to do cartoons. He refused it
said, he said, you know, you really shouldn't make fun of religion.
It's not nice. Don't do it. And and uh, yeah,
you got to free free speech rights. You could do it, but you
should really shouldn't do it. I mean, it's the president of the United
States, so they cannot. They cannot. They won't accept the implication,
which is that there's a problem with them, have a problem with religion.
I think that's it. Now beyond that, there's the whole problem in the
West of confidence self esteem, right, So to say something's evil is to
claim that you're good, and it's the claim that you have value, it's
the claim that you represent something positive. And multiculturalism has has basically eviscerated our
ability to do that. Western civilace is better, but what standard better?
All cultures are the same, all cultures are equal to The Left has done
that. It is eviscerated the ability to judge. You're not supposed to judge,
you know, don't judge others by what standard do you judge? Those
standards are postcolonialism? Right, somebody asked about that in the Q and A.
You know, you're you're just as evil as everybody else. So there's
no self esteem in the West. So this would relate to Europeans not being
able to do that when they're secular. So altruism, religion and multiculturalism prevented,
all right, Andrew, The long range view is important for evaluating politics.
Ran thought the winds under Reagan would yield to long term harm. Yeah,
I didn't even cover that. When I feel positive about Trump on some
concrete issue, I try to keep in mind that long range he's a boon
to authoritarianism. Yes, I mean in this long I think you're absolutely right.
You have to think long term. In this long rant that he had
at the Arizona rally, there were like three things he said which are like,
yeah, like drill baby drill. Right, yeah, I'm also droe
baby drill. That's good, he says. Wanna. He said one other
thing that was good. You know, I can't tee what it was,
but two or three things he said they were good, right, But everything
surrounding that was pure evil, right, really bad. I mean, including
this comment about the Chinese, you know, swift and swift executions. Cool.
That'll that'll go well in America. So you can just latch onto this
one piece of goodness because it's completely out of context. People say, oh,
but he moved embassy to Jerusalem. Who cares, you know, in
the context of everything else he did, it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant.
I don't know if you saw the latest thing he's floating. You know,
Trump is very good at floating ideas and seeing He's very good at trouble loons.
All politicians are, but Trump is a master at it. So he
floated to eliminate eliminating couple taxes and have only tariffs. Now, uh,
this is so stupid. And then nobody called him on it because he did
this in front of a congression of Republicans and there was like they were floating,
they said, but this is so stupid on so many different levels.
Because you'd have to the tafts would have to be like one hundred and thirty
percent. Somebody did calculation. What would happen if the tafts were one hundred
and thirty percent? You wouldn't buy anything from overseas. You just wouldn't buy
it from overseas. Prices would go up. American products would go up.
People would would make inefficient, very very expensive stuff in the US that sold
at one hundred percent over the current price, but they you know, and
they'd still be so how much tarifs would he actually raise no taxi? Right,
our cost of living would go up, but there actually be no income
for the government, which maybe is good. Maybe that's a good thing,
right, but it's not his intent. I mean, this is just economically
stupid. And then the other thing would happen is the currencies, would you
know? And I can't go through my head right now exactly how they shift.
But what happens when you have you know, when you have terrorists's come
and see values changed in a way that offsets the effect that a tax.
So the whole thing is just I mean, I don't know who and I
know who is economic advisors are, so I guess I'm not surprised. You
know, I often call Trump and moron, and he is. I mean,
you saw that when he said that the trade is as you know,
we lose because we have a trade deficit. You know, we give them
dollars and we get stuff and somehow we lose. That is such a perceptual
level mentality. If you want to read, if you want to understand Trump,
you have to read a man's essay on the Missing Link. Yeah,
I mean it is. He can't think. He is a nonconceptual being.
He's an anti conceptual being. And in that sense, he's at the perceptual
level. And that's what Iran is talking about in that article. And he
is the pure manifestation of them. All right, Pamela, Hello, TuS
Stephen there in your audience, Hi, Stephen. Pamela says, Hi,
what an awesome opportunity to see you in person. We should be here,
Pamela, Why are you not here? You should all be here. The
whole you're on book subscriber base should come to Oakan. Jennifer shout out to
one of my favorite founding fathers, Benjamin Fanklyn. His own son was a
loyalist and ended up turning his back on his father and moving to England.
