Stefan Molyneux
Stefan Molyneux
  • 3 months ago
"Hey Stef! How are you preparing/have prepared Izzy for the harsh world, in the context of peaceful parenting?"


"A lot of people say they believe in the theory of evolution, but how many do actually understand it? What do you think?"


"should we send our daughter to private school? She has been homeschooled her whole life and then last year she went to private school for about 80% of the school year (we did a late enrollment). We wanted her to continue to go, but she does not want to go, citing disagreements with classmates, teasing. Overall, we think it's a good school and our other 2 kids enjoy going there. What is the balance between pushing your kids outside of their comfort zone and also taking into consideration them not wanting to do something? Our kids were forced into piano when they were younger and hated it so we stopped. They will occasionally say they were glad they were forced to play piano because it gave them a skill and they will still play. That's the moral dilemma I am trying to articulate... thanks Stefan!"


"Tucker Carlson remarked recently that Bitcoin was probably invented by the CIA. It sounds crazy to me yet the CIA has been doing very shady things for a long time. Would love to get your thoughts."

GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND AUDIOBOOK!

https://peacefulparenting.com/

Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!

Also get the Truth About the French Revolution, multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material, as well as targeted AIs for Real-Time Relationships, BitCoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-Ins. Don't miss the private livestreams, premium call in shows, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!

See you soon!

https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2022
Transcript
00:00Good morning, good morning, everybody, hope you're doing well.
00:03More great questions from the fine listeners at freedomain.com.
00:07We will start with, hey, Steph, how are you preparing or have prepared Izzy, your daughter,
00:1415 years old, almost 16, for the harsh world in the context of peaceful parenting?
00:19It's a fine, fine question and I really, really do appreciate you asking it and I will tell
00:24you what the plan has been.
00:26So far, so good, but we shall see.
00:30So, there's sort of two questions or approaches of how to toughen someone up for the world.
00:40The first is to keep them relatively sheltered from adversity until they gain the skills
00:49and strength and through that, being sheltered, they gain the skills and strength to deal
00:55with crazy, disruptive people in the world and that is the child-proofing the home, right?
01:02So you don't just let a kid tumble down the stairs, you don't let the kid stick forks
01:07in electrical sockets, you keep the kid safe until the kid is old enough to understand
01:14the dangers and navigate through life accordingly.
01:17In other words, early exposure to dangers that can't really be comprehended weakens
01:22and endangers and might, in fact, kill the child, right?
01:25So that is to keep the child sheltered until the strength has grown and the knowledge has
01:31grown and the wisdom has grown to deal with crazy people or crazy circumstances in life.
01:36So that's number one.
01:38Number two is more around the analogy of the immune system and the muscles and what that
01:44is, is something like, well, you want to expose your children to drinking from the
01:53garden hose, to playing in the dirt, you want to have the child run around like crazy because
02:00that builds the muscles, that builds the immune system and they end up stronger.
02:07So these two approaches are often in conflict with parents, in the hearts and minds of parents.
02:15Because on the one hand, you say, well, gee, if I shelter my child from the craziness of
02:20the world, then they will be unequipped to deal with the craziness of the world.
02:26It's like if you are, I don't know, some European family and you decide to raise your kids in
02:33Japan, but you only teach them English, some British family or whatever, you decide only
02:38to teach them English and not Japanese, then they will not really be able to function very
02:42well in the Japanese society because they don't speak the local language.
02:45So how much and when and to what degree do you teach your children about the craziness
02:50of the world?
02:51Well, see, there's the world and then there's your world.
02:58These two things are not the same, right?
03:01So yes, the world is full of crazy people.
03:04My world is not full of crazy people.
03:06I don't have crazy people in my life.
03:09I've gone through a very strenuous process over the past probably about 25 to 30 years
03:16of not having crazy people in my life.
03:19So the people I have in my life, they're all functional, they're all happy, they're happily
03:23married, they're peaceful parents, they're rational, they're philosophical, they're curious,
03:29they have great self-knowledge.
03:31So there's the world out there.
