One two three. All right, everybody. We're gonna start today with out music. I apologize something there is not working But wait, that's not working either. So All right, we'll have to it's gonna be an empty file All right Once that let me just Fix some issues and then we'll get right to it. Sorry everybody for the delay Thanks for joining me. It's the run book show today is Monday, November 7th and Tomorrow's election day, I hope everybody's excited about election day. I see We've got a few we got one question about election, which I will get to in a second I just want to delete a file here so that there's no Confusion, let's see. Yep. There we go Delete that will delete it. All right, cool. Let me do one other thing All right, we will go there There and then we're going to copy-paste something You guys all with me still hopefully everybody's there. We're gonna copy and we're gonna press start We're gonna press live. We're gonna copy the title. We're gonna take it live and now All right now we got the music Much better with the music All right, everybody welcome to your own book show on this Monday night Everybody's having a great week so far early music early week See it gets me into the vibe of add the music without the music. I'm not not completely there. So all right, everybody So tomorrow's election. Hopefully everybody is Voting where it's relevant to vote and where there is a choice where there is somebody to vote for So I hope all of you are excited about voting. Now. Why is this? Oh Now we've got voice. Okay Now this thing is working. Sorry everybody. So yes tomorrow's election day. Hopefully everybody's voting with his with his relevance to vote and Yeah What a mess so somebody asked do I think the polling the polls are gonna get a right this time? I don't know. I mean, I don't think I don't think I have any particular Insight into the polls, but the thing about the polls you have to remember and this is kind of important the thing about the polls to remember is that I Mean the polls are often Right, if you understand that the polls give you a margin of error That is the polls are not trying to predict the exact outcome. It's a probabilistic It's a probabilistic issue And within the margin of error most of the polling is right now. It's been Biased against Republicans mostly because of the way people answer questions or because of the way Voters are being selected or because of the shift to cell phones who knows lots of explanations out for what it is But at the end of the day most of polls do pretty well within the margin of error. I Follow was it five sixty eight fifty six seventy seventy seven? I don't know Silver's website and You know, basically, I agree with what their predictions are I would say the highest probability outcome right now the highest probability outcome right now is That Republicans take the Senate that they probably pick up two Senate seats 52 to 48 it could be 51 to 49 but one of those two outcomes. I think dominate I think those are the most likely outcomes 538. Thank you Ian 530 it's I think Republicans get Somewhere between 51 to 50 well not between either 51 to 52 Senate's and I think they pick up. I don't know they probably get around 230 house votes They pick up a significant number of house votes not a Massive 60, you know Additional red wave type thing, but they do very well in the house now I don't know if any of that will actually pan out It could very well be that Republicans do a lot better than that they could Pick up for Senate seats. I think it's unlikely, but it's possible that they go 54 46 they could pick up 50 house seats I think all of that is possible, but I think the light most likely right now This is me making predictions. I don't know why but I guess you're supposed to do that's like before the Super Bowl I don't know who's gonna win, but what the hell let's make a prediction anyway, so That's my prediction right now Republicans take the Senate take the house not my preferred outcome But but it is it is my prediction my preferred outcome is Senate stays the same In the house and the Republicans take the house That's my preferred outcome, but I don't think I'm gonna achieve my preferred outcome this cycle I just think there's too much anti Biden On economics, and I think there's way there's a huge wave of anti Democrats on crime which of course is justified, but you know crime rates are high crime rates are the highest they've been in a long time and Who are you gonna blame if not the people who argued over and over and over again that? Over and over again that Anyway So we made a prediction you guys are call me on tomorrow I guess on Wednesday tomorrow we'll find out we'll find out what the what the actual outcome You know by tomorrow late night We all know the final results probably till the end of the week Particularly in the house on the house seats take a while to clarify, but they might be some very close election There might be some very close Elections in the Senate as well that might take longer. They might be some people challenging elections. They might be some recounts There's gonna be a lot of noise There's gonna be a lot of chatter and we probably won't know the final numbers We probably won't know the final final results from this election Until late in the week, but we'll have a good clue in terms of the size of the movement Yes, what it was I was saying earlier Jesus I can't believe I I faded on that is who are you gonna blame for the crime? If not the people who chanted over and over and again defund the police You know, there's a number really interesting attorney general races for example in in you know where with a with with a Minnesota is attorney general the guy who prosecuted Chauvin who actually prosecuted him and and got him a Got him convicted.  I don't know enough about him possibly justly He's going to lose so I think you're gonna see a lot of attorney generals in places with crime going up Losing big time. You're gonna see in New York the governor's race looks like it's gonna be a lot closer than you'd expect New York is Democratic you'd expect the governor's race to be overwhelmingly democratic. It has been in the last few cycles That race is gonna be a lot closer than That race was gonna be is gonna be a lot closer than the past races because of the crime issue because New York has been and is soft on crime and whether you blame the governor whether you're playing the the legislature whether you blame the city of New York the reality is crime is up and The incumbents are going to suffer as a consequence. So I think the issue of crime and the issue of the economy I'm gonna doom the Democrats the issue of crime justifiably on the issue of the economy Somewhat justifiably but not completely because ultimately The economic policies have not been that different and inflation would have happened anyway But but a lot of the regulation and a lot of the energy Policies that are causing energy prices and all prices to go up. They are squarely on the Democrats And the Democrats are gonna suffer the consequences for them. All right We'll talk about that later in the show when I talk about staying positive Because no matter what the outcome tomorrow is going to be I want you guys to stay positive So I'm gonna talk about why I think No matter what happens tomorrow or almost no matter what happens tomorrow It's not gonna be a tragedy even though I've spoken a lot about the bad stuff And it's not gonna be disaster.  We still got time. All right, so I see a ton of like a ton of Super chat questions, but all at the five dollar level two dollars five dollars ten dollar come on guys We're not gonna make six hundred and fifty going at that level. So um You guys uh You know how to support to show you can use the super chat, you know that that's how you can ask questions You can ask questions about anything Um, really anything so I know a lot of the a lot of the hecklers on on the chat You know like to heckle and like to talk shit on the chat, but um They never asked the tough questions. They've got questions. They never asked them They never confront me in the super chat with a tough question with a two bucks They they're too cheap even to use two bucks to come after me Uh in uh in a context in which I've said I will answer So, uh, you know, maybe that'll change today. Maybe we'll get some of them uh out there. Um We'll see we'll see, uh, we'll see what happens, but uh, yes, I see people already chatting and confronting and debating and On the chat, but Super chat super chats where the action is super chat where you get my attention And super chat is where you get an actual answer instead of just talking behind my back come on To the forward. All right. Well, let's start with twitter um so, uh Did you run lose subscribers? No, I haven't lost subscribers. I gained subscribers We made 34 000 for the first time with 34 000 subscribers. Uh, we crossed that threshold Yesterday, so no 5 drop, uh, jurad Um, we we're gaining subscribers at a very very slow rate, but we are gaining subscribers It would be great if the rate accelerated. Um, but for now Gaining subscribers slowly all right Twitter, I don't know how many of you on twitter. I'm on twitter. I'm on twitter a lot I spend a lot of time on twitter It's part of how I keep track of the news and what's going on in the world Um, and of course, we all know uh, Elon musk has bought twitter. It's now week two Or we're going into the third week of uh, is it the third week of the second week? Anyway, um Elon musk owns twitter and he's in charge and he's the boss and he dictates policies And as I told you from the beginning when this first came up a long time ago Two things are going to happen one. It's going to be fun to watch and it is absolutely Fun to watch and second It's going to be more challenging than he thinks on multiple funds Both on the content moderation, which is not easy not simple not straightforward as he's discovering and second On the financial fund Twitter Does not make money Indeed twitter bleeds money. It's at some profitable periods, but it's not significantly profitable and right now it's bleeding uh, uh, and and uh, you know, it is never Figured out twitter never figured out How to really make money on the platform advertising Is minuscule as compared to things like facebook google other, uh, you know big tech companies so, um Facebook so twitter is is is right now losing money That was bad enough in the old structure when there was a public company and uh, it had little debt But now it's a private company owned by elon musk And maybe a few other investors and it has 13 billion dollars in debt It's uh, just it's it's interest payments on the debt You know interest plus principle that has to pay on the debt annually is going to be about a billion dollars It has to make that money It of course also has to make money beyond that At least enough money to keep the office open So elon musk is challenged with Getting the company profitable Now one of his first moves was you know that blue checker that little checkmark that people get To authenticate themselves Twitter would never give me that I tried a number of times to get that blue checkmark For whatever reason they they refused to authenticate that I am who I claim I am I don't know why it was so difficult but, um He is not charging people for the blue checkmark. Maybe now if I pay the eight bucks a month I will get a little checkmark next to my name I don't know what advantage that gives me but maybe people will believe that the elon musk Um, Twitter account is actually elon musk. So not some other fake. I don't know. Anyway, maybe it helps in the algorithm I don't know. I'll try it's worth eight bucks a month. I'll try it and see if it makes any difference But anyway, uh, he's charging eight bucks a month for people to do that, right? and It's um eight bucks a month It'll be interesting to see How many people pay that but even if everybody pays it and even if he adds some people that's not going to solve his problem So his problem now Is marketing his problem is advertising Now, you know elon musk is a genius. Uh, you know, he's obviously done an amazing job with rockets A somewhat amazing job. I'm I'm not as excited about the job. He did at tesla, but it's somewhat You know amazing job at tesla though Again, I hate the the extent to which you got government subsidies is quite stunning if you actually look at the numbers um, but okay The guys are phenomenal engineer and manager, but The real question is Do all those skills translate into a business like twitter, which is very different