Well, he was in jail in America's jailed in America, and then he
moved back to England. The old man who was the rebel and the family
really cool. There's a show on Apple TV. I don't know if you've
ever seen it on Franklin, which is worth seeing. It's not great,
it's not like the John Adams hbo one, but it's good and it's interesting,
and it's about his time in Paris during the Revolutionary War, trying to
convince the French to support the Americans. And it's I found it entertaining.
It made it. You know, they always make Jefferson. All these shows
try to diminish Jefferson. It was like I enjoyed Hamilton to play, but
they the Jefferson character was just it was just sad and Jefferson was so great.
And then okay, Paul in audience at back, Hi Paul, after
nine eleven, you said Bush lied, Could you elaborate? Was it about
the chemical weapons in Iraq or his view of Islam or something else? Everything?
He lied on Islam, religion of peace. He he lied on why
they were going to Iraq. He lied on Afghanistan and what we were doing
there. He he, he lied on how long we would be then,
what we what we what we're trying to do? God? What else?
I mean really everything? I mean the whole structure of is is Uh.
I mean I knew on September twelfth that this was a disaster and and and
you know Lenna Peacock knew, I mean, you know, on car we
all got it. This was going to be a disaster. And we knew
it because of how what George Bush was communicating and what he was saying,
and how pathetic it was. And uh, you know, Iraq was Iraq
was the enemy. Got nothing to do with this. Iran was the enemy.
But Iran never made it. He made it onto one reference of the
of the the the what is it the evil, access of evil, and
then it was dropped and then it was forgotten. There was no Iran.
That's so dishonest. It's so obvious that this is an inspiration. Iran is
the inspiration, if not the explicit funder of this. What about the Saudis?
Do you know what? The only and this is not a conspiracy theory,
this is reality. The only plane that took off from US soul Soil
to leave the country right after nine eleven was a plane full of Saudis out
of New York to go back to Saudi Arabia, which which Bush had approved
because they wanted out, because they were afraid there was going to be a
backlash against the Saudis and they you know, people would, I don't know.
So there's a plane that took them from from from New York back right.
Nobody else could leave the country. My parents were stuck in New York.
They were on a flight day is roll. They couldn't leave. The
Saudis could leave, and Bush made sure of that, right, his pals,
the Saudis. And it's just it's just, you know, I can't
remember enough of all the kind of stuff that happened around nine to eleven.
It's just unbelievable how bad it was. I gave a lot of talks back
then. You can find them all online, you know, one year later.
I gave it one year later after nine eleven were I summarized everything that
happened over that year and how absurd and ridiculous it had been. And then
two years later I think, and you know, and remind people how bad
it was. But it was. It was awful. And again, just
like with Trump, a lot of people got caught up with Bush and a
lot of people supported him, and a lot of people thought what he was
doing was phenomenal, tough and appropriate, and they condemned many of us for
being so hostile to Bush in the middle of a war. I think that
there were claims borderline that you know, we were being treason this borderline by
supporting the enemy, right, by supporting by being critical of Bush. But
it was it was the long term consequences. I think we're already obvious back
then, and you have you have to speak out the truth. You just
can't let it just all right. Yeah, So if you want to get
a full menu of his lives or the deceptions or the bad stuff that happened
after an eleven. Check out my talk one year later, which is online,
I think in video. I think it's on on YouTube. It's one
of those that we recorded. Okay, last super chat before I go to
you guys, and then there's a bunch more super chat here from Upton.
Leadership may seem lonely, intellectual leadership even more so, but every supporter of
your show is in a sense an intellectual leader in their own right. Tea
Party be damned. By building this community out of nothing, you've proven there
is a real hope for a real future revolution. Thank you, Upton,
appreciate that. Uh. Yeah, and it is. I mean, at
the end of the day, it is going to be from the ground up.