03:33I get all of that.
03:35But then there's your world.
03:36Now, do I want my daughter or anyone really to go out and have to deal with crazy people
03:43for the rest of her life because there are crazy people in the world?
03:47Well, I don't.
03:49So how much craziness is she going to have to deal with in the world?
03:52Well, there are, of course, crazy people out there, but you don't want your kids spending
03:59as much time with them.
04:01Well, you want your kids spending minimal amount of time with crazy people.
04:05Yeah, they're going to be crazy laws and they'll be crazy this, that and the other, crazy cultural
04:09stuff and so on.
04:11And so they have to be able to identify that stuff.
04:15But generally, if you speak your children the language of peace and reason and curiosity
04:21and self-knowledge, that's the language they speak.
04:24In the same way that if you speak your kid English, they won't be able to talk with someone
04:29who only speaks Japanese, right, if they only speak English.
04:32And so by teaching your kids the language of peace and reason and curiosity and conflict
04:39resolution and so on, then they don't speak the language of crazy people.
04:42So then when crazy people try to pull their crazy person stuff, your kids are like, I
04:47don't know what's going on here, don't really like it and don't feel any obligation towards
04:52it.
04:54I'm of the, if you raise your kids peacefully, they have an automatic immune system to crazy
05:00because they just don't speak the language.
05:02Now that doesn't mean that they can't comprehend what's going on.
05:06Of course, you'll teach them that there are crazy people in the world.
05:10And through your actions of being a virtuous and rational person in the world, they will
05:18see how you're treated and they will recognize that there's lots of crazy dangerous people
05:21in the world.
05:23But what you want to do is have them be themselves, peaceful, reasonable, good negotiation skills,
05:28good conflict resolution skills through their interaction with you and through the observance
05:31of you and your spouse.
05:34And then they go out into the world and when people try to pull crazy people stuff on them,
05:39they'll never normalize it because they didn't grow up with it.
05:42They won't think it is the natural state of human beings because they weren't raised with
05:48it.
05:50And they'll recognize that craziness is a deviation from the norm of rationality that
05:54is inflicted by abuse and a lack of self-knowledge.
05:59So I mean, I think it's a combo.
06:00You want to shield your kids from crazy because there's tons of people who get exposed to
06:05hardships and it breaks them, right?
06:08I mean, this is what PTSD is and child abuse, the higher adverse childhood experiences leading
06:14to a completely disastrous life that is shortened up to 20 years and cancer, heart disease,
06:21dysfunctional relationships, teen pregnancy, addiction, and abuse, and just overeating,
06:29all kinds of terrible stuff that goes on.
06:33So exposure to too much adversity when you're young breaks you, right?
06:38In the same way that if you are lifting a weight at an appropriate weight, you will
06:44strengthen your arm.
06:46If the weight is too heavy, you can tear a tendon, you can pull a muscle, you can even
06:49break a bone, I suppose, but there's some bad stuff that can happen.
06:53So you want an appropriate amount of weight.
06:55You don't want to hide the craziness of the world from your kids when they're older, but
07:01you basically just say, well, in that area over there is where the crazy people are,
07:08and you don't really want to spend time with them because they will just make your life chaotic.
07:13And as I said to my daughter, if you invite difficult people into your life, your life
07:16becomes difficult.
07:19So I think having a strong foundation of this is what is normal, and this is what is normal.
07:25It is normal to be rational.
07:26It is normal to be peaceful.
07:27It is normal for most people, right?
07:29I'm not talking about the 2%, 5%, or 10% of severely disturbed people, but it is normal
07:34for human beings, and even they, I think, are largely the product of child abuse.
07:39So it is normal to have reasonable conversations.
07:41It is not normal to raise your voice.
07:42It is not normal to call people names.
07:45It is not normal to bully people.
07:48None of that is normal.
07:49None of that is normal for human beings.
07:51It's fine for, I don't know, apes and bears and whatever, but it's not normal for human
07:56beings because we have the capacity for language and reason and negotiation.
