Stefan Molyneux
  • 5 months ago
Wednesday Night Live 24 July 2024

In this episode, I introduce an interactive feature for audio questions, provide updates on current events and listener discussions. We explore affirmations, positive programming through music, and practical skills for personal growth. The conversation delves into freedom in private schools, authenticity in character portrayal, and combatting controls that diminish individuality. Additionally, we discuss tipping culture, emphasizing ethical tipping decisions based on quality service and the importance of self-awareness and self-respect in tipping choices.

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Transcript
00:00:00Yes, good evening everybody, Stefan Molyneux.
00:00:05And thank you for coming.
00:00:06All right.
00:00:0724th of July, 2024, 2-4-0-7-2-4.
00:00:12And we are here for Wednesday Night Live.
00:00:14Now we're trying out a brand spanking new feature, which is not the spanking stuff on
00:00:21OnlyStefans, my new website OnlyStefans, universally preferable beatings.
00:00:31So we are going to try a little feature.
00:00:33So now you can send in audio questions.
00:00:37Friday night, we're going to go, hello, yay you from North Carolina, very nice to you.
00:00:43North Carolina, bop, bop, bop.
00:00:46All right.
00:00:47So we are going to try some audio questions.
00:00:50And Friday night, Friday night, we're going to try right here in the Rumble studio.
00:00:59We are going to try call-ins, call-ins, Ibrahim, yes, we are going to try call-ins.
00:01:11And you can call and yodel and do whatever you like.
00:01:15We can have nice ferocious debates.
00:01:18You know, when we had this guy call in, coked up on satanism and happy joy juice and coke,
00:01:26on last week, we did a telegram chat.
00:01:28You can do a search for it, shyness.
00:01:31And some guy came in all kinds of guns blazing, which I really enjoyed, and I was glad to
00:01:36have him in.
00:01:37So you can call in Friday night.
00:01:39Let's give it a try.
00:01:40Let's give it a try and see how it works.
00:01:45I don't think Jimmy Carter did, no, he didn't die.
00:01:48Jimmy Carter is still in hospice.
00:01:51Apparently he's just turned into a ghoul.
00:01:54And author of pretty much the lowest point in 20th century American military history,
00:01:59which was the crashing of everything that was supposed to be helping get the American
00:02:04hostages out of Iran.
00:02:07So yes, not the most effective president, although I did borrow a tiny smidge of his
00:02:12life for my novel, The Future, which you should definitely check out.
00:02:18My novel called The Future at freedom.com slash books.
00:02:23All right.
00:02:24So hit me with your questions, comments, issues, challenges, tips are absolutely more than
00:02:27welcome.
00:02:28If you would like to throw a few dollar-oonies my way just to make up for the giant crater
00:02:34smoking hole in my heart that is about the same size as the Peaceful Parenting book,
00:02:42I'd really appreciate it.
00:02:43It's gone out for free, a year of work, fairly intense work and research and so on, going
00:02:49out for free.
00:02:50All right.
00:02:51Yes.
00:02:52If you want to listen to that debate, it's free domain, fdrpodcasts.com.
00:02:56You can install it too.
00:02:57The show is 5574.
00:02:59You can cruise in about an hour 10 into the show.
00:03:03He comes in.
00:03:04All right.
00:03:07Mr. Beast's friend is being accused of pedophilia.
00:03:11Well, be careful of these accusations.
00:03:15Be careful of these accusations.
00:03:16Now, I know you're reporting it, but you really, really, really, in my humble opinion, as somebody
00:03:22who has had a kind of wild seagull run at by a kid in a park in Florida, false accusations,
00:03:28you really, really want to be careful spreading these kinds of things.
00:03:37From what I've read, Mr. Beast's friend, the young man in question says that Mr. Beast's
00:03:45friend didn't do anything wrong.
00:03:49It's like the Michael Jackson thing, right?
00:03:51It's easy to jump on these bandwagons, particularly if you feel it fits a certain narrative in
00:03:57your mind.
00:03:59I'm begging you unbended knee to please, please, please be responsible with the information
00:04:06and the gossip that you spread.
00:04:12It is not responsible to pass these allegations along without some verification.
00:04:24No one can accuse anyone of anything, and one thing that I covered, of course, under
00:04:29the Epstein thing was that there was a lot of accusations that are thrown around that
00:04:34are not necessarily true.
00:04:36So just please, please, please be responsible.
00:04:43If you are wrong, and now I don't know the truth about this thing, I don't know the facts
00:04:46about this thing, I know that nothing has been admitted to or proven, obviously, in
00:04:50the court of law, whether it's civil or criminal.
00:04:53So if it fits a certain narrative, you have to be careful, right?
00:04:59If it fits a certain narrative, you have to be careful, right?
00:05:03So the people who said, oh, Biden is dead, or Biden is crippled, or Biden is in hospice,
00:05:08or Biden blah, blah, blah, blah, well, it fit a certain narrative, and then Biden comes
00:05:13out and walks around, and he gives that, it's funny, he gives this kind of thing, right?
00:05:18A reporter asks a question, and he just gives this weird grin like, why on earth would you
00:05:22ask that question?
00:05:23You know, it's just a weird thing.
00:05:25But he was ambulatory, he was walking around.
00:05:27But because it fit a particular narrative on the right, right, all the misinformation
00:05:32does not come from the left, all the misinformation does not come from the left.
00:05:35So because it fit a particular narrative on the right, the right spread this stuff, which
00:05:40is wrong.
00:05:41Please, please, please be skeptical, please, please, please.
00:05:47So yeah, he did transition, he did, I think he abandoned his family.
00:05:51So that's not good, that's known, that's understood, that's known, that's understood.
00:05:58But you have to, please, please, please stay factual, that's all I'm saying.
00:06:04Just please stay factual.
00:06:06And if you're going to spread this, you also have to, if you're going to spread it, if
00:06:10you're interested enough to spread the rumors, you have to be responsible enough to find
00:06:16the counter-arguments, right?
00:06:23If you are interested enough to spread the rumors, you must be responsible enough to
00:06:27paint the full picture.
00:06:28That's all I'm saying, that's all I'm saying.
00:06:31So I hope that you will consider doing that, all right.
00:06:35So let me get to your questions here.
00:06:41And we'll get to the audio question in just a sec.
00:06:45I, have you finished your book on peaceful parenting?
00:06:48I have, peacefulparenting.com.
00:06:51I am a new mom and I find I do have issues with occasional rage from my baby at times.
00:06:55Well, I'm absolutely happy to help for absolute, complete, and totally free.
00:06:59You can go to freedomain.com slash call, freedomain.com slash call, and you can request a call in.
00:07:07If there are children involved, you will absolutely move to the front of the queue.
00:07:11And I will find a way to do it, even if I did one parenting call at midnight till 2.30
00:07:16in the morning, which is not my peak time, but you can go to freedomain.com slash call.
00:07:21I will absolutely help you for as long as it takes for the sake of your baby, all for
00:07:25free.
00:07:26I mean, it's a show that gets released, you know all of that, but yes, so we can sort
00:07:31that out.
00:07:32All right.
00:07:33Hey Steph, long time fan, what was your favorite car you've owned during your life?
00:07:37I got to tell you, never been a car guy.
00:07:39I hate to say it.
00:07:41Never been a car guy.
00:07:42I have a soft spot for my very first car.
00:07:45So my very first car, this is going to sound kind of ridiculous, but I went from, within
00:07:51the span of a year, I went from making nothing to making 40K to making 60K to making 120K
00:08:03with benefits and bonuses and stocks and all of this is sort of way back.
00:08:07Boy, if this is 120K, I could buy you more than a carton of eggs a week.
00:08:12So as part of becoming an entrepreneur, I drove clients around from Fortune 500 companies,
00:08:18went to pick them up from the airport, gave them the tour, took them to comedy clubs.
00:08:23And so I had to buy a new car.
00:08:27So I got a car allowance and I was, of course, I'm a conserving kind of not spend kind of
00:08:31guy because I grew up really poor.
00:08:35And I bought a new Volvo S70 and I want, I love the Audi.
00:08:44The Audi had back in the day, this is in the nineties, had this thing called the Triptonic
00:08:49where you could go from basically manual to automatic and I love a manual car.
00:08:55So I had a really, really nice Volvo S70, 98, 98 Volvo S70.
00:09:00No, I guess it was in the nineties, yeah.
00:09:02So what happened was, oh, we said, no, it had to be earlier than that.
00:09:09So 66, 32, I think I was younger than that.
00:09:16Yeah.
00:09:17Anyway, so I looked at that, it was a red Volvo S70 and I absolutely loved that car.
00:09:24It looked like a little matchbox car, like the little toy cars you have as a kid.
00:09:27I loved that car the moment I saw it.
00:09:30And I just, I had a blast in that car, really, really liked it.
00:09:35So I liked that car, but it was frankly a bit of a lemon.
00:09:40I don't know if it was just mine or the model as a whole, but by the time I junked it, I
00:09:44drove that thing for like 13 years.
00:09:45And by the time I junked it, I just got pity money.
00:09:48You know how the dealers are just like, we'll just give you pity money.
00:09:53All right, so, but yeah, I, for me, a car is, I just, I want something efficient.
00:10:04I want something safe and I like something a bit larger and higher up.
00:10:08I don't like these sort of canoe cars where you've just kind of lower the ground.
00:10:11It feels like I'm half plowing through the tarmac.
00:10:14I like a car that's kind of up, give me an Imperial Walker, not a, whatever that one
00:10:20is that floats along the ground that they made with mirrors.
00:10:23So I've never been much of a car guy.
00:10:27So let me get to your questions here and then we'll play the audio question, which I'm very
00:10:31pleased about.
00:10:33All right, somebody writes, hi Stefan, war broke out in my country, missiles and drones
00:10:46flying above me and stabbing and shooting turned to normal daily activity.
00:10:51America is destroyed by our air force and army and everyone talking politics and glorifying
00:10:56war.
00:10:57Yeah, I mean, this is true all across the world that we need to find a way to embrace
00:11:04reason and evidence or it's reason and evidence or violence.
00:11:11These are the only two choices, reason or violence, reason or violence, reason or violence.
00:11:15And the more people are committed to violence, the less reason there will be, which is why
00:11:18censorship and violence go hand in hand.
00:11:21And the more people are committed to reasoning, the less violence there will be.
00:11:24So I'm really, really sorry, of course, about all of this, it's a terrifying and terrible
00:11:28situation we're living through.
00:11:29Steph, how can you explain religion to a six year old?
00:11:32Imagine they've never been in a church.
00:11:35No, but children are naturally religious.
00:11:38Children are naturally religious.
00:11:40Children really can't conceive of death, right?
00:11:41I mean, I remember my daughter when she was very, very little, the topic of death came
00:11:45up, I think, in one of her stories and it's like, and then you wake up again, right?
00:11:49So you can only really think of death as sleep that you then wake up from.
00:11:53So children are naturally religious because they're surrounded by gods, right?
00:11:58Incomprehensible giant beings with all the power in the known universe.
00:12:03And they can't conceive of death.
00:12:05So they think of death, the closest thing they can think of is death is falling asleep
00:12:10and then waking up.
00:12:11And that's, of course, what a lot of religions, in particular Christianity, would argue that
00:12:15death is a kind of sleep and you wake up in heaven or in hell or you wake up to be judged
00:12:19and so on.
00:12:20So religion to a six year old, imagine they've never been in a church.
00:12:25Well, I think six years old might be too young to explain religion.
00:12:32And I don't know why you'd need to at that point.
00:12:36All right.
00:12:40Steph, I would like to say thank you for all the information you put out there.
00:12:47Thank you very much for your appreciation.
00:12:50Are you familiar with Joel Littman?
00:12:54He seems to have a take on the national debt.
00:12:56His opinion is that it is nowhere as bad as it's made out to be.
00:12:59Just wondering what your thoughts were.
00:13:01Yeah, so is this the modern monetary theory thing?
00:13:04I did a debate with those guys, two of those guys, some years, right?
00:13:09Yeah, I mean, so I don't know much about Mr. Beast.
00:13:21I think I've flown past one or two of his videos, I guess like most people, just out
00:13:24of curiosity.
00:13:27But I will say this, that Mr. Beast, I mean, I don't know if there's some story behind
00:13:37his name, but I just think of the Beast, right?
00:13:41You can't get anywhere on YouTube without some significant moral compromises.
00:13:49Because if you don't make significant moral compromises about the truth, then you won't
00:13:54stay on YouTube.