This is a software business not a hardware business This is a business that has a lot to do with Gaining revenue you you know both all of Elon musk's other businesses with exception of PayPal all of his other businesses relied on revenue from the government You know tesla could have never succeeded without uh subsidies and and primarily A carbon credits massive hundreds of billions of dollars of carbon credits Uh, and of course spacex could not exist without contracts From nasa and from the federal government. So Elon musk is very good at generating revenue from the government. Is he good at generating revenue From advertising agencies. Is he good at getting people to Engage on a platform um That is about ideas or about connecting about communication Very different than spaceships and automobiles even very different Than um finance and and uh and payment systems So I I'm not saying you'll fail. I'm saying it's not going to be easy It's a real challenge And the blue checkmark eight bucks a month ain't gonna do it that that doesn't pay Uh the interest on a year's worth of that I don't think pays the interest on one month worth of the of interest on the debt So He's gonna have to figure out the revenue model He's gonna have to figure out a revenue model Um, and I don't know how he does it without advertising And I don't know how he keeps the advertisers and grows advertising Given his uh, you know without some kind of content moderation And how that fits in with his commitment to having Very minimal content moderation. So we'll see it's going to be really really interesting and and fun again to watch And I you know, I hope he succeeds. I want twitter to be successful. I'm on twitter Uh, I actively engage on twitter. So I I I have every incentive in the world If I alone must to succeed and to grow and to grow the audience and to make it even easier for Content creators like myself or or public intellectuals like myself to use twitter to leverage Our access to the world So twitter's going to be Super interesting to watch on a revenue perspective And a business perspective just from the business dynamics How do you create a business out of the shell that is twitter? The second question is where is of course Oh, and by the way, just go back to the business side of it, which is interesting on friday supposedly half of the staff 3700 something like that People who worked twitter were laid off were fired All kind of legal issues. There's already a lawsuit against uh twitter on the firings But that's stupid california and federal law that restricts the ability of business people to To do what they need to do in order to to run a business So you you have to let people know if you can have a mass firing. You have to give 60 days notice all kinds of Nonsense like that that was meant to protect unions in the days of unions Or really is meant to protect workers now that most workers are not unionized and and again So really really bad laws relating to employment status, but putting all of that aside Um, a lot of people laid off on friday It turns out it it looks like again, it's hard to it's hard to figure out It's hard to figure out exactly what's going on But it looks like some people laid off that then twitter regretted laying them off so over the weekend They were rehiring some people that on friday. They had laid off So, you know confusing times, but again I think the press makes too much of that because when somebody comes in and restructures a business And makes big changes and lays off a lot of people a mistakes are going to get done. It is messy It's it's uh, it's it's not fun for the people involved I hear some people are sleeping at their desk at twitter in order to try to keep their job and and and get all the work done I think that that Musk is sending their way. It's going to be fascinating to watch How uh, the restructuring goes and and most corporate restructuring Nobody pays attention to nobody cares. They happen. Uh, you know somewhere else And and and nobody really pays attention to and and corporate restructuring is a is an art. They're very few managers In um in history that have been good at corporate restructuring. So I remember there was one In the 1980s and 90s. His name was uh Al I can't remember his family name, but he they called him chainsaw Al chainsaw Al because when he came into a business The chainsaw came out and he and he cut cut cut cut cut cut cut cut And he was brilliant at it and he knew exactly what he was doing and he reoriented the company focused them cut out all the waste Uh sold off assets that weren't being Weren't being properly utilized focused everybody's energy around one Goal and one mission and one track Al Dunlap. Thank you. Uh chainsaw Al I met chainsaw Al once At the end of his after his career when he was already retired um and He was he was brilliant at it and then he took over his last company was a company he took over And he decided to go soft And he decided that this time He was gonna heed the criticisms And this time he was gonna be nice And this thing he was gonna quote build for the long term. By the way, he would do this cut cut cut Focus the energy and then sell the company, which is brilliant, right? Brilliant economically valuable Uh, you know Productivity adding in every respect from an economic financial perspective Fantastic. This is this is capitalism You know markets working at their best The final company he he said, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna Invest I'm gonna think long term. I'm gonna run this company long term I'm gonna show them that I'm not just one a one-trick pony that I can't just I'm not just chainsaw Al I can also build companies over the long run complete flop He had to quit the company, you know, almost went bust He had to quit the company kind of in disgrace and that was his final job Which is kind of a tragedy for somebody who had been so productive so successful So value adding so wealth creating throughout his career to to to Leave on such a downer But a lot of times that's what happens When Business people who are very good at something Try to be something that they're not Try to be something that they're not Frank says I know a bunch of labor people and w w ba who would hate you on is saying now. Yeah, they're wrong I will take them up on this anytime. I will match the you know the history and the standards of of What it takes to run businesses and how to make them successful Uh, particularly in a free market not, you know, not in a market where the Fed is manipulating interest rates to zero But in a really dynamic competitive free market you sometimes not always sometimes have to be ruthless And you have to do these restructurings. It's called Creative destruction and it's it's crucial. It's a part of what Business and and markets require what competition requires and ultimately gale is right. It's called justice Because keeping an unproductive job is unjust It's it's a form of subsidy. It's a form of welfare and it's unjust Anyway Part of the issue here is that businessman The fact that you're good at something doesn't mean you're good at everything and and I think chainsaw l learned that and Is musk good at restructuring? He's never really done it before He he didn't have to do it a PayPal. He never did it tesla. I don't think he's really done it at space x We'll say I hope he's good I hope he's successful But the fact that the guy's a genius in one area Does not necessarily make him a genius in every area Business is complicated business is hard Figuring these things out is not easy Okay, second issue. So that's kind of the business issue which I find fascinating and and look forward to watching Second issue Is The content moderation Now supposedly he's forming a committee To make decisions about content moderation He's already decided that that checkmark that people pay eight bucks to get Um Is only going to do after the election because he doesn't want to create any kind of bias that might appear He You know one of his content decisions has been That anybody who changes their name You know, so you know how you can have you know the at The at your own brook, but you can actually put on top of that you can see a you know object You know public intellectual you can put you can put some other Name so people were using were saying a lawn musk You could see it wasn't a lawn musk because the at was some other name But people were putting a lawn musk and making fun of him So he basically banned that practice You can no longer declare yourself to be a lawn musk when you're not a lawn musk Even though it's obvious to the people that you're not a lawn musk. In other words, you can't have any more of these Parity accounts So he has made those uh illegal on and he's actually he's actually thrown out a couple of people At least one person from twitter for having such an account. So he's discovering the hard way That it's not that easy to figure out what should be acceptable and what should not be acceptable It's not that easy to be in a position where everybody's making fun of you and you just let it go So it's going to be really interesting what ultimately they come up with his content moderation Council or board of advisors I also think the other aspect of this I mentioned earlier is what advertisers want What kind of content moderation do the people who are going to buy big chunks of advertising on twitter and if yeah, so you but if you uh, but if you um If you change the content moderation, will you have to go out and find new advertisers? And will you be able to find them? So tacy tacy corrects me. She says you cannot parody accounts, but it has to say it's parody somewhere very Noticable somewhere very obvious Rather than You know, whenever I see something I verify. Is this really alone musko? No, it's not because you can see from the at account that it's not him, but anyway, uh, you know, so It's interesting that he's gonna have to figure out what the boundaries are what a parody account is or isn't You know, what's acceptable. It's not acceptable. What gets advertising in what? scares advertising out All of that right All of that is going to be Uh, not easy and he's discovering that He's discovering that Um, I'm still looking forward to see what happens right I'm still looking forward to seeing what happens and how it works and um Again, I I super hope that he is successful And I super hope that he comes up with some kind of content moderation standards that are objective And straightforward and understandable and we can all follow them. It's a private company They can set their standards for moderation any way they want, but what hasn't happened in any social media hasn't happened in Facebook twitter any of the places is Kind of objective standards that it's easy to read Understand And then know if you're breaking the rules or not That's what's missing. It's objectivity. So I have no problem with whatever moderating standards they come up with as long as they're easily understood um, and they're not misinter you know Interpreted at the whim of some Twitter employee, right objectivity and a way to um, I would want objective rules and then a way to, um challenge them A way to say wait a minute. I didn't violate the rules. Look and in some kind of Process by which there's a hearing in which you can argue against that would be and again an objective process So that would be cool if they did that We'll see what they come up with in the end. I mean they might do what some other platforms do which is just say Okay, if it's legal you can say it But I worry for them about what happens with advertisers No platform has been economically successful doing that We'll see if um, if twitter can be Last comment on twitter and this relates to the election Um, and more comment on elon musk rather than twitter elon musk today tweeted That you should vote republican tomorrow and the reason you should vote republican is That you want divided government so I think he's been listening to your own book show And uh, he's come to the conclusion Or he's adopted the conclusion that uh divided government is best that good luck is superior to anyone political party Holding all levels of power and um What uh, you know, the problem is I don't really believe elon musk I don't believe that um, if a republican was in the in the white house right now He would tell people to vote democratic. I don't think that's in him. I think he shifted to the right I think he shifted towards republicans and I think he is going to advocate for voting republicans from now on Uh in a significant way, we'll see he could