Stefan Molyneux
  • 2 days ago
THE TWEET: https://x.com/OGRolandRat/status/1870867316956643703

In this episode, I explore the complexities of public perception and the role of self-knowledge in handling criticism as a public figure. I recount my return to Twitter, sharing insights on how emotional responses can skew perspectives during public scrutiny. Drawing from my experiences with being "canceled," I emphasize the importance of understanding our emotions in relation to moral philosophy and self-examination. I argue that a strong foundation in self-knowledge allows for reframing discomfort into opportunities for growth, advocating for reason and virtue over fleeting emotional reactions. Additionally, I critique the tendency for others to project their own biases onto public figures, reinforcing that true morality often involves uncomfortable choices. As I engage with the ideas of influence and relevance, I invite listeners to consider how embracing discomfort for the sake of truth can enrich our philosophical inquiries and relationships.

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
00:00Hello everybody, it's Stefan Molyneux from Freedomain, freedomain.com.
00:04I have popped up, popped up on Twitter again, like a dolphin surfing the front of a cruise
00:11ship.
00:12I occasionally emerge and get a couple of old views.
00:15This is from 22nd December, yesterday I think.
00:19Yeah, it's almost Christmas Eve.
00:20Merry Christmas, everybody.
00:23Somebody wrote, OG Roland Ratt, I think it is.
00:27He's hurt.
00:28His ego is hurt, but he's a big star, and it's all right to have an ego.
00:32I encourage efforts to get him to come back.
00:35This is a screenshot with me looking fairly fresh-faced, apple-cheeked, saying, it's nice
00:41to see that people still remember me.
00:44And it is.
00:45It is nice to see that people remember me.
00:51One of the things that is a real challenge when you're a public figure, especially, I've
00:57been through a lot of self-knowledge work, a lot of therapy, and stuff like that.
01:02So when you have a good degree of self-knowledge, one of the things that's tough out there in
01:09the public square or the public space is just seeing the number of people who can't understand
01:16someone else's perspective or viewpoint.
01:19They can really only imagine how they would feel in such a situation.
01:26So it's really important.
01:29So a lot of people, when I was canceled, a lot of people were like, well, I would be
01:34really hurt, angry, and upset about that.
01:37Therefore, Steph must be really hurt, angry, and upset about that.
01:40Now, it was upsetting.
01:41Don't get me wrong.
01:42I wasn't a pure, pure Buddha Zen floating around on fart juice above the mountains of
01:47indifference.
01:48I was not indifferent, of course.
01:51It was disappointing.
01:52And I wouldn't say overly shocking, but what occurred for me was really, really looking
01:59at the upside of things is important.
02:01I'm not 100% on the Hamlet train of like, there's nothing good or bad, but thinking
02:05makes it so.
02:06But there is so much that you can do to change your perspective about things that happen
02:12to you that a lot of your happiness is under your control.
02:17If you're at the mercy of events, you're saying that I have no interpretive factor
02:22faculty with which to reshape the immediate emotional impact of something.
02:27And of course, the whole point of having these sort of higher brains is cognitive
02:32functioning ability is to be able to intercept emotional impulses and shape them to a larger
02:41and more universal perspective.
02:43I mean, that's virtue, right?
02:44You want to do bad things.
02:45You intercept that impulse.
02:47You shape it towards a greater virtue.
02:51And through that, you end up with a happier life, right?
02:53That's why we have philosophy is to oppose some of the, I would say, baser instincts,
02:59not that I have any problems with emotions.
03:01I mean, what we're all after is happiness.
03:03And happiness is, of course, an emotional experience.
03:06But you can't allow emotions to dictate your life.
03:11Otherwise, you're not partaking in the very essence of humanity, which is to have these
03:16rational, universal cognitive capabilities that can shape and align our emotions to a
03:22larger moral purpose, right?
03:25In the same way, like if you look at the world, oh, it looks really flat, man, it's totally
03:29flat.
03:30Well, you want to use your scientific method to figure out whether it is flat, you know,
03:34that kind of stuff, right?
03:35So it's the same thing.
03:36Our limited perspective and the strength of our emotional impulses is why we need to have
03:45moral philosophy as a whole, particularly moral philosophy, so that we can take a larger
03:50perspective on that, which is immediately upsetting and reshape that to a larger and
03:56more universal purpose.
03:58All morality involves sacrificing the comfort of the moment for the happiness of the future.
04:05It's sort of like, you know, dieting, like you're sacrificing the happiness of the moment
04:09by being hungry for the sake of happiness in the future, which is being healthy, not
04:14having joint pain, you know, this kind of stuff, right?
04:16And longevity, same thing with quitting smoking or what is even harder for most people, which
04:20is quitting propaganda.
04:23Propaganda is there to program you to prefer short-term gains over long-term happiness,
04:30because the short-term gains of conformity and social acceptance and feeling like a good
04:34person and all that, that sort of moral posturing that passes for ethics these days, propaganda
04:40is there to say to you that that which makes you happy and relieved and approved of in
04:46the moment is also that which is moral and virtuous and good in the long run.
04:50And of course, really nothing could be further from the truth.
04:53That which makes you happy in the long run is that which is often the most exquisitely
04:57uncomfortable in the moment.
04:59It's sort of like a diet that says, eat whatever you want, whenever you want, that's the best
05:03way to diet.
05:03Well, that wouldn't be a diet.
05:05And those who seek for approval gain the drug of approval in the short term, but they
05:12lose integrity, virtue, and self-respect in the long run.
05:18Philosophy is there to say it's essential if you want happiness in the long run to embrace
05:24the discomfort of being disapproved of in the moment so that you can approve of yourself
05:29in the future, right?