00:13:55Now, I know he's not a particularly philosophical show and so on, but I do think that there's
00:13:59a certain amount of devilish approach to Mr. Beast, which is, I think the one that I saw
00:14:05was he had friends and he says, you know, you do these things and I'll give you the
00:14:09island.
00:14:10Whoever wins, I'll give you the island.
00:14:12So it is a way of controlling people in a way through throwing lots of money around.
00:14:15And I think he's made his money from crypto or something like that.
00:14:18So there is a certain amount of just throwing money around and having people do stuff.
00:14:23And it just seems, and it's all very frenetic and very crazy, fast cuts and hysteria and,
00:14:30you know, those soy boy cattle prod with a cactus up the ass kind of thumbnails and
00:14:34so on.
00:14:35So I just think with all of those resources, it would be nice for him to do a bit to spread.
00:14:40I mean, I know that PewDiePie went into a certain philosophy and parenting stuff and
00:14:43so on.
00:14:44And it would be nice for Mr. Beast, I know he does, you know, what he considers to be
00:14:48some good, you know, building wells in the third world and so on, but it would be nice
00:14:52for him to spread some virtue, some actual virtue, some actionable virtue.
00:14:56He's certainly got enough money to do so.
00:14:58But of course, the moment he starts spreading some actionable virtue, he's probably going
00:15:01to get kicked off.
00:15:02So, I mean, I just view everyone at the top there as compromised.
00:15:07What do you think about auto-suggestions for achieving a goal?
00:15:09For example, I believe in myself 10 times.
00:15:13Really?
00:15:15Yeah, two monetary theory podcasts.
00:15:20So 4855 and 4689.
00:15:25So, Mr. Beast was a randomly generated name from his PlayStation account.
00:15:31Yeah, I don't think so.
00:15:33Yeah, I don't think so.
00:15:38I don't think so, because Mr. and Beast are two obviously very, very common words and
00:15:44generally they don't do it that way.
00:15:46And you don't just say what people, don't just take what people say, especially online
00:15:49is as true.
00:15:56Yeah, the car, I know that meme of like, just let me die, right?
00:15:58Just let me die.
00:16:03Somebody says, oh, Zinf, hey, welcome back.
00:16:05I don't ever feel that I can thank you enough, Steph.
00:16:07Thank you again for everything.
00:16:09I appreciate that.
00:16:10Thank you.
00:16:11Blessed are the peacemakers.
00:16:14Sorry today if someone on an ATV running over a Trump supporter.
00:16:18People still embracing having political opponent murdered.
00:16:20People has hold of their hearts after it gets hold of their brains.
00:16:24Yeah.
00:16:30Yeah.
00:16:33How do you use money to spread virtue?
00:16:35What are you talking about?
00:16:40How do you use money to spread virtue?
00:16:44I literally just told you that I'm giving away peaceful parenting for free.
00:16:48And it costs a lot of money to research, prepare, write, edit, record and publish peaceful parenting.
00:16:59You know, if I look at all of the money that was spent, my time, I had a researcher or
00:17:04two on it for quite some time, the actual writing, the editing, the feedback, the formatting,
00:17:12the e-books, the recording, the audio book, which is like 16 hours or so.
00:17:17There is a massive amount of money in that book, which I'm giving away for free.
00:17:24So, you have money and you have fame and you use it to spread virtue.
00:17:31But then, but then, if you really do spread virtue and it actually starts to take root,
00:17:39then you'll be attacked, right?
00:17:44So, yeah, with regards, it's funny, yeah, setting up the website, we actually, we paid
00:17:48for the website, paid for peacefulparenting.com.
00:17:52The debt will ultimately be paid through inflation.
00:17:54No, you can't pay a debt through inflation.
00:17:57Yeah, you can't, you can't, you can't pay a debt through inflation.
00:18:04So, regarding these affirmations, many, many, many years ago, I got a song stuck in my head
00:18:13from Genesis, just when I thought it was going all right, I found out I'm wrong when I thought
00:18:18it was right.
00:18:19It's always the same.
00:18:20It's just a shame.
00:18:21That's all.
00:18:22And it kind of got stuck in my head.
00:18:25It was my brother's favorite song for a while.
00:18:28And I actually had to, I realized it was programming me negatively, right?
00:18:31Just when I thought it was going all right, I found out I'm wrong when I thought it was
00:18:33right.
00:18:34It's always the same.
00:18:35It's just a shame.
00:18:36That's all, right?
00:18:39And it's about a confidence-busting dissociative bad love affair.
00:18:45And so I had to change that.
00:18:46And the only, I realized it was wearing grooves in my brain, so I had to change that.
00:18:49Just when I thought it was going all wrong, I found out I'm right.
00:18:51When I thought it was wrong, it's always the same.
00:18:54It's not a shame.
00:18:55That's all, right?
00:18:56Just had to, and then the song, the possession, right?
00:18:58Songs program you.
00:18:59They're kind of like possessions, right?
00:19:01Lyrics burrow deep into your brain.
00:19:04Tone, lyrics, they are usually fairly demonic affirmations, right?
00:19:10And they make you guilt, right?
00:19:17The paper today tells of war and of waste, but you turn right over to the TV page, right?
00:19:22In other words, you're a bad person.
00:19:25Turn it off if you want to.
00:19:27Close your eyes, it'll go away, right?
00:19:30A Sting and Phil Collins did that song on a Phil Collins album.
00:19:34I can't remember which one it was.
00:19:36And Driven to Tears is another police song.
00:19:40One world is enough.
00:19:41One world, not three.
00:19:43It's a subject we rarely mention, but why do we have this little invention?
00:19:46By pretending they're a different world from me, I show my responsibility, right?
00:19:51One world is enough for all of us.
00:19:53So it's all about guilt, and it's all about programming, and it's all about socialism
00:19:58and all of that kind of stuff, right?
00:19:59So I think that negative affirmations in songs, I have to be somewhat careful about the songs that I listen to
00:20:06because they do program you, right?
00:20:09And certainly when I'm writing, of course, when I'm writing, I can't have any lyrical music,
00:20:14a kind of music with lyrics.
00:20:15So I've got an extensive collection of non-lyrical music, all the way from Gregorian chants to
00:20:24I'm a big fan of Raikouda-style Paris, Texas slide guitar.
00:20:28And I did a lot of southern Texas blues slide guitar stuff when I was writing the character Roman
00:20:35in my novel The Future.
00:20:40And so, yeah, be careful.
00:20:42So I think the affirmations, I mean, I don't think they do anything harmful,
00:20:46but I think you should probably take the time learning some practical skill
00:20:50rather than chanting to yourself.
00:20:54All right, let's see here.
00:20:57Freedom in private school, when?
00:21:00Now we have Phil Collins who's been to Lolita Island, yeah.
00:21:06I don't understand why I feel so paralyzed and anxious when I have thoughts of leaving my country,
00:21:10which is at war right now.
00:21:11Is it propaganda?
00:21:12Well, I don't think so.
00:21:14I think it would be that for men, we are programmed to stand and fight
00:21:18because we are disposable, which is why we have so many more sperm than women have eggs.
00:21:25Rap has to be the most destructive form of music out there.
00:21:28And Billie Eilish.
00:21:34Could you explain anarchist ideology, Steph?
00:21:37I've always thought it was just leftist causing chaos,
00:21:39but after listening to some old streams, I seem to be wrong.
00:21:42Donating on FDR.com and reading your books on anarchy after the stream.
00:21:48Steph did a Joe Rogan podcast on anarchism, I think involuntarily.
00:21:52Yeah, Joe Rogan was all like, hey man, love what you're doing.
00:21:55Anything I can do to help?
00:21:56After we did two shows together and then on the third show,
00:21:59I don't know if he got a phone call or something,
00:22:01but it turned into an absolute ambush and bitch fest.
00:22:05And because, you know, people, he's like, I've got this all queued up, man.
00:22:08And he plays something.
00:22:09I'm like, did I say something insane?
00:22:11I try not to.
00:22:12In general, that's my business plan is don't say anything insane.
00:22:17Anyway, you can find it on FDRpodcast.com.
00:22:21What about visualizing yourself achieving a goal?
00:22:23Does it help?
00:22:26I've never, I mean, I've had visions.
00:22:29You know, when I was young, of course, I had visions of, you know,
00:22:32speaking to big crowds and a big audience and all kinds of cool stuff.
00:22:40I mean, that stuff kind of came true.
00:22:42I had visions.
00:22:43It wasn't a visualization.
00:22:45It was, I had visions when I was a kid that on Y2K,
00:22:48I was going to be wearing nice clothes and working in an office,
00:22:52doing something cool.
00:22:53And that is actually what was going on, on that.
00:23:00Oh, is that the, wait, is that the, oh, is that right?
00:23:03Oh, it's still there.
00:23:04Cool.
00:23:08Wow.
00:23:09Look at how youthful, look at how youthful.
00:23:12That was very cool.
00:23:16How cool, 10 years ago.
00:23:18Wow.
00:23:22Wow, wow, wow.
00:23:31Yeah, Joe said, I want to join your cult.
00:23:33How do I sign up?
00:23:34He was very friendly.
00:23:35And yeah, it was cool.
00:23:36It was cool.
00:23:37It were cool.
00:23:3910 years ago.
00:23:40Wow.
00:23:41That's wild.
00:23:42I was still in my 40s.
00:23:46Very cool.
00:23:57Yeah, there's a price.
00:23:59I mean, there's a price to fame that I don't want to pay.
00:24:03There's a price to fame I don't want to pay.
00:24:06So, the anarchist ideology, it's not an anarchist ideology.
00:24:15It's just, we should not use violence to achieve our goals.
00:24:22I mean, it's not really an anarchist ideology.
00:24:24We should not initiate violence to achieve our goals.
00:24:27It's, see, the anarchist or voluntarist philosophy is the simplest thing known to man.
00:24:35See, all who would corrupt you, overcomplicate.
00:24:39All who will corrupt you, all who want to corrupt you, will overcomplicate things.
00:24:44And all who wish to liberate you, simplify things.
00:24:48Right?
00:24:49I mean, if you think of the phone, your tap, swipey phone, it's very simple for you to work.
00:24:54And therefore, it's become very popular.
00:24:56You know, DOS 2.0 was not very easy to use.
00:25:00It's booted up and there's a C colon backslash prompt or C colon greater than sign.
00:25:08And, you know, CD.
00:25:09I remember creating all these batch files in DOS to launch my WordPerfect 5.1 and things like that.
00:25:15And so, all who want to liberate you will simplify things.
00:25:22And all who want to enslave you will complicate things.
00:25:25Which is why when there's a philosopher out there and you can't make head or tail.
00:25:30Or Jordan Peterson, maybe sometimes.
00:25:32You can't make head or tail of what the philosopher is saying.
00:25:35It's because he's in league with sinister forces who want to enslave and control you.
00:25:39So, anarchism simply says, hey, you know that stuff that they told us in kindergarten?
00:25:48What did they tell us in kindergarten?
00:25:51Don't grab.
00:25:52Don't take what isn't yours.
00:25:54And don't hit.
00:25:57Right?
00:25:58Don't take.
00:25:59Don't hit.
00:26:00Don't steal.
00:26:01Don't hit.
00:26:02Respect property rights.
00:26:04Don't initiate the use of force.
00:26:06That's what we say to kids who are three or four or five or more or sometimes younger.
00:26:13Respect property.
00:26:15That's not your toy.
00:26:17Give it back.
00:26:18And don't hit.
00:26:19Don't hit him.
00:26:20Don't hit.
00:26:21Right?
00:26:22So, don't use violence and respect property.
00:26:27Now, anarchism, I suppose, is the truly staggering idea that maybe that's just true.
00:26:39Maybe that's just true.
00:26:41Maybe we should just respect property and we should not use violence to achieve our goals.
00:26:50Honestly, it's not more complicated than that.
00:26:55Maybe the stuff they told you in kindergarten is true.
00:27:02Respect property.
00:27:04Don't use force.
00:27:05Maybe it's just true and universal.
00:27:07And if you hold one principle central and universal, all of society gets radically redrawn.
00:27:14But that's fine.
00:27:15That happens all the time.
00:27:17Right?
00:27:18I mean, Einsteinian physics rewrote Newtonian physics.
00:27:21Newtonian physics rewrote Ptolemaic physics.
00:27:23Right?
00:27:24They got simpler and clearer and simpler and clearer.
00:27:27And more universal and more practical.
00:27:33Even though Einstein was a complete psycho who wanted to marry his cousin and certainly praised how wonderful the mass-murdering sociopath Vladimir Lenin was.