change his mind again But um, I think it's disingenuous of him to say vote republican tomorrow Because we want divided government you can say vote republican tomorrow because we want divided government when biden is in the white house But that's not what he said. He said generally we want divided government But uh, so I do think well, you know, I think I think we'll get divided government one way the other will get divided government tomorrow Not because of elon not because of me, but because I think that's where the country is swaying Um, all right Let's see All right, so let's do a couple of super chat question 20 dollar super chat questions and then we'll jump over to uh staying positive um Again, if you want to ask questions the super chat is available And open you can ask anything. It's better than just asking a question or making a comment on the chat um Yeah, I mean As I said the problem with all these platforms is that the rules The the the standards are non objective. The problem is arbitrary. How do you create objective rules? and What are those objective rules? How do you communicate them and how do you create a process? by which you can You can adjudicate them properly. I don't think it's as simple as people think To create those rules. I think it's possible and I hope musk can come up with them But I don't think it's as simple as people think it is I don't think musk's I don't think the the political uh arena shifted under musk I think he shifted to the right. I think he uh Like many others who were of the center and of the left have come under the influence of people like jordan peterson That have shifted them to the right so much of what elon musk says And tweets about a number of different issues sound like coming right out of the mouth of jordan peterson Coming right out of the mouth of certain people on the right Um, that it's not an issue of the political party shifted. He has shifted. He might not want to admit that He might not want to recognize that But he has shifted his views on a lot of issues right word In a not positive not always positive way in a in a mixed way So no, I don't think it's just a democratic party became Um moved away from him. He has moved away both things happened. The democratic party went left and he went right All right, michael sanders asked Did you ever consider moving to hong kong when it wasn't under control of chinese or singapore? Or are these regions not dramatically fear to make crossing the language and cultural barriers worth it? Yeah, I mean, I would say it's not worth it. Um, hong kong for me. I completely understand people who do it But for me, it wasn't worth it um the uh, the The uh, what do you call it? Um, hong kong You know had its challenges. It was a it was an amazing place. It was a never place to visit It's a you'd have to be willing and interested to live in a very very intense Environment a very crowded place a very high energy place Not my lifestyle not what I would have wanted also very hot and humid Uh, or you really all year round, uh, very tropical and and a very very different culture. So Difference wasn't worth it in singapore while is economically significantly freer than Other countries socially. It's not free at all. There's no real free speech in singapore. There's no, uh, Many of the social freedoms don't exist there. There's way too much arbitrary and random power that the government holds now again, I understand why people move there It's a it's an easy place to live. It's comfortable again very hot and humid But not quite as intense and crowded and and high energy like hong kong is. It's a little bit more laid back But because of the economic liberty I understand why people want to live there and it is a beautiful place It but it's it wouldn't be enough for me the economic freedoms particularly given that you're giving up Non-economic liberties by living in singapore, but again, I understand completely people who live there Max if you could completely rewrite one sect of domestic us policy education immigration trade Land us policy, which one would it be and how would you rewrite it? I mean, basically? I think the most important one if I could do only one It would be education But the problem with education is you would have to do it at every state level So I would basically eliminate public education if I could do that if there was one thing I could do I would eliminate all public education because everything else will flow from that. That is the one that is most sustainable That is the one that will have the deepest longest Most substantial impact.  They all would have uh impact, but that one would have Lasting impact that would have impact on generations not just on the economy in in a little bit And it would have implications on everything else if you just stage immigration It wouldn't change education trade land use if you just change Trade it wouldn't change all the others education ultimately leads to everything else changing For the better in deep substantial ways Max says what's your opinion on prediction markets specifically political prediction markets Is there any reason to look at the polls when they seem to be far better at predicting the actual outcomes? Um, I mean I'm in favor of prediction markets. I I think people putting their money where their mouth is Is always good, but It doesn't mean I I don't think they're necessarily better. I I haven't looked at any kind of studies that have compared prediction markets to polls So I don't know If they've been consistently better over time. I mean markets are good, but markets are fallible just like polls are Um, you know the the the bond market did not predict inflation. It's a market It's a prediction market. If you think about interest you think about the bond yields. They are predicting future inflation um, and The uh, the bond market is a prediction market failed when it came to predicting future inflation So markets are not necessarily good predictors, but They were as good as the Gats They were as good as the Gats, um, particularly for layman who's on the sidelines. So, uh, prediction markets polls I don't know. I'm curious what prediction markets are right now Saying in terms of uh, the elections. I also don't know how deep prediction markets are political prediction markets how much Volume there is how how many people participate? um To uh, you know, so how deep how much trading there is Do they have prediction markets and all the little races that add up to the big rate to the total? Or are they just predicting? You know who wins the senate not particular races, but i'm curious. What are the prediction markets saying right now? And how do they compare to the polls my expectation would be that there's very little difference right now between prediction markets and, uh 538 you know and and the aggregation of the polls That that would be my expectation, but if you're on the prediction market, you can go and test that out right now um William anthony says here in australia are two biggest exports are coal and iron Does that country have a future when we create very few complex products? How do we get more countries producing electronics entertainment and medical products? I mean You know the way to do it is basically to improve education So you got to get smart People you got to give them the tools to be able to produce these other things and then you've got to deregulate. You've got to deregulate Uh finance you've got to deregulate the allocation of capital. You've got to deregulate um, you got to get out of the business of Controlling these things you got to get it out of the business of Subsidies my guess is australia subsidizes to some extent natural resources Makes it easy for more and more and more capital to flow in there rather than to flow into other industries so You know if you want You know the best method is free markets The best method is to get government out of the business of business completely out out of the business of finance and to protect property rights And then you see what happens that could be that some countries Focus exclusively on natural resources and that's fine That's a possibility but You know, it's not inevitable that that is the outcome My guess is australia would have a pretty diversified economy if it was liberated if it was free and if it had A a decent a good education system under a free market So, uh, but but look One of the beauties of globalization and i'm a huge fan of globalized trade Is specialization is is the idea that uh different people specialize but different countries specialize in the things that are particularly good at um, and and don't have to be diversified, but I don't think a country like australia should be So exclusively focused on natural resources Um It it should be there should be other things that australia it has a relative advantage in Gail says, uh, I wonder what you think a policy of speech. I think Amy Pupkoff's chief policy officer Has an objective policy on speech within the limits of the law Yeah, I mean, I think they basically allow all speech within the limits of the law. I I don't know um The question is how much money are they making? How many people are participating on the platform? How many advertisers do they get so you can create objective standards that nobody wants That is, you know, this is this is the complexity of it. It's not enough to say I want to maximize the ability of people to say whatever the hell they want on my platform And i'm gonna let them say whatever the hell they want on my platform as long as they don't violate the law They can say whatever they want on my platform, but then nobody comes And nobody wants to use the platform because there's some things they don't want to hear They don't want to be in a in a in a on a platform where people are saying certain things So you've got this constant you've got this constant, um Challenge up on the one hand um Wanting open expression and wanting people to talk although I don't think that's necessary I think you can set whatever rules You want to set right? I it's a it's a private company. I emphasize these are private companies They should be able to set whatever whatever rules they want um But you have to set the rules in a way that attracts Users people who use your platform And you want to set the rules in a way that attracts advertisers So that you can generate revenue or if you have a different revenue model You might you might want to attract journalists to use your platform. You might want to attract Intellectuals to use your platform. I don't know who you want to attract. It depends how you build your social media platform So it's it's not enough just to say you can come and say whatever you want they they has There's a market here. There's supply and demand Supply and demand for a variety of different things and one of the things that supply and demand for is for speech You know, they might not be at demand for the kind of speech that some people want to Want to spout and in that case you can ban that speech from your platform in order to Cultivate the demand the kind of demand that you want so I think that I think it's a good thing that there are multiple platforms That have multiple standards and let the market decide which one is best So far with all twitter's problems twitter is winning No platform comes close to twitter And why because that's the platform most people want to use With all the problems that it have with all the horror that it has and I completely understand it. I mean this they are limits to how much Of a certain points of view I want to be exposed to In a social media platform that I'm engaged on So I completely understand limiting What is set on a particular platform if I was running A platform I would have standards the challenge as I've said many many times Is to make those challenge those standards objective And it's not an issue of free speech It's not an issue of the first amendment unless the government gets involved But as long as it's a private decision then it's a private decision And you get to decide what the standards and your platform are going to be And then the market gets to decide whether they want to use your platform or not It's the beauty of the marketplace All right So I want to say a few things about staying positive Because we're heading into an election You know the outcome might not be the outcome that you Want it might but be the outcome that you desire You know, it's it's easy to become super depressed about these things Let's be clear. I think at the end of the day what What determines the culture and what determines