It is going to be young people and and and uh, you know,
as in getting older. All of us were young once, right,
Uh, and we're attracted today these probably these ideas probably not youth and and
and we're still here, and the movement will only grow, and I'm convinced
that it will grow. Uh and uh it is you know, we we
are all of us lights in in this dark place in the abyss. And
it's but it's going to depend on all of us because everybody's gonna have to
do their part. Everybody's gonna have to live it, which is the most
important thing you can do, and then talk it, you know, live
it and talk it that. That's that that is you know, promoted in
one way or the other. That's how we change the world. And it's
it's a slow process, but it'll grow, it will accelerate as we grow
bigger, you know, as each one of us has more impact. So
thank you, Upton, really appreciate it, all right, yes, hey
eron, Hey, First, I look forward to defeating you in this year's
poker tournament. No way, ain't happening. It's not happening. And I
mean the Celtics gonna win the championship and I'm gonna win the poker tinament.
And and second, so recently numbers came out about Donald Trump's Truth Social Company.
I think it was eight hundred thousand dollars in revenue and three hundred million
dollars in expenses. Yes, and it's still worth over a billion dollars.
As a former finance professor, I wonder if you could comment on that and
the efficient market hypothesis and if this is this has destroyed your possible belief in
that idea. Yeah, I mean it's it's the last was it? Three
years and a half years have been devastating for the for the efficient market hypothesis.
I mean, it really is depressing. But if you think about it
really started and and this is true of truth Network, it really started with
the meme stocks in January of twenty twenty one, and these kids in the
parents' basements, you know, started trading these stocks there, you know,
and they were pretty sophisticated how they did it, because they used options,
so they had a multiply effect on the price. And these stocks went like
this. And these stocks are worthless, literally, I mean, they're not
worth anything. A game stop, right, this is a brick and mortar
selling and renting video game, you know, computer games when in a world
of cloud computing, right, it's not worth anything. And it went like
this, and there's and and you know, shorting stocks is very difficult.
It's very expensive to push a stock downwards. It's very difficult, and you
can get killed doing it. I think I've told my personal anecdote of losing
a million dollars in or two hundred and all the investment that takes skill not
anybody can do that. But that's what happens when you show the stock and
then it goes up by one thousand percent, you know, you lose a
lot of money. You know it's somebody else's money, but which is even
worse than when it's your own money. But that literally happened to me.
So it's very difficult to show it. And and when you get these crazes,
and and when you've driven and there's a whole question here, and I
haven't done the research to figure this out, but I wonder if this idea
of zero cost trading, where the transaction cost is literally zero, I don't
think that would evolve in a marketplace. The government is doing something through the
regulatory process to make us all day traders, or to at least make that
possible in a rational society, I don't think we would be day traders,
not only because we were rational, that would be a beginning, but because
you know, I don't think the kind of trading that's done on robinhood would
exist. I just and one of the things I know that's happened, for
example, is if you list on the NASDAK, if you take a company
public and you list on the Nasdaq. In the old days, you trade
it on the Nasdaq, and there was certain costs associated with trading on the
Nasdaq, and they weren't very expensive, but there were costs. It wasn't
zero. But what they did, and I don't know exactly when they did
this, but they went to this national something national exchange system wall. If
you list on the Nasdaq, every other exchange in the country is required to
facilitate a trade in that stock. So even though it's a Nasdaq stock,
you can trade it on any exchange in the country. And now you've got
this crazy competitive pressures a to arbitrage the different exchanges, which is what high
frequency trade is all about, and you lower the margins of the trade.
Zero was as low as possible. Anyway, there's something going on there that's
just as wrong and unhealthy. It wouldn't happen in free market. But I
don't know if you've noticed, game Stop is up again. Last week it
was up and then it crashed and it went up again. And and this
guy shows up on one guy talk about tribalism. He shows up on Twitter,
you know, on what does he do? What's that? Yeah,
kitty, what does he show up? One of these streams, right,
and he read it, read it right. He shows up and and and
he doesn't say anything. He just shows up there and maybe there's a screenshot
of something that suggests that he owns one hundred million dollars of Game Stop,
you know who knows, and and the stock just goes like that, and
it's insanity. It's in the same thing about Donald Trump's company. It's a
tribal thing. Everybody does it because it's Donald Trump, and it's worthless.
Literally, it's it's the value of Truth Network is zero, right, He's
the only person on Truth Network. It hasn't been monetized, you know.