00:27:43So, there's nothing really to explain.
00:27:45Everybody already knows anarchist ideology.
00:27:47Everybody already knows it.
00:27:48Because we were all told and taught and it was inflicted upon us when we were children.
00:27:57So, there's nothing that needs to be explained.
00:28:02The only thing that needs to be understood is the moral principles.
00:28:06It's a pretty radical idea.
00:28:08So, see if you can bend your head around this.
00:28:10Right?
00:28:11Anarchism is the radical idea that the moral principles that you told were universal as a kid are in fact universal.
00:28:20You know, because they didn't say, well, you can grab Johnny's toy and push him into the ground outside but not inside.
00:28:28When it's sunny but not when it's cloudy.
00:28:31You can do it at the mall but not at home.
00:28:34Right?
00:28:35They said you have to respect property rights and not use violence to get what you want everywhere all the time no matter what.
00:28:42There's no excuse for violence.
00:28:46And they tell you it's universal.
00:28:49They don't say, well, okay, so don't push the kid down the stairs if he annoys you or you want his toy.
00:28:58Don't do it in the morning but it's fine in the afternoon.
00:29:01They didn't say that.
00:29:04When you went on vacation, well, you shouldn't steal at home but it's fine at Disneyland.
00:29:14Right?
00:29:15You could go to another country.
00:29:18You fly for hours and hours and hours.
00:29:22You take a cab.
00:29:23You're virtually on the other side of the world.
00:29:26Have the moral rules changed?
00:29:28No, they have not.
00:29:31Don't use force.
00:29:33Don't steal stuff.
00:29:36You fly to Japan, Australia, Thailand, Iceland, Alaska, doesn't matter.
00:29:42Everywhere you go.
00:29:45It's not a cultural thing.
00:29:47It's not a religious thing.
00:29:49It's a universal, absolute, moral, clear rule.
00:29:55Don't take stuff.
00:29:58Don't hit.
00:30:00They say it's universal.
00:30:02So anarchism is just the radical idea that you won't lie to constantly as a child.
00:30:09But they were right.
00:30:11That morality is universal.
00:30:13Respect for property rights is a moral absolute that's universal.
00:30:16And a commitment to nonviolence and the achievement of goals is absolute and universal.
00:30:26It's just the radical idea that maybe they weren't.
00:30:31They may be.
00:30:32Just maybe.
00:30:33They weren't lying when they told you what was right and what was wrong.
00:30:50So, you already know it.
00:30:53You already know it.
00:30:54You've already been told it.
00:30:55And I just take seriously what everyone told me as a kid.
00:31:11Anarchy is strictness with regards to the NAP.
00:31:14No, anarchy is the moral rules I was taught as a child,
00:31:18that I was taught were absolute and universal, are in fact absolute and universal.
00:31:22Anarchy is the unfortunate mental response that occurs,
00:31:26or the mental position that occurs when you listen to the moralists of your childhood.
00:31:35Right?
00:31:45It's the Lord's plan to deliver us from evil.
00:31:47Forgive only those who apologize for not doing wrong and violence is okay.
00:31:51If they deserve it.
00:31:52Okay.
00:31:53Forgive us this day.
00:31:54Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
00:31:56Thy kingdom come.
00:31:57Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:31:59Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
00:32:01as we forgive those who trespass against us.
00:32:04And deliver us from evil.
00:32:05For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever.
00:32:08Amen.
00:32:15Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
00:32:17Thy kingdom come.
00:32:18Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:32:20That's a preamble.
00:32:24Let me make sure I didn't skip any bits.
00:32:28It's been a while.
00:32:33Where are we at?
00:32:40Our Father who in heaven, hallowed be your name.
00:32:44Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:32:46Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts
00:32:48as we have also forgiven our debtors.
00:32:51And lead us not into temptation or testing.
00:32:53Deliver us from evil.
00:32:59Yeah.
00:33:00I'd have to go into the back story behind the prayer in order to do it justice.
00:33:04It's, of course, a very famous prayer.
00:33:06But all right.
00:33:09You missed lead us not into temptation.
00:33:10Thank you.
00:33:11I appreciate that.
00:33:12You're right.
00:33:13You're right I did.
00:33:14All right.
00:33:15Let's get to your questions.
00:33:16What fictional writing process do you try and reach a daily page goal like Stephen King?
00:33:20Well, I like it.
00:33:21I mean, I like it when I'm on a real roll and I can do like 7,000 words in a day.
00:33:25So my writing process is to just try and surf.
00:33:29Let the creativity go roughly guided along the plot.
00:33:32Be spontaneous enough that it sounds lively.
00:33:34And stop when inspiration dies.
00:33:39Do not push inspiration.
00:33:41Do not push inspiration.
00:33:43Inspiration is just that magic joy juice.
00:33:45It's like a geyser.
00:33:46You're just wrestling the language that's coming up from the void of the brain.
00:33:50And I do not in any way, shape, or form, and I learned this the hard way, I do not push.
00:33:56If I want to finish a scene and I feel the fountain is drying up, just stop.
00:34:01Mid-sentence, sometimes just stop.
00:34:04Because everything after that is going to have to be thrown out anyway.
00:34:07I, of course, write with intentionality.
00:34:09I have a plot outline.
00:34:11But I also want to play within the plot outline.
00:34:15Because it needs to be spontaneous because it's a mirror to life.
00:34:18And life is sometimes spontaneous.
00:34:22That is my writing process.
00:34:25All right.
00:34:26So let's try thisy-this.
00:34:32And let's get an answer here because I think this is a writing process one as well.
00:34:36All right.
00:34:37So here we go.
00:34:38Here we go.
00:34:39Satellite radio.
00:34:40Okay.
00:34:41This is from Cale.
00:34:42Let's give it a listen.
00:34:43Hi.
00:34:44Good evening, Steph.
00:34:45I had a question in regards to the creative process of your fictional narrative writing.
00:34:53I was wondering if you could touch on how your writing improved post-talk therapy.
00:35:03Did you notice a significant difference in your creative ability or thinking or writing
00:35:10process once you completed your therapy?
00:35:13Do you think you improved a lot?
00:35:15Do you think you were able to create more empathetic characters?
00:35:18Again, I'm just curious on what was the aftermath of your creative process when you completed
00:35:27your talk therapy?
00:35:29Thank you.
00:35:31I appreciate the question.
00:35:32That's very interesting.
00:35:33So my talk therapy involved a lot of creative writing because I was writing down these massive
00:35:41and contentious arguments I had about life.
00:35:44Now, when you are heavily influenced by a writer, crawling out from under that shadow
00:35:48is really tough.
00:35:49And of course, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Rand, the Russian writers influenced me enormously,
00:35:54which is why my first novel was set in Russia.
00:35:57And the first play that I adapted was an adaptation of Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev,
00:36:02which I'm actually listening to again as an audiobook at the moment because it's a great
00:36:06story and beautifully written.
00:36:08But for me, the wrestle has always been between the message and the humanity, right?
00:36:18So this is a real challenge in art.
00:36:20So forgive me for a bit of a rant here.
00:36:22It's a real challenge in art.
00:36:23The more you wrestle your story to deliver a message, the more dehumanized the characters
00:36:28become.
00:36:29The more you humanize the characters and make them absolutely vivid and lifelike, the less
00:36:34you're able to communicate a moral message.
00:36:37Now, we can see this, of course, in Ayn Rand, who's really the ultimate in delivering a
00:36:42moral message with fairly dehumanized characters.
00:36:45And Ayn Rand herself didn't really get the unconscious, although she had an affair with
00:36:49psychologist Nathaniel Brandon.
00:36:50She said, I don't really understand psychology at all.
00:36:53So she was a real control freak.
00:36:56And that's fine.
00:36:57I mean, so was Jennifer Seinfeld.
00:36:59But she was a real control freak when it came to bending the characters to fit the story.
00:37:06Now, I can't write like that.
00:37:08It's not how my creative process works, and it doesn't flow for me that way.
00:37:13I feel that if I order my characters around to follow a narrative, they rebel and won't
00:37:21give me any life back.
00:37:22They won't give me any dialogue that's really spontaneous and interesting.
00:37:25And I don't want to fashion the dialogue like I'm writing a commercial for virtue.
00:37:29So for me, there's just always been this huge tension in writing.
00:37:34I want the characters to be deep, vivid, alive, which means they have to surprise me, which
00:37:38means they have to surprise the audience, which is how you know they're alive.
00:37:42I mean, if you have been in those relationships where you just know, you know what's coming
00:37:47out of the person's mouth, the NPCs, right?
00:37:49I remember doing my street interviews in my documentary, which you should definitely check
00:37:55out at freedomain.com slash documentaries, Sunset in the Golden State.
00:38:00I remember there were a couple of times that one guy in particular, like the moment I mentioned
00:38:05immigration, he was a young guy in college and a very pretty girlfriend and all of that.
00:38:10And he had that sort of hipster, you know, beard and hair.
00:38:13And when I first mentioned immigration, you could just see he was programmed, froze up,
00:38:17and you knew exactly what was coming out, the hostility, the tension, the maybe this
00:38:20guy is a really bad guy, he would think about me, right?
00:38:24So I can't be in relationships where I know everything that's coming out of the person's mouth.
00:38:30Now, I don't want crazy random stuff coming out of the mouth.
00:38:33So you have to have some consistency, but also some novelty as a human being, right?
00:38:39I mean, I don't know what's going to come out of my wife's mouth the next time we chat,
00:38:43but I know it's going to be interesting and engaging and probably very funny.
00:38:47She is absolutely hilarious.
00:38:49And so she doesn't, I mean, you come to these shows, why?
00:38:52Because you don't know what's coming out of my mouth, because otherwise I would be programmed
00:38:58and there would be no spontaneity, no joy, no life, no energy.
00:39:01I would just be a good actor repeating talking points with great emotion.
00:39:06But at the same time, you don't want random stuff, I don't know what Steph's talking about,
00:39:10and I don't know why he could possibly have this position and so on, right?
00:39:13So you come here for variety and spontaneity and hopefully some humor,
00:39:20but within the confines of generalized integrity and purpose.
00:39:24And so the way that I do these shows and what works for me and I think what works for you
00:39:30is to have spontaneity, energy, curiosity, and life and some unexpected things
00:39:38all within the confines of general principles of integrity and purpose.
00:39:44So the people that I love in my life, I don't know exactly what they're going to say next,
00:39:49but I know it's not going to be, let's kick a homeless guy and rob a bank.
00:39:54They're not going to say that, right?
00:39:56So it's all within the confines of reasonable levels of integrity and consistency and purpose.
00:40:04So for me, there's that tension.
00:40:07The more I dial up the humanity of the characters and they become as real to me as anyone I've ever known,
00:40:13the more I dial, because as a novelist, you can go right through people's eyeballs.
00:40:17Like you go in like a little viper landing on Galactica's side, right?
00:40:21You just go, you sail right in through the eyeballs of the character, you go right into their spine,
00:40:25you know everything about their history.
00:40:28The characters cannot lie to you.
00:40:31It's a wild thing as a novelist.
00:40:33The characters absolutely cannot lie to you.
00:40:36They can lie to others, they can lie to themselves, but they can't lie to you.
00:40:39You know absolutely everything about the characters.
00:40:45But the more you are depicting real life, the less meaning and moral you can get out of it.
00:40:56Because, I mean, okay, let me ask you this.
00:40:59You can answer this question if you wouldn't mind.
00:41:01How many people in your life, when you look at their lives, how many people in your life,
00:41:12and it's probably older people, do you look at their lives and say,
00:41:17the moral lessons of this person's life is incredibly inspiring?
00:41:26The moral lessons of this, my uncle, my aunt, my grandmother, my grandfather,
00:41:31what a hero, what a noble guy, boy did he ever give me moral lessons,
00:41:34did he fight the good fight, and did he achieve great things,
00:41:37and get attacked, and get knocked down, and get back up again,
00:41:39and all of these things, how many people do you know in your life,
00:41:43when you were growing up in particular, when maybe it was a teacher or someone
00:41:46who just went to the wall for the truth, fought the good fight, and inspired you?
00:41:54Isn't that sad?
00:42:00It's zero for just about everyone.
00:42:06It's zero for just about everyone, and that is one of the saddest things in the world.
00:42:16One person, one person has one person, two people have one person, everyone else is zero.
00:42:25Now, isn't that just really, really, really heartbreaking?
00:42:33Isn't that just really, really, really heartbreaking?
00:42:45So this is what I mean.