07:59So denormalizing crazy people means that they will see crazy people, they will recognize
08:05it instinctively as different from what they know and different from what they've experienced
08:08in the same way that you may not be able to identify a foreign language, but you sure
08:12know that it's not the language you speak, and you won't have anything to say back and
08:16forth.
08:17Well, that's teach kids the language of sanity and reason, and they don't speak crazy.
08:21They'll recognize it as something very foreign.
08:24They'll stay away from it, and they will build their bonds to other people who speak the
08:29same language of peace and reason.
08:31So yeah, it's a harsh world.
08:33Well, it's actually a beautiful world.
08:35I mean, the world is as beautiful as can be conceived of.
08:39You know, I'm just looking at the sky here, there's clouds and sun, and I've often thought
08:43that the world that we live in, like Earth, could very well be the ultimate tourist destination
08:52in the universe.
08:53You know, all these beautiful clouds.
08:54I mean, I guess most life would need some sort of condensation evaporation cycle, but
08:59we've got a moon that looks the same size as the sun.
09:03There are these eclipses.
09:04There's this beautiful moon, these lovely clouds, sunsets.
09:08We could be the tourist destination.
09:10We could be the Vegas, Orlando, Bali of the universe, and we don't often look around,
09:16appreciate, and drink in all of the beauty that we're surrounded by.
09:20So the world is beautiful, and there are a lot of people who are sane, happy, and healthy,
09:27and there are a fairly small number of people who are rational and good communicators and
09:32have a good degree of self-knowledge, and you just want to get to those people, right?
09:37You just want to get to those people.
09:39It's sort of like if you are, like I remember many years ago, I wrote and produced a movie,
09:45and we had auditions for the actors, and 99% of the actors were terrible.
09:51I mean, they're just terrible.
09:54So it's sort of like saying to a movie maker, I mean, not, I mean, I was, like, totally
09:58small time.
09:59Let's say you go to Martin Scorsese or some big time movie maker, and you say, well, most
10:03people can't act.
10:04How do you prepare to make a movie in a world where most people can't act?
10:10Or if you're trying to look for a singer for a band, say, well, most people can't sing.
10:14How is it possible?
10:15How do you prepare a band for the reality that most people can't sing?
10:21Well, and even if they can sing, maybe they don't have any stage presence, or maybe they
10:25don't have any creativity or whatever, right?
10:29Maybe they can't connect with the audience, right?
10:32So when you go to movie makers and you say, well, how do you deal with the fact that most
10:36people can't act?
10:37You go to bands and say, how do you deal with the fact that most people can't sing?
10:40I mean, even, what was it, Genesis, after Peter Gabriel left, they went through, like,
10:43400 singing auditions until Phil Collins decided to take on the role.
10:47400 people, and these are 400 people pre-filtered for being able to sing, and they just couldn't
10:53find the right person.
10:54I mean, it was the same thing after Freddie Mercury died, until they got, what, that guy
11:00from Free, and Adam Lambert, and you just need a particular kind of vocalist.
11:08So how do you deal with it?
11:11Well, you recognize that most people can't act, you recognize that most people can't
11:16sing, and you filter like crazy.
11:18So the world is beautiful, a lot of people are crazy, just don't speak that language,
11:27and they won't have anything to say to you.
11:29The other thing, too, if you're sane and confident, and you build up confidence not by subjecting
11:35children to craziness, but by giving them sanity and health and reason, and that way,
11:42just being somebody who's sane and healthy and reasonable means that crazy people will
11:47steer clear of you.
11:48See, crazy people need to normalize their craziness, they need to think that craziness
11:53is the natural state, they're not crazy, everyone else is crazy, and so crazy people instinctively
12:01avoid sane and healthy people.
12:03Because a sane and healthy person will finally let the crazy person know, just through the
12:08interaction, not even if you say it explicitly, a sane and healthy person will automatically,
12:17and almost through a process of, I don't know, induction, or example, or what's that thing
12:29where liquids go through a solid, I can't remember the word, but when a crazy person
12:34encounters a sane person, the craziness of the sane person becomes real to them, because
12:39they can't blame it on the other person.