the direction Our ideas what determines The culture is Is Is philosophy is is the philosophy in the culture and that Is not good the state of ideas in our culture the state of philosophy in our culture Is is not good and therefore the culture is Slowly sinking and slowly deteriorating and this election that election Is not going to change that much Politics flows from culture not the other way around Politics can have a small impact on culture But not a dramatic like like I think trump had like I think obama to some extent had But it's not overwhelming like I think george bush had I think all three of those presidents Accelerated the downward trend culturally But the culture was already heading in that direction. They didn't reverse anything. They didn't fundamentally change anything And neither did reagan even though he did some good things The the ideas the culture was still heading in the wrong direction and continued to do so Once the energy and the the momentum behind his ideas faded now so that's So the key is at the end of the day the culture not politics What happens tomorrow is going to have an impact, but it's not going to have a earth Shattering impact no matter who wins and who loses It's going to have an impact at the margins It's going to have an impact on the way elections evolve in the next few years It's going to have an impact as I talked yesterday about the potential political violence For constitutional crises for the courts having to get involved for a lot of different things for our economy Certainly for economy if democrats win big tomorrow or win at all tomorrow Then you can expect much more economic problems down the road It's going to have an impact on many Concrets that happen in a culture, but the direction of the culture Is being determined by the fundamental ideas that are reflected in the way people vote, but are much more fundamental than that So first Don't take it that seriously the battle is not fought at the political ballot box The battle is fought In the culture the battle is fought on the field of ideas The battle is fundamentally ideological And that's where we need to focus our efforts We need to focus our efforts on Changing the culture we need to focus our efforts are changing the way think people think About morality changing the way people think about reason changing the way people think ultimately about religion That's where we're going to lose And if we lose there it doesn't matter what happens in the ballot box We lose it doesn't matter whether the left or right win we lose Authoritarian can come authoritarianism can come from any direction On a political map If that's the direction the culture is heading if that's the if the culture is becoming more mindless and more altruistic and more authoritarian in its nature more tribal then we will get authoritarianism no matter what so The only hope we have Is by working by doing the hard work that is required to make the culture change and that requires Debate discussion augmentation it requires Exposing people to ideas it requires getting people to read iron rand. It requires challenging them And encouraging them to think To become thinkers To be thinkers to elevate themselves to that level We've got a debate Got a debate debate debate debate with everybody out there Or pretty much everybody certain people are not worthy of debate, but almost everybody Which reminds me I will be at the University of texas On the 30th of november university of texas 30th of november ut austin in austin I will be debating panel discussion And the topic is going to be iron rand versus cs lewis iron rand versus cs lewis It it basically it's going to be ultimately a debate around religion And around altruism versus egoism Individualism versus collectivism So Objective value versus the intrinsic value of religion It's going to be a pretty philosophical debate. So, uh, it's going to be I think super interesting Uh, they've invited me. They've got a real cs lewis scholar a real religion is not a not a mealy mouth religious, but a real religionist and We'll see how it goes. So this is november 30th at the university of texas I've put up the flyer on facebook and on twitter so you can find it in my profile over there I hope you guys all join me if you live in austin texas, please let people know Send it out there. It's going to be videotaped. I don't think I don't know if it'll be live stream But they are going to have a high quality film crew there to videotape the whole thing. So we'll go up after with the fact um, and It's uh, yeah, I mean cs lewis is the favorite of the christian rite of the the nationalist christian rite. He's considered one of the Major philosophical thinkers. I mean people think of cs lewis as a writer of children's stories, but really he wrote philosophy. He was uh, he was a literature um literature at, um You know literature at uh oxford university, right? All right, so, um As I said, yes debates all over the place debates i'm debating On and debating on thursday thursday. Yes thursday at um acron university at the law school in acron university i'm debating a law professor on The evils of the regulatory state So tons of debates all the time We need to expose as many people as possible to these ideas and as many new people as possible So i'll be giving three talks this week One at university of indiana bloomington one at acron and one in colorado all three talks are going to be the people who've never heard anything um Like objectivism before Anything like objectivism before That's what we need to do. We need to get out there into culture You need to get out there and use all the massive amounts of objectivist content out there all the massive numbers of videos talks articles books And get people in your circle to read to engage to to to to to challenge themselves You got to find people who've never heard a vine ran and hand them a copy of the fountain head That's how you change your culture That's how you make a dent Sitting on a chat on the iran book show and bitching and complaining Does not change anything Does not change anything And go on twitter go on facebook but One of the beauties of of the internet is that you have the real opportunity the real opportunity to share unbelievable content And one of the things i've mentioned this on the show in the past one of the things objectivists or people who are sympathetic to Objectivism or fans of iron rand are pathetic at doing Pathetic at doing sharing content sharing good content Iron randy interview A lennepikov lecture A link to lennepikov's history of philosophy A link to his americans versus america talk We as many thousands of us they are did that on a regular basis Take every day on twitter Link to something iron rand wrote link to some talk that she gave link to some interview She did or something lennepikov did forget about my stuff link to the giants lennepikov and iron rand just every day You will slowly start seeing people in your circle Maybe sharing it maybe liking it and that circle expands and expands and people get exposed to these ideas but again so many Said and bitching complain And do nothing about it Do nothing about it Yeah, so It's up to you if you want to change the world You need to go out there and change the world and it's not going to be at the ballot box tomorrow And along musk is not going to change it for you at twitter You need to do it you need to get engaged twitter is just a tool and by the way twitter has never Cancelled any tweet that linked to as far as i know the link to iron rand linked to lennepikov They made some objective statement twitter has never suppressed anything that i've tried i've said Maybe i'm not radical enough i guess for twitter, but never stopped my debating never stopped anybody i know Of significance debating debates Robust debates on twitter continued Without elan musk with elan musk The philosophical debate the deep debates the debates that matter Nobody's stopping nobody's challenging nobody there's no excuse of zero For not putting out the big questions the big issues the fundamental challenges It's up to you So we can win this if we're willing to fight But so many within our world so many Don't fight They don't go out there And use the content that is available Because i don't know they're embarrassed by their support of iron rand They Don't want to come out as objectivists. They don't want to come out as fans of rand Or they Feel like if they link to an iron rand interview they're being second-handed because it's not their interview What is it exactly but the reality is that there's just Not a left fight in In the in the community out there on places like twitter and facebook not enough outreach To new people not enough Challenging new people with new ideas with the best with the best Objectivist content Richard you need to pay to challenge iran. Richard will never pay to challenge iran.  Because it's not about this or that election. It's about What we do It's about Yeah, this richard richard cunningham will absolutely richard asked me questions all the time It's about what we're willing to do It's about whether we're willing to stand up to the real questions the questions about philosophy the questions about the nature of existence The questions about the nature of knowledge The value of reason The value of individualism of egoism the value of capitalism That's where the rubber hits the road not on Whether dr. Oz gets elected to the senate or not That is At the end of the day in the big picture just a symptom of a disease Not a way Not a cure certainly not a cure. It's part of the disease So if we want to change the world Focus on the philosophical ideas if you want to change the world Become a spokesman an advocate for those philosophical ideas Katharine, thank you. Katharine who's here to cheerlead is actually contributing to the show Hoping to get you guys engaged and involved because we're way behind Yesterday we were way over today. We're way behind We need to be way In front every night not just on some nights Um Look at the end of the day I find it interesting. I don't know if you're watching brazil. I'm watching brazil We're lula the socialist beat balsenaro Uh balsenaro is not conceded, but it was basically committed to a transition As asked as followers to step back um At the end of the day if brazil can avoid Violence of brazil You know can avoid An incumbent refusing to leave If brazil can respect What happens at the ballot box? I think american was standard as well. I mean, I you know as offensive trump and the trumpism is Um, I think we'll survive it As offensive as The horrible economic policies that the democrats pass The american economy Is is wondrously nimble and able to get around regulations and and and and survive in spite of all the controls placed by the government So yes, we deteriorate over the long run. Yes There is a clear price that we pay for the politics But it ain't gonna end tomorrow It's gonna get worse, but it's not gonna end tomorrow There's plenty of time for us to fight back. There's plenty of time for us to win the battles There's plenty of time for us to advocate on principle for better ideas And that's what we should be focused on That's where our energy should be rather than fighting minutiae And often irrelevant political battles about Issues that are not that important at the end of the day Linda, thank you for the support. Really appreciate it. So I mean as Horrible as I think it would be for trump to get elected again and he might It won't actually end the world It won't actually end the world. We have lots of checks and balances in the system To keep him from doing the really really bad stuff as bad as it might get Now i'm not for that. I'd rather not have to use the checks and balances I'd rather not have constitutional crises. I'd rather not take every issue to the supreme court But if it comes to it, I think we'll survive them right Just like it's horrific that the supreme court overturned rovers as Wade But there's still gonna be enough states in the united states That allow for abortion people will still be able to travel for those abortions Women will still be able to get abortions at the margins. Some people are going to suffer and it's horrible that they do The whole thing Is horrible the fact that the supreme court did what they did But we will survive it And we will continue to fight and the world will not end tomorrow so um That's my bit of staying positive stay positive not because things are going to get better They're not going to get better no matter who wins the election tomorrow um But because Whatever happens in our political world whatever happens on this or that election We still got time. I still don't believe american culture is ready to fall off a cliff We're not heading towards the dark ages You know, it's just like I don't know if you notice what's happening in russia Like what was it a month ago? Everybody was freaking out. I mean literally freaking out including alone musk and jordan peterson And uh and joe biden and the whole world was freaking out because um russia was threatening to use nuclear weapons And they were panicking. Let's cut a deal. It's compromise. Let's do something. This is unacceptable. This is really really bad you know I don't know if you've noticed over the last week or so A number of russian officials have come out including putin himself And said no, no, no, we're not going to use nuclear weapons In ukraine. It's it's you know, it's not feasible. We don't want to do it A million different things now part of that has to do with the fact that She the chinese dictator came out and said that he thought it would be unacceptable for russia to use nuclear weapons And the russians at this point have to please the chinese they're the only Semi ally that they have But I think it's deeper than that.  