05:31We don't want the approval of others because that's a form of enslavement and gives way
05:35too much power to bullies.
05:37We want the self-respect of ourselves in the future, and that's worth sacrificing just
05:44about anything for because it's not really a sacrifice.
05:47If you quit smoking, are you really sacrificing things?
05:49So yeah, getting away from the short-term dopamine to the long-term self-respect is
05:54really the goal of philosophy.
05:57So if people say, well, if I were Steph, I would be really angry and upset and I would
06:11rage quit and I would, you know, ego and all of that, right?
06:14I mean, my gosh, ego.
06:16I mean, I can be accused of many things, even a few of them, credibly, but having a big
06:21ego, no, no, no.
06:24An ego is when you dominate people with irrational perspectives through, you know, threats,
06:34bribes, bullying, and so on, right?
06:37It's like, you know, pushing those two pieces of paper together.
06:40If you don't reason, one just has to go over the other, like they can't coexist.
06:43One just has to dominate the other.
06:45So ego is when I am right simply for being, and you use your intellectual and emotional
06:52talents to browbeat other people into submission, the one thing that is the opposite of the
06:57ego, the opposite of the ego is to relentlessly submit to a rational standard that is not
07:06the ego, right?
07:09Science is ego-less in that the scientist, of course, wants to be right, but he says
07:14or she says, I'm going to submit my preferences to a universal rational standard, and therefore
07:21the ego is when you impose an irrational standard on other people through browbeating,
07:26bullying, bribery, and so on, the triple Bs.
07:30So to have an ego is to say that I'm right for existing.
07:37To have humility is to say, I want to be right according to a universal standard.
07:41So the fact that I submit virtue to a universal moral standard, the fact that I submit the
07:46metaphysics of the study of reality to a universal rational standard, epistemology,
07:51how do we know what is true and what is false?
07:53That is a universal moral standard.
07:54If you can transfer it to someone else, it's not ego, right?
07:59And so pursuing truth and virtue and therefore being able to achieve love, you can't love
08:08or be loved if you don't know what is true and you don't do what is virtuous.
08:12So it's the very opposite of having an ego is to submit yourself to a larger universal
08:20moral standard.
08:21That is absolute.
08:22That is not optional.
08:23It's not like, well, you know, I in general submit myself to a standard as long as it's
08:27not too inconvenient and so on.
08:30It's not optional.
08:31It's not sometimes.
08:33I mean, if someone has given me an empirical rational argument against what it is that
08:40I'm saying, I will submit and I'm not submitting to that person.
08:44I'm submitting.
08:44It's not an ego thing, right?
08:46Dominance and submission is what less mature personalities believe, just as I was more
08:51inclined to when I was younger.
08:54But I submit to the truth, which is called having integrity, right?
08:59And having integrity is very, very important, not just because it's a nice thing to have
09:03integrity as a whole, but as I say, self-respect and love is only possible if you have integrity
09:07because you can't love someone who's untrustworthy.
09:10And integrity means that your behavior is predictable, right?
09:13Integrity means your behavior is predictable.
09:17And so if your behavior can be predicted and your behavior is virtuous, then people can
09:23trust you enough to love you.
09:24So with the people in my life, if I do something that's not ideal and they say that wasn't
09:28ideal and here's sort of why I'm like, yeah, you're right.
09:31I'm really, really sorry about that and so on, right?
09:33So that one of the problems with being in a public square, which of course, you know,
09:40I'm much less off now than I was, I'm still there.
09:43But one of the problems with being in the public square is people keep confusing you
09:48for them.
09:50And they don't say, gee, Steph, I mean, if I was in your shoes, my ego would be wounded.
09:56I'd be bitter, angry, I'd rage quit and so on.
10:03They don't say, if I were in your shoes, this is how I would feel, which is to say
10:09that they're differentiating that they're not me.
10:11But they say, Steph does feel this way.
10:14Steph is experiencing this, right?
10:20I mean, when people say, oh, you know, he's just a manipulator or like the cultish and
10:25kind of stuff, it's like, because if they had some authority or influence over people,
10:31that's how they would use that power, whereas I don't use that power.
10:35I never tell people what to do and simply try to remind them of universal principles
10:40and some important and essential moral truths.
10:43But what they're saying is, well, if I had the kind of authority that Steph has, I would
10:49use it to a terrible end.
10:52They don't say, well, I'm glad I don't have Steph's influence because I would use it for
10:56a malevolent end.
10:57They just say, no, Steph does this, right?
10:59There's no self and there's no other distinction.
11:06I mean, I'm pushing 60 years of age, right?
11:08So I get to say, oh, it's so tiresome, you know, Asterian style, right?
11:12Oh, so tiresome, my butt.
11:16But it is tiresome.
11:17It is tiring.
11:19Not tiring, like physically tiring.
11:21It's just boring.
11:24It's boring when people just imagine that you are them with no understanding of that,
11:30because really, I mean, how are you going to talk people out of that in any reasonable
11:37timeframe?
11:38I mean, that's such a leap from, you know, disco, internal mirrorball, solipsism, or
11:47what's the better?
11:48It's not quite narcissism, but when you don't understand that you and other people are different
11:55and it comes from childhood, right?
11:58It's hard to get people to cross that bridge.
12:00It's hard to get people to really differentiate between self and other and to stop projecting,
12:05particularly onto public figures.
12:07And what it comes from is usually, let's say you have a mother who is short-tempered, right?
12:14She's irritated.
12:15She's stressed or whatever it is.
12:18And then you're kind of, you know, loud and banging drums as a little boy.
12:22And your mother says, you're being irritating, right?
12:27Not, I have a susceptibility to irritation, or I'm feeling irritable at the moment.