12:43So if some crazy person comes along and starts provoking you, and so on, right?
12:49Like I posted a funny picture that my daughter took the other day, where she took it, a sort
12:53of half fisheye lens facing down to my forehead, right?
12:57And I posted this, and most people were like, haha, megamind, and stuff like that, it was
13:03just a funny picture.
13:05And one guy posted and said, Steph, you must be super stressed, man, because you've got
13:12some lines under your eyes, and you've got some lines on your forehead.
13:16And I'm like, okay, I post a funny picture, and some guy's just insulting appearance and
13:21all that.
13:22Look, I'm almost 58 years old, right?
13:24Not bad, not bad, not too shabby at all, you know, I exercise, I moisturize, I hydrate,
13:31you know, it's pretty good.
13:32I've got, you know, very little jowls, and, you know, very few lines, and so on, for,
13:36you know, I'm pushing 60.
13:38So that is someone who is coming to a fun environment and saying something nasty.
13:49I have zero problems with my appearance.
13:52I mean, just so you know, I'm on camera all the time, I see myself all the time, I hear
13:56myself all the time, and I'm sort of reviewing videos and so on, reviewing audio.
14:00I think I have a wonderful voice for this kind of stuff.
14:04And I look fine.
14:05I mean, I have zero problems with my appearance.
14:09So, and somebody's saying, gee, Steph, you're almost 58, and you've got some lines on your
14:14forehead.
14:15I'm like, no shit, Sherlock.
14:17Well done, well done, well done.
14:21So I just wrote back, you know, like, well, yeah, bro, I'm almost 58, and I'm gonna have
14:27some wrinkles.
14:28Yeah, I'm gonna have some lines on my forehead, and I'm gonna have some, you know, stuff under
14:33my eyes.
14:34I mean, that's just natural, right?
14:36You know, I just said, you know, you might want to say something positive about a funny
14:42picture, because your life will be better.
14:44Your life will probably be better if you respond to a funny picture with something
14:48positive or, you know, don't, with a funny picture, don't say, hey, man, you must be
14:54super stressed.
14:55You got lines on your forehead, and you got lines under your eyes.
14:57I'm like, yes, yes, I do.
15:00And the alternative to that is to not be here, right?
15:03The alternative to wrinkles is death, right?
15:06I mean, I ain't the 27 Club guy, right?
15:10Live fast, die young, live a good-looking corpse.
15:12That's not my thing, because that doesn't maximize philosophy.
15:15So if I had gotten, this is just a tiny example I just wrote back and then forgot about it,
15:19but it then comes up in the context of this.
15:21So if I'd written back and said, I look fantastic, show me a picture of you, I bet you look like
15:27shit, you know, something like that, then the person can say, hey, man, I just made
15:32a comment, and Steph just went nuts, right?
15:35So if you just come back with a reasonable statement, then people's craziness becomes
15:41clear to them.
15:42So people who are crazy avoid relatively calm, reasonable people.
15:48They just do.
15:49And so if you are sane, reasonable, and strong in the world, crazy people will just part
15:54like the Red Sea before you.
15:55They will just absolutely avoid you, in the same way that propagandized people avoid people
16:01who are curious, because curiosity is an acceptance of the limitations of our knowledge, and propaganda
16:07is assuming you have the perfect final answers for everything that has been handed to you
16:11with no reasoning, right?
16:13It is the pretense of knowledge.
16:16Propaganda is like those funny little sun overalls that you can get in Florida and other
16:25places where it has like, you know, big boobs, narrow waist, wide hips, it's got this cartoon
16:32perfect figure, this Jessica Rabbit figure on it, and you just put that on and you think
16:36you look like that, right?
16:38Because that's the conclusion of youth and exercise and diet and so on, and you can get
16:42some overweight grandma who can put that on, and it's a joke, right?
16:48I mean, so it is funny.
16:53So that's propaganda, right?
16:55It's giving you the conclusions of years of work and all of that without any reasoning,
16:59without any process.
17:00They just give you a towel to put on to make you look fit, and then you think you're all
17:03that, and a slice of bread.