They don't want to use nuclear weapons because they know the consequences so there's just We're not going to go into nuclear war and stop using that as an excuse to justify putin's You know thuggery putin's evil Because that's all I think it is I think ultimately people say they ultimately support putin But they're afraid to say they support putin and say oh, we can't piss him off He might use nukes. He's not going to use nukes medvedev Putin himself a number of other russians have now from the kremlin have now said we're not going to use nukes It's Off the table nukes are not part of the not part of the deal all right let's see Oh, i'm not going to get into debate with you guys If you want to ask a question about ukraine over the super chat you can i've answered all these questions about ukraine on previous shows Every single one of your challenges has been answered thoroughly all your challenges are basically bs This idea of nato is bs and by the way again Putin has lost by the very very fact by the very fact that uh Sweden and finland are going to join the un nato and by joining nato Much worse than ukraine joining nato much longer border Much more industrial countries industrial countries that actually produce weapons particularly sweden good weapons So anyway Uh, i've already covered all that so no reason to repeat myself But but yes, putin is the thug putin is the bad guy putin needs to be defeated and uh No reason for the united states to declare war. He's not a direct threat to the united states every reason for europe to declare war But given that that would Potentially instigate him to use nukes let the ukrainians fight him let the ukrainians beat the shit out of him They're doing a fantastic job Uh, it really is interesting to read reports coming out of ukraine in terms of how well they are defeating Uh, they're defeating the russians all right Let's see Let's go to super chat paul says twitter will be a single most valuable company ever Which is really saying something considering ts la was certainly eclipse 10 billion mark my words i'll take that bet I'll take that bet twitter will not be the single most valuable company ever I i don't know how you want to How you want to no you you haven't been right on this paul Sorry, and and you're not going to be right on on the on on this either um twitter's not going to be the most company with the most valuable company ever no matter what So again willing to put money on that bet All right, um Yeah, you were right on tesla for a long time um It's come down quite a bit and i'm not sure that's over yet And i still don't think tesla will be the most valuable company ever in the future You know you can call me on it. You can keep calling me on it But uh, yes, I also told everybody at the end of 2021 the tesla and other tech companies We're gonna get hit and we're gonna come down significantly and they have so all right Let's go to max. I was in favor of unilatery free trade But what about using favorable trade policy as a carrot leverage to persuade otherwise Unfriendly states to accept a more liberal trade policy in exchange for access to our markets Well, but but you see what you're doing there is you're penalizing yourself Because other people are being irrational And and and that just doesn't make any sense plus It's not the job of the united states government To police the world It's not the job of the u.s. Government To provide carrots and sticks to other governments The job of the u.s. Government is to protect the individual rights of americans The individual rights of americans are not being violated By another country subsidizing its industries or by another country putting tariffs on goods The rights of their own citizens are being violated so It's absolutely wrong of the government to have any trade policy Except free trade now free trade is not a trivial policy Free trade is a policy that has to be the entire focus of american foreign policy I mean that and defeating our enemies But we should be advocates of free trade. We should be Describing its benefits. We should be an exemplar to the world by lowering tariffs to zero We should be defending the shipping lanes All over the world so that trade can happen so that pirates and rogue countries Don't interfere with trade and we should guarantee the safe patches of ships in the trading routes all over the world And let countries do what they will and to the extent that they embrace trade they will get rich to the extent that they don't trade they don't Lower their own tariffs. They will get poor. Why is that our business? Our business is the protection of individual rights You see once you create trade barriers, you're violating the rights of your own citizens whether that is whether that is um Good in terms of carrots and steaks for other countries or not You're violating the rights of your own people and government should never violate the rights of its own people If I tell you look I'm gonna stop you. I'm gonna stop you. I'm gonna use force against you so that you never buy apple again Because I'm trying to negotiate a better deal with apple and until I need a carrot and I need a stick With apple. I mean you'd say that's absurd. That's ridiculous Same thing is true with other countries. I have no right to violate your rights So that I can achieve some status goal of bringing freedom to the free markets to the world So no, I I I think I think government should just lower tariffs to zero get out of my business get out of my way get out of Get out of the business of running my life and telling me who I can trade with and why can't trade with Again unless it's a national security issue only excuse for them to do anything Colleen says I'm afraid that I can't defend objectives and well enough if I post about it and people challenge me Well, but this is where I mean, I mean that is Super reasonable Colleen and and I think I think a lot of people that is something but you don't have to defend yourself Put up the content let people attack you Let people come after you so I wouldn't worry about The fact that you can't defend yourself Expose the world to iron and expose the world to good ideas and let the chips fall where they may People attack you you can walk away. You're not committed to engaging in battle with everybody who comes after you Indeed people who are going to challenge you are probably not The people you ultimately want and one of the ways Somebody asks you a question and you remember oh iron man actually addressed that in another talk send them another link You don't have to you're not under no obligation and I don't think it necessarily and I don't think it harms anything You're under no obligation to sit there and and and argue with people on on twitter on facebook or whatever You posted a link It's an interesting link They either value it that they don't value it they get something out of it. They don't get something out of it You're not responsible for moderating what happens afterwards I think people take it too much upon themselves that they now have to address every challenge you've faced No, you don't Let iron man to the talking. They like it. They like it. They don't like it. They don't like it Richard the Richard that actually Uses the super chat Thank you, Richard actually quite generously uses the chipper chat Um, how much do you charge not to see a movie not to see a movie? I recently saw steve jobs and found it a hit piece depicting jobs mostly as a deadbeat dad It's a must-miss. Yeah, I mean I I did not go to see that movie because that's what I suspected it was based on on The book and based on that is based on and based on the interviews And and reviews that I'd seen I chose not to see the movie exactly for that steve jobs for me is a real hero I have no interest in a movie that demeans him in any kind of way. I'd rather focus on the heroism That he represents for me Uh, I mean he's one of the people who I most admired Certainly not objectives that are most admired Uh, you know, who's who's alive today one of the people I've most well, he's not alive today But life over the last 50 years one of the people I've most Uh, most admired The book was not approved by him the the author was approved by him But not the book he never actually read the book because he died before was published Fender Harper says opinions on senator tom cotton. I'm listening to his new book and it's pretty okay If you can accept the republicans land. It's about farm affairs policies heard about On newest episode of power hour um I have not read the books. I I can't comment on the book. I can't comment on all of tom cotton's views on farm policy, but I am Generally not a fan of tom cotton. I generally view him as one of The the worst kind of national conservative out there a trumpest Um, and and not very good. I I'd be surprised if he was really, um Excellent at farm policy, but I'm willing to give it. I'm willing to give it the book a shot Uh to see although I'm unlikely to read a a politician's book But I'm interested in what specific views he has on farm policy that you think are good that I'd be interested in your your views On the particular views that he has on farm policy that are good. Um He's certainly intellectual. He's smart. He's going to run for president. I think But I fear that he's definitely on this nationalist um You know limited trade And uh industrial policy kind of wing of the republican party Fenn hopper also said ps8 public service announcement twitter tip post elon $8 to be prioritized on people's feeds being added to people's lists increases your exposure on people's feeds heard all this from artists who do commission work um How do you get the $8 is to get the blue check mark, right? So yeah, once Once the blue check mark $8 thing goes into effect. I'm gonna apply for it. Whether they give it to me or not I don't know, but I'm definitely gonna apply for it because I think I think it will help you with the algorithm to be officially recognized and sanctioned by the twitter gods, whether they be the current twitter gods or the um Or the uh elon musk twitter gods all right Uh Facts says kfax says can't help but think so many elon musk fans are delusional You'll insist that he can do no that'll insist that he can do no wrong No, make any wrong move. Why do you think that is? Are they starved so badly for a hero that they later on occupy that vacuum? Yes, but it's the same phenomena As they let trump occupy that vacuum, right? So it's not just that they're starved for Heroes they're starved for people to tell them What to think I I think there's a mindlessness out there Um around politics around culture around You know people don't think for themselves and they're looking to latch on and this exists on the left Just like that exists on the right. I mean there was a similar phenomena with obama Obama can never do any wrong obama. I don't think that exists with biden But certainly existed with obama a kind of an attitude of do no wrong I think it exists with certain other characters on the left, but it certainly exists on the right and It's a tribalism. It's a seeking out Leaders not just heroes. There's a difference between a hero and a leader, but seeking out leaders opinion leaders Um and and worshiping them and it's it's not a good trend. It's it's the kind of It's a kind of trend that ultimately leads to authoritarianism