But so stay away from meme stocks. I still think stay away from there
a lot of other stocks that I mean, but the market has been I'd
say since COVID, the market has been weird, even in the stocks that
I traded in. I mean, we've shut down our hedge fund because the
world became too weird. And I think a lot of people are looking at
the markets are saying I don't understand this. I'm getting out, I'm leaving,
And I think it's some of it is the meme stock. Some of
it is people just going after short sellers because it's for the kicks of it.
And there was a little bit of this in ninety nine, Right nineteen
ninety nine, you saw a little bit of this around the dot com bubble,
but nothing like like the selectivity that you see today. There was a
bubble kind of broadly speaking, and it had certain characters this is insane.
And there it was driven by Yahoo message boards. You remember those Yahoo message
boards, and you'd go on and you'd spat a room about a stock and
people would respond. But then it crashed and that kind of insanity went away,
and now it's back in this weird form. So markets can be inefficient
for a while, but most of that, most of that disappears when all
the people driving it lose their lose everything they own, thanks, which I
hope happens to Kitty. I hope he loses everything he owns. Yeah.
I had a different question when I got in line, but in response to
a previous question, or after I got in line, you made me think
of a separate question. So you said, we need an objectivism, someone
to break into the millions, be the next Ben Shap Bureau of Objectivism.
I don't know if I'm going to be that person, although I would love
to be. But anyways, as an egoist who is pursuing his own self
interest, I was wondering if I could ask permission to say what my YouTube
channel is so I can go okay, So I am Dan Norton one on
YouTube. All one word NRTN is my last name, and just a little
about me. I have a PhD in philosophy. I spent about nine years
in the Objectivist Academic Center, which was the predecessor of the Iron Ran University,
but I decided not to go into academia instead take the Alex Epstein wrote,
which was very inspiring to me, and just go directly to the people.
So I created a YouTube channel and I'm trying to grow that. Currently
have six hundred and sixty five subscribers, not quite Uron's thirty seven point five
thousand, but I'd love to get there at least be a larger voice.
So if you want to check it out, i'd be grateful. Now,
the question I had when I got in line is about your YouTube channel.
I'm very liberal about blocking people on YouTube, like trolls and chats. I
know you're very conservative about doing that, and I guess some people in your
audience. I'm not observative about anything. Okay, well about blocking, you're
you're not you're not very uh liberal liberal about blocking. So I just but
I know in the show a few weeks ago you said that you you were
considering three people in the last two weeks or whatever. Yeah, okay,
yeah, I was just wondering if your philosophy about blocking has evolved or changed.
It's changed a little bit. I'm still fairly you know, uh letting
people if we fall basically, partially because I want to see what's going on.
So I want to see the opposition. I want to see what they
have to say it. It inspires me to see how stupid they are in
some cases, right, not all, but and postially because I like to
fight. There's something in me that likes, you know, the back and
forth. But then there were it did reach a point where they were so
obstructive it just became it just started dominating, and a couple of them went
expressed anti semitic. If you start with anti semitism or racism, any form
of racism, you're out. There's sudden primitive ideologies. I just won't tolerate.
So anti semitism, that the racism I won't tolerate. So that that
you're out. So you know, some of them are still around, Like
Scott is still there partially because he's not that disruptive. It's easy to ignore
him. He hasn't been antisemitic or racist. He's just obnoxious and not that
smart. And it's fine. So so if it becomes disruptive, a block.
But otherwise you can say what you want to say again, with exception
of certain crazy ideas that are that I won't tolerate. Okay, thanks for
all your work. Thank you, Dan Norton one on YouTube. All right,
hey Ron, Hey, so you talked again, talked about the next
generation of objectivist intellectual to get a million followers and be a catalyst for change.