00:42:46If people are to be real to the reader, they have to have no moral center,
00:42:53because almost everyone we know in our lives, throughout almost all of our lives,
00:42:59have no moral center, no moral purpose, no moral truth, no moral aspirations.
00:43:06All they do is fake and lie about it all.
00:43:10That's all they do, is fake and lie about it all.
00:43:21That's all.
00:43:26So I want the characters to be real, but the more real the characters,
00:43:33the less they can serve the moral message.
00:43:42It's horrible. It's a horrible, horrible situation to be in as a writer.
00:43:45I enjoy the challenge, but it's horrible, right?
00:43:52Thank you for the tip. I appreciate that.
00:43:57And I'm hoping that through this show, you can try to be that to others,
00:44:02particularly younger people coming up, that you can be that moral inspiration,
00:44:07that moral message. I hope that you can be that, because Lord above, Lord above,
00:44:12we know how much we need it, right? Lord above, we know how much we need it,
00:44:18desperately, desperately, desperately, desperately.
00:44:24So as a writer, as a novelist, I want people to be as real as possible,
00:44:29because I don't want them to be these machines of moral explanation.
00:44:34I want people to be as real as possible, but the more real they are,
00:44:39the less you can wrestle them into serving any kind of moral purpose.
00:44:51So it's a very, very tough situation as a writer. It's just brutal.
00:44:57So I'm constantly writing that.
00:45:00And the more you try and control the characters to have them serve the moral plot,
00:45:04the more it turns into one of these cheesy Reefer Madness after-school specials
00:45:08where nobody feels real, and therefore the moral message doesn't land.
00:45:11You want people to be real so that the moral message lands.
00:45:15But the more real you make the people, the less the moral message will land.
00:45:19And the more you make the moral message land, the less real the people are.
00:45:24So you either identify with them and it's just chaos,
00:45:27or you don't identify with them and the story is preachy.
00:45:34Hey, Alan. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. Thank you very much.
00:45:39And remember, you can go to freedomain.com slash donate.
00:45:42Oh, and by the way, we have new comments.
00:45:45If you're going to donate from freedomain.com slash donate,
00:45:47you have a comment thing which counts as a super chat, so to speak.
00:45:50So you can do freedomain.com slash donate.
00:45:53You can type your question in and it will come up as a question to me.
00:45:58So you can do that. You can do that.
00:46:00All right. So I think we got that. Downy, downy.
00:46:04Let me just check and see. Did I miss any other questions at the moment?
00:46:07I don't think. How do you create and structure your plotline, Steph?
00:46:13Oh, yes. There are questions here.
00:46:16Okay. How do you create and structure your plotline, Steph?
00:46:21So one of the biggest issues that I tackled in my last novel
00:46:29is the problem of vanity and self-deception.
00:46:33So I won't get into all these spoilers, but vanity and self-deception.
00:46:43So I try not to have a plot that punishes characters.
00:46:52The bad guy gets hit by a train or something like that.
00:46:55I try not to have a plotline that punishes characters.
00:46:59I try to have a story wherein the personality is the punishment.
00:47:06The bad ideas, the vanity, the sins, the corruption, the temptations that are succumbed to,
00:47:12that the bad personality is the outcome.
00:47:16And if people wish to survive the downward trajectory of their bad ideas
00:47:22and their vanity and their avoidance of the truth,
00:47:24they have to find some way to grab a hold of the truth.
00:47:30Rachel's parents do not. Arlo does not.
00:47:34The aunt on crystal does not. And some people do.
00:47:40And some people do.
00:47:45And some people do.
00:47:47Can you pull up? Can you find the joystick to pull up when a plane is going down?
00:47:53And the purpose of philosophy, of course, is to have your plane fly normally,
00:47:56but generally society is shooting us down all the time,
00:47:59because wherever we are over the target, there unto do we get the flack.
00:48:03And so society shoots you down all the time.
00:48:05Do you have a joystick to pull up so you don't crash?
00:48:07So in my plots, what I want is not for external circumstances to dictate action,
00:48:16but for the internal beliefs, and in particular the sins, the vanities,
00:48:21the angers, the avoidance of truth, the desire for status rather than integrity,
00:48:27because those are really two opposites.
00:48:29So I'm very, very much wanting to show here's what happens if you do wrong,
00:48:35you go to hell.
00:48:37And here's what happens if you do right, you stay in heaven.
00:48:40And here's what happens if you transition from wrong to right.
00:48:44Because it is not the great sins that take us down.
00:48:50The devil is not big.
00:48:53The devil is petty.
00:48:56It is the little errors, the little avoidances, the little vanities that take us down.
00:49:04There's no boss fight in corruption.
00:49:07It's like a bunch of mosquitoes.
00:49:09You just get tired of swatting away, and you just let them feast,
00:49:12and you lose yourself.
00:49:14It's all the little things.
00:49:16So think of why you don't talk about particular topics in the world.
00:49:20Why did that guy freeze up the moment I mentioned immigration?
00:49:23Why?
00:49:24All the little tweaks and insults and ostracisms and threats and modeling
00:49:31and propaganda, all these tiny little things just kind of slowly put you
00:49:35on these train tracks where you become an NPC and don't have any free will.
00:49:39That's hell to me.
00:49:42To be bubbling over with truth and silenced not by the guns of August,
00:49:48but the mites and gnats of early summer.
00:49:56To die not from a giant sale of your soul for a giant place in the world,
00:50:04but a little whittling away of every part of you like dropping a piece of Lego
00:50:07every day.
00:50:09The whittling away of a little part of you until you just kind of give up.
00:50:18I mean, how do marriages end?
00:50:21They don't usually end in a big fiery disaster that comes out of nowhere.
00:50:26They end because you get restricted a little bit, restricted a little bit,
00:50:31restricted a little bit.
00:50:32How do economies die?
00:50:33How do your freedoms die?
00:50:34They die because of whittling away and whittling away and little by little
00:50:37by little.
00:50:41Oh, don't, you know, like when you got to hyper-controlling mom or whatever
00:50:45and you're just trying to stack the fucking dishwasher.
00:50:49Oh, no, they need to do it this way.
00:50:51Oh, don't have the knives go up.
00:50:53Oh, the cups go on the top and it's like little by little by little she's
00:50:57turning you into as much of a machine as the dishwasher.
00:51:03You're trying to cook a meal.
00:51:05Oh, no, that's too much salt.
00:51:06No, you need a little oregano.
00:51:07No, you stir it a little bit more.
00:51:08No, do this, no, do that.
00:51:09And it's not training, it's just controlling.
00:51:18You get so controlled in some of these relationships that your free will dies
00:51:23not with a bang but a whimper, right?
00:51:29It's like a giant church where you need light to read
00:51:35and write your future.
00:51:36There's a thousand candles.
00:51:40There's a thousand candles in the church.
00:51:47With a thousand candles, you can read, you can write,
00:51:51you can do your business.
00:51:56And then someone joins you in the church and they're like,
00:52:03oh, this candle's burning too long.
00:52:05They wet finger it, out it goes.
00:52:07So you still have 999 candles left.
00:52:11You can read, you can write, you can do your business,
00:52:13you can clean, you can pray.
00:52:18And then you don't even notice the next five or 10 or 15
00:52:21or maybe even 20 candles.
00:52:23It's just a couple of reverse stars.
00:52:28You know how stars are little bits of light in a bowl of night.
00:52:34But in the church, now you start to see like gaps in the teeth.
00:52:39You start to see these little dark spots.
00:52:42So you go and maybe light a few and whatever.
00:52:45But it's not worth lighting them all.
00:52:46Some are kind of high up, some are kind of far away.
00:52:49It's a hassle.
00:52:50I'm going to get splashed wax on my fingers.
00:52:52I want to climb up and maybe I'll knock over more.
00:52:54And, you know, long story short, just bit by bit, bit by bit.
00:52:59And you light some back up just as, you know,
00:53:01people push back on the slow descending claustrophobic nets
00:53:05of the restrictions on their liberties and speech, little by little.
00:53:12And then you're like, damn, what the hell's wrong with my eyes?
00:53:14I can barely see anything.
00:53:15Holy crap.
00:53:17Oh, man, I got to get my eyes looked at.
00:53:19And you look up.
00:53:20And instead of there being a few gapped toothed darknesses in a sea of light,
00:53:27there's only a few lights left in a sea of dark.
00:53:31You have taken the night sky and reversed it.
00:53:38Or really, you've taken the day sky.
00:53:41You've taken the reverse image of the night sky and made it the real thing.
00:53:44Instead of it being mostly white with a few spots of dark,
00:53:46it's now mostly dark with a few spots of light.
00:53:54And you strain your eyes and you strain your eyes.
00:53:57And you get tired.
00:53:58And your eyes are squinty.
00:54:03And you can't find your matches.
00:54:05And you're like, oh, man, I'll just, I'm tired.
00:54:11I'm going to go to bed and I'll light this stuff in the morning.
00:54:16I'm going to figure it out in the morning.
00:54:20But there is no morning because those are your only lights.
00:54:25So you go to bed looking three or four candles still guttering away
00:54:28and still those shadowy forces going back and forth,
00:54:31wet fingering them out, blowing them out with dying breath.
00:54:36You wake up in one of those terrible situations.
00:54:41It's actually in The Hobbit.
00:54:43If you've ever been in a place so dark you can't tell the difference
00:54:45between opening and closing your eyes, well, that's your church.
00:54:48It's out.
00:54:50It's all out.
00:54:52All the stars are gone.
00:54:53All the light is gone.
00:54:59All the matches are gone.
00:55:02There's no light.
00:55:04And it is dark forever and ever.
00:55:06Amen.
00:55:09Because you never fought the beasts blowing out the candles.
00:55:19And that's how relationships die.
00:55:23A little bit of control.
00:55:24Do it this way.
00:55:25Do it that way.
00:55:26Be a little different.
00:55:27Don't do this.
00:55:28You're too loud at parties.
00:55:29You tell too many stories.
00:55:30You interrupt people too much.
00:55:31You talk too much.
00:55:32You try to be too funny.
00:55:33Little candles going out.
00:55:35All the spontaneity.
00:55:38Masonry crashes down upon a break in the spine of every spontaneous moment.
00:55:46Just do it a little bit this way.
00:55:47Just do it a little bit that way.
00:55:48Don't be this.
00:55:49Don't laugh so loud.
00:55:50Don't do this.
00:55:56The lights go out, bit by bit, slow.
00:55:59And you put them back up sometimes.
00:56:00And sometimes it seems like they're almost back to normal,
00:56:02but there's this relentless pressure to control, to minimize, to silence.
00:56:07You ever have those relationships where just everyone tells you that
00:56:10everything you do is wrong?
00:56:16Everything you do is wrong.
00:56:19Just not totally wrong.
00:56:20Just a little inappropriate.
00:56:22This is the HR.
00:56:23Well, you know, it's not really how we do things around here.
00:56:28This is not quite right.
00:56:29Little inappropriate.
00:56:32Right?
00:56:40That's it.
00:56:41That's your life.
00:56:44Bit by bit.
00:56:47Bit by bit.
00:56:51Don't mow the lawn straight up and down.
00:56:53Go in a circle.
00:56:54It's more efficient.
00:57:01When you wash your hands, remember to get under your fingernails.
00:57:03Do this.
00:57:04Do it this way.
00:57:09Just this vague discontent with just about everything you do,
00:57:13and this vague impatience to just have you improve.
00:57:17Just do it this way.
00:57:18It's better.
00:57:19I'm trying to help you.
00:57:21I'm trying to help you be more efficient.
00:57:24Right?
00:57:27Bit by bit.
00:57:31Bit by bit by bit.
00:57:35Your spontaneity, your confidence, your joy just goes out.
00:57:46Each brief candle.
00:57:48Little bit darker.
00:57:50Not too bad.
00:57:51You can still see.
00:57:52A little bit darker.
00:57:53You've got to squint a little bit.
00:57:54You'll fix it later.
00:57:55A little bit darker.
00:57:56I'll go light some stuff.
00:57:57That's a little bit better.
00:57:58A little bit darker.
00:57:59Because those who wish to erase you are relentless.
00:58:07Those who wish to erase you will never stop.
00:58:11They are relentless.
00:58:13There is no end to your diminishing when you're in that death spiral.
00:58:19There is no point at which they say,
00:58:22You have arrived.
00:58:23You are perfect.
00:58:24I have nothing left to criticize.
00:58:27Criticism in general is the act of exercising power over the previously broken.
00:58:38It is an exercise of power.
00:58:41It is not a desire for improvement.
00:58:45And these little chip away things.
00:58:48And eventually you either die or rebel.