Uh, I've never seen anything like it like it was with trump. He literally could do no wrong He goes and grovels before the uh, the the brutal dictator of north korea. He's a genius. He's playing for the chess He'll unbelievable what he's done people who in the past would say things like Um, you can't compromise with evil. You can't sanction evil. You can't do these You can't negotiate with bad guys when trump negotiate with bad guys, then it was brilliant and it was beautiful It was amazing. It was the best thing in the world. I mean over and over and over again Um, you know, you saw stuff like that. Um You can't super chat. Why can't you super chat what what are you getting an error or something? Uh, there's no super chats working for everybody. It looks like so unless you're overseas sometimes overseas It gives it gives problems, but in the u.s. It's usually pretty, uh, obvious um So I think there's a real desire For a personality worship, you know, you're seeing you saw that in I think to some extent in the elect Not just in the u.s. You're seeing it in the adoration for Putin or the hatred of Putin You're seeing that in in the adoration of Bolsonaro the adoration of lula. It's not Mostly about ideas. It's mostly about The figurehead the the the the personnel the person at the top who can do no wrong Uh, you know, you you see you see that The You see that in israel You see that with Netanyahu the whole election Netanyahu was the whole election in israel was for netanyahu against netanyahu wasn't about issues No issues involved no disagreements about issues involved. It's all about personalities Netanyahu is just as much a sellout and foreign policy in israel as any of his opponents Nobody ever complains about netanyahu when he sells out because he's netanyahu You can't complain about the guy you're worshiping So it is a global phenomenon. It comes from tribalism and mindlessness and it's This is the you know, this is what we call populism and it's only growing in its impact. So there's there's less and less and less um Focus on ideas Focus on issues Focus on fundamentals and more and more focus on personalities On character and not on character and personality big difference between character and personality And elon is an example of that I think it's it's it's another example of people Worshiping elon.  It must be right. It must be great Richard I encourage your audience to question anti-capitalists They will be amazed at the blankouts they get when they ask for alternatives to capitalism If a lefty gets mad at you for asking whose problem is that? Yeah, I mean, it's good to make the lefty mad So that's that's a virtue in and of itself particularly when it's they're mad And and and you get you get out of a virtue out of thinking forcing them to think about capitalism That's always a good thing. But yes, the the arguments they have are terrible and Some of them the more honest ones will actually will actually Rethink their positions it happens all the time And who asked on the premise of ideas determining history what led to the country electing trump to the presidency? Wow Wow, I mean that's uh, that's a a long question that I've talked about I I did so many shows on this issue Back in 2016 2017 2018 on what led the country to vote for trump But ultimately I think what led them to is Being fed up with ideas David, thank you for the support really appreciate it. It's people Feeling like they were being they'd been betrayed by The people who are ideological on the left and ideological on the right It came from a complete disintegration. I mean Trump is a is is it clearly a d a disintegrated complete and out of pragmatists He will lead us to an m. But he is a he is a he himself is a complete d He It's It's it's the disintegrated nature Of the culture you can read that in in lennepikov's dim hypothesis what that exactly means It's the ideas around that but it's also people's frustration With both ideas on the left and right Betraying them and them feeling alienated from the culture and from the world around them that seem to be Created from ideas That that they don't understand and they don't get I mean think about the people who voted for trump many of them not all of them many of them Again and a lot of people voted for trump for for good reasons against hilo killin clinton, but A big chunk of his voters were former tea party And trump is the negation of the tea party trump is the negation of what the tea party stood for Four years earlier But what happened four years earlier is that the tea party felt betrayed It started in 20 2010 and it um It elected a lot of people in 2010 and 2012 and in 2014 and it went nowhere And they got nothing for it and instead While they were growing and becoming stronger and electing all these people Obama won and obama got to pass obama care Remember that was the big campaign thing of the tea party is is to get rid of obama care Which of course we never did and trump never did and trump never made a real effort to and because they stopped caring about obama care Once trump was elected. That was another miracle that trump managed to get across nobody cared about obama care once he was elected Because he didn't care about obama care So and and now nobody talks about obama there's not a republican out there running on obama care So the tea party felt betrayed by They they thought they were ideological. They thought they were presenting a founding fathers ideal And then they elected people to congress on those ideals And that fell apart and but they hold on the ideals of the founding fathers whenever strong They were mixed in with religion. They were mixed in with don't touch my social security and my medicare. They were mixed in with statism So their whole ideology that whole framework fell apart and They were looking for something to disrupt. They were looking for something to break apart. They were looking for something that was different completely different than anything they had before and it's the the disintegrated ideas that The the the the banding of the principles of the founding the banding of the of the constitutional declaration of independence the banding of of any kind of semblance of an ideology of americanism That led them to vote for trump trump was Trump was um the um Basically the manifestation of anti ideology Trump is the pure pragmatists Joey you can find that blind faith right here on my chat You don't have to look that far not not as much anymore because a lot of them have left But in the trump years, they were strong here very very strong here Caused me to say some things about people who vote for trump that ultimately Came back to bite me Because they were taken out of context, but what can I do? I have to call it the way I see it um So it's the ideas it's it's it's it's the rejection of ideas qua ideas rejection of philosophy qua philosophy which led to the election of trump and That's not sustainable So people have to adopt some set of ideas And what that set of ideas moving into the future turns out to be Is going to determine the future of this country. I fear that that set of ideas I've said this many many times that that set of ideas is some form of national religious conservatism those things I think ultimately add up to um to um To an ideology that people can in that Americans can embrace that Americans can unify around And that scares me because that's a scary proposition Okay, Adam says if one likes to advance ideas the school board is much more effective Than any web platform. Why don't more people run for local school boards because it involves politics. It involves real work. It involves real Confronting people Face on I'm not sure a school board is more influential than a web platform. I'm not sure at all because I I think that I think that You can reach So many people with good ideas on a web platform A school board you'll often be silent. It won't be silent But you'll be roadblocked by other people on the school board by parents by all kinds of constituencies And you it's very difficult to get your voice heard But I still think if you if you want to get involved in politics the one political job That you know people want to be president But you can't do anything as president if the culture is not with you But one way to get the culture to be with you is dominate the school board So if you're going to go into politics the one political position you should take is school boards it's it's that's Where there's immense power again over the future it's education education education. So while I'm not sure it's better Than I'm not sure it's better than Using the web It certainly is a good way and I think the only way once you get involved in politics right now Okay, let's see All right friend harpa He was a soldier under bush obama and seems to take very personally the mess the middle east has been Um, hasn't mentioned trump's hand in afghanistan withdrawal But as details I haven't heard about the lead up to it He's a trumpist. Yeah, and and again, I don't think he understands the middle east He he sees it as a mess in the middle east but he's you understand What caused the mess how to get out of the mess what the solution is What a proper Attitude towards the middle east would be how how you would properly deal with the middle east with afghanistan with iraq with iran With syria with lebanon with israel with khizballah with hamas Does he know all that is he does does he understand the facts on the ground? I doubt it I doubt it I I've met a lot of soldiers And I'll agree when you explain the facts to them But they don't have those facts because those facts takes Take a distance and they take a certain philosophical approach Which I'm sure trump cotton doesn't have so if you compare what he writes in the middle east or what I've written in the middle east I'd be curious what you think He should read me and ilan juno. I agree All right friend hopper says tom cotton has a seven out of ten understanding That's not bad. Um You should send in my course on the history of the middle east and my course on the history of islamism He might learn something Brie You are right. I will start linking your shorts in the description of mine I constantly get one and a half to three thousand views now And I should do something to spread the word We will see if people who like cat and bee videos will click Excellent brie really appreciate it. I I think that's great It's the only way we'll it will succeed is if you're willing to take the risk of Exposing your cat and bee lovers to iron man Mark asked air. I just released a 1968 iron man interview with the with voice of america and russian On youtube that's really cool. Her comments about how she thinks america will never become completely collectivist Unlike europe especially encouraging now Yeah, I wonder if she would have thought that You know 50 years later um Given, you know, if america would it be as bad as it is today um I'm curious what she would have thought and and what she means by completely collectivist I'm starting to think america can become completely collectivist That it's moving in that direction, but hasn't yet but but 54 years have passed since that video vine ran a lot has changed a lot changes in 54 years so She was right in the sense that it wouldn't become collectivist very quickly, but look neither has europe Europe's not become completely collectivist so You know you have to say That america the west generally The enlightenment put it put it Concretely the enlightenment has a lot more survival power Uh, then I think many people expected including Objectivists, I think it survived a lot longer than you would have thought it would survive in 1968 Stephen porta asked do you think epstein was killed? I don't know. I don't have any particular evidence one way the other um, I think it's very There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that Um make you wonder Right about it that suggests that maybe something was going on. It's not completely random to say that uh, he was killed But there's also no solid evidence that he was killed so I I have no solid opinion about it I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that he was killed and there was a cover-up And I wouldn't be shocked if he committed suicide I don't I don't like to take a strong stand on things that I don't really know And I don't think anybody knows other than the people who obviously know, uh, but, um, you know There's just too much. It's it's basically circumstantial. There's no evidence. It's clear cut one way or the other Max asks when I meet someone intelligent