Does the state of polarized politics suggest that the strategy for the objectivist movement
should move more away from politics and where people are quick to dismiss and reinforce,
a refocus on building and focusing on how people can live a flourishing life,
which had which is an ideal that has more broad appeal from a marketing
perspective. I know there are a number of rational YouTube personalities that have become
very popular recently for doing just that. Chris Williamson of Modern Wisdom two million
followers, Stephen Bartlett Diary of a CEO six point four million followers, and
of course Likes Friedman fifteen point four million followers. And they're they're not that
much different than us, but they are. Yeah, I think they're more
different than you think. And so and if they are not that different from
us, then they'll help with the revolution, right, So they're gonna they're
gonna convert people to our side. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think
we should be doing everything. I mean, that's the reality. Some people
are better at that, at the self help kind of stuff, and some
people are better at the politics, and some people are better at uh at
epistemology, and we need it all. I don't. I don't think we
can be picky and choosey because you and then part of it is you never
know what I'll break through, you never know what to actually be work.
But here's the thing. We are self We are self help in a really
deep way which nobody else is. And and really the way is egoism.
The really deep way is being selfish. And that's what none of these people
will do. And they have guests on their shows that are very very not
you know. I mean, I love Lex you know, I really like
him, but he has this agnosticism about moral judgment is it's not us and
no objectives could ever do that, right. You just can't not be judgmental.
You've got to judge. And I think some of the others are the
same way. Now. You know, one of my reasons for optimism is
there are better people online. I mean, as I think you know,
if you follow my show, I like people like Peter A. Tilla.
The focus on health, the focus on thinking about health in a kind of
productive way that takes the initiative. It's not just whatever happens happens, kind
of the attitude generally the health. It's no, that's certain things I can
do to increase my odds, increase increase the possible me living longer, in
a better life, and so on. And then more and more people like
that, and and that's all good. And I think that's that's healthy.
And you know, and somebody like Gina Golan or somebody, uh, somebody
else who has maybe a background in some psychology take that to a self help
from an objective's perspective would be fantastic. And Gina's doing a great job.
So she's having an impact out there in the world, particularly among founders of
tech companies, which is huge, right because they're the leaders of tomorrow.
Uh And but but we need it would be great to have a public voice
on that as well. The reality is when I do it, it I
you know, it just it resonates with some of you, guys, not
all of you. It just doesn't get that many views. It's just not
that people don't find that that interesting and partially understand who the hell am I?
I mean, partially it's that they to do really good self help,
you've got to have some orientation to what psychology and I just I don't I
think a good good I think I could give good advice and and and motivational,
but it's not going to break out beyond objectives. I'm too judgmental.
I'm not too judgmental. I'm appropriately judgmental, but I'm very judgmental. And
uh, you know, I I say it like it is and and maybe
that's not exactly the right style that works, but that's who I am.
So I can't change that. Uh. But but somebody will break out.
Somebody will do it. Thank you. Right. Uh, let's see,
I'm trying to evaluate. Uh, all right, let me take a few
questions here and then and then we'll go to you guys. All right,
Lucindia says, thoughts on Walter Kaufman. I recall you mentioned the first volume
of Discovering the Mind is a positive in a positive light. I don't remember
that. I don't remember Walter Kaufman. Sorry, Lit India, let me
yep, my memory's going. Let me I'll look back and see what the
book you're referring to is and where they have any thoughts. Okay, Roberts
says, if, as previously, you were giving a talk on why to
still be optimistic, what would you say? The negatives are worse? But
are the positives? Tech advancement, objectivism in university is still there. Yeah,
all the positives are there. It's just that the negatives are worse than
I thought they were, and they're more impactful. That is, if America
becomes a dictatorship, the tech advancements and are going to advance that fast,
and our voices in universities might be silenced and all of that just accelerate.
So it becomes more and more difficult. Let's see Trevor Taylor says hyphrom.
I assume Taylor's here somewhere, Hi Taylor, Robert, Okay, that's quite
funny. I asked that question before I knew you intended to give a talk
answering. Just have have a great oak on you on and all of you
who are attending, jealous but not envious. I thought you were coming.
Robert wasn't Robin Acia didn't he say was coming. I thought he said he
was coming. Liam. If RFK Junior wins any state America would have a
third party and that the Dems and GOP would need on their side to pass
bills, would this be a good outcome. Not? If it's Rfk's party,
off is really bad, really really really bad. Again. You might
hear him say some good things here and there, but he's a wacko environmentalist.