12:35The mother says that my escalating bad temper is the direct result of your behavior, right?
12:44Not you're irritating me, but you are irritating.
12:47So she takes the irritation and embeds it in the child and then criticizes the child
12:52based on that.
12:53And, you know, woe betide you tell a mother or a father who does that kind of stuff.
12:59No, I'm not irritating.
13:00You're just short-tempered.
13:01I mean, because then it just escalates.
13:03So you kind of have to go along with it.
13:04So there's a whole lot of, you know, trauma and upset at the root of a failure to differentiate
13:09between self and other.
13:10And honestly, when you have people around you, and, you know, I won't say I'm blessed
13:16because I certainly have some blessings, but we've all earned it through pretty hard self
13:21work.
13:22But I'm really, I mean, I'm surrounded, the people in my life are so far removed from
13:26the general rabble and projecting horde that, you know, once you've listened to, you know,
13:381962 Moscow Pavarotti, it's kind of tough to go back to Johnny Rotten and Sid Vich,
13:45so to speak.
13:47Because my sort of daily life is elevated and wonderful conversations and self-ownership,
13:54responsibility, and easy, productive, positive things that then sort of going back to this
14:00sort of very primitive kind of situation.
14:04I mean, how would you feel if you woke up and had to start at grade two again?
14:08Like, it just wouldn't be that much fun.
14:10So this is one of the reasons why it's less appealing.
14:16So he said, this guy says, and, you know, no hate on the guy, I'm glad he posted this
14:21and all of that, but he said, he's hurt.
14:23His ego's hurt, but he's a big star and it's all right to have an ego.
14:26Yeah, I mean, it's really the opposite of what I do is to have an ego.
14:29I mean, if I had an ego, I would have stayed away from controversial stuff and getting
14:34continued to grow my presence and brand and so on, right?
14:38Somebody, so what did people reply?
14:40It's interesting to see where people are.
14:43Somebody wrote, it's too bad that what he holds up as his life's work in UPB has been
14:48destroyed multiple times.
14:50The logical possibility that someone would debate without wanting an outcome of truth
14:57like a spy defeats it.
15:01I'm not sure what that means.
15:02It's too bad.
15:03And so this is the other thing too, is that people say he's wrong.
15:08He's been debunked multiple times.
15:11He's wrong.
15:12He made basic errors at the beginning of the art of the argument, which is, you know, it's
15:16not true.
15:17They don't point out the errors.
15:18They simply say the error has occurred and they're just absolutely certain about it.
15:22And this is like being a choir director and going to a dog shelter and just hearing random
15:33barks.
15:33Like it's just, it's hard on the ears and it's just kind of unpleasant.
15:37Wouldn't you do quite a bit to get away from it, right?
15:40The logical possibility that someone would debate without wanting an outcome of truth
15:45like a spy defeats it.
15:50That sentence really doesn't make any sense.
15:53I'm not sure what it means.
15:55Like the logic, what is a logical possibility as opposed to an illogical possibility?
16:01Like a square circle that's possible.
16:03No, it's not.
16:04By definition, a square circle is impossible, right?
16:07Someone would debate without wanting an outcome of truth defeats it.
16:11Now, I don't know what that means.
16:15Somebody else writes, a return of Molyneux would be cataclysmic.
16:18Few today could handle his arguments.
16:21And what is interesting, because I actually think more people today could handle my arguments.
16:27We need him, even just for the lulz he will inevitably produce.
16:31Well, I will say that that's probably the biggest temptation is the lulz are a little
16:38addictive.
16:39I'm not saying it's a good addiction, but it's there.
16:43Some people get their YouTube channels back if they appeal.
16:45Some people don't.
16:47What do we say here?
16:51Uh, I would unironically love to see this come true.
16:56This dude was hugely influential to me.
16:58Less for his positions, which generally were good, but more his approach.
17:02That's not an argument.
17:04He was an underappreciated Titan.
17:07That's not an argument.
17:08Not an argument was fairly iconic, right?
17:11Um, uh, let's see here.
17:17Yeah.
17:19Uh, he wouldn't do well now.
17:21He was a stepping stone for a lot of people, but most of us have outgrown a lot of his
17:25takes.
17:29Oh, see, that's the funny thing, right?
17:30I mean, I've been doing philosophy now.
17:33I'm 58 years old.
17:34I've been doing philosophy for 43 years, right?
17:38Since my mid teens, I've been doing philosophy for 43 years.
17:43And look, I, I obviously, I get it.
17:47There's no hate here, but this is just kind of like, and I hate to be this, the arguments
17:53are so wrong.
17:53Where do I even start?
17:54You know, that's kind of an annoying approach.
17:57But, uh, let's say that I made an argument that two and two make four.
18:03Two and two make four.
18:05Well, says a mathematician, I guess he was quite influential when I was younger with
18:10his two and two make four argument.
18:13But I've since outgrown him, don't you?
18:15I've just outgrown him.
18:17And I've outgrown his, his little takes that two and two make four.
18:21It's like, look, it's, it's true or it's false.
18:24There is no outgrowing that you can abandon the truth if you want.
18:29But don't tell me you outgrew the truth into what, what, what did you outgrow the truth
18:36into?
18:36Falsehood?
18:37Now, of course, I'm not saying I am the truth, the way, the light, but I'm saying that if
18:41I made an argument that is false, then you need to prove that it's false.
18:44If I made an argument that goes against the evidence, you need to provide counter evidence.
18:49But if you can't disprove the argument and you can't provide counter evidence, it has
18:53to stand as true.
18:55What are you outgrowing?
19:00Well, I used to accept gravity, don't you know, but gravity was just an amateur take
19:04and I've since vastly outgrown the concept of gravity.