17:05So just be sane and the crazy people will absolutely avoid you.
17:15And they'll sense it.
17:17They'll sense it.
17:18It's funny because I used to have crazy people who would try to tangle with me and then they'd
17:22back off.
17:23Now I'm so, you know, calm, reasonable, peaceful, and they sense that sort of strength and confidence
17:29and self-knowledge and so on, then they don't even tangle with me.
17:33I can't even remember the last time, certainly in my life, that anyone who was unstable had
17:41anything to say to me.
17:43They just, they don't.
17:46It's like we're absolutely in like same planet, different worlds.
17:49So all right.
17:50A lot of people say they believe in the theory of evolution, but how many do you think actually
17:55understand it?
17:56What do you think?
17:57How on earth am I supposed to know that?
18:00I mean, microevolution has been accepted forever and ever.
18:03Amen.
18:04Right?
18:05I mean, that's how we domesticated animals and fruits and vegetables and so on.
18:06I mean, look at what the original corn looks like in the wild back in the day, and you'll
18:10realize just how much clipping and merging.
18:13So microevolution has been accepted forever, and there is almost no religious person who,
18:20even a fundamentalist person, would not say there's no such thing as microevolution.
18:25But macroevolution, differentiation of species and so on, that's harder to prove because
18:30of course the fossil record is so slight.
18:33If we had like the entire human population of North America, if it was all wiped out,
18:39you would find one thigh bone in the future.
18:41That's how many fossils we find relative to the actual story of life.
18:46So I have no idea how many people actually understand the theory.
18:51I don't know what you mean by actually understand.
18:53I don't know if any surveys have been done.
18:55So that's a data question, which is only interesting if you have the data.
19:01But if a data question and nobody has the data, there's no philosophy involved, right?
19:07Should we send our daughter to private school?
19:09She's been homeschooled her whole life, and then last year she went to private school
19:12for about 80% of the school year.
19:13We did a late enrollment.
19:14We wanted her to continue to go, but she does not want to go.
19:18Citing disagreements with classmates, teasing, overall, I think it's a good school and our
19:21other two kids enjoy going there.
19:23What is the balance between pushing your kids outside of their comfort zone and also
19:26taking into consideration them not wanting to do something?
19:29Our kids were forced into piano when they were younger and hated it, so we stopped.
19:33They will occasionally say they were glad they were forced to play piano because it
19:36gave them a skill and they will still play.
19:38That's the moral dilemma I'm trying to articulate.
19:39Thanks, Deb.
19:40Well, it depends on the kid.
19:41I mean, there's no one, I mean, other than no violations of the non-aggression principle
19:47and no abuse.
19:50Some kids are open to coaching.
19:53Some kids are open to coaching.
19:54My daughter is not particularly open to coaching.
19:57When she has something to do that I have a lot of experience in, I have to be very, very,
20:05very delicate on the feedback I give her.
20:07It's not exactly the same as disarming a bomb, but it's not exactly the opposite either.
20:12So when it comes to my daughter, she's got a lot of great natural talents, a lot of great
20:18natural abilities, and she's ferociously hard at working at stuff that she wants to learn.
20:23But if she has, I don't even want to get into the content because that's sort of a distraction.
20:30If she has some task to perform, particularly in public that I have a lot of experience
20:36in, I can't give her much feedback.
20:41And I understand where she's coming from because she has her way of doing it, and if I give
20:47her what I think is the correct or right or trained way to do it, then that is going
20:52to interfere with her natural expression and she can end up stilted, right?
20:58So if somebody's like a really fast runner and they go to a coach and the coach says
21:01do this, do that to the other, it will screw up their running for a while, right, as they
21:06unlearn their natural habits and learn something better.
21:09I mean, I remember when I first got coaching in racket sports, I had a way of playing,
21:15and then I got coaching and it screwed up my game for quite a while.
21:18So some kids are more coachable.
21:21Some kids are more ferocious in wanting to do it by themselves, right?
21:25My very first sentence as a child, my very first complete sentence at the age of two
21:29or so was leave me with what I'm doing.