He's a wacko you know, anti science. His VP candidate, he's
more nuts than he is. You'll all be eating again of grass if she
becomes vice president. I mean, these people are truly nuts. And he,
you know, a parasite ate his brain, he told us. I
mean, I guess after Biden that's okay to have a president who's had a
parasite eat their brain. But RFK says some parasite ate his brain. I
think that makes you ineligible, not having a brain the parasite. Maybe we
should elect the parasite, Adam. Who are the victims in Trump's hush money
trial and Hunter Biden's gun violation trial. Was there an objective crime committed in
either instances? Probably not? Probably not in either instance the real victim?
I mean, who are the victims? Well, I mean yeah, I
mean there's no violation of individual rights here. There's just you know, here
are two scumbags who you know, in the in the justice system we have,
you know, we're all prosecuted regularly on crimes that have no victim.
I mean, that's the regulatory state. That's the state in which we live.
So I don't feel sorry for them anymore than I feel sorry for you
guys having to deal with regulations and all the non objective stuff. More than
I feel sorry for them, because there's comebacks and they did bad things.
So yes, they didn't buy anybody's rights. They shouldn't have been taken a
court, and they shouldn't land up in jail. I don't think Trump will,
and I doubt Biden will, but I can't feel sorry for them.
And plus, you know they've probably committed lots of other crimes. We know
that, right. I mean, Biden's been living off of his dad's reputation.
We know that, right. That's not and that's run in question.
So by the way, Trump's kids, particularly what's his name, Jared Jared,
who got what three billion dollars from the Saudis with no expertise and no
track record in private equity, and they wrote him a check for three billion
dollars. As somebody who's done fundraising in finance getting a three billion dollar check
is fringing hard. And something was going on there. We know what exactly
went on there. But yes, I mean politics and politicians and everybody around
them today are corrupt. There's just there's just no honesty in politics almost at
all. But should they go to jail. No, But I'm not going
to go out of my way to feel sorry for those guys, for Trump
and Biden, all right? Nate, you on why does it seem like
law enforcement does not care about protecting intellectual property privacy? Any book, show,
movies, sporting event et cetera is easily available for free illegally on the
Internet. I think part of it is just the difficulty of policing that it's
really really really hard and uh, you know, who do you go after?
Who? Who is who is the violator? Particularly with peer to peer
you know, and and and it's very difficult to track the options. What
was that music service in the old days before Apple Music, Napster? Uh,
And yeah, I mean it's very very they try to go after them,
and it wasn't clear who do we you know, who is there?
So it's just difficult. And I don't know how big of an issue this
is. It seems like the the you know, the services like Netflix are
making good money, so a lot of us are using the rights respecting means
by which this, but I'm sure there's stuff going on. I also think
that, yeah, there's there's a certain disrespect for private, for intellectual poppy
rights out there in the world. And the police generally don't do anything it's
too hard, if it's difficult, they just skip it and they go do
stuff that's easy, like easy, so they go, you know, and
they're awarded for drugs and they probably get site kicks for drugs. And you
know, the the nasty thing about the drug war is that it corrupts policing.
It corrupts the police. You know, you're gonna go after victimless crime,
and somebody's going to offer you a few thousand dollars not to go after
the victim of crime. You know, it's just too easy to say,
I'll take the money and just not go after victimless crime. Well, I
mean, but soon we're going to be executing them in swift trials. Cook
but but but but but at least Trump is not left true, Peter,
how can the US change its policy of paying off countries for peace? Islam
is acceptable to break treaties and is a tactic of wolfare a wolfere to by
time, treaties signed by Islamic countries will be broken. Treaties would sign with
any bad guy is going to be broken. Like crooks break treaties. It's
one of the things that makes them crooks. Like one of the reasons you
don't deal in business with crooks is because no matter what contract you sign with
them, they'll break it. It's meaningless, So you don't deal with them.
Finished So I mean, sign a contract not with with with you don't
sign contract with Muslims, but yes with Nazis or Communists well, of course.
So this is a problem with principle, the problem with people not having
principle. You've got to have a principle about You don't negotiate with evil.