19:08It's like, what are you talking about?
19:10Oh, and I mean, to get someone to understand that you, this is just an emotional thing.
19:19So what probably happened is my arguments were causing upset in professional, social,
19:26political circles, which I understand and I sympathize with.
19:29And so people can say, these arguments were too dangerous.
19:33They were too destabilizing.
19:34They threatened too many of my relationships.
19:36I get all of that.
19:38But then just say that, just be honest.
19:40If you can't be honest, you can't have a debate.
19:42So when people are saying, well, but I've just, he made these takes.
19:46They're not takes.
19:48I feel like a four-poster bed is nice.
19:51Kind of, it's a take or whatever, right?
19:54Wainscoting is gay.
19:56I don't like, is that a take, right?
19:58But it's not a take to say two and two make four, right?
20:03All men are mortal.
20:04Socrates is a man.
20:05Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
20:06I put highly sourced arguments out, interviewed subject matter experts with data, charts,
20:11and references.
20:13So these aren't takes.
20:16These aren't takes.
20:18Who would you rather sleep with, the prince that the beast in Beauty and the Beast turns
20:24into or the beast himself?
20:26I don't know.
20:26That's kind of a provocative, odd, 50 shades of hairy gray take.
20:30But it's not a take to say that two and two make four.
20:32So, all right.
20:34Uh, he wouldn't do, oh, so, um, it says, uh, growing up is appreciating what we had.
20:41His call-in conversations are amazing to listen to.
20:44It's time to move on though.
20:50It's time to move on.
20:53And moving on is like outgrowing.
20:55It's, it's, it's a hierarchical statement.
20:57Well, you know, we've got to move on from, you know, I enjoyed grade two, but it's time
21:01to move on.
21:01You have to move on.
21:03That's not a move on.
21:04It's not an argument.
21:05Take is not an argument.
21:07Outgrowing is not an argument.
21:11And, and dealing with these random P. Diddy oil vaseline lubed tentacles of not an argument
21:18just gets kind of, because it doesn't change, right?
21:21Cut off one tentacle, another one regrows.
21:24So, all right.
21:26Um, I lost touch with his content when Trump got elected in 16.
21:32When I came back into the political arena, I didn't see his content anywhere.
21:37Found his rumble channel, but he doesn't seem to make the same content.
21:41Can someone fill me in on what happened?
21:43I don't know.
21:44Did anyone reply?
21:46He's still going strong.
21:49The locals joined us.
21:50Everyone shit on him and abandoned him.
21:51He took it personal as one would and quit discussing past politics, took it personally,
21:59took it personally.
22:00What does that, what does that mean?
22:02So yeah, it's true that a lot of my former colleagues kind of hit the road and whatever.
22:07Right.
22:07I mean, I took it personally.
22:09What does that mean?
22:13So when people say Steph took something personally, what they're saying is what they've really
22:18been saying is that I would take it personally and everyone is just like me.
22:23I mean, I don't know exactly what to say to that.
22:29I, I would take it personally if people quote abandoned me and therefore Steph takes, takes
22:39it personally and there's no possibility otherwise.
22:42I don't, I mean, again, I'm sorry.
22:44I'm not sure exactly what it means.
22:45So let's say there's a bunch of people I worked with in the past.
22:48They kind of despawned when I got deplatformed.
22:53I mean, they didn't, I mean, some, some did say some stuff for sure, but you know, they
22:57didn't sort of rush to do defend me or have me on their shows or, you know, push back
23:01against like whatever.
23:02Right.
23:03But I take it personally.
23:06So to take it personally would be that they're doing it against me, but I don't think they're
23:12doing it against me.
23:15I think if I were to sort of look at it the most objectively, I would say that
23:25they are making rational decisions based upon the job descriptions they have.
23:32Right.
23:33They're making, I would say that honestly, they're making rational decisions based upon
23:37the job description that they have.
23:39So I am a moral philosopher first and foremost, which means I have to take a stand for truth,
23:44reason, objectivity, and virtue no matter what.
23:49So that's my job description.
23:52If you have a job description called, I want to get so-and-so elected.
23:57I wish to push conservative political arguments forward as efficiently and productively as
24:02possible.
24:03That's a different job description.
24:07Right.
24:08That's a different job description.
24:10I mean, if I'm a Formula One racer, the job description is to win the race.
24:14No matter, like, not no matter what, but to win the race, pushing the envelope as far
24:21as possible without exploding in a fireball of exit spicy food clouds of lava.
24:30Right.
24:31So that's the job description.
24:33The job description of the Formula One racer is to drive as fast as humanly possible without
24:38crashing to win the race.
24:39Right.
24:39That's the job.
24:40Now, the job of the UPS driver is not to do that.
24:43Right.
24:43The job of the UPS driver is to deliver the package in a reasonable timeframe while obeying
24:47the law.
24:48I mean, there are no laws for speeding at the Indy 500, right?
24:54And there are no headlamps because they're lit, man.
24:59So it's just, it's a different job description.
25:01So if the Formula One racer is going 150 miles an hour, that's good.
25:11That means probably going to win the race.
25:14Maybe a hundred miles an hour.
25:16Yeah.
25:16Because they got a turn.
25:17Right.
25:17So, so that, but, but if, if, if the UPS driver is going a hundred miles an hour, that's
25:23terrible.
25:24That's illegal.
25:24He's going to get someone killed and, and he should go to jail.
25:28Right.
25:29So it's just, it's a different job description.
25:31I am moral principles, universal, no matter what, follow the evidence where the evidence
25:36leaves and work as hard as humanly possible to reduce the amount of violence and conflict
25:42escalating conflict in the world to reduce the amount of abuses.