00:58:53That's it.
00:58:54You either die or you rebel.
00:58:58And the rebellion is incomprehensible to people who don't know where it's coming from.
00:59:09The rebellion is shocking.
00:59:13Chip, chip, chip.
00:59:14Bit, bit, bit.
00:59:16Suppress, suppress, suppress.
00:59:18Control, control, control.
00:59:19And eventually you're like,
00:59:20God, stop it!
00:59:23And then what happens?
00:59:24People are like,
00:59:25Whoa, where did that come from?
00:59:27I'm just trying to help.
00:59:31And how can you solve that?
00:59:36How can you solve that?
00:59:42Spoiler.
00:59:45You can't.
00:59:48You can't solve that.
00:59:51The people who chip away at everything all the time relentlessly and are never satisfied
00:59:59are soul murderers.
01:00:06You're never so controlled that they will stop trying to control you.
01:00:12Because they are trying to control you.
01:00:15But of course, the great tragedy is they completely lack control within their own minds because they cannot stop trying to control you.
01:00:24And because they cannot stop trying to control you, they are exercising or displaying their complete lack of self-control.
01:00:36And so they will nitpick you into half insanity.
01:00:39And when you try to save yourself through energetic acts of rebellion and frustration,
01:00:47well, then you've got to learn how to control your temper because that just came out of nowhere.
01:00:52I'm just trying to help.
01:00:54But you're always doing these things.
01:00:56You can't say always.
01:00:57They just nitpick and police everything you say.
01:01:05Yeah, the task is not as important as the relationship.
01:01:08Right, right, right.
01:01:19You can't win.
01:01:22Don't be in relationships with people who try to change you.
01:01:27That is not a relationship.
01:01:30That is a power play.
01:01:33That is grooming you to inconsequentiality.
01:01:39You cannot be in relationships with people who are trying to change you.
01:01:50Now, people will say, and I understand this, they'll say, no, no, no, they're just trying to help.
01:01:55Right, they're just trying to help.
01:01:58And of course, I have a standing rule with my wife that anytime she wants to correct my driving, she's absolutely welcome to.
01:02:07If I don't happen to see something or anytime my wife wants to correct my driving, I absolutely enthusiastically request that she do so.
01:02:17So what's the difference?
01:02:21Well, driving matters, right?
01:02:23How you stack the dishwasher doesn't matter.
01:02:27Oh, but we could be 5% more efficient.
01:02:31If you're using your God or universe given absolute brilliance as a human being to try and figure out how to stack the fucking dishes 5% better, you've absolutely lost the plot.
01:02:42You are missing everything essential about what it is to be a human being.
01:02:47I'm going to take the most astounding organ in the entire universe, the three pounds of wetware genius portal to brilliance known as the human brain,
01:02:58and I'm going to use it to figure out how to stack the dishwasher better.
01:03:04Oh, it's repulsive.
01:03:07It turns my stomach.
01:03:14It's like pulling down the Mona Lisa and using it to mop up an oil spill.
01:03:24It's hideous. It's a hideous misapplication of potential.
01:03:30To take the brilliance in which you are capable and use it to nag people about the tiny little details of how they sort their fucking laundry.
01:03:44You missed a spot.
01:03:49And I'll tell you, man, I've seen this now.
01:03:53I've seen this. I'm sure you have, too. I've seen this now.
01:03:56And what I've seen is.
01:04:00What I've seen is.
01:04:05The people who are the most controlling are always the biggest fucking failures.
01:04:12Hundred percent.
01:04:14The people who are the most controlling are the biggest failures of all.
01:04:22Steer clear of nitpickers.
01:04:27Nitpickers are out to steal your soul.
01:04:32They are the most widespread and insistent.
01:04:41Demons the universe has yet produced.
01:04:47Steer clear, avoid like an environmental toxin, because they are.
01:04:59All right, let me get your questions and comments.
01:05:01We had more questions from our listeners.
01:05:05Let me get to those.
01:05:07I'll figure out how to put them in the show later.
01:05:09Haven't quite figured that one out yet, but we'll get there.
01:05:12We will get there. All right.
01:05:15So what else do we have here?
01:05:17Here's another question.
01:05:21Hey, Steph, I wanted to ask about feeling guilty for not giving a tip in a restaurant.
01:05:26Basically, I'm in a foreign country and you are expected to give tips in a restaurant.
01:05:30And I went to a restaurant and I asked if I can put a tip on the on the bill so I can pay together with a card
01:05:38because I don't have any cash and they told me no.
01:05:42So I just didn't leave any tip because I don't have any cash.
01:05:46And the second time I went, they gave me the bill in the same restaurant
01:05:52and they told me that service is not included, which means they were expecting a tip.
01:05:57And I told them again, sorry, I don't have any cash on me.
01:06:01And I feel really guilty and I made it really awkward because I felt guilty for not giving a tip.
01:06:07I felt like obligated.
01:06:09And the reason that I don't have any cash is because I'm only in the country for one week
01:06:13and I don't really need the cash for anything.
01:06:16I would just have to take it out from the ATM just for tipping.
01:06:24All righty, righty. Let's get to the second part.
01:06:27This is part two of the tip question because I couldn't fill it in.
01:06:31So yeah, I don't have the cash and I don't really need the cash for anything else.
01:06:35I'm only in this country for one week.
01:06:37The only reason I would go to an ATM would be just to take out cash to have for tipping.
01:06:43And it's really inconvenient for me because I have to find the ATM, which is not very common here.
01:06:50And I have to deal with fees and I have to deal with cash and etc.
01:06:56So is my guilt justified?
01:07:00Should I go find an ATM, which is inconvenient for me just to put tips?
01:07:06Or is the feeling of obligation something unjustified?
01:07:13This is a really cool feature. I'm really looking forward to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
01:07:19Yeah, great question. I really, really appreciate that.
01:07:22And I'm not sure how nice or not nice to be.
01:07:29I'm not sure how nice or not nice to be.
01:07:37Tell me, should I be nicely nice or not nicely nice?
01:07:43N for nice, B for bad.
01:07:47N for nice, B to bad.
01:07:50Be not nice.
01:07:52N for nice, B for bad.
01:07:56Not nice.
01:07:57Oh, you are the guy and you want me to be not nice?
01:08:02All right. It sounds like we have a little bit of a vote for slightly less than massively nice.
01:08:10Well, that's fine. That's fine.
01:08:13Okay, I will be, let's just say frank. I will be frank. Okay.
01:08:20So this is you have to be kidding.
01:08:24You have to be kidding.
01:08:26Because this one is not complicated.
01:08:28Now, if someone says, I don't want you to tip on the credit card.
01:08:35I can't remember why.
01:08:36I don't want you to tip on the credit card.
01:08:38I assume it's because they want to have cash so they can not pay taxes.
01:08:43Okay.
01:08:44So what they need to do is there needs to be a big sign.
01:08:48A big sign because they're deviating from the norm.
01:08:51Normally you pay with a credit card or an ATM machine interact or whatever.
01:08:56Then you include the tip.
01:08:58Right.
01:08:59So they need to have a sign on the restaurant, which says you can only tip in cash.
01:09:09So you can make your decision about whether you want to eat there.
01:09:14Right.
01:09:15I was at an ice cream store the other day and there was a big sign, big sign that said cash only.
01:09:24So I didn't order an ice cream and then stand there with my thumb up my ass because I don't have any cash.
01:09:30Right.
01:09:31It's a big sign.
01:09:32Cash only.
01:09:33And then when you go up to the door, they say it's cash only so that you know the deal.
01:09:39The idea that you're going to go to a restaurant and they accept a credit card,
01:09:42but you can't tip on the credit card.
01:09:45I've never heard of such a thing.
01:09:47I mean, I've traveled around the world, but I've never heard of such a thing.
01:09:51Maybe there's good reasons.
01:09:52Maybe there's whatever.
01:09:53Right.
01:09:54But they need to tell you that ahead of time.
01:09:57Tips are welcome.
01:09:58Cash only.
01:09:59Right.
01:10:00And then you say, okay, well, I don't have cash.
01:10:02So you can decide whether or not you want to eat in the restaurant based upon them telling you ahead of time.
01:10:10Now, they can't tell you.
01:10:13They can't tell you after the meal.
01:10:17We accept credit cards, they say.
01:10:19Amex, Visa, MasterCard, you name it.
01:10:22Diners Club, if that's even still a thing.
01:10:24We accept credit cards.
01:10:26I'm going to pay with credit card every place on the planet except for this place and the ice cream store.
01:10:32We'll take a credit card.
01:10:34Right.
01:10:39If people deviate from social norms without telling you, that's on them.
01:10:45And I would say, wait, I can only cash.
01:10:50I can only tip with cash.
01:10:52Why?
01:10:53Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:10:54Well, honestly, you should tell people that.
01:10:57Like, you really should tell people that.
01:10:59Right now, why aren't they telling people that?
01:11:05Come on.
01:11:06Come on.
01:11:07Why aren't they telling people that, right?
01:11:09Why aren't they telling people?
01:11:10Why isn't there a big sign?
01:11:11Why aren't they telling people you can only tip with cash?
01:11:16I've seen the cash only tips in France.
01:11:18It's pervasive there and baffles everyone, not French.
01:11:22Right.
01:11:23Okay.
01:11:24So, the French socialists don't want to pay for socialism.
01:11:27I understand that.
01:11:31So, the restaurants in the tourist areas should know for an absolute fact
01:11:38that people don't expect to have to tip in cash.
01:11:41So, there should be signs in the restaurants saying,
01:11:43we accept tips in cash.
01:11:46Right.
01:11:49So, you know ahead of time.
01:11:53Does this make sense?
01:11:54Are you with me, brothers and sisters?
01:11:57Does this make sense?
01:12:02I think so.
01:12:04Now, in South America, it is also common.
01:12:07Right.
01:12:08So, people don't want to pay taxes.
01:12:10Only there for a week.
01:12:11Why bother if you didn't know before dining?
01:12:15Well, if people don't tell you, right, and they listen.
01:12:22Maybe, oh, well, lots of people here already know that.
01:12:24It's like, okay, so let's say you go to a place in France
01:12:27and you don't speak French.
01:12:29Or you speak French with a Quebec accent,
01:12:31which apparently is like dragging cat's claws and gravel
01:12:34through the testicles of French people.
01:12:37Actually, no, not that.
01:12:38They probably enjoy that.
01:12:41So, if it's a tourist place, you have the signs up.
01:12:45If somebody doesn't speak French, you just remind them,
01:12:49just in case you don't know.
01:12:50Like, before you order, just in case you don't know,
01:12:52tips are paid in cash.
01:12:54I just wanted to let you know.
01:12:56They're not obligatory, but tips are paid in cash.
01:13:00Or you have a sign in the menu, right?
01:13:04So, why don't they usually want a big sign?
01:13:08Because if they have a big sign that says,
01:13:11we only take tips in cash, people are going to get their asses audited.
01:13:15So, they want to avoid the tax authorities, I assume.
01:13:20So, that's on them.
01:13:21They want all the social spending because they're French or whoever,
01:13:25but they don't want to pay their taxes.
01:13:30Okay.
01:13:32So, you can keep it a big secret because you don't want to pay taxes,
01:13:39but then I'm not going to have cash on me, right?
01:13:43Especially if you're a tourist town.
01:13:45If you're a tourist town, you know you have a lot of people
01:13:48coming in from out of the country.
01:13:50I mean, if it's some arse end of the universe, whatever, right?
01:13:57If it's some arse end of the universe town in the middle of nowhere,
01:14:00then they won't know that.
01:14:01But if it's a place where it's common for there to be,
01:14:09if it's common for there to be tourists,
01:14:11then the restaurant owners absolutely know for a fact
01:14:13that most tourists do not know about this, right?
01:14:19Most tourists do not know about this.
01:14:22So, you tell them.
01:14:23And if you don't want to tell them, then you're going to lose some money,
01:14:27but you're going to gain more money because I assume you are not…
01:14:35I assume that you are not paying taxes, so you're going to gain some money,
01:14:39but then some people aren't going to have the cash,
01:14:42so you're going to lose some money, and clearly it's a net benefit to them.
01:14:50It is mandatory to not tip tax-evading communists.
01:14:59So, why don't they tell you?
01:15:01They tell you because it's beneficial to them to not tell you.
01:15:04Otherwise, they would tell you.
01:15:07If it was all perfectly legal, maybe they weren't taxed on tips,
01:15:11and it's all perfectly legal, but the reason they want it in cash
01:15:14is so it's off the books, so they can not pay their taxes.