21:33And here I am working alone.
21:36Leave me with what I'm doing.
21:38It really, really doesn't change too much.
21:40You get the brain you get, right?
21:42So some kids may like school more.
21:44Some kids may like school less.
21:49So if your kid doesn't want to go to school, then why would you make your kid go to school?
22:01You say, oh, well, she'll thank us later.
22:03It's like, okay, but if she changes her mind later, then she'll do it on her own.
22:06So as you say, you quote, forced your kids to play piano, and that's fine.
22:10I mean, you can get your kids and say, give it a shot, you know, and you can make deals
22:14with them to try it for a month or two.
22:16And so you forced your kids to play piano, and now they're glad that they were forced
22:23to do it.
22:24So you forced your kids to play piano.
22:25I mean, I know you're not talking about forcing them, like encouraging them or making deals
22:28with them.
22:29So your kids play piano, and now they play piano voluntarily, and you stopped forcing
22:35them to play piano.
22:37So you make deals with kids, and if the kids accept the deals, then you hold them to the
22:44deals, right?
22:45So if you want your kid to play piano, you can make a deal with the kid that says, how
22:51can we negotiate so that you will commit to playing piano for a month or two and maybe
22:56getting some teaching or whatever, right?
22:58So what deals can we make?
22:59And if you can't make any deals, then you can't hold her down and force her to play
23:03piano, right?
23:04And you shouldn't.
23:05So you work to make deals, and that teaches kids about deals, and it teaches them about
23:10negotiation, and it teaches them about following through, and it teaches them about negotiation
23:14regret, right?
23:16Where sometimes you regret your negotiations, but you still have to be held to it, right?
23:22So whatever you can negotiate with kids, you can hold them to.
23:25But if they don't want to negotiate, and it's like, there's nothing that you can do that
23:28is going to make me want to play piano, then, well, if you can't negotiate with your kids,
23:37you can't get them to do stuff.
23:39Because the only other thing you're teaching them if you don't negotiate them, but genuinely
23:42force them to do them, is that they're bigger and stronger.
23:44You're bigger and stronger, and their will means nothing in the face of your size and
23:47power.
23:48Okay, that's just setting them up for abusive relationships.
23:52So yeah, whatever you can negotiate with.
23:53If you can negotiate with your kid to go to school, then they go to school.
23:56If they don't want to go to school, and you can't negotiate with them to go to school,
23:58then they don't go to school.
23:59If they regret it later, you say, well, but we negotiated.
24:04And you had experience of homeschooling, you had experience of schooling.
24:07You don't tell me how old your kids are, and you negotiate, right?
24:12Now, there's other things that you can do that aren't negotiation-based, right?
24:16Like I mean, you don't want your kids to eat candy all day, so you just don't have candy
24:19in the house.
24:20And they say, where's the candy?
24:21Well, we don't have any.
24:22Can we go out to get any?
24:23No, I don't want to.
24:24Well, then they have to find something else to eat.
24:26So some of negotiation is just not having stuff around.
24:29But you negotiate with your kids, and they'll have to live with the consequences of their
24:34negotiating.
24:35I negotiated with my daughter to take some piano lessons.
24:38She played it for a while.
24:39She didn't particularly like it.
24:41And so we stopped.
24:42Now, if she would have come to me and say, I wish you'd forced me to keep going, I mean,
24:47she never would, and she never has said anything like that to me.
24:50If she says now, she wants to learn piano, I'll be like, hey, we're happy to facilitate
24:53that again.
24:54If you want to learn piano, but there's never been a statement in my family like, I wish
24:58you'd kept forcing me to do something, because I never forced her to do anything.
25:01I wish you had encouraged, just like, well, we do encourage, but my daughter, a little
25:08bit resistance to outside pressure, which I'm not going to, I'm going to be the last
25:11one to complain about her thinking for herself, opposing outside pressure and wanting to cut
25:17her own path through the woods.
25:19I'm absolutely fine with that.
25:20I would be completely hypocritical for me to have a big problem with that.
25:23So, yeah, you negotiate with your kids.