25:44And the way that you reduce abuses is you follow reason and evidence.
25:47So people have reason and evidence to mediate disputes rather than aggression, escalation
25:55threats and violence.
25:56Right.
25:57So it's attempt to attempting to displace propaganda, which is a form of verbal abuse
26:01with reason, which is a form of verbal reconciliation.
26:04Right.
26:05So that's the gig.
26:06So that's the gig.
26:08So, I mean, I'm not sure that I take it personally in that way.
26:16Molyneux's autism can't comprehend, sorry, Molyneux's autism can't comprehend that any
26:22arguments based on humans being rational actors is false.
26:25He also can't accept that all civilization is based on violence and that it, and that
26:30it actually requires violence to function.
26:33So, um, you know, calling me autistic is not an argument.
26:39It's not an argument.
26:39Uh, it's, um, saying that I can't comprehend something is a projection, you know, it's,
26:48it's called confession through projection.
26:50Right.
26:51So when I talk about the state being founded on coercion, when I talk about spanking being
26:57When I talk about spanking being coercion, when I talk about taxation, uh, and in particular
27:04national debts being a form of debt enslavement to the young and the unborn, when I do a huge
27:11amount to expose the massive amounts of unseen or unacknowledged violence in society, saying
27:18that I don't understand the role of violence in society.
27:22I mean, it's like literally somebody who's running a sun God religion being told that
27:30he doesn't understand that the sun has power.
27:33So yes, there, there is of course, violence everywhere in society and it's starts with
27:38the family, right?
27:39It all starts with the family.
27:40People's acceptance of violence in society is founded upon their acceptance of the violence
27:46in the family, right?
27:47Um, the, the physical abuse, spanking, hitting, beatings, and so on, uh, verbal abuse, which
27:54is why people are susceptible to propaganda as adults is because they've been subjected
27:58to propaganda in school and in the family.
28:01So that which is normalized as a child is automatically accepted as an adult without
28:06significant amount of, you know, intellectual intervention, so to speak.
28:13Now, can we reduce the amount of violence in society?
28:16Sure.
28:18Yeah, of course.
28:19We denormalize, we identify and denormalize it.
28:21If everybody accepted that violence was so necessary to run society, then why do people
28:26have to use all these euphemisms for violence, right?
28:29Why, why would people have to use all of these euphemisms for violence if the violence was
28:33accepted, right?
28:36That's not a thing.
28:37That's not a real thing.
28:39So, uh, violence, uh, society requires violence to function.
28:48Well, I mean, that certainly is a thesis and I've addressed it many times.
28:52Doesn't mean I'm right.
28:53Just means I've addressed it, right?
28:54But he's not accepting the counter-arguments.
28:57So all societies functioned on slavery, right?
29:01All societies functioned on slavery, uh, prior to the end of slavery and serfdom is a kind
29:08of slavery.
29:08But so if you were to say prior to the British empire's great 150 plus year, massive amount
29:18of blood and treasure, epic side quest to eliminate slavery from the world.
29:23If you were to say prior to that, that all societies require slavery and to have a society
29:29without slavery, like direct physical human ownership is ridiculous because everywhere
29:35you look and it's like, well, it is still, it isn't right.
29:38It is still, it isn't.
29:41All societies require horses until they don't.
29:47Uh, what did we get here?
29:52Some of the rats, Stefan Molyneux is not coming back guys.
29:56He's done with politics and has made it abundantly clear on his podcast.
30:01He's bitter.
30:03People he lifted up, abandoned him when he was censored.
30:06And he's content with no longer being a celebrity.
30:09Your efforts will fall on deaf ears.
30:11Yeah.
30:16See, when you, when you get dysfunctional people out of your life, you open the door
30:24for functional, happy, moral, positive people to come into your life.
30:28So my relationship with the social media platforms was dysfunctional.
30:36I would argue it was abusive because they're supposed to be all these rules, uh, warnings,
30:43appeals, and so on.
30:44Right.
30:45Um, which were not, uh, in many cases, not applied.
30:48Right.
30:51So if you have a contract with someone and then they break that contract to your
30:55significant immediate detriment, uh, that's not healthy.
30:59Right.
31:01Right.
31:03I mean, it's like when you get married and you say, we're going to have a monogamous
31:07relationship and then someone, uh, it cheats on you with say the football team, uh, that
31:15would be a breaking of the contract.
31:17That would be a dysfunctional relationship.
31:18So I have great people in my life.
31:24We just had a great Christmas party the other day, full of people and kids and fun and playing
31:29and UNO and it was a blast.
31:31Right.
31:31So the idea that I'm bitter is interesting.
31:37Right.
31:37And, and so the reason that I would recommend people not take that approach because I'm
31:43not bitter, I'm actually, I'm happier now than I was.
31:45Uh, at my peak, there's stuff that I miss, I'm obviously not going to lie to you guys,
31:49there's stuff that I miss, but for the most part, it's, it's a much, I mean, I finished
31:52my book, peaceful parenting, peaceful parenting.com, which is free.
31:57And so I hope that you will read it and spread it around.
32:01But the problem is, here's the problem.
32:04And this is why I think you're kind of serving the powers that be.
32:07If you are referring to me as a big gap over here, but if you're referring to me as a big
32:15gap, but if you're referring to me as he's, he's embittered, he's, he's, he's tense, he's,
32:19he's unhappy.
32:20Right.
32:21Then what you're doing is you're saying like, what is it?
32:23Four and a half years ago that I was deplatformed.
32:25I'm just coming up around it up.
32:26I ran myself up to 60 and I ran myself up to half a decade.