and amenable to free market ideas I'll ask them to read Hayek's use of knowledge in a free society Orans Or reads eye pencil not I ran since Rand seems to trigger people. Am I wrong to do this? well, I mean I I I think so and I think so because I think that Hayek's use of knowledge in a free society is significantly flawed and ultimately undercuts undercuts Rand's argument for capitalism. I think the two are contradictory. I think Rand's argument for capitalism And use of knowledge in a free society clash So you're you're planning in their head Uh bad seeds for defensive capitalism, and I think that's while I like eye pencil Eye pencil has real problems. It has as one fundamental big problem And that is there's no entrepreneur in eye pencil I'll say that again. There's no entrepreneur in eye pencil and The fact is that there's lots of planning in a free market Lots of planning in a free market Steve Jobs planned a lot Elon Musk right now is doing a lot of planning And pencils don't just spontaneously Come into creation Twitter doesn't spontaneously rearrange itself and become a better company You cannot have a conception of economics. You cannot have a proper conception of capitalism You cannot have a proper conception of free markets unless you are willing You're willing To actually represent the entrepreneur to actually represent what he does to actually put him at the center of everything Which is what iron man does And I think both those people undermine that now Use of knowledge in a free society also undermines the concept of reason Because the assumption is That if you had pure reason perfect reason, then you could manage an economy, but that's not that's not true That's not why it's not a lack of reason that prevents you from being able to if you had knowledge It's not a question of knowledge. It's a it's a metaphysical question about the availability It's a question about values. It's a question about morality and it's a question about epistemology It's a question of where does reason reside It resides in the individual and nobody else can reason for me That's the issue. It's whether you can reason for me not about How good you are at reasoning how much information you have even if you had all information in the world you can't reason for me so high x view is fundamentally flawed and The ipencil view is it which is better, but it's still fundamentally flawed because Somebody does produce a pencil Somebody has to initiate that process somebody has to go to all the experts And use them to produce that pencil It's true that somebody doesn't know every single step and every single thing that needs to go into producing a pencil He couldn't recreate it But he has to be able to organize it He has to and without that it doesn't happen. So Rand is unique In her understanding of capitalism and In her presentation of capitalism You know, and by the way Mises is much better than Hayek and You know, there's a number of austrian economists that are better on this than hayek So I don't like either of those essays is introductory. I say give them haslits Economics in one lesson is better Haslet is better All right, nikki ask rand says one's life is a standard value. It doesn't Give a detailed definition of life Is it being alive and enjoying yourself or is there something more systematic? How can we make complex decision without this?  So it means living so to say life for human means as a rational animal Which means as an animal of cognition Which means as an animal with all the values, you know, so it means living a life of the mind, you know Not divorced from not divorced from her understanding of her mind the mind connected to reality a mind a conceptualizing mind A reasoning mind a thinking mind So she clearly enjoyed Explains what life is and the goal of all this the moral purpose is happiness So but to achieve happiness one has to live a thinking life And everything that and and do what a thinking being Needs to do So for example, when she when she when it comes to aesthetics when it comes to the value of art, why is art Necessary according to Rand For survival for human survival For life art is necessary for life Why because for whole life as a conceptual being requires art because art Makes it possible for us to uh to to to Concretize very abstract Concepts it may it makes that our abstract notions concrete That makes it real for us in a way that we couldn't live a completely Reason-based conceptual life without that concretization So It's about achieving happiness By living the life appropriate To a conceptual being so hopefully That makes sense nicky happy to answer follow up to that But but she's I think she's clear in that and and if you read The objective is ethics. I think she's clear in what she means She doesn't elaborate a lot. Unfortunately. I wish she had but then she also If you read the romantic manifesto, I think that really gives clarity to a lot of what she means by life Amen, thank you. Wow really appreciate that Uh hundred dollars from almond. That is fantastic. That means we've reached our goal Thank you to all our superchatters really really appreciate that. Thank you Catherine For doing such a great job and getting everybody Motivated to get us to what we did. We got there with a lot of questions and I still have I don't know 20 30 questions Okay, these are we gonna be quick Um Mike these are five ten dollar questions. Michael asked can't uh can interspection ever be wrong Is it as infallible a sense perception? um You can just like a sense perception you can evade You can intersect and evade But I I you know, it's a good question is what you're introspecting I think what you're introspecting just the sheer fact of what you're introspecting if you're if you're if you're honest Then and you're not evading. Yes, it's like sense perception. I think that's right Michael asks did I do any work in mathematics or the philosophy of mathematics? She did some work in mathematics For the purpose of developing a theory in epistemology because she viewed mathematics as important for epistemology Uh, you know, she she talks about the relationship between algebra and concept formation and how studying algebra Helped to come up with a theory of concept formation. So, um, you might want to look at introduction to objectives to epistemology where she talks about that And she was studying calculus because she believed that calculus would help her in um That calculus would help her With propositions with epistemology of propositions So she believed that there was a strong relationship between mathematics and philosophy and with between if you were mathematical reasoning Thinking mathematically and the way we form concepts the way we form We reason the way we we form uh propositions But um, she didn't get very far unfortunately in the in the calculus direction Hopefully somebody will pick up on that work and do more work along those lines Remember all iron man wrote in epistemology is an introduction There is a lot of work that still needs to be done in epistemology a lot of work And um, you know, maybe at some point somebody will do it. It's going to require a phenomenal mind Uh to do it All right If you want to ask questions, you can ask questions on the super chat 20 dollars is uh, it costs 20 dollars um On the super chat. All right the doodle bunny Since medical debt can no longer affect your credit score. Should you bother paying it if you can't afford it? Um, it can't affect it can no longer affect your credit score um I would pay it because it's an issue of integrity. I bought the services The service provider provided me a service It seems rational logical that I pay for it if I can't afford it I would sit down with The provider and negotiate something where I can pay it off over the long run But I don't pay At a restaurant because if I don't pay I'll get caught and go to jail I don't pay my credit cards on time because if I don't my credits go or go down I pay what I pay because It's the right thing to do. I have integrity. I've signed a contract. I I live by that contract If somebody provided with the service, I would think it's ridiculous not to pay for that service James asked what's a good way of overcoming rejection sensitivity Were you ever worried about being rejected by lennon pickoff and not getting the job as head of a right? um Well, I was you know, you're always worried about um You know It can be rational to be worried about being rejected the question is Does it overwhelm you does it paralyze you? So, you know, it basically yes, of course, I was worried about You know lennon or somebody else not wanting me at a or I or once I was there, you know Not wanting me around but so what you still have to do the right thing. You still have to You know act and you can't let those worries Dominate you or those worries and at the end of the day you have to build up the confidence that you can withstand it or you can Or you are good enough that Nothing like that will happen. You you've got to just think it through and gain the self-esteem that stops you from having those kind of worries and and sensitivities, but yeah, but but Sure, I mean even now if I go into a meeting trying to raise money from my hedge fund I'm worried that they're gonna reject me But that doesn't stop me from pitching and if they were most of the time they reject me and when they reject me Fine, just go on to the next one.  So rejection is part of life. You you can't walk around terrified of it You just have to accept it you have to accept that they're gonna be times that you're gonna be rejected And you have to figure out You can have to figure out, uh, you know the the the What rejection means different different kinds of rejection are different And and why you're responding this way? It's it's usually an issue of self-esteem And that's something that has to be built.  Some choices, uh People are not responsible for I mean as long as they're adults And they are sane Then people are responsible for the choices that they make they might not always be responsible for every Consequence of those choices because some of the consequences might not be under their control But they're responsible for the choices they make who else made them Harper Campbell holding a grudge doesn't make you righteous.  I I Why would I forgive somebody Somebody does me a wrong forgiving him is Pure self-destruction No I don't know.  It reminds me to look For the traits I don't like within these people in other people so I can avoid it. It's a survival mechanism hate And and holding a grudge so I don't I don't believe that I I believe in justice I believe judge judge judge and be willing to be judged That was iron man's view judge judge judge Don't forgive forgiveness is christian forgiveness is self-destructive forgiveness is unjust To what degree should you help a family member suffering from mental illness? It depends Which family member how close are they do you care about them? Why do you care about them? Is it rational for you to care about them? Do you have some shared values? Do you some have shared history? Are you mostly attached to this person or not? You're under no commitment because somebody Happens to share some DNA with you to help them one way or the other there has to be something more You have to be able to break it down into a particular value that they represent for you Harper Campbell says if it costs you your piece. It's too expensive. Really? So I'm sure taking over twitter costing ill on musk is peace But I think hopefully it's worth it for him. It's not too expensive. I know a lot of times you challenge yourself It costs you your piece But it's worth it So I don't know what peace it sounds buddhist to me You know buddhism is a philosophy of passivity of accepting reality as it is accepting the world stoicism Accepting the world as it is don't let anything get to you.  I've never met a pro free market israeli in my life Well, I've met lots of them, but I I I hang out with the with the pro free market israelis Israelis are on economics. They're not socialists. They're not collectivists. They're not they're not They are centrist. They they want some regulation. They want some taxes They want some government control not too much not too little. They're nothing. They're centrist like everybody They're certainly not socialist. There's not the only You know the socialist parties on economics lose in israel over and over and over again so Um There is no left in israel There's literally no left the kibbutz the last bastion of socialism is gone It's gone. It's being privatized So so they're not they're not really collectivist when it comes to economics not in reality You probably meet young israelis who all idealistically socialist and then fades very very quickly candle on must stop the cancer culture rampant on twitter We'll see.  