25:25If they later regret their negotiations, that's part of life, man.
25:28That teaches them to think further down the road when they negotiate.
25:30All right.
25:31Tucker Carlson remarked recently that Bitcoin was probably invented by the CIA.
25:36It sounds crazy to me that the CIA has been doing very shady things for a long time.
25:39I'd love to get your thoughts.
25:42I mean, I would be very surprised if Bitcoin was invented by the CIA.
25:47The CIA lives on fiat currency, and inventing the ultimate replacement for fiat currency
25:52would be quite nuts.
25:54It would say that the people in the CIA are able to look 20 years down the road to see
25:59the value of Bitcoin, and that they don't mind that if Bitcoin becomes a replacement
26:06for fiat currency, there'll be precious little funding to the CIA.
26:09So it would be like, let's look 20 years down the road, which is not generally the case.
26:13Power is a moment-by-moment affair, which is why it looks so chaotic and leads in such
26:16a bad direction.
26:18Is that, I mean, if the government, if anyone in the government was capable of looking down
26:21the road, we wouldn't have a national debt, right, because they'd be saying, well, this
26:25is really bad.
26:26We wouldn't have unfunded liabilities.
26:27Or in America, what, the unfunded liabilities are well over $200 trillion, right?
26:31If anyone in the government had the capacity to look down the road and act decisively,
26:35they wouldn't be the government.
26:36Power is a moment-by-moment affair.
26:39It's like when you're chatting with someone who's a real manipulator, all they're trying
26:43to do is win in the moment.
26:44They don't care about contradictions.
26:46They don't care about what might happen later.
26:47They're just trying to win in the moment.
26:49This is why relationships end up so bad, is people try to win in the moment, and they
26:52don't realize that they're actually destroying their relationship downstream over time.
26:56They don't care.
26:58It's like being severely overweight as an adult, like assuming you weren't fed that
27:03way as a kid.
27:04It's just a moment-by-moment affair.
27:05I like to eat this.
27:06I like to eat that.
27:07I don't want to exercise.
27:08I want another soda.
27:10And it's just a moment-by-moment.
27:11You're not thinking, well, 10 years down the road, or 20 years down the road, I could have
27:14a heart attack.
27:15You're not thinking of that.
27:16Addiction is always a moment-by-moment affair, always.
27:20So the addicts who steal from their family in order to get their drugs, they're not sitting
27:24there saying, well, I'm destroying my family structure, I'm causing everyone who cares
27:28about me to hate and fear me, and they're just like, I just need the drug.
27:33So the idea that there's some, you know, 20, 30-year plan put out by the CIA to replace
27:38the entire source of their funding would seem to me absolutely unbelievable.
27:43I mean, is it possible?
27:46But there's so many things that are possible, right?
27:48I could get struck by lightning doing a show outside rather than inside.
27:54Every time you go for a hike in the woods, I guess, theoretically, in most places, in
27:57some places, you could get attacked by a bear.
28:00Every time you work out, you could find out that you have some bone-rotting disease, and
28:04you could break an arm just lifting a weight.
28:06I mean, there is every risk known to man.
28:08We just, we play the odds.
28:09We play the bell curve, and I wouldn't put one Satoshi on that big invention by people
28:15in the CIA.
28:16But, you know, I just can't see it in any way, shape, or form happening.
28:21All right.
28:22Well, I hope that helps.
28:23If you'd like to submit more questions at freedomain.locals.com, you can also sign up
28:27at subscribestar.com slash freedomain.
28:30And of course, support for the show is always very, very humbly and gratefully accepted,
28:37which is freedomain.com slash donate.
28:39And I'll see you tonight, Wednesday night, 7 p.m., and Friday night, 7 p.m., and Sunday
28:44morning's 11 a.m.
28:45We do our live streams.
28:46Love to chat with you there.
28:47We can even do call-ins now, which is fantastic.
28:49You can submit questions as well.
28:52Love you guys.
28:53Thank you for these great questions and comments.
28:55Lots of love.
28:56I'll talk to you soon.
28:57Bye.