32:30So if you're saying, uh, Steph, Steph is, is bitter, twisted and angry for the last
32:35half decade, almost after deplatforming the problem, what you're doing is you're giving
32:40a lot of power to the censors.
32:42Right.
32:43So, so the people who censored me, the people who deplatformed me, that you would say they
32:49have dictated and dominated Steph's angry, unhappy bitterness for the last half decade.
32:58I would strongly recommend that you don't, I would strongly make the case that you don't
33:03make the better world by giving imaginary soul destroying powers to censors because
33:08that makes everyone else much more frightened of being censored.
33:12Right.
33:13Much more frightened of being deplatformed because if you're deplatformed, don't you
33:16know, it's at least half a decade of bitterness and twisted anger and so on, but it's not,
33:22I mean, there's a shock, there's an adjustment, there's a, a commitment to other things.
33:27And, um, it's nice.
33:30You know, I, I'm, I'm still relatively content to wrestle with the anti-rationality or the
33:36irrationality and anti-rationality of the world.
33:39But the more you fill your life with healthy, happy, rational people, the less appealing
33:44it is to go out and wrestle again with the sort of greased up pseudo parts of anti-rationality
33:49striking at you from people with no self-knowledge.
33:52Right.
33:58Somebody says that's quite sad.
34:00He was a really a gateway into a lot of things.
34:03His history videos were great.
34:09Uh, as a Christian, I miss Steph.
34:11Thank you very much.
34:12I appreciate that.
34:14He was best on the topic of peaceful parenting.
34:16I'll always be grateful for it.
34:19Uh, somebody says I found his, the truth about series to be interesting.
34:24He put in the work.
34:26Also the dating a single mom topic was thought provoking.
34:29I differ with some of his perspectives and don't care about some other topics, but he
34:34was worth a listen anyway.
34:36The era of sensor and cancellation was not only truly evil, but just plain stupid.
34:42Much was lost.
34:44Now, see, this is another thing too.
34:46This is the, uh, you know, there's a bunch of ideas out there.
34:50It's kind of like a buffet.
34:52You know, I like this part of the buffet.
34:54I don't particularly like this part of the buffet.
34:57You know, the, the, uh, crock pot stuff.
35:01Uh, not so great.
35:02You know, the, uh, bamboo, a bag of monkey bones, uh, not, not for me, but I really do
35:08like the cheesecake, like this buffet stuff.
35:10Right.
35:11I like jazz.
35:12I'm not so much into country.
35:13Like we put forward all these arguments and I liked some, I didn't like others.
35:18I wasn't interested in the others, but like that, there's just this, this is the emotionally
35:23driven whim based mindset.
35:27It was not really a mindset.
35:29It's a spine set.
35:29Cause it's just, you're dealing with sort of the most very primitive instincts.
35:33The idea that truth is something you can pick and choose like things you like from a buffet.
35:40And again, I'm not saying everything I said was true.
35:42I certainly have striven for it my whole career, but of course I've had things to correct like
35:46everyone.
35:48But when someone says, well, I found this an interesting perspective.
35:52I didn't like this so much.
35:54I was not interested in the other.
35:55That's saying that a truth, reason, facts and evidence is like, just like a buffet.
36:02Right.
36:02I mean, can you imagine being a math teacher and marking people's math assignments or their
36:08math exams and saying, well, I like this answer.
36:11This kind of speaks to me.
36:12This answer speaks to me.
36:13I'm not so much interested in this answer.
36:16This, your perspective on this answer is interesting.
36:20Maybe a little thought, like that would be crazy.
36:23That would be crazy.
36:26It'd be like getting a bunch of submissions for physics papers or engineering projects
36:33and talking about how you feel about them.
36:35I like this one.
36:36You know, it's a nice font.
36:38I found this one kind of interesting.
36:39I don't, I'm not so warm on this one.
36:42Your perspective on how to build a bridge is interesting.
36:45It doesn't really speak to me.
36:49Now that to me is ego, is saying it has to please me in order for me to accept it.
36:55It has to please me.
36:57But that's what propaganda leads you to.
36:59Propaganda is, turns you into a hedonistic person and hedonistic people are immune to
37:08reason.
37:08In fact, they're opposed to reason because the more people become hedonistic, the more
37:13uncomfortable it comes to ask them for self-discipline and a dedication to reason and
37:16evidence because that's uncomfortable and people get mad at them.
37:20So, hedonism is, that's decadence, right?
37:22Hedonism is putting your own personal pleasure above the truth and lying about it, right?
37:31Because again, not calling this guy a liar, but this is a false perspective, right?
37:35So, if he were to say, you know, his arguments made me really uncomfortable and, you know,
37:38I started, I brought up some of his arguments with people around me, got really mad at me
37:42and, you know, my wife threatened to divorce me.
37:44Okay, look, I'm not telling you how many bullets you should take for the truth.
37:48I'm not telling you that.
37:49I don't take all bullets for the truth.
37:51I'm not going to lecture other people.
37:52But at least don't lie about it, right?
37:57Just say his arguments, I couldn't oppose his arguments.
38:01The reason and evidence was solid, but it got me into too much trouble.
38:05You know, I wasn't invited to Thanksgiving one year and I almost got fired from my job
38:10for mentioning this on a lunch break.
38:12Okay, look, I'm fine.
38:14I'm fine with that.
38:16I'm not a 100% self-sacrifice guy.
38:19I pick and choose my battles.
38:21It's totally fine.
38:22But don't lie about it.
38:24Don't lie about it.
38:26I just say his arguments were too volatile for my life, as opposed to, well, I like this,
38:32but I didn't like that.
38:33And it's perspective.
38:35It's not perspective.
38:36Philosophy is not perspective.
38:37If you think it is, then you've missed what philosophy is.