How can anybody stop that if you believe it's not illegal for you to harass me On twitter if you don't like what I say Is I mean cancer culture is not is how do you stop cancer culture? As a lawn mosque unless you have Um, unless you have moderate moderation policies to say you can't gain up on people But now when is it getting up? How many people? What kind of language do you use? So I am You know cancer culture is real and it's bad, but there's no way to Change some policy and solve the problem. It doesn't go away like that It's a deep cultural issue that has to be challenged and look at the end of the day. I'm not against cancel canceling people If there's good reason to cancel them, I I'm against canceling people when there's bad reason to cancel them Okay max asks oops If you could download into your brain Matrix style a full graduate level degree in any one academic discipline of your choice Psychology geography astronomy evolutionary biology Which would you take? I mean, are you assuming that I could download good material right true material Actually true material um Not like what's taught at universities today um probably history Probably history it's the most interesting to me and one which I think has massive implications Um, so I would do history uh, second maybe psychology although There's not I don't know how much good knowledge there is today in psychology uh, but Maybe psychology, but but probably Probably history I find it most interesting too James asks it's not like Facts matter to them their mind in a sense is fried Not sure who we're talking about Michael asks are gum at schools america's biggest drug dealers Well Indirectly, I mean You know kids are getting huge quantities of various drugs To keep them Still at schools I don't know if the I don't know if if to blame the schools or to blame the parents or to blame All of the above, but but yeah, I mean there's no question that What our schools and our parents and our psychologists are doing to children Is truly horrific the kind of drugs that they're giving them from a very very young age Jeremy says I've heard though. I've not reached out to myself the twitter rule against impersonating was already there And that could be it's just being highlighted by Trump making a big deal out of it right and commenting on it and making an issue of it Maybe it was already there. It's not going away. It's one of those moderating policies that are probably going to stay Um, it it is a question of what does impersonating mean? That to what extent do you go to try to Hide your true identity the the accounts that were being dropped that I saw today Were clearly not impersonating in the sense that they were not It was clear if you spent two seconds on it that it wasn't original They weren't they they didn't have a description to try to mimic the the person they were mimicking So how do you define impersonating would be interesting as well? So but I don't know Colt says I'm voting for the GOP tomorrow the Democrats made too much of a mess We can deal with the GOP in 2024. It's the one year anniversary of me watching your show November 2021 I don't remember the exact date um, that's great, but just to remember colt in 2024 You but you you you you will come up with an excuse not to vote democratic again So I don't completely buy your explanation. We can deal with them in 2024 Will you deal with them in 2024? I mean be truly honest with yourself Would you actually challenge them in 2024? Will you be willing to do it? Or will you find a rationalization not to pull that democratic Level whatever it is because you just can't bring yourself to vote democratic and and I'm not I'm just saying Beware of not rationalizing to yourself because I worry a lot of people are doing that Right. I think they did that in the past with trump, right? So I'm not you know As I said, there are lots of ways you can vote tomorrow that are I think rational and reasonable, but You know Realize the issues involved of real and they're not going to be easy to deal with them in 2024 Who's going to deal with them in 2024? Who who are the people who are going to deal with them? Now I don't make a difference because I think you're in texas where the republicans are going to win anyway um All right Mr. Muffin, what do you think of david harrowitz? I mean I used to really like david harrowitz And sudden issues He suddenly was very good very early on I think it was the mid 2000s or maybe the early 2000s When he wrote a book at land blasting the left. I thought it was excellent He was a radical leftist who moved to the right I think he was pretty good then after 9 11 on some foreign policy issues and on Um on israel we had some disagreements, but generally I think he was pretty good um And I can't remember but I think already At some point he was becoming too Uh too much of the anti slumper say and not enough nuance and not enough separation and too populist too catering to the crazies within the within the uh anti slumpest movement um And then he became a trumpist Which kind of makes sense given that he comes from the left um And in in some respects, I think even abandoned some of his foreign policy ideas Better ideas in the name of being a trumpist But so I I mixed on david again. I I was very positive. I know david. I've worked with him I've been uh, I've been at events that he has organized. I've I might have even been on a panel with him once um So I had a lot of respect for him, but that respect diminished over the years and then became significantly less uh when he became such a advocate of um Uh of trump Uh, daniel, what's your way of combating laziness?  Um I'm a procrastinator, but I'm not lazy You know, it's it's remind myself of the values remind yourself of why I want to do what I want to do why You know not no sometimes not doing anything is fine, but why Sometimes not doing anything is not fine and why you have to do stuff and why it's important and so just reminding yourself and motivating yourself Having goals having clear goals having clear reasons for the things that you need Quote to do and why you're going to do them and what the need is I think all of that is helpful Cook says thank you for another good show Uh, here's to living the best life in spite of those wannabe philosopher kings trying to tell us how to live absolutely.  That should be my next Wolves for living have favorites All right, we'll do that um Justin says I get marked by all for even mentioning ran's name on social media. This is why I don't share anymore screw them Why do you let them determine you're getting marked by a vocal minority? Who knows who you're influencing out there by sharing?  I mean imagine if I said Every time I do a show Richard mocks me. I'm gonna stop I I don't want to be mocked by Richard. I don't want to be mocked by scott I don't want to be people disagreeing with me. It's not pleasant to be disagreed with people constantly fighting with me They constantly disagree with me. They probably they constantly harass me So I'm gonna stop doing the wrong book show. No, I'm not gonna let other people dictate what I do or don't do so Don't let them dictate what you share and not change apollo On sharing ran objectivism links. How about copyright ambiguous stuff? Mike Wallace and Donahue interviews articles. So for example the mike donahue And Mike Wallace interviews. I think now the ones that are on iron rand institute website All the rights have been cleared. So first of all anything that you find on the iron rand institute website Rights have been cleared. Otherwise, it wouldn't be there So the we've cleared the costs and interviews we cleared whatever interviews we have the Wallace interviews The institute has done the legal work to clear all the copyright issues So just use I mean there's a almost infinite amount of material on the iron rand institute website both in writing and in video and in Leonard picoff tape courses You could spend a lifetime just linking to that stuff Paul says I love the concordium project from laws It's amazing. Its biggest threat is twitter Twitter has a real shot of deploying a world currency all right I like laws of concordium project as well But let's see what happens with twitter and currency I mean I think the best shot at a best shot as an alternative currency actually Was facebook facebook at some point wanted to put out a crypto coin That would and it signed agreement with a bunch of people. I forget the name of it now and Basically the government made it impossible Made it impossible to do So They they they shut him down. They shut facebook down, but facebook had the right idea facebook had the right idea Facebook didn't do it poorly facebook had exact did it exactly right But the government went after them and the government shut it down and indeed Anybody who tries to create a currency to actually replace existing currencies In a way that is a that the federal reserve views as a threat Is going to be shut down whether it's twitter or anybody else. They won't be able to get away with it. So The limitation on a competitive currency is government Colt says I don't have enough characters I was going to say that there's a strong case to be made for voting for both sides this time around I can't blame you for your criticism on that. I thought about that Um, yeah, I mean that was my show yesterday, right? I mean yesterday I basically presented a case for voting for either one of the sides I I came down to voting um broadly for Broadly for the better candidate And I gave some disqualifiers. So I I I would I would never vote for an election for the election deniers I would not vote for uh You know for for People who who completely undermine all of my values whether they're on the right or on the left I'm not going to vote for progressive on the left and I'm not going to vote for Uh, certain types of trumpets on the right depending on the type of trumpets for certain type of trumpets on the right But there's a lot of space in the middle to be able to vote for for one side or the other I think a global vote only democratic to punish the republicans Is is not particularly useful um, and is very dangerous for the country and I think a Thing to vote just republican uh is is very dangerous because it's giving republicans a mandate that they don't deserve Colt that's right colt is in North Carolina. So, um Yeah, I mean that's a tough one. That's a tough one I mean my view is what I would like to see is The house go republican and the senate stay the way it is split 50 50 um So you each will have to figure out what that means In your own home states if you're going to vote at all Uh, all right All right Great, we made our target. Thank you everybody. We made it past two hours and it's already 1115 here in Puerto Rico So I need to get a bed I don't know when the next show is going to be I might try to do a show on thursday or friday Although there will probably be pretty late east coast time if I do them Because I'll be traveling and I'll be closer to the west coast and the east coast So we will see so I will try to do a show on Thursday from uh, we will it be thursday denver and maybe friday from dallas if I can But i'm not promising so we will see it depends when I get into my hotel and and uh, Whether I've eaten dinner or not i'm a bunch of different parameters, but I will let you know all right, um Thanks everybody. There will be a show next saturday. That's that's a guarantee, but other than that I have no other guarantees, you know weather was standing All right, everybody. I will see you sometime Thanks for listening. Uh, don't forget to share share. Don't forget to like the show before you leave This should be well over 82 likes god There were almost 150 watch 150 people watching live at one time now they're over 100 the the thumbs up should be over 100 Assuming you like the show don't like it if if you didn't like the show But if you like the show, please like it it helps the algorithm and of course if you want to support the show on a monthly basis Please please do so. Um, you know if you've made I don't know a fortune on tesla or something You can go to patreon subscribe star or uran book show dot com slash support and make a monthly contribution Which you know could uh, you could adjust based on how much value you get from the show And uh, you own financial situation Thanks everybody