01:15:19So, if they want to not pay their taxes,
01:15:22then they don't want to signal to you why you have to pay in cash,
01:15:26and then it's like, well, you didn't tell me.
01:15:32You didn't tell me.
01:15:34How am I supposed to know something that's very much out of the ordinary
01:15:37when you didn't tell me?
01:15:44I mean, I don't know. Why would you feel guilty?
01:15:49See, guilt requires intent.
01:15:56Were you intending to not tip?
01:16:00Intent matters.
01:16:03So, if you went into a restaurant, intended to tip,
01:16:11and they told you you have to use cash to tip,
01:16:17and Lord knows getting money out of foreign ATMs is brutal,
01:16:21like you can get 10% or 20% overhead, if it even works.
01:16:24You've got to go find some place.
01:16:26Maybe it's not particularly safe in the neighborhood.
01:16:28Maybe people, you know, thieves watch ATM machines
01:16:31because they know you're coming out with cash, right?
01:16:35So, it's so completely and blindingly obvious
01:16:37that you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about
01:16:43because if it's too complicated to get the money to tip,
01:16:47just get your food from some restaurant that doesn't take tips,
01:16:51some fast food place, some street meat cart or vendor on the street.
01:16:57So, it's completely clear that you had every intention to tip,
01:17:01they didn't tell you ahead of time,
01:17:03and you can't pay without a huge amount of inconvenience.
01:17:07So, is anything that I'm saying particularly complicated?
01:17:12Now, I know you're not a stupid person, of course,
01:17:14because you listen to this show, right?
01:17:16So, I know you're not dumb.
01:17:17So, then the question is, what on earth is going on?
01:17:23The second time I knew I needed cash to tip and didn't have it,
01:17:25so I had the intent of not tipping.
01:17:28Okay. So, if you have the intent of not tipping,
01:17:32why did you go to a restaurant?
01:17:34That's what I don't understand.
01:17:36Like, if you feel, well, I really should tip,
01:17:38and you don't want to get cash for whatever reason,
01:17:40then don't go to a restaurant where you are going to tip.
01:17:45Like, this is what I don't understand.
01:17:48This is what I don't understand.
01:17:51If you say, well, I'm going to feel really guilty if I don't tip,
01:17:56I'm going to a restaurant with no cash,
01:17:58and they only accept tips in cash.
01:18:03That's my question.
01:18:04Why would you feel guilty for something you absolutely decided to do
01:18:09ahead of time?
01:18:12I mean, it's indulgent. It's self-indulgent.
01:18:17It's self-indulgent.
01:18:20I don't understand the mental process.
01:18:23And, you know, maybe there's something obvious that I don't get,
01:18:26but I do not understand the mental process here.
01:18:29I don't.
01:18:34If you decide it's too much of a hassle to tip,
01:18:36I don't like this policy,
01:18:38then you either go to the restaurant and don't tip and don't feel bad,
01:18:41or you go to a place to eat which doesn't take tips.
01:18:50I don't follow this, and maybe I'm missing something obvious,
01:18:53and please feel free to correct me where I've gone astray, as always.
01:19:01But if you choose to do something knowing clearly ahead of time
01:19:06what your choice is going to be,
01:19:09how dare you feel guilty about it afterwards?
01:19:11It doesn't make any sense to me.
01:19:13It genuinely makes no sense to me.
01:19:15I do not, do not, do not, do not understand.
01:19:24It's like some guy, he's going to cheat on his golf game.
01:19:30Oh, I knew ahead of time I was going to cheat on my golf game.
01:19:33I brought the pencil, I brought the eraser, I'm cheating on my golf game.
01:19:41And then he cheats on his golf game, and afterwards he's like,
01:19:44oh, I feel so guilty about cheating on my golf game.
01:19:46It's like, no, you don't.
01:19:48You don't. It's a lie. You don't feel that guilty.
01:19:52Because if you felt that guilty, you wouldn't cheat on your golf game.
01:19:57Empirically, you don't feel that bad about it.
01:19:59Why? Because you didn't.
01:20:03Like all of these weasel bags who cheat on their girlfriends and then say,
01:20:06oh, the last thing I wanted to do was cheat on you.
01:20:08It's like, no, empirically that's not true.
01:20:12How do we know what people want to do?
01:20:14We look at what they do.
01:20:20How do we know what people want to do?
01:20:22We look at what they do.
01:20:23So you say, you say, because I wanted to eat out anyway.
01:20:27I did not want that to stop me from eating out.
01:20:29I'm not aware of other places that don't take tips.
01:20:32Okay, but you can look it up, right?
01:20:34I mean, a street vendor's not going to take tips probably, right?
01:20:36Or he's going to be less concerned.
01:20:37Or maybe he would take cash. I don't know.
01:20:39So you decide to eat out anyway, and you decide ahead of time to not tip.
01:20:45Okay?
01:20:48So you decide ahead of time that you're not going to tip.
01:20:56So why would you feel bad afterwards if you decided ahead of time that it was okay?
01:21:01This is what I don't understand.
01:21:04You decided ahead of time, I don't want to tip.
01:21:07I'm not going to tip.
01:21:08It's okay and fine for me to not tip.
01:21:10I mean, how do we know that you felt it was okay and fine for you to not tip?
01:21:14Because you didn't tip.
01:21:16You went to a restaurant.
01:21:17You ordered the meal knowing ahead of time that you weren't going to tip.
01:21:23This is important.
01:21:24This is a pretty big life issue, right?
01:21:29It's a big life issue.
01:21:31This is a great quote from Nietzsche.
01:21:33Do not leave your actions in the lurch.
01:21:39If you decide to do something, accept that that's what you want to do.
01:21:50You know, I'm not saying putting you in this category, but all these malevolent,
01:21:55scaly-backed bullshit artists who say, well, I didn't mean to.
01:21:59I didn't mean to.
01:22:02What do you mean you didn't mean to?
01:22:03You did it.
01:22:04Well, I cheated on you, honey, but I didn't mean to.
01:22:06I didn't want to.
01:22:07It was an accident.
01:22:08It's like, no, you wanted to.
01:22:10How do we know you wanted to?
01:22:12Because you did.
01:22:13That's the beauty of empiricism.
01:22:15I don't give a shit about intentions.
01:22:17I only care about outcomes.
01:22:22I didn't want to cheat on my girlfriend.
01:22:24It just happened.
01:22:25No, it didn't just happen.
01:22:26You wanted to cheat on your girlfriend.
01:22:28How do we know?
01:22:29Because you cheated on your girlfriend.
01:22:30Now, you wanted to go and have a meal and not pay a tip.
01:22:33How do we know that?
01:22:34Because ahead of time, you knew that you didn't have the money to pay the tip.
01:22:37You went to the restaurant, you ordered the food, you ate the food, you thanked the waiter,
01:22:40and you got your ass up out of that chair, and you left.
01:22:48So, you wanted to eat your meal and not tip.
01:22:56I felt like I decided to do something bad, like if someone decides to steal,
01:22:59and after they do it, they feel guilty for stealing.
01:23:06Okay, let me ask you this.
01:23:08We can go down this road, too.
01:23:10How long after you left without tipping did you feel bad?
01:23:25How long?
01:23:26Just 10 minutes, a day, a week, a month, five years.
01:23:31How long after you left the restaurant did you feel bad for not tipping?
01:23:38That is what I want to know.
01:23:40This is what you must tell me.
01:23:42I must have the answer.
01:23:45That is a very strange accent.
01:23:47I don't know where we are at the moment.
01:23:50Somewhere bleeding across the Schengen zone so that people can move without borders.
01:23:54Maybe 20 minutes, and then again when I was thinking about going back.
01:23:59Okay.
01:24:05Remind me why, briefly as you can, remind me why you decided to go to a restaurant
01:24:12which only took cash tips, without cash, and therefore wouldn't tip.
01:24:18Your main reason was, I don't like the policy, it's too inconvenient,
01:24:22damn them, to heck with them, I don't care, it doesn't matter to me.
01:24:26So what did you get wrong?
01:24:29This is what's important to know.
01:24:31What did you get wrong that you thought you'd be fine with it, and you're not fine with it?
01:24:35Like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
01:24:37What was your thinking, and I don't mean like what the hell was,
01:24:41like genuinely what was your thinking that you thought you'd be fine with something,
01:24:47and it turned out you weren't.
01:24:51Right?
01:24:53Because where is your level of self-knowledge when you're a grown-ass adult
01:24:57and have no idea if you'll feel bad about something?
01:25:00That's the problem, is this is a massive question of self-knowledge,
01:25:05that's why I'm spending so much time on this.
01:25:09How could you at this stage in your life, after listening to this show for so long,
01:25:14how could you be surprised at feeling really, really bad about something?
01:25:19Where is your level of self-knowledge that you think you'll be fine with it,
01:25:26and it turns out you're racked with guilt?
01:25:29Do you see what I mean?
01:25:30This is a self-knowledge issue.
01:25:34My thinking was that I do not owe them a tip, it is supposed to be optional.
01:25:37Okay.
01:25:38But the reason you didn't tip them, I think, was because of the cash issue,
01:25:42why don't you just not tip as a whole?
01:25:46Do you just not tip as a whole?
01:25:50I think you said you tip when you can.
01:26:01Now, if you don't tip as a whole, you're just kind of a soft thief, right?
01:26:10So, restaurant prices are calibrated on the waiters getting tips,
01:26:13so the waiters are paid less, and therefore the restaurant food prices are lower,
01:26:20because people tip.
01:26:22So, if you don't tip, you're getting cheap food subsidized by other people's generosity,
01:26:28and you're kind of breaking an implicit social contract,
01:26:31which is to not pillage from other people's generosity.
01:26:36You know, if you stay at lodges or cabins or places in northern Ontario,
01:26:40sometimes there's just a bookshelf.
01:26:42You know, have a book, leave a book, want a book, take a book.
01:26:44Now, you could scoop all of those books up, and you could go and sell them at a thrift store.
01:26:52Is that illegal?
01:26:53No, not really.
01:26:54But you're kind of breaking the social contract, right?
01:27:00They called this sort of ghetto latte, where you could just get an espresso,
01:27:05which was cheaper than a latte, and they just put a bunch of milk in it,
01:27:08to the point now where I don't think the milk or cream is out anymore, right?
01:27:13So, you don't have to buy a bottle of ketchup.
01:27:15You can just go to some place with ketchup and scoop it all up.
01:27:25So, there's a whole social trust thing here that goes on, right?
01:27:30And the social trust is the restaurant's going to charge you less
01:27:34because you're going to tip the waiter.
01:27:36And if you eat without tipping the waiter, it's a soft kind of theft.
01:27:40It's breaking a social contract.
01:27:42Because if everyone did it, you'd be paying 20% more for your meal.
01:27:46So, you're paying 20% less for your meal because other people are tipping the waiters,
01:27:49or 10% or whatever it is, right?
01:27:52I would tip if I could do it with a card.
01:27:54Yes, but you decided to not tip.
01:27:57You went into the restaurant, and you decided to not tip.
01:28:03So, that's your decision, right?
01:28:07That's your decision.
01:28:11So, honor your decision.
01:28:13Now, it doesn't mean you can't change your mind ever,
01:28:17to go in and not tip.
01:28:23So, respect your decision.
01:28:27What's this circling back later and pecking and nagging at yourself?
01:28:31That's ridiculous.
01:28:34Yeah, it was your decision.
01:28:35You decided to not tip.
01:28:39So, it is an insult to your free will and your decision
01:28:45to not tip.
01:28:53So, if you then feel like crap afterwards, that's self-attack.
01:28:57That's psychological.
01:28:59That's history-based.
01:29:01This is you growing up as a child,
01:29:04never being allowed to respect your own decisions.
01:29:08Did you see what I mean?
01:29:11So, you would make decisions as a child,
01:29:13and you would get attacked for your decisions,
01:29:15and you would not be allowed to justify those decisions,
01:29:18and you would not be allowed to explain anything,
01:29:20and you couldn't say, well, this is that, or the other, or this is why.
01:29:23Just like, you did the wrong thing, you thought you were doing the right thing,
01:29:26or you thought it would be an okay thing, and it turned out you just did the wrong thing,
01:29:29and you're a bad kid.
01:29:30You understand?
01:29:31This is childhood.
01:29:32This is not anything to do with tipping.
01:29:37You self-attacked for a decision you made,
01:29:40because as a child, you were regularly attacked for legitimate decisions you made.
01:29:46Right?