38:40And maybe that's my fault for explaining it badly.
38:42But I think I've shown that it's not just what you prefer.
38:49All right, anything else?
38:51Uh, does anyone have the $5 green text story?
39:02I don't know what that means.
39:05Probably a top 10 most influential person in the 2010s.
39:09Oh yeah, 2006 to 2016 was an absolute golden age of free speech.
39:13An absolute golden age.
39:16Uh, somebody says, he said a lot of good stuff, but a lot of nonsense as well.
39:21UPB malarkey was particularly embarrassing, but he didn't deserve to get scrubbed.
39:27So this is, this is hedonism's call to other hedonists to reject someone
39:31whose arguments interfere with direct, immediate pleasure, right?
39:35He said some good stuff, but a lot of nonsense as well.
39:40See, you don't need to prove or disprove stuff.
39:42It just has to feel like nonsense.
39:44It just has to feel like nonsense.
39:45Or usually you get an instinct that my arguments are going to lead you to a place of personal
39:52suffering, right?
39:53You understand all morality in a corrupt world, all morality is going to lead you to suffering.
39:58It's going to lead you through suffering to genuine happiness, joy, and love afterwards.
40:02But right, if everyone's overweight, a good nutritionist will cause people to suffer.
40:07Now in the long run, they'll say, gee, I'm glad I went through that suffering, lost that
40:10hundred pounds because I'm much happier and healthier now.
40:12But this is somebody who is a hedonist.
40:18Stuff, but nonsense, that's just feelings, right?
40:21And it's false because I did not say nonsense.
40:27You may disagree with the arguments and have counter evidence, fine.
40:31UPB malarkey was particularly embarrassing, right?
40:34So the idea that an argument is embarrassing is a call to hedonism.
40:41This is the cringe argument, right?
40:44Oh, like that's embarrassing.
40:46If you get into UPB, that's embarrassing.
40:49So that's, oh, that's going to be, someone's going to disapprove of me if I get into UPB,
40:53so I won't, right?
40:55So somebody says, I enjoyed Steph, wish you would come back.
41:02You don't have to agree with someone 100% to enjoy discourse with them.
41:06Often when there is a struggle of ideals, those are the conversations worth having,
41:10worth learning from.
41:12So this is the, I mean, this is the gynocentric person to person.
41:23Do I agree with Steph?
41:26What does that mean?
41:29Right?
41:29This is the idea that you just generate perspectives and either the perspectives
41:36fit other people's perspectives.
41:37You kind of, it gels with them.
41:39It speaks to them.
41:40It fits their emotional makeup.
41:42They like the argument.
41:43What does that mean?
41:45It doesn't mean anything.
41:46This is, I mean, sorry, this is just a bit over a gynocentric.
41:49Sorry.
41:50It's just like, it's a bit of a guy thing, right?
41:55I mean, if two guys are standing at a window and one guy says it's raining and the other guy says,
42:04yes, yes, it is, right?
42:06He's right.
42:07That's a fact.
42:08Yes, it is.
42:11For guys, it's kind of incomprehensible that one guy,
42:16one guy looks out the window, says it's raining,
42:22and the other guy doesn't look out the window, but just says, I agree with you.
42:28That perspective speaks to me.
42:30I gel with that.
42:31That fits my emotional makeup.
42:32Like, that's just, I'm sorry.
42:33That's just a bit of a female thing.
42:35A little bit of a female thing.
42:37So, the idea that, well, I didn't agree with Steph 100% of the time.
42:43So, the idea that agreeing with me is the standard.
42:49No, the standard is truth.
42:51The standard is reason and evidence.
42:52It's not about agreeing with me.
42:54I disagree with me from time to time.
42:55I disagree with former perspectives I had because I get better reason, new evidence, right?
43:03I mean, what does it mean to, oh, I agree.
43:07I agree is like a slave mentality as opposed to, is it true, right?
43:15You're not agreeing with me.
43:16I'm introducing reason and evidence to you.
43:22Facts, reason, and evidence.
43:25It's not about me.
43:27Reason and evidence is ego-less.
43:29I was sort of arguing about that at the beginning.
43:31Reason and evidence is ego-less.
43:33Not about agreeing with me.
43:35It's not about liking me.
43:37It's not about whether I gel with you, or my perspective is embarrassing,
43:41or my presentation skills are off-putting.
43:45That's all just emotional reactivity.
43:49And it's saying not, is this true, but does it feel good?
43:52Does it feel nice?
43:55And that makes you immune to the truth because in a time of corruption,
44:00and the education, and the media, and so on is pretty corrupt.
44:04In a time of corruption, the truth is going to feel bad.
44:09And if you go by hedonism, you can't get the truth.
44:14Somebody says, really sad what happened to him.
44:16He had some interesting takes on parenting that made me think a lot.
44:24In my opinion, his best work is when he's working through issues with regular people.
44:28Here's thousands of these talks, really good stuff.
44:31Ah, the legendary tweet.
44:33I can't believe Taylor Swift is about to turn 30.
44:35She still looks so young.
44:36It's strange to think that 90% of her eggs are already gone.
44:3997% by the time she turns 40.
44:41So I hope she thinks about having kids before it's too late.
44:43She'd be a fun mom, smiley face.
44:45It's a very positive and pleasant.
44:48It's a very positive and pleasant tweet.
44:54And of course, you know, women.
44:56It's strange to think that 90% of her eggs are already gone.
44:58It's just a biological fact.
44:59It's a biological fact.
45:01It's like, it's so creepy for you to be thinking about Taylor Swift's eggs.
45:04It's like, that's, you know, if, if I said, uh, if there was some celebrity,
45:11I don't know who's a celebrity who smokes God knows.