You don't suck up to the dictator of North Korea, you don't have a
love affair with the dictator of North Korea. You don't negotiate with Hamas about
hostages, about anybody else. You don't negotiate with Nazis, you don't negotiate
with Communists. You just don't deal with them, period. Don't say treaties,
you don't talk to them. You ignore them. And that's the best
farm policy you can have is to ignore the bad guys. They will go
away by themselves unless they attack you, and then you have to destroy them.
But short of the I just ignore them. You know, you don't
have to have you have to have diplomacy with China, just ignore them,
being your ambassador home, just leave them alone, let them rot. Let's
see merryman's shout out, Oh god, this there's this romance that's going on
on my on my chat. Shout out to philosophy work. The philosophy at
work. Capitalism should be less affair. But what about lomore I can't do
French. Thank you, Haavvins. I appreciate the support equal to reality.
What are your opinions of the UK Reform Party. I don't know that much
about the UK Reform Party. You know, it's it's what's his name Farage,
a mixture of good stuff and bad stuff, and you know, again
obsession with immigration rather than you know, it would be good if somebody was
obsessed with this immolation. That would be cool. Let's assimilate all these immigrants,
and nobody even talks about that. So I don't know much about their
phone party. You have to have to look into them because they could win
big in the UK elections soon. All right, quickly, we're going to
do these, but make the questions short. Sure, hey eron so hey.
Having referenced psychology recently on a debate with David Pacman, you mentioned there's
a psychological difference when an individual accepts state welfare and charity, I was hoping
you can kind of explain that difference. So yes, I mean I think
that when an individual accepts welfare psychologically he's basically admitting to himself and the state
is basically telling him that he cannot take care of himself. And welfare typically
doesn't come with conditions. It's unconditional and it applies to everybody, right,
So you know, charity wouldn't apply to everybody like I like to say,
the wife beating drunk doesn't get charity, right, because the charity organization would
say, you want to get charity, you have to stop beating your wife,
right. You have to get off alcohol, you have to you have
to shape up, otherwise you're not getting charity. But the welfare state doesn't
do that. The wealth state just gives it to them. So it's unconditional,
and it basically creates a psychological mentality of dependence and of acceptance of your
own failure, of your own mediocrity, of your own inability to take care
of yourself, and that's destructive to self esteem. And the stage just keeps
promoting it because it keeps giving you the money no matter what you do.
And you so you become the wife being drunk and you still get their money.
So what you know, what's the incentive, what's the motivation? Whereas
again, charity is I think almost my definition temporary. It comes with strings
expectations. So yes, we all fall, you know, have bad luck.
Best stuff happens not of your fault, or even if it is your
fault, but you can turn your life around or whatever. So charity is
valuable, but it's a conditionality of it. I think that is important.
Thank you. A couple of things you're on. Simon Bolivar was around twenty
when he took on the mantle to get rid of the Spanish out of South
America. And in New Zealand we had a thirty nine year old prime minister
who completely destroyed our country during COVID. And so I just want a word
of caution. It might be youthful, but please check out the premises.
Oh no, look you know the youth. Look at who's demonstrated commas.
I mean the point is the revolution is always revolutions of youth. Mostly they're
bad revolutions. Youth usually adopts, adopt really bad ideas. But you know,
mine ran, so there's no excuse now for young people. But I
remember she said that you have to have an educated population before get into politics
and make a difference positively. And I think Thomas Jefferson said the same thing.
So do you think there's a sufficient base to get into politics and actually
make a difference. No, No, I think it's too early for politics.
I've said it for a long long time. It's too early for politics.