01:29:48So, you make a decision as the innocent child, I'm going to not tip,
01:29:52and then your inner father or mother comes in and says,
01:29:54you son of a bitch, you greedy bastard,
01:29:58that poor waiter, you make more money than him,
01:30:00and just because it's always so inconvenient, you're so lazy,
01:30:03you won't even go to fucking ATM to tip some poor guy when you're doing well.
01:30:07Like, how selfish can you get?
01:30:09All of this nonsense, right?
01:30:15I'm so stupid, right?
01:30:19You're selfish and greedy.
01:30:20You're breaking the social contract, right?
01:30:24So, how can you flip from it's fine to I'm a terrible person in the space of 20 minutes?
01:30:32That's a little psycho.
01:30:34Now, we all do it.
01:30:35I mean, maybe we're all a little psycho, but we all do it.
01:30:37Like, oh, this is the greatest thing ever.
01:30:39Oh, this is terrible, right?
01:30:41But it's not healthy, and it's not right, and it's disrespectful to our decision-making process.
01:30:51If I decide that something is okay, right?
01:30:55If I decide that something is okay, doesn't mean I'm right.
01:31:01But if anybody tells me that what I think is good or okay is actually really, really, really bad,
01:31:08they have to make a really, really, really good fucking case.
01:31:14Have some boundaries.
01:31:18If your conscience attacks you and says, you asshole, you didn't even tip.
01:31:23It's like, whoa, hang on there, bucko.
01:31:26If you didn't talk to me beforehand, I don't care what you say to me afterwards.
01:31:31Oh, conscience of mine, your job is to prevent me from doing wrong,
01:31:36not to shit on me when you just decide to get aggressive.
01:31:39That's not a conscience.
01:31:40That's abuse.
01:31:44If my conscience gets mad at me about something, I say,
01:31:50why weren't you saying anything when I was making that decision?
01:31:54If you didn't say anything then, I don't care what you have to say now.
01:31:58Now you can approach me reasonably, but don't you dare approach me aggressively.
01:32:04It's like the guy who doesn't say a word, and then after you fail at something,
01:32:10he says, oh, I knew you were going to fail, man.
01:32:12I knew it the whole time.
01:32:13Be like, hey, fuck off.
01:32:15If you didn't say anything beforehand, I don't care what you have to say afterwards.
01:32:19I don't care.
01:32:21See, it's not your conscience.
01:32:23Super ego, it's the abusive adult masquerading as your conscience.
01:32:29It's putting on the mantle of your conscience,
01:32:31and you have to respect your conscience.
01:32:33Your conscience is there to have you stop doing stupid shit.
01:32:37If you do the stuff that's fine, and this was fine,
01:32:40if you do the stuff that's fine, and then you self-attack,
01:32:45that's not your conscience.
01:32:46That's not morality.
01:32:47That's not virtue.
01:32:49That's just abuse.
01:32:50That's just abuse.
01:32:51That's just internalized abuse.
01:32:54Tell me, I don't know if I've stunned everyone here,
01:32:57just tell me if this makes sense to you.
01:33:01Please, does this make sense to you?
01:33:08Don't leave your actions in the lurch.
01:33:10Do not attack yourself and call it a conscience.
01:33:15That's self-paralysis.
01:33:18That will make you a worse person,
01:33:20because then you'll end up attacking other people
01:33:22for making their own choices and legitimate decisions.
01:33:30If your conscience doesn't warn you ahead of time,
01:33:34no part of you gets to nag you afterwards.
01:33:38Right?
01:33:41Do not let self-attack mimic conscience.
01:33:48So your conscience was fine with you not tipping.
01:33:56So then self-attack is just abuse.
01:34:12It's another social agreement to want the cheaper prices,
01:34:17complain about how serving staff are underpaid,
01:34:19and then complain about having to tip.
01:34:21I agree with the idea of being forced is not a gratuity,
01:34:25and of course, do the math.
01:34:27Some auto tips on machines are more than the percent it is labeled,
01:34:29but that's just fraud.
01:34:30I can agree if in a sit-down restaurant
01:34:32where you know they expect tips
01:34:33and cannot afford both dinner and the tip,
01:34:35you should consider at least going somewhere cheaper to eat
01:34:37or, you know, cook at home.
01:34:39Just don't order a drink, don't order a dessert,
01:34:41don't order an appetizer or order a cheaper meal.
01:34:44And look, you know what?
01:34:46Every now and then, it's going to happen.
01:34:50Right?
01:34:51Every now and then, you're going to not tip.
01:34:53Now, sometimes you don't tip.
01:34:55I remember going with my daughter to a breakfast place
01:34:59and our food took 50 minutes.
01:35:0150 minutes for eggs and sausage.
01:35:03I'm not tipping for that.
01:35:05You say, oh, well, it's not the waiter's fault.
01:35:07It's like, that's not my issue.
01:35:11If my food takes too long to come,
01:35:13then the waiters have to figure out
01:35:15how to make the restaurant faster.
01:35:17The waiters are the representative of the restaurant.
01:35:21So, if the restaurant is short on cooks,
01:35:23that's not my deal.
01:35:25And the waiter has to tell you, right?
01:35:29The waiter has to tell you ahead of time,
01:35:31with short cooks, your food is going to take a long time.
01:35:34If you're really hungry, it's going to be at least 45 minutes.
01:35:37Right?
01:35:38So, I don't tip a waiter if my food is slow or cold.
01:35:41Right?
01:35:42Because they're the ones who are supposed to.
01:35:45They're the ones who are supposed to make sure my food is hot.
01:35:47And if the kitchen puts out the food cold,
01:35:50well, I'm not tipping the kitchen.
01:35:52I have no relationship with the kitchen
01:35:53and I need to provide feedback to the restaurant.
01:35:57So, I'm not tipping if my food is cold.
01:36:00Now, I may say, go heat this.
01:36:02I don't even mind if they just heat it up and bring it back.
01:36:04It's not the end of the world.
01:36:05I'm not tipping if my food is really late.
01:36:07I'm not tipping if the waiter only drops off my food
01:36:10and then I have to, sometimes you've got to chase them down
01:36:12to the serving station to get your bill.
01:36:17So, I'm not tipping for that.
01:36:19Because tipping is not a tax.
01:36:21Tipping is for good service.
01:36:23And I'm a great tipper when I get good service.
01:36:25Like everybody who used to work in restaurants,
01:36:27I'm a great tipper.
01:36:28I'll tip 25%, 30% if I get really good service.
01:36:32I'm thrilled to do it.
01:36:33I'm happy to do it.
01:36:34And having been a waiter myself,
01:36:36I want to reward excellence.
01:36:37If the waiter is indifferent, if the food is cold,
01:36:39if it's late, if they don't care,
01:36:41if they don't check up on me,
01:36:44I'm not tipping very much, if at all.
01:36:47It's just a quality.
01:36:48It's a meritocracy thing, right?
01:36:50I don't reward incompetence.
01:36:52I can't say that I want a meritocracy
01:36:54than rewarding competence, right?
01:36:58And honestly, I mean, I tip almost all the time.
01:37:03But if it's really bad, I won't.
01:37:05But then I just won't go back, right?
01:37:11And it helps the restaurant.
01:37:12It actually helps the restaurant to not tip
01:37:14when the food is cold or late or whatever it is, right?
01:37:17Because they're then getting feedback from the customers, right?
01:37:20As opposed to not giving them feedback, right?
01:37:23If you break your toe, you don't want your toe to tell you nothing.
01:37:27You want your toe to tell you how, so you go get it fixed.
01:37:29Speaking of tips, my friends, what a low-tip night.
01:37:33Freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show.
01:37:36I would really, really appreciate that.
01:37:38Also, also, you can tip right here on the app,
01:37:42freedomain.locals.com.
01:37:43You can also tip over on Rumble,
01:37:45though I don't, in fact, hold my breath with that.
01:37:47So if you could help out the show, I really, really would appreciate it.
01:37:52And we're going to take another run at fdrurl.com slash meetup.
01:38:00fdrurl.com slash meetup.
01:38:02The prices, the location are all there.
01:38:04We are, you know, we're kind of on the edge of it working or not.
01:38:08So if you want to come, great.
01:38:11It's going to be a blast.
01:38:12It's a good price.
01:38:14It's not a moneymaker.
01:38:15We're just looking to have a great community event.
01:38:17So fdrurl.com slash meetup.
01:38:20You will tip on the freedomain website.
01:38:22I thank you.
01:38:23Waiting 30 minutes for fresh-made food from scratch is nothing.
01:38:26Pre-cooked, reheated food is fine when that was the expectation
01:38:29and get a great food quality and service.
01:38:31Boiling pasta in a pot, opening a sauce pack,
01:38:33and toasting and floating breadsticks seems excessive to take 30 minutes.
01:38:36Hey, I've got no problem with that.
01:38:37And you know there are those restaurants that say,
01:38:40if you want this, it's going to be an extra half an hour.
01:38:42If you want this kind of dessert, it's going to be an extra 20 minutes.
01:38:44I've got no problem with that.
01:38:46I've got no problem with that.
01:38:47Just let me know.
01:38:49Just manage expectations.
01:38:51Just manage your expectations.
01:38:56That's what needs to happen.
01:38:58Manage expectations.
01:38:59Just be honest.
01:39:01Just be honest.
01:39:02Because here's the thing.
01:39:03Doesn't it feel just a little bit fraudulent?
01:39:06Doesn't it feel just a little bit fraudulent when the food is slow,
01:39:11the waiter knows that the food is slow,
01:39:14but what they do is they don't tell you, right?
01:39:20Because they want to sell you.
01:39:23So they don't tell you that it's slow, right?
01:39:28And because they don't tell you that it's slow,
01:39:32you end up ordering food based on information they have,
01:39:36which might affect and probably will affect you choosing to eat there, right?
01:39:41And that's a little fraudulent.
01:39:43It's not massively fraudulent, but it's a little bit fraudulent, right?
01:39:47They should tell you because you might have tickets to a movie.
01:39:50You might have a plane to catch.
01:39:51You might have tickets to the theater.
01:39:52You might have some reason why you need to be in a hurry.
01:40:02Yeah, I do find it a little bit fraudulent.
01:40:04Hey, people tell me ahead of time, things are running slow in the kitchen.
01:40:07Before you order, I just wanted you to know, blah, blah, blah.
01:40:09Okay, I got no problem with that.
01:40:11Just let me make the decision.
01:40:12But don't pretend everything's fine when you know everything's going to be slow.
01:40:16I don't like that.
01:40:17I think that's wrong.
01:40:18I think that's right.
01:40:19People need to be able to make their own decisions, right?
01:40:28All rights.
01:40:37I work in the industry.
01:40:38Don't take it out on the server, ever.
01:40:41I don't know what you mean by take it out on the server.
01:40:48What do you mean?
01:40:51What do you mean don't take it out on the server?
01:40:55If the kitchen is slow, then the servers need to tell you ahead of time, right?
01:41:02If they don't tell you ahead of time that the kitchen is slow, because we all know what happens, right?
01:41:08Some server goes on a cocaine binge because drug use in the restaurant business is pretty damn high.
01:41:15So some server, sorry, some cook goes on a cocaine binge or has a hangover while pretending to have a cold,
01:41:22and you're short on cooks.
01:41:24Right?
01:41:25That's all.
01:41:28And the waiter should know that, because that's their job.
01:41:30Their job is to give you a good dining experience.
01:41:33Sometimes the booker booked in too many tables.
01:41:35Kitchen can't keep up.
01:41:37No, I don't believe that at all.
01:41:44I don't believe that at all.
01:41:46What is there too many tables?
01:41:53Kitchen can't keep up?
01:41:55Then that's fully known to the waiter, and the waiter should say when you come in, it's going to be delayed.
01:42:01Right?
01:42:07So the waiter should tell you things are slow.
01:42:10If the waiter doesn't tell you, it's because the waiter doesn't want to miss out on tips.
01:42:15And so they're making that decision for you, which is unfair.
01:42:19They're in possession of information that might affect your buying decision.
01:42:24They're not telling you that information because they want to make money at the expense of you being able to choose.
01:42:28That's wrong.
01:42:32If the place is slammed because it's that popular, a new good estimated wait time is okay.
01:42:36Yeah, fine.
01:42:37Yeah.
01:42:38Yeah.
01:42:40No, if the waiter doesn't know whether the restaurant is doing well or not, then it's too busy or not, then that's bad.
01:42:48Right?
01:42:55So then the waiter is incompetent or greedy or lying.
01:43:00I mean, I worked in restaurants for years, man.
01:43:02I know my stuff.
01:43:04I know my stuff.