45:14Right.
45:14So if there was some celebrity, Bob who smoked, right.
45:18And I said, uh, you know, I sure hope that Bob quit smoking because it's really bad for his lungs.
45:27It's really creepy for you to be thinking about Bob's lungs.
45:31It's like, what?
45:33It's just so bizarre to me.
45:36All right.
45:36Um, somebody replies, uh, he used to suck up to the intellectual dark web
45:41and wanted to be part of it.
45:43What makes you think he'd add anything new to the conversation now?
45:46Why do we need him?
45:49Well, I mean, I think the intellectual dark web kind of hated me and not all of them,
45:52but he used to suck up to the intellectual dark web and wanted to be a part of it.
45:57See, this is the thing too, like people just make up an
46:00unrecognizable finger puppet or mirror that they call Steph, right?
46:05So the intellectual dark web was sort of more prominent and they got write-ups
46:08that weren't totally hostile.
46:10And I think from, they'd say, well, I, if I were Steph, I'd want to be part of that.
46:15Right.
46:18I mean, I never felt much of a desire because for me, there would just be too many compromises.
46:24I just have to shut up about things too much.
46:26You know, for me, I, you know, I mean, it's a couple of things, right?
46:29Just, I mean, so the idea that I sucked up to them and wanted to be part of that,
46:33I remember seeing a picture of them around a dinner table.
46:35I'd be like, how self-censorious would I have to be to be at that dinner table?
46:40The food would taste like a shit sandwich.
46:43Honestly, if I have to bite back words, I don't care what I'm eating.
46:45It tastes like shit.
46:47Just, this is the, and there's sort of two things.
46:49Number one is, you know, when I was a kid, I was forced to lie by,
46:52you know, school, culture, family, and so on.
46:55And, you know, when you grow up, you want to do the opposite of the bad stuff that
46:59happened to you as a kid.
47:00That way you get over it.
47:01You move past it and you signal to your entire system that that those days are over.
47:04So I had to self-censor when I was a kid because telling the truth got me beaten.
47:09Not just, I mean, I got caned in school.
47:11I just got beaten at home.
47:12So I want to tell the truth because that's, that's how I know my childhood is over and
47:16it's all done and I can enjoy my adulthood free of that stuff.
47:19Says number one.
47:20And it's just a personal thing.
47:21But number two is, ah, God, I mean, come on.
47:24Come on.
47:27There are so many people out there and it's not a, it's not a criticism.
47:29It's just an observable fact.
47:32There are so many people out there who cut corners and compromise in return for prominence
47:38and fame and money, I suppose.
47:40Right?
47:41So there's, there's already so many people out there who do that.
47:44You know, you don't need one more.
47:45So one of the reasons I got into philosophy, I had a pretty, pretty damn good career as
47:50a software entrepreneur.
47:52I founded, co-founded a company, grew it and sold it and, and was like CXO level executive
47:57and, and traveled all over the world, uh, selling, um, giant software that I'd created
48:03to fortune 500 companies.
48:05I mean, it's a pretty sweet life, man.
48:07Pretty sweet life.
48:08I got to travel to France, to China, all over the States.
48:11I got to travel to just a wide number of, of great places in the world to work with
48:18really fun people to implement great software solutions.
48:21And they were around keeping people safe in the workplace and about cleaning up the environment.
48:25So environmental health, health and safety was my software gig.
48:29So that was all great.
48:31Pretty sweet life.
48:33So what I did when I was sort of trying to make that decision about, am I going to just
48:38quit and do the philosophy thing and take a massive pay cut to do so?
48:42And it's like, okay, so there are lots and lots of software executives out there in the
48:46world and lots of stuff.
48:47I mean, do, does the world need another software guy or does the world need moral philosophy?
48:57Right.
48:58What is the world more short of moral philosophy or software guys?
49:05To me, I mean, to ask the question is to answer it.
49:09So I just, I can't do those compromises because strangers don't replace family.
49:19I mean, never, ever replace the approval of strangers for the love of your family.
49:25And my family, my friends love me for my honesty and my integrity.
49:30And I love them for their honesty and their integrity.
49:33So if I compromise my honesty and integrity, I would get the approval of strangers.
49:45But that's like, you have a beautiful wife, you can make love to her five times a week,
49:50or, or you could count to that for a thousand women you'll never meet fantasizing about you.
50:03I mean, how could that be a good deal?
50:07That can't be a good deal.
50:08That can't be a good deal.
50:09So no, it was never any particular goal of mine to compromise some really essential things in
50:15return for the approval of strangers who don't understand what I'm doing, or even the approval
50:23of people who do understand what I'm doing.
50:25You don't trade immediate love for the approval of strangers, right?
50:31You don't exchange the tangible for the abstract in that way,
50:34other than tangible unhappiness for abstract virtue, which gets you to the whole love thing.
50:38So anyway, I'll stop here.
50:40I really do appreciate everyone's time, care, and attention.
50:43I'm sure somebody will post this on X.
50:45And I really do, you know, it is nice that people still remember me.
50:48You can go to peacefulparenting.com, freedomain.com.
50:51I've written a whole, I've written like three books since deplatforming, done some
50:54fantastic work.
50:56I did 11 hours on the origin and causes of the French Revolution, which is a take you'll never
51:02hear anywhere else.
51:03And I've done some just, I mean, for me, I've done the best work I've ever done.
51:08I'm distracted by people without self-knowledge, imagining
51:12that they know me because they don't know themselves.
51:16So yeah, freedomain.com, slash donate if you'd like to help out the show,
51:19really, really would appreciate it.
51:20Have yourself a beautiful, wonderful, lovely day.
51:23I'll talk to you soon.
51:24Bye.