You couldn't win. The only way to win is to compromise. I
mean again, maybe in a circumstance like Melay where the country's already bankrupt and
everything's going to hell, and you can make a difference. But Milai was
a character, right, I mean, I don't know if you've seen what
he used to do in television and how he behaved on television, I don't
know if an objectivist to could pull that off. I mean you really,
he acted like a madman and a crazy man, and that's part of his
appeal. Bekellyan's El salvat All is another one. He's quite young, yeah,
but it is a really mixed case. He is a really dangerous It
is interesting though. Bouquela is interesting. But again, you know, he
came to power and succeeded as a consequence of L Salvador being a complete and
utter basket case. The highest murder rate in the world was in Salsavada,
when he took over, and now it's safer than you know, a lot
of American cities. But to get there, he took drastic action, you
know, not action consistent with individual rights. Put it that way. But
maybe that's what you have to do when things are that bad. But that's
why who wants to go into politics if what you want, If what you're
going to land up doing is incarcerating tens of thousands of people, that's not
fun and high. So I would like your opinion on one thing. I
think I have a lot more optimism about the sort of right turn in Europe
than probably most people over here, because I've had a lot of conversations around
and I think, for example, Niger Farage he is, as you said,
a mixed back of good and bad. It is like he's this bundle
of anti immigration nationalist sentiment. But also he's much more pro free market than
literally anyone else in the UK. So it's like I'm seeing this as more
of an opportunity when people kind of vote for people like Farage. And as
long as you know foreign policy, as long as national security is not compromised,
you have a lot more time to basically fill people in for a free
market policy that they already agreed to, Like they would be more much more
accepting of this, and now you can teach them the principles and they will
actually listen to you. Because this is basically the reverse of what Trump did.
Because I was like during twenty sixteen two twenty, I was very pro
Trump because you know, he was hawkish on China, he had like anti
Dei, and then you know, he bundled these good things with all of
his bad things. So like, do you think the reverse can be done
in Europe? I don't know if it's a reverse. Look, the Europeans
generally am moll intellectual and Americans for good and bad, right, so it
goes both ways, you know, I forage. The problem is that,
yes, he's he's got some good free market ideas, but here's the challenge
that that's not why he's going to win. Yes, it's not why anybody
likes him. Nobody gives one iota about his free market ideas. The reason
he will win is because of his nationalism and anti immigration. And if that's
the reason he wins, then that's going to be the focus of what he
does, and it's going to be the focus of the other people in his
political party who are going to win. And my guess is that the free
market part of it is going to disappear and dissipate and fade into this and
the same thing, the same thing you'll see with Lapan and good Wilda's and
all these guys. None of them have won because they might have some good
ideas about freema. I mean, that's a difference between me lay and them.
Malay one because of free markets, that's it. He won because of
free markets. That Argentinians were like, we'll try anything, even free markets,
right, And the Europeans are like, we really like all these people
because of their nationalism, because of their xenophobia, because of the anti immigration,
because of all these horrible things. Oh yeah, okay, we'll tolerate
their free market stuff. That's why they're winning and therefore that's what will be
emphasized and that's what will drive forward. And that's what worries me about the
turn to the right. And look, look, if you look. I
looked at the AfD right the German I looked at their platform. There's a
lot of good stuff in their platform, but this is a neo Nazi adjacent
group, right, But if you looked at the Nazi platform, there will
probably a few good things about the economy. I don't know in terms of
what they said. So you have to look at the package, and the
package is not good. The package is way too it's even in its you
could make it all. We need to emphasize I don't know Western civilization,
but you need to know what that is and you need to be able to
articulate that. And I don't see anybody there who can do it. Now.
Europe is fragmented. You've got a lot of political parties, and they
might be some good ones. I mean, the reality is the center,
the centrist government in Poland, which is kind of the left, and the
Polish political spectrum it's quite good, you know, all things considered right and
better than the right wing Polish guys. So in different parts of Europe it's
different things are happening. And they are definitely right wing political parties in Europe
that are pretty good, but you know, the people on the right in
Poland. I was at a conference with some of the members of the European
Parliament from Poland, and I gave a talk and they were furious. They
were so angry because I talked about individual rights, and they were adamant that
there's no such thing. There's just no such thing as individual rights. It's
nonsense, unstilts. We make it up and the complete collectivists. Okay,
I too much, hope, thank you? All right, I've got one
last question quickly from Cinda. I heard companies have deals with Internet providers to
punish people who what stuff on piracy sites. I think you get like a
warning email from your provider that they'll cut you off the internet off they detect
piating stuff. I think that's right. How effective that is? I don't
know. Jim is saying no, okay, so it doesn't work. What's
that? Oh? VPN? That's right. You can get around it with
VPN. I use VPN sometimes, but yeah, oh and you can if
you actually go to ExpressVPN and you say expressrepn dot com, slash your on.
I get a little bit of money and you get three months extra free
of Express VPN. All right, guys, have a great confidence