01:43:09If the restaurant has overbooked, it means that they are over-profiting from their customers.
01:43:15In other words, they are stealing the customer's time in order to make money.
01:43:20And they can do that.
01:43:21It's not violence.
01:43:23It's just a little kind of deception.
01:43:25Right?
01:43:29So they're making, like, let's say you get 40 tables.
01:43:31Right?
01:43:33And each table's food is half an hour later.
01:43:35Right?
01:43:37So that's a lot of...
01:43:41That's a lot of time taken away from people.
01:43:43Right?
01:43:45That's less foreplay for whatever's happening after the meal.
01:43:48Let's be honest.
01:43:49Right?
01:43:50So, thank you.
01:43:51I appreciate the tip from the guy who doesn't tip.
01:43:53Hey, man, that's not cash.
01:43:55I expect carrier pigeons and Roman coins.
01:43:59I understand what you're saying, but the waitstaff can't control the front line who booked the tables.
01:44:04And what is the job of the waitstaff?
01:44:08It's to tell the truth to the customers.
01:44:12Oh, my gosh.
01:44:14This is called being triggered and defensive.
01:44:17So, are you telling me that the waitstaff can't control the front line who booked the tables and neither can the kitchen staff?
01:44:24Are you telling me I don't know that?
01:44:25Are you telling me there's something like I don't know?
01:44:28Having been a waiter myself for years and years as a teenager and into my early 20s, do you think that I don't know that?
01:44:37You have such a size kitchen, so many cooks can do so many meals at once.
01:44:4115 minutes max per meal is how many guests you can serve times two services per night.
01:44:45Right.
01:44:46So, do you think that pointing out the blindingly obvious is a really positive contribution to a conversation?
01:44:53Because it's really annoying.
01:44:55I've already told you.
01:44:56I've been a waiter for years.
01:44:58And you're telling me and the audience very loftily, the waitstaff can't control the front line who booked the tables.
01:45:11A, I never said they did.
01:45:13B, I know that.
01:45:14C, that's not my argument.
01:45:15So, I don't know what wind you're pissing into, but nothing's getting in the toilet.
01:45:21Come on.
01:45:22What?
01:45:23Okay.
01:45:24Try this on for size.
01:45:25Just out of curiosity.
01:45:26Just try this on for size.
01:45:28What's my argument?
01:45:32Just try it on.
01:45:33Try listening rather than being defensive.
01:45:36It's really a superpower in this world.
01:45:39How about you listen rather than being defensive and telling me stupid things that I already know and thinking you're contributing to the conversation.
01:45:47What is my argument?
01:45:49What is the responsibility?
01:45:50Well, the waiter's not responsible for paying the property tax on the CEO's jet.
01:46:00Well, yes, I'm aware of that.
01:46:02You know, waiters can't turn back time.
01:46:05They can't freeze time.
01:46:07They can't float and they can't snap their fingers and produce food out of their anuses or an eye.
01:46:13It's like, well, that's, yeah.
01:46:15Yeah, that's true.
01:46:16They don't have a magic genie bottle to produce meal.
01:46:18That's true too.
01:46:19What does that got to do with my argument?
01:46:23So what are your suggestions then?
01:46:25Cheerfully.
01:46:26Oh, my gosh.
01:46:27If you're not going to listen, just tell me you're not going to listen because I've already told everyone what the honorable thing is for the waiter to do.
01:46:38All right.
01:46:39Let's try it again.
01:46:41Watcher.
01:46:42What is the honorable thing for the waiter to do if the kitchen is running slow and someone comes in and sits down and is interested in ordering?
01:46:54What does the waiter do that is honorable and honest?
01:47:03The waiter knows.
01:47:04Meals are running 30 to 45 minutes behind.
01:47:09What does the waiter say to the customer?
01:47:22I'm waiting.
01:47:23Sorry, that's annoying.
01:47:24I always hate that.
01:47:25I always hate that.
01:47:26I'm like, give me this.
01:47:27I'm waiting.
01:47:28I was really so I'm sorry.
01:47:29I'll punch myself out.
01:47:32Come on.
01:47:33What does the waiter do if the kitchen is running 30 to 45 minutes late?
01:47:42Nothing's ordered yet.
01:47:43They've just sat down.
01:47:45What does the waiter do?
01:47:47They tell them.
01:47:48It doesn't often go well.
01:47:50How would they do better?
01:47:51What?
01:47:53It often doesn't go well.
01:47:54How would they do better?
01:47:55Okay.
01:47:56So let's say I'm a lawyer, right?
01:47:58Let's say I'm a lawyer and I make $500 an hour.
01:48:01Let's say I'm a cheap-ass lawyer.
01:48:02I make $500 an hour, right?
01:48:08And my food comes half an hour late.
01:48:14What that means, let's say I'm having lunch and the food comes half an hour late,
01:48:18what that means is that I'm out $250 of billable time.
01:48:26Right?
01:48:27I got half hour for lunch.
01:48:28Food comes half an hour late.
01:48:30I now have to spend an hour, which means I have less billable time back in the office.
01:48:33So the waiter and the restaurant just cost me $250.
01:48:37Now, if they'd said ahead of time, food's going to be half an hour late,
01:48:40or more or less, but something around that, I'd say, well, I can't do that
01:48:43because I've got to hit my billable hours.
01:48:46So the restaurant is stealing from me $250, which is wrong
01:48:52because they're taking my time by not telling me ahead of time
01:48:56that things are going to be delayed.
01:49:01So if the restaurant is going to steal $250 of my time because I'm a waiter,
01:49:06sorry, because I'm a lawyer, and they just cut half hour out of my billing day,
01:49:12then I'm not going to tip.
01:49:15Well, it's not the waiter's fault.
01:49:17It is the waiter's fault because the waiter should tell me things are running late.
01:49:23We're slammed, things are running late, and then I can make the decision.
01:49:27But you don't get to make that decision for me about how I spend half an hour of my life.
01:49:31You don't get that.
01:49:36Now, if your manager says, well, hang on, all these people sat down and now they're leaving.
01:49:45Why?
01:49:46Well, I told them there were delays.
01:49:47Well, you can't tell them there are delays, then quit.
01:49:49Or if you're not going to quit except that you're not going to get tipped from time to time
01:49:53and you're doing something kind of mean and nasty.
01:49:56You're stealing half an hour of people's lives without telling them
01:49:59or giving them the choice, and they're going to get annoyed at you.
01:50:02So when you say, well, don't take it out on the waitstaff, it's like, no.
01:50:05If you're working in a restaurant where the manager says you can't tell people
01:50:08when things are slow because I'm greedy and I want to make money,
01:50:12then if you decide to, well, you can make your case in saying I think that's bad business,
01:50:16but if you decide to keep working there, that's your deal.
01:50:19That's your fault.
01:50:20You're lying to your customers to make money.
01:50:23You're lying to your customers, and lying by omission is lying.
01:50:27You are lying to your customers to make money.
01:50:30And then you say, well, you can't blame the staff.
01:50:32I damn well can, and I will.
01:50:35Of course I will.
01:50:39Because they're choosing to not tell me a basic fact that's going to take half an hour out of my life.
01:50:44Sorry, that matters to me.
01:50:46That matters to me.
01:50:49Well, you can't blame the people who are telling you the falsehood.
01:50:52Of course I can.
01:50:54Well, no, it's the managers.
01:50:55It's like, hey, man, they're choosing to work there.
01:50:57They're choosing to work there.
01:51:00Well, you can't expect a waiter to quit just because, no.
01:51:03Okay, then tell me a lie.
01:51:05Tell me a lie and tell me it's not your fault.
01:51:07That's all.
01:51:08Tell me a lie and then tell me it's not your fault.
01:51:11You don't have a gun to your head.
01:51:12You have some financial incentives.
01:51:14Well, big whoop, everybody has financial incentives to lie.
01:51:22Worse are those on a deadline.
01:51:23Now I miss my lunch and have no time to get something else.
01:51:26Bad practice.
01:51:27The place deserves to fail.
01:51:28Yeah.
01:51:29Yeah, for sure.
01:51:31I mean, everyone who's done business travel has been in the situation where you're at a restaurant,
01:51:36you're hungry, and you've got to catch a flight.
01:51:39Everyone has been in that situation, and they don't tell you things are delayed.
01:51:42What do they do?
01:51:43They say, you keep saying, where's my food?
01:51:45And they say, it's coming right out.
01:51:46It's coming right out.
01:51:47Forty minutes go by, and you've got to get your food.
01:51:50You've got to stuff your face.
01:51:51It's bad for your digestion.
01:51:53You've got to run like hell.
01:51:54Hopefully you get to your flight.
01:51:55And they're lying to you.
01:51:58The waiters are lying to you and costing you time.
01:52:05Because they want to make money.
01:52:07Well, I don't like to be lied to to line somebody else's profits.
01:52:12I don't like to be lied to so somebody else can make more money.
01:52:15That's wrong.
01:52:16That's corrupt.
01:52:25So, yes, I will blame the waiters because they're lying to me to make money.
01:52:33I don't like that.
01:52:34I think that's a kind of fraud.
01:52:44Yes.
01:52:45Ah, how womanly, how petty.
01:52:51Oh, let's make somebody fight.
01:52:52Let's make somebody trash talk.
01:52:54Somebody says, their price is billed into their reservation, a meal plan.
01:52:57So if the front staff pack them into an impossible situation,
01:53:00it's not fair to the wait staff or to the kitchen if they cannot keep up.
01:53:02It's a total machine that can only run on the capability it is designed on.
01:53:06Right.
01:53:07So now I see why you work in a restaurant because you don't listen.
01:53:11You don't listen.
01:53:13You don't listen.
01:53:14I mean, this is a big life problem for you.
01:53:17Right.
01:53:18So all you're doing is repeating bullshit responsibility avoidance talking points
01:53:21and you're not addressing anything that I've said.
01:53:24So I'm done with this topic and I'm done with dealing with you because you don't listen.
01:53:30Right.
01:53:31So I've put a lot of time, effort, and energy into making my case.
01:53:34And all you're doing is repeating your same nonsense talking points that don't mean anything,
01:53:39that aren't relevant to what I've said.
01:53:41You don't have an input.
01:53:42All you have is NPC defensive talking points.
01:53:45And I sympathize with that.
01:53:46It means that something very seriously wrong happened in your development as a child.
01:53:51And I sympathize with that too.
01:53:53But I'm not going to engage with it because it's a waste of time and money.
01:53:57So, all right.
01:53:58So, yeah, tips if you find the show helpful and interesting, and I really hope that you do.
01:54:01Freedomain.com slash donate.
01:54:03I would really love to get your support.
01:54:05Of course, if you're listening to this later, well, it's still the same website.
01:54:09It won't be different later.
01:54:10It's the universality that we talked about in the beginning with anarchism or voluntarism.
01:54:14So you can go to freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show.
01:54:18Don't forget.
01:54:20Ticktock.com forward slash at freedomain.com.
01:54:24Ticktock.com.
01:54:26I'm going to just check that because Jared told me, and I'm pretty sure that was it,
01:54:33but I'm going to triple check, my friends.
01:54:37Triple check.
01:54:40Ah.
01:54:42There we go.
01:54:43There we go.
01:54:44There we go.
01:54:45All right.
01:54:46What do we got here?
01:54:47Yeah.
01:54:48Slider.
01:54:53What the hell?
01:54:56I think it's ticktock.com slash freedomain.com.
01:54:59Oh, I think it is.
01:55:01I think it is.
01:55:05Yes.
01:55:06Ticktock.com forward slash at freedomain.com.
01:55:08There's a lot of cool stuff that's going up there, which is nice shorts, which you can
01:55:12share, and I really do appreciate your support in that regard, in that realm.
01:55:20Let's see here.
01:55:24The other obvious thing in the name, quick service restaurants, as in quick service.
01:55:28I don't expect a prime rib in five minutes, and I don't expect a dollar menu at a steakhouse.
01:55:32Yes, that's true.
01:55:33FDRURL.com.
01:55:34Thanks, James.
01:55:35FDRURL.com slash ticktock.
01:55:37FDRURL.com slash ticktock.
01:55:40Of course, freedomain.locals.com, subscribestar.com slash freedomain.
01:55:44I would love to see you in the community and chitty chat with you.
01:55:48FDRURL.com slash meetup.
01:55:50We'll see if we can get to the tipping point.
01:55:52Thank you, everyone, so much for a glorious and lovely evening of philosophy and chitty
01:55:57chats.
01:55:58I will talk to you Friday, where we'll be taking calls.